Sermon Central
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Build The Boat Series
Contributed by John Dobbs on Sep 1, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: We might automatically begin to associate recovery with alcohol or drug abuse, but there are many things in life from which we recover - and I think we are probably all recovering from something.
Recovery Month
BUILD THE BOAT
Introduction
This month we begin a series of lessons about recovery - and by recovery we mean healing from the struggles, failures, and addictions that have caused us and those we love pain. In that healing, we we grow and become able to help others find their way. We might automatically begin to associate recovery with alcohol or drug abuse, but there are many things in life from which we recover - and I think we are probably all recovering from something. Ernest Hemingway wrote, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” That’s what we hope and pray for this series - that we find strength in the broken places through the healing that comes from our Abba Father who loves us with grace and mercy. We will present four mantras / sayings that we hope will help us to experience connection to God and the healing he brings. Today we go back to Genesis 6, one of the most familiar stories of the Bible.
Genesis 6 begins with the distressing news that humans had made such a mess out of things that God regretted that he had made them. There was an exception: “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8). What was different about Noah? (Genesis 6:9 NLT "This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God."). God’s plan (Genesis 6:12-14a; 17-22 NIV God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood;
... am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. ) God gives Noah and his family a storm warning.
We’ve all had storms in our lives.
Some because we disregarded God’s will for our lives
Some because of what other people have done.
Some just because we live in a fallen world.
Some are outward, some are inward.
They all come with a struggle - and recovery when we trust God’s guidance through them.
God’s storm warning carried with it some survival instructions: Build the Boat.
1. BELIEVE
Believe what God says about the world around us. Genesis 6:12 AMP And God looked upon the world and saw how degenerate, debased, and vicious it was, for all humanity had corrupted their way upon the earth and lost their true direction. ‘Lost their true direction …”
F. Scott Fitzgerald described alcoholism this way: “First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.” The world is a dangerous place and God knows it. Without God we do not get better, we always trend worse. No matter how much we believe in the human spirit and the ability we have to just make changes and get better on our own, we ultimately fail if God is not involved.
Recovery. AA First two of the Twelve Steps: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. … We Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” This closely rivals Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” To be poor in spirit is to say “I can’t, God Can, I think I’ll let Him”.
Noah didn’t try to fix the problem - he just believed an unbelievable instruction: Build a boat!
Hebrews 11:7 ESV By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
