Transcription
When we've lived overseas and we would ask people that we would meet working in foreign countries, "Why are you here?" I think it's a great question. "Why are you here living in Yemen?" And they say something like, "Well, I owe God. I owe God something." That's the [Music] false.
So, let's move out of the garden, per se, and what happened? What's the next part of the story? What happened with this lie of separation? Yeah. And when you think about it that way, it's really stunning what Moses is doing, you know, of this revelation. If you think of Moses as being on Mount Sinai and actually communicating with God, and God is saying to Moses, "Tell the story this way." I mean, that's it's astounding. And we'll see as we continue through the journey with the prophets and the characters of scripture how beautifully this story unfolds. This how beautiful this narrative is.
So they're coming out. They're now out of this um connected worldview where that's the reality for all people and true identity and God's intended that way. And they've come out of that with two worldviews now. And the one, as we say often, it takes faith to believe what God says. It takes faith to believe what's true. That although we might say the world seems connected, but is there enough for everyone? It seems like there's not. Is there enough time for everyone? That's hard to believe. Are there enough opportunities for all of us in the world? That's difficult for us to believe because we're so deep in the scarcity separation worldview. I mean, we really do learn it young. And the Israelites have been in it their whole as as long back as they can remember is we're in this world where there is not enough for us. And we, as an identity, as a people, are low-level slaves um and we're never really going to attain anything great in our life. So, that's where they've been. And so, they're hearing the story of where did that thinking come from? So, not just the history of the world, right? But the history of how you think about the world, right? How you view the world. And what I'm picking up from what you're saying is like there's this generational cycle that generate the generations are generating the delusion, right? They're passing the lie on. And so the way this the New Testament talks about is is through one man this lie came into the world through this through this Eve and Adam believing this lie and introducing this lie as if it's true has come into the world and so we get to watch it. So they've come out of what's the real true situation kind of into a world where there's now a lie engaged that dominates the thinking of humanity. And the way we see it grow is through the next generation of Adam and Eve, which is the story of Cain and Abel. A really fascinating, powerful story.
First of all, in that story, we get to see Cain and Abel. What they're engaged in, what they're doing in this story is they're connecting to God. You know how you observe that in the offering? They're bringing offerings to God. So, they're bringing offerings and Cain's offering, he's a farmer, and so his offering is vegetables. And Abel's offering is uh a sacrifice offering. But we're not in Leviticus yet. So there's no that sacrificial system hasn't been set up. But in the connection worldview, I think with gratitude, they understand that God is fully connected to them and has given them this gift of the earth and the animals and the plants to provide for our daily needs. And so in gratitude, they're offering back what's been given to them to stay connected, right? And it's a beautiful system. It shows how God is living. And as you said, he's part of all of it. And so, yeah, this this I love the word it's used there is offering. It's it's not even the idea of sacrifice. It's they're bringing an offering to God. And that's what he wants. And the whole emphasis is connection and coming to God. He's inviting them into the connection worldview. Even though this lie of separation is in place, God never affirms that lie of separation. He's only affirming connection.
