(upbeat music) Well, hello my name is David Barker and I'm one of the Pastors here on staff at FBA. And I am thankful this morning to be joined by my wife Caitlin and our boys, Landon and Tyler. And we are just very excited to be back on the property this morning. And I know you are too. Can we give the Lord a hand this morning? (clapping) We are very thankful for everyone joining us on our livestream as well, but it was something about being on this property today that just brought a smile to my face. It's crazy to think over the past year what we've been through, but praise the Lord, we're here today and I appreciate you being willing to wear your mask and to register online, and to do everything you need to do social distance to be here. And I don't know about you, but to me it's totally worth it to be able to be here in this building together. Amen. (clapping) And I know that some of you this morning if you're being quite honest, you're a little bothered because you couldn't watch the live stream in your pajamas (laughing) or you were searching for an outfit that you maybe haven't worn for a year or so. But praise the Lord we're here today, together. And our theme this year, as you saw when you came on the property is always pray. And I can't think of a better time for us to be praying. So what I would like to do is to start off our service. I would like to start off in a word of prayer if I could please. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for today and we praise you, Jesus that we are back on property today. Father we thank you for your faithfulness while we've been gone. We thank you Lord, for what you have provided us. We thank you for livestream. We thank you for zoom. We thank you for all the technology that you have given us Lord to use to make your name known. And Father we come to you today, excited to be back here on property. And we just pray Lord that we would enjoy every moment of our time together. And it's in the name of Jesus I pray these things. Amen. Amen. My four year old Landon has something that he would like to say. And so far we're one for one. (laughing) So Landon what would you like to say? Welcome back to FBA. Welcome back to FBA. (clapping) And it is a great honor to welcome back also a dear friend of mine and our newest Pastor here on our church staff. If you would please join me in welcoming back Matthew Slimp. (clapping) Well Good Morning everybody. Welcome, stand with us and let's worship together today. ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ ♪ We praise thee O God ♪ ♪ For the Son of thy love ♪ ♪ For Jesus who died ♪ ♪ And is now gone above ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ ♪ All glory and praise ♪ ♪ To the Lamb that was slain ♪ ♪ Who has borne all our sins ♪ ♪ And has cleansed every stain ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ ♪ Fill each heart with thy love ♪ ♪ May each soul be rekindled ♪ ♪ With fire from above ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Hallelujah amen ♪ ♪ Hallelujah Thine the glory ♪ ♪ Revive us ♪ ♪ Revive us ♪ ♪ Revive us again ♪ Oh amen, that is our prayer Lord revive us again. And we worship our God is greater, stronger than anything in our life this morning. Amen. ♪ Water you turned into wine ♪ ♪ Opened the eyes of the blind ♪ ♪ There's no one like You ♪ ♪ There's none like You ♪ ♪ Into the darkness You shine ♪ ♪ Out of the ashes we rise ♪ ♪ There's no one like You ♪ ♪ There's none like You ♪ ♪ Our God is greater ♪ ♪ Our God is stronger ♪ ♪ God you are higher that any other ♪ ♪ Our God is healer ♪ ♪ Awesome in power ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Into the darkness You shine ♪ ♪ Out of the ashes we rise ♪ ♪ There's no one like You ♪ ♪ None like You ♪ ♪ Our God is greater ♪ ♪ Our God is stronger ♪ ♪ God You are higher than any other ♪ ♪ Our God is healer ♪ ♪ Awesome in power ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God is greater ♪ ♪ Our God is stronger ♪ ♪ God You are higher than any other ♪ ♪ Our God is healer ♪ ♪ Awesome in power ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ Romans 8:31 reminds us if God is for us, who can be against us? Let's declare this promise today. ♪ And if our God is for us ♪ ♪ Then who could ever stop us ♪ ♪ And if our God is with us ♪ ♪ Then what could stand against ♪ ♪ And if our God is for us ♪ ♪ Then who could ever stop us ♪ ♪ And if our God is with us ♪ ♪ Then what could stand against ♪ ♪ Then what could stand against ♪ ♪ Our God is greater ♪ ♪ Our God is stronger ♪ ♪ God You are higher than any other ♪ ♪ Our God is healer ♪ ♪ Awesome in power ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God is greater ♪ ♪ Our God is stronger ♪ ♪ God You are higher than any other ♪ ♪ Our God healer ♪ ♪ Awesome in power ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ Our God ♪ ♪ And if our God is for us ♪ ♪ Then who could ever stop us ♪ ♪ And if our God is with us ♪ ♪ Then what could stand against ♪ ♪ And if our God is for us ♪ ♪ Then who could ever stop us ♪ ♪ And if our God is with us ♪ ♪ Then what could stand against ♪ ♪ Then what could stand against ♪ oh I'm gonna praise today He is with us. And God is for us. And we celebrate how great He is. ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me how great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see ♪ ♪ How great, ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see how great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ Worthy of all praise ♪ ♪ My heart will sing ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Name above all names ♪ ♪ Worthy of all praise ♪ ♪ My heart will sing ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ How great is God ♪ ♪ Sing with me ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see ♪ ♪ How great ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ Sing with me ♪ ♪ How great is our God ♪ ♪ And all will see ♪ ♪ How great ♪ ♪ How great ♪ ♪ How great ♪ ♪ How great ♪ ♪ Is our God ♪ Give Him praise this morning. He's worthy amen. (clapping) How great is our God. (clapping) How great is our God. (clapping) Oh, He is greatly to be praised. You may be seated. Welcome home FBA. Welcome home FBA. You have, I mean, I know you're excited to be here but I have trouble believing it can compare to my excitement that you're here. The room is no longer empty. We've got people in here to worship the Lord. (clapping) The announcement today is the church is in the house, because the house is not the church. The people are the church. And so welcome back to the house. And this is an exciting day. It's a historic day. We've never been down this road before and this pandemic has thrown all of us, a curve ball but God has given us what we need to pull through it. And you came here today because you wanna give Him praise for seeing you through. I hope you brought a song of praise on your lips. (clapping) I mean, has He been good or has He been good? And God is good. How much? All the time. And all the time? God is good. And amen and amen, and amen. So grateful to have you here and this at the first service right before I walked out, about five minutes before I came out for the first service, my mother and sister surprised me. They drove up from Florida and they said, we're driving back after the first service. So they've already left. I didn't even, they came in and spent the night and kept it a secret, walked in here, and just completely crippled me emotionally. (laughing) But I'm just so grateful they were here. It was a very special thing to have my mama here on reopening day. But I'm just as delighted to have all of you here. And I know that you are as grateful as I am for this worship ministry, getting together and being able to lead us today. And the orchestra and the choir. (clapping) Aren't they great? (clapping) And we've got choir members out here. We're having to use a rotation about 30 per week to keep the safety and distance up there. But these 30, you might as well be 5,000 because you look so great up there singing for the Lord. And then this orchestra we had to scale back the orchestra. And so we're gonna work on a rotation over the next several weeks to give as many people in our worship ministry, the opportunity to be here to be a part of it. So we're just thankful for them. And I'm delighted as Pastor Barker said a moment ago that God saw it in His providence to call back to us, Matthew Slimp, trained by Rodney Brooks, by the way. Trained by Rodney Brooks to be our Worship Pastor. Welcome back, brother, Matt. (clapping) You wanna talk about hitting the ground running? He just started Monday morning and I said, open the church back. And that's all you have to do is just open the church back. And no small task there. And in just six days he and Jeff Cranfield and our tech teams and crews and these musicians, they made this happen. And now I want to his wife, Chelsea, somebody caught me between services and said I know you wanted her and he just came along because she is an outstanding soloist. She's an, Chelsea come on out here, we welcome you. She's been back there. (clapping) They have three little girls and they're with Matt's parents at the hotel. They're coming at the last service with their Grandparents but Chelsea's gonna sing an amazing song. And you better say, amen if you hear this. The song says is there anybody here who knows He's able say, amen. Amen. And so you participate in this song. We're gonna go to the Lord in prayer and we're gonna continue to worship God. He is able, He is faithful. He is good. He is awesome. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For bringing us together again. And there's something about today that we all feel this is right. This is good. And as I heard a gentleman walk in a moment ago and said, I needed church, bless my heart. But Lord, more than that, it blesses Your heart. You've already told us if just two or three are gathered together, You're there but several hundred. We are humbled to be here, grateful to be here. And we just wanna say thank you for getting us through a crazy time. We didn't know what one day would would bring us after the next, you got us back here to church to hear the music, to be able to sing to be able to see what part of each other's faces we can see. It's just good to be with one another. And I thank you, God that You are here, Your spirit is here. We pray that You'll do something special in this service. Lord, let us take home something in our hearts that we can say, God spoke to me. The Holy Spirit was there today. