What’s Important
Genesis 8: 18-21
Intro: A husband and wife were attending a county fair where, for twenty dollars a person, a man was giving rides in an old airplane. The couple wanted to go up but they thought twenty dollars a person was too expensive so they tried to negotiate a lower price. “We’ll pay you twenty dollars for both of us,” they said to the pilot. “After all, we’ll both have to squeeze into that tiny cockpit that was built for only one person.”The pilot refused to lower his fare, but he made a counter offer. He suggested, “Pay me the full price of twenty dollars each, and I’ll take you up. If you don’t say one word during the flight, I’ll give you all your money back.” The couple agreed and got into
the plane. Up they went and the pilot proceeded to perform every trick he knew, looping and whirling and flying upside down and lots more. Finally, when the plane had landed,
the pilot said to the husband, “Congratulations! Here’s your money back; you didn’t say a single word.” To which the man replied, "Nope, but you almost got me when my
wife fell out.”
. We can see what was important to this man
. A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in two’s for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under the weight of a 200 pound deer. The other hunters asked, “Where’s Bob?” The lone man said, “Oh, he had a stroke of some kind, he’s a couple of miles back up the trail.” The other hunters were shocked and asked why he left Bob laying there to carry the deer instead. “It was a tough call,” the hunter said, “but I figured no one was going to steal Bob.”
. A farmer ran this classified ad in the Quay County Sun: “Farmer with 160 irrigated acres wants marriage-minded woman with a tractor. When replying, please send picture of the tractor.”
. It was obvious what was important to these gentlemen.
. What’s important to you?
. What are your priorities in life/
. What is the most important thing that you do?
. We are back in Genesis this morning and as we continue to look at the flood, we are going to see what was important to Noah.
. The 8th chapter of Genesis records the time Noah and his family were on the boat and what happened when the flood waters receded and there was dry land again on Earth.
. At the end of chapter 7, we see God closing the door and sealing it up after Noah and his family had entered the Ark with all the kinds of animals.
. The waters covered the Earth for 150 days and I’m sure that Noah and his family were starting to wonder what was going on. Did it take that long for animal and people d to drown?
.Verse 8 starts out saying that God remembered Noah. Noah had not been forgotten nor forsaken. God remembered him and had everything under control.
. They had already been on the boat for 150 days then verse 5 tells us that it was another two and ½ months, or 75 days, before the other mountain peaks became visible.
. Forty days after that, Noah opened a window and released a raven and a dove. The dove found no other dry land so it returned to the boat.
. Seven days later Noah did this again and the dove came back with an olive leaf in it’s mouth indicating that there was vegetation.
. Seven days later Noah released the dove again and it did not return indicating that everything was ok.
. Noah waited two more months for the Earth to dry.
. The total of all of the days Noah and his family were on the boat was 380 days.
. That’s a long time to be cooped up with all these smelly animals and by now probably some pretty smelly sons and daughters in law.
. How many have been on a cruise ship. You know how they take you off by different sections. I am always very impatient with this process. I just want to get off the boat. I’m sure many of you are the same way. We have enjoyed the cruise but now it is time to get back to life as we know it.
. There are things that need to be done. Vacation is over.
. That’s after three or five or seven days on the boat. I was on one for ten days one cruise. I couldn’t wait to get off that boat.
. There were things I needed to do.
. Can you imagine the anticipation of Noah and his family.
. 380 days on the ship.
.What were they going to do when they got off the boat?
. What was important to Noah and his family?
. Look with me at verses 18-21 in the 8th chapter of Genesis.
. 18So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat.
19And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.
20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose.
21And the LORD was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things.
. Giving thanks and acknowledging God for who He was and what He had done for them was the most important thing in their life.
. After more than a year of being cooped up, Noah’s first act when getting off the boat was to worship God. To build an alter and make sacrifice to God.
. That’s how they did church back then.
. God was the most important thing in Noah’s life.
. Many of us would have probably said wait a little while God, let me get my land legs back. Let me take a shower, get cleaned up and then I will deal with you. After all, this life you gave me is all about me isn’t it?
