Age allows us to more clearly reflect on things that are more important as we grow older. That's not to say that, if you're younger here this morning, that you can't do that, because you can and you should, and my guess is you do, but nothing paints a clearer picture of life than the approach of death. It is a game changer, and I think all of us are really forced to do that as we go, whether we want to or not, because we see our lives taking a different shape, moving in a different direction, in essence, coming to the end of a physical life that we've cherished, that we've that we've had, probably for many of us, for several years. And so as we get older, we reflect. Conversations that I have with people my age. A lot have to do with reflection. They have to do with Medicare and Social Security too. But a lot of times it's the more spiritual minded things as well.
I love these words by an American poet, Theodore Roethke. He said, "I close my eyes to see, I bleed my bones, their marrow to bestow upon that God knows what I would know." Roethke, as I said, was an American poet, and I think what he's expressing, I think fairly eloquently, is just what all of us do. I don't know that we close our eyes, but I think we bleed our bones trying to find, trying to get to even what he would call our marrow to bestow, I mean, the very essence of who we are. We're trying to bleed our bones to find out who it is that we are, because God does know and we want to know. That is the essence of what we do in our deepest, most intellectual moments. We simply ask ourselves, what's going on? Malcolm Muggeridge, who is a -- who was a British journalist and in some ways, a Christian apologist, and one of the things he'd written, He said, I walked down the road wondering who I am. You ever do that? You ever do that? My guess is you do. I mean, there are things that happen on a day to day frequency, in a minute by minute, hour by hour frequency. We do our jobs. We love on our kids. We take care of this responsibility and that responsibility, and we do this and we do that. But when all that quiets down, and when all that stuff that's on the outside gets away from us, and we really stop and ask ourselves about ourselves, we all wonder who we are. It's, it is the nature I think of being a human being. Isn't the whole of humanity walking down that same road? We may not pass them, and they might not, they not, may not look at us and go, you know who I am. Can you help me with that?
But they're doing that because we're all doing that, and we're all doing that because of an idea that exists, that has to do with our existence, that sometimes is called existentialism. Now I'm giving you a Wikipedia definition of existentialism this morning. "A family of philosophical views and inquiry that prioritize the existence of the human individual, study existence from the individuals perspective, and conclude that despite the absurdity and incomprehensibility of the universe, individuals must still embrace responsibility for their actions and strive to lead authentic lives." That's not hard. There's a lot of words, but that's really not hard to figure out what the Wikipedia definition of existentialism really is. Because what it's really saying is we all need right answers for the most important questions. We're all trying to figure out as individuals and as humans, we're all trying to figure out what it is that we're trying to accomplish. Why it is we've been put here, who it is that's put us here, and what's our intention while we're here. All of us have to deal with that very thing, because we all need the right answers. I think this is just foundational. And I'll tell you, when it comes to the idea of trying to figure out who I am, it's a lot more important. And let me finish this before you throw tomatoes at me, it's a lot more important than sin and salvation initially. You gotta know who you are. You gotta know who you are so that you can figure out why sin and salvation is so important to you. Sin and salvation without understanding who you are means really nothing. You can't even define sin and salvation without knowing who you are, and that's why you've heard me on multiple occasions, for me say, if I'm talking to someone about God, I don't begin with God. I begin with how God made me. I shouldn't say I don't begin with God. I do, but I begin not just talking about his son. I think his son comes later in that process. But what comes is God and you and God and me, and if you're in this audience this morning, and that's not fundamentally what you believe, I want to ask you up front, what is it that you do believe? How are you going to answer these fundamental questions? Because we all have them. I think that's why Moses wrote Genesis. I mean, you think about all the things that Genesis really talks about, they would come later, those events that happened, and what I should say they came prior to him writing about it. He couldn't have written about those things unless they had happened. And so he writes those things, think about this, to children of Israel who had been in Egyptian bondage. He writes those things to people who had been living in a polytheistic society that said, there's a god for this, and there's a god for that. And it's a god for this, and a god for that. And he says, Wait a minute. In the beginning, God, Jehovah God, created the heavens and the earth. Think about what Moses was doing. He was telling them what you've been told is a lie. It's not all these gods that you've been -- that you've seen in Egypt, it's not Pharaoh, and it's not these gods that Pharaoh is talking to you about. And you should understand that, because you see what all these plagues that I just did, and it just destroyed all those gods, really, that's what Moses is seeking to do. But he's telling these people that because they needed to hear that. Every civilization needs that.
