sibling rivalry

Genesis 4:1&2

"1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."

As we studied last week, it would be great if Christians took measures to reclaim the term "FAITH." We can all be MORE careful with how we speak. As the president of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison says; "The less we speak like Christians, the less we are Christians." 

With this in mind, we will begin our new series titled "FAITH WORDS." In this series, we will study classic words used by Christians to communicate very specific ideas and concepts. Words have meaning. Today, people are careless with how they use words. Christians often speak in ways to get along with the culture. Christians need to say what we mean and get our ideas out into the secular world.

This week, we will study a three letter word that the world absolutely hates... SIN. (Que the booing and hissing. Angry sounds from the crowd.) Nobody wants to use this little word nowadays. Even though we are all VERY familiar with it. We are all guilty of SIN, and we know it.

SIN, of course, started with Adam and Eve. They ate the forbidden fruit. Soon after they began having children. Their children follow in their footsteps. For today's verses we turn to Genesis, chapter four, verse one; "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare CAIN, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother ABEL. And ABEL was a keeper of sheep, but CAIN was a tiller of the ground." The first children and already we are going to see sibling rivalry and violence...