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to sing You praises. And as we continue with this service we just pray that everything that You wanna do, that there'll be no hindrance to the work that You want to accomplish. If it's something in our life, something in our heart show it to us Lord so we can surrender it, make it right. So there'll be no obstruction to the flow of God in every heart and every life today in Jesus name. Amen. (gentle piano music) ♪ This life is a journey ♪ ♪ We walk by faith ♪ ♪ And there'll always be a mountain ♪ ♪ In our way ♪ ♪ But right here in this moment ♪ ♪ May our strength be renewed ♪ ♪ As we recall what God has done ♪ ♪ And how we've seen Him move ♪ ♪ If there's anybody here ♪ ♪ Who has found Him faithful ♪ ♪ Anybody here who knows He's able ♪ ♪ Say amen ♪ ♪ If there's anybody here who has seen His power ♪ ♪ Anybody here brought through the fire ♪ ♪ Say amen ♪ ♪ Anybody here found joy in the midst of sorrow ♪ ♪ Peace in the storm hope for tomorrow ♪ ♪ Seen it time and time again ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (soft music) ♪ Sometimes through the darkness ♪ ♪ It's hard to see ♪ ♪ But just be brave and follow where He leads ♪ ♪ Greater is the One Who's in us ♪ ♪ Than he who is in the world ♪ ♪ So child of God remember ♪ ♪ The battle is the Lord's ♪ ♪ If there's anybody here who has found Him faithful ♪ ♪ Anybody here who knows He's able ♪ ♪ Say amen ♪ ♪ If there's anybody here who has seen His power ♪ ♪ Anybody here brought through the fire ♪ ♪ Come on and say amen ♪ ♪ Anybody here found joy in the midst of sorrow ♪ ♪ Peace in the storm hope for tomorrow ♪ ♪ And seen it time and time again ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Even in the valley of the shadow ♪ ♪ When you feel alone out in the unknown ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Say amen ♪ ♪ Even when the storms are ragin' ♪ ♪ Just stand and know you're not forsaken ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Say amen ♪ ♪ Is there anybody here ♪ ♪ Tell me is there anybody here ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ If there's anybody here ♪ ♪ Who has found Him faithful ♪ ♪ Anybody here who knows He's able ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ If there's anybody here who has seen His power ♪ ♪ Anybody here brought through the fire ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Anybody here found joy in the midst of sorrow ♪ ♪ Peace in the storm hope for tomorrow ♪ ♪ And seen it time and time again ♪ ♪ I've seen it time and time again ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Just say amen ♪ ♪ Somebody say amen ♪ (clapping) (upbeat music) Most of us are wondering when life will ever get back to normal. Right now it seems the normal is the abnormal. We're shell shocked. We're weary. We're resisting the temptation to grow overly cynical and numb. And we're trying to turn a deaf ear to the call from despair and her counterparts of discouragement and doubt. And can we hang on to some remnant of hope that this new normal will not be our final normal? And if you're like me, you're just looking for what I want to call this morning, the road back to normal. The Road Back to Normal. And that is the title of the message this morning. And I want you to open to the epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11. And we're just going to focus on one verse eventually but it's, I think accurate to say that we are living through the unsettling of all that is familiar. The destabilizing of norms, the lightning fast pace of change, the feeling that nothing will ever be the same, the sense that evil is winning and darkness is advancing. The knowledge that really unless God saves us our world is going to spiral into utter disarray. And when we feel what we feel and see what we see, we might be inclined to think that our generation is the first to experience this kind of unusual and bizarre existence. Where chaos abounds and everyone is confused. But the truth is there are people who have lived before us who have lived through much more difficult times than what we're going through. There are people in other times through history who have lived through much worse than this. And, you know, we can read the accounts of men and women in the Bible who went through times of confusion and disruption. And because they had great faith they were able to persevere. And one such family that I want us to think about this morning is the family of brother Noah. You've heard about brother Noah, haven't you? The man who built the ark, that if you grew up in church and going to Sunday School, this is one of the first stories that you would have heard is about Noah building the Ark. And how God laid out for Noah the specifications of how long and how wide and how tall. And that ark was a monstrosity. When you're learning about it as a little child it doesn't seem so big because it fits onto a piece of construction paper that gets taped to the wall. But if you've ever had the privilege of going up to Petersburg, Kentucky to the answers in Genesis creation museum, and now the recent edition of the Ark encounter, you know that was one kind of construction project. Out of curiosity, is there anyone here who's been able to go to the Ark encounter? All right. A lot of people