Noah

Stiffkey 01-06-03

The story of Noah (Genesis 6: 1-8:22

Story: It is not often that I turn to the Lynx magazine (our local nine parishes magazine) for theological input, but I was inspired by the article: “Everything I need to know about life I learned from Noah’s ark”.

Did any of you read it?

Can any of you remember any of the 11 points.

1. Don’t miss the boat

2. Remember that we are all in the same boat

3. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.

4. Stay fit. When you are 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big. The corollary to that is that in God not in the retirement market!

5. Don’t listen to critics, just get the job done

6. Build your future on high ground

7. For safety’s sake, travel in pairs

8. Speed isn’t always an advantage, the snails were on board with the cheetahs

9. When you stressed, float a while

10. Remember the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic was built by professionals

11. No matter the storm, when you’re with God there’s always a rainbow waiting.

The story of Noah captures our imagination, because of all the animals who went into the ark – two by two. Though it didn’t say that they didn’t all come out two by two. If you ever kept rabbits you’d know what I am talking about!!

But what is special about Noah?

Hebrews 11:7 has this to say about Noah:

By faith, Noah when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built the ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness that comes by faith.

1. Noah had faith

Story: If you ask a majority of people if they run their lives by faith, they would probably say no – we live our lives on fact.

Yet the advertising industry spends millions each year trying to convince us to put our faith in its products – from Yes Car Credit (– I hate that advert) to the washing powder adverts and the car adverts.

The advertising industry certainly believes that we live our lives by faith and they are crying out saying : Have faith in our products. And often we’ll give them a try .

Let’s face it we do all exercise faith most of the time in our lives.

When we get in our car – how often do we test the brakes to see if they work before taking off. And if you’ve ever flown how often have you put your faith in the skill of the pilot.!!

When we come to a Green light we have faith that those cars - for which the light is red - will stop!!

Noah had faith. When God spoke to him – he believed God.

2. Noah obeyed God

Now Noah’s faith wasn’t just an intellectual assent. He trusted God and obeyed him. He built the Ark, well before it started to rain.

Can you imagine if Noah had started building the Ark in Stiffkey. You’d think he was nuts.

Noah must have put up with a lot of ridicule.

Imagine the Lynx entry for Stiffkey:

“Come and look at Noah’s folly – he’s building an Ark.”

And they’d be offering prizes for guessing what it was going to be used for.

Let’s face it you’d be hard pushed to launch it in Blakeney Pit – It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high with three interior decks!

Story: Imagine the conversation in Eva and Clive’s shop when Noah comes in, the day the Ark is finished:

Eva: “Hi Noah, come on tell us what this ark for”

Noah: “ I can’t, it’s a secret”

Eva: “Well, can’t you give us a clue”

Noah: “Yes I can. How long can you tread water?”

3. No matter the storm, when you’re with God there’s always a rainbow waiting.

Noah was proved right in the end. He listened to God rather than to his critics.

Isn’t that the moral of the story.

One man was righteous in his generation. He knew God and listened when God spoke.

We live in similar evil times – if you don’t believe me just read the newspapers. Isn’t that a challenge to us today? To seek God and to listen to his voice