You know, the only creation story is not this Jewish, really, if you will, creation story that we read about in Genesis. Every civilization has a creation story. You go back and look at ancient civilizations that have literature. You go back and read those, and they'll tell you, here's how, here's how things began. And you know, what's interesting about that is those creation stories look similar. There's some shadows in all those creation stories. Some of them look bizarre, but in all those creation stories, there's something similar, that some great power was there and then the rest of creation came. Most all those creation stories offer that same idea. Why is that? Because everybody needs to hear it. Everybody's looking for it. We all need the right answers. If you don't have the right answers, you can't live life the way God intends for you to live life. And so we all need those answers, and the truth begins early in Genesis. That's what Moses said, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." And there it is, nine words that explain, at least to some degree. They don't fully explain. There is no full explanation. We couldn't fathom a full explanation. We accept that, and I'll say it this way, I accept that by faith, but not a blind faith. A faith that's filled with evidence to say know what Moses said is the truth. The truth about existentialism is founded in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth.
And denying the existence of God not only solves nothing, but it reduces your life ultimately to meaninglessness. I don't mean that if you live your life not believing in God, that there won't be some value to your life. I'm not suggesting that, but in the final analysis, it will be meaningless. I want you to understand that. The only way it's not meaningless is if God is in that picture, and that he's in the picture the way he wants to be in that picture, which is, I think the Hebrew writer says this, he said, "But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is rewarder of those who diligently seek him." You see how-- do you see how a person's life is in those verses? You got to believe that he is and you got to believe that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That has to do with belief in him and then live your life so that when it's over, he will reward you. That's what that's saying. It's probably saying a lot more than that, but that's fundamentally, I think, what he's saying there. And so he exists, and he wants men to seek Him. And what Hebrews one would tell us, if you can see that which you may not. Chapter one, verse one and two, "God, who at various times, in various ways, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days, spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir, of all things, through whom also he made the world." It's not just enough to believe that God is. It's enough to say, Okay, what do you want me to do? And what the Hebrew writer says is, God's revealed that to you. He's told you, he's given you. You're wanting the right answers. You're asking the right questions, but now go to where the source is for the right answers. So every human being then is left with two options. You accept God by faith, and again, it's not a blind faith. You accept God by faith and be blessed with real possibilities for life, not just in this life, but in the future life.
Think about-- think about all the blessings that you have because of the faith that you have in God, in Christ. Think about all the blessings that occur to you right now because of that faith. And then think about the ultimate blessing that comes to you in the future because of the faith you have now. Think about that. Now think about the person who doesn't have that. What does he have? What does she have? She has, or he has a false narrative that has a meaningless conclusion. Wow. I don't want to go down that road. So what am I going to do? I'm going down the first road, which asks this question, What does God want from me? And ultimately, that moves to not just what does God want from me, but what am I willing to give God, you see? Am I willing to sing, and mean it, I do surrender all, God. If what you want from me is everything, then I'm willing to do that. But it does beg the question, What does God want? And it asks you and me and everyone to use your noggin, which God has given you to think and to reason and to conclude and to analyze on all the things that come with thinking. It demands of us to say, Okay, what's the answer to these questions? What is it that God wants?
Let's look at that briefly. He wants you to understand who he is. I have to understand who I am. There are a lot of confused people in the world. Y'all may get tired of me talking about Circle K. I go to Circle K every morning. So I talk to these people. There was a fellow there who'd worked all night this morning and when I got my drink this morning, I was up there at the counter, he looked at me, all I had on was, you'll be glad to know I had pants and shirt on. And I said, he said, What you so dressed up for? And I thought, wait til you see me in my tie and my coat. I said, well, said I'm going to church. He said, You're going to church? I said, Yeah. And he said, where do you go? And I told him. I didn't tell him what I did. I just said, I attend College View Church of Christ. Told him where it was. He said I know where that is, and I invited him to come, which I would typically do. And I could tell he wanted to talk. Well, at six o'clock in the morning on Sunday morning Circle K there's not a lot of activity. It's kind of me and him there for a few minutes. But he even said to me, well, sometime, sometime when it's not so busy, you stop by and couple things I want to ask you. And I said, that'd be great. He said, because I'm kind of confused right now. And I thought, thank you Lord, thank You Lord, for an opportunity. Guys, this guy's confused. He's probably 25 years old. I have a lot of respect for him. He's working nights at Circle K. That's a hard job. And yet he just looked at me and said, sometime come back, let's talk. I said, Yeah, I'd love to. And I think I don't want to assume too much, but I think what he's trying to figure out is what we're talking about this morning. And my guess is there may be others of you who are sitting here this morning, you're trying to figure it out too. That's why I wanted to talk about it this morning.
