The Ingredients of Sacrifice | Senior Pastor Kenneth Carpenter
by Kenneth Carpenter
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 3:21, Revelation 4:11, Psalm 50:10, Genesis 4:1-12, Romans 12:1-2

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kenneth-carpenter--the-ingredients-of-sacrifice
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
you know a lot of times if you're new to first apostolic you may be new to pentecost worship you may not understand you may not understand and but the first thing i would tell anyone we dance it is before the lord that we lift our hands and we praise him it is unto the lord it is not unto man it is not tailored uh it is not uh to be suited it is not in the consideration of man it is in consideration of the great god the lord jesus christ that we serve amen does anybody in this house love him this morning you love him i love him as a matter of fact i want to share something with you in your bible the apostle paul makes a statement in the book of corinthians he makes a simple statement and he says for christ sent me not to baptize now when you read that on the surface it would seem to just deal the death blow to those that preach water baptism for the remission of sins and water baptism is a part of salvation it would deal the death blow unless you fully understand what paul is saying they got all carried away in who baptized them they got all carried away paul baptized me peter baptized me and and they got all carried away into that until paul came around and paul said you missed it all together in other words here's what i'm here to do today i am here to lead you into a relationship with the living lord jesus christ now we're going to baptize absolutely we're going to be preached the mighty baptism of the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues absolutely but if all we do is emphasize experiences and not the person of the experience my sister and her husband they bought the the old home place that i was i was raised in in fact that's the only it's the only house i ever really remember was there on black oak drive and um they keeping kathy bought the old home place and in my childhood in my childhood there was only one toy that comes to my memory that fascinated me and that was playing marbles okay i was playing marbles i can remember and i'm trying to to to you know maybe around i was around maybe 10 but i loved i can remember i loved to play marbles i loved to collect marbles i loved i can can faintly remember i can faintly remember playing with marbles my sister and her husband was out in the yard there at the old home place digging the other day to plant something and they unearthed a marble and uh they cleaned it up they did a real good job of cleaning it up and i have been rather fascinated to hold now this 61 year old man to hold this marble in my hand and to think that ten-year-old boy used to hold this marble in his hand and uh you say why tell us that today because i'm gonna tell you whether you met jesus christ and was born again when you were 10 years old it should never get old to you you should never should never get old to you can't pick up your bible and i'm going to share something with you before i read my text do you realize the bible that you hold this morning that the theme of every book all 66 books of your bible the theme is jesus christ in genesis jesus christ is the seed of the woman in exodus he's the passover lamb in leviticus he's our high priest in numbers he's the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night in deuteronomy jesus is the prophet likened to moses in joshua jesus is the commander of the lord's army judges jesus is judge and lawgiver ruth jesus is the kinsman redeemer first and second samuel jesus is the seed of david in kings and corinth chronicles he is the reigning king in ezra he is the faithful scribe in nehemiah he is the rebuilder of everything broken and esther he is the mordecai our advocate in job he is the ever-living redeemer in psalms he is our shepherd in proverbs he is our wisdom in ecclesiastes he is our meaningful life in the song of solomon he is our loving bridegroom isaiah he's the prince of peace jeremiah and lamentation he's our weeping prophet ezekiel he's the glorious lord in daniel he's the fourth man in the fiery furnace in hosea he's the faithful husband in joel he's the outpour of the holy spirit in amos he is our burden bearer and obadiah he is our judge and savior in jonah he is the risen prophet in micah he is the ruler of the world from bethlehem and nahum he is our stronghold habeka he is our watchman zephaniah he is our mighty to save haggai he is our redeemer zechariah he's the branch of david and the one pierced for us in malachi he's the son of righteousness in matthew he is the king of kings he's the messiah the christ and the son of the living god and mark he is the servant the miracle worker in luke he is the baby and the manger the son of man in john he is the son of god the living word the way the truth and the life in acts he is the savior of the world and the ascended lord in romans he is our justifier in corinthians he is our resurrection in second corinthians he is our comfort in galatians he is our liberty in ephesians he is the head of our church in philippians he's our joy in colossians he's our completeness and the glue that holds the world together first and second thessalonians he's the coming king first and second timothy is our mediator philemon he is our benefactor in titus he is our blessed hope in hebrews he is our perfection in james he's the power behind our faith in first and second peter he is our chief shepherd and chief cornerstone in first second and third john he is our truth and everlasting life in jude he's the foundation of our faith our security in revelation he is our king of kings and he is our lord of lords he is the first and the last the beginning and the end he is the keeper of creation and the creator of all he's the architect of the universe the manager of all times he always was he always