Speaker 1: The Life of Noah teaches us what to do when
Speaker 1: no one else understands your goal.
Speaker 2: When you have a dream that God has.
Speaker 1: Given you and put it in your heart and you're
Speaker 1: trying to do something you believe God wants you to do,
Speaker 1: and nobody else gets it. God used Noah to save
Speaker 1: the future of the entire human race. Now, the bigger
Speaker 1: the life vision God gives you, the bigger the problems
Speaker 1: you can expect to have. And you could also expect
Speaker 1: that when God gives you a dream or a goal
Speaker 1: or a vision for your life, a lot of other
Speaker 1: people just aren't going to understand it. Now, maybe you're
Speaker 1: in this situation today you say, I know what I
Speaker 1: want to do with my life. I know what God
Speaker 1: wants me to do with my life. I know what
Speaker 1: my goal is, my dream, my vision is, but nobody
Speaker 1: else gets it.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: You know, when most people think of Noah, they always
Speaker 1: want to know about the details of the flood and
Speaker 1: the details of the arc, this giant ship that he built,
Speaker 1: and all the animals and how they got collected and
Speaker 1: now the miracles occurred. And I'll agree that those are
Speaker 1: fascinating details.
Speaker 2: But today, for the purpose of.
Speaker 1: This message, I want us to just set those details aside,
Speaker 1: and I want to focus on the man himself, Noah,
Speaker 1: and how he handled getting the arc built when nothing ever,
Speaker 1: ever had ever been built like it, and when the
Speaker 1: idea of a flood had never even been considered on
Speaker 1: the earth. The Bible said, it had never rained on
Speaker 1: Earth before the flood, So the people didn't even know
Speaker 1: what Noah was talking about, and nobody believed that God
Speaker 1: had told Noah that this was going to happen, and
Speaker 1: that he was going to build an arc, and that
Speaker 1: all of the world.
Speaker 2: Was going to end.
Speaker 1: And yet he had an assignment that took literally decades
Speaker 1: and decades and decades. Now, just in case some of
Speaker 1: you don't know this story, the Bible tells us that
Speaker 1: there was a time on Earth when mankind got so
Speaker 1: depraved and so wicked and so perverted that God regretted
Speaker 1: creating human beings. And God was ready to just wipe
Speaker 1: out the entire human race and start all over from scratch.
Speaker 2: But he looked.
Speaker 1: Down on Earth and he found one guy, one guy
Speaker 1: with a pure heart, a true believer with integrity, who
Speaker 1: genuinely loved God and he wanted to do the right thing.
Speaker 1: And that guy's name was Noah. So God looks down
Speaker 1: and he finds though, and he tells, no Noah.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make it rain. Now.
Speaker 1: The Bible says before that that God had watered the
Speaker 1: earth plants from a dew, a mist that came up
Speaker 1: from the ground at night, So the entire firmendment of
Speaker 1: the earth changed the climate you talk about climate change.
Speaker 2: They had never rained on.
Speaker 1: Earth before this, which is why they had never seen
Speaker 1: a rainbow, why they had never heard of a flood.
Speaker 1: And it was and by the way, it's probably why
Speaker 1: they lived so much longer in those days. They lived
Speaker 1: hundreds of years longer in the early years of the Earth,
Speaker 1: the Bible tells us. In fact, Noah lived nearly six
Speaker 1: hundred years and took him nearly one hundred years.
Speaker 2: To build the arc.
Speaker 1: But he said, I'm going to make it rain so
Speaker 1: much that it's going to create a worldwide flood, and
Speaker 1: it's going to cover the entire earth, and it's going
Speaker 1: to wipe out everything. But I'm going to save your
Speaker 1: family and your sons and your wives, and they're going
Speaker 1: to repopulate the earth, which means Noah is your ancestor.
Speaker 1: We're all related to Noah somehow, so we're all family
Speaker 1: in that way. Now, God said, the way I'm going
Speaker 1: to save you is, I'm going to have you build
Speaker 1: this giant boat, which we'll call the Arc, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to give you the plans and I'm going to
Speaker 1: teach you how to build it with your sons. But
Speaker 1: it's not going to take a long, long, long time.
Speaker 2: To build it. And using the ages of.
Speaker 1: Noah's sons, Bible scholars have figured out that it probably
Speaker 1: took Noah about eighty years to build the Ark. It
Speaker 1: was a minimum of fifty years. And during this time
Speaker 1: no one, no one on Earth except Noah's family would
Speaker 1: understand Noah's goal. And he's building this arc in the
Speaker 1: front yard and they're not.
Speaker 2: Nobody's going to understand.
Speaker 1: The neighbors are going to understand what's going on, why
Speaker 1: Noah's doing it. Everybody's going to think you're crazy, Noah.
Speaker 1: Now this is the setup for the story of Noah
Speaker 1: that we find in Genesis chapter six to chapter nine. Now,
Speaker 1: on Noah's story, we learn that Noah was able to
Speaker 1: reach his goal, to fulfill his mission, to achieve the
Speaker 1: dream that God had put in his heart, and do
Speaker 1: what God had called him to do with his life
Speaker 1: in spite of four common pitfalls. They are distractions, doubts, detours,
Speaker 1: and delays. Now, specifically, Noah shows us the antidote to
Speaker 1: four things. First, cultural distractions. These are the things that
Speaker 1: are around your life that waste your time and waste
Speaker 1: your energy, and waste your focus and waste your money
Speaker 1: when God says, here's what I want you to do
Speaker 1: with your life. The second pitfall is what I call
Speaker 1: voices of doubt, and that's those voices that you hear
Speaker 1: from people around you that cause you the second guess
Speaker 1: yourself and your goal in life. The third pitfall are
Speaker 1: what I call tempting detours, and these are things that
Speaker 1: look like shortcuts and this will save me some time,
Speaker 1: but they actually points you in the wrong direction.
Speaker 2: And the fourth.