Who are you? I'll tell you who you are. God told you who you were. He said, "Let us make man in our own image, after Our likeness. Let him have, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds are there, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on there. So God created man in His image, in the image of God, He created him, male and female. He created them." God created everything. But he created mankind. He created male and female, and we're different. He created other parts of creation for us, and there are all sorts of things that come from that particular idea. But he created the creation for us, which are his prime creation. He's made us differently. He's made us in His image. He's made us after his likeness. He's made us different. And if you don't understand, and I'm talking about you, meaning every human being, if you don't understand that, you cannot get the rest of it. You just cannot, because God's made us different, and because he's made us different, we are different, and that creates some responsibilities, because he's made us this way. I think that's what that guy's trying to figure out. I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself, but I could just tell by maybe some of the things that he stated to me, you know, I'm just trying to figure out about that. Is this- is this what I ought to be doing? Of course, it goes a lot deeper than that. But that's the -- that's the most fundamental thing that I would tell you, when somebody says, What does God want from me. He just wants you to recognize, first of all, who you are, and who you are is a human being who's made in God's image, and therein lies some responsibility. And as I often like to say and point out, it also requires some accountability, because every human being is going to stand in judgment one day and look God in the face, and there's going to be an exchange, and he's going to ask you, and he's going to ask me, and he's going to ask everybody, how did you use what I gave you? Did you understand that? Did you do what it was I wanted you to do? There's going to be that exchange.
And then second, let me suggest that we are -- what he wants from us is he wants us to honor him. He wants us to revere him. He wants us to worship him. I think that's what these verses that Keifer read for us a little earlier is about. It's about, maybe about a lot of things. But you ever thought about Cain and Abel and their story? I mean, it's not just Genesis four story. It's a Hebrews 11 story. It's a several other places in the New Testament story. It's all over the pages of the Bible. "In the process of time it came to pass, it Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord Abel brought to the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry and his countenance fell." Verse four, the Lord respected, or respected is what that, that's my translation says. Verse five, "but he did not respect Cain and his offering." I don't know what-- I don't know what the issue was. I've heard people say, Well, you know, one's was a meat offering, one was an animal offering. One was a grain offering. I don't know any of that. This, this doesn't tell us any of that. I mean, I know we speculate based upon other things that we know, but we don't know that God had indicated that to them at this point. I think we speculate an awful lot about what these are, and I'm not suggesting that there's not something in that that would make us think that. But we're not told in Genesis why each brother offered what he did. The narrative simply does not tell us, but the text does say that God had regard for Abel and he had no regard for Cain. Now the offering, or the sacrifice is included in that. There is a statement in there. But I think this passage from First John three may help us understand what the real issue in Genesis four was. First John three says "Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous." See, there's the distinction. There's the distinction, the distinction between Cain and Abel, right there. Cain's works were evil and his brothers were righteous. That's what we're told in first John three. The problem in the story of Cain and Abel, to me, is the difference in the men. And I think Hebrews 11 bears that out when the Hebrew writer says, "By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." And the question becomes, then, why was it more excellent right? "Through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts." In other words, what gifts that he brought testified to the man, I think, testified to the man that he was, "and through it, he being dead, still speaks." Does he still speak because of what he offered? No. He speaks because of who he was. He was a righteous man. Hebrews 11, he was a man of faith. That's why it speaks to us. God was pleased with Abel sacrifice because he was pleased with Abel himself. Hebrews 11 is about faith. Abel had faith in God, and Cain did not have. Clearly Cain was evil. And it says that.
The problem of presenting sacrifices all throughout the history of Israel, without the heart being what it ought to be that's prevalent everywhere throughout the Old Testament. God makes you to point First Samuel 15. Saul is told you go destroy the Amalekites. I want you to destroy everything about them, the sheep, goats, herds, the people. I want you -- the king. I want you to destroy everybody. And Saul doesn't do that. Samuel told him, You go do that. And Saul does not do that. He spared Agag, as we know, he spared the best of the sheep and the oxen. The text tells us so that they could sacrifice. Good thought, right? Not what God wanted. And so we're familiar with what's told to us in chapter 15. Saul is told it's better to obey than sacrifice. God wants absolute trust. God wants a faith in you and me that is loyal. He wants a faith that obeys. I do not have-- I want to read. I want to take the time to read this. Turn your Bible to Jeremiah seven, as I'm as I'm looking at my notes. I fully intended to put this on a chart, and I did not do it. But I want you to turn. Turn to Jeremiah seven. I want to begin in verse 23 I want you to look at this powerful statement that Jeremiah makes. 7:21, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. I did not speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings and sacrifice. But this is what I commanded them, saying, obey my voice. I will be your God, and you shall be my people and walk in the ways that I commended you, that it may be well with you. And the next verse says they didn't know, they didn't do that. Why had God delivered Israel from Egypt? So that sacrifices could be multiplied? So that they would offer more sacrifices? No, he brought them out so that he could produce people who were wholly obedient to His will for all the right reasons. That's exactly what he wants from you. Obedience is involved with that. Sacrifice is involved in that. We know that. We read Romans, two and other places that we've been talking about for the past several weeks, about being transformed, offering ourselves as sacrifices to God, a spiritual sacrifice. We get all that, but it's to do it for all. For the right reasons. And I think that's hard. I think that's hard to do.