is and he will always be he's unmoved unchanged undefeated and never undone he was bruised and brought healing he was pierced and brought by east pain he was persecuted and brought freedom he was dead and brought life he is risen and brings power he reigns and brings peace the world can't understand him the armies can't defeat him the schools can't explain him and the leaders can't ignore him herod couldn't kill him the pharisees couldn't confuse him and the grave could not hold him nero couldn't crush him hitler couldn't silence him other religions can't replace him and the world can't explain him away he is light he is love longevity lord goodness kindness gentleness and god he's holy righteous mighty powerful pure right and eternal his will is unchanging his mind is upon us he is my redeemer he is my savior he is my guide and he is my peace he's my joy and my comfort he's my lord and he rules my life whoa hallelujah if you're not already standing standing with me right now now i didn't hurt anybody that we went through that this morning so watch well brother carpenter yeah that's got to do with your message it ought to do with every message every time a man gets up here to preach it ought to do with everything because you can have all your experiences if you want to but you better have jesus you better have him because i'm going to tell you something if all we've got an experience and know jesus we're no different from people that don't have any experience just a few moments today and i promise you to those that took my notes down please do not have a cardiac arrest i will not get through with all these notes today and my maybe not even next sunday genesis thank you genesis chapter 3 and verse number 21 genesis chapter 3 verse 21 oh how i love jesus unto adam also and to his wife did the lord god make coats of skins and clothed them revelation chapter 4 and verse number 11 thou art worthy o lord to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created psalms chapter 50 go back to the old testament psalms chapter 50 and verse number 10 listen to god speak for every beast of the forest is mine every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle upon a thousand hills i want to minister to you today on the ingredients of sacrifice the ingredients of sacrifice father i love you today jesus helped me to do my best to allow you to shine through me this morning jesus helped me to do my best lord that every man woman boy and girl in this place and those watching online will have a living relationship a live relationship with you not just to know of you jesus but to know you not just to know of you but to know you jesus help me for the next few moments to minister your word speak through me today in jesus name we pray give the lord a hand to praise as you're seated man and his wife had fallen into sin god came down and the bible says that the last thing god made i've studied a lot of things in creation but we need to give a little attention this morning to the last thing god made in the story the last thing that god made wasn't a tree or a man the last thing that god made wasn't a star or some kind of creation but the last thing the bible tells us that god made was coats of skins and clothed fallen man that's the last thing the bible says verse 21 that the lord god made coats of skins coats of skins and clothed them it's the last thing he made i want to drive that i want to drive that home for a moment it's the last thing that he made before man went out into a world of sin the only thing they would take from eden with them the coats were made in eden and the only thing they would take out into a cruel hostile world was some coats of skins that god made for them that god made for them now we read the verse of scripture in revelation that said that all things were created by him verse 11 for he created all things and for his pleasure they are and were created so creation was something that god took pleasure in he took pleasure he took pleasure he was fond of it he delighted in it if i could use human analogies he smiled at it it pleased him when he created all of creation it pleased god he he took joy in it he he delighted in what he had in what he had created the bible uses the word pleasure pleasure and i made a little note here and i almost used it as a title but i want to emphasize sacrifice but if i had a second title to this bible lesson today it would be when the need is greater than the pleasure when the need is greater than the pleasure now the bible says that he took coats of skins that god made god made coats of skins and clothed them we understand today the bible the bible may not exactly say it but we fill in the blanks these coats of skins came from animals that had to be sacrificed and if these animals created by god was a pleasure to god was a pleasure to god and you you've got to be a you got to be an animal animal lover to to really understand what i'm talking about today and um that you would take pleasure i have you you know it i've said it many times before i have two dogs that i am extremely fond of i'm i'm extremely fond of these two of these two dogs the first one was a christmas puppy to paris and shortly after einstein or bentley came in um i think bentley snapped at paris and uh they were going to cart oh bentley back to the pound you know and the messiah here intervened and said nothing doing he's coming to my house a few years later zach began to date lauren and while they were dating he bought her a puppy named einstein and i fell in love with einstein i took him away from zach and lauren i said you've had this dog out of wedlock and uh so i i am extremely i am extremely fond of these animals and i can't help but say i believe that god felt the same way about creation i believe just as just as i thinking of this message and looked into bentley's eyes this morning and thought to myself rhonda i thought bentley you've got such beautiful eyes he's just he's just my buddy took pleasure now stay with me now the feeling was no less than what god had made