have been able to go see that. And if you haven't, that would be a great trip a get away to go and just walk through the replication of Noah's ark. That ark was needed because God's plan was to protect the human race by saving Noah and his family. And also, you know, the story of two-by-two they walked up the gangplank into the big ship and God saved all other life forms as well. And what we find is that Noah simply heard the commandments of God and did what God said. Isn't that a great testimony to someone's life? Is that they heard God speak and they did what God said. In Genesis six, verse 22, it says, "Thus Noah did according to all that, God commanded him, so he did." Those three words, sum it all up. So he did, he was obedient. But his obedience comes down to his faith. And that's what I want us to focus on as we think about the road back to normal. This will be a road that requires faith on our part. If you were to summarize the whole purpose for which God gave us the Bible, of course it was to reveal Jesus to us. But in order to know Jesus, we have to have faith. So it is accurate to say the purpose of the Bible is faith. The Bible says faith comes by and hearing by the Word of God. God's Word was given to us for the express purpose of building faith within us, as His children. Now we get to Hebrews 11 and in Hebrews 11, you remember how the first verse starts that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, right? And then, you know, verse six that says, but without faith it's impossible to please God, you know that verse, right? But we usually stop with either one or six but the very next verse after, without faith it's impossible to please God is verse seven. And it reads "by faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness, which is according to faith." I will often, as you know if you've heard me speak very much I will often refer to the New Living Translation. And I know there are places where it is not as accurate a translation. So I'm careful about which verse I display from the New Living but where I feel like it really conveys something in this conversational relational way as we talked today. I will use it and I wanna use it on verse seven by showing you how the New Living puts it. "It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God who had warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith." You know, I want you to think about Noah and his family because all it talks about is Noah. But I think we should just put our hands over our heart and give tribute to Mrs. Noah. (laughing) You don't hear a whole lot about her. Don't you know she had to put up with a lot. What in the world are you building in our front yard? And then code enforcement from the town where they lived. You know code enforcement had to slap them with citation after citation for the eyesore. And don't forget the HOA board from the community in which they lived. As this humongous construction project is taking place out in, on the homestead of the Noah family. And, you know, I believe that I would like to think she was a godly woman, not like Mrs. Job, who was the spawn of Satan. (laughing) Right? Mrs. Job, you know, Mrs. Job just curse God and die. I'd like to think that when, when Mrs. Noah went to the salon that she just said, Oh I've got the best man you'd ever wanna know. He walks with God and that's so sexy to me, a man who walks with God, I just love a godly man. And I go home and I hear that hammer, clang clang. And I say, yes Lord, yes my man's working for God. You know, I would like to think she was proud of her man. Amen. That she stood by her man that she said, I got me a good one. And so I'd like to think that she had to have the kind of faith that he had to go along with it. I'd like to think that his son Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their spouses, they had to have faith too. 'Cause they helped her dad out and they all had to walk up the gangplank. And the Bible says, God, shut the door. You know when you're a kid, you just think, cool, cool. But can you... (laughing) You know celebrities of the seas, it was not, it was not, you know princess cruise line. This was no Mediterranean luxury cruise with the smorgasbord at midnight and the ice sculptors. You know, if you've ever been on a cruise, this was a stink fest. I mean, stop and think about it. Not only feeding the animals, but the elimination of the animals. It just, it was not a fun ride. And I just have to wonder if on the boat ride they didn't say, can't wait to get back to normal. Wouldn't you think that? If they were human, they were saying that. You know, it reminds me of the Israelites and how God set them free from Egypt right? And Moses got them out there and they were having the manna provided from heaven. And what did they decide they wished they were back at? They said we wish we were back in Egypt, back to normal. Now normal was messed up, but it was familiar. And see the truth is for Noah and his family to be thinking we can't wait to get back to normal, we don't have to wonder what pre-flood normal was because God tells us what pre-flood normal was. In Genesis chapter six in verse five it says, "before the flood, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. And that every intent