I'm Jared and we are looking
at the life of Noah. And Noah is kind
of a famous story. Most people, even if
they're not Christians, know about the story of Noah. But we're going to look
at some of the things of Noah and what it means to us. Normally, when you
think about the flood and Noah you think
about Genesis, chapter 6 through about 9. But we're going to
go a little bit earlier to Genesis, chapter 5. So I want you to open up. If you've got your
Bible along, its ideal. You can use a tablet. You can use your phone. But I think there's something
nice about having something tactile in your hands. So this is Genesis, chapter 5. There's a heading
there that says "Adam to Noah". That is added. That is not something
that's in the Bible. Just like the verses. Just like the numbers so that you and I can
find the same spot. That was added
about 500 years ago. So we're in Genesis, chapter 5. And this is what it says, So this is kind of
a key, key concept. When God created the
world, it was perfect. And God, who is in
charge of all things, who ruled all things said, "I want to make human
beings in my image. "In my likeness." And, in that, we got to
be, Adam and Eve being, got to reflect God's perfection in all
the things they did. Now we have this
big, sudden change when it gets to
Genesis, chapter 3, which starts kind of a spiral, all the way down from Genesis 3 all the way down 'til about, really, Genesis 11 when we have God's
call to Abraham. So this is how it changes. So, in the likeness of God. That means you're making
decisions that line up with God. That means you
love someone completely. However, Genesis 5:3, All of this completely
changes now. Because, now, we
are in our own image. In our minds, and because of the
effects of sin, we want to call our own shots. And we see that. You can say that you
love your spouse 100%. But is that totally true? There's still a little bit
involved that's selfish. You can love your
kids completely. But there's still a little bit
of selfishness that is involved. This affects and permeates all people all the way down. So the world is getting
worse and worse and worse. Now, how does this
tie to our next point? So, one of the
questions I get a lot when we start talking about some
of these Old Testament stories, or accounts. I prefer "accounts" because these are real
events in the Bible. One of the questions
people ask me is like, "Why do people live,
like, 900 years then "and now we only live,
like, 70 or 80 years? "How does this make
any kind of sense?" Well, I think there's
a couple things. One is simply just practical. This is my opinion, now. In my opinion, I
think it's practical. A person gestates, if you
want to use that word, for about nine months. And so, how much
work would it take for someone to populate
the whole, entire planet if they only lived to be 30
or 40, 50, 60, 70 years old? A lot of work. Now, if someone lives
quite a bit longer, well, let's just think
about it this way. Does anyone have a pet rabbit? All right. Rabbits are known to be rabbits. And so the gestation period
for a rabbit is, like, 30 days, not even. And they can get
pregnant literally minutes after they give birth. So, once they're
ready to have babies, they can have one to 14 babies in a matter of a month. So now let's squeeze that down. We're going to assume, this is an average rabbit. What are the little ones called? Like, bunnies or something? So, little bunnies. There's ten. So ten times twelve is 120. And then we do
that for another year. We're at 240 youth. Or 240 bunnies, kids? Whatever they're called. Babies. Very, very different
for human beings. So I think God allowed,
just on a practical level, humans to live longer
so that the earth could be populated. But I think there's a
piritual bent to it, too. Adam lived 930 years. And he lived through
what it was like to live in God's image
perfectly and reflect God's love perfectly. And he also knew what it was
like to have all those decisions affected and infected by sin. How many generations could
sit at the feet of Adam and just hear him say, "Listen. "I screwed up. "The world was
absolutely perfect. "It was gorgeous. "And we could do all
these things in line
with what God wants. "We served each other. "We loved each other. "We trusted each other. "But after I let
sin into the world, "and into our heart, "that changes the whole thing." But then he could
also tell them - how many generation could
sit at his feet and say, "I've got a promise "that God gave us. "That there's a Savior
that's going to come." So, how does this
all cycle around to where you're at
with the book of Noah? I think you're not
going to live 130 years, or 930 years even. But you have a story to tell. How many people
could sit at your feet and hear a story that says, "Listen. I made a
lot of mistakes. "I've screwed up
a lot in my life. "But we have a God
who made a promise "that said he's going
to send a Savior "who's going to take
care of it all." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, we are so thankful for the accounts that you have in the Old Testament. And that you show all things. You show how the
world went downhill. But you also showed us a hope and a promise in Jesus. Help us live with that hope as we live for you. Amen. We are back in Genesis, but now we're moving to
the actual flood account. This is Genesis, chapter 6. We're following
the life of Noah. And this is what God
says in Genesis, chapter 6. It says, Again, this is effect, this is one of the
causes that happens when you lose that image of God. Instead of desiring
what God desires, we start to desire
what we desire. In a selfish way, they saw that the beauty
of these other nations. They saw the beauty
and they wanted them to be theirs. Well, this leads to this
