From the Very Start
A Look at the Ancient Text of Genesis that speaks with Amazing Present-day Relevance
Ark Building 101
Now, as you can tell from the title our message today reflects on Noah and his boat-building project. Those of you know me that if I’m willing to talk about anything involving a boat, this must be a pretty important message…
Any by the way, did you know that the majority of people who own boats name their boats? According to one survey the most common name – obsession. Not surprising.
This morning, I want to look for just a moment at the text leading up to Genesis chapter six. Remember, last week we looked at the tale of two sins found in Genesis 3 – Eve and Adam both sin and we came to a few conclusions – one of which I think bears repeating:
“Sin is bad… And I’m against it.”
Allow me to elaborate. In chapter 4 we hear the tale of sin overpowering one of Adam & Eve’s children. Cain is jealous of his brother’s offering to God and sin comes knocking on the door of his heart. Remember from Sunday school what God says to Cain:
[6] Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? [7] If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you…" Genesis 4:6-7 [NIV]
It desires to have you… and have him it will. We’re given a quick summary of human procreation through a geneology of some really old people in Genesis 5. Then, in fact, sin quickly proves itself humanity’s master. Need proof? Listen to Genesis 6, beginning in verse 5, and this is Eugene Peterson’s The Message:
“God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil – evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, ‘I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes, bugs, birds – the works. I’m sorry I made them.”
Do you hear this? “I’m sorry I made them.” This is 5 chapters – 8 pages – from when God said, “Let us make humankind in our image – in the image of God we will make them…” Now, God is sorry. If this narration had a soundtrack it would be a funeral dirge. Until…
“I’m sorry I made them.
But Noah was different.”
Noah was different. “God liked what he saw in Noah.”
Now, things are looking up.
Listen to how God sees Noah:
“Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God.”
Whoa. Wouldn’t you like that to be the way God describes you to everyone he meets? I mean, when the Bible says ‘He’s a good man’ that’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it?
What was it that Noah did right?
First, Noah Lived Faithfully
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” Genesis 6:9
Noah is 600 years old at this point. For 600 years while the rest of the world is giving itself over to evil, evil, evil… Noah is living faithfully – never knowing that God has something amazing in store for him.
- Noah had a blameless outer life
- Noah had an intimate inner life
o You have to have both. One without the other isn’t faithful living. And both are very intentional decisions aren’t they?
Noah Listened Closely
… to God’s plan
“Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it…” verses 14-15
… to God’s purpose
“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.” verse 17
… to God’s promise
“But I will establish my covenant with you.” vs. 18
Noah Acted Immediately
“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” vs. 22
- We see no questions, no insecurity, no procrastination
- Noah spends no time looking for other boats to model his after…
- Noah spends no time hiring consultants for boat improvement
- Noah spends no time assessing God’s evaluation of the world…
- Noah allows for no distractions…
- Best we know, Noah quit doing anything else – and became a full-time ark builder. Immediately.
This is Courageous Faith
w It is something he’s never done before
Remember, he’s called a FARMER in Genesis 9. Farmers don’t tend to have a lot of training in boat building, or ocean navigation. Noah never cries out, “I don’t know how, I’ve never done this before… I’ve never seen a boat…” Noah doesn’t let himself fail to try simply because he’s a novice.
Have you ever noticed, God rarely waits for an expert to volunteer in order to get something done? God almost never puts an ad in a professional journal – God looks for someone whose life is on course – and then provides everything the new recruit needs to succeed. I love this quote:
“God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called!”
w It is something requiring many sacrifices
Talk about giving until it hurts… Noah and his family are in the ark for over 190 days. 40 days and nights of nothing but rain. No sun, no moon, rain. Then afterwards, the rain stops. They step out on the viewing deck – and all the eye can see is water. Everywhere. And day after day there is work to be done… non-stop. There is no one else to do it… literally, no one else. And notice…
Noah is never asked…
ž for his preferences
Do you think Noah would have preferred a few ventilation holes in the lower decks where the animals were going to be living? Do you think Noah would have preferred more a wider, or larger boat in order to build in a 9 hole par-3 course, or a driving range – or even just a three lane bowling alley – some kind of a lesirely distraction from the rain?
ž if he is comfortable
How comfortable do you think it was cleaning up after the elephants each day? How much fun do you think was keeping the goats away from practically everybody else’s food – all the time? Noah’s never asked if he wants to be a zoo keeper. He’s never asked if he’d like this job… Comfort isn’t the point.
w It is something focused on the future
Noah must connect a future reality with an immediate action
“Life can be understood backwards, but it must be lived forward.” – Soren Kirkegaard
Noah is receiving a call from God. This isn’t a story about floods. And there are two floods here: A flood of sin, followed by a flood of God’s response to sin – a reboot of the human race. But that’s not really what the story is about. The story is about one man hearing and responding to God’s call.
Noah’s call is a call to action!
Noah’s call is a call to salvation!
If Noah doesn’t act – humanity is lost forever. Either he does what God has called him to do – or no one else will.
God is still making that call today. There is today a very real flood of sin and depravity and desperateness. People are still separated from God’s love, God’s grace, God’s power by the overpowering mastery of sin. And this will not change unless someone hears God’s call. God is still calling people to build an ark that his people would be saved.
