We want to continue that excitement this morning as we delve back into our summer series, “The Great Adventure!” The Christian life is supposed to a great and exciting adventure!
• Now, we don’t often talk about faith in those terms…
• When we truly and honestly give ourselves to God and place our lives in his control… there’s no telling where he may send us… who he may place in our lives… or what he may be preparing us to do!
• Look at what he called some of the folks in the Bible to! Way before Capt. Jack Sparrow… Indiana Jones… John Wayne… the lives of real life adventurers are found in the pages of THIS book!
Last week we looked at Abraham and saw that even though he was 75, God called him… and when he called, Abraham went.
• God didn’t tell him where he was going… just told him to go.
• Abraham wound up in the middle of Canaan, amidst a bunch of Canaanites (heathens) and made his home there… just as God told him to.
• And then, with he and Sarah pushing 100, they find out that they’re going to become parents! Talk about ADVENTURE!
• This morning, I want us to look at another great adventurer, Noah.
But before we get started with the lesson… Simon Says game.
Now, I don’t like “Simon Says” very much, actually… never have!
• Think about it… the point is to do exactly what “Simon” says… and just what everybody else is doing.
• In fact, if you don’t do what Simon says and what everybody else is doing, then you’re OUT!
• I never liked that as a kid! I wanted to know… Who is Simon and who died and put him in charge? Why do I have to do what he says… just because everybody else is doing it?
• What about you? Ever felt pressure to do something just because “Simon” or somebody out there told you to… or just because everybody else was doing it? Ever felt pressure to go along with the crowd… to give in to the tide?
• Maybe I have just enough of a rebellious streak in me that I didn’t want to do just what “Simon” said… EVEN IF everybody else is doing it!
Noah was that way… and I admire that. Look again at the text…
Genesis 6:5-12
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." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. NIV
• Things had gotten off to a good start in the Garden of Eden with Adam & Eve… but after that first sin… the serpent had come to Eve tempting her, “C’mon… wouldn’t you like to be just like God? Eat it!” …things had gone down hill rapidly.
• Cain kills Abel (Gn 4)… a great-great grandson, Lamech isn’t any better… things just get worse and worse and by the time Noah comes along (10 generations after Adam) all that’s left is wickedness and evil on the face of the Earth!
• Look at how the world is described in 6:5 & 12
o Man is described as “wicked”… in fact not only in his actions but in every thought and inclination of his heart! Continually… this wasn’t spotted or occasional “flare-ups”… this was constant… all the time!
o The world is “corrupt”… the OT Hebrew word here means “to decay.”
o “full of violence”… malicious, purposeful injustice.
o It was ALL EVIL ALL THE TIME!
But, Noah was different!
• We see in vs. 8 that Noah finds favor with God, precisely because he IS different! He’s a righteous man… blameless among the people of his day… he walked with God.
• Noah wasn’t like everybody else… and he didn’t care what the rest of the world thought or what everybody else was doing… Noah was his own man!
• Better said… he was God’s man! He wasn’t swayed by the tide of popular opinion… he listened to God!
13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 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. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark — you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. NIV
• I’ve always thought it was interesting… folks who want to discredit the Bible by saying that these stories are implausible and full of inaccuracies… they need to pay attention. These dimensions are the exact dimensions that would be needed for this thing to float! They are the same proportions used in modern sea-going vessels. Isn’t that amazing? Thousands of years before the modern aircraft carriers and cargo vessels… Noah’s ark would’ve had an approximate deck area of 95,700 sq. ft. to contain all the animals.
• It is interesting, too, that the word used here for ‘ark’ is tevah… used only one other time in the OT to describe the basket that Moses’ mother placed him in to send him down the Nile.
• So, both Noah & Moses are saved thru a tevah… an ark. (The ark of the covenant was another word.)
Genesis 6:22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. NIV
So much is said in this little statement!
• Think about what this means… Noah did just what God told him to… even when it went AGAINST conventional wisdom… it went against the norm… went against what everybody else was doing! It certainly didn’t make sense… from a worldly point of view, anyway!
Hebrews 11:7
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. NIV
• There are scholars who suggest that up to this time, it had never rained upon the Earth. If so, nobody had ever seen rain before! I’m not sure that is so clear from Scripture… but it is safe to say NOBODY had ever seen it rain like this!
• It was going to come a storm the likes of which had never been seen before! And it would last 40 days and 40 nights! Everything was going to be wiped out!
• We’ve never seen anything like this either… how was Noah to have imagined what it would be like?
• He couldn’t have! He just had to trust God.
What do you think Noah’s friends and neighbors must have thought as he got to building this thing in the backyard?
• What kinds of looks and stares do you suppose greeted him everyday?
• What was the topic of conversation when all the housewives on the block got together for coffee… what kinds of things did they say about Mrs. Noah?
• What did his buddies down at the lumber yard have to say when he showed up to get yet another pickup load full of gopher wood?
o “Whatcha building?” an ark. “A boat?” That’s right. “Going to do a little fishing?” Not exactly. “Maybe we ought to get together… do a little yachting?” Don’t think so. “Why not?” Its going to rain. “Maybe after the rain?” Don’t think so. “Why not?” Everything will be destroyed.
• Don’t you just know that they thought he had to have lost his mind! Don’t you just know that they thought Noah was nuts!
Doesn’t this just illustrate why God considered Noah a righteous man to begin with?
• The fact that he could build this boat in the face of such opposition… amidst all the scoffers… just shows you the type of guy he was!
• He lived his life like that… he didn’t care what everybody else thought… he was going to what he was going to do!
• When the whole world was full of evil… Noah stood against the tide and was God’s man!
