Noah

Hello, everyone. So glad that you're with us today. I'm Pastor Leon, and I'm so excited about our new series called The Cloud. We're in week two of this series, and we'll be digging into the scripture, Hebrews 12, 1, and it's a very famous scripture that I think will encourage you today. So if we'll just dig right in, Hebrews 12, 1, our theme verse for The Cloud series, and then I'll give you kind of an idea of where we're coming from with The Cloud, because the idea comes from this cloud of witnesses in scripture.

It says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. So the idea of this series is we're looking at this cloud of witnesses. And the scripture starts out saying, Therefore. So it suggests that we need to look back at verse 11 and see what it's there for. And when we go back, we see this famous scripture about these people of faith who went before us and offer us stories that we can learn from to give us power to live out our day today.

So if you're discouraged in your faith, maybe you have a little hope. Maybe you don't know if you can walk out this thing, this life called following Christ, following Jesus, living the Christian life. And for some reason, things have happened in your life that you have lost a vision for what God has for you in your life. You can go back to this scripture. You can see the people that have went before us and they've ran the race.

So they're actually cheering us on through these stories. It's like the metaphor of a race where the people are in the stands and they're cheering us on and saying, You can do it because I did it. I've been there before. I've been through that stuff. I've walked in faith.

Now here, take from these stories and let us help you run this race. Because once you get a vision of what God has for you in your life, once you look at these stories that we have been through, these people in the cloud, these people that have been through it, it gives us encouragement and helps us run the race well. And when we do that, we can throw off everything that hinders us. It gives us hope to let go of those things that hinder us, not just sin, but the things that entangle us, the false identities that we have of ourselves, the misrepresentations we've made of ourselves, the hurt, the shame. And we can run with perseverance the race that is before us.

And we can face today with hope. And not only that, we can shake off the sin in our lives. We can beat this thing, this sin nature, this sin. Because we have hope and we can look at the people that go before us. So last week we talked about Abraham and his walk in faith.

Though he could not see, he believed. And every example of what he shared with us seemed to be impossible and crazy, but God got him through it and God brought about a greater plan in the future. He did not see that future in his lifetime, but today we are reaping the benefits of Abraham and it's a beautiful story. This week I want to visit the story of Noah, one of those great examples of men of faith in Hebrews 11 and back in Genesis. So if you'll just follow along with me, we're going to talk a little bit about Noah and his life and what he would say if he was here today.

And there's a lot of different directions we can go with Noah. Some things he might say to us is don't miss the boat or, you know, plan ahead. It's important to plan ahead. He might say something funny like this, the woodpeckers on the inside are worse than the storms on the outside. But I also think, what would I ask him if he were here today?

One thing I think I'd ask him, especially it being summertime and with all the mosquitoes around, I'd say, why didn't you swap those two mosquitoes when you had a chance? But there's a lot of things we would probably ask him. But before we go into what he is going to share with us through his story, we need to get a good view of biblical history. Because we are digging into some important scriptures here and they're going back to the Old Testament. A lot of us may not have a good understanding of how the Old Testament was built.

And these stories, particularly Abraham and Noah, were brought from the recordings of Genesis. And Genesis is a very interesting book. The Bible itself goes back 6,000 years deep. And Noah is ten generations from Adam, Adam being the first man. God created him in his own image.

If you go back to Genesis 1, and he created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formed and all these things happened. Then he created man. And then man had ended up having man. And then in ten generations, Noah came about. So we have Noah here.

He's pretty close to the beginning of the earth. But what's interesting about Genesis is it starts out as a very poetic book, and then it enters into this historical book. So the first part may be a little hard to understand because it's written in an ancient poetic nature so that people could better understand and interpret what had happened. So the main focus of Genesis, the first few chapters in Genesis, really is the creation of the world, the earth itself, everything that God made was good. So the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of Genesis, the first part of And ultimately, he made man in his own image.

