Whipping A Whiney Spirit – Part III
"Obsession – The Murderous
Attitude"
Genesis 4th Chapter
2Later she gave birth
to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In
the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering
to the LORD. 4But Abel brought fat portions from some of the
firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but
on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry,
and his face was downcast. 6Then the LORD said to Cain,
"Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7If 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; it desires to have you, but you must master
it." 8Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let’s go
out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his
brother Abel and killed him.
Key Verse: 7If
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; it desires to have you, but you must
master it."
For the next three weeks we are
going to discuss the symptoms of a whiney spirit. The first symptom is
obsession. This often occurs when a person becomes consumed with another
person’s victory or blessing. One example of this is found in a well-known
passage of scripture concerning Cain & Abel.
Our scripture tells us that Cain
worked the fields and Abel kept flocks. When it came time to give to the Lord,
Cain brought some of the fruits (3rd), but Abel brought fat portions from the
firstborn of his flock (4th). Now Abel didn’t just bring an offering; he gave a
"goooooood" offering. Therefore, Abel’s offering brought him favor
but Cain’s offering did not. Why? Because of the quality of Cain’s offering.
Now one thing we need to make clear; this was not a contest to see who could
get the "best" blessing from the Lord.
We’ve got to stop thinking of God
as some sort of K-mart store that has only a few blessings and that He will
"run out" of blessings. Both Cain and Abel could have gotten the same
type of blessing, yet Abel chose to give first fruits and Cain did not. [Lesson
on the difference between first fruits, tithes and offerings coming later.] So
as Cain became angry, the Lord asked him, "Why are you so angry? Why is
your face downcast?" If Cain would have been man enough to answer
honestly, he probably would have said, "because you found favor with my
brother’s offering and didn’t like mine. Even though it was raggedy and
bustdown I wanted a blessing for it." It’s sad but true. We want to give
God our not so best, but then we want His best. And when He doesn’t give it to
us we become infected with a "murderous attitude."
Now let us explain a
"murderous attitude." If we jump to the 8th verse we see that Cain’s
obession over his brother’s blessing leads him to coercing Abel to a field in
order to kill him. Of course the time that transpired between the 7th and 8th
verses was not immediate. Cain had time to think about the favor Abel had
received and definitely about the favor he did not receive. So that murderous
attitude finally consumed him to the point where he acted on it.
However, the murderous attitude is
not limited to the physical. One example of the "non-physical"
attempt on someone’s life is slander. A better way of putting it is gossip.
This is just Real-life 101. When a person is not liked due to envy whenever
anything comes up against that person I guarantee you, the "hitmen"
will come. They will say everything they can to bring that person down. And
when they can’t think of anything to say, they will agree with all the lies by
saying, "Uh-huh Uh-huh, that’s right, that’s right" in an attempt to
kill a good reputation.
Of course I don’t really have to
tell you that obsessing over someone else’s blessing is not necessary. All it’s
going to lead to is the wrong attitude, yet the solution is simple. The Lord
tells Cain, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?"
Behind each truly, truly blessed man/woman of God is a testimony of
faithfulness and obedience. Sure we all want to overlook what they have gone
through and quickly get to where they have are. But the Lord told Cain,
"If you do what’s right." This means through the good times and the
not so good times—–when everyone around you is getting their breakthroughs
and you are still waiting for yours . In all times and circumstances, you just
have to do what’s right regardless of how the flesh feels.
Now what if Cain would have done
the "right thing?" What if he would have said, "Lord, I sure
could have given you a better offering than what I gave." If so, then he
would have definitely "mastered his sin" as the 7th verse stated.
There is nothing wrong with wanting more blessings from God. However, we need
to desire to EARN our blessings rather than to ENVY others when they get
blessed. We have the power to master our sin, especially if we have a Saviour
to assist us. If we yield to sin then it is as the 7th verse states,
"crouching at our door" to trip us up. I’m sure Cain had plenty of
time to choose whether or not he was going to be "tripped up" or
triumphant, whether or not he was going to master his sin or murder his
brother. All of this because he chose to let his symptom get worse and worse
until his sin "had him." Therefore, choose wisely and master your sin
instead of letting it master you.