Listen up, little ones
Listen for the word offering.
Reading
Genesis 4:1–16—Sin Desires to Overtake You
Optional Reading
Proverbs 1:10-19
Keys for kids
- God was not pleased with Cain’s offering.
- Cain got mad.
- God warned him, but Cain didn’t listen.
Questions
- Why was God pleased with Abel’s offering and not Cain’s?
- What was Cain’s face showing?
- What do we do about our sin?
Notes
In Proverbs 1, we are warned against being enticed by sinners. They present sin as fun and rewarding. But ultimately it leads to death and destruction. In Genesis 4, Cain was angry because God did not accept his sacrifice. Hughes asks why, we wonder, was Abel’s offering accepted while Cain’s was not? … Cain evidently was indifferent about his offering, but Abel was careful about his.
As Cain gets angry, even furious, God warns him, Sin desires you. Sin desires us as well. Sin will often be presented as enticing and as worth it. It may be enticing, but it is never worth. We are likely familiar with this sad story in Genesis 4. Cain ignores God’s warning and kills his brother. For most of us, we haven’t and won’t literally kill someone because we give in to sin’s enticements, but we still must be on guard. We must submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).
But ultimately our hope is not that we can constantly and always turn away from the enticements of sin and sinners, but rather that God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So, as those whose sins have been pardoned in Jesus we flee sin. We hate it and stop doing it. We resist sin’s enticements. And when we fail, we remember that where sin abounds grace super-abounds (Romans 5:20).
Swedish Method questions
Praise
Psalm 103b, 119s
Prayer
- Pray that you will resist the enticement of sin and sinners.
- Give thanks for something from last Lord’s Day’s sermons.
- Pray for a member of our church, for your family, and for a non-Christian friend/family member.