downward spiral as God says, And I think this is kind
of a wake-up moment, when you talk about
the story of Noah and the flood. When I was a kid, actually when I had kids, my own kids have
the Noah bed sheets. I don't know what they're called when there's like seven
different things for the kids. But they had Noah
on their bed sheets. We hand these down
because I'm cheap. So each one lived
with Noah and the Noah I picture,
at least as a kid, was kind of this roundy ark and of course, it's too small so the giraffes are like
hanging over the top and then, like, the rhinos
are leaning this way or the elephants. And then there's a
peacock, of course, on the top or
something like that. But at the end of the day, the story of Noah is
a story of judgement. But not just a
story of judgement. It's God grieving this spiral that had
happened in the world. Something really
interesting is it's said that the world began to
increase in number. And when I think about the flood
story, at least growing up, I pictured, like, a 100 people. And I pictured that Noah could
have, like this summons and everyone could come. And we'd have, like,
200 or 300 people. It's like a small town. Maybe my high school. Maybe, maybe an elementary school. Something a little bit bigger. Or something like that. Maybe a town. I was reading a book by a guy
named Dr. Albert Rehwinkel. I think I said that right. I read it like 20 years ago. I had to look it up
on Amazon to find it. But I remember one thing,
specifically, from that book. Two things. One, it was like the
heaviest small book I ever lifted in my life. But two, he was talking about
how many people could have been on
the earth at this time. And he estimated that
it could possibly be more than 10 billion. I don't know if that's true. But, that's a way
different story than like 10, 12 people that are on the earth
that Noah's talking to. There could literally have
been billions of people. And, what does it say? "Every inclination of their
heart was evil all the time." This is a story of God grieving. The sin has affected
the entire world and his righteous desire to try and make
things right again. How many people get on the ark? Eight. Eight. And so God reaches out to Noah and this is how the
Bible describes Noah. And I think this is
something for us as we walk in this
world that's affected and infected by sin. It says: I don't know what kind of stuff
you've got to deal with. And I don't know what
kind of world you walk in. But it seems like the
world, to me, is pretty dark. And it seems like
there's temptations happening all the time. And my encouragement
to you is walk like Noah walked. And in spite of
all the darkness, and all the temptations, and all the things
happening in your life, let's walk faithfully with God. And let's be someone
who is blameless among our people. So that we can actually be someone who
proclaims God's Word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, we're overwhelmed, sometimes, when we look at the
world and how dark it is. And how disappointing,
on a world level, but that's sometimes not just a family level, sometimes it's a "me" level. When I look at my own heart, I see my own evilness and I see every desire, it seems, sometimes wants to
go the wrong direction. Help us get rid of those desires and, instead, align our lives with you so that we can
faithfully walk with you. Just as Noah did
in the midst of the darkness in the
world that he lived. Let us be a light in the
darkness we walk in today. We ask this in your name. Amen. We are continuing
in the life of Noah. And we're covering the main
thing that happens in his life. We have a couple other
things way at the end. But, we're covering
the main thing, which is the flood and
how God called him. Remember the world
is spiraling down and it's getting
more and more sinful? Every inclination of their
heart is evil all the time. And the way that the
Bible describes Noah, it says that he's a
preacher of righteousness. That's in the book of 2 Peter. It describes him as a
preacher of righteousness. And, in fact, a little
bit later it says, "By faith, he condemned
the world he's in." Yet, he is still blameless. And he's still, people
looked up to him as he proclaimed God's word. But how many people
got on the ark? Just eight. And so now the
moment is coming where God's instruction comes. "I don't want to destroy
everybody on this world, Noah. "I want to save you." So, I've got a longer
section, so stick with me. This is in Genesis,
chapter 6, verse 14. So, God calls Noah
and his family. And he's called
to build this ark. Can you imagine what this would have been like? So, he's building this ark. If you've ever
seen models of it, there's one in Scandinavia. It's more than a
football field wide. You can go to see one in Ohio. It's just massive. It took me, like a whole summer to finish my backyard. I don't know how long
it would have taken. The guy in Scandinavia, apparently with hand tools, took three years with five other people
to help him out. So, it's possible, they build this magnificent ark for all the animals to come in. Now, can you imagine
what this is like? And it says, What do you think it was
like when Noah was trying
to explain to his friends? Like, "Hey, I'm
building an ark." And they're like,
"That's great. "Like, everyone should
have a park to play in." And he's like, "No. "I'm building this giant boat." Can you imagine how embarrassing
it would have been? Like, really? I know God called
him to do this. But, God has called him to
do something really hard and, kind of, something
really embarrassing. And yet, Noah did everything
just as God commanded. So what does this mean for you? God has not called
you to build an ark that I know of. But God has asked you to live in an upright way. And there's a way
