A Father's Faith, Noah - Genesis 6
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Sermon Transcript
I am really excited this morning to keep going in our impossible moments series and really to talk about and share an incredible story about one amazing dad. And we, Pastor Andre and myself, we were working through this series to think through them. Like, what are we gonna talk about on Father's Day? And what fathers maybe from the Bible could we learn from or where examples are there? And we both kind of turned to each other and said this guy's name about the exact same time. And it was pretty awesome. And this morning I'm really pumped to be able to talk about Noah. And Noah is one amazing dad. And Noah had this incredible father's faith that changed the world. And if you know the story maybe of Noah, you maybe heard it with the ark and the animals and the rain and the flood and God saving humanity through this guy and his family, that you probably know some of the faith that was needed for Noah to press forward. And I wanna dive in a little bit here because the reality is that Noah is this outstanding example of faith and obedience, not only as a dad, but for all of us to be able to take something home with us today.
Oswald Sanders has this great quote on the story of Noah. And he says, "The construction of the ark was one of the longest, most drawn out tests of faith recorded in the Bible. Throughout the whole period, Noah's hard pressed faith is given no visible confirmation. His conviction that a flood was coming was shared by no one, but him and his family. Public opinion was solidly against him. There was no precedent to which he could appeal for reassurance. Never before had there been a flood, never before had there been rain. Both nature and experience were against its probability. Noah was regarded as an eccentric and his sons as fools. So on questioning faith, the man who walked with God accepted God's revelation and acted on it.
Noah was one incredible dude. And Noah in faith faced an impossible moment. And the only thing that he could do was believe in God through this challenge that he faced. And that's the premise of our series. We've talked about Moses. Last week, we talked about David and Goliath. This week, we're talking about Noah. We're going through the Old Testament, pulling out some of these stories this summer to see places where God moved when there seemed to be no hope. And yet God showed up when there was no light at the end of the tunnel. God shined the light. He acted, he saved, he rescued, he moved. And our hope and our prayer, Pastor Andre and myself in this series is that whatever you might be facing in your life right now, press into God, press into Jesus. He's got you, okay? So we're gonna jump in in Genesis chapter six, if you wanted to flip, tap, click over to that. And we're gonna be starting in verse five. And we're gonna come onto the scene here of, we are, we've come out the garden and Adam and Eve and it's been generations and there've been some different things that are happening. Not very good stuff, let's be honest. Not very good stuff has happened since Adam and Eve. It kind of went off the rails there and it never really got back on the rails. It kind of kept going further and further and further. And so we come onto the scene here in this moment.
And it says this in verse five, the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Doesn't sound too good, right? The Lord regretted that he had made humans on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race that I have created, and then the animals and the birds and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
God here looks down at the world, this floating marble in the sky, and sees just horrendousness. I mean, that's a word. There's gonna be a word today, okay? There's nothing good on earth. There is nothing good that is happening. It is just pure wickedness and God is greed. God's heart is breaking as he sees all of humanity. He sees this beautiful thing that he has created and it's just completely ignoring him. There's this emotional pain that God is feeling. And sometimes maybe we don't think about God like that, Right? We don't think about God having these emotions to feel this pain, but we know Jesus, who was fully God and fully man walked on earth. He felt emotional pain. We see that in scripture. And so if Jesus is God, then he shares the same characteristics with God, the Father, God, Yahweh, then we know that he can experience this emotional pain that he is being grieved. And he looks down and he's like, what is going on? It wasn't like God turned a blind eye and then like came back, like a dad would walk into the kitchen and it's just a mess. He's like, what happened? Like God has seen this the whole time happening. And he's saying, okay, I think we're gonna get back on here. Nope, no, the humans did that choice again. I think we're gonna get back here. Oh, and then they're over here. And so eventually they find themselves all the way over this way that in 611 of Genesis says, now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. There was nothing good that was happening in this. Humanity time and time again was choosing a path, a life apart from God. But then there was this one dude, this one guy who's trying to do it right. And it's Noah. And so Noah comes onto the scene as God is sitting here contemplating this thing of, I'm just gonna start over. I'm gonna hit the reset button, Wipe it out and maybe I'll recreate and we're gonna try this again. I don't know. I don't know what God was thinking at that point. All he knew that he was like, I can't continue to let the world operate in this way. And so this guy named Noah comes onto the scene and he is the only person on the entire planet, the entire planet that is living the way and walking with a heart of God that God desires. I mean, we take a look at the world around us today and we might read this scripture and go, "I don't know how far from this we are with the days of Noah," right? There's a lot in life that is not the heart of God. There's a lot of action. There's a lot of people's choices that are far from what we read about in scripture is the way of the life that Jesus calls us to. And so here we kind of question and ask, How do we even as Christians live in the world of 2023?
