Faith can make you look like a fool!
Hebrews 11:7
Genesis 5-8
Last week we learned what faith is, what it can do and that without it, it is impossible to please God. We read about Abel and Enoch’s great faith and how it is important in our relationship with God.
This week, we are going to learn about how it can make us look foolish in the eyes of the world. How by living by faith, we sometimes make no sense to the rest of the world. They think we may have gone a little “looloo!”
God has given us the word to go to for instructions. If we are not in the word, and in it often, we can sometimes be lost for direction. But that is not the only way he gives us instruction! He also speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. In fact, the sometimes the specific things that God is telling us is actually spoken to us through that soft, inner voice inside of us. Though his direction for us through that soft voice makes no human sense.
Yet, by faith we seek to be obedient to God, and follow wherever he leads us. We presume that one day he will prove we heard him right. Does that always happen? I don’t think so! We must keep in mind that our will is not necessarily His will!
I can imagine how Noah must have felt. I mean, he didn’t build the arc overnight! During those Years that it must have taken, he probably looked a little odd to the people around him, right? I am sure that he really took a lot of ribbing from other people while he built it, even from friends and family!
Think about a time when God spoke to you and told you to do something that made absolutely sense at all. Maybe you had a love one that was really sick, and he told you to wait for their healing, but as you obeyed, the outcome was different than what you thought it would be. Just how did you feel? Maybe hurt, or let down? Disappointed?
A lot of people would be angry with God. They would be upset because they knew that He could answer their prayers. What they do not understand, or will not understand is that while He can do anything, there is a reason for the results he gave. We may not be able to see the ‘big picture’ yet, but we have to have faith that He is right, and all knowing. He allows things to happen for His will to be completed, not mine. Not yours. That is where faith really comes into play.
I hear stories, as do we all, of how something tragic happened to someone. Of how someone prayed fervently that the sick one would be healed, and because did not heal them, they would be upset with God. When you get down to the nitty gritty, they are mad because their will was not completed. That is a hard thing to swallow, I know, but Satan attacks us when we do not get what we want. He tells us things like, “He doesn’t care,” or there is no God. If there is, He is not loving.
That makes some people lash out at God. It makes them pull away from the one that they should be running to, the true giver of comfort and peace. They begin to fall away from their faith in God. But God does not give up on them. He never has and never will. He loves them anyway.
If you remember last weeks message, Enoch lived for 365 years. The scriptures tell us that he lived the last 300 years in ‘constant fellowship’ with God and then God took him. It says that he did not die. It says that God took him! Do you think that maybe the faith that he lived by was witness to others in his family and this faith was passed down, not genetically, but by their actually seeing this? By witnessing this faith and the reward that Enoch received for his faith? Maybe our faith, small in comparison to Enoch, is a witness to God’s love as well!
Let’s read Genesis 6:5 thru 7:5. It says, “ The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and set the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them." Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. THEN THE Lord said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground." And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6:5-7 tells us just how bad off the world was. The world was in terrible shape. Mankind was truly evil, that they had no faith or love for God. They continually had evil in their hearts. Much like today. There is so much corruption in the world today. People are turning away from God more each day.
They also tell us that people’s hearts saddened God. He actually grieved in His heart for creating us. It actually says, “And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” That leaves me speechless. God was sorry that he made man on earth. But that shows that God does have feelings. He is loving. He is caring, and that we do matter Him.
Knowing this about Noah, how do you think his friends responded to Noah? They probably thought he was just a little bit out there. Understand, they did not have his faith nor his relationship with God. They probably considered him as quite the eccentric, do you think? That is just his friends!
What about the community at large? This guy must have been the laughing stock of the town! I mean picture this, you live in the middle of the desert and your neighbor is building a big ship, telling everyone that the world is going to be flooded! He did not build a boat to take to the lake; he built a ship that was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. That is 33750 square feet. Now that was no weekend fishing boat! How they must have laughed at him!
In verse 22 it says, “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” He did not question God. He did not quiver in his faith. Not one bit. He just did what God told him to do. He lost a lot of friends during the flood, and he knew he would, but his faith in God was so strong that he did just as he was instructed to do. What does that tell you about his faith? His response tells me that he was a man of deep faith in his creator. He trusted God and had confidence in what He had said. He had complete confidence in God’s will.
How would we respond? If God told you to do something so “off the wall”, would you do it? What about when he tells you to do things that may not make sense in your life today? Would you follow His instructions without asking why? Without “second-guessing” God?
Chapter 8 vs 15-22 say, “Then God said to Noah, ‘Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh--birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth--that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.’ So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
After all that had happened, Noah still walked in Faith with God. He immediately built an altar and offered to God a burnt offering from every clean animal. He could have just unpacked his stuff and settled right in, right? He did not though. His first priority was a sacrifice unto the Lord. He did this knowing that God would provide for him and his family. He did this because of he recognized that he had been blessed. His relationship with God was in the front of his heart and mind.
Let’s go back to Hebrews 11:7 where it reads, “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, took heed and constructed an ark for the saving of his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith.” This verse shows Noah from God’s perspective here. What do you think was Noah’s reason, or motivation for his obedience here? It is simple, It says “By faith.” As with Abel, and as with Enoch, Faith is the motivation to listen to God. Their ‘constant fellowship’ with Him. Their total trust in Him. Keep in mind, “Faith is not only a commitment to the promises of Christ; faith is also a commitment to the demands of Christ.” All these great men of God lived up to this.
Christians do not always have this kind of faith, in fact, many times we seem to drop our faith the first time we are under the fire. I found a poem that really talks about this ‘wishy-washy’ kind of faith. Let me read it to you!
One night, I had a wondrous dream;
One set of footprints there was seen.
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.
But then some stranger prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, "What have we here?"
"Those prints are large and round and neat,
But, Lord, they are too big for feet."
"My child," He said in sombre tones.
"For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait.
You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk-of-faith you would not know.
So I got tired and fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt,
Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand."
Now we all know that he will never give up on us, but this poem really drives home a point, doesn’t it? I mean we always expect the power of God to carry us, but are many times unwilling to walk by faith. We tend to rely on him for everything. He promised that he would provide, and he does, but we need to really get more into the word and pray and stay in fellowship with Him. We need to have a desire to “exercise” our faith.
When we look at the end result of Noah’s faith, we see the rewards far surpass the cost. We need to have that trust in the Lord when we face those hard times. When people look at us like we are crazy. He will make sure that His will shall be done.
Has God ever asked you to do something that you felt was “foolish?” So much so that you dismissed His promptings? I challenge you all this evening to ask God for faith like Noah’s, or Enoch’s or Abel’s. This kind of faith will enable you to follow wherever and however He leads you. I promise you that if you ask and really exercise this faith, the results will be amazing. It will be a testimony to God’s great power.
When you ask for it, be ready to use it! Open your hearts to the word, to the spirit and to His calling and prompting. Don’t be afraid to use this faith. Walk by faith, not by sight!
Remember that when your faith makes you look like a fool to others, it shows God your love for him. Those others that you worry about, they will come and go like the tide, but your relationship with God is forever. Your rewards are eternal and magnificent.
Hear His word and apply it to your life. Pickup your ‘shield of faith’ and go out into the world, sharing His love!
