Sin is Crouching at Your Door

(ESV)

16To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

17And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.

19By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Descriptive not Prescriptive

(ESV)

1Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”

2And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.

3In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,

4and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,

5but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.

6The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen?

7If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”

(ESV)

8Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

Hebrew word “el” - against or for - Contrary

Sin changed everything

Sin put broke mans relationship with God jus as sin breaks everything.

Stacy’s car

We have to change the oil in our cars because the oil wears out

We have to buy new cars or fix them because the parts wear out.

Our clothes wear out

Our relationships can wear out or get difficult - relationships with anyone will go towards distance and not towards closeness if they are not maintained.

Our bodies wear out, get fat, get sick if we don’t maintain them

It is the affect of sin on our world.

Our finances will suffer if we don’t maintain them

Our jobs always face confrontation, frustration, and difficulty because people around us don’t maintain or address issues when they arise because sin is at our door pushing people and situations in the wrong direction

(ESV)

22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

I don’t know how you see your life and life in general but there is one universal truth that we need to be aware of today.

We spend out lives fighting the effects of sin.

Sadly we have learned to call it other things:

Like

They made bad choices

They’re lazy.

They just didn’t take care of it

They just had a hard life

They have a lot of problems

The truth is that all of these things are the problem of sin.

(ESV)

20Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

21For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

(ESV)

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight

9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ

10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

(ESV)

1And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

2in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.