And I think Noah would know exactly what this is like. Noah knows exactly and probably way better than we know how to live a life for God, even in the midst of the world around us. Says this in Genesis 6a, it says, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." God is grieving over the loss of the human race. And he looks down and he sees one guy with a heart and a desire to please him, to live different and to live in a manner that is pleasing to God. I wanna talk through a couple things about who Noah is and then get into a little bit of what does this mean for us today?
But it says in Genesis 6, 8 through 9, "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, a blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. First thing we see here in these two short verses is Noah's position with God. Noah finds himself in this place when the God looked down on him that he found favor with God. Another word to use here would be grace, that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found acceptance. God was pleased when he looked down and he saw Noah, how he lived his life, how he cared for his family, how he adored his wife, and the representative that he was to the world around him. Noah is standing before a holy God and seeing favor. and seeing favor. This is Noah's position. Now, I'm not going to say here that he was perfect. I don't think Noah was this perfect human being on earth, but as the Scripture says here, I think he demonstrates for us the life that we are called to live. Now, I would say that Noah probably let a few choice words fly when he smashed his hand with a hammer, building the boat. Maybe he came home from a long day working on the boat and Mrs. Noah asked to do some dishes and he said no. Or maybe he didn't love his sons as well as he could have, or maybe had as much patience as he might have after a long day in the field on the boat. But what the scripture tells us is that he was righteous. Noah's was human. Noah wasn't this perfect person, but Noah had a heart for God. And because of that, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Next part says here that Noah was a righteous man. We see here that is his character, Noah's character. This is the first time in scripture that these two words are actually used side by side for for an individual up to this point, a righteous man. What does that mean? Well, I think what it means is that Noah was a genuine person. He was real, he was authentic. He wasn't pretending just to be this good guy when he's out there and then come home and shut the door and he's a different person. He is living the life day in and day out, even when nobody is watching. That's the kind of character that Noah had. He wasn't just checking the box. Noah was through and through looking towards God for the way that he was to conduct himself and live his life. The third thing we see in here is that we see the phrase blameless among the people of his time. What does that mean? Well, that means that this verse, we're seeing this picture of humanity being pretty bleak, right? This picture of humanity and how they're conducting themselves and the wickedness and the selfishness and choosing whatever they please, they wanna do that moment from time to time, moment by moment just saying yes to themselves, saying no to God, pushing them away, not even thinking about him, not even acknowledging that he is even there. And yet this person, Noah, is following God. following God. I don't know that we can fully wrap our minds around this. That no one, no one apart from Noah is following God.
Another word and translation here, a blameless among the people of his time is of his generations, plural. Noah is the first to even attempt to live for God for generations, multiple generations have come and gone and nobody is living for God. And Noah comes on the scene and he draws a line and he says, I'm gonna push back to what the world is doing. I know this isn't right. I know that there's a God and I know I need to live my life different than the way that I'm living it in this what I see the example of the world around me. Noah is saying and pushing back against peer pressure. And he is saying, this is the life that we should live. I don't care if it's against what the society says. I don't care if it's against culture. I don't care what it is that I'm gonna push back with wisdom and strength and fight against this. Noah is a salmon. Guys know what salmon do? Swim upstream. I'm a salmon, just swimming upstream. Everybody's flowing this way. And Noah's like, "Nope, I'm going this way." And people would look at him and go, "You're crazy, dude. Are you kidding me? Why are you doing this?" But this is Noah's testimony. Day in and day out, Noah is out there banging away, building a boat. And people are looking at him and going, "Dude, you are nuts. You've completely lost it. But he's out there. He's faithful. He's walking each step. And it says, as in the scripture says, blameless.
