[0:00] often um huh but um you know you had a rough week i had a stressful week too my steamer broke and you know it's not much for most people but you know you then you gotta you gotta get get uh get dressed tonight you got to get your clothes ready and you don't have a steamer what do you do i don't know what you do i've had this steamer for 30 years i mean i don't know does anybody use irons anymore you do how many got an iron all right so iron the store oh okay maybe i'm just like i don't know sorry but you know so so so me and linda were talking like you know what do we do you know it's just i'm not sure if the shirt's got a wrinkle or not i'm stressed out about it um but i did put the heater on in the seat in the car so i know the back's good but i don't know okay um genesis chapter 4 probably one of the most read verses um probably one of the most read verses and i say that because how many people try to start their bible every year right surely you get to genesis 4 maybe i don't know how it hold genesis chapter 4 probably a familiar verse but yeah so pastor asked me to preach and typically you know i i like to have two weeks for a sermon interesting right uh some people have a busy life but yeah i get it um but um so i may just be preaching a half sermon today piece of trash i may just be preaching a half sermon i don't know i but i tell you i tell you what i do want when i when i when i attempt to preach is i do want fresh oil from the lord and that's what i seek for for your sakes i mean i could pull out uh a sermon from a file which i'm not against doing that and i've done that and in a pinch i'll go there and i'll pray god give me fresh oil on something i'll look through my notes go through those 500 you know lines we were talking about how you file sermons i don't have a file for my my my file my file for my sermon is line pages with all of them written on it so i'm still in the dinosaur age but um i'm not against i have some sermons i i remember you know uh pastor dave 30 years i can recall some sermons that you got every two years every three years you know they were just they were just those kind of sermons um i may have a few of those that you know i i write down these are annual you know these could be annual uh biannual it wouldn't hurt anything to preach the thing two times a year it wouldn't hurt anything to preach it every year you know i remember he uh one of the messages had to do with um uh abiding you know you could always you could always preach on that i mean how how easy it is how easy is it to stray from abiding right um fruit bearing could you not do fruit bearing twice a year right john chapter 15 i mean we we we're we're here to bear fruit you know that's what you should be doing so it it would not be too much to talk about bearing fruit twice a year probably once a week you know it just wouldn't be it wouldn't be too much i mean we do well to focus on bearing fruit so i was just praying and and i was looking at some things and it went you know i went from the bottom up you know my in my list of uh recents and um so i landed on this and i thought i thought there's a good word to think about i don't recall hearing uh many sermons on it but uh so turn your bibles to genesis chapter 4 and let's pray
[4:04] father we are thankful to be here tonight and be in thy house and to be able to gather on thy word and and lord i i pray tonight that you would bless thy people just give them a thought to take throughout the week and something that um they can consider and um seek thy face about in jesus name amen genesis chapter 4 and i want to read two verses verse 6 and 7 and the lord said unto cain why art why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin light at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him but i i want you to look at just just one word i want to kind of pull out of there and it has to do with accepted and uh the title of my message is is is god decides what he accepts you know i mean uh i talk to people all the time and uh i get the um you know uh i i prayed about it and um you know i i i believe the lord wants me to do and this is all great stuff but god decides what he accepts we don't tell him but that's kind of the way we live sometimes so here here you got two guys and i don't want to get away from my sermon but i'm gonna try and stay in order here because i'll just get sideways and then throw the pages and that's not good all right so the saying goes the saying goes you ever hear this this that is not acceptable how many ever heard that okay so on the flip side of that how many have ever heard that is acceptable it's just not what you hear i mean look for every 20 of the that's not acceptable i've heard that is acceptable okay it's not that's not the problem the the thing about it is is the the rule is the saying goes that is not acceptable i guess it could just be me or it could be the law of first mention i don't know how familiar you are with the law of first mention in the bible but sometimes the first time that word is mentioned in the bible sets the pace for how that word is in history and i say history i mean his story it's his story it's his story but that'll set the pace and here here he's telling cain what you're doing is not acceptable and if that has anything to do with the law of first mention you know why you hear it all the time that that's not acceptable instead of it that is acceptable so uh law of first mention in the bible will set the meaning of the word or the use of the word throughout his story um book of genesis 1 through 10 you'll you'll you'll get a lot of those i mean we were taught and you know you can we're taught just because we're taught something doesn't necessarily mean it's so but we're taught genesis 1 through 10 kind of sets the pace for history those things that go on through those those principles and those things that are in uh genesis 1 through 10 you read through there you just want to start picking out some things that go on in there you know that you'll you'll see how it works you'll see how man how man passes the buck right right genesis chapter 3 he does that so though that's going to be something that he's probably going to do forever and you know he does all the time so as you're reading through there you'll see you'll see a lot of those in those early chapters of genesis genesis being the book of beginnings it makes sense um a lot of things a lot of things like this in the bible you know i was just thinking about it because you know you did
