Gaining the Smile of God
Gen. 6:1-9
* A couple of weeks ago Christy and Piper accompanied Deboria to Florida to check and take care of Deb’s parents. As you know, they are presently in a rehab center. As they visited the rehab center, little Piper was all over the place talking, smiling, and hugging necks which caused her mom to make a special note of what little ones are able to do in a facility like this. She was able to bring a smile to the faces of the people with whom she interacted. To hear Christy tell it, it was striking. For instance, an old man might be sitting in a wheelchair in the hallway scowling at people who come down the hall and the 3 year old walks up to him, says “hello”, and the expression turns from a scowl to a smile. Don’t you like that?
* Now most of us never think or even consider that God would ever get a scowl on His divine face. We want to think that He has a permanent pleasant persona that is like “Jolly old Saint Nick”, yet the Bible teaches us something entirely different. I dare say that verse 5 & 6 paints us a picture of Jehovah God without a smile on His face.
* Verse 5 communicates that evil, wickedness, and disobedience takes away the smile of God and negatively impacts our Heavenly Father. Truth be told, we try to rationalize this emotion or sensation of our Heavenly Father by saying, “But it was really bad back them.” Let’s get real; we live in a wicked world, a sinful-shameless society, and a corrupt culture. Verse 5 indicates that simply being evil is not enough but mankind was evil by “every scheme he could think of” which means “whatever he could imagine would be evil and what’s more he would do it.” At the risk of preaching gloom and doom, this is an accurate observation of today. We see pornography becoming protected by our government, murder on demand (abortion) reaching the status of a constitutional guaranteed right, and those who name Christ becoming more concerned about “fitting in” or being “accepted” that our day has become like the day of Noah. It was a day of evil and it IS a day of evil.
* Verse 6 gives us 2 descriptive words which jump out at us & communicate to us just how badly this activity impacts the Lord God. In the HCSB those words are “regretted” and “grieved”. Both of these words imply “pain.” In fact, one translation gives a clearer picture to us by saying, “God was sorry that He had made man on the earth, it broke His heart.” In all of creation there is not one who has a broken heart and can still smile. It is easy to suggest that God was not smiling or happy during these days. I submit God may have similar feelings about the world today.
* Why do I say this? Because sin, evil, wickedness, and disobedience, has permeated His crown creation and it brings Him pain. Verse 8 is an encouraging verse because it shows that you and I do not have to be counted among the evil. (Read verse 8) So how is it that you and I can bring back the smile of God and gain His favor? Let me suggest 6 ways.
1) Love Him Supremely – First, the word supremely means “above or more than anything else.” No court in the land is higher than the Supreme Court, no pizza has more “stuff” on it than a supreme pizza, and no love is more than a supreme love. By the words of Jesus in the Great Commandment we are called on to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and while most of us know this truth, knowing this is not enough. Our ‘love’ is not ‘love’ until it takes the form of action.
* Verse 9 says, “Noah walked with God.” This hints at this; in a day when no one else did, Noah had a relationship with God. The word walked literally means “with”, in other words, “Noah was with God.” We hear this word used this way in our culture, “Who are you ‘with’ these days?” Honestly (and sometimes immorally) this question inquires with whom are you intimate. To love God supremely means that we are intimate with Him and our love for Him is above our love for everything else.
* Today, scripture hints that the only way to truly love God is through His Son. 1 Corinthians 8:3 says, “To love God is to be KNOWN by God.” And I submit that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and if He is the only way to the Father, then He is the only way to be KNOWN by the Father and the only way to truly love the Father. You and I can never love God supremely until we invite Jesus in our lives to forgive us from our sin & take up residence in our lives to lead us into the future.
* Noah demonstrated that He loved God more than life itself. This is the beginning point for gaining the smile of God. When the love of God develops in our lives, people see and the rest of these things come a little more naturally. But they must be developed!
2) Trust Him Wholeheartedly – Most of us know what the word ‘whole-hearted’ means. If you are confused or have difficulty with this word, return to the Great Command and learn. It says, “All your heart, soul, mind, and strength”- in other words, with everything you are, have, or hope to be. Literally, it means to have NO RESERVATIONS AT ALL!! The word trust means to have confidence in and dependence or reliance on. Whether you have seen it or even believe it or not, you adhere to it because of your competence, conviction, and even expectation!