So, the story seems to be going really good. It's going well at this point. Where does the identity piece come in? I mean, I think it sounds like they're are they offering in a true identity? Yeah, I think that's the right question for this story. Otherwise, we get into and and this happens, you know, if you grow up in the church and some of the traditional teaching is like, "Well, God likes sheep more than vegetables." Like that's the idea is like he's looking at the actual thing that you're bringing. But we know in a connection worldview that's not the point. The point is relationship. So even before we get to the identity question, the question is is the right view of God? Is he just wants connection? Like he's not looking and saying, "Well, you came and you're a missionary, you know, you've committed your life to missions and you've come and all you've done, you know, is run a little Bible club in your house." And he's like measuring us, which is part of the separation worldview, like he's somehow measuring, "Wow, that's a great, that's a great offering and that's not so significant of an offering." Which takes us almost immediately to the story where Jesus is talking about offering and giving to the disciples and he points to the rich people giving their offerings and then to the widow's mite and he says, "Who's giving, whose offering is greater?" And immediately the disciples are like, "Those guys," because they're in their fine clothes and they're giving giving huge sums of money. So I think what you're saying is that it's the meaning behind it's the sentiment behind the offering. And if someone is giving in the truth of their identity, really and gratitude, it doesn't matter what the offering is. It doesn't matter that it's a penny or a million dollars. If the person giving the million dollars or we could say the meat offering, maybe it doesn't matter that it's a more valuable by the world's standards. It what matters is are you giving in your true identity, right? Are you giving just to appease God? Are you giving to get God's approval? Are you really giving out of an overflow of what God's given to you in the truth of who you are? Yes. Even before we we get to the specifics of what we see in identity with Cain and Abel, we just have this larger principle of like, why are you doing this in the first place? What's your motivation be behind what what you're giving to God? Right? And so we remember in the connection worldview, God never separates. But we read in Matthew 7 this dramatic time where Jesus is talking to the people and he's saying, "Oh, you're telling me how great you are. You're telling me all the great things you do for God and I will say to you, depart from me. Depart from me. I never knew you." And and it's that's a tough passage because you think, "Wait, the God who never disconnects, who knows everything about us, is now saying, 'Depart from me. I didn't know you.' How can that be correct?" When we come back and look at this introductory narrative by Moses, he's really addressing that with the story of Cain and Abel and he's saying, "What God doesn't know is this created person you're coming up with, right? When you come to him, you do need to come in the truth of who you are as he knows you and not in some pretense or making other people look at me and go, 'Look at who I am.'" Because it's not true. And he's saying, "I want that false you to depart. I don't know that false you." All this is just in the idea of bringing the offering. Wow. That is stunning. "I never knew you." It's not that he never knew you. He just God is truth. God is love. And so if there's anything false, it's not that he doesn't know it. He just can't can't engage with it. It's not there. It's not real. Exactly. That's what you're saying. It's not real. Right. And he won't tolerate that. So I think a question we have to ask as a group as we study through this is, if I'm ever going to bring anything to God or offer anything to God or do anything for God, why am I doing it? Period. Why am I doing it? What's my motivation for doing it? And really walk through some truthtelling on what's my motivation for what I do. I think that's big because if we don't come that way, the connection's not there. God can't connect with what is false. Wow. God cannot connect with what is false, but can only be in connection, which he always is, with the truth of who we are. Right?
So, what happens in this story? So Cain brings his fruits and vegetables and Abel brings his. And there's something wrong with Cain. I think this is where we really see the identity issue come up. And it's interesting passage just as we were talking. God can't see the false because it doesn't exist. I mean, this is this is such an important point and it affects us so deeply. If I'm praying to God out of a false sense of myself, the prayer, it can't be heard. It's not like God doesn't hear it. It's he can't hear a prayer from the false. So, we want to pray in the truth of who we are. So, in this early story, we get to really think through this. Cain brings his offering to the Lord and it says it, we have to be careful how we read this. It says that God has no regard for it. What does that mean? God has no regard for it? Well, I mean, I know growing up in the church, it's like, "Oh, wow. God doesn't like vegetables." And then we're like, and they're like, "Oh, he's like me. I hate him, too." That's harsh. That would be like God saying, "I prefer this over this. Like, he's better than you." And I think Cain is already struggling with comparison with Abel. I think that's already in place. But it says that God doesn't see it. He doesn't have respect for what Cain is bringing. And so we have to ask why. Why does he not see what Cain is bringing? And we get a glimpse into what's going on with Cain's identity before we get into the specifics of it. But it's Cain is already downcast. He's already there's some kind of anger and frustration going on inside of him before he brings his offering to God. So something's already wrong there, right? Maybe it's that sense. It seems like the world is descending into separation and that first characteristic is not good enough. So maybe he's already feeling somehow he's not as good as Abel, right? Yeah. Because Abel seems like this really perfect, I don't know, perfect kind of brother. You know, if you have that experience, that sibling rivalry, do you have that in your family? Absolutely. And uh I won't say who's Cain or Abel, but in our family. But yeah. And so already, yes, already that competition, that competitiveness, comparison, right? Is already in play and they have to learn that. So so somewhere the generations are already learning, "Wow, there's a there's a competition going on here because I'm different from you." And the difference makes us competitive, right? Instead of saying, "Well, we're other-focused and we all work together and we should be different." It's like, "Well, we're different, so what's better?" Which is you you're describing the characteristics of the false self, right? When you feel like you're not enough, then you start looking at other people and comparing yourself and then your not-enoughness is just glaring in your face. So then you start to compete to prove that you are good enough. And anything connected or other-focused or "help your neighbor" goes out the window, right? And then God can't receive that because because the motivation is wrong, right?