[8:04] something really really long on on um a lot of things about the king james bible you know just just just there's so many ways you can look at the king james bible about something you know there's always something that you know you go oh i never really thought of that or just you know but uh so in our in our in our circle like because we believe the bible is the word of god we believe the king james bible we're looking at the words like accept and we look at the law of first mention and we go okay so here it just it makes sense that you hear the term that's not acceptable but if you go to a new version and it doesn't say accept it you can't use that right so we we are probably one of the only groups or you know that think this way because they don't really care what it says they believe in the concept theory you understand all right if the people that believe in other bibles believe in the concept theory they think all all the bibles are okay so they look at the word and they go it doesn't really matter as long as the concept is there that's what that's just what they believe and we we don't believe that we believe we believe what god says if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted is the word and god will decide what he accepts and what he doesn't you know even if even if the bible wasn't the word of god which i completely believe it is it would still be a book to be reckoned with in in in any aspect of life any it would still be a book i got a guy at work i've asked you to pray for him that guy named reuben been witnessing too and uh he's got a lot to deal with he's facing a book that uh he's realizing that uh is to be reckoned with he's realizing that all these things he's done over the years and and uh and all these things he's taught about evolution and believed and promoted and talked down about the bible he's realizing oh oh there's there's a little bit more in that book than than uh than i'd really consider there's a little bit more about this you know now he's actually thinking he tells me the other day he goes i told him i said what so why don't you why don't you get saved i said you saved yet he goes um i think it's my pride he goes i'm i'm worried about so i've been wrong all these years yeah you know and so i'm trying to comfort him i'm trying to comfort him to hey man you know what you know who is the epitome of that a guy named paul in the bible i told him to read acts chapter 9 you got a guy in the bible that you talk about you talk about somebody that's at that place but way at that place you know pharisee of the pharisees you know uh of the seat of bed i don't know what it all was but he's got he's he's a pedigree and he's got to come to he's got to come to grips with i just killed somebody yesterday for the very thing i'm going to believe right now man man okay so accepted um god decides what he's going to accept i just want to look at a few simple thoughts along the line of this uh accepted you know and and and you know if i could just leave you with one thought just one thought tonight i want to leave you with um are the things that you are doing throughout the day acceptable to the lord just think about that word if you carry one word out of here because chances are you're not going to remember most of what's said right how many remember what preacher preached on sunday funny but you know i'm saying i mean it's just the way it is
[12:10] i mean i gotta be honest with you there's times i leave church and i go i go what did he preach on and i gotta stand there for a minute and actually run it back through and i think to myself man i was only like 10 minutes ago so you know i get it i understand and so i just want you to think just remember one word acceptable just remember one thought acceptable so maybe in the morning you'll get up and you think about he said acceptable what was that about is what you're doing in your day-to-day acceptable to the lord and hopefully it is hopefully it is here with cain it wasn't it wasn't and you know so i just wanted a few thoughts i don't really have an outline with any homiletical stuff and um man the points are kind of like i just kind of went through there was more more more uh expository and i went through and i just put a one and two and a three somewhere but so the first the first thing is are the things that you were doing throughout the day acceptable to the lord how many think that would be a good thing to consider right audience participation i like that i like to do that and it makes you participate it makes you it makes you not sleep you know especially if i go greg what right i'm not going to do that so you start out so you were talking about being acceptable throughout the day so you start out in the morning when you wake up right and i assume you start out with your devotions or not if not in the morning when like i get it you know uh evening morning and at noon you know i use that verse because evening is actually the beginning of the day for him but nonetheless if you if you if you're the evening guy there's no problem with that if you're the middle of the day guy where that's just a time you do your devotion you know what hey if it