Lessons From God's Original Sailor Man

Lessons From God’s Original Sailor Man

Gen 6.9

September 12, 2004

First Baptist Church, Chester, IL Mike Fogerson, Speaker

Introduction:

A Residents along the Mississippi River are no strangers to overflows and flooding during the spring thaw and rains. Since the early 18th century, settlers have built levees and floodwalls along the 2,000-mile-long waterway to try and control it. However, in years with record-breaking rainfall, like 1927 and 1993, trying to tame the river becomes impossible.

The Mississippi and its swollen tributaries reached peak levels in April of 1927 and overflowed their banks. One by one, levees built to contain the river broke, and a wall of water pushed its way across midwestern farmlands. The flood covered 27,000 square miles, an area about the size of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont combined. For two long months the water would remain above flood stage, leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes.

The flood of 1993 was one of the most devastating floods in United States history. More than double the normal amount of rainfall fell in the Midwest during the first half of the year, flooding over 16,000 square miles in nine states. Major flooding was confined to the Upper Mississippi due to the less than average level of inflow from Lower Mississippi tributaries.

Despite the severity of those floods, they pale in comparison to the flood Noah

and his family experienced.

These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Gen 6:9 (NASB)

Noah is known as the man who build the ark, but that’s not the only things he built in his lifetime.

B There was something about Noah’s character that got God’s attention. (ETS)

a God looks for certain people to use. (ESS)

b I hope you will get on board to begin building a character that gets God’s attention. (Objective)

C What are you doing right now to getting God’s attention with your character? (Probing Question)

a Transitional Sentence: Let’s look at two building lessons we can take from God’s original sailor man, Noah, that can help us building a godly character.

b Pray

CONCLUSION:

RIGHTEOUS Blameless in his time Walked with God

Charles Spurgeon had this to say about pride: "O you self-righteous people, how can you talk about being saved? What saving do you want? You are as full of good works as you can be and your pride shines—how can you be saved? Those who are saved by Jesus are those who are in themselves lost, ruined and undone. Until you know your ruin, and confess your sin, it is not likely you will ever accept a Savior. While you feel you can save yourselves, you will attempt it; but when you can do no more, then you will fall into the arms of your Savior; and what a blessed fall that will be!"

1 " . . .Noah was a righteous man,. . ." Gen 6.9b

A If you describe someone as ‘good’ in English, you would describe that same person as ‘righteous’ in Hebrew.

(MSG & NCV translate ‘righteous’ as ‘good’.)

a Noah was not without sin, sinless, perfect.

b Ezekiel 18.5-9 describes a righteous man as one who has kept the moral law.

He did what was right & refrained from what was wrong.

c Gen. 7.1 , ". . . for you (Noah) alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time." tells us that even God saw Noah as righteous or good.

B Most people consider themselves to be good.

a Maybe our closest friends, neighbors, family would testify that we are good, but what does God see us as?

b Romans 3.10 "as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;"

How did Noah pull it off?

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Heb 11:7 (NASB)

Noah pulled it off by FAITH!!!!!

c The same way we pull it off!!!

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; Eph 2:8 (NASB)

21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor 5:21 (NASB)

You don’t have to be perfect, w/o sin, sinless . . . you have to be HIS to be righteous!!!!

Author Max Lucado writes:

All of us occasionally do what is right. A few predominately do what is right. But do any of us always do what is right? According to Paul we don’t. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10, NKJV).