Topic: Domain

I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but sometimes in the church we can present Jesus to people like, “If you come to Jesus everything in life will get better, and if you walk away from Jesus everything in life will get hard.” Have you seen this? But, then we meet people who have a great marriage, great kids, great success, and yet they don’t have any interest in Jesus, so that we’re like, “Wait, what?”

Because somewhere along the way, we can start to believe that if we follow Jesus, our lives should work better. And if someone doesn’t follow Jesus, eventually everything should fall apart. But then that’s not always what happens, which raises an uncomfortable question, “If we can have a good life without Jesus…why do we need Jesus?” In our passage, we’re going to see people building cities, developing agriculture, creating music and advancing technology, and they’re probably not that interested in the Lord. Let’s look at Genesis 4:17: 

I don’t want to stir up too much anxiety but it doesn’t take much effort to see we live in a violent world. Just a year ago there was a shooting at the Target off 183 and Ohlen where 3 people were killed. And, just last month a man was shot multiple times on Rainey Street during an aggravated robbery.  In Southeast Austin, another man was killed off Montopolis Dr. And earlier this month there was a shooting in Northeast Austin.  That’s a lot!And, you can blame it on Austin and want to get out into the country, but Twin Falls, Idaho 3 people were killed, 7 wounded at an In-And-Out just last month. So, when things like that happen, we ask the same questions, “Why?  How do we stop them?  What’s going on?”  Is this the end? In our passage this morning, we are going to see there is a pattern in humanity we still see today.  We don’t typically wake up and say, “I am going to rob a bank today.” There’s a progression.  There’s something inside us that begins with a thought, grows with our desires, and is eventually driven by our passions so that sin shows up…but we can’t miss that God keeps moving toward us to bring rescue.

In our passage this morning, we are going to see why humanity has this pattern of working really hard on something that never lasts.  Have you noticed this? We start to get organized, clean out the garage, work on a project and when we finish it feels so good.  But it never lasts! You clean the car, then it gets dirty.  You repair the relationship, then there’s more conflict.  You fix one area of your character, and then another area gets exposed!  It’s never ending!  In our passage we will see we don’t see this pattern by accident.  It is God’s grace drawing us to Himself. 

Have you noticed how most people want to be in a romantic relationship but underestimate how hard it is to be in a romantic relationship? In the beginning it’s all warm and tingly, but then at some point we start to see different values, different goals, different personalities and it starts to take effort!

I remember when our kids were like 3 and 6 years old I walked in the door after work, and my wife Holly was on the phone with 911. Holly was using one of those food processors, got distracted, and chopped off the tips of her fingers.  I said, “Hang up the phone, get in the car!” and we definitely broke some laws as we got her to the ER.

If you are new this morning, Genesis is in the Old Testament.  Genesis is the first book in the Bible.  These last 4 weeks we have been studying through Genesis and Genesis 1-2 teaches us that all of creation is designed by Him, through Him and for Him, so that in Genesis 1-2 everything is perfect.