Vision Quest, Learning From Men Of Vision
Part 1 – Noah
May 19th, 2002
For the next four weeks we are going to be studying the Biblical concept of Vision. Each week we will examine the life of a well-known biblical character and how vision shaped his life and ministry. We will learn how vision is essential for our lives today and how to apply the principles of vision to how we live those lives.
Before we open to Noah’s story, let’s define Vision. When we talk about Biblical Vision or Spiritual Vision, we must understand that we’re not talking about normal vision or 20/20 vision which is the work of our eyeballs, rather we are talking about something God gives to us through the Holy Spirit.
One person describes Spiritual Vision this way, he said:
A vision is the dominant factor that governs your life.
It determines all the choices you are making.
It’s what’s left after all the layers are peeled away like an onion.
Clinging like glue to the inside of your rib cage...
It’s what your mind naturally gravitates toward when it is not legitimately concentrating on something else.
It’s ... what determines your friendships and your relationships that you are cultivating ...
It’s what your prayers are about--what you dream about and are giving money toward.
Citation: Phil Grant, Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3.
This morning we are going to take a close look at Noah. Most of us are familiar with Noah. But I wonder if anyone here actually knows Noah’s last name. Noah’s last name was Zark. Z A R K. How do we know this? Well, we’ve all heard the story of Noah’s Ark, right? Get it?
Yes, Noah heard from God and obeyed the Lord’s command to build an enormous ship we call the Ark. Bear in mind that the boat Noah built was no canoe! Picture yourself building a boat the length of one and a half football fields and as high as a four-story building. The ark was exactly six times longer than it was wide—the same ratio used by modern shipbuilders. This huge boat was probably built miles from any body of water by only a few faithful men who believed God’s promises and obeyed his commands. There are several lessons we can learn from Noah.
There is a well-known book titled, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Let me suggest another: Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Noah. Here are just some of the lessons we learn from Noah:
1. Don’t miss the boat.
2. We are all in the same boat.
3. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the Ark.
4. Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something big.
5. Don’t listen to critics; just do the job that needs to be done.
6. Build your future on high ground.
7. For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
8. Speed isn’t always an advantage. The snails were on board with the cheetahs.
9. When you’re stressed, float a while.
10. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals.
11. No matter the storm, when you are with God, there’s always a rainbow waiting.
Before we examine how Noah’s vision shaped and directed his life let’s digest just a little bit of his background. Noah, whose name means rest, was the grandson of Methuselah. This patriarch is rightly regarded as the connecting link between the old and the new world. He is the second great father of the human race. It wasn’t until Noah was 500 years old that his sons were born to him – they were Shem, Ham & Japheth. He was known as a “just man, perfect in his generation,” and one who “walked with God”.
The story of Noah’s life involves not one, but two great and tragic floods. The world in Noah’s day was flooded with evil. The number of those who remembered the God of creation, perfection, and love had dwindled to one solitary man. Of God’s people, only Noah was left. God’s response to the severe situation was a 120-year-long last chance, during which he had Noah build a graphic illustration of the message of his life. Nothing like a huge boat on dry land to make a point!
Now let’s pause here and consider what is going on. God has informed Noah that He regrets having created mankind. As a result He is going to wipe mankind along with the animal kingdom off of the face of the earth. God then informs Noah that He is going to preserve He and his family IF, and here’s where the vision begins, IF Noah will build an ark 450’ long, 75’ wide and 45’ high! Now why in the world would God ask anyone to build an enormous ship hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean? It was because God was giving anyone who would pass by this unmistakable structure a second chance. When Noah’s neighbors took their dogs for a walk in the evening, as they passed by his house, they had to make a choice. Either they believed that there was a God in heaven Who was worthy of their respect and worship, OR, they decided that Noah was a madman and there was no God Who was preparing to destroy the earth.
Either way, Noah was the man whom God had called upon to do His work. For Noah, obedience meant a long-term commitment to a project. Many of us have trouble sticking to any project for more than a few weeks, whether or not it is directed by God. Isn’t it interesting that the length of Noah’s obedience was greater than the lifespan of people today. For 120 years Noah worked at constructing the Ark. The only comparable long-term project is our very lives. But perhaps this is one great challenge Noah’s life gives us—to live, in gratitude of God’s grace, an entire lifetime of obedience to Him.