Speaker 1: Pitfall that Noah had to avoid is what I call
Speaker 1: discouraging delays because it took him almost one hundred years
Speaker 1: to build this arc. Now we learn the same four
Speaker 1: choices that Noah made are the same four choices that
Speaker 1: you must make in order to fulfill God's purpose and
Speaker 1: God's plan.
Speaker 2: For your life. So let's get right into it.
Speaker 1: Here's the first choice that Noah made that you're going
Speaker 1: to have to make in order to get to the
Speaker 1: fulfillment of the dream, the vision, and the goal God
Speaker 1: hasked for your life. Number one, I must dare to
Speaker 1: be different from my culture. I must dare to be
Speaker 1: different from my culture. Now, until you settle this big issue,
Speaker 1: you're never going to fulfill your destiny. You can forget
Speaker 1: fitting in. You can't fit in with culture and fit
Speaker 1: in with God's plan for your life. The Bible tells
Speaker 1: us in Genesis, chapter six, verse nine, first part of
Speaker 1: the verse. It says this, this is the account of
Speaker 1: Noah and his descendants. Noah had God's approval. Notice this,
Speaker 1: Noah had God's approval, and he was a man of
Speaker 1: integrity among the people of his time, as from God's
Speaker 1: words translations. Now, if you intend to do anything significant
Speaker 1: with your life, it's going to be in spite of
Speaker 1: our culture, not because of it. You hear that in
Speaker 1: spite of the culture, not because of it. Culture will
Speaker 1: distract you from God's purpose for your life. And would
Speaker 1: you agree there are plenty of things that distract you
Speaker 1: from your destiny. Yeah, let me just mention four cultural distractions.
Speaker 1: Real quick Number one would be pleasure. Our world is
Speaker 1: pleasure crazy, living for fun, living for comfort, living for entertainment.
Speaker 1: You can't live for those things and live for God. Possessions,
Speaker 1: you know, judging your success by how much stuff you accumulate. Possessions, pleasure, popularity,
Speaker 1: worrying about what other people think. You can't focus on
Speaker 1: being popular and doing what God has called you to
Speaker 1: do with your life at the same time. And how
Speaker 1: about profit if your number one goal is to get rich.
Speaker 1: I just want to remind you that Jesus said you
Speaker 1: cannot serve both God and money. He didn't say you shouldn't.
Speaker 1: He said you can't. You can't have to do gods.
Speaker 1: Whatever is number one in your life will be your God. Now,
Speaker 1: in Noah's day, the human race had hit bottom morally.
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter six, Verse eleven and twelve says this earth
Speaker 1: had become corrupt in the sight, in God's sight, and
Speaker 1: it was filled with violence. Now notice he might circle
Speaker 1: these words corrupt and then violence, and God observed all
Speaker 1: the evil. There's a third word done in the world,
Speaker 1: and he noticed cruelty. There's the fourth world word and
Speaker 1: depravity everywhere violence, depravity, cruelty, corruption, evil, sound vaguely familiar.
Speaker 1: In Genesis chapter six, verse five and six, it says
Speaker 1: when God saw the extent of human wickedness on the earth,
Speaker 1: and that the trend and direction notice that phrase, the
Speaker 1: trend and direction of men's lives were only toward evil.
Speaker 1: He God was sorry that he had made them, and
Speaker 1: it broke his heart. God had a broken heart. The
Speaker 1: world was broken by all kinds of sin and all
Speaker 1: kinds of evil, and that broke God's heart. When God
Speaker 1: made it, he said, it's good, It's all good. But
Speaker 1: it wasn't all good anymore. Does this sound familiar? By
Speaker 1: the way, what do you think is the trend today?
Speaker 1: What's the trend and direction of culture today? Is it
Speaker 1: toward good? Is it towards civility or incivility? Is it
Speaker 1: toward rudeness? Or is it toward love? Is it toward
Speaker 1: people being more violent or being more peaceful?
Speaker 2: We're in the same direction, you know. Jesus said this.
Speaker 1: Jesus said in Luke seventeen, verse twenty six, when the
Speaker 1: Son of Man comes again, Jesus is coming back someday,
Speaker 1: he said, it will be like it was when Noah lived.
Speaker 1: In other words, the same things that were going on
Speaker 1: in Noah's day, violence, corruption, evil, depravity, cruelty, people being
Speaker 1: cruel to each other. He said, you can expect that again.
Speaker 1: We're seeing that today. These are distractions in our culture.
Speaker 1: But here's the good news. And all of the darkness
Speaker 1: that was going across the earth at that time, God
Speaker 1: found one bright spot. And in Genesis sixth, verse eight,
Speaker 1: I love this. In the message it says this, but
Speaker 1: Noah was different. Noah was different. God liked what he
Speaker 1: saw in Noah while the entire world, all of culture,
Speaker 1: was headed in one direction. Two words saved the world.
Speaker 1: But Noah, I want you to be that kind of
Speaker 1: person in today's world. I want you to be a
Speaker 1: But Noah, that you turn the other direction you're going.
Speaker 1: But Susan, but Mary, but John, but Bill. But Noah
Speaker 1: was going in a different direction. He's the only guy
Speaker 1: in the world. He's counterculture.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Noah is not worried about fitting in. He's not worried
Speaker 1: about gaining the approval of other people. He doesn't worry
Speaker 1: about keeping up with the latest trends. Why, because the
Speaker 1: trends and direction of the world were going in the
Speaker 1: wrong direction. Friends, it's not important to be on the
Speaker 1: right side of a trend. It's not important to be
Speaker 1: on the right side of history. It's just important to
Speaker 1: be on the right side. History is often wrong. Trends
Speaker 1: are often wrong. And if God is going to use you,
Speaker 1: if you're going to be all that God intends for
Speaker 1: you to be as a man or as a woman,
Speaker 1: you must be willing to be different. Noah was willing
Speaker 1: to be different in order to fulfill his destiny. He
Speaker 1: marched to a different drummer. Now I want you to
Speaker 1: write this down. Okay, write it down. I can only
Speaker 1: make a difference by being different. It's pretty simple thought,
Speaker 1: but it's also profound. I can only make a difference
Speaker 1: by being different. I can only make a difference by
Speaker 1: being different. You want to make a difference in this world.
