What's Important

What’s Important

Genesis 8: 18-21

Intro: A husband and wife were attending a county fair where, for twenty dollars a person, a man was giving rides in an old airplane. The couple wanted to go up but they thought twenty dollars a person was too expensive so they tried to negotiate a lower price. “We’ll pay you twenty dollars for both of us,” they said to the pilot. “After all, we’ll both have to squeeze into that tiny cockpit that was built for only one person.”The pilot refused to lower his fare, but he made a counter offer. He suggested, “Pay me the full price of twenty dollars each, and I’ll take you up. If you don’t say one word during the flight, I’ll give you all your money back.” The couple agreed and got into

the plane. Up they went and the pilot proceeded to perform every trick he knew, looping and whirling and flying upside down and lots more. Finally, when the plane had landed,

the pilot said to the husband, “Congratulations! Here’s your money back; you didn’t say a single word.” To which the man replied, "Nope, but you almost got me when my

wife fell out.”

. We can see what was important to this man

. A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in two’s for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of a 200 pound deer. The other hunters asked, “Where’s Bob?” The lone man said, “Oh, he had a stroke of some kind, he’s a couple of miles back up the trail.” The other hunters were shocked and asked why he left Bob laying there to carry the deer instead. “It was a tough call,” the hunter said, “but I figured no one was going to steal Bob.”

. A farmer ran this classified ad in the Quay County Sun: “Farmer with 160 irrigated acres wants marriage-minded woman with a tractor. When replying, please send picture of the tractor.”

. It was obvious what was important to these gentlemen.

. What’s important to you?

. What are your priorities in life/

. What is the most important thing that you do?

. We are back in Genesis this morning and as we continue to look at the flood, we are going to see what was important to Noah.

. The 8th chapter of Genesis records the time Noah and his family were on the boat and what happened when the flood waters receded and there was dry land again on Earth.

. At the end of chapter 7, we see God closing the door and sealing it up after Noah and his family had entered the Ark with all the kinds of animals.

. The waters covered the Earth for 150 days and I’m sure that Noah and his family were starting to wonder what was going on. Did it take that long for animal and people d to drown?

.Verse 8 starts out saying that God remembered Noah. Noah had not been forgotten nor forsaken. God remembered him and had everything under control.

. They had already been on the boat for 150 days then verse 5 tells us that it was another two and ½ months, or 75 days, before the other mountain peaks became visible.

. Forty days after that, Noah opened a window and released a raven and a dove. The dove found no other dry land so it returned to the boat.

. Seven days later Noah did this again and the dove came back with an olive leaf in it’s mouth indicating that there was vegetation.

. Seven days later Noah released the dove again and it did not return indicating that everything was ok.

. Noah waited two more months for the Earth to dry.

. The total of all of the days Noah and his family were on the boat was 380 days.

. That’s a long time to be cooped up with all these smelly animals and by now probably some pretty smelly sons and daughters in law.

. How many have been on a cruise ship. You know how they take you off by different sections. I am always very impatient with this process. I just want to get off the boat. I’m sure many of you are the same way. We have enjoyed the cruise but now it is time to get back to life as we know it.

. There are things that need to be done. Vacation is over.

. That’s after three or five or seven days on the boat. I was on one for ten days one cruise. I couldn’t wait to get off that boat.

. There were things I needed to do.

. Can you imagine the anticipation of Noah and his family.