So, number one, it glorifies God as the creator of everything. He spoke and everything leapt into existence. And secondly, it tells us that there was a special hierarchy that took place and he created man in his own image. The only one that he created was man in his own image. He created, it was the magnum opus of his creation.

Everything led up to this being called man, human being, that was created in God's own image. And then we watch the history of man unfold in the second part of Genesis and the timeline begins and it goes back to Noah. So, let's take it kind of from a scientific perspective of what the earth was like during that time. There was this thing called a firmament over the earth before the great flood. It was a body of water, actually an atmospheric water bubble over the earth, if you want to call it that.

And it protected the earth. Because originally the earth, if we go back to Genesis, the earth was made perfect and good. It was heaven, basically. Earth was heaven. Heaven was earth.

And people walked with God. Man walked with God. Walked in the cool of the garden, it even says. And they had this relationship with God. And there was this firmament over the world and people didn't die.

People lived for a very long time, even after the fall of sin, because the firmament was still over the earth and the earth was still operating as it was originally intended to be in some respects. And man began to populate the earth. Obviously, sin entered the earth through Adam. And then we had the first murder that took place. Cain and Abel.

Cain killed Abel out of anger. Evil started entering the earth. And God saw man. And God saw man. And it was very hard for him to see because he was hurt.

He was shamed by what man was doing. So God's story begins to unfold. How do I redeem people back? How do I bring people back to what they were originally intended to be? How do I restore man?

But at that particular time, because God was really hurt and he had a lot of almost, I can't believe I made man. That man is, he decided to destroy the world, but he found one man, one man who was faithful. One man who had held righteousness. Not that Noah was... He was perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he honored God and he loved God.

So when he brought Noah into the picture, God unleashed a flood on the earth. The firmament was broken, this water that covered the earth. And Noah was preserved because God had called him to do something that was out of the ordinary. So it all sounds like a fairy tale, and many of you are probably thinking, Pastor, this is just fairy tale stuff. But I believe that absolutely everything that's written in Scripture was real.

There was a joke about a little girl who did a term paper in her class about Jonah and the well, and the teacher argued with her that a man wasn't swallowed by a well. It couldn't have possibly happened. It's not a real story. The little girl said, yes, it was. And when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask Jonah myself, and he's going to tell me the truth.

And the teacher says, well, what if Jonah isn't in heaven? And she says, well, you can ask her. It's funny how we can come back to this faith like a child thing because kids have such faith. But I have that faith about the Bible. The Bible is real and true.

I believe every story, every record is documented, and we need to read it within its original context. So when we read the beginning of Genesis, we see this poetic nature. Now we're entering into a historical context of a lineage that took place where man is redeeming people through a people. And it starts with Noah. Noah is one of the first people in this lineage that we look at, ten generations from Adam.

And what would Noah say to us today if he was alive? What's the one thing he would say? He would say this, when you think your life doesn't really count, one person can make a difference. One person can make a difference. You can make a difference.

Noah probably felt many times that what he was doing was ridiculous. What God had called him to do, being the only righteous one in the whole earth. I mean, this is the whole earth, the whole world. Does my life really make a difference? Well, God saw him and used him, and we're going to talk about that.

If you'll turn to Genesis 6, 5, and 8, it says the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. So can we relate to that today? The evilness, the world's an evil place. I mean, we have human trafficking, we have organ harvesting of young children in other countries, third world countries where kids are used to make money by addicting them to drugs, just the war that's going on. Even in our own nation, the hate for each other that we have, just because of our political beliefs or a matter of opinions, whatever they may be, we just see a lot of evil in the world, and this is a wicked world.

Terrorism, there's a hate for even brothers and sisters. Others have hate for each other. It's just unbelievable how wicked the world is. And we can relate a lot today to what Noah was probably feeling. And sometimes, as believers, we feel like we are the only ones that are trying to live righteous.