But what he says is and what he wants from us, he said, I want you to come with to me with a full heart. I don't know if full is the right word, complete heart, a full heart. And Jesus epitomized the idea many times in Scripture. Mark 12 is one of those places where, in Mark 12, I love this exchange. T"hen one of the tribes came and having heard them, reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them, well, asked him, which is the first commandment of all? Jesus answered him, the first all the commandments is, Hear O Israel, the LORD our God. The Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first commandment, and the second like it is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." I love 32 and 33. I love this exchange. Verse 32, "so the scribe said to him, Well said, Teacher." Can you can you imagine Jesus saying something and somebody saying, You did a good job, you passed the test teacher. Well said, Teacher. You've spoken to truth. "There is one God, and there is no other but he, and to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is more than of the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you're not far from the kingdom of God. After that, no one dared question him." This guy got it. Jesus. Had said it. He said, Lord, you got it right. That's what needs to happen. And Jesus said, You're not far from the kingdom of God. Jesus was never saying, nor did he ever say that the sacrifice was unimportant. Never did he say that the doing of something in one's life was unimportant. Neither did he say that the doing something in one's life, the rightness or the wrongness of that was unimportant. Too many passages would speak to the fact that he wants us to obey the truth. There's too many passages that would, that would force us to conclude. No, he wants us to do what he asked of us, and He wants us to think about what it is that we do in various aspects of our lives. But he wants your heart. He wants your heart.
What Jesus and the prophets are saying about even acts of worship, but they're commanded by God, and that's important, but that's not the primary point. Jesus did not die so that we could assemble. He did not die so that we could sing. He did not die so that we could take the Lord's Supper. We must not make the means the end. He wants our lives. He wants the singing and the praying and the taking of the supper and the living of life be such that we understand who he is, and the result is we act the way he wants us to act. We do obey, because our hearts fully engaged. This is a lesson that could be preached every Sunday, because I think it's something we all need. Just ask ourselves, is the one thing that God wants from us, the thing that we give him? Do we give him ourselves? I read this statement this week, and I want you to think about it. The one thing God wants from us is the one thing he has no power to take, our heart. Want you think about that. The one thing God wants from us is the one thing he has no power to take. And you say, wait a minute, Kenny, he's all powerful. Yes, he is. I'm not saying he couldn't take it, necessarily. But what good would that do if he took your heart, if he forced you to do what it is that he wanted you to do? What good would that do you? What good would that do him? He is all powerful, but he chooses to let us choose in that isn't that great. Nobody making you. Do anything this morning. Nobody making you live your life like he wants you to live it. Nobody's doing that. He's not doing that to you. He not doing it to me. But he's asking you to think about that. He's asking you to think about the benefit of listening to him and understanding who you are and obeying him and giving him your all. He's saying, think about that and think about your other option. That is what he's doing. But you have those options. He just saying, you think about those options, and then you choose.
Hebrews 11 is about people who choose faith in him. How does he -- How does he move us? How does he draw us? Let me give you one verse, short verse, "we love Him because He first loved us." So we love Him because He first loved us. I love him now because of what he's done for me prior. He's asking you to love Him because you see what he's done for you. You understand what Mason was talking about in his comments this morning. You understand the passages that we've read, because you know, God has has done this, and he's loved us, and he's sent his son and all that. Love moves you, then that moves you to love Him and to give him the very things that we talked about this morning. So you have an option. You have two. You have two. You can contemplate and reason and reach good conclusions with right answers that say, here's who I am and here's what he demands. Here's what I'm going to give him because of the benefit. Or you can live your life the way you want to and have no good outcome, not ultimately. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? That's that's the choice. May God help us this morning to make the right choice, so that we have a bright future, not only in this life, but in the life to come. May God help us do that. We are going to sing a song of invitation. Anthony is going to lead us. If you're in this audience this morning and you need to step out, it's time for you to give up what you want and start having and giving to God what He demands, what he wants. Let us help you with that. Let us help you obey the gospel. Let us pray for you. Let us do what we can to make your relationship with God what it ought to be. I encourage you to come and we all do while we sing this song and while we stand.
