Sermons On Personalities – Noah
For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:37-39)
God sees what no one else sees.
God saw corruption, where no one else saw a problem. God saw injustice and greed and all kinds of horrors – Everyone else saw nothing… God also saw one man and his family that were still true to himself. To everyone else, Noah was probably invisible – but to God, Noah was the most important person on the planet.
I think we are all tempted to think that God isn’t watching. How could God be watching with all the injustice that is in our world today? We look around and we see so much darkness – I think we are tempted to think that our lives don’t matter – that our faith is insignificant – that we can’t make a difference because we are just too small…But – God sees. God’s not asleep. God is watching and he cares and he’s paying attention.
2 Chronicles 16:9 “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those hearts that are fully committed to Him.”
What kind of a man was Noah really?
1. Noah was RIGHTEOUS and blameless
In Gen.6:6,7 we see the 1st indication of God’s unhappiness with mankind. Although God had made a perfect world and had been amazingly patient and long-suffering…there came a point where His justice conflicted with His holiness. Gen.6:5 tells us that man’s wickedness was so bad that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time”. In other words, they had given themselves over to evil to the point they didn’t even want to do right. People were choosing their sin over goodness. Rejecting God instead of accepting Him to the point that vs.6 tells us that God was “grieved” and “His heart was filled with pain”. You know, for the most part we take sin too lightly, and so we’re totally unaware of how sin affects our heavenly Father. The world God made had become something that He didn’t hardly recognize anymore. It lit. broke His heart! Verse 11 describes the earth as “corrupt”. Noah is called in vs.9 a “righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” The Noah we see in the movie is more obsessive than he is righteous. Being “righteous” doesn’t mean he was perfect. It means that He had a right relationship with God. He walked step-by-step in faith as a living example to his generation. His name “Noah” means “rest” or “comfort”, which is exactly what he found in God. Noah did more than build a boat—He preached to the world the coming judgment of God. They had a 100’s of years to repent, but no amount of time would change their minds, and so God said “That’s it! I’m pulling the plug.”
He was different from the rest: How many of you know that God uses people who dare to be different! Underline the phrase…”blameless among the people of His time…” Noah was a faithful witness to his generation.
His lifestyle stood out in sharp contrast against the wickedness of his generation. Morally, Noah was a man of deep convictions. He dared to swim upstream in a downstream world. He wasn’t afraid to stand alone if necessary. He wasn’t afraid of what other people thought…as long as God was pleased. The society and culture that surrounded Noah was morally bankrupt…it resembled more and more the world we live in today.
It wasn’t easy to live a life for God…(it never is) but Noah wasn’t influenced by the culture around him…He influenced IT! You know, in America…we have the tendency to believe that the majority is always right… and if every body is ‘doing it’, then it must be right… But according to the bible…the MAJORITY is often wrong! In fact once you find out what the majority is doing, you need to head 360 degrees in the opposite direction! The temptation to ‘cave in’ must have been tremendous!
But Noah wasn’t afraid to stand for what he believed in…even if that meant standing alone. Noah gained the ‘guts’ to stand out in a crowd because in vs. 9 it says…’He walked with God’. He had a relationship with God that gave him the strength and courage to say, ‘I don’t care what everybody else does… I’m going to do what’s right!” How about you? Do you have the moral convictions you need to swim upstream in a downstream world? Are you standing up for what’s right…or do you cave in to friends and trends? If you’re striving to have a daily walk with God, where you’re allowing Him to convict you, and interject His will into your life… He’ll use you in powerful ways!
2. Noah was AVAILABLE
Listen, with God, AVAILABILITY is more important than ability! Believe it or not, people who are available to be used by God in great ways are not a dime a dozen! In fact, they’re very rare! Here we have this entire population of earth…and God can only find one person who’s really open to being used. A lot of us use our lack of ability as an excuse… “Oh… I could never do that! God could never use me! I’m too dumb… I don’t have any experience…ect.” But God doesn’t want our excuses…He wants our PERMISSION!
So stop focusing on what you CAN’T do… and instead let God decide what you can and can’t do. God doesn’t need super stars. If you want God to use you, remember that you’re greatest ability is your ‘availability’!!
Now, there’s a third principle that people who are used by God have observed…
3. Noah was OBEDIENT
Verse 22 provides us another clue to understanding Noah—obedience: he “did everything just as God commanded him.” He began building before the first raindrop landed; when he was done, he had an incredible vessel–450 feet in length, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, with 3 interior levels divided into sections and an 18 inch open space along the top for ventilation. There was a total deck space of 101,000 square feet. The ark was coated with “pitch” (Hebrew kaphar, meaning “covering”, a tar-like substance) for waterproofing. Because it was more of a barge than an ocean liner, it was nearly impossible to capsize. There were no navigational systems on board; Noah had no control over the vessel. God was the Captain of this ship; He steered the ark and kept its occupants safe and dry.
What that means is… God uses people who follow His directions and guidance completely. They’re not doing what they want to, when they want to do it… (at their own convenience). Noah didn’t have his own agenda or timetable…He did everything God commanded him. It was UNCONDITIONAL OBEDIENCE to the revealed will of God! Know what obedience to God is? Simply another word for ‘faith’. Faith is following God’s instructions, even when it doesn’t necc. make sense to you at the time.
4. Noah was PERSISTENT
It’s a fact… God uses people who never….never … never give up! If you want to find a characteristic that all the great legends of the faith have in common, it’s that they were amazingly persistent! Noah had to wait 120 years for the fulfillment of God’s promise to destroy the earth with a flood. 120 years! (Gen.6:3) Why do you think God waited that long before He sent the flood? I think it’s because, that’s how long it was going to take for him to build the Ark. God was waiting on Noah! Let me ask you…Could you maintain your enthusiasm for a project that took you over 100 years to complete?! 120 years is a long time to try and stay motivated! We want immediate answers, immediate results! But Noah waited.
You know, I think one of the reasons some people never succeed in life is that they give up too soon! If they just would’ve have hung in there, God could have used them! The difference was persistence!
3 things are going to tempt you to give up. But don’t do it!
1. Problems: Problems will tempt you to give up on God’s plan for your life. You can only imagine the problems Noah faced. I mean, how are you going to separate animals that like to eat each other like the birds and the worms? What about sanitation? 40 days in an animal pen? Whew! If it wasn’t for the storm outside, you couldn’t stand the stink inside! (come to think of it, that’s the way it is with a lot of things in life!)
2. Pressures: will tempt you to give up before you reach your goal. Noah must have felt the weight of the world (lit.) when He realized that he and his families survival was critical to the human race. The pressure would have been unbearable, if it wasn’t for God. And the same is true with you! Without God’s help, you won’t be able to handle it!
3. PEOPLE will tempt you to give up! Negative people, critical people, demanding people, undependable people. Noah dealt with every variety! But He didn’t let it get him down (at least not permanently). He had a mission from God, and He was going to fulfill it. Despite all of these tremendous obstacles to overcome… Noah persevered!
God is looking for a few Noahs today… because we live in a sin-filled world. He needs some people like who will stand up for righteousness and God! The truth of the matter is that the same corrupt society that Noah confronted…you & I confront everyday. God promises that judgment is imminent…OUR job is to make sure we get as many in the Ark as possible before it’s too late. Just like Noah, we find our safety and security in God, Who preserves and sustains us. As we walk with God, we find strength to live a holy life in an unholy world.