Rev. David Holwick H
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 25, 2018
Genesis 4:3-16
DISCONNECTED
I. The tragedy that is part of a wider problem.
A. The Florida teen shooter had issues.
Nikolas Cruz grew up with older parents and a younger
brother who was also adopted.
His father died when he was young.
They lived in a nice neighborhood, but could barely afford
their house.
His mother died around Thanksgiving.
Nikolas had many emotional issues.
He was especially moody, prone to an explosive temper and
seemed to delight in torturing animals.
He provoked everyone else on the block.
He was infatuated with guns and showed images of them on
his social media.
Someone called the FBI to report how dangerous he was, and
that they expected him to shoot up a school or something.
He did.
We wonder why the FBI did not pass on the tip.
We wonder why the school security guard stood outside while
the shooting happened.
But most of all, we wonder how a human being could go so
wrong and be filled with so much hate. [1]
B. Why do some people turn against the world?
1) Nikolas was undoubtedly depressed and lonely.
a) He was a loner who had few friends, though he had some.
b) He struggled in school, but some teachers found they
could work with him.
2) His infatuation with guns is shared by many in our culture.
a) I can show you photos some of my Facebook friends have
posted, which show them pointing guns menacingly.
b) Usually they are people without much power, who want to
look powerful.
C. We can be motivated by something higher.
1) One member pointed out to me that what we call "The Greatest
Generation" was molded by the Depression and WWII.
a) Our young people don't have this sense of purpose and
determination.
b) Instead of banding together, we splinter into warring
clans.
2) It is up to Christians to provide a higher calling.
a) We can rely on love instead of violence.
b) We can include people and accept them instead of
shunting them off to the edges.
c) We can challenge people turn to God instead of evil.
3) What motivates you?
II. The original hater.
A. It begins with his connection to God.
1) Cain and his brother Abel offer sacrifices to God.
2) Cain's is from the field, while Abel's is from the flock.
3) Cain's is rejected while Abel's is accepted by God.
B. What was the difference?
1) Some say it shows the necessity of blood sacrifice.
a) "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin."
b) But grain offerings were perfectly acceptable to God,
and sometimes took the place of blood sacrifices.
1> And the context shows that it was an offering
and not a sacrifice for sins.
2) Others point out that Abel offered God his best.
a) The text emphasizes that he brought the fat portions
and it was from the firstborn, both positive aspects.
b) Cain just brought an offering, with nothing special
noted.
C. The real key is their initial relationship with God.
1) Hebrews 11:4 points out:
"By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did.
By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke
well of his offerings."
2) Their offerings reflected what was in their hearts.
D. Cain had bigger issues in his life than an offering.
1) Cain would have been accepted if his actions had been right.
a) Religious acts can't cover up defiant sin.
2) To be valid, offerings must accompany a repentant heart.
a) Cain wasn't truly repentant.
b) 1 John 3:12 even says he belonged to the Devil.
III. Cain's anger disconnected him from key relationships.
A. It disconnected him from his brother Abel.
1) He resorted to the most violent act possible - murder.
2) His brother had done nothing wrong against him, yet Cain
killed him.
B. It disconnected him from his God.
1) When he is confronted by God, he lies.
a) When Adam was confronted about his sin, he at least
told the truth, or part of it.
b) Cain did not ("I don't know"), and he was callous to
boot ("Am I my brother's keeper?").
2) As a consequence, Cain is cursed directly by God.
C. It disconnected him from everyone else.
1) Part of his curse involved being an outcast who would have
to wander the earth, in constant fear of others.
a) (The assumption is that Adam & Eve have had other kids.)
2) This seemed to be the biggest blow to him.
IV. How disconnected are you?
A. Even Christians can allow anger and rage to isolate them.
1) Too many Christian families resort to yelling and abusive
behavior that drives everyone into their own little shell.
2) Even church have big fights all the time and end up dividing
or even closing.
3) This is not what God wants.
a) Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers," and he
meant it.
B. Renew the ties that bind.
1) Isolation and loneliness bring out the worst in most people.
a) Being surrounded by love is so much better.
2) If you have dissension in your family, work at healing it.
3) Make peace with other Christians, if you can.
a) And even if you cannot, don't feed their rage.
V. Even in our sin, God is gracious.
A. God offers divine protection.
1) Cain was concerned he would be a target, so God marked him.
a) We don't know what the mark was, but it signified
God didn't want Cain messed with.
b) It was a mark that protected him from harm, but didn't
seem to have a positive function apart from that.
1> The mark of a Christian, the Holy Spirit, is better.
2> We are protected, and guided, and loved.
2) Cain was protected but not completely restored.
a) Like his father, he could not return to paradise.
b) Instead, he had to live "east of Eden," the title of
Steinbeck's famous book.
c) All of us live east of Eden - our world is not perfect
but we can live better, with God's help.
B. Violent people can be transformed.
In his early 20s, Jim Webley was working in the gold mines of
Nevada and entrenched in a rough lifestyle of drugs and
alcohol.