those animals just as i would be as fond of these animals god was fond of all of his creation the bible said i've got i've got bible to back it up it was for his pleasure he created the deal dear it was just pleasure to look at the beauty of the deer and i know i've got men here today that are thinking yeah deer are beautiful it created the beauty of animals the butterfly and on and on the story could go now i don't have any bible for this but i certainly believe it would lean toward typology i do believe that the animals that he made the coats of skins from were sheep i believe they were sheep i believe the coats of skins came off the backs of sacrificed lambs innocent animals that had done no wrong suffered pain and death so that sinful man could wear a covering in a cruel world i personally believe i wouldn't argue with anybody over what kind of skins but i think if typology fits it right jesus christ came in typology as the lamb of god the lamb of god i did a little study on sheepskin and i found out several things about sheepskin and this is not from religious writings this is from different places promoting good health and one says there's 10 reasons there's 10 reasons that you should use sheepskin it says number one it supports to relieve aches and pains i know this ain't coming from a preacher it's not coming from a bible college it's coming from a medical group that there's something about sheepskin that seems to relieve aches and pains there's something about sheepskin that regulates body temperature keeps it regulated the list went on and on reduces friction it's good for your skin kills bacteria it uh goes on and talks about how that it also for whatever reason promotes a good night's sleep it keeps your body temperature at an even place it goes on to say that it minimizes potential disease said it also has been proven to improve blood circulation and then it just simply says sheepskins are durable so i did a little bit more research on sheepskins and according to research it says if properly taken care of the sheepskins will outlive you instead of you outliving it i leaned toward today that he covered them with the skins of sacrificed sheep i want to pause for a moment give us a time i'm so thankful today to be covered with that chief shepherd i'm so glad to be covered today with salvation from that ultimate sacrifice that ultimate sacrament could we just thank him right now that ultimate sacrifice come on just lift your voice up loud enough that you can hear yourself thank you thank you jesus thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord thank you for that sacrifice god thank you lord that i'm not in a cruel world today on my own i thank you today that i have been baptized and that i have put on christ i have surrounded myself oh god i thank you today i praise you today he is our ultimate sacrifice but now it's up to you and i to learn how to sacrifice you and i as sons and daughters of the most high god today must always keep in front of us that we must maintain a spirit of sacrifice for the love of god and for the things of god we will not produce we will not develop a healthy spiritual relationship with god unless we have the spirit of sacrifice about us he was willing to see the need over the pleasure we read on that god was the first to model and show adam how to sacrifice for in excuse me genesis chapter 4 and verse number one i'm glad that jesus christ gives us an example praise god i'm glad that he gave us an example he showed adam and eve what a sacrifice looked like he showed them how to sacrifice no doubt just as god took pleasure in animals they did also and so in genesis chapter 4 verse number 1 the bible said and adam knew eve his wife and she conceived and bear cain and changed and said i have gotten a man from the lord and she again bear his brother abel and abel now follow this now abel was a keeper of sheep but cain was a tiller of the ground now the truth of the matter is both these occupations are needed sheep are needed in order to sacrifice sheep are needed as children are born sheep skins are needed for clothing and the blood of that of that sacrificed lamb is needed as typology of atonement we need able to raise the sheep but we also need cane to raise the vegetables to raise the food because man needed that food for life but man also needed the sheep for clothing and for worship and the bible says and in the process of time it came to pass that cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the lord and abel he also brought of the first lings of his flock and of the fat thereof and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offering but unto cain and to his offering he had not respect and cain was very rough and his countenance failed now let's stop there for a moment because i must introduce something to you called it's your choice no one can make you sacrifice no one can intimidate you to sacrifice god would not accept it if i could intimidate you to sacrifice god would not accept it because god only accepts worship that originates from the free will of our heart now understand my ministry today is to preach it your obligation today is to choose it to choose sacrifice now you must keep god as your chief joy as your chief pleasure because the bible says in the presence at his right hand in the presence of the lord there is fullness of joy in the presence of the lord there is fullness of joy and at his right hand there are what pleasures forevermore so we understand that in order to maintain the spirit of sacrifice god has got to be our chief pleasure he has got to be our chief pleasure everything else is secondary in our lives everything else should be willing to be sacrificed for the sake of pleasing god in order the need to be pleasing to god is greater than the pleasure that i find in something so this is the root this is the this is the ingredient of sacrifice that we're willing we are willing to give up pleasure in certain things in order to fulfill our spiritual needs it was came that by the writing of the scripture