Among the people around us and in the world, it's a dark place. And God saw wickedness in the world, and the Lord was grieved. I love that word, grieved. He saw the world that he was grieved and that he had made man. He was pained.

He was hurt. His heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, and men, animal, creatures, and that move among the ground and the birds of the air, for I am grieved. I am just grieved. I mean, the grief that God felt because this was his crown jewel of creation, man.

And now he's decided, I'm just done with the earth. This was a bad decision. Let's just wipe it off. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So Noah found favor in God's eyes.

Out of all that was happening, all that was going on, God found favor in one person. One person can make a difference. We like to hear positive messages, and I know this comes across as a little negative. Starting off this message, it's not so positive you're talking about a wicked world, but the truth is, God is a God of justice. So when we see God wipe out the world through the flood, we have to realize that there's this other side of God.

He is fully loved, but He is also a God of justice. He will make right these things, this wicked world where we can't understand. So maybe you're somebody today that can't understand exactly what's going on in this world. You can't figure it out, but we know that we have a God who one day will rectify everything because He is a God of justice, because He cares for the just of people who are doing right, the righteous. He looks to His people and He says, hang in there.

Hold on. Things are going to be better. And so we can hold on to that. And He loves us. He will bless us.

And all that's true. He wants to do all those things. But there is a day of judgment coming. And this is symbolic of the judgment in the end times, when God will return and make everything right. He tells us in Revelation, He tells us throughout Scripture that there is a time.

The Gospel is also shared that with us. There is a time when everything will be made right. And we look forward to that day. But in the meantime, we do live in a fallen world. And I'm sure the Lord, even today, is grieved by what man is doing.

But He's made a promise to man. And He made that promise through Noah, because He found favor in Noah's eyes. One person can make a difference. If we are not careful... If we are not careful...

If we are not careful... If we are not careful... If we are not careful... If we are not careful... If we are not careful...

Thank you. And you've got to listen to this. If we are not careful, we will make life about us. Because it's easy to make life about us. If my kids act right, if my job or my life is right, then everything will be okay.

And God's called us to be the salt of the earth. And a little bit of salt goes a long way. As we learn, as we preach and teach, that's the reason why we call our church Salt Church, because we believe that one person can really make a difference. There is a purpose and there's a plan for everyone, for every life, for every soul. And that's our desires to find purpose in our life.

And so many times we make it about ourselves, but really living selflessly, living selflessly in our lives, it brings about the greatest purpose. Because God never intended you to live for yourself. He made you to make a difference. So we are called to make a difference. So let's talk about making a difference today.

It's not just about my family. The things I have, my little world, my box, is all about what God has for our entire place in eternity. So there's a few things I want to speak on today, making a difference. How can we make a difference? You can make a difference, first of all, through your family.

Yes, it's not all about our family, but it starts with our family. Genesis 7-1 says, And the Lord then said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. He said, you and your whole family. His whole family was actually preserved and saved by one man, by his righteousness. Your favor affects your whole family.

When God favored Noah, it affected his whole family. Not that your family is living righteously necessarily, but through you, God does find favor for others that are around you. And when you make a difference, it makes a difference in the people around you. We impact people positively, or we impact people negatively. And there's a lot of practical implications to this as well.

If you're a positive person, you're going to affect the atmosphere of your family and the people around you. If you're a negative person, you're going to be negatively affecting people around you. So I say this strongly today. Live positively. Nobody likes to be around a negative person.

I don't like to be around negative people, because negative people bring me down, and it starts making me think negatively about myself and the things that are going on. So I like to surround myself with people that are positive and are inspirational. I believe that, you know. So, you know, we need to be those people, the people that are around us, our family, our friends. We need to affect them positively.

Acts 16.31 says, I go back to that scripture, a man named Cornelius, and he was—or rather, a man in— Paul and Silas were in prison, and they were imprisoned, and the angel of the Lord visited them, and the guard was there with them, and he was very worried because they were going to escape, and he was going to be killed, and they said, no worries, we're still here, we're not leaving. And the man said, how can I receive? He could not believe what had happened, and he says, how can I receive Jesus? And he said, believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your whole household.