Speaker 1: You want to make a difference in your family. You
Speaker 1: want to make a difference in your community, your school,
Speaker 1: your business. I can only make it if it's by
Speaker 1: being different. If I try to be like everybody else,
Speaker 1: I'm never going to make a difference. You're never going
Speaker 1: to make a difference unless you're willing to be like Noah.
Speaker 1: Where you ignore cultural distractions. Great people never never, never
Speaker 1: follow the crowd. They take the road less traveled. The
Speaker 1: Living Bible says Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.
Speaker 1: I want God to be able to say that about you.
Speaker 1: I want other people to be able to say that
Speaker 1: about you, that you were a pleasure to the Lord
Speaker 1: that God looks down at Noah says, that guy makes
Speaker 1: me smile. Can God say that about you? Are you
Speaker 1: going the way of the crowd? You go in the
Speaker 1: way of culture, you go on the way of society. Genesis,
Speaker 1: Chapter seven, Verse one. God told Noah, out of everyone
Speaker 1: living in this generation, you are the only righteous person
Speaker 1: on earth. That's why we're talking about in thousands of
Speaker 1: years later. Could God say that about you? Out of
Speaker 1: everybody living today, you're the only righteous person on earth?
Speaker 2: Now, how does that happen?
Speaker 1: Well, living with integrity requires the courage to be different.
Speaker 1: And if I'm going to fulfill my destiny in life,
Speaker 1: you're going to fulfill your destiny in life, you must
Speaker 1: be willing to walk a different direction than everybody else
Speaker 1: around you. All right, here's the second choice that Noah
Speaker 1: had to make. I must listen to God, not the
Speaker 1: voices of doubt. I must listen to God, not the
Speaker 1: voices of doubt. Can you imagine all the doubts that
Speaker 1: Noah had when God comes and says, I'm going to
Speaker 1: destroy the world to start over. I'm gonna start over
Speaker 1: with your family. You're going to build an arc. There's
Speaker 1: a thing called rain. It's gonna rain. There's going to
Speaker 1: be a flood, and you're gonna be able to do this.
Speaker 2: You go, really me, Moah. Now.
Speaker 1: Voices of doubt can come from many, many different places
Speaker 1: in your life. Some of you are listening to voices
Speaker 1: of doubt right now. God has given you a vision,
Speaker 1: given you a dream that's been in your heart since
Speaker 1: you were young, or maybe it's a new vision, a
Speaker 1: new dream about You've caught a vision of what God
Speaker 1: could do in your life. But maybe your spouse doesn't
Speaker 1: believe it, or maybe your parents don't believe it, or
Speaker 1: maybe your girlfriend or your boyfriend, or somebody at work
Speaker 1: or even your best friend. Voices of doubt can come
Speaker 1: from a lot of different places. They can come from critics,
Speaker 1: you expect that, they can come from competition. Who do
Speaker 1: you think you are? Why would you even try to
Speaker 1: do that? Why would you even try to develop that product,
Speaker 1: that business? Whatever it can come from Satan. The Bible
Speaker 1: called Satan the accuser of Christians, the accuser of the brothers,
Speaker 1: and he's always saying, you can't do this year, no good,
Speaker 1: You'll never amount to anything. When you hear that, that's
Speaker 1: not God talking to you, that's Satan. Satan accuses God comforts.
Speaker 1: The Bible says there's no condemnation for those who are
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus, but visions of doubt cann actually come
Speaker 1: from your friends and their friends who say, you know,
Speaker 1: we grew up with you. Who do you think you are?
Speaker 1: Or they can even come from your family. Imagine all
Speaker 1: the dreambusters in Noah's life. I mean, he's he's building
Speaker 1: this giant arc out at his front yard, and his
Speaker 1: neighbors are going, hey, mister Noah, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: I'm building an arc? What's that for? Because it's got
Speaker 1: a flood. What's the flood. It's when you get a
Speaker 1: lot of rain. What's rain, Well, it's water comes down
Speaker 1: from heaven. They've never seen it. They go, do do,
Speaker 1: do do do do This guy's crackpot. He's he's lost it.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he had to live with year after year
Speaker 1: after year after year of ridicule from his neighbors. He's
Speaker 1: a nut, he's a crackpot, he's a kook. This guy
Speaker 1: thanks God talk to him. Yeah right, he thinks God
Speaker 1: talks to him. And he's building the Queen Mary in
Speaker 1: his front yard. Where is the Homeowner's Association when you
Speaker 1: need him? Where are those people that you can't build
Speaker 1: that ship.
Speaker 2: In your front yard?
Speaker 1: I mean imagine even the pressure from his own family.
Speaker 1: I mean his teenage boys going, Dad, come on the
Speaker 1: ship on the front lawn.
Speaker 2: It's embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I can't bring my girlfriend, I can't bring my friends over, Dad.
Speaker 1: Why can't you get a normal job. You're building on
Speaker 1: this thing for decade after decade after Deactorady. This doomsday
Speaker 1: talk is all over town, Dad. Our family is in
Speaker 1: the National Enquirer. You know, noah family building arc. The
Speaker 1: world is going to end. If you were Noah, would
Speaker 1: you be willing to endure the voices of doubt like that?
Speaker 1: Year after year after year, no rain, no rain, no rain,
Speaker 1: no rain, no rain, no rain, for decade after decade
Speaker 1: after after, the arcs getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1: God's gonna bring all the animals.
Speaker 2: Where are they?
Speaker 1: I don't see him? It took an awful lot of faith.
Speaker 1: Now let me just apply this to your life. Dream
Speaker 1: Busters will try to stop your dream. Okay, they will.
Speaker 2: Try to stop you.
Speaker 1: And critics and cynics are going to say to you,
Speaker 1: who do you think you are to try to live
Speaker 1: for Jesus Christ to do something great for God?
Speaker 2: Who do you think you are to.