Final thing we see for who Noah is, is that he walked faithfully with God. If you're looking to put something on your tombstone, Don't put Noah walked faithfully with God, okay? That'd just be kind of weird. But wouldn't that be amazing that your whole life is wrapped up with the phrase and Angus walked faithfully with God? Rich walked faithfully with God. Chris walked faithfully with God. Wouldn't that be amazing? a simple yet incredibly profound statement for one's life. Doesn't get much better than that, does it? Noah here walked in a way that was only really understood to this point by two people. One we read about a couple of chapters earlier in Genesis 5 24, it said the guy named was Enoch. He says, "Enoch walked faithfully with God, and then he was no more because God took him away." Enoch walked so close with God that one day he literally just walked up into heaven and he was with God. That's the type of walking with God. This is the type of fellowship that Noah has, this relationship that he has with God that each and every step of the way, he is right there in lockstep with God. Is it easy? Absolutely not. This isn't a nice little smooth stroll on the shade, on a paved path that's flat with no grade. We're talking uphill, both ways, in the snow, barefoot, just trying to truck along, struggling, fighting, clawing, kind of a walk. But it was a walk with courage. It was a hard, exhausting, draining, fighting walk, because no one else was walking that way. I heard this quote from a pastor, he's way smarter than myself. He says, "When a person walks with God, it necessarily means one cannot walk with everyone else around them." It's just impossible. The world is not going to walk the way that God wants us to go, at least not in everything.
But God was pleased when he saw Noah with his actions, his behavior, his choices and his character. So God comes up with this plan. He goes, "I'm still gonna destroy everything, but I want to save animals, I want to save humanity through this person Noah." And so God comes to this righteous man and and he begins to lay out this plan of what he wants him to do. He says, "My heart's greaved, I'm broken." He goes, "I'm gonna send a flood, And I'm going to send rain, something you've never seen before, water falling from the sky. He goes, "Just stick with me here, buddy." He says, "Now I want you to build a boat." Noah probably says, "What's a boat?" Noah says, "Well, let me tell you what a boat is." And so he begins to tell him these plans and how he's going to bring the animals to him, and they're going to load up. And through this faith of Noah to build this giant boat, that God is gonna save him and his family in an impossible moment. And gives them the synopsis of what's gonna play. And then he says, "This is the role, Noah, that I want you to play in all of this." And he gives them all the details. We fast forward a little bit into Genesis 6, and we see what Noah did. It says in 622, it says, "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." Noah and his content was obedient to the Lord. I think it's one thing to have the heart knowledge of what God wants for us, but it's something entirely different to live that out. I don't know, maybe you're like me, maybe you're not. You have all this knowledge in your head, but we don't necessarily bring that to action. Was it action is three fourths of the law of knowledge, right? That the fact that if we don't, we can know everything and that's fantastic. But if we never put it into action, it really doesn't mean anything. And we read here that Noah actually fulfills and follows what God asked of him. And not just followed a couple of things here and maybe a little bit here and maybe some stuff over here and kind of got creative with his build over here, but Noah did everything just as God commanded him. He did everything, absolutely 100%, every single little step of completion for God's plan. That's incredible. That's absolutely incredible.
And what happens? Animals show up, they load up, God says, get in the boat. Noah and his family loads up, God shuts the ark, and it starts raining, and raining, and raining, and raining. And it says in Genesis 7, 7, "And Noah and his sons and his wife and his son's wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood." You think, yep, that's it. That's how the flannelgraph story goes. put the little storm clouds up there and roll out the boat and the animals are behind the boat and the storyboard is all there and we're good to go and the waters go away and the Sun comes out and then the family gets off and the animals run off and then we the story continues on and we flip the page in Genesis over to the next story.
But I think there's so much more here than that and specifically for us today I want to talk about this in the terms of what it means to be a father. There's a lot, I think, here in the scripture that doesn't say about the details of it, but the reality is that God called Noah to an impossible task. But God didn't call Noah and say, "Hey, come back here, meet me at this rock with your family and your sons and your sons' wives. We're gonna have a conference call, and I'm gonna lay out all the details that everything is gonna happen, and I'll let you know so that everybody's on the same page. No, it didn't work like that. God told Noah. God didn't tell Noah's wife. God didn't tell Noah's kids. God didn't tell Noah's daughters-in-law. God told Noah.