So does that mean that the man's whole household was saved because he got saved? Not necessarily. There's a word there called oikos in the original Greek. It means you will impact your sphere of influence. It's the sphere of influence that you have.

It's the influence you have on your family. Not necessarily that your family will receive Christ by virtue of you receiving Christ, but it is a segue for them to know many people. Many people who know the Lord today probably were influenced by somebody in their family, in their household, a friend, or somebody in their sphere of influence, and we have a sphere of influence. Every one of us does. Jesus said, you are a light before man so they may see.

So what does that mean? Our salvation is not a closet salvation. It's not something we keep quiet. You, sir, you, ma'am, have a responsibility to be a light into the world, and you have a sphere of influence that you can reach. Sociologists say that everyone has 12 to 17 people in their sphere of influence, and those who spend an hour a week or more have influence on people.

Did you know that? So no matter if you spend 15 minutes a day with somebody, five minutes a day with somebody, if all those things equal up to an hour in the week, then that's your sphere of influence. What does that say to you? Those who work with you, your children, your neighbors, whoever you're spending the most time with over an hour at least, that's your sphere of influence. That's who you're influencing.

Everybody has a sphere of influence. Get this. The average dad spends seven minutes a day with their children. That's only 49 minutes a day. So they actually don't have influence on their kids.

That's a sad place to be, just saying. And I think we have a responsibility, first of all, to our children, to raise them in the ways of the Lord, to teach them what is right, to teach them how to honor God and to love God. And that's something that we really need to start with is our family and our sphere of influence. There's 12 to 17 people in your life that you influence. Number two, you can make a difference in your generation.

You have a responsibility to your generation. Listen, young people, you have a generation you can reach that I may not be able to reach. I'm getting older. And they're not looking to me as somebody that they can look up to. I mean, we all have super, um, stars and, and people that.

We look up to that have great influence, especially when we're younger, whether it's a musician, whether it's a sports hero, whatever it might be, and those people tend to have great influence in our life. But did you know that you can be an influence in your generation? We're all called to a generation and so many times we're nearsighted and we think about the here and now and everything we want to be, popularity, the right clothing, the right hairstyles, the right car, the right house, whatever age we are, that's how we think. If I can just have this, then people will think better about me. Why not be different?

God decided in this day and time that you be born. It doesn't matter how off the earth is or how direct and righteous the world is. It doesn't matter. You were chosen specifically for this time. In fact, the Bible says God decided the day and time you should live.

You can look at it in the book of Acts, Acts 17. In Acts 13, 36, it says, For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. So he had done everything he can. Guess what? David wasn't meant for today.

Yeah, his story lives on and helps us and encourages us today. But David was meant for a different generation. Noah was meant for a different generation. He might not have had the influence he would have then if he lived now. So you can make a difference in your generation today.

Thirdly, you can make a difference for God. You know God's looking for somebody to be influential in this generation. Did you know God's looking for you? I mean, God is looking and having, and 2 Chronicles 16, 9 even says, God is looking and having a hard time finding someone. You know that?

He's having a very tough time finding someone. In fact, in Ezekiel 22, he says, I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, and I said, so I would not have to destroy it. But I found none. He found no one. The prophet, he spoke to the prophet, and through the prophet, he told Israel, look, none of you are righteousness.

I'm looking for somebody. I look for one righteous person. Isaiah was that only one righteous person. In 6, 8, he says, Then I heard the voice from the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And the people said, And who will go for us as God?

And Isaiah spoke up and says, Here I am, Lord, send me, because I'm the only one. Maybe we need to start saying, Here I am, Lord, send me. Maybe we need to make that our prayer this week. Here I am, Lord, send me. So what would Noah's words of encouragement be today?

If he were alive today, what would he say? What would he tell us? I think, first of all, don't be afraid to stand out in the crowd. That's the first thing he would say. You got to be different.