Every week he got into a fight and he had "put some people in
the hospital," as he put it.
People wanted him to leave town and they started circulating
a petition to get him kicked out.
One Sunday morning, Webley was driving his young daughter Sara
to get milkshakes when they passed a little white Baptist
church.
He never went to church in Nevada, but he felt God pulling
him in that direction.
He felt like God was telling him he needed to get into church.
Webley had an 8-inch jet lift on his '78 Chevy which made it
very recognizable, so he parked behind the church in hopes
his buddies wouldn't drive by and see him.
When he walked into the church with his daughter, every person
in the church knew him.
He was pretty sure they were flabbergasted to see him.
The pastor was probably 10 minutes into his sermon and he just
kind of stopped preaching and stared at him.
Webley was wearing an Ozzy Osbourne shirt with the sleeves
cut off.
On the front of the shirt, Ozzy is holding a dove and on the
back he's got the dove's head in his mouth.
Webley wasn't impressed by the pastor.
The preacher was trying to be funny but it only ticked off
Webley.
But then the pastor said, "The Word of God says," and he would
read from the Bible.
Webley remembers sitting there and thinking, "There's such
power in that."
After the service, no one approached Webley to talk.
When he got home, his wife Melissa didn't believe he had been
to church.
But he went back the next Sunday, as well-dressed as he could
manage.
Soon he acknowledged he needed to clean up his life -- no more
selling drugs, no more fighting.
Webley said he was trying to be a better person.
He moved his family up to Montana where he was raised, so he
could escape the influence of his friends in Nevada.
The Webleys had lived there about six months when his wife
asked if they were going to look for a church.
Webley replied, "Why would we go to church? We're doing so good."
He had stopped selling drugs.
There was very little fighting.
And he was only "smoking pot and drinking."
Webley thought God would be pleased with him because he cleaned
up his life so well.
He thought church was just where you learned to clean up.
At his wife's insistence, they drove around and found a local
Baptist church.
There Webley realized it wasn't his works that mattered but
what Christ did on the cross for him.
He grilled the pastor with questions, but Webley still wasn't
convinced God even existed.
A few months later that changed when he was sitting in church
and became convinced God was real.
He said to himself, "I've been fooling myself, pretending that
I don't understand or I don't know."
He realized his options were to stop going to church, live the
life he wanted and go to hell, or give his life to Christ
and serve Him.
Webley went forward that Sunday and gave his life to Christ at
the age of 28.
When he went home, he went through his house and gathered up
his heavy metal shirts and CDs -- anything he thought God
wouldn't want in his house -- threw them in a burn barrel
in the backyard, dumped gas on it and lit it.
He told God, "Whatever You want to do with my life, I'll do it."
In time, he became a Sunday School teacher, then a youth pastor,
and finally he felt God calling him to pastor a small church.
The town God pointed him to had a bad reputation.
It was home to a militia and a white supremacist group.
What is more, Webley had once lived there and an enemy had
burned his house down.
But God wanted him there, and met with their pulpit committee.
A woman on the committee said two things were particularly
important to their church.
First, they had a potluck every Sunday after church and wanted
his assurance that the potlucks could continue.
Second, they "didn't want a lot of new people coming in," as
she put it.
She added, "There's a bad element here in Noxon and these people
that come in ruin the fellowship, and we just don't want a
whole lot of these people coming in."
Webley told the search committee that he expected the church
members to give up their seats for new people.
In addition, if they called him as pastor they would not have
another potluck until the spiritual issue was cleared up.
They called him as pastor, and the first Sunday, when he told
them that would be their last potluck, that pretty much
destroyed the church.
The congregation went from about 25 to six people in one week.
Webley said he was going to preach to an empty room until God
told him to stop.
From there, God started adding families, and the church has
seen a steady increase not only in numbers but in maturity.
They now average 100 people a week in a town that has a
population of 300.
The community has changed as well.
A few years ago there was a bad drug problem, but the church
ended up getting that cleared up.
A Baptist leader in the state says Webley's transition is a
lot like that of the Apostle Paul.
He was also a violent man who was transformed by God.
The leader said of Webley, "Before Christ, he fought with his
fists against his fellow men with a terrifying ferocity.
Today, he fights with spiritual weapons for his fellow men
with God-glorifying determination."
#65977
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] The details about Nikolas Cruz were derived from these articles:
“Nikolas Cruz, Florida Shooting Suspect, Described as a ‘Troubled
Kid’,” by Matthew Haag and Serge F. Kovaleski, New York Times,
February 14, 2018; <link>.
“Florida shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz: Guns, depression and a life
in trouble,” by William Wan, Kevin Sullivan, David Weingrad and
Mark Berman, Washington Post, February 15, 2018; <link>.
#65977 “Brawler-Turned-Pastor Transforms Montana Church and Town,” by
Erin Roach, Baptist Press, November 21, 2017; <link>.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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