And at some point, although the text doesn't tell us, at some point, Noah had to break the news to his wife. I'd love to fly on the wall in that conversation. Right? So, babe, got some news today from a big guy in the sky. So, you know this awesome weather we've been having for like ever? It's gonna end. And there's gonna be water that falls from the sky, and the earth's just gonna open up, and it's gonna flood. And God says, "I'm supposed to build this, how do you say it, boat?" And He's gonna bring a bunch of animals, and we're gonna load them up on the boat. And you, and me, and the boys, and the daughters in love, we're just all gonna load up, and we're gonna have an adventure. Mrs. Noah's there you go going what? And then he has to tell the boys because Mrs. Noah ain't telling them. Hey boys I got something we need to talk about which is never a good sign from dad right? Yeah so you know, this God thing and there's a water boat and you and your wives. Yeah, we're all gonna load up. We're gonna go on an adventure." And then the boys probably look to each other and go, "There's no chance I'm trying to convince my wife. You got to go break the news." So then he goes to his daughter's in law. Hey, so welcome to the family. So glad you're a part of it. I love you. I'm kind of the dad-in-law. I got some news. He goes through his pitch. I cannot even imagine. Yet Noah tells them a story and they believe. Why? Because Noah was a righteous man respected by those who knew him best.
See the best judge of our Our character is our spouse, our kids, our family, our extended family, 'cause they know the truth, right? We can come here, we can put the face on with church, we can say, "Hey, pastor, how's it going? Blessed be Jesus today. We're having a great Sunday, amen, hallelujah." And you go home and that door closes and then you go, "Oh, finally, I'm not around pastor anymore." And we let our real selves out, right? That wasn't Noah. Noah was the same guy that you knew in the market square buying lumber as he was the guy at home tucking the kids in for bed at night. When the kid would wake you up in the middle of the night for the 12th time, he was the same Noah. He was the same husband. He was the same father. And I think when we don't have others around, our real selves come out. We all get caught in this, it's okay. I get caught in it too. But behind closed doors, Noah was always Noah. And they knew and they believed, which is remarkable, this faith of Noah. Righteous man, respected by those who knew him best.
Find this interesting because we read the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Bible, which are written by Moses, recorded, that he's writing this historical record of the flood. And then we move on to Genesis 19. We come to this story, which kind of juxtaposed to the story of Noah and his faith as a father with this guy, with Abraham, and specifically his nephew named Lot, who if you guys don't know the story, Lot is this guy who's a family member of Abraham, Abraham at that point. They come from the land of Ur and the Calidees and they come to this promised land that God, the Holy land that God has told Abraham where he will make generations after generations after generations. But he's got this nephew with him. And they get into a conflict, an argument over where they're gonna settle. And so, Abram says, "Fine Lot, just pick what you want, go where you want, take your people, do your thing." And so Lot chooses to go the way that he wants and takes his crew and family and herds and he moves over to this land. And eventually he moves a little bit further and a little bit further and he starts getting closer and closer to this place called Sodom and Gomorrah. And eventually Lot finds himself headed to the city a couple times a week. Then he finds himself just hanging out at the city. He gets to know people and then eventually he's living in the city. And then eventually he's living in the sin and the selfishness of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. And again, God looks down and says, nope, this isn't right. He's had it up to here with it. So he sends a couple of messengers and he says to try to pull a lot out to go say, hey, I know you're not supposed to live your life like this. There is a better plan. I'm here to rescue you. Let's go. And Locke goes, hold up, hold up, hold up. He goes, let me go tell my family. So Locke goes and he tells his family, Hey, God has had it with Sodom and Gomorrah and the sin and the wickedness. He's gonna destroy the city. We gotta pack our stuff up and we're gonna head and we're gonna go meet up with Abram, Uncle Abram. We're gonna go join our herds together back again and live life with family again. And his family laughs at him thinking he's joking. Same scenario, same situation. God communicates only to the fathers, Noah and Lot. And with Noah, they believed because they knew the man of Noah. But then Lot's family rejects him because they knew the man who was Lot. Noah, which was righteous man, respected by those who knew Him the best.