Don't let people influence you. Noah was the only righteous person in the entire earth. Everyone else had lived in wickedness. Their children were wicked. Grandchildren were wicked.

Everything was wicked. They were against abusing each other, hurting each other. It was a bad place to be during that time. They mocked Noah. When God called him to build a boat, they mocked him.

You're going to be mocked as believers. When you live for God, you're going to be mocked, you're going to be looked at, you're going to be talked about. A great example of that is I was at a surf contest a few months ago and there was a few guys down there that knew Jesus. As I was up in the tent, I heard people talking about those two people because they used to live very rough lives and they just couldn't accept it or believe it. Oh, they found Jesus, those holy rollers, and they're talking about him as if I believe it when I see it, blah, blah, blah.

But these men, they're living for the Lord. And I'm thankful that I'm not naming these men, but these men are a part of Salt Church and God has done a lot of things through them. And there's evidence of God doing a miraculous work in them. And I celebrate them for that. But people will mock you.

Your community will mock you. You'll be different. That's really what it comes down to. Like Noah, you'll be different. You'll be mocked.

So we can't follow God based on others' opinions. We have to follow God based on what the truth says. We don't deny God because other people want to mock us or we want to live like everybody else. We've got to be different. I mean, it's funny.

It seems like the older we get, the more or the less we care. And, you know, that's why you see older people, especially, and they're getting in their 70s, walking around with clothes that may not be the cool hip thing. Socks and sandals and stuff like that, you know, walking around kind of in these silly outfits and not really caring. I mean, yeah, they're decent people, but they don't really – they're not really concerned about what everybody else thinks. Why?

Because they're full of wisdom. They've seen the world. They've seen how it is. They don't care anymore because they know that people's opinions don't really matter. And we need to be that right now.

Even if you're a young, hip, trendy person, which is great, I mean, that's fun. You can be those things. But don't let that decide who you are. Don't let that affect who you are. Proverbs 29, 25 says, For a – excuse me, fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

So don't be afraid. When that person calls out a dirty joke or when there's an unethical decision at work that someone's asking you to do, don't be afraid. It may cost you your job. It may cost you friendships, fellowships, but man, don't be afraid to stand out. Noah didn't.

He didn't compromise with what was going on, the mocking and everything. He did what the Lord told him to do. And it's hard to live righteous in an unrighteous environment, but guess what? God's got your back. There's hope for the future.

Secondly, I think he would say, don't be afraid to do something for the first time. Don't be afraid to do something for the first time. You have to be more concerned about obeying God than looking foolish. That's what a leap of faith is all about. It might be foolish, but if God's calling you to it, don't be afraid to do something for the first time.

Hebrews 11, 7 says, By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear, built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Now let's go back. Noah, did he know that the rain was coming? Only because the word of the Lord came to him and told him that rain was coming.

But it was years when he built that ark. It took him a long time to build this massive ark. And there was no rain. There was no water on the ground. Yet he did it because he believed that God would follow through.

He was the first one to do it. Nobody else was willing to follow him. Nobody else started building arks around him and building boats around him. Nobody believed it. But he was the first.

You know, some of the greatest achievements in the world were those who stood out and did things for the first time. An example is Nicholas Copernicus. He believed that the planets, in the study of the solar system, that the planets orbited the sun. And people thought he was absolutely crazy. Of course, years later, even after his lifetime, it would be proven that the sun is the center of the solar system and he would be found right.

Other examples is Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity and how some things in it didn't really equal up. Even he went to the grave thinking that there were some failures. But later on, it became a building block for some of the most greatest advancements in science. Edison, the light bulb, nobody had ever, you know, a light bulb, a light, like engineered light. That's impossible without flames and without fire and all these other things.

And he created those things. The greatest advancements in the world were those who stood out and did something different for the first time. And maybe God's calling you to do something for the first time. Don't be afraid to do something for the first time, especially if God's calling you to do it. It might look different.