Speaker 1: Have a mission from God, a plan, a purpose, a
Speaker 1: great vision from God? Friends and family may do this.
Speaker 1: Joseph's families tried to kill his dream. Remember when we
Speaker 1: looked at that he had that dream and they all
Speaker 1: tried to kill him. Jesus family tried to stop him
Speaker 1: from fulfilling God's purpose. You go all through Bible, person
Speaker 1: after person. Family members often tried to stop another family
Speaker 1: member from doing what God had called them to do.
Speaker 1: But you know what, the biggest voices of doubt can
Speaker 1: actually come from inside you. And the second most important
Speaker 1: words you say in life are to yourself. The first
Speaker 1: important words that you say are to God. But the
Speaker 1: second most important words that you say in life are
Speaker 1: the words that you say to yourself. And you talk
Speaker 1: to yourself constantly, and you're saying to yourself things like
Speaker 1: I'm no good who do I think I am. This
Speaker 1: won't work. You're talking yourself down, you're giving yourself seeds
Speaker 1: of doubt all of the time. Or you're listening to
Speaker 1: the word of God and you're telling yourself what God
Speaker 1: says about you, and you're saying things like I can
Speaker 1: do all things through Who strengthens me.
Speaker 2: My confidence isn't in myself.
Speaker 1: My confidence is in Christ, who gives me the strength
Speaker 1: to do. If God has called me to do something,
Speaker 1: He's going to give me the strength to do it.
Speaker 1: God never calls you to do something that he doesn't
Speaker 1: give you the energy and the power and the equipment
Speaker 1: and the friends and the contacts to actually get done.
Speaker 1: So let me ask you, how do you talk to yourself?
Speaker 1: You talking to yourself with doubt, voices of doubt all
Speaker 1: the time. Some of you, if you talk to your
Speaker 1: friends the way you talk to you, that wouldn't be
Speaker 1: your friends. You need to talk to yourself the way
Speaker 1: you talk to your friends. You know, I need to
Speaker 1: say something else here. You can't be trusted to always
Speaker 1: tell yourself the truth. You've heard me say this many times.
Speaker 1: You lie to yourself more than you lie to anybody else.
Speaker 1: The Bible says, the heart is deceitful, and we tell
Speaker 1: ourselves things are better than they really are.
Speaker 2: When they aren't. And sometimes we tell ourselves things.
Speaker 1: Are worse than they really are, and we don't always
Speaker 1: get it right. I'm giving you permission to not believe
Speaker 1: what you tell yourself, because not everything you tell yourself
Speaker 1: is the truth. We have motivated reasoning, we have insufficient evidence,
Speaker 1: we have messed up data, and all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: Not everything you're thinking is the truth. Just well, I
Speaker 1: think it, it must be true. I feel it.
Speaker 2: It must be true.
Speaker 1: No feelings lie, and even ideas that you come up
Speaker 1: with lie. You have to listen to God if you're
Speaker 1: going to fulfill God's mission for your life. Now, what
Speaker 1: is the antidote to fear and doubt in your life?
Speaker 2: Well, in a word, it's it's faith. It's faith.
Speaker 1: Hebrews eleven, verse seven. Chapter eleven, verse seven says this,
Speaker 1: it was by faith that Noah heard God's warning about
Speaker 1: the things he could not yet see.
Speaker 2: Now look at that verse.
Speaker 1: It was by faith that Noah heard the warning about
Speaker 1: things he could not see. He couldn't see the flood,
Speaker 1: he couldn't see the animals coming. He couldn't see what
Speaker 1: the arc was going to look like with his belt.
Speaker 1: These are all not visible. But he hears God, and
Speaker 1: he trusted what he heard God because he could not
Speaker 1: see it at the time. Now, let's just apply this
Speaker 1: to your life. You can't always see God's destiny for
Speaker 1: you either. You can't see the end of the game.
Speaker 1: You can't see the goal. You can't see where you're
Speaker 1: going to end up. You don't know where you're going
Speaker 1: to be in ten years, or twenty years or thirty years,
Speaker 1: much less next week. You have to trust your future
Speaker 1: to God. That's faith. In fact, the Bible says this
Speaker 1: in Hebrews eleven, verse one. Faith is being sure of
Speaker 1: what we hope for and certain of what we do
Speaker 1: not see. Noah was a man of faith, and the
Speaker 1: faith was the antidote to his fear, and the faith
Speaker 1: was the antidote to his voices of doubt. Paul dealt
Speaker 1: with this and second Corinthians four eighteen. He says, we
Speaker 1: don't look at the troubles, which we can see right now.
Speaker 1: That's anybody to see the troubles we're in. Instead, we
Speaker 1: look forward, We look past the troubles to what we
Speaker 1: have not yet seen. Okay, that's perspective. Why for the
Speaker 1: troubles that we see now will soon be over. They're
Speaker 1: not gonna last, But the unseen joys will come to
Speaker 1: last forever. They're gonna last forever. Now, some of you,
Speaker 1: you may be depressed, you may be even despairing of
Speaker 1: your life right now. Never make a major decision when
Speaker 1: you're depressed, and never make a permanent decision when you're
Speaker 1: in a temporary mood, because feelings don't last, they don't
Speaker 1: come to stay, they come to pass, and they're not
Speaker 1: gonna last. So whether you right now are blessed or
Speaker 1: whether you you are stressed right now or in your future,
Speaker 1: whether you're blessed in your future or whether you are
Speaker 1: stressed in your future, is going to be determined by
Speaker 1: one thing, what you choose to focus on. Will you
Speaker 1: listen to the voices of doubt or you will listen
Speaker 1: to the voice of God. Again, Remember, it says Noah
Speaker 1: chose to be different from everybody else around him by
Speaker 1: listening to God instead of listening to the voices or
Speaker 1: in culture Hebrews eleven, verse seven. The second part of
Speaker 1: the verse says this Noah's belief in God get this underline.