of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil, continually." That was normal. And God dealt with that. I want you to think about our boat ride through this pandemic. Where we're saying let's get back to normal. I believe with all of my heart, that the same thing God says in Genesis 6:5 about pre flood earth normal, God could say about pre COVID earth normal. That mankind is evil. And that the thoughts of his heart are continually evil. And whereas this pandemic could have been a time that rattled people from their unbelief to repentance and faith in Christ. Can I ask you a question? Do you think that's been the sweeping result across our country? I don't believe it has. Where is the wide-scale repentance? Where is the turning to God? Where is the saying, I need to be saved. Oh no. There's just anger and more division and hostility and frustration. So we have to say, well, if Noah and his family said we can't wait to get back to normal if they said that, and you and I think we can't wait to get back to normal. I'm not so sure that normal is what we need to go back to. They didn't want life on the ark to be normal. You and I don't want pandemic life to be normal but here is the crazy thing. When the ark finally lodged and the water subsided, and guess what? When they walked down the gangplank they were the only human beings on the planet. You understand that don't you? You know how it's said that all human beings if we believe the Bible and we do we are all the descendants of the same two parents, right? Adam and Eve. And that's a good thing to remember in this racially divided age. That we all come from the same two parents. So it's not about color that is race, it's about the human race. We are all human beings. (clapping) So all of these distinctions that we draw are contrary to the fact that we all share a common ancestry. Oh yeah. It's true. And the truth is we often say that about Adam and Eve but the same could be said about Noah and Mrs. Noah. We can all trace our ancestry back to them. Because humanity started over with the Noah family. They walked off. Now they had ruled the roost lay of the land, that might've been a cool feeling for a couple of days. And then it's like dude, we're it. And then the same command that God had given to Adam and Eve be fruitful and multiply, he had to say that to Noah and his family again be fruitful. Their job was to repopulate the earth. They didn't go back to normal. And the truth is, I don't know that you and I are ever going to get back to what we would remember as normal. But what I want us to focus on today for the remainder of our time is this. Whether they got back to normal or a new normal or an abnormal, this is what it required from the time God told the man to go cut down trees and build an ark to the time He said, I'll call the animals put the gangplank down to the time He said, get on the boat. I'm gonna make it rain. And even the journey hovering out there floating on the open seas. This man and his family walked by faith. And faith got them through. And that is why he has earned a spot in this passage called Hebrews 11 which we refer to as the great hall of faith. Noah was not a perfect man. We could tell you things about him that prove his imperfection. Especially when he got off the ark. He decided to terry a little long on the Jack Daniels. You know what I'm saying? I mean he had a little problem there. But whether he was perfect or not, he walked by faith. And what I want us to do is just take a few lessons from his life. And I want you to write these down. Because on the road to wherever it is, we're going these are important truths about faith. Are you ready for it? Now I told the first service, I better get me some amens today because these seats do not amen when nobody's sitting in them. And it has been that first service helped me out a little bit. Now I had to coach him a little. I had to do a little ear. You know I had to do a little ear, but listen, here's the thing. Faith doesn't require stability, faith provides stability. See a lot of times we think, well if my life were in a better order, if things were going better for me if things were flowing the way I want them to, you know if everything was working on the schedule and according to my arrangement, then my faith could be stronger. Oh no, you don't. You don't. What you're doing is you're saying that faith requires your life to be stable before it can grow. Oh no, no, no. Faith doesn't require stability. Faith is what brings stability in the midst of instability. Your faith doesn't grow when everything's going great and calm and peaceful. Your faith grows when everything is falling apart. And how many times have there been situations in your life when you had a tragic loss of a loved one or a terrible diagnosis from the doctor or some heart crushing revelation that crippled you emotionally or whatever it might be. How many times have you gone through something like that and yet there was this calm that you had. This peace that you had. It's because your faith provided you with stability that your circumstances did not. And that's the good news. Faith does not need stability, but faith can give you stability. So I think this must be something about which Jesus was speaking when He was talking in