works go for it for me for me it didn't take me five to ten years to figure it out it was like pretty quick i realized that the morning hours so i struggled with them i fought on my eyes i struggled with it for years and and i mean for years i just slept at the table and and just for years but i knew that for me that was that had to work that had to be what was going to work um i tried it in the evening and somebody knocked on my door somebody that doesn't normally come to my house and i thought what are you doing here i mean i'm not happy about seeing you right now because i was going to have my devotion now what do you do oh excuse me it's my time to meet with god you have to leave and that's okay i i got no problem with that if somebody did that to me i would just go okay sorry but i'm telling you if you find you struggle with your devotion time you find you don't make it every day you don't make it hardly at all you don't and hopefully i'm talking to people that believe in it but you find you don't it doesn't get done do it in the morning do it early yes i get it you've got to you've got to set the alarm earlier i get it and you've got to you've got to set it for enough time to make it work i understand but you have to have it you have to have it if you want your day-to-day throughout the day to be acceptable with the lord you're gonna have to have it you're just gonna have to have it because the bible i mean for us that that i mean these are these are
[16:13] these are first principles right reading the word of god praying i mean i could probably say these in my sleep if somebody put me under hypnosis i would think i would hope i would hope after 40 years if somebody said if somebody put me on their nose and say hey man what are the four what are the four most important things you do i would hope i'm saying read the bible pray go to church right i would hope worship god so your devotion time you start in the morning we're talking about the day-to-day acceptable we just start the day up so you start your day out with your devotion hopefully you're doing that whatever your devotion time is you need to find something that's consistent for you something that's something that works consistently remember we're considering what's acceptable to god right and i'll guarantee you what's acceptable to god is you spending some time with him right don't find yourself going throughout the day and you miss the lord all right so here in the passage uh you have cain cain and abel both of these guys are convinced what they are doing and offering to their offering and when i'm talking offering i'm not talking about the sacrifice necessarily i'm talking about your offering and we'll look at that in a second if i have time with romans chapter 12 and your living sacrifice but these guys they believe that their offering is acceptable to god or should be right i mean abel believes it's acceptable cain believes it should be he starts out believing it is because he's just like i mean i gotta if i gotta assume i gotta assume that cain is blindsided even though he knows i mean i get it you know you talk to christians and they've been exposed to good and right and you talk to them and they give you some stupid answer and you go really is that what you got in the last 20 years and it's just that they didn't get it but nonetheless it doesn't really matter cain knows better and should or chances are god wouldn't god wouldn't hammer him like he does look if you do well wouldn't you be accepted that's what he said he said the problem is you're not and you're not accepted and gang got mad and you know what happened not good so you know in my in my 40 years been 40 years yeah i'm old in my in my 40 years of christianity one of the things i've learned one of the things i've learned is uh now greg when you hear somebody say that an old guy and he says one of the things i've learned you want to write that down i'm just saying you just do because um you would hope the guy who's 40 years in learned something but i've learned that people can convince themselves of anything man i'm sure i do it i'm sure i do it that is where you end up on the either the right side or the wrong side of what is acceptable to god right oh yeah oh yeah easy to do easy to do people convince themselves of anything so how do you how do you avoid convincing yourself of anything well there's only one way and that's in the word of god i mean that's it um
[20:13] so this is a problem this is a problem and no doubt no doubt this is a problem that goes that you know you know it's it's early civilization it's early civilization people um man you talk about uh god wants to wipe out man within five chapters yeah 1600 years i get it but when you really look at it and you look at it just biblically within five chapters god's ready to wipe everybody out they've convinced themselves that they're it they're just fine and you know what it was it was your imaginations of their heart was only evil continually they convinced themselves that what they were doing was just fine it was their thing it's no different today yeah right bible says that it wasn't the days of noah it's gonna play out here we are we're living it probably a good reason why the verse casting down imaginations is in the bible and it's a good memory verse if you haven't memorized that verse i i submit to you to write it down and memorize that verse casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of god right i'm bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of christ i think something right in there so the art would be or the object or the occupation would be to know whether it's an imagination or not if it's imagination or it's acceptable to god because if you're convincing yourself that something is acceptable to god it's not it's in your imagination it's not from him so remember the