This Is Us: Adam's Family Series

Today we are continuing our new family series called This is US. Here’s what we know – Everyone has a family and every family has a story. What we want to get pressed deep within our hearts through this series is that God is an integral part in your Family Story. We’re going to take a look at several Bible Families and see, first, that none of them were perfect and, second, that we can see our own Family Story reflected in these families.

Last week we met the crown of God’s creation the first family. From the beginning Adam and Eve were called to live according to God’s plan. God's plan was good. The first family was called to be faithful to God and faithful to one another. They had a wonderful purpose working, taking care of the earth, being fruitful and filling the earth with more worshipers of God. God gave them everything they needed to flourish and be successful. God did not make robots, he made these people with hearts and minds. God placed in the garden the tree of good and evil and forbid them to eat it. Because love and obedience is always a choice that is rooted in faith. Out of love for them God warns them of the consequence of disobeying Him. He said the day that you eat of the fruit if this tree you will surely die. If you were here last week we learned that the picture-perfect family was attacked and deceived by Satan. Satan convinced them that they wouldn’t die they would actually be like God knowing good from evil. Convinced that they where not going to die rather the threat of death was nothing more than a scare tactic to keep Adam and Eve in their place.They chose to believe the lie and saw that the fruit was good for food, a delight to their eyes and that it would make them wise, and they took the fruit and ate. Immediately they felt the guilt and shame of their disobedience and began to see and experience the things the things God was trying to protect them from. God could’ve rightly done what they had done – hide Himself, protect His holiness, and blamed them for not following His commands… And would have been perfectly just. BUT instead of GUILT, God brings GRACE!

Today we meet Noah’s family who 10 generations later are living in a time that had become so wicked, so evil, so corrupt and so violent that God felt that it was necessary judge an entire generation and blot them out from the face of the land.Let’s pick up the story in Genesis 6 verse 5

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5)

As bad as our world is today, we cannot say it is this bad. As bad as our world is it is not true that “every intention” of the thoughts of every man’s and every woman’s heart are “only evil continually”. But this was the the condition of world in the time of Noah. Moses tells us that the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.This is not the regret you feel when you realize you have made a mistake. When we are sorry about something it is usually because we messed up. God never makes mistakes. God is not sorry for some something bad that He has done. Rather, He is regretful and grieving over these people who has taken everything that God intended to be good, everything that God created for man can flourish and poison it with sin which lead to wickedness, evil, corruption and violence. The only solution is to cleanse the earth, to remove the problem and start over. We begin to see His heart break for the way man turned out. It brought him great sorrow. As a safety manager of the trucking company it would be responsible for me to put that person back to work. When we ask why did God for the Earth we have to consider a world so wicked, so evil, so corrupt and so violent that it would be irresponsible for God to not do something. So God sees fit to wipe the world clean of every trace of humanity, except for the man Noah. What is weaved into the ugliness of their sin and the promise of judgment, is the grace and mercy of God. Look at verse 8

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:8-9 ESV)