So, you know how as when we've lived overseas and we would ask people that we would meet working in foreign countries, "Why are you here?" I think it's a great question. "Why are you here living in Yemen?" Or wherever. And they say something like, "Well, I owe God. I owe God something." That's the false. That that's already the false. "I promised my parents. I promised my religious teacher, my Sunday school teacher." Yeah. Right. And so you're paying off some kind of debt. "My grandmother always wanted this for me." And you're gaining your identity from what you're doing instead of bringing your identity into what you're doing. And so I think this is what Cain is doing. Cain is bringing something to God. But his motivation for bringing it is sourced in uh a wrong identity, a false identity. And so we can think of the false identity is just a wrong view of yourself, right? And a wrong view of God that God is also measuring and doing this kind of thing. And it has to result in a wrong view of others, right? So Cain comes and he's bringing this. God doesn't see it. He doesn't have regard for it. It's not Cain he doesn't have regard for. It's these efforts by Cain to demonstrate who how good he is or something. It's that's what God doesn't have. He loves Cain. He has regard for Cain. And so he comes to Cain in one of the most powerful quiet times, you know, we could call it in scripture. This very beautiful God con staying connected with Cain. And he comes to Cain and he addresses Cain's emotion. And we've talked some about emotion, but he says to Cain, "Cain, tell me, why are you so downcast? Why, why are you so, why is your head down and your eyes are down and and you're you're like trudging through life? Like, what's wrong? What's wrong?" And so early on, we see this challenge of emotion as being something that helps us guides us towards transformation, right? Negative emotion. And just like Adam and Eve, God pursued them when they were in their negative emotion of fear, guilt, and shame, right? And here we see this is like a pattern that is emerging. Because fast forward to us, somehow we feel like we have to have it all together, right? And then once we're acceptable, we come we can come to God. And there's nothing further from the truth. Yes, he already accepts us and he pursues us in our pain because we're already connected. Yes. And so he's coming to Cain just like God would come to us and say, "Tell me what's wrong. Tell me what's wrong. Why? Tell me why you're angry." And this is this is part of the the check-in process that we've talked about. Truth tell. Connect. Truth tell. He says, "Why are you so downcast? If you just do," and the phrase is, "If you just do or be as you ought." M. Just be as you ought to be, as is true of who you are. Everything would be fine. Wow. What a simple solution to what's become a very complicated issue to Cain. Because in this beautiful mystery of a world, there's complexity, systems, but there's no complication. And so as as complex as our emotions are and beautiful and all of that and mysterious, they're not complicated. And what causes complication is fear. Cain is in some kind of anxiety about what's going on. And that fear is making it complicated for him to just bring your offering to the Lord and tell the truth. Like, how hard is that? So simple. So simple, right? So, Cain, if you just do as you ought, everything will be fine. Stay connected. Stay connected to who you really are. Stay connected to me. Stay connected to Abel. Stay connected. And so he wants to meet him in his depression.