that you're going to live that people are going to say, "That doesn't make any sense." When people find out, "I don't want to sleep
with my girlfriend "or my boyfriend
before marriage." That doesn't make sense to them. When you explain how much
money you give to church. That's not going to
make sense to them. When you explain
to someone, like, "I'm not going to get
revenge on someone." When you turn the other cheek. When you do all these things
that God calls us to do, When you do all these things
that God calls us to do,
none of this stuff makes sense. none of this stuff makes sense. It doesn't make sense. And God has called
you, not just to live holy. But God has called you
to difficult situations. Maybe it's raising a
very challenging child. Maybe it's rebuilding a marriage that is starting to crumble. Maybe it's being bankrupt
and trying to make your way all the way back up. Either way, God says, "I'm going
to be with you. "And I've got a promise of
hope that's with you." Here's what he says, A lot of the commands
that God gives you, from a human perspective, don't make a lot of sense. I admit that. When you compare
them to the world, it's not going to
make a lot of sense. However, there's a reason why God has
called you to do these things. Because God wants you to have
life and have it to the full. And that means the God who, the God who created you, the God who designed you, the God who built you, the God who preserves you says, "This is how I want you to live "so that you can get
the most from life. "So, ultimately, you can have
a relationship with me "that has already been won
through Christ, our Savior." So, let's walk with him and do
everything as God commanded us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, there's
so many things that, to be honest, you call
us to do hard things. Embarrassing things from
a worldly perspective. Long gone are the days where everyone we know is a believer. And everyone we know is
doing the things that
you called us to do. Instead, sometimes it
feels like we're a fish going in the wrong direction. And everyone is ridiculing
and laughing at us. And, in secret, we want
to live our faith. I'm asking that you
give us the courage to
live boldly, like Noah. And, even when you call
us to do difficult things and live through
difficult situations, we know that you
are there with us. Because we knew you'd
take care of our ultimate
problems in Christ. Help us live this
day just for you. Amen. We are back and we're talking
about the life of Noah. Noah has gotten onto the ark. The ark has been sealed up. And this is in
Genesis, chapter 7. We're describing
what has happened. This is really a
story of judgement. It's a story of compassion because God wants what
is best in the world for us. And it's also a story of hope as we're going to get
to in just a little bit. But Noah is now on the ark and the waters start to come. In fact the Bible says that
the door is shut up. He's waiting for seven days. And you can imagine
what that was like. Sitting around a week inside
the ark with all the animals. Maybe making sure that
everything is ready to go. And then, suddenly, the
waters start to come. And come and come and come. For forty days it rains. And the floods start
covering the earth. When the Bible talks
about the account, it's 150 days that the water is over the
surface of the earth. And the ark lands on a mountain. And it's not too much
longer than that that the
waters start to recede. And my question to you is, "How do you think Noah
felt during this time?" I'll wait it out a little bit. "How do you think he
felt, like, in the ark?" To me it had been, like, a 50/50 kind of terror, just as it
is to live in this world. Because, like,
have you ever been, like a really cold day, and maybe you're locked out of your house and then someone
shows up with a key? And then you're, like,
"Oh, thanks goodness
that you're here." You have, like, this
sense of joy and relief
that this happened. Maybe you didn't have money. This just happened to my son. He went downtown. I was working at church, where our church is downtown. And I said, "Okay. "You can go get some candy." And his friend was going
to use his "debit" card. As some kind of ploy,
because they got there, the debit card didn't work. They had to come back to me with an IOU from the candy store that I had to give my
card to go over there. What am I getting at? There's a sense of
relief because he was so
embarrassed about this. That happened, I think, Noah would have had
this sense, a deep sense, of relief that the God who
created the world saved him. But, read this
verse, once, with me. This is Genesis 7:21-22. I think we have two
takeaways from this. And one is very practical. Our life on this
planet is finite. Your time is finite. Things like, we can push
things off again and
again and again and again. I'm not talking about
silly things like your finances, and
things like that. That should be in order. I'm talking about,
maybe today is the day
that you call your mom. And maybe today is the day
that you reach out to your kids. And maybe today is the day you
forgive and mend a relationship. And maybe today is the day that
you go to someone you trust and confess to something that you have done so
you can be right in Jesus. That's one level. Level two is our world
as a whole is finite. And, as much as
we'd like to think that we just live in this bubble that God has taken care of us. There's a world out here that
needs to know a message. And there's a world that
you have a story to tell that says, "I've made plenty
of mistakes in my life. "I have sinned. "I have rebelled against God. "I've wanted to do
things my own way. "But then I found "a Savior that God
