Restoring The Spirit Of Adventure

Restoring the Spirit of Adventure

Genesis 6:1-8 and 22 (John 10:10, Hebrews 11)

One of our church members shared with me at one time and she said “I am 100%+ in favor of TIBC moving forward. I have been gravely concerned for several years about the way we have seemed to move only on those projects we could explain or rationalize the means in which to do things. I feel it is time for us as a church to really step out in faith. When have we taken a risk for God? What have we sacrificed for Him?”

These two questions echo what Oswald Chambers teaches through one of his daily devotionals (May 30), and he said: “Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back . . .?” Or we say, "Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark."

Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense. ”

(We will learn a real-life example about someone who leaped in the dark – Noah. Scripture reading)

Genesis 6 The Flood 1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with [1] man forever, for he is mortal [2] ; his days will be a hundred and twenty years." 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-and also afterward-when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. 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. 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

Because of the great wickedness of humanity (6:5,11), God resolved to destroy all living beings (6:13) with the exception of righteous Noah and his family (6:9,18). God instructed Noah to make an ark of cypress wood. He told Noah to take his family and seven (pairs) of every clean species and two of every unclean species of animals, birds, and creeping things, along with provisions for the duration of the 40-day flood.

Again, this is another well-known story, for which I do not need to provide a lot of details. And so, suppose God came to you now as He did to Noah and said, “You know, I don’t like the way the world’s going. I think I’m going to start all over so I’m going to flood the earth and begin again with just your family. What I want you to do is to build an ark, bring 2 animals of each kind into it, and then you and your family are going to get on this ark and you’re going to experience the ride of your life.” What would you say to something like that? Would you have any questions or doubts? Some concerns? If I were you, I would probably ask, “What’s an ark for? When will be the flood? What’s rain going to do?” But Noah, according to Scripture, didn’t doubt or argue or delay. He obeyed immediately even though he didn’t fully understand. And sure enough, he had the ride of his life. Therefore, the first principle we draw from the message today is: “Obey God’s command immediately even when you don’t understand it.”

With this principle being understood, we can then further explore and learn some valuable lessons together from Noah. These are something we need to know about a ride of life. We learned from the story of Noah’s Ark…