Riding The Storm Out
Genesis 7 (NLT)
Intro: Chippie the parakeet was a happy little bird, content every day to sit on his perch, swinging and singing to his little heart’s content. One day Chippie’s owner took the initiative to clean out his cage. She took off the attachment from the end of the vacuum hose and stuck it in the cage to remove the sediment from the bottom. Just then the phone rang. She turned to pick it up and had barely said hello when "ssopp!" Chippie got sucked in!
As you can imagine, the bird owner gasped, dropped the phone, turned off the vacuum and ripped open the bag. Inside, there lay Chippie, still alive but stunned by the trauma. The bird was covered with all the terrible grit and grime that fills vacuum bags, so the owner did the only thing she could think to do. She grabbed him up, raced to the bathroom, turned on the faucet, and held Chippie under running water. Then realizing poor little Chippie was soaked and shivering, she did what any good bird owner would do, she reached for the hair dryer and blasted the little guy with hot air. Poor Chippie never knew what hit him.
A couple of days after the experience Chippie’s owner was talking t5o the same person who had called. Chippies owner told her friend what had happened and he asked how the bird was doing. She said, "Well Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore-he just sits and stares. When the phine rings, chippie starts to shiver all over.” You can’t blame Chippie though, he had just went through probably the most horrendous experience of his life.
( most of this story from Max Lucado, in the eye of the storm)
. That’s how the storms in life come, everything seems to be going fine and then BAM, it just hits you doesn’t it.
. A man drives to work at 6:30 a.m. as he has for 8 years. He punches in his time-card and is soon confronted by his supervisor. John is berated and humiliated as he has been repeatedly over the years over minor things. This time he quits---STORMS
.A strong thunderstorm sweeps through the area and destroys a farmers crops and barns. He is already deep in debt---STORMS
.A widow faces an empty house and bed for the first time in 40 years---STORMS
.Parents sit on the couch. It is 3:00 a.m. Their sixteen year old son has not come home. They fear he has been drinking. Storms
.We all face storms. Some are physical-- i.e., tornadoes, floods, earthquakes. Some are personal--- i.e., death, job problems, soured friendships. Storms are a part of life. The right question is not whether they will come, or when , because we all know they are coming.
. The question is how will we respond.
. Storms have a way of making us focus on what really matters in life.
. We are back in Genesis this morning.
. Here several weeks ago we looked at why Noah, of all the men on earth, was looked upon by God as Righteous.
. Today we will look at the actual flood.
. Noah has done all that God has told him to do and the storms are coming.
. I’m going to share the story of chapter 7 here in Genesis with you and then we will look at a few verses.
. Everything was finally ready. God told Noah that it was time.
. Noah, you are 600 years old and it is time.
. You have spent all this time preparing. The boat has been built.
. The animals are on board and ready to go.
. Take your family, Shem, Ham and Japeth, your wife and their wives and get in the boat.
.Then the storm came, it rained for forty days and forty nights.
. All the underground springs that God had been using to keep everything watered on the earth suddenly erupted.
. Verse 11 says that the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky.
. As the rain fell, the waters of the earth rose and along with it, the Ark that Noah had built.
. Can you imagine the elation that the folks on the Ark must have felt. As the waters rose, they would have felt that lift. I’m sure they said to themselves, hey it floats.
. It took seven days for the waters to cover the entire Earth.
. All life that breathed and lived on dry land was eradicated.
. All that was left were the people and the animals on the Ark.
. For 143 more days, that flood waters covered the Earth.
. What a storm.
. We all go through storms in life.
. What I want to look at for just a few minutes this morning is how do we survive these storms.
. Just how do we ride these storms out.
. The first thing we see here is that Noah:
. Trusted God
. Look at verse 1
. 1When everything was ready, the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous.
. What trust. Noah, all the inhabitants of the Earth are about to be destroyed but I want you to trust me.
. Take your family and get on the boat.
. Look at verses 13-16 with me.
. 13That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives.
14With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind.
15Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes.
16A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD closed the door behind them.
. Verse 16 says that the Lord himself closed the door behind them.
. Can you imagine the apprehension in this family.
. When they heard that thump, when the door sealed, all they had was their trust in God.