. Noah models for us what is important in life. God.
. We sing the song that goes like this:
. “All I know is I’m not home yet, this is not where I belong, take this world and give me Jesus, this is not where I belong.”
. God, Jesus is the most important thing in a Christian’s life because this world that we live in is not important.
. John records Jesus’ words in John 12:25&26:
. “25Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity.
26Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me …”
. You see, Noah knew what was the most important thing in his life, God.
. Jesus tells us the same thing. I am the most important thing in your life.
. If you call yourself a Christian, if you are a disciple of mine, then you must follow me. You must adhere to my teachings or else you are just fooling yourself.
. If we claim faith but do not follow what Jesus teaches, we are deceiving ourselves.
. Carlysle Driggers was here for our homecoming last week and I want to piggy back on part of his sermon.
. He talked about what was important in our lives.
. He used Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount as his text.
. In that sermon, Jesus talks about getting overly concerned about the things of this world and He illustrated his point by using the birds and how God provides for them and He used the flowers in the fields and their beauty as to how God will care for us and then Matthew records in 6: 33 this statement from Jesus.
. “33Seek the Kingdom of God above all else …”
. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is the most important thing in your life.
. Not what you wear, not what you eat but how you serve God.
.Carlyle reminded us of what he called kingdom work.
. You see, that’s what’s important, kingdom work.
. Above all else, the kingdom of God is the most important.
. Working in and expanding the kingdom of God.
. This is consistent with everything that Jesus has always taught us.
.I ask again, what is important to you?
. I realize that our families are important; I realize that our Jobs are important. We all have things that we enjoy doing that are important to us.
. Noah realized that God was the most important thing. He is what matters most.
. Jesus teaches us that the Kingdom of God is to be first and foremost in our lives.
. How do you affect the kingdom of God?
. I sat at the house Friday night and watched the news concerning what is happening in Iraq.
. The president had came on TV on Thursday I believe it was and talked about the humanitarian mission that we were doing.
. He talked about the thousands of folks who were being persecuted and killed just for existing.
. He spoke of their plight and how they had no food or water and someone had to help them. I don’t disagree with that folks.
. Jesus told us to feed the hungry and the destitute .
. While we support going to another country to help, what are we as a church doing about the hungry and the destitute and the poor in our communities right here in Monroe Ga?
. There are people right here in Monroe who are hungry.
. There are children who are hungry. Children who go home from school at night with nothing to eat.
. What are we going to do to help our community?
. What are we going to do to fulfill our mission as a church.
. We have stated that our mission is to encourage and develop those we meet into committed followers of Jesus.
. We are not going to accomplish this if we don’t get involved as people of God and as a church.
. We must show the faith, hope and love of Jesus Christ to a world that seems to grow darker every day.
. Folks, we do that through kingdom work.
. We do that through identifying what’s important to us as individuals and as a body of believers united in a common goal.
. We are going through a process right now that we call vision casting. What this process does is help us identify what is important to us.
. What do we need to do as a church to fulfill our mission?
. What kingdom work do we need to be doing?
. Folks, we have come a long way in the last 2&1/2 years but we are just getting started.
. There is kingdom work to be done.
. Jesus said that: “Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me …”
. Jesus was the greatest follower there has ever been.
. In John 6: 38 Jesus told a crowd what was important to him.
. 38For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.
. Jesus said that what was important to him was to follow God, not himself.
. If we are to be followers of Jesus, we must do as He did and place the will of God first and foremost in our lives.
. We must be followers of Jesus who is a follower of God.
. God must be the most important thing in our life.
. I encourage you to become involved in the vision casting process.
. When we as a church place God as the most important thing in our lives, He can and will use us to accomplish kingdom work.
. What’s Important folks.
. I submit to you that as Christians, just like Noah, God must be first and foremost in our lives
.
. He should become first and foremost in our lives when we place our faith in Jesus Christ.
. Have you done that this morning?
. Invitation