* Consider Noah for a second. What God was telling him to do made no sense, had no historical basis, no human basis, and heart basis; in fact, every feeling he had was probably running counter to what God had said. Build a boat? Why, the water was a long way off. Gather the animals? What a logistical nightmare! And if this was God speaking, how come God told nobody else (just to make things easier?) Nothing made sense, yet Noah kept going.
* Trusting God is about acting on His words when it doesn’t make sense, when you don’t feel like it, and even when the world is against. Love and trust always lead to action which brings us to our next characteristic;
3) Obey Him Completely – We could say “completely and exactly.” God gave Noah the plans for the ark; including the material, the size, and even how to make it water proof and HE expected Noah to follow the instruction to the letter. He didn’t simply say, “Go, use your imagination, and build a boat.”
* Had God given those instructions, perhaps Noah would have never envisioned a boat big enough to handle the animal, sturdy enough to handle the storm, or water proof enough to stay above the fray.
* Or what if Noah had ignored God by saying, “I know what He said, but I believe I can improve to make the boat more comfortable, more spacious, or more seaworthy?
* In order for us to gain or get the smile of God we must be completely and exactly obedient. If we “put off” or “delay” our obedience, it we don’t obey Him fully, or if we refused to respond to His commands, all of these are seen in the same light by God and can be summed up in one word; disobedience. Just as surely as you being disobedient to you parents brings an unwanted response, this brings an unwanted response from our Heavenly Father. Never forget this; we can never earn our way to Heaven by our Salvation. Salvation is a gift from God. It is a gift which we are called to by the wooing of the Holy Spirit. Hearing the Gospel of God, the Holy Spirit comes to us and tells us that we are sinners and fallen short of God’s standard. He tells us that apart Christ we have no hope of a full life down here and an eternal life on the other side of the grave. Then the Holy Spirit offers us His gift of salvation. This is called “Invitational Grace”. At this point, the responsibility is yours. Jesus tells us, “Except you repent and are born again, you will never enter God’s Kingdom.”
* For whatever reason, God tells you that you must obey His call.
4) Praise Him Daily – Repeatedly the Bible calls us to “Praise the Lord.” Rather than an individual devotional time response or a corporate “act”, this should become our lifestyle. Our lives should be or become an instrument filled with the sound of praise for the Father. From even a cursory reading of the New Testament, it would seem that Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and the rest were walking marquees for the greatness of God the Father, and His Son, Jesus. In Acts 2 and following we continually see the impact of lives given to daily praise upon non-believers. In one phrase, “the Lord added to the church those who were being saved.” Have you ever wondered why people are rarely saved on a daily basis, or why so few even want to investigate the claims of Christ? Could it be that daily lifestyle praising has all but disappeared?
* Personally, I am convinced that we have been guilty of not modeling this for so long, it now seems unnatural. In the story of Noah, the first thing Noah did after exiting the Ark was to build an altar and made a burned sacrifice to God. Jesus died as our supreme sacrifice for our sin, salvation and security so we don’t have to offer blood sacrifices any longer. However, God still desires and requires our sacrifice of praise, our sacrifice of thanksgiving, and our sacrifice which cannot be retrieved. Too often, we offer God the sacrifice of our lives on Sunday by giving Him our praise and then Monday rolls around and we kind of “take it back.”
* It would seem to me that when our Monday persona equals our Sunday praise only then will we see the smile of God.
5) Serve Him Joyfully - Consider Psalms 100, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all ye lands, SERVE THE LORD WITH GLADNESS.” There is little which will bring the smile of God like His Children, doing His Business, fulfilling their calling, and loving the journey. God desires for us to enjoy Him and His work while in His service. The amazing thing is this; we are wired to enjoy serving Him. You and I will find no greater fulfillment than when we are loving, trusting, obeying, praising, and SERVING, HIM. The Bible tells us that God loves a “cheerful (hilarious) giver.” Did you realize that we are put together in such a way that when we give we have more fun than when we are selfish and stingy? This is why God WANTS us to use the talents & abilities which He has given us for Him. After the flood, we read God’s command to Noah, “Be fruitful and multiply, and serve me in this world.” Candidly, today we serve many things; our community, our kids, civic organizations, and more. When we serve something or someone else, can we pass the test of the first commandment? God only smiles at those who please Him; He is still a jealous God. Psalms 147:11
