Imagine getting a one-on-one counseling session with God. Who could give you better advice? Well, Cain allowed his anger, envy and jealousy to override the counsel given to him, personally, by God—and killed his brother Abel. He was so blind to his own sinful jealousy, all he could think about was avenging his wounded pride at any cost. Let's heed God's warning today that sin is crouching at the door.
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Transcript: Welcome to "5 Minutes with Pastor Lutzer." I'm so glad that you joined us again today for this very critical series, entitled, "When You've Been Wronged," our desire is to help you get beyond the desire for vengeance, anger, often times the deep resentments, that keep us from walking with God say this, "unless God resolves this, I'm going to have nothing to and we do with Him." I want you to come to God. I want this series to be transforming. That's why I hope that you pass it along to others, tell others about it, because offenses are everywhere. Well, today we begin with the famous first family —Genesis 4, Adam and Eve have a son and they call him Cain. Eve says, "I've gotten a man from the Lord." Cain, to me, is fascinating. I find somebody like Cain or Saul in the Old Testament, a scroll of information about human nature. Cain grows up and you know the story. Abel is born and Abel offers to God a sacrifice that God accepts Cain offers to God a sacrifice, which God does not accept. Let me be clear about that and he is very angry and he's counseled by God. God says, "Cain if you did right, you could be accepted too." I mean imagine, counseled by God, but he rejects it. Now the thing about a narcissist, the thing about a destroyer that is so evident is he feels his own pain very keenly, but he does not feel the pain of those whom he has hurt. I find this fascinating. He kills his brother, Abel, and then God says you have to leave because you're under a curse and he begins to say, "Now, people will find me and they will kill me." Oh, Cain let's cry for you. What's going on? He kills his brother and he doesn't feel that pain, but all the pain that he feels because he thinks now he has been wronged. Typical narcissism; typical destroyer. I want to do something today. It's kind of a parenthesis, but I have thought about this so often and this is the point at which I want to insert this in and it's very relevant to our story. I'm about to tell you the tale of three mothers, alright, I'm going to give you their names and then you'll understand why I'm using them. One mother's name is Morrow. Morrow grew up on a farm. She and her husband of course, lived there on a dairy farm and she had a son whom she raised. She did not know who that son would be, her last name was Graham and raising a son who had preached the gospel of Jesus Christ as you already guessed the name of the famous son was Billy. She didn't know that she was raising a son who had preached the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world to millions of people. We never know who we are raising, do we? Let me introduce you to another mother. Her name is Klara. Klara is born in Austria. She's a devout Catholic. She has six kids and only to survive into adulthood, a son and a daughter. She's told that she has breast cancer. Because she's a very devout Catholic, she accepts it from God. Her son who was very young, took care of her, loved her deeply, his father was an abuser and when she died, when the son was thirteen, he threw himself on the ground at her grave and never thought that he would stop weeping. Well, you may have already guessed it. The last name of Klara was Hitler. She did not know that she was raising a son who eventually would be known throughout history as one of the most evil, destructive men that the world has ever seen. You have no idea who it is that you are raising. Well, there's a third son and you've already guessed it now. There's a third mother, I should say, and that is Eve. Eve receives Cain and says, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." Surely, he's going to walk with God and so forth. But Cain goes an entirely different direction. He becomes very angry. We've already told you the story — he refuses God's council. He feels his own hurts very keenly, but he can't feel the hurt of others. He becomes a classical narcissist. Isn't it interesting that in the New Testament, the Bible says that Cain was of the evil one. Let me speak to you, heart to heart. Today if you are going through an offense and you're rebelling against God because of it just know that Satan is involved. He uses offenses and hurts to keep people bound. I want you to think about that today. I want you to think about your own heart and I want you to ask God to make sure that you have the heart of an Abel and not the heart of Cain. Because let me tell you, it is better to be able and to be killed by a member of your family than to be Cain and live. Let's let God change our hearts. Thank you so much for joining us today and as for today, just go with God.