Dangerous religion!

Dangerous religion!


My Pastor yesterday said a great quote that made me do some thinking: "the greatest false religion today is not Islam, Hinduism, ect, It is me!"



Take a little time and think about that. Selfishness can really harm out walk with God. Look at what it did to Cain:



Genesis 4:1-10



Cain Murders Abel

4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, 5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.

6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”

He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.



Why was Cains sacrifice not good enough for God? Because it was not his best, not his first fruits! Cain was selfish and kept the best for himself instead of giving to God. Now before we jump all over Cain we better look at our own lives. Do we give our best to God? Time, money, love, service, ect.? If we are not we are much like Cain...selfish! Then we see instead of taking responsibility and confessing sin to God Cain gets mad, kills his brother, and gives God an attitude! "Am I my brothers keeper?" The selfishness would have been so easy to fix...ask forgiveness from God, sacrifice the first fruits to God, and do right going forward. But this self religion had a hold of Cain and he did not want to let it go.



So this morning may we all examine our own lives and make sure self religion don't have a hold on us!



Tom