Speaker 1: It was in direct contrast. Noah's belief in God was
Speaker 1: in direct contrast to the disbelief of the rest of
Speaker 1: the world. Nobody else believed. This is counter culture living.
Speaker 1: I want to challenge you to become a counterculture revolutionary.
Speaker 1: How by trusting God instead of trusting culture. By listening
Speaker 1: to God instead of listening to society, By doing what
Speaker 1: God tells you to do and listening to what God says.
Speaker 1: Is that of the doubts in your head or the
Speaker 1: doubts of people all around you who are giving the
Speaker 1: words a doubt? Now, of course that takes courage. You go,
Speaker 1: I don't have that kind of courage. How did Noah
Speaker 1: have that kind of courage to keep on going after
Speaker 1: what God had told him to follow his dream, to
Speaker 1: go after his purpose. How do you get that kind
Speaker 1: of courage? There's only one way. You got to stay
Speaker 1: close to God. You have to stay close to God.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells us that Noah heard God speak. Remember
Speaker 1: that verse we just looked at Noah heard God speak?
Speaker 1: So well, I don't ever hear God speak. How do
Speaker 1: you hear God?
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 1: Write this down? You hear God by getting near to God.
Speaker 1: You hear God by getting near to God. You can't
Speaker 1: hear God when you're far away. You got to get
Speaker 1: near to God. I mean, spend time with God every day,
Speaker 1: reading the Bible, being quiet, listening, being quiet, and just
Speaker 1: listening to God listen, reading His word and listening, talking
Speaker 1: to God in prayer, and being silent. Genesis six, verse nine.
Speaker 1: The third part of the verse is this, Noah walked
Speaker 1: with God. That means he was near to God. He
Speaker 1: walked with God. Now that word walking, I like that,
Speaker 1: are you walking with God?
Speaker 2: So well? I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well what is walking imply? When you walk with someone,
Speaker 1: it implies two or three things. Let me let me
Speaker 1: let me first say. The New Living translation says, Noah
Speaker 1: enjoyed a close relationship with God. That's what it means
Speaker 1: to walk with God, to enjoy a close relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Today's English version says, Noah lived in fellowship with God.
Speaker 1: So what does that mean to live in fellowship, to
Speaker 1: have a close relationship, to walk with God.
Speaker 2: Well, just think about this.
Speaker 1: Anytime you're walking with anybody, it implies three things. First,
Speaker 1: it implies affiliation. In other words, you're not ashamed to
Speaker 1: be with them. You're not ashamed to be seen with them.
Speaker 1: How about if we were walking through you know, Irvine
Speaker 1: Spectrum shopping center and my wife Kay decides she doesn't
Speaker 1: want to be seen with me, so she walks ahead
Speaker 1: of me. Well, that's not walking together if I walked
Speaker 1: ahead of her. Affiliation means you're not ashamed to be
Speaker 1: seen with the person you're walking with. Are you ashamed
Speaker 1: to be seen with God? Are you ashamed to be
Speaker 1: known as a follower of Jesus? Are you the affiliation
Speaker 1: of walking with God means you're not worried about telling
Speaker 1: people you're a believer. That's what implies to walk with God.
Speaker 1: I tell people I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. It
Speaker 1: applies affiliation. Second implies agreement. By poll tells us an
Speaker 1: amous chapter three, verse three that two cannot walk together
Speaker 1: unless they're agreed. In other words, you can't walk that
Speaker 1: way and me walk that way, and let us walk together.
Speaker 1: If we're going to walk together, we have to be
Speaker 1: in agreement that we're headed in the same direction. So
Speaker 1: there's affiliation and there's agreement. And then the third thing
Speaker 1: walking implies is alignment. In other words, we're headed at
Speaker 1: the same pace. In other words, you can't walk faster
Speaker 1: than me, and I can't walk slower than you. We're
Speaker 1: not only in the same direction, we're at the same pace.
Speaker 1: That's what it means to walk with God. You're not
Speaker 1: ashamed of him. You're going in the same direction, and
Speaker 1: you're going in the same pace. How do you know
Speaker 1: if you're walking on God those same three things. Oh,
Speaker 1: by the way, let me give you a fourth way.
Speaker 1: You know, if you're walking on God, you'll be out
Speaker 1: of step with the world. You'll be out of step
Speaker 1: with the world. You can't walk in step with God
Speaker 1: and being step with the world the same time. So
Speaker 1: great on the world. Now the result, this is really important.
Speaker 1: I want us to get this. What is the result
Speaker 1: of walking with God? Like Noah did? When you walk
Speaker 1: with God, when you're near to God, you fear nothing.
Speaker 2: Noah wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid of.
Speaker 1: Disapproval, He wasn't afraid of people's comments, he wasn't afraid
Speaker 1: of being rejected, He wasn't afraid of criticism. You lose
Speaker 1: your fear when God is near. The fear goes out
Speaker 1: when you're near to God. In Genesis chapter six, Verse
Speaker 1: seventeen to eighteen. God says this, Noah, I'm going to
Speaker 1: send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes, and
Speaker 1: nothing's going to be left alive. But I solemnly promise.
Speaker 1: This is God's promise. This is what Noah put his
Speaker 1: faith in. I solemnly promised that you and your wife,
Speaker 1: and your sons and your daughters in law will be
Speaker 1: kept safe in the boat. Noah is not afraid of
Speaker 1: a worldwide flood, because when God is near, you lose
Speaker 1: your fear. What are you afraid of? What's been putting
Speaker 1: you in knots? What's been scaring you to death? What's
Speaker 1: caused you to be anxious, what's caused you to be
Speaker 1: sleepless at night? What just tightens your stomach into a knot?
Speaker 1: Many of you have been living in fear. That has
Speaker 1: got to end. Now You've got to stop listening to
Speaker 1: the voices of doubt and anxiety and fear and start
Speaker 1: listening to the voice of God by walking with God,
Speaker 1: by getting near to God, and when he's near, you
Speaker 1: lose your fear. Now there's a third choice that Noah made,
Speaker 1: and you're going to have to make this choice too.