there would be an indication that there had been at one time that cain had brought a sheep he had brought the right sacrifice he had brought this now notice this god had nothing against cain's occupation it was cain's offering god had issues with so understanding that there had been a day when cain had to go to abel and negotiate a swap of vegetables for a lamb he had to have he had to negotiate so many bushels of fruit or vegetables for so many numbers of lambs why because it was the only way that god was accepting worship adam passed it down to his sons adam said this is the way that i saw my father worship this is the way that i witnessed my father god worshiped a lamb a skin and the blood was for atonement and can i tell you today that a good father will pass down the most valuable thing to his children and that is how to sacrifice for the work of god how to worship how to please god i understand wanting our children to go to college i'm not preaching against that i understand wanting our children to get good jobs i understand all of that but don't do it at the expense of neglecting them being able to worship god and the best way to teach your children how to worship is to model it don't tell them to worship show them what worship looks like god did the bible didn't say that the bible doesn't say that god told adam now those fig leaves won't work you need to go out there and you need to get a lamb and you need to kill it and you need to skin it and you need to make a coat and you can have a durable garment god didn't tell adam what to do god showed adam what to do and so years later adam would train his two sons cain and abel how to worship but we all understand correct that even though you can teach your children how to worship it does become their choice it's not hereditary it's not just something that's going to run in your family it's something that your child chooses and you know i i would cry out with all of my heart today to all of our children and grandchildren please choose to live for god please choose sacrifice over pleasure the world will give you a pleasure but it's just for a short season but living for god is longevity living for god you you look back there's a lot of things in my life there's a lot of things in my life and especially 16 years old and back there's a lot of things in my life i regret but there's one thing in my life i don't regret and that's any worship praise and honor and glory i've given to jesus christ i the only regret i've got i wish i could have given him more and more and more and more but evidently cain chooses one day that he's not going to have interaction you see the only way that cain could really serve god was to have interaction with his brother and if there's ever something that the devil really works hard at is getting you to begin is getting you all alone and getting you to start believing that you can make it all alone so cain one day decides that he is not going to he is not going to trade he is going to bring his basket of fruit his basket of vegetables he is going to arrange it upon the altar because after all my beautiful yellow squash and my beautiful green cucumbers and my ruby red apples and all of my beautiful colored fruits and vegetables how much more appeasing is this than that old squealing sheep over there that squeals and streaks at the top of his voice as my brother sticks a knife up under his jaw and slits his throat and blood drips down and the animal flinches for a little bit and then he skins the animal and my brother's got blood up to his elbows and it's nasty and he's fighting off flies and all of these different things how much more beautiful does my fruit look than all of this you see the same thing happens today we want to tell god what sacrifice will be and man is ever changing we live in an ever-changing world people of their own bible and they all have their own standards and they make statements like well i just believe it's in your heart and all of this stuff i don't care how beautiful your fruit looks like i don't care how beautiful the vegetables are i don't even care if the majority of humanity says it's all right god has a way and the bible says there is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the ends are the ways of death oh i just can't see this and i i just can't see that that's because you're not willing to sacrifice to see that the need is greater than your pleasure i know i want you to notice a few things that go with cain the bible said in the process of time verse 3 he brought of the fruit of the ground and offering to the lord but abel brought of the firstlings firstlings and of the fat thereof and the lord had respect unto abel and to his offerings the first things the best the first things that's the first one that that represents even tithing that's got typology in the tithing first fruits he brought the firstlings of his flock and then it says the fat thereof what the fat what the fat represents there is the most healthy after he had given the tithe or the first slings then he looked around and said that's required of me that's expected of me but i would like to do something for god that goes beyond i'm so thankful for all that god has done i want to do something that goes beyond so he looked out among the herd and he didn't look he didn't look for the skinniest he didn't look for any of them that had a sickness a some kind of skin rash some kind of disease something like that he looked for the very best he could find because after all am i preaching right today is there anything too good for our god i mean if they can jump up and down if if if if when rival basketball teams can come together for the first time for the season and and thousands of people will jump up and down in a stadium till somebody gets the first basket is there anything that would be over the top for our god who says that we're supposed to be reserved who says that we're not supposed to do this don't ever write off worship matter of fact i i really find this to be true most people that knock worship