Hey You! Yeah, You! Series

God’s Call to Change the World Part 1

Sunday, July 1, 2007

The Life of Noah: Hearing God’s Call

"Hey You; Yeah, You!"

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Genesis 6:8 (NKJV)

Introduction

Welcome to Gateway Bible Church. Today we are starting a new message series entitled, “God’s Call to Change the World”. Over the next few weeks in July we’re going to be looking at the life of Noah and how God called and used him to change the world.

In the movie, “Evan Almighty”, Evan Baxter has been elected to congress on his promise to change the world and has recently moved his family to Northern Virginia. God, (played by Morgan Freeman) appears to Evan Baxter (played by Steve Carrell) and tells him that He has chosen Evan to build an ark to save people from a coming flood.

(Play Clip: ea_clip_2)

I know that it sounds like a cliché, but it’s true that one person really can change the world. In fact, that’s exactly what God wants to do through you … change your world. Like Noah, God has a very specific call on your life that if heeded, can change your world for the better.

So if God has really (and I mean really) called us to be difference makers and world changers, just where do we start? And how does it all work? Enter the real and (I might add) the original Noah. Noah is a terrific example of how God calls and uses us to change the world. And the very first thing that I know about Noah is found in Genesis 6:9:

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among

the people of his time, and he walked with God.

Genesis 6:9 (NIV)

God’s call on Noah’s life to be a world changer started first with the call on his life to walk closely in fellowship with Him. And the same goes for us. God’s call for us the change the world starts with His call to walk with him. (God has to first change us before He can use us to change the world.)

So, the 1st Component of God’s Call on Your Life to Change the World is the Call to Walk With Him.

From the account of Noah in Genesis 6-7, God’s Call to Walk With Him Involves Three Essential Steps:

God’s Call to Walk With Him Involves . . .

1. Stepping Out of the Dark and Into the Light.

The first essential step in walking with God is to step out of the darkness and into the light.

Noah had to take that step. And it’s a very big one to say the least. Notice if you will, verse eleven in Genesis six:

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.

Genesis 6:11 (NIV)

In fact, listen to how the preceding verses describe the culture and environment in which Noah and his family lived:

5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them."

Genesis 6:5-7 (NIV)

Needless to say, Noah’s generation was totally wicked; and not in the good sense of the word as is sometimes used today. It was so bad that God literally decides to wipe them out and is completely grieved and hurt that even created man. Can you imagine that? I must confess that there are sometimes when I wonder how close our generation is to being characterized in the same fashion. Darkness ruled the day! In Ephesians 4:18-19 Paul give us a description of what darkness looks like when he said:

18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

Ephesians 4:18-19 (NIV)

Day in and day out, these are the people that Noah lived, interacted and dealt with. And it only stands the reason that he would be affected by their wickedness. It only stands to reason that he would be tempted to come over to the dark side of their depravity. And no one would have thought any less of him. In fact, I’m sure they would have liked him better. But even in the midst of a wickedly dark and depraved world, God’s voice still called out. But no one was listening. No one that is except for one man. Noah. Crazy old Noah. The crazy old man who still held on to antiquated beliefs about God; right and wrong, good and evil. In direct contrast to the wickedness all around him, the bible says that . . .