The Ultimate Float Trip

The Ultimate Float Trip

Genesis 6:9-22

GE 6:9 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. 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. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

When Christian Herter was governor of Massachusetts, he was running hard for a second term in office. One day, after a busy morning chasing votes (and no lunch) he arrived at a church barbecue. It was late afternoon and Herter was famished. As Herter moved down the serving line, he held out his plate to the woman serving chicken. She put a piece on his plate and turned to the next person in line. "Excuse me," Governor Herter said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?" "Sorry," the woman told him. "I’m supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person." "But I’m starved," the governor said. "Sorry," the woman said again. "Only one to a customer." Governor Herter was a modest and unassuming man, but he decided that this time he would throw a little weight around. "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state." "Do you know who I am?" the woman said. "I’m the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister." (Illustration from Bits & Pieces, May 28, 1992, pp. 5-6.)

How many of us here today know that when the person who is really in charge tells us to do something, we’ better do it! So it is in the case of Noah. God told him to do something incredibly unusual. Build a big ol’ ark? But Noah knew just what to do. Today, we’re going to see the blamelessness, the obedience, and the faith of Noah. Let’s take a look.

First, we can see that:

I. Noah Was Blameless. (Genesis 6:9 “This is

the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous

man, blameless among the people of his time,

and he walked with God.”).

A. We see in this passage that Noah was

righteous. We are told that he walked

with God. He had a relationship with his

Lord.

B. When we read the few verses in Genesis

chapter 6 that precede our passage, we

see that God is very unhappy with His

creation, because man had become wicked

and only thought of evil all of the

time. That meant that Noah loved God

even when nobody else did. I’m sure that

this must have been difficult for him.

I’m sure that it is difficult for us,

too. Isn’t it hard to serve God and love

Him in a world that is so wicked? Noah

didn’t allow the dirt of his world to

make him impure. And the good news is

that we don’t have to, either.

C. Not only was Noah righteous in the eyes

of God, but nobody had anything against

him. Verse 9 also tells us that he

was “blameless among the people of his

time.” And then the passage goes on to

say in verse 12 that, “God saw how