How does a man, for a period of 120 years, constantly preach God’s Word, warn against God’s coming judgment and build an ocean liner all at the same time? Can someone please tell me how this can be done? Because, truthfully, if it had been me, I think I would have told God to just include me in the flood because there’s no way I could do it. Noah was able to faithfully fulfill God’s will because He had received God’s vision for his life. Noah was a man of vision.
If a Christian wants to experience life as God intended, then he or she had better be seeking God’s vision for his or her life because it’s vision that give us purpose, it’s vision that drives us and it’s vision that enables us to live above mediocrity. When we seek and embrace the vision that God has for our lives, we live life at the highest possible plane, right in the lap of Jesus Christ!
So how can you begin to seek the Vision God has for your life? You start by studying and understanding the following principles of vision.
Principles of Vision
1. A reality of conditions that do not now exist – Noah believed what did not yet exist.
2. Always entails change – Noah’s relatively happy, peaceful life was changed.
3. Is always God given, not man-centered – Noah allowed God to bring him the vision.
4. Focuses on what others think is impossible – Ask any of Noah’s neighbors, they would have said, “It’s impossible!”
5. Always involves risk; invites criticism – Noah was laughed at and ridiculed regularly.
6. Always makes room for God’s known will – Noah knew God’s will for man and preached it.
7. Should not get derailed by fads, trends, methods – Noah didn’t alter God’s blueprints.
8. Never acquiesces to the status quo – Despite his occasional discouragement, Noah never gave in.
9. Must never be side-stepped by human tradition over biblical truth – There were no shrines in the Ark.
10. Details of vision must never be set in concrete – Noah never ran ahead of God to a conclusion, rather, he waited for God to speak.
God used Noah in a mighty way. Noah preserved mankind through the Great Flood. Here’s a fact for you… God wants to use you and I in mighty way as well. As I studied this church’s rich history last year, I was struck by the aspirations for outreach that our founding families had for this community. Bethany began her life in 1916. Here we stand, almost a century later. If the Spirit of Christ has the power to transform, and that same Spirit has taken up residence in our souls, then where is the evidence of that transformational power?
Lynn Anderson tells the following story.
About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers, with a vision for a better life, landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?
Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.
With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.
First Question. How much are we like those pioneers? Can you see any similarities between their town government and our church?
Second Question: If I were to ask you this morning, what is your God-given vision? What specific mission has God called you to pour your life into?
We can all experience life at the highest plane if we will actively seek God and ask Him to make it clear to us. Noah was used by God, and folks, Noah wasn’t anyone of notoriety, Noah wasn’t a superstar, Noah wasn’t a standout, except for one thing… Key verse: “Noah did everything just as God commanded him” (Genesis 6:22).
As we close this morning, I invite you to open up your programs to the outline inside. Here are the keywords for the 4 principles of vision we learn from Noah:
First, we learn that in order to receive God’s Vision for our lives, we must be connected to Him. We must be properly related to God. Listen to how Genesis 6:9 puts it: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. The New Living Translation puts it best when it says: Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless man living on earth at the time. He consistently followed God’s will and enjoyed a close relationship with him.
Second, we learn that when God gives someone a vision, it is usually pretty specific. God wanted to use Noah to preserve the human race. He wanted Noah to build an ark and gave Noah specific dimensions. God then gave Noah specific instructions regarding animals and provisions. And, finally, God gave Noah specific instructions on when to enter and when to exit the Ark.
Third, we learn that when God gives us a vision, He also empowers & equips us to see the vision through to completion. Noah was not completely alone in his mission, but had three sons to help him, along with his wife and daughters-in-law. Most significantly, God Himself, will use His own power to make things happen. Remember who shut the door behind them when they all entered the ark? Genesis 7:16: Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.
Fourth, we learn that when God gives us a vision, He will sustain us throughout the entire process. Let’s take a quick look at the Flood’s timeline. [Put up transparency]. We see that Noah and his family were in the ark along with a host of animals for months. This situation must have gotten on everyone’s nerves after a while don’t ya think? Noah must have been wondering, “God… have you forgotten us down here trapped in this floating zoo?” But then in Genesis 8:1 we read: But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
Let’s get excited about our faith! Let’s pursue God with all of our might! Let’s seek God’s Vision for our personal lives and for our church! Vision is everything in the life of a Christian!
Let’s pray…
