Four Things that Will Change Your Life Series 2…Obedience…
(Summarize Gen 6:1-12…)
Gen 6:13 ¶ And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
14 Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
There are some things we should understand about Noah…
He is the father of three sons…Shem, Ham, Japeth.
Age… 500 yrs. Old…When God told him to build the ark. He would live to be 950, so his life is half over…and
It took 100 years to build the ark…
No doubt people probably mocked him for building it once they found out from Noah what it was for. It didn’t just happen overnight. Over the course of those 100 years the people see this strange thing being erected…and they probably thought that Noah had gone crazy!
But, what people thought, didn’t change what God said!
God told Noah…build an ark.
And, over the next few verses God gives him detailed instructions as how to build it, the size of it, how to cover it…and even tells him where to put the door and the window.
This thing was huge…
Size of Ark:
45’ Height (three stories)
75’ Width (two church buildings wide, and then some)
450’ Length (9 church buildings long)
We do not know Noah’s former occupation, what he did for a living…but, I can pretty well guarantee that he was not a boat builder.
This task, this command that God gave to Noah…it was monumental, it was impossible, it was unimaginable, it was incomprehensible…(it was beyond belief).
But, that is always the realm that God likes to work in!
And, that is still where God likes to work today for those who are willing to join Him.
So, if that wasn’t enough for Noah to take all in…God gives him some more things to think about…
17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Can you imagine what is going through Noah’s mind when he hears this?
God is going to destroy all the earth…and, he is going to do it by floods of water and rain.
Noah had never seen rain. Noah wasn’t a boat builder, nor weatherman either.
Understand that in the days of Noah before the flood the atmosphere of the earth was different. There was a canopy over the earth and the earth was watered basically, by a dew, forming on the ground. It had never rained before, and it had surely never flooded before.
God tells Noah in vs.
18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
Noah’s thoughts have to be going wild in his head. All these things that God is wanting him to do…it seems like too much!
But, yet, there is still more…
God tells Noah, also, “Oh, by the way Noah…” vs.
19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.
Again, imagine what Noah might have been thinking, (or at least what I would be thinking if I were Noah…)
“Great! You want me to build this huge boat thing!” “Which will take like, forever to do…”
“You’re going to destroy all living things upon the earth!”
“You want me and my family to get on the boat…because it is going to rain and flood, and I don’t even really know what that means…but, it doesn’t sound too good!”
“And, you want me to not only take my family, but also I am supposed to take two of every kind of animal that walks or flies…and put them on the boat with me!”
“It sounds like a very wonderful, romantic cruise God…I’m sure me and my wife will enjoy the getting away for a few days.”
(“However, I do like the buffet thing with all the food, God (nice touch)…that will be nice.”) (“Hmm…a big boat, a nice cruise, all you can eat buffet…that has potential.”)
Now, I do not know if these things entered the mind of Noah at all or not.
Again, if it was me…these things would probably have filled my mind a few times as I tried to understand everything that I was being told.
But, while we do not know everything that Noah thought, we do know…without any doubt…what Noah did…
22 ¶ Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
These three little words seem so simple, so gently written there in the scripture…yet, they are the key that unlocks the door to the “grace that Noah found in the eyes of the Lord.”
They are the key to the protection, provision, and blessing that was shown Noah by God!
Listen, people…
Noah was not a boat builder!
Noah was not a weatherman!
Noah was not a zookeeper!
And, Noah was not a sailor!
God didn’t come to Noah because he possessed talents or abilities that would make him good in any of these areas.
God knew long before He came to Noah that he didn’t know how to be any of these things…God knew that Noah had never done anything like this before.
Noah, wasn’t even a young man…his life was half over…
What made Noah the ideal choice, what made Noah the man that God wanted to use…was the simple fact, that whatever God told Noah to do…he did it! He obeyed!
“Thus did Noah;…”
But, listen again…
Noah wasn’t just obedient in doing it, but he was obedient in doing it the way God instructed him to do so.
22 ¶ Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
This is where you and I fail so many times.
A lot fail with the whole being obedient in the first place. That is the first weeding out of people by God.
But, there is a second weeding out…Doing what God says…How God says to do it!
Most of us don’t make it past this round.
We want God to have His will for our life…but, we just don’t want it to involve us having to do anything.
Especially, when we find out what it is we have to do!
Rather than obedience, we offer God excuses…
“Oh, God, I don’t know how to do that!”
“You’ve got the wrong person.”
“I don’t think I want to do that. How, about something or someone else?”
We do not see God’s will, His purpose accomplished in our lives because of our lack of obedience.
Especially…, in our lack of obedience to do things the way God says to do it!
And, isn’t this the problem with the world?
The unbeliever has decided to worship God the way that He chooses rather than the way that God chose.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Salvation is of the Lord, by the Lord, through the receiving of the Son of God, Jesus Christ…having a personal relationship with Him.
Yet, man is not happy with that way, man doesn’t want to obey what God has said…so he creates other ways he thinks he can be saved. (doing good, etc.)
And, as a Christian we are also guilty of disobedience…oh, we obeyed and trusted God at our salvation…but, it is like our obedience to Him stopped there.
“Don’t ask me to do anything else God.” “And, for sure, don’t ask me to do it that way!”
We don’t ever read of Noah questioning God’s decision making.
All we read of Noah’s obedience is, “Thus did he; and so did he!”
You want God to change your life…be obedient to him?
Noah simply did what God told him to do!
How about you?