Speaker 1: If you're going to have the comeback from your setbacks.
Speaker 1: This third choice is the only way you're going to
Speaker 1: make it to the finish line that you're going to
Speaker 1: fulfill the vision, the dream, the purpose that God created
Speaker 1: you for. Here, it is just like Noah, I must
Speaker 1: do exactly. I must do exactly what God tells me
Speaker 1: to do. Now, Noah doesn't just hear God's word. He
Speaker 1: obeys it, he obeys it. He does exactly whatever God
Speaker 1: tells him to do.
Speaker 2: He obeys God's words.
Speaker 1: And this is the third key to fulfilling your mission
Speaker 1: in life. Hebrews eleven, verse seven. Second part of the
Speaker 1: verse says is Noah obeyed God, and he built a
Speaker 1: large boat to save his family. That's a new century version.
Speaker 1: So what I'm saying here is that I must not
Speaker 1: only do what God tells me to do. I must
Speaker 1: do it the exact way that He tells me to
Speaker 1: do it, and I've got to do it at the
Speaker 1: exact time that he wants me to do it. I
Speaker 1: mean methodology, I've got to do it what he wants
Speaker 1: me to do, when he wants me to do it,
Speaker 1: how he wants me to do it. I do it
Speaker 1: exactly the way he wants. Partial obedience is disobedience. This
Speaker 1: is the third key to Noah's life. In Genesis chapter six,
Speaker 1: verse fourteen to twenty two, God tells Noah this, Noah,
Speaker 1: I want you to build a boat from cypress wood
Speaker 1: and seal it with tar inside and out. He's given
Speaker 1: him very specific details, and he said, he tells you
Speaker 1: the wood and how he's put tar on the inside out.
Speaker 1: He said, then build decks and stalls throughout its interior.
Speaker 1: And he said, I want you to make this boat
Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty feet long. I want you to
Speaker 1: make it seventy five feet wide. I want you to
Speaker 1: make it forty five feet high. He tells the exact specifications.
Speaker 1: He says, at the top, I want you to leave
Speaker 1: an eighteen inch opening airspace all the way around the boat,
Speaker 1: just below the roof.
Speaker 2: That way hot air can get out and cool air
Speaker 2: can get in. He says.
Speaker 1: Then put three decks inside the boat and put one
Speaker 1: door on the side. And then he says, I want
Speaker 1: you to include a male and female pair of every
Speaker 1: kind of animal that I bring to your boat to
Speaker 1: keep alive during the world wide flood. And remember taking
Speaker 1: enough food for your family and for all your animals now,
Speaker 1: notice here's the important line. Then Noah did everything exactly
Speaker 1: as God commanded him. This is why we're talking about
Speaker 1: Noah today. This is why you're alive. If Noah had
Speaker 1: not done everything exactly as God had commanded him, you
Speaker 1: wouldn't be listening right now, because the human race wouldn't
Speaker 1: be here.
Speaker 2: So thank you, mister.
Speaker 1: Noah for doing everything exactly as God commanded. If he
Speaker 1: had not done everything exactly as God commanded, partial obedience,
Speaker 1: as I said, is disobedience, and we wouldn't be here now.
Speaker 2: In your own life.
Speaker 1: At whatever stage of journey in your life here and
Speaker 1: you may be at the very beginning, you may be
Speaker 1: near toward the end, or you may in the middle.
Speaker 1: But at any stage of your life, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: tempted to cut corners. You're gonna be tempted to take shortcuts.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be tempted to do the easy thing, to
Speaker 1: take the easy way out, to skimp a little here,
Speaker 1: to skip a step, to fudge a little. And God
Speaker 1: will say, I want you to do these things, and
Speaker 1: you know, well, I'll do it, but I just want
Speaker 1: to do it my way. And in your mind you're
Speaker 1: gonna think that you know better than God. You're going
Speaker 1: to go, Lord, I think I could reach my goal
Speaker 1: faster my way than your way. And that's fatal. That
Speaker 1: is a tempting shortcut. That's the third thing that will
Speaker 1: cause you to miss your purpose and God's plan in life. Lord,
Speaker 1: I think I could reach my goal faster my way
Speaker 1: than your way.
Speaker 2: Have you been trying to.
Speaker 1: Do that, trying to accomplish what you want to accomplish
Speaker 1: in life your.
Speaker 2: Way rather than God's way?
Speaker 1: I mean, can you imagine Noah saying to God, excuse me, Lord,
Speaker 1: let's have a little talk here. Are all these animals
Speaker 1: really necessary? Do we really need all of them on board?
Speaker 1: Why don't we forget some of these animals? I mean,
Speaker 1: Greenpeace will never know why they went extinct.
Speaker 2: They're never gonna know, So, you know.
Speaker 1: By the way, I would have been just happy if
Speaker 1: he had left mosquitoes off the arc. In Genesis chapter seven,
Speaker 1: verses one to five, we find the exact same phrase
Speaker 1: a second time, where it says Moses did exactly what
Speaker 1: God told him to do. God says this about him
Speaker 1: twice in the Bible, that he just didn't do what God.
Speaker 2: Told him to do. He did it.
Speaker 1: Exactly as God told him to do. Genesis seven, verse
Speaker 1: one to five. Finally, the day came when the Lord
Speaker 1: said to Noah, now get into the boat with all
Speaker 1: your family, and now take a long notice pair of
Speaker 1: each of the animals that I've approved for eating. They
Speaker 1: had to have something to eat while they're on board.
Speaker 1: Take seven pairs of each of the animal I've proved
Speaker 1: for eating and sacrifice, along with one pair of each
Speaker 1: of all the other animals. And he says, also, I
Speaker 1: want you to take seven pair, not just one pair,
Speaker 1: seven pair male and female birds, pairs of every kind
Speaker 1: of bird. And again Noah did exactly as the Lord
Speaker 1: had commanded him. So twice we're told that he's not skimping,
Speaker 1: he's not skipping steps, he's not taking shortcuts. You cannot
Speaker 1: take tempting shortcuts and reach the goal God has for
Speaker 1: your life. And he said, what are you talking about,
Speaker 1: rick at tempting shortcut? Well, it could be a moral shortcut.