In our church, we do a lot of things different than other churches. And some people think it's kind of weird in some ways. But every church is different. As long as we're centered on Jesus Christ and not compromising his word and not compromising his purposes in the church and in the world, we can do things differently. The next thing is when you see a rainbow, I think Noah would say this.

When you see a rainbow, and this is really important, when you see a rainbow, remember that one person can make a difference. When you see a rainbow, remember that one person can make a difference. Because the whole purpose of that rainbow in the sky, as the Bible says, he allowed a rainbow, probably the first time it had ever seen it. And I'm sure there's some scientific reason for it. The firmament was now broken, and the rainbow is there and appears, and everybody saw it for the first time, thought it was beautiful.

something will use a rainbow on the rainbow banks. Nothing different. God said, this is my promise that I will not destroy the earth like this again. Matthew 28 20 says, and be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. What is he talking about the end of the age?

When he comes back and makes everything right, and he restores heaven and earth, because God is in the restoration business, right? He was restoring all things. From Genesis we see the fall of man, but God's plan to restore the entire earth. And when we see that rainbow in the sky, when we're out and about, and the rain comes, the storm is leaving, the sun is out, and we see the rainbow appear, we can be sure that God is with us. He is there.

He is with us. That rainbow is a signal, a sign that God is, in fact, in control. He has complete authority, and he is with us, and he loves us. 2 Peter 3 6 through 9 says this about Noah and the water. He says, by these waters also the world of the time was deluged and destroyed.

By the same word that present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly man. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, but patient with you, not willing that any should perish, but all come to repentance. See, that's the heart of God, is that all come to repentance. He's holding back his judgment. Just as the days he destroyed the earth, he's holding back.

He's holding back. He's got this promise, I will not destroy the world the way I did before. But prophetically, Peter tells us that he's holding back the fire that will judge the earth. That might be metaphorically. It might be literal fire.

I don't know how it all is going to happen. Only what the Bible has given us and the prophetic information that the Lord has given us about end times and his judgment. But I can say this, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises. As the rainbow is in the sky, he has a promise. He wants you to come to him.

Repent. He's not going to destroy the earth until every person has been evangelized. Every person has had the opportunity to know him because he loves the world that much. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, will not die, but have everlasting life. So if you don't know him, he's waiting for you.

And if you know him, he's waiting for you. If you know him, he's got a purpose for you and you can make a difference and he's waiting and he's calling out for you to do something different in this lifetime. If you don't know him, he's still waiting for you. He's waiting for you to give your life and heart to him so that you can have purpose. Let's pray together.

Father, Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for every man and woman, child. Father, Father, Father. Anyone who's listening to this message, Lord, anyone who's here present, Lord, during this time, that you would begin to move by the power of your Spirit over their hearts and their lives, that as you're calling them out, they have a purpose. You have a plan for their life. Some people are hopeless.

Some people are in despair. Some people don't know where else to go. They've lost everything, or they're about to lose everything, or they have been misguided or misdirected, Lord, but help them see, illuminate them by the power of the Holy Spirit to see that you have a purpose and a plan for their lives, and you can use them, no matter their failures, no matter their hurts, no matter their pains, no matter their losses, no matter their wins, you can use them to make a difference in this lifetime. So, God, I ask you, in the name of Jesus, to just touch the hearts of everyone here today. And if there's one that does not know you, let them know that you're waiting for them, and that they would give their lives and hearts today and make that purpose a reality.

So, if you're here today and you want to know the Lord, just pray this with me and believe it in your heart. There's nothing in the words. It's just believing it in your heart and receiving Jesus as your Savior. Father, Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you gave your life on the cross, and you died for my sin. I was hopeless without you.

Today, come into my heart. Come into my life. Make me Lord and Savior over those lives. Make my life yours. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. God bless you. Have a great day. We'll see you next week for part three of our series, The Cloud.