are not worshipers how do you know that something there's it's empty unless you've ever done it so i really would be careful saying i don't think all of that's required because after all let me tell you something when you go to judging someone's demonstrative worship i'm reminded of a song you don't know like i know what the lord has done for me you you might look at somebody getting down here shouting around the altar and wondering i wonder why they got to do that i'm going to tell you why because you don't know what god has done for that man you don't know what god has brought them through you you don't know oh can we just love him right now come on just love him right now oh just praise him he's glorious he's wonderful he's counselor so able he chose to bring god the best he chose to follow in the footsteps of his father he chose to follow those footsteps but verse five but unto cain and his offering he had not respect and cain was very rough and his countenance failed now here's two things i don't know i can only surmise i'm going to tell you where the bible's silent i'm going to be silent and tell you this could have been possible how would how would they know that god had respect for abel's offering and not respect for cain's offering well one thing you can think about is fire falling upon the altar and consuming the sacrifice and all through the bible when fire fell it was the sign of god's acceptance it was the sign of god's approval but if fire didn't fall that was the sign that god did not approve so saying that that is what happened here is abel over here offering the first and offering the best and nothing's too good for my god and he has been so good to me to give me a way of covering and so then he lays out the sheep he lays it out there and the fire falls and consumes it and there's nothing any more joyous than having the fire of god fall in your heart but here's cain and he's got all this fruit i will tell you on the surface on the surface those fruit vegetables look better than that gutted lamb on the surface but we're not looking for the surface we're looking at what pleases the invisible god and so now here's cain standing with the fruit and you know what happens with fruit over time begins to show those brown spots and you know what happens the flies begin to come in and the fire is already falling over here we better we better always be mindful of the fire falling in our church i always want the fire to fall i'm i'm that's why we have prayer rooms that's why a group of people got here earlier this morning and we had prayer around these altars you know why we want the fire to fall that's why we'll be back tonight at 5 30 30 minutes before service starts there'll be a host of people in the prayer room and they're praying you know why they're praying we want the fire to fall because it doesn't matter how much god blesses us with all these things if the fire doesn't fall if the fire doesn't fall we're of all men most miserable but bring on the fire bring on the fire but the fire only falls the fire only falls on the right sacrifice and over here over here is cane and he's shooing away flies and then instead of having joy as abel has he has the emotion of anger can i tell you not sacrificing living your life to the fullest filling your life with everything that pleases you will not make you happy you will become emotionally unstable because just when you get a bite of the world and it pleases you that bite will need another bite that's got to go a little further the next time and you keep reaching and reaching and reaching and you're never full never never are you full and it begin to deal with cain's emotions look at it it's here it's here and cain was very rough what's that mean angry he was angry kane was always in a bad mood he was quit tempered he was always he was just so quick i mean if if cain was driving his chariot down to the joshua mark and somebody got his parking place done at the joshua mark man kane just blew a head gasket he just he just got all enraged because somebody cut his chariot off in traffic and all this you know why because cain hasn't learned the value of true worship to god because when you learn the value of worship god you find out that life is not all about you life is about serving god life is about giving god the praise cain was wroth his countenance fell not only did cain have anger in his heart he had a sour look on his face he had hollow eyes and a frown you just look at him you could tell he was of all men most miserable and he could all be traced back to his lack of the art of sacrifice but oh what a good god we serve i said oh what a good god we serve i'm so glad we write people off but i'm glad god doesn't write people off god doesn't write a song how do you know that look at the next verse here cain is he's mad his face shows it and the lord said unto cain why aren't thou wroth why is thy counting it's fallen if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well send life at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him now guess what god did brother henry what a great god we serve what a great god we serve cain refused to give the right worship but god didn't say i'm mixing you off to hell with you sinner i'm gone i'm done with you washing my hands with you thank you god that he comes down he says i'm not bringing fire i'm bringing a sermon he said why you man sometimes god gets us to think by the questions he asks us why are you mad answer is i'm not sacrificing why is your countenance fallen answer is i'm not sacrificing you see isn't it amazing we can trace all of our problems back to a god issue i promise you i promise you no no no no brother carmen we got marriage in trouble i promise you i know what i'm talking about i do know what i'm talking about god is not someone that can take care of some of your problems god can take care of all your problems if you have got an issue in your life right now that you brought on yourself i know life brings us some but if you've got issues that you brought on yourself i