Want proof?
Look around. You’re in one.
This church is ark. Two and a half years ago God spoke to four families who where…
…living as faithfully as they knew how
…listening as closely as they could
…and who acted immediately
And they build an ark. The New Heights Church is an ark, crossing the oceans of life tossing a lifeline to everyone so that they will know of God’s love.
We are here solely to demonstrate God’s love to this community. Our job is give ourselves away in courageous faith to rescue the drowning and tell them that there is a God in Heaven. That Heaven and Hell are very real. That one day soon everything we know as reality will be gone in a flash. That Jesus will return and will claim his own. And that for that time and for now, Jesus has a life to offer that is better than anything else in all of creation.
Its this simple. People today need to know! And if we don’t tell them, I don’t know who will.
Now if you’re our guest this morning, you just heard who we are – plain and simple. We don’t belong to any denomination. We’re just a family of people, very aware of our sins, mistakes and failings – but somewhere in life God demonstrated His love to us in a way that changed everything about our lives.
Our mission in life is now to give ourselves away to demonstrate that love to others. And we have purposes through which we do that: Worship, Evangelism, Discipleship, Ministry and Fellowship. That’s who we are.
If you’re a member of our family, allow me to call you back to what I said about Noah’s courageous faith:
This is something we’ve never done before. We can’t rely on outdated methods and obselete models. Who we are is not determined by what someone has done. We are a unique creation of God. He’s given us a very unique ark in which to serve; unique people to do the job; and a very unique setting in which to work.
Our course is very clear. Behind us in the past God has given us the “terra firma” of the Holy Scriptures – His own testimony about himself, his promises, his purposes, his plan – the experiences of His nation, Israel, and His church. The Bible stands a solid, firm, entirely trustworthy anchor in the past.
Set in the future on the far shore of Heaven itself is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ beconing us onward, calling us toward home, setting us on a course and insisting that we bring as many people with us as possible.
And in the boat with us is the Holy Spirit – providing discernment, direction, conviction, gifts, passion, focus, faith and enabling us to be about the business of rescuing the drowning.
But I need to remind you of this – we, like Noah, are working in an ARK, not a cruise ship. God didn’t ask Noah for his preferences, God never asked Noah about his comfort… instead, he called on him to make sacrifices; real sacrifices; personal sacrifices. It would be easy to start thinking this is supposed to be a fancy, luxurious, personal yacht or high dollar cruise ship where you sit in the sun and soak it all up; where you tell the waiter your order we customize everything we do to your tastes; where we make sure you like and enjoy the show on stage and the music coming through the loudspeaker…
But that’s not what this is… This is an ark. And we’re not here to please ourselves. In fact, we can’t trust what pleases us. The natural inclination of any church is to self-service, self-centeredness. Not here. This ark wasn’t built to be a vehicle of satisfaction, but rather one of salvation. We’re here for those who aren’t yet here. Our first thought and all our thoughts are focused on this vision and our five purposes. That’s it.
This ark is focused on the future – the coming return of Jesus Christ. We are going to do everything in our power to prove to this community that God genuinely loves them. We’ll prove it with our worship, our evangelism, our discipleship, our ministry and our fellowship.
So, Like Noah, I will…
* Live Faithfully
“Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Cor. 4:2
- We all mean well – but we don’t all live well.
- How many times did Israel have to get their lives back into faithfulness before God would begin his next great movement among the people?
- Living faithfully is an intentional decision and a constant pursuit.
o Action Item à Find someone who will help you grow. Seek them out!
· Example: The Life You’ve Always Wanted
In Revelation, to the church at Smyrna, Jesus says: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Rev. 2:10
* Listen Closely
“Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say.” Isaiah 28:23
Listening is also something you have to do intentionally. And for the record, its rather hard to listen while you’re running all over town, sitting through six business meeting and trying to keep three toddlers from destroying your furniture.
Get alone – get some time of silence. And spend some time letting yourself reflect on what God’s been saying to you in your reading of scripture, in your prayer times, in your conversations with others, through your preacher, through little inspirational emails, through your mate… Listen.
AND, listen to yourself. Where are you ignoring God? Where are you arguing with Him? Where are you trying to insist on doing things your way instead of trusting his plan? Where are analyzing the details rather than trusting his purpose? Where are you worrying about what might go wrong instead of believing in his promises?
* Act Immediately
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear!” James 1:22 (The Message)
Act immediately.
Let me speak again to two groups.
If you’re visiting with us…
If you’re a member of our family…
Look, here’s what it boils down to. Noah lived faithfully. And 600 years into his life God called on Noah for the biggest challenge he could have ever imagined. God gave him a plan, the purpose and a promise. So Noah acted.
God has given us a call to action – to salvation. So we live faithfully, we listen closely – to his plan, his purpose and his promise and we need to act.
Everybody names their boat obsession. I want to know – is ours really an obsession, or is just a hobby – a toy we play around in once a week or so.
For Noah, this was an obsession. As it was after him, for Abraham… for Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Ehud, Deborah, Samson, David, Soloman, Danial, Ruth, Mary, Jesus, Peter, Paul…
May this be our obsession.
