Sermon

The Rainbow of Grace • November 16, 2025 • Andrew Spradlin • Genesis 8, Genesis 9-1–17

Valley Baptist Sermon Podcast

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  1. Welcome to the Valley Baptist Church sermon podcast.

  2. We're so glad you're here,

  3. and we hope this message inspires you,

  4. builds your faith,

  5. and moves you toward a deep relationship with God.

  6. Today, you'll find great insight into the Bible

  7. and learn how you can apply it straight to your life.

  8. So welcome and enjoy the message.

  9. If you have your Bible,

  10. please open it with me to Genesis chapter eight.

  11. Last week, we looked at the flood of judgment, and today we're looking at the rainbow of grace.

  12. Now, just like last week, we're going to cover a lot of verses today, so many that my wife,

  13. Kelsey, asked me a few days ago, why are you going through so many verses every week?

  14. And I said, well, because I'm trying to finish our series before Christmas.

  15. She laughed at that because she thought I had a spiritual reason, but no, just a very

  16. practical one.

  17. Now last week we looked at the first half of the great flood event when God judged the

  18. world for their wickedness.

  19. You see, God created a very good and perfect world,

  20. full of life, full of peace, full of joy.

  21. There was no pain, there was no suffering, there was no death.

  22. But then sin entered the world, and sin destroyed everything.

  23. Now, God didn't judge mankind immediately.

  24. He was very patient with them.

  25. But the more that he was patient, the more his heart was grieved.

  26. And the more wicked and violent that mankind became.

  27. So wicked, in fact, that God chose to destroy everyone but one family, Noah's family.

  28. Now, the story of Noah's Ark is one of the most famous stories

  29. in all of the Bible.

  30. Sometimes you'll even see Noah and his ark and the animals

  31. painted as murals in a preschool class.

  32. And I've always found that to be strange because when you really think about it,

  33. this isn't a very kid friendly story.

  34. I mean, this is a story of great terror and death and judgment.

  35. But as we'll see today, it's also a story of God's grace.

  36. Now we left off last week with Noah and his family and all of the animals in the ark saved

  37. from God's judgment in those flood waters.

  38. And the last verse of chapter 7 indicates that at this point that they had been on the

  39. ark for 150 days, roughly five months.

  40. Chapter 8, verse number 1.

  41. Then God remembered Noah and every living thing and all the animals that were with him

  42. in the ark.

  43. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

  44. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain

  45. and the heaven was restrained.

  46. And the waters receded continually from the earth.

  47. At the end of 150 days, the waters decreased."

  48. Now, I love how this chapter begins.

  49. Then God remembered Noah.

  50. Now it's not as if God had forgotten Noah, although he may have felt forgotten.

  51. I mean, this is no cruise ship.

  52. I'm sure it was mainly dark in there and damp.

  53. And can you imagine the stench of being with all of those animals for five months?

  54. But then the scriptures say, but then God remembered Noah.

  55. Now remember it is a covenantal language.

  56. It doesn't have to do with mental recall.

  57. It's a word that was used in the Old Testament

  58. to signify God acting on His covenant promise.

  59. We saw in chapter six, verse number 18,

  60. that God established a covenant with Noah

  61. to save him and everyone else on board from the floodwaters.

  62. But then five months later,

  63. God begins acting on that covenant promise by causing the floodwaters to begin receding.

  64. Here's our principle.

  65. God always keeps His promises.

  66. Amen?

  67. Aren't you glad that God always remembers His promises?

  68. The Bible says that when we come to faith in God,

  69. the scriptures teach that God remembers our sin no more,

  70. but He always remembers His promises.

  71. And there's a lot of promises that God has to remember

  72. because there's a lot of promises

  73. that God gives us in His Word.

  74. Perhaps the most precious

  75. is the promise to His people that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

  76. When my dad was in the hospital in Houston, he was in all kinds of pain.

  77. He was on drugs as well.

  78. But he told us one morning that the night before, all throughout the night, that the

  79. devil kept coming to him and telling him that God had forsaken him.

