Thursday, June
15, 2018
It was by
faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who 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. Hebrews 11:7(NLT)
In the past 40 years I’ve
had a constant battle to keep my sermons short enough to prevent a
lynching. Someone once said there is a
close comparison of a long sermon with a hostage situation. But, truth be told, I’ve got nothing on Noah!
By most accounts it took
Noah around 100 years to preach his sermon.
He built the boat God ordered; that ark was Noah’s sermon, the witness
of what God would do to judge the sins of humankind. I recall studying the 100 Years War in World
History, but it’s hard to even imagine a sermon that long. Once the Apostle Paul preached through a
whole night[2]
– so long a youth in the crowd named Eutychus fell asleep, and then fell out of
his window seat to the pavement below.
He died from the fall (which could start another
sermon, talk about being slain in the spirit!), but
Paul prayed him back to life.
Getting back to Noah’s
sermon – the boat would eventually house the entire world’s population of eight
humans, and a zoo of animal pairs, the new beginning point of life on planet
earth. In reviewing the construction planning
part of the conversation between God and Noah there is a detail that seems
conspicuously absent: God never
mentioned giving the ark a rudder to steer the ship (See Genesis 6).
In the normal course of things,
a ship without a rudder is a disaster looking for a place to happen. But in this case a rudder was entirely unnecessary;
God would do the steering (besides, Noah and crew had no clue as to the
destination – and there was no dry land or port left on earth to which they
could go. You don’t need a steering wheel
when you don’t know where you’re going, and there’s nowhere to go.).
Which brings me to the point
of Noah’s sermon…three points, really (every sermon’s got three of ‘em):
a. God does hold us
accountable, and there is judgment for our behavior, either now with a flood of
God’s attempts to bring us back into the fold of fellowship, or later with a
much more serious consequence.
b. What God did with the human population
then, providing an ark of safety and a preacher/message calling them into that
boat…God always does for His creation; there once was a manger and a cross!
c. What God spoke to the people
was a message of loving concern to join Him where there is a new beginning, and
a profoundly joyful sense of security; He still offers that.
For You Today
If you’re already in that ark of
Heavenly safety, safe and secure from all alarm, enjoying that fellowship and
joy divine, there’s a good chance you want that for your friends, neighbors,
and family.
Let Noah’s message of accountability
and a paid-for boarding pass on Salvation’s Ship be your message to everyone….
just don’t take 100 years to preach it.
Go to VIDEO
[1] Title Image: By Chris Light [CC BY-SA 4.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia
Commons
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