And things happened just as God said they would…
• People were going about their business… eating, drinking, getting married, planning for the future, etc…. and it started to rain. And the rains came down….
Genesis 7:17-24
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. 21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. 24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. NIV
• We have no idea! I know we all saw the pictures of the horrible tsunami last year and more recently the flooding that took place following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans almost a year ago… but nothing compares to this!
• We saw the tragedy and heartache as people lost their homes… thousands displaced… entire neighborhood blocks wiped out… and it rained there for less than a day!
I wonder… how much worse was it then, in Noah’s day, than it is today?
• I look at the news and its filled with tragedy after tragedy. Heartache, famine, disease, war, families falling apart… innocent suffering…
• Decay… corruption… violence… we know that world because (despite the flood) its not all that different than our world today.
• I’d like to think it’s a little better—given the redeeming influence of God’s people in it today… but its still the world!
But, like Noah, God still calls his people to stand against the tide! And that’s not always an easy thing to do…
• The world says, “build bigger & bigger barns”… God says, “store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.”
• The world says, “It doesn’t matter what you believe… there’s no such thing as absolute truth. Everything is relative, man!” Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life… no one comes to the Father except thru me.”
• The world says, “Marriage is just a civil contract between two people.” God says, “A man will leave his father & mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. What God has joined let no man separate!”
• The world says, “A woman has a right to choose what to do with her own body.” God says that every life is precious… even told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”
• When the tide turns against us, what in the world will God’s people do? Will we stand?
Christians are called to stand against the tide! To stand out… to be different from the world!
"For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it... but small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matt 7:13-14 NIV)
• That’s part of what the NT word usually translated ‘church’ means… “called out.” The church is “called out” from the world for a different purpose!
• Paul said in Rom 12:1-2
2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV
Yet… sometimes the tide can be strong… almost overwhelming!
• There can be tremendous pressure to conform… to “fit in”… to be just like everybody else.
o You pull into the parking lot with your nice, cool Honda van… and see that Bro. So-&So has just gotten a new Beamer… and you think, “I got to get me one of them!”
o Everybody on your block is putting in a pool and you think, well I’ve got to have one of those!
o Or maybe teens, you’re out with your buddies when one of them pulls out a case of beer and starts passing them out.
o Or men, you’re on a business trip and your co-worker slips off his wedding ring to go out for the night and invites you to come along.
• Peer pressure isn’t just felt when you’re in Junior High, is it? We all feel pressure to “fit in” to “be like everybody else” to “not offend anyone”!
• Doesn’t that keep a lot of us from sharing the gospel as we ought to? We don’t anyone to think we’re “Jesus freaks” or anything!
But isn’t there something just a little exciting about being different?
• Who wants to be a conformist? Who wants to be just like everybody else? What a boring world that would be?
• Wouldn’t you rather be a radical follower of Jesus Christ? He didn’t conform to the world nor its expectations of him!
God has called us to be different! And I personally think that’s pretty exciting… sort of rebellious in a way, isn’t it?
• Part of this great adventure of faith to which we have been called is to be different… HOW DIFFERENT ARE YOU?
• Are you different from the people around you? Do people sometimes look at you strange because you’re not like the world?
• If not, maybe you’re not different enough!
It takes a lot to stand against the tide… especially when the forces of that tide can be so strong. How do we do it?
• How did Noah do it?
• Two practical Things I observe here about Noah…
One, he “walked with God.” (6:9)
• Now, I don’t know my OT like I ought to, but I don’t remember seeing that phrase a lot. In fact, that’s a pretty unusual way of describing Noah’s relationship with God for the OT! I looked it up and found that phrase to be used only of two people in all the OT: Noah & Enoch. That’s fairly significant, I think.
• Now we know that Noah wasn’t perfect (chpt. 9 clearly shows) but it does tell us that Noah had a relationship with God that was uncommon in that day!
• It tells us that Noah & God walked together… what do you do when you take a walk with someone? You talk. You get to know each other. That’s the type of relationship they had!
• So, maybe it didn’t surprise Noah at all when God told him what was going to happen… or at least as much as we might think… if Noah knew God as it seems he did. If he knew God’s heart?
• Do YOU walk with God? Do you think of him as someone you can talk to?
• Here’s a question you should ask yourself: If I spent the same amount of time with my spouse as I do focusing on God… what kind of marriage would I have?
• Folks, in order to have a relationship with God… we’ve got to put in the time to make that relationship strong and that means more than just church on Sundays!
• This would change our outlook on evangelism, wouldn’t it?
o If we thought of evangelism as introducing people to our best friend… instead of as having to convince them to join our church… it would make all the difference in the world and we wouldn’t have any problems filling those empty pews between us!
Two, Noah trusted God’s Word (6:22)
• Notice that God told Noah exactly what was going to happen and what he could do about it. He didn’t have the Bible written down like we do… but he had God’s Word on it. Noah simply obeyed and trusted God to take care of the rest.
• It didn’t matter what anybody else said…
o The weatherman, “Rain, what rain?”
o The theologians, “God would never do such a thing! God is love!”
• It didn’t matter what the world thought… Noah had God’s Word on it and he knew who to listen to!
• Paul wrote in 1 Cor 1:20-22
20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. NIV
• Folks, we’ve got God’s Word on it… its just a matter of us choosing who we’re going to listen to… the wise, scholars, philosophers of this age? Or God?
Where are YOU this morning?
• Are you different? Different enough for God to use in a mighty way?
• It makes for an exciting and great adventure… to have people look at you and just not ‘get it.’ They never will until they come to know him for themselves!
Prayer
Invitation Do you need to accept the invitation of the Lord this morning?