Speaker 1: God wants me to be happy, so I'm gonna divorce
Speaker 1: this person and marry that person. That's a moral shortcut.
Speaker 1: It can be an ethical shortcut. Well, everybody else cheats
Speaker 1: at work, so.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna cheat it.
Speaker 1: It could be a financial shortcut, and you know you're
Speaker 1: not really honest here or there.
Speaker 2: You're not tithing.
Speaker 1: You think I'm gonna use God's money, the money that
Speaker 1: God says give back to him and to honor him.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it myself. That's shortcut, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose on that one.
Speaker 2: You need to be tithing.
Speaker 1: Maybe a relational shortcut, and you're attempted to do something
Speaker 1: faster than the right way to do it. And he said, well,
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna go to bed with him before
Speaker 1: you get married. You know, Lord, I think we could
Speaker 1: get to my goal quicker than my way. Quicker my way.
Speaker 1: Shortcuts friends are usually short sighted, and they often point
Speaker 1: you in the wrong direction. Genesis chapter six, verse nine,
Speaker 1: it says Noah consistently followed God's will, That's why God
Speaker 1: blessed him. Would you like God's blessing on your life?
Speaker 1: Then you need to be like Noah can consistently follow
Speaker 1: God's will. Not well, I'll pick and shoes what I'm
Speaker 1: going to do. I'm going to do it. In everything,
Speaker 1: I will obey God's will. Genesis sixth verse nine that
Speaker 1: second part of the verse, Noah always tried to conduct
Speaker 1: his affairs according to God's will. What a great verse
Speaker 1: you might want to write that one out. God, I
Speaker 1: want to conduct my affairs according to your will. Now,
Speaker 1: let's just put you in Noah's shoes right now. What
Speaker 1: if God gave to you one day said I want
Speaker 1: you to build a giant ship, a battleship, an arc.
Speaker 1: Don't you think you might have some questions and you
Speaker 1: might want to take some shortcuts. I mean, I can
Speaker 1: think of.
Speaker 2: A lot of questions that Noah might ask.
Speaker 1: First, if God came means and it had never rained
Speaker 1: on Earth, I my first question would be, what's flood?
Speaker 1: What's flood? He said, You're gonna flood the world. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what a flood is. We know that
Speaker 1: we know that Earth had some kind of tropical climate
Speaker 1: because the fossils show that, and that their atmosphere changed,
Speaker 1: and now we have you know, animals and human beings
Speaker 1: live shorter lives. Second, I would ask, so, okay, Lord,
Speaker 1: how do you build an arc? There's no home depot
Speaker 1: for the lumber. I'm going to go after literally cut
Speaker 1: it all down, find find you know, forest, and cut
Speaker 1: it all down. And then okay, how am I going
Speaker 1: to get this boat to the water? Because Noah lives
Speaker 1: about one hundred miles or hundreds of miles from the
Speaker 1: nearest ocean. Okay, so how am I going to get
Speaker 1: the boat to water? And then God, how are you
Speaker 1: going to turn all this around and round up all
Speaker 1: the animals? Well, if God created the world, he can
Speaker 1: do anything. A lot of people think that this is
Speaker 1: such a such an unbelievable story.
Speaker 2: Well, God could do anything.
Speaker 1: If God created a universe, he can bring all the
Speaker 1: animals together, He can do whatever he wants to do.
Speaker 1: But Noah doesn't argue. Noah doesn't complain. He does everything
Speaker 1: exactly as God says, and he says, whatever you say, Lord.
Speaker 1: His faith was incredible because the request was incredible. Again,
Speaker 1: Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him. If you
Speaker 1: will make this the goal of your life. I want
Speaker 1: to do everything God asked me to do, exactly as
Speaker 1: God asked me to do. God blesses that kind of person.
Speaker 1: God blesses people who follow directions even when it doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense. Question what has God asked you to do?
Speaker 1: And it doesn't make sense? Forgive somebody take a different job,
Speaker 1: start tithing, you know, go share your faith with somebody
Speaker 1: that you're scared to death.
Speaker 2: To share your faith with faith.
Speaker 1: Is obeying God, even when I don't understand why. Now
Speaker 1: there's a fourth choice that Noah took. Noah made, and
Speaker 1: you're going to have to make this choice too, if
Speaker 1: you're going to fulfill the life that God intended for
Speaker 1: you to have. Number four, I must never give up
Speaker 1: on the dream that God gives me. I must never
Speaker 1: give up on the dream God gives me. If anybody
Speaker 1: had the right to be discouraged because it took so long,
Speaker 1: the project was taken so long, it was Noah, As
Speaker 1: I said, it took at least eighty years to build
Speaker 1: the arc. The Bible tells us that the door to
Speaker 1: the arc closed. He got in there and closed the
Speaker 1: door exactly one hundred and twenty years after God.
Speaker 2: Told him to build it.
Speaker 1: Would you be able to maintain enthusiasm for a project
Speaker 1: that took you one hundred and twenty years and nobody
Speaker 1: else in the world believed in, and everybody else criticized and
Speaker 1: made fun of. Could you handle that kind of opposition?
Speaker 1: You see the reason why most people don't succeed in
Speaker 1: life short term thinking they give up too soon.
Speaker 2: You can't. They don't sustain it over the long haul.
Speaker 1: And often, as I said a couple weeks ago, it's
Speaker 1: in the middle of your life that you want to
Speaker 1: give up, and it determines whether you're going to end
Speaker 1: successfully or not.
Speaker 2: Do not give up.