  80. And dad said, I just kept telling him he was a liar and that God would never forsake me.

  81. You know, when the storms of life come, it may feel at times as if the Lord has forsaken you,

  82. but just know He hasn't because He's promised never to forsake us.

  83. So cling to that promise during those times of pain and what feels like uncertainty.

  84. Yesterday, in the early morning hours, a friend of mine and a dear friend of our church, Pastor

  85. Larry Wood, went home to be with the Lord. Larry was one of my dad and Pastor Phil's

  86. very best friends, and so this one really hurts. But did you know that

  87. I, in the midst of grief, find a sense of peace and joy

  88. with the promise of God that to be absent from the body

  89. is to be present with the Lord.

  90. The promise of God that there's a great reunion

  91. that's taken place between Pastor Larry and my dad

  92. and many others and that someday I'm gonna join in that.

  93. But most of all, the promise of God that Pastor Larry

  94. is no longer in pain and he is in the presence of Jesus.

  95. Just like Noah, God always keeps His promises to His people.

  96. Verse number 4.

  97. Then the ark rested in the seventh month,

  98. the 17th day of the month on the mountains of Ararat,"

  99. that's modern day Turkey or Armenia.

  100. "'And the waters decreased continually

  101. until in the 10th month on the first day of the month

  102. the tops of the mountains were seen.

  103. So it came to pass at the end of 40 days

  104. that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.

  105. Then he sent out a raven which kept going to and fro

  106. until the waters had dried up from the earth.

  107. He also sent out from himself a dove to see if the waters had receded from the face of

  108. the ground.

  109. But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the

  110. ark to him, for waters were on the face of the whole earth.

  111. So he put out his hand and he took her and drew her into the ark to himself.

  112. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark.

  113. Then the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth.

  114. Now, a dove with an olive leaf in her mouth is still a universal symbol of peace, or now it is.

  115. And it says, And Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.

  116. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to

  117. him anymore.

  118. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, and in the

  119. first day of the month.

  120. Folks that's Noah's birthday by the way.

  121. Did you know that?

  122. Did you catch that?

  123. Did you catch that?

  124. Age is serving as a timeline for the flood.

  125. So on Noah's six hundredth and first birthday, the waters were dried up from the earth.

  126. And Noah removed the covering of the ark, and he looked, and indeed the surface of the

  127. ground was dry.

  128. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

  129. So God remembers Noah.

  130. And then about seven months later, Noah walks off the ark.

  131. That's a pretty big gap of time.

  132. I mean, there's a long process involved here

  133. of the waters receding to the point where the ark

  134. rests on Mount Ararat,

  135. to the point where the other mountaintops are now seen,

  136. to the point where Noah sends out a raven

  137. and then he sends out a dove

  138. and then he sends out the dove a second time

  139. and a third time.

  140. Eventually the dove doesn't return.

  141. And on Noah's birthday,

  142. I think a birthday present to himself,

  143. he removes the covering of the ark to get a

  144. better look at the ground that is now drying.

  145. And it looks pretty dry, but apparently it's not completely dry.

  146. It still had more drying to go because it's nearly another two months later that God commands

  147. him to go off the ark.

  148. So, if my math is right, Noah and his family and the animals are on the ark for a year

  149. and eleven days.

  150. That's a long time to be on this big boat.

  151. Here's our principle.

  152. God's plan often involves a process of waiting on Him.

  153. We don't like that, but that's the truth.

  154. Now God always fulfills His promises just like He did with Noah, but sometimes it takes

  155. a little bit longer than we would like it to take.

  156. See, God's never in a hurry, is He?

  157. Because remember, God is eternal, and the Scriptures say that a day is as a thousand

  158. days, a thousand days, and a thousand days is as a day unto the Lord.

  159. So God's timing is very different than our timing.

  160. Now, I'm sure Noah was very, very ready to get off that boat,

  161. but God's plans often require us as his people to wait on him.

  162. In fact, over and over again in God's word,

  163. he commands us, wait on the