So, what was Cain's response? So Cain's response is um the false. He stays in the false identity. God warns him, "If you do what is right, everything will be okay with you. But the lie, the enemy is crouching at your door." What what a vivid metaphor for him. Like, if you just be who you really are, this is an amazing world to be in. But the lie is inviting you in. The lie is calling you and it will devour you, but you must master it. So, it's not even God saying, "I'm going to come in and fix all this." He's warning Cain, "Tell the truth. Stay in the truth of who you are. Deal with the negative emotion in connection with me. Do that and everything's fine. But if you don't do that, if you keep drifting towards this lie that's you against Abel, it's me against you, and we're in this competition and comparison, that false identity. The lie will own you. The lie will advise you and it will it will master you, but you must master it." So there's this offer of hope and connection for Cain. So in our own life, when the negative emotion comes and God's challenging us, the question is, "Why am I believing the lie? Why would I believe in this scarcity that I'm not good enough? Like, where is that coming from? And what's the truth of of who I really am?" Yeah. Um, then in that way, we can move forward and do what's right. Yeah. And everything will be fine with us.
So Cain is having this amazing interaction with God and and God is is looking at the situation where Cain's involved. Cain is moving in this negative emotion that's really sourced in a wrong view of himself and clearly a wrong view of Abel and a wrong view of God. And God's connecting. God's challenging Cain to truth tell. "Why are you so downcast? What's going on inside of you?" And "If you just be who you're supposed to be, be as you ought to be, everything's fine. Life is simple. It's connected. It's beautiful." This is great what you've brought. But the lie wants to inform you. The lie that you're not good enough. And that that God likes Cain, likes Abel more than you. That's at your door. It's at your door. It's inviting you. It's tempting you like Jesus being tempted by the liar. You know, "If God loves you, why are you poor? If God is so proud of you, why are you alone? Why, why are you in this desolate place?" That's going on. And God is warning Cain, "Don't let the lie run your life. Don't let the lie inform you of how things really are. You can master it. You have the capacity to make the decision to do what's right." And remarkably, in this quiet time, Cain's like, "No, I I'm not going to do it." That's stunning to me. Why do you think Cain is resisting? Like, why would he resist that? God's pursuing him. God's not forsaking him. The connection from God's end couldn't be stronger. God's doing everything possible to keep him in that connected zone. And yet, he still resists. And and I think this is the question that Moses wants Israel to ask. If God is inviting us into the truth of who we are, then how are we not accepting it? How do we end up with this false identity for 400 years? And then in the future, that temptation's always going to be there to believe the false, to believe the scarcity, to believe the that um you're not enough, the false identity. So he's warning them, why would you resist that? And I think we that's the challenge to us is if God's for me, if I, if I, you know, we know that all things work together for good, why don't I live that way? Why doesn't, like we've said before, it's what we believe. It's not what we just know.
I think about in my own life when God is challenging me on negative emotion, a negative situation, and he's inviting me into the true, and I say no. I mean, for me, mostly it's a kind of fear. And we've talked about this, the external conflict, the internal conflict, the fear, the false identity. It's the fear. I think somehow that it's not going to work out. I think in this situation that Cain thinks there's an injustice happening. And just to let it go, just to like be who you're supposed to be and everything will be fine. I don't think he I don't think he I don't think he believes that. I don't think he thinks God's going to vindicate him. I see. Yeah. That's often why we think it's difficult to forgive people because we feel like we're saying, "Oh, that's okay." When in reality, God's trying to separate you from the toxic emotion that's passed back and forth, the toxic behavior that you're carrying from another person. This this reminds me actually resisting of an example from our own life. For some reason, I'm thinking about back when we were much younger and you were a police officer, which was the dream of your life. Yes. And we didn't quite have this clear understanding of identity and hearing from God yet. It was forming, but you loved your job and you were a detective and I think in your heart you wanted to be the chief of police. And I was working at a Christian school. I loved being a teacher and I was every day being faced at the school with meeting missionaries and other people who were serving the Lord in some kind of capacity because it was connected to a church. And I just felt this deep desire to move overseas and to help people understand about God in a different culture, in a foreign context, the way I had been helped to understand it. And I remember always talking to you about it and always and you were so adamant. And now we both know that that was God inviting us into something. And there was a lot of fear. Yes. Around it. And I think especially for you because you were the one resisting. Sorry, but you were the one resisting because I think maybe fear that you would never be chief of police, right? But in reality, your identity wasn't police officer. Now that you know hindsight, what would you say your identity was? Yeah. Well, militant peacemaker, right? Yeah. And so in that, I think that's a good example because in that situation, it only went on for five years, so it wasn't that long of resisting. But I knew God also was inviting us. I just didn't like the way he was inviting us. And I Yes, you're correct. I was resisting that I thought God was going to take me away from who I am. Exactly. When in fact, he was taking me to who I am. Right. Right. Right. And Cain's whole problem is he thinks he's defending who he is. The and actually God is challenging, "That's actually not who you are." And so when we think about bringing an offering to God in Cain, it God's not looking at what he's bringing. He's looking at who's bringing it, right? Who who's the identity that's bringing it?