Okay, closing real quick. Dads, I want to talk to you real quick. Everybody else can fall asleep. Still listen, fall asleep. Dads, I haven't been a dad very long on this earth, but I have an incredible dad, an example of a man, a godly man before me. And I try to walk in his footsteps because he walked in the footsteps of God. And we are called to this incredible task. an impossible task for us to be an example of righteousness to our spouse, to our children, to our families, to our communities. And just as Noah was to those around him in his life, this is our higher calling. This is, this is our higher calling to teach morals, to teach values, to teach virtues, Virtues like wisdom and justice and courage and self-discipline and ultimately grace, but the greatest of these of being love. To give to our children, to teach them from the Bible of how we live our life. Ephesians 6, 4 says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger or irritate them or turn them bitter or exasperate them by the way that you treat them. bring them up tenderly with loving kindness, nurturing them full of grace with the discipline and the instructions that come from the Lord. See the Bible is filled, filled with examples of teaching and instructions and the way we want to pass down to our children. And from time to time, from the time that they are new to this earth, to where they are children, to where they are teens, they are young adults, and even past the time when they are adults, we are called to this state of teaching them, loving them, caring for them, and ultimately leading them to Jesus. That's what it's about. And see, I don't think the parenting ends, I think the parenting changes, and I think the approach has to be ever morphing, but there will always be influence. The influence will always be there. I don't know how old Joseph's sons were. We know by the end when they load up that they're old enough to be married, and I don't know, somebody probably knows how long it took to build the ark and all the stats and all that stuff, so So the boys probably young maybe when this started. They got to the point where they had to still, as an adult with their own families, follow the leading of their father to get onto the boat. And what's amazing is that kids learn more from observing than hearing or reading. And that should be an amen from all of us dads, right? That it is our calling and an incredible blessing that we have to walk with the Lord and for them to observe us. That's what it's about. For us to walk daily with God to be an example as someone so they know how to walk with the Lord. OK, dads, thank you.
Everybody else, we can all wake up. But I hope you guys are listening because the reality is that, honestly, this is the calling of everybody. This is everyone's calling. This isn't just limited to dads. This is for moms, it's for those who hope to be a parent someday, it's for those who are spiritual dads or spiritual moms, it's for those people in our lives, it's for those who are married, those who are not married, single widows, someone with kids, someone with no kids, it's for those who are old, it's for those who are young, it's everybody of all ages, everyone right near on planet earth, if you got a pulse and breath in your lungs, this is your calling. to follow Jesus, to walk with the Lord. And we are called to live this out through the power of the Holy Spirit, to live a life of full character with our testimony before others, walking in fellowship with God, even if the world around us is going the opposite direction, even if the world might ridicule us for our priorities, Even if the culture around us is deserting Christ, and we are the only person left on the earth like Noah, we will walk with God. That's what it's about. See, I wonder if it wasn't the flood, or the 40 days, or the smell on that ark, or the storms, or the waves that toss the boat or the daily grind of checking in with those animals for those 40 days. Or I don't even think even the first step off of the boat was the hardest. I think for Noah, the hardest of his whole story of his life was the waking up every day and picking up his tools and going to the boat and building. Being ridiculed, mocked, just every word probably in the book thrown at the dude. Day after day after day. I think That was the hardest. To putting faith into action in the impossible moments. But Noah did it. Noah did it. And he didn't do it for himself. He did it for his family. He did it for his family.
So you and I may not understand why God is doing the things that he's doing, or what he's called us to do, or how we're supposed to just put one foot in front of the other every single day. But we've got to walk with God. You've got to obey God's calling on your life. Hebrews 11, called this the faith chapter, writes about those with just tremendous faith. And Noah's listed in there. It says in verse seven, "By faith Noah, "when warned about the things not yet seen in holy fear, "built an ark to save his family." Noah's family members were his only converts. And yet God deemed him a success. Dad's our first ministry. It isn't for others or friends, it's for our family. It's for those in our lives. And it was in the days of Noah, And so it is in our day that there's a time of wickedness and violence and sin.
But God's grace is sufficient for us fathers, right? And God's grace is sufficient for us all. Just as it was then, the truth still stands today. So may God enable us to win our families, our friends, neighbors, those where we live, learn, work and play. May we lead them in a life that leads them to Christ. To be that example. To see our communities saturated with the glory of God. Even when it seems impossible. Let us walk with God by first being saved and then second by obeying God in our lives. us faithfully witness for God. Amen?
Let's be so real and authentic Christians that our families are convinced Christianity must be true. Let's be that first example and lead them to faith in Christ by our example. Let's pray. Jesus we thank you for this morning. God thank you for your servant Noah who facing impossible odds impossible tasks still said yes to you who even by himself all alone all without anybody else continued to say yes to you God and to walk every single day in the lockstep with you. God we're so grateful we're so thankful for pillars of faith these patriarchs God of Christianity that came before us and walk the hard so that we can be encouraged when you ask us to walk the same. We thank you, Jesus. We love you. Amen. Amen.