Matthew seven in the sermon on the mountian. I remember this from being in Sunday School as a little boy too, He said there were two men who built houses. You remember this one? One was foolish because he built on the sand. The other was wise because he built on the rock. And when the storms came, the house on the sand did what it fell down because it didn't have a foundation. But when the storms came and beat against the house on the rock, after the storms went away, that house was still standing. And the reason is because faith is a solid rock. Your life can be stabilized because of faith and Noah's life was provided with stability amidst very unstable surroundings, because that's what faith does in our lives. Here's another thing I want you to write down. Faith is not afraid of chaos, it thrives in chaos. It's not afraid of chaos. It thrives in chaos. Now, do you believe that chaos can be the work of Satan? I certainly do. Chaos is where you don't know what's happening because it keeps happening so fast. Chaos is where so many things are happening in such rapid fire succession, you can hardly catch your breath to recover from the last thing that happened. Chaos is when everything that you have relied on as familiar, is changing and you wonder what happened last night while you were sleeping. I have awakened to live in a world I don't recognize. How many, know what I'm talking about? This is chaos and it's part of the shock and awe campaign of Satan. And I wanna just be as plain spoken as I can be with you. I mean, after all we're here, we're in the church. Let's just put the cookies down on the lower shelf here. Amen? Amen. The chaos that we are going through is not accidental chaos, it is engineered chaos. I believe that with all of my heart. I am not a conspiracy theorist but I believe this virus was engineered and released on the world population. I believe that with all of my heart. (clapping) And not only do I believe it was engineered in a laboratory and released on the human population, but I believe that the Titans of the left coast. That the Titans of tech and Silicon Valley, that they are engineering through their algorithms, a constant barrage of mental chaos to cause us to feel that our foundations are crumbling under our feet. I believe with all of my heart it is engineered, it is strategic. And we have to recognize it for what it is. (clapping) And then when you just, you know so they've already got this, you know you throw a little Corona virus in the pot, you throw a little tech Titans in there to season it up. And then you add the lane brains in Washington to the mix. And I'm telling you, you have a toxic beef stew. And it's filled with unrecognizable parts. And what are we doing? We're just sitting there slurping it even though it's making us sick. And what I'm wanting to share with you is this, God designed faith. You wanna talk about something being engineered, God invented faith. Do you believe that? Because God knew He would remain invisible to us. Therefore, He created this idea that in order to know Him, in order to follow Him, we would have to believe in Him by faith. And if God designed faith, God engineered faith, God is the Author of faith. You need to know something about how God designed it in His heavenly laboratory. Faith was designed to thrive in chaos. So when God, and do you realize this faith is a gift? You say, well, I have faith. You have faith because God gives us faith. And so when you think about it if faith is this gift from God and it thrives in chaos because that's how God designed it, then faith will never be afraid of chaos. Faith is crying out within the heart of every believer. It is for this moment. It is for this circumstance. It is for this cray, cray life you're living. This is why I gave you faith. Because faith rises up in confusion. Why? Because it is when there are so many things going on that you do not know and understand that you can stand more firmly on what you do know and understand. Therefore chaos and uncertainty just give your faith the opportunity to show itself for what it is. Faith thrives in chaos. Amen. And so faith is the calm assurance that you and I have. And that's why we're here this morning that we have no idea 2021 will be worse than 2020. But even if it is, our faith will sustain us. Because God is moved by faith. I want you to write this down. You ready for it? Faith doesn't need a photo, just a canvas. Faith doesn't need a photo just a canvas. Now, if you ask me, Hey, Anthony would you rather take a picture with your iPhone or paint picture on a canvas. I would say, are you kidding me, paint a picture on a canvas, give me the phone. And if you're like me, you're getting to the place where you probably need to buy more storage in your iCloud or however you... How many of you know, you got way too many pictures on your camera? And you got them on Facebook. And if you're the memory comes up, they have a memory. You know, the memory will come up. Well, we all love these pictures, but I would much rather stop and take a shot of a beautiful meadow or a Harbor up in Maine or something like that. I would much rather take a shot then go drop my little happy self up there and get me a little easel and set up a canvas and paint. Are you kidding me? No