Often God is inviting us into do being as we ought to be and we are regularly saying no and don't even realize it. Right? That's what I'm suddenly thinking of because when we look at this situation with Cain, it's like, how could he think this way? Like it was so clear, yet we weren't there and we don't know. But then when we think of our life, especially in the past, when we can see how God was inviting in us into something and we felt a lot of fear about it, fear of where will the money come from? What if I have to pick up and move my kids? Or what if I go to this job and I don't I don't have this the right skill set yet? We feel that tug or that pull or like I call it a Holy Spirit nudge. And we immediately resist. I don't know why. Or and then we get to a point of God pursuing us so much that maybe we get fired because we're ignoring the nudge. And that's the only way we can get to the next place or the next level, not just job-wise, but in our relationship with God. So, it's a good reflection question is, am I even aware of God inviting me into something? Or I'm so numb to it that I don't I'm not even aware of it. Or think even of relationships, you know, that little that that sense or that nudge of needing to call someone or visit someone and we resist for whatever reason. Maybe we had had some difficulties in the past and we resist it. But God's all about reconciliation and wanting to restore and renew. But why do we resist? There's only one reason we resist, and it's fear. Fear. And when you're operating in fear, you have to recognize that fear is a warning light like on the dash of your car. I think we said that earlier, but just as a reminder, we never it would ignore that on our car, right? Because the car is going to break down and we want everything to go as it ought, right? But we ignore it. And that is a huge signal that you are operating from a false sense of self. You don't know who you are. Right. Right. And you're operating in coping mechanisms really to overcome the fear. But it doesn't go away. It won't go away. It's mastering you. And it reminds me of a prayer that David prays in the Psalms and he says, "God, show me my hidden faults. May they not rule over me." Exactly. We can keep repeating the scenario that Cain's in. He comes in that unhappy, depressed state, trying to to give something to God that's not that's not authentic. It's not from the real him. And God, out of his love for for Cain, is saying, "Look, I I I don't need you to give me stuff so I'll like you. In fact, I don't even want you to do that. I want the real you. I want the true you, the one that I knit together in your mother's womb to come." Otherwise, this false you is going to start to live in a lie. And the lie will so dominate you, it'll destroy you. It'll it it the illusion, the lie of separation will actually destroy you. So the ultimate separation happens between the brothers right in the story. And so Cain resists um the truthtelling and the mind change and the form change and he moves with the ultimate competitive comparison, separation, self-interest. He kills his brother, which um is just then it just becomes a society where very early on where Eve might have had a hope of the next generation, you know, coming out of the liar being better or being maybe even part of the redemption. And in fact, it's it's it's descending. It's becoming worse to where there's now separation even within the family. And so Cain kills Abel in out of the false.