brought his own way "to take care of those things." You have a story to tell that
can change someone's life because, eventually,
the door is shut. Let's pray. Heavenly Father and
Son and Holy Spirit, we'd like to think the
world just goes on forever and we could just do
whatever we want and there's
no real consequences. Instead, you've put us
here for a reason and you put us here to reflect your image in this world. It's tainted by sin, we know. But we can still
reflect your love and your forgiveness and we can reach out
to the people we know. But, ultimately,
we can reach out with the message that
really changes lives. The message that
you are a Savior that overcomes all obstacles and that they can be part of. So that when the
final day comes, we're not talking about
eight people in an ark. Instead we're talking about a mass of people
who know your truths that are caught up
with you into Heaven. Help us be a part of that. We ask this in your name. Amen. We are getting ready to
finish the story of Noah. And if you remember,
there is a story that went all the way
from Adam and Eve. And it's starting
to spiral downhill. And then God had calls Noah. And the words that it says is, "The days that will contend with
human beings is 120 years." It doesn't, I don't think,
mean that people are going
to live only 120 years. Instead, God proclaimed
that he's going to judge the
world in a set time period. Well, that time period comes. And only Noah and his
family get on the ark. They're on the ark. It's starting to
float to the top. It rests. The waters start to recede. I don't know if you know this,
but they're in the ark more than a year. And you can just imagine how
tension and what's going on. And they start to send
some things out to hope. To see if someone
is really there and God is taking
care of things. So they send out a raven. And the raven flies
around and it comes back. And they send out another one. And it doesn't come back. So then he says, "I'll
take this domesticated bird "and I'll send this dove off." And the dove returns, one of the doves returns with
an olive branch in its mouth. And the next one never returns. And you're thinking, "Okay. "Now I'm ready to
get off this ark." I think they're on the
ark for another week. Which tells me just how patient. At least another week. How patient they are
as they wait for God
to open up this ark. What do you think the
first thing is, they do? Besides kiss the ground? They build an altar. After they build this altar,
this is what transpires. And then later on, the
most famous of promises. God says, "As a sign to you" - I don't think this is the first
time rainbows came out - but there was a
rainbow in the sky. And God said, "When you
look at that rainbow" ... Essentially, "When you
look at that rainbow, "you can know I've
made a promise. "I'm not going to
destroy the world, "with a flood." Okay. Everything's great. Noah and his family
start to grow and everything's
going fantastic. Until. A secret and a story we don't
often talk about. Noah builds a vineyard, a little bit later, and Noah gets rip-roaring drunk and he's passed out
naked in his tent. We don't know exactly, with the
Hebrew, what exactly happened. But when Ham comes
in to see that, he tells his other brothers. Noah is so angry that he, literally, curses Ham and his descendants
from then on. Like, pronounced, you can
read it in the Bible curse. So what does this tell us? A couple things. Noah is described,
up until this point, in the Bible as righteous, blameless, faithfully following God and a creature of righteousness. And here he is, getting drunk. Doesn't matter who you are or
what kind of past you've had. Every single one of us is
going to make mistakes. And the promise of a rainbow, that God's not going
to destroy the world, is not going to help. To me, the thing
you have to look at. If you look at how the chronology goes down, it goes through the nations. If it's not just a
summary of generations. And this is really
the timetable. Noah is about 600 years
old when he gets on the ark. He dies, I think, at 950. So he has 350 years
left on earth. Well, about 300 years later, if you follow that timeline, a man is born named Abraham. And that man grows
up and God calls him and he makes three
promises to him. And one that really,
really matters to you. He says, "I'm going to
make you a great nation." That doesn't matter to you. "I'm going to give
you the land of Israel." That doesn't really
matter to you. But the third one does. "I'm going to send the Savior of
the world through your line." And that Savior of the world,
Jesus Christ, came in flesh. And how do you describe that? Besides glorious and majestic. And not just to
live in this earth, but to show us what it's like
to be a real human being. To love and serve other people. And, ultimately, to show us what
it's like to be a God who loves and goes to the
cross to pay for all your sins. Even drinking too much after you've been on an ark. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, we got a chance to look
at the life of Noah. we got a chance to look
at the life of Noah.
And And there's so many people
we look up to in this world. And we all have heroes. And we all have people,
even in Scriptures, that we look to and think
how amazing they are. Even the most
amazing human being affected by sin
can make mistakes. Noah made one of those mistakes. It is so comforting to us and comforting to me
that you have covered the mistakes that I have made. Not with the promise that
you're not going to destroy
the world with a flood. But, instead, a different
promise that says you're
going to send a Savior. A promise that you've
absolutely fulfilled. Help us hold on, let
us hold on to that as we go about our days today. We ask this in your name. Amen.