. They did not know what was ahead of them, all they knew was that God was with them.
.Folks, if we are to survive the storms that come into our lives, we must learn to trust in God.
. Notice I said learn. This is a learned trait for us Christians.
. None of us move from depending and trusting in ourselves the minute we place our faith in Jesus Christ. It is through the trials and storms in our lives that we learn to trust in the Lord.
. A man was out jogging one day and as he passed a cliff, he got too close and fell. Grabbing hold of a branch he was stranded. No way up and certainly no way down. He began to scream, “Help, help, is there anyone up there who can hear me.” He yelled for hours and was about to give up when he heard a voice.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Yes, I can hear you I’m down here.”
“I can see you, are you alright?”
“Yes, but...who are yo and where are you?”
“I am the Lord, I am everywhere.”
“The Lord? You mean God?”
“That’s me.”
“God, help me, I promise that if you get me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good person and serve you for the rest of my life.”
“Easy on the promises. First let’s get you down, then we can discuss those.”
“I’ll do anything, Lord, just tell me what to do, okay?”
“Okay, let go of the branch.”
“What?”
“I said, let go of the branch. Just trust me, let go.”
PAUSE
“Help, Help, is there anybody else up there?”
. Trusting in God can be difficult sometimes.
.Wise King Solomon had much to say about trusting in the Lord.
. Look at proverbs 3:5-7
. 5Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
6Seek his will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.
7Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom…
. Many times we are in the midst of the storm and don’t know where to turn.
. Turn to God, Solomon writes.
. In the Hebrew language, trust means to “put all your weight on something”
. An example would be like when you go to bed tonight, you lie down trusting that the bed will fully support your weight. Kids will run and jump into bed, and then when you get my age you just fall into bed, but either way you don’t give it a second thought. You don’t keep one foot on the floor so that you can get up if the bed won’t support you. You put all of your weight on the bed.
. That’s what trusting in God means.
. When all the storms are raging, we can be assured that He can carry the weight.
. He will not break under the weight of the storm.
. He will carry you through.
. Solomon wrote that we are not to be impressed with our own wisdom, nor do we lean on our own understanding, we trust in God.
. Noah could have said Lord, I don’t understand why I need this big boat but I trust You. Can you imagine how the neighborhood mocked him for 40 years? Nobody understood what he was doing, not even his family, and not even Noah. He simply trusted in God and did what God had given him to do. And because of his trust, he and his family were safe in the midst of the storm.
. When a little boy named David was getting ready to go up and fight someone who was 9’9” tall. He can dunk a basketball and never even jump. So King Saul went and brings his own armor and puts on David and Saul was a full-grown man and David says, “Look Saul, I can’t even walk in this”. So I’m sure that Saul was thinking let me see if I can find one your size. But David said no I don’t need them. I trust in the God who killed the lion and the bear to protect me more than I do your fancy armor.
So David when out and chose five smooth stones and he took his sling to go out and face this giant and he took one stone and stuck him in the forehead and killed him. That was just David trusting God.
. Folks, in order to ride out the storms that are going to come in life, we must learn to trust in God.
. We also find strength in the midst of the storm by being:
. Righteous
. We have talked a lot about being righteous as we have been going through Genesis.
. 1When everything was ready, the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous.
. Noah could draw strength and courage to ride out the storm because he was a righteous man.
. Noah had a relationship with God.
. Noah believed in and believed what God told him.
. If you quiz folks, over 80% of people believe in God or a god or higher power.
. The problem is that many don’t accept the God of the Bible and what He tells them.
. You see we become righteous when we believe what the God of the Bible tells us.
. He tells us that in order for us to be seen as righteous, we must place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
. In his epistle, John the apostle writes this in 3:18
8“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s hone and only Son.
. We are in a right relationship with God, righteous, when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.
. All people have storms in their lives, Christians can ride out these storms and not be overwhelmed because of their relationship to God through Jesus Christ.
. Noah was able to survive the storm because of his trust and faith in the God of the Bible.
. Have you placed your trust and faith in him this morning.
. Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
In God Do WE Trust, Dean Meadows, sermon central
Anchors For Life’s Storms, Brian Credille, sermon central