I love, I appreciate people who can do that, but just, hey I'm gone. But here's the thing, faith... A photo is something that someone takes of something that already exists. Am I accurate in that? But faith just needs a canvas because faith does not reveal what already is that can be proven with a photo. Faith actually paints picture that God shows you, He wants it to be. You say, where's this coming from? Well in the verse we're focusing on verse seven it says, Noah obeyed God, and this is from the New Living translation. God had warned him about what does it say? Things that had never happened before. Things that had never happened before. Now the New King James version translated this way. "By faith Noah being divinely warned of things." And what are the last three words in that sentence? "Not yet seen." In other words, nobody had the picture of the ark in their iPhone. Why? Because there had never been an ark. It required a canvas, not a photo. Noah was going to have to paint the picture because there was no picture. But that's what faith is designed to do. Now when you think about those last three words not yet seen, it takes us back to number one of chapter 11 which is, "faith is the substance of things hoped for" the evidence of what are those last three words. So whether it's verse seven, not yet seen or verse one, things not seeing you getting the idea that faith calls us to move into the realm of the invisible of things that can't be captured by a camera. Therefore, the canvas is where our faith paints the picture of what God tells us our life can look like. Of what God tells us He wants to do. Of what God promises us that He will accomplish. Things not seen. What had not happened before in Noah's day, get this rain. You say what? Yeah I'm telling you rain from creation to Noah's flood, it had never rained. We believe there was this greenhouse canopy that enveloped the earth's atmosphere that caused there to be a warmth and a humidity throughout the earth that stabilized the earth's ecosystem. And it was not until they got on that boat and the door closed that the clap of thunder came and that greenhouse canopy began to empty out the water that circled the earth in the heavens. And not only that, but the Bible says that the earth the Earth's surface opened up and the subterranean reservoirs of the earth began to vomit their waters from beneath the ground of the earth. So the flood of Noah water was coming from above and from below that had never happened before. So you telling this guy, Noah you need to build an ark for the flood. What is a flood? Well, it's gonna happen when there's a lot of rain. What is rain? You see what I'm saying? God was talking to Noah about things Noah had never seen. And that's where faith comes in. You have to believe that if God says it's going to happen, it's going to happen. Pull out your paintbrush paint the picture that God has shown you, He's going to bring to pass. Some might need to get a paint brush in here today. Because God is wanting us to understand it's not the photo He's focusing on it's the canvas. It's something you've not seen before. It had never rained, there'd never been a boat like this but his faith painted the picture. And this is a reminder to me of second Corinthians, chapter five and verse seven. Would you mind reading this verse out loud with me off the screen. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Exactly. May I ask you this question? What is our tendency is to walk by sight not by faith. And the Christian life is about learning to rely less on what you see and hear and feel and think and more on what God tells you by faith. How many of you want to continue walking by faith and less by sight? Walk by what God says in His Word and less by how you feel. Walk by what God says this world is headed to versus what social media says this world is headed to. I want to walk by faith, not by sight. And here's the last thing I want you to write down. Faith doesn't need man's approval, it secures God's approval. Faith doesn't need mankind's approval. Faith is what gives us God's approval. This is very important to distinguish between the approval that we want from people and the approval that we get from God. And in verse number seven, it says "Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world." Now that's an interesting play on words that Noah condemned the world. We know that Noah didn't condemn the world, God condemn the world. But Noah had to build the ark because that was God's plan to save the human race through Noah's family, before He condemned the world. So there's a sense in which Noah contributed to God's plan having the green light to go forward to condemn the world. That doesn't sound pleasant, that through Noah's faith the world got condemned, but if God was glorified through His holiness and wrath to punish the earth, then Noah played his part. I wish God would let us choose which part we play. I mean, think about it, Noah is known for building the ark, but this says because of his faith, the world was condemned. What a legacy. God doesn't have us choose though what our legacy is gonna be. God doesn't have us choose what our assignment's going to be. God deals our assignment to us and our responsibility is to walk in faith. But I