Speaker 1: See culture says live only for today. Bible says, think
Speaker 1: about eternity, think about your future. I want you to
Speaker 1: write this down. Everything takes longer than I think. All right,
Speaker 1: everything takes longer than I think. I'm sure Noah faced
Speaker 1: loneliness and fatigue in how long it was taking to
Speaker 1: reach his goal. And yet he's a model of patience
Speaker 1: and persistence and determination. Why because of his faith in
Speaker 1: God Hebrews eleven seven. Noah trusted God. Do you do
Speaker 1: that when things don't look like they're going to happen,
Speaker 1: when you're in the middle of the journey, when you
Speaker 1: can't see either end. When he heard about God's warning
Speaker 1: about the future, Noah believed him even though there us
Speaker 1: no sign of a flood. What is it in your
Speaker 1: life that you see no sign out that God has
Speaker 1: told you and promised you it's going to happen.
Speaker 2: Are you going to give up? Are you going to
Speaker 2: keep trusting?
Speaker 1: For forty two thousand and one days? Noah had one goal,
Speaker 1: fulfill my destiny, and I bet on many of those
Speaker 1: forty two thousand and one days. Noah didn't feel like
Speaker 1: going to work, and he comes home every night and missus.
Speaker 1: Noah says, well, how is work, honey, same place, same thing.
Speaker 2: Nobody else is noticing.
Speaker 1: Everybody else ignores him, or if they do notice, they
Speaker 1: criticize it.
Speaker 2: But he never gave up. Now, I don't know who I'm.
Speaker 1: Talking to you right now, but I know God wants
Speaker 1: me to say this to you. You may feel like
Speaker 1: giving up, don't don't. God is in control and he
Speaker 1: is going to write the final chapter of your life.
Speaker 1: This is not the end of your story. And maybe
Speaker 1: the end of a chapter, but it's not the end
Speaker 1: of your story. And Galatians six nine says, let us
Speaker 1: not get tired of doing what is right, for after
Speaker 1: a while we will we will reap a harvest, a
Speaker 1: blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up. But
Speaker 1: did you know that the arc is actually a symbol
Speaker 1: of salvation in Christ, Because just like the arc in
Speaker 1: the Ark. Noah and his family was saved from destruction
Speaker 1: in Christ. We are saved from destruction by being in Christ.
Speaker 1: No is saved by being in the Ark. The ark
Speaker 1: for you is Jesus Christ. How is Noah saved same
Speaker 1: way as everybody else?
Speaker 2: By grace? Do faith?
Speaker 1: Did you know that the first mention of grace in
Speaker 1: the Bible is Noah's story. Hebrews eleven, verse seven says,
Speaker 1: by faith, Noah showed the world that the world was wrong.
Speaker 1: Noah showed that the world was wrong, and he became
Speaker 1: one of those who was made right with God through faith,
Speaker 1: faith in God's grace and Genesis six, verse eight says
Speaker 1: this King James version, Noah found grace in the eyes
Speaker 1: of the Lord. That's the first mention of grace in
Speaker 1: the Bible. Chapter six of the Bible, grace is mentioned.
Speaker 1: People were saved in the Old Testament the same way
Speaker 1: we are in the New Testament by grace through faith.
Speaker 1: Have you found and accepted that grace. It's the only
Speaker 1: way you're going to be saved. To you, it's the
Speaker 1: only way you're going to get to Heaven. Friend, this
Speaker 1: is the only way you will be saved, just like
Speaker 1: Noah by grace through faith. You must put your faith
Speaker 1: in God's grace. You don't earn it, you don't deserve it.
Speaker 1: You just accept that gift of God's love and forgiveness,
Speaker 1: and you needed to do it.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: God is looking for people to use. Would you let
Speaker 1: him use you? Would you let him fulfill his destiny
Speaker 1: finny that he asked for you. If you want to
Speaker 1: fulfill your destiny life, you've got to do what Noah did.
Speaker 1: You've got to make the choices that Noah made. Let's
Speaker 1: bow our heads. Let me pray for you. You know, Father,
Speaker 1: I know that in our broken culture today, you're looking
Speaker 1: for men and women who will choose rightly like Noah did,
Speaker 1: and will choose to trust you. We'll choose to obey you.
Speaker 1: We'll choose to do exactly what you tell them to do.
Speaker 1: We'll choose to ignore the critics and to go the
Speaker 1: opposite of the way culture is going. May our family,
Speaker 1: saddle back family, be filled.
Speaker 2: With people like that. Now, I want to invite you
Speaker 2: to pray.
Speaker 1: So whether you're listening to me in sitting in a
Speaker 1: chair in a service, or on the internet, or on
Speaker 1: the radio, or wherever I want you to just say
Speaker 1: these words in your heart.
Speaker 2: Say Dear God, I say.
Speaker 1: Dear God, I want to be the kind of person
Speaker 1: like Noah who brings a smile to your face. You
Speaker 1: said that Noah brought you pleasure. I want my life
Speaker 1: to bring you pleasure. And I want my faith to
Speaker 1: be strong to the finish, to make it to the end.
Speaker 1: I want to fulfill the destiny that you have for
Speaker 1: my life. Dear God, Please forgive me for all the
Speaker 1: times I've worried about what other people think, and I've
Speaker 1: listened to the voices of doubt rather than the voice
Speaker 1: of God. Give me the courage to be different so
Speaker 1: that I can fulfill your destiny for my life.
Speaker 2: I want to get near to you so.
Speaker 1: I can hear you and no longer fear you or
Speaker 1: anybody else. And the days ahead, I want to do
Speaker 1: exactly what you tell me to do with my life,
Speaker 1: even when it.
Speaker 2: Doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1: God, I want to trust you and Lord, when I'm
Speaker 1: tired and I'm discouraged, help me to be like Noah
Speaker 1: and never never give up, but to keep your dream
Speaker 1: for my life in my focus. Father, I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for these who've prayed this prayer and I
Speaker 1: ask that you fill them with confidence and fill them
Speaker 1: with courage. And may this next week the days ahead
Speaker 1: be filled with new vitality, new energy, new enthusiasm as
Speaker 1: we refocus on your plan rather than the pressures around
Speaker 1: us in society. And I pray this blessing on all
Speaker 1: who are listening, in the name of the Father and
Speaker 1: the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: Amen.