promise you if you'll trace it back you'll trace it back to a god issue but the good news is god is not i told you so he is i'll tell you how to fix it i'm glad that god will tell us how to fix it oh thank god today i'm wanting to tell you about the ingredients of sacrifice because the only way god is going to fix some things in our lives is us to go back to the old-time way of saying the need is greater than the pleasure the need is greater than the pleasure it might be a pleasure for you to have some me time i like me time i like time to sit and stare i've been so busy lately i like time you said i told my wife the other day i thought just sit and stare at the wall and just do nothing but can i tell you something right now i would rather sacrifice me time for the presence of god because a prayer life a prayer time you say and it's not we've all got the same amount of time we all get 24 hours we just all don't have the same priorities but if we could really look at seeing that the best time you'll ever spend of your day is to stop what you're doing and begin to talk to the one who made you and the one that saved you and the one that directs you and the one that can answer prayer for you and the one that can favor you like no one else will i'm telling you can't nobody do you like the lord can do you stop what you're doing and give god some time god thank you now right there cain brother zach brother hammond cain should have said you're right god i used to bring sheep you're right god i know what it feels like for fire to fall you're right god i used to bring sheep but i got to running with some people and they started telling me that i didn't have to bring sheep anymore and they started telling me on my job that that really wasn't expected and and they started i got around people that started telling me why you really don't have to do you really don't have to do all that and you're right god i have not had any fire since i've been doing it my way but god i want to go back to doing it your way because i want the joy that i once had i want that peace that i once had been the end of it it'd been the end of the story right here we'd have a whole lot better story to preach but the bible says verse 8 and cain talked with abel his brother well that's a smart move right there that's a smart move it's a smart move if you're not pleasing god find someone that you believe is pleasing god and talk to them if if your life's not together don't find another person whose life's not together you know they tell me that when you're uh when you're catching crabs on the on the beach in a bucket that you don't have to put a lid on the bucket and the reason they say you don't have to put a lid is you can throw crabs in there and they'll try to climb out but the other crabs will reach up and pull them back down you don't want to run with crabby people all right you don't want to run with people that are not out you want to find somebody that's at the top of the bucket looking down in with a hand saying here i can help you get out change your friends you got to do that get you some friends that's got the victory get you some friends that's got the joy of the lord the victory of god in their life hey if you're a young couple here this morning if you're a young couple here this morning and you're having some marital issues find you some of these older couples that's weathered some storms and that have stayed together and start fellowshipping with them because one way to get through it is to get connected to somebody see see kane you did something right you got with your brother abel but then something went wrong and i can i'm just adding to this i'm just kind of trying to fill in the blank and cain talked with abel his brother and it came to pass that when they were in the field that cain rose up against his brother and slew him now here's what i believe happened a lot of times when people don't want to change they want you to change because you remind them of what they used to be right and they'll just not like you and you'll say i don't know why in the world that person doesn't like me and i say i know exactly why because you used to be you are what they used to be you're still sacrificing you're telling the world i don't care what you think about me i don't care what people say or what people think as long as i know the fire of god is still falling in my life and as long as you uphold your walk with god as long as you maintain that lifestyle as long as you're doing what's right you are a constant reminder to them that they used to do that and what they'll try to do is come around and tell you how happy they are and how you don't have to do all that and all the while they're just trying to get you to change i think the reason that cain got mad is i believe he tried to get able to change i believe he thought now hey you know what if you start offering up vegetables and fruit that's all that god will have he'll have to accept us brother come on man stop offering up all that stop offering up all that stuff and then when cam when abel would not change and do i have any people in this room today that you would say with an amen i'm not going to change i'm not going to change this way has been too good to us god's been way too good to us i'm not going to change i'm not going to let the world dictate to me what i should do and what i should say and how i should worship i'm not i'm not going to change because i like the fire in my life i am not and let the world get upset about it he rose up and he slew his brother and the lord said now that really made that really made sense didn't it kill the very one that can teach you how to worship way to go einstein that is you got something really going on up here kill the one that can help you that's like shooting the pilot on your plane because of turbulence right but after all when you lose the vision of sacrifice you kind of start doing crazy things so the bible says the lord said unto cain now watch this cain could not get able to change he grew angry with him verse 9 and the