can tell you this, this old boy, he felt all by himself. You know he did. For instance, in the New Living Translation, it says in Genesis six and verse nine "this is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man. And look at how it's translated. "The only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God." Isn't, that's pretty strong isn't it? That he was the only one. Say the only one. He's the only righteous man living at that time? I mean stop and think about it. There are more people in this room today who love God just in this service than there were in the whole world when Noah was living. More in this room right now. He felt all alone. And yet the New Living puts it this way, he obeyed God. He obeyed God. And what Noah understood was I don't need people's approval to do what God tells me to do. People don't have to understand what I'm doing. And I can remember as a little boy in Sunday School hearing the teacher talk about how people, everybody in town made fun of Noah. Everybody walked by and ridiculed him. Everybody said, you've lost your mind, you've gone crazy. And he just kept on nailing those timbers, building that ark. And even to the final moment, and I can remember a little teacher, a little old lady talking about how, when they all got in the ark and God shut the door, people were still laughing and they could hear them outside the boat. But then it started thundering and then the water started rising. And then instead of laughter outside the boat, they heard (knocking) please let us in. See it's worth it to go with God. 'Cause you need to know the people who are laughing at Him will end up crying. The people who ridicule our Bibles will end up bowing before Jesus Christ and saying, the Word of God was true all along. Do not let the tyranny of the majority intimidate you. You and God are the majority. And if you will stand by faith, you don't need to worry about people approving of you and people applauding you because I believe that as this cancel culture grows, Christians will be the next target. And we gotta make up our mind, we're going with God. Vote us off the Island, we're going with God. (clapping) Block our access to the internet, we're going with God. We're just going to go with God because we're walking by faith and not by sight. Jesus talked about the days of Noah. He said in Matthew 24, "the days of Noah were so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." This is what Jesus said for as in the days before the flood they were eating, they were drinking, they were married. They were giving in marriage. They were having receptions and rehearsals and everything. And until the day that Noah entered the Ark and they didn't know until the flood came and took them all away. And He said, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. And what He was saying there is while Noah was doing everything, God told him to do, the world was still going on as though nothing was wrong. That's what Jesus was saying. But Noah was tuned in. And so I want you to think about the contrast Jesus paints for us between Noah and everybody else in the world. Even though he was a one man minority, he was right. And it proves that majority does not equal right. Jesus said straight as the way and narrow is the gate that leads to life. And few there be that find it. Well, I wanna tell you what's most important of all about Noah is that he was saved and I'm not talking about by the ark. I'm talking about by the grace of God. In Hebrews 11 in verse seven, it says "Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world." And look at what's underlined. "And he became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." And all in the world that means is, is that because Noah believed God by faith, he was saved. He had righteousness credited to him. In theology we call this the doctrine of justification by faith. It means that building the ark didn't save Noah. That's good works. Believing in the Word of God as it was revealed to Noah, that's what saved Noah. Because we are saved, not by works but by grace through faith. So I'm happy to say that Noah and his family got off the ark but what good would it have done them to be saved from the flood, but to die and go to hell? The beauty about Noah is that Noah was saved from the flood but he was also safe from hell because he was truly saved by the grace of God. And as we are gathered here today, we realize that what our world needs is not to be spared of COVID, our world needs salvation from sin. This world needs Jesus. (clapping) So we're on the road together aren't we? We don't know where it's leading but we're gonna walk it by faith. Just like Noah did. Father how grateful we are that we have been together today. We thank you for this worship. We thank you for the eager and hungry hearts who are here. These are worshipers in this house oh God. And I pray that as we leave, our faith tank will have been refilled and that we will realize that there is nothing the world and Satan himself can throw our way, that'll cripple our faith because our faith was built for times like this. You've proven it for these 10 and a half months and You're gonna prove it until we see You face to face in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. (clapping)