title god decides what is acceptable you need to find that out you don't want to be on the wrong side of that cain was on the wrong side of that so we said how do you how do you how do you decide whether it's acceptable or not the word of god right what does it say hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 how many know it okay a few know it memory verse write it down you know these are just these are your first memory verses i mean these are the early ones the word of god is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of the joints and the marrow and of the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart that's where your imagination comes from that's where your problem is that's where what you're doing is acceptable or not acceptable it's all coming from there so you need to be opening the book and judging it by the thing that's a discerner of that you know somebody said somebody mentioned i may have heard it on a tape you know you do a checkup from the neck up and that all sounds nice but you know i thought about it one day because i just don't believe everything everybody says but you know and okay yeah you need to check your head i get it all but you you know what you really need to do you need to do a checkup from the neck down and it don't rhyme and i don't even care right that's where it is it's here here it comes from here when you're thinking something just remember it's coming from there if it's bad it's bad that's it that's it if it's good it's leaning toward the good side god decides
[24:17] what is acceptable so in genesis chapter 4 i'm not sure how the whole thing played out with cain this is after the fall uh the obviously the conscience is activated he must know what's acceptable or god probably wouldn't be dealing with him this way um he must he's got to know the story about the fall he's got to know the story about the coats of skin right where god where god said hey i mean god did this a ways back he said no no no no no no your fruit isn't acceptable those fruitful fig leaves are not acceptable it's not gonna work now and mr cain it ain't working now either right and god showed him how he deals with sin he kills the animal he takes the coat of skin puts them on you right so he he's the blood it's a blood sacrifice but man wants to do it any other way and cain is no exception but it isn't acceptable it's not acceptable so a quick another quick thought about the word accept now i understand how acceptable god accepting something is not necessarily by the book for no other no other i don't know what else to use as far as the term but but you remember lot lot god said god told him hey man go to the mountain and he said hey no lord the city little one it's a little one it's you know it's good god goes i've accepted you in this thing he's okay i've accepted you in this thing was it a good idea no no you'll find in the bible that you typically when somebody says hey lord maybe we should do it this way it may not be the right way i mean hezekiah i think hezekiah asked for some more time and he ended up having manasseh during that time not good and you know i was reading about that this week with with um moses you know i always hear about moses and in the numbers there when uh when uh the people were rebelling against the lord and god said hey step aside man i'm gonna wipe them out now i'm gonna disinherit them and give you somebody else does anybody remember that i was close and moses goes you know hey wait lord you know i just i think that you know the egyptians you know they'll do this and somebody will do this and and god you think god just kind of slipped with the tongue and said he wanted to disinherit them no what do you think you think moses goes hey god you spoke too faster what i'd like to be able to see is how it would have played out if god would have disinherited him and and because god's gonna work it out he says he said he can do it he'll do it i'd like to see that have played out i don't know if it was necessarily a good thing that moses taught god out of doing it as i read that through those things in the bible i don't know maybe there's a good time maybe there was one that's really clearly good i don't know but i don't think god just spoke off the cuff and oh yeah you caught me moses he didn't have said that so accepted are the things you're doing throughout the day accepted you know we start out with devotion and it goes on you name it you can you know you go through the turn you go through the wheels and let your wheels turn and think about all the things you do during the day you know i got i go to work and i deal with people and i deal with people and i you know how many times i've come home and told my wife oh yeah i just fart all day that's all i do i go to work and i fight with everybody i don't like that i so don't i don't think i like it maybe i said that that's pretty funny but uh why do you laugh all right um but
[28:18] you know i gotta look at that you know i'm a representative of the lord first you know is what you're doing throughout the day acceptable to the lord and the only way you'll know it is if you're in the word of god and the word of god is getting in you if if you're not lining up with the scripture in what you're doing in your attitude and what's in your heart and how you're thinking it's not acceptable that's all it's just not acceptable let's pray father i am thankful for thy word and lord you know i need help on a daily basis i pray for that people you help them to just think of one thing maybe for the rest of the week and just if that word maybe comes in their hearts and minds and they just consider those things that they're doing and we consider the things we're doing and just kind of try to realign love you lord in jesus name amen all right pastor walski all right good good good thank you brother rich so