lord said unto cain the lord said unto cain where is abel thy brother and he said i know not am i my brother's keeper can i tell you that a lack of sacrifice will turn you into a liar and the worst liar of all ye lie to god you lie to god my lying is wrong don't get me wrong lying is wrong lying is a sin but the utopia of all lies would be when you would lie to god god said chain where's your brother i don't know i don't know where my brother's at and then sarcasm can i tell you can i tell you today a lot of people have sarcasm about things of god and it's all traced back to their lack of sacrifice i don't know that's a lie am i my brother's keeper that's sarcasm i don't know am i my brother's keeper come on you know that was god trying to reach for cain and he said thou what hast thou done the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground and now art thou cursed above the earth which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand and when thou tiltest the ground it shall not hence forth yield unto her her strength a fugitive and vagabond shalt thou be in the earth and if you read the rest of the lineage if i had it on a chart to show you today adam the first man their son abel their son cain cain slew abel god replaces him with seth cain has a son and these two these two lintages that go on and this is the explanation this is the explanation for genesis 6. when the sons of god saw the daughters of men when the sons of god saw the daughters of men do you know who the sons were of god was those that came through the lineage of abel seth and on down the daughters of men driven by their flesh was the descendants of cain who chose not to worship and sacrifice and then if this ought to help us out this ought to help us out when you go from adam to abel from adam to cain and you come down seven generations seven generations on the sacrifice on abel's side the seventh lineage from adam was a man named noah all right excuse me it was a man named enoch a man named enoch now what's important about enoch well he's a type of rapture because the bible says enoch walked with god and was not because god took him it's fabulous it's wonderful god gives us an old testament type of the rapture there was a man named enoch that pleased god and one day god just reached down and snatched enoch from the earth and took him to heaven but can i tell you how would have enoch known how to please god had enoch not had a father who had a father who had a father who had a father right now the seventh from adam that adam abel seth down the seventh is enoch the seventh from the non-worshiper is a man named lamech it's a man named lamech what is lamech famous for two things lamech is the first polygamist in the bible lamech is the first man that destroyed the type of christ in the church husband and wife lamech was the first gender challenge generation all right lamech is the first that stepped around up to this time every man had one wife just original in the creation but it was lamech that became the first polygamist it was lamech that took him many wives he took him many wives he said you know i've got to gratify my flesh and so lamech was the first polygamist not only was laymak the first polygamist lamech is the first songwriter in the bible lamech writes a song about violence he wounded someone and he later turned around and scoffed somebody must have said to lamech that you know you know what don't don't you know that that that that your father's father's father's father had a mark on him because he killed his brother and and lamech wrote a song of mockery about the judgments of god are we not seeing a generation that are absolutely mocking god do they not have any fear of god do they not do is there nothing in their minds when they take the name of the lord in vain i like what i heard at youth camp can you tell me can you tell me when the last time in a movie someone wanted to show frustration and said oh buddha oh mohammed but they'll do it at the drop of a hat and say jesus jesus christ jesus what just happened oh god can i tell you something i don't know about you but i don't want to be on that side of the family because lamech is the first polygamist he's the first songwriter of mockery and that's the seventh which you want to be in do you want to be on the seventh from abel that gets raptured or you will be on the seventh from kane that's just trying to get their flesh satisfied flesh satisfied flesh satisfied but now go down to the 10th generation the 10th generation from from adam to worshiper and go down 10 generations you know who we have born a man named noah and boy doesn't know i play a big role in saving the human race because noah found grace in the eyes of the lord noah walk with god but i ask you the question again how would noah have known to walk with god unless his father walked with god and his father walked with god and his father walked with god and then and then he's got a great great grandfather nobody knows where he's went because he just disappeared one day and god speaks to him and said the flood's coming and death is coming and build an ark and noah's over there building an ark he's laughed at he's building an ark hundreds of miles away from a body of water he is the laughingstock of all the community out there got your family building a boat there's not a body of water nowhere to be found man you have you you're you're you don't have understanding of the times you're wasting your time down there building that old ark day in and day out down there building saying something about a flood's coming sounds a little bit like people want to cause us today to say you're wasting too much time at the church you're just always going to the church and that preacher's talking about one day a trumpet's going to sound and the rapture is going to all of this the 10th from cain from adam down through abel seth the worshipers down through enoch is noah and noah built an ark the tenth from the line of cain is a man named tubal kane tubal kane and guess who tubal kane is he is an