So, can you lay this story and help help us walk through with this account of Cain and Abel that conflict map? Well, it's just Cain perceives an external conflict. There's a conflict between him and God somehow, between he and Abel. And the thing about an external conflict, it can be real or or just perceived. But once that perception is in the person's mind, it's real. Uh, you know, in working in the police department and working homicide cases, I've never ever arrested a person that didn't think in some way they were justified in what they were doing. Something, some injustice had incurred there. They're they have to rectify it. Obviously, God's not going to rectify it. So, they've got to do it. They've got to make the justice happen. And so, they commit this act. And so the external conflict just causes this internal conflict to rage that's already there. It's a hurty present. And then the fear that it's not going to ever get corrected. Like I'm lost in this and because and and I'm a victim and I'm not enough and I'm a failure. And every time I look at this person, it just emphasizes my own inadequacy. And so rather than correcting that, I'm going to get rid of this the cause of my pain. And it's never what's true. So that's that's where Cain devolves to and his act of retaliation is to is to kill his brother. And so now he's as separate as you can be. He's lost in the separation false identity worldview. And now he has an identity. I'm a murderer. M. Like I'm the the killer of my brother. And the earth cries out, it says, against for the innocence of Abel's blood. You're saying his identity becomes murderer, but that's what he did. And your true identity is a state of being. It's who you are. Right. And that being then informs your doing. So just because you failed at something doesn't mean that you're a failure, right? And so he did murder someone and he is taking on a false identity of what he did, ignoring who he was created to be. Yes. Right. And so imagine as Moses is telling this story, it's a horrific story and um it's extremely violent. Yeah. And he's telling it and he's like, imagine this kind of hatred of brother going on in a family and the murder. But he's emphasizing the connection view of God. What does God do when we commit this horrible act of murder? What's God's response to it? And it's connection. Yeah. God pursues him. That's right. It's the theme that he that that Moses wants Israel to understand as they go into a world that's built on separation, that thrives on scarcity and fear and empire building and murder and and theft. He wants them to realize that no matter what happens, God's desire is connection because the connection worldview is always only the true worldview and and connection and enough and mystery um is all part of what's actually true. And we need to be other-focused. Even when we wander off, he's going to come in. He's going to find us. And he's going to restore us back to the truth of him.
Can God redeem or restore a false identity such as murderer? Yeah. Well, and that's what he's doing. He comes to Cain and and the idea is for Cain to truthtell about what happened. But Cain is lost in this. He has the agency, the free agency, and he's lost in his separation worldview. And he he feels, I think, unworthy to be even in the presence of God because it says he walks out of the presence of God, which is impossible. It can't be done. "Where can I go from your spirit?" Exactly. But in his "Nothing can separate you from the love of God." And this is the lie mastering his thinking. It's having his way with him that he thinks, "I because of how I've acted, I'm I must walk out. I am now out of the presence of God. There's a gap because because I'm abandoned and I'm I'm the one that'll be despised by people." He starts naming these false identities of himself. And God does this very beautiful thing and connects himself to Cain so that not only does Cain know it, the whole world knows that even Cain in his separate, lost, lie-based mindset worldview, he can't he's connected to God. And God marks him as connected so that the whole world would look at and go, "Wow, this guy's connected to God. He's protected by God." It's astounding. Amazing. It's an astounding story. Yeah. I think we could wrap up on that. Asking ourselves, do I ever when I feel disconnected from God or separate from God? Is it true? When I feel like I that that I'm someone that God doesn't want to be with or that God's measuring me against other people? Is it is that ever really true? That's the challenge because we can grieve and quench the Holy Spirit. I think that's what Cain is doing. He can't separate from, but he can grieve and quench the truth of God in his life. And Paul tells us, "Don't do that." Do not do that. So anywhere that we feel this in our life and then a uh Moses telling Israel, "You cannot be separate from God. You cannot be separate from God." And so as they are going to journey into a new form of governance, a light on a city, a new kind of nation connected to God, living in the mystery where there's enough, where they're other-focused, and they're a gift to the world. As they're going into that, I think Moses is warning them through the story of Cain and Abel, "Be as we ought, be as we ought. Be who we truly are in connection with God. Because the separation worldview is always waiting and always talking. But you must master it." [Music]