inventor he's always inventing something he's always working on something new because that's what you always have to do to people that don't sacrifice you always got to give them another ride at disney you've always always got to give them another new car you got to give them another new gadget they got to have a new cell phone they got to have a new computer they got they got gotta have all this stuff they gotta have all the and when they don't get the latest and they don't get all of that they get upset because it's the latest invention that makes them feel good know about you today but i want to live my life being a sacrifice to god because the bible says if you would stand with me this morning i told you that i wasn't going to get done and i'm not going to get done today but the bible plainly tells us in the book of romans because i don't want anybody to feel like that sacrifice was an old testament doctrine alone the bible tells us in the book of romans chapter number 12 and verse number one sacrifice is not just something in the old testament romans chapter 12 and verse number one i beseech you that word beseech there means i beg you and i want to stand in the place the apostle paul and as much as i can look every person in the face today and say i beg you i beg you i beg you i beg you i beg you i beg you i beg you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service are you ready to offer your bodies up today are you ready to offer your bodies up today god here's my hands god i will sacrifice what someone would think about me today to lift my hands to a god that i know that it pleases you god for my hands to be lifted today i don't have to understand it god it just simply says to lift up my hands to your god today and i lift up my hands to you right now god oh thank you god thank you god thank you god thank you god god i give you my body today god i give you i give you all that i am today i i offer my body lord to you today as a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable it is your reasonable service verse 2. i want you to look at this real closely with me and be not conformed to this world church i got to ask you today who are you becoming more like are you becoming more like the world or more like the church are you becoming more like the world or are you becoming more like the elders of the church the elder women the elder men are you becoming more like that if the answer is yes then you're conforming to the world be not conformed to this world but be you transformed how by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god would you bow your heads with me right now church family would you begin to pray right now would you would you begin to pray with me right now i believe we need to rededicate ourselves to sacrifice this morning i believe there needs to be a rededication to sacrifice right now every head is bowed and every eye is closed if you're here today and you don't know the lord jesus christ and your heart has been beating in your chest and you have been for the last several minutes feeling conviction this altar is now open it is now open would you come right now jesus christ waits to engulf you in his arms right now would you come right now would you come right now church help me pray would you come right now in the name of jesus today god in the name of jesus today the altar is open you know what you're feeling right now ma'am you know what you're feeling right now sir you know you're battling the tears you know you're paddling the feeling right now why don't you come jesus is calling jesus is calling you right now obey the voice of the lord jesus is calling you right now step out of your pew right now jesus is calling you right now jesus is calling you right now get us some people to help us pray brother eric said jesus is calling right now oh jesus is calling right now just another moment i want to linger don't say no to him please tell somebody beside you i need to get out of the pew i need to i need to go up to the front i need to kneel in the altar i need to talk to god this morning thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord thank you lord right now i want to ask you i wanted first to give an opportunity to those to come first but now i want to ask the church i want to ask the church to come and rededicate your lives this morning i'm calling this church to sacrifice today i'm calling this church back to sacrifice right now some of you it's been a long time since you've even come to the altar you convinced yourself i can stay here in the pew and pray that you can but it would be good to sacrifice this morning it would be good to sacrifice this morning and walk down around the front it would be good to show it would be good to show others around here that i'm buying into this i'm buying into this sacrifice today come on i am calling this church to sacrifice today i'm calling us to a time of sacrifice today come on let's give up the moments let's give up the moment of standing in our pew for the time of calling out on god in the altar in the name of jesus today god in the name of jesus today god come on church come on church let's gather in this altar this morning i'm calling on us to rededicate our lives to god today in the name of jesus in the name of jesus let our praises touch your heart lived in grateful voices touch your heart voices to fill your lost grateful voices is to you alone uh oh open the heavens we want to see oh we want to be all right pour out your bread oh is who you are come on let's just look our voices right now oh god in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus god i love you lord i dedicate my life back to you god oh god if we have drifted from you lord god if i have drifted from you as a pastor god if we have drifted from you as a church god oh god we rededicate ourselves to you this sunday morning god we rededicate ourselves to sacrifice god we rededicate ourselves god god we will give up our pleasure in order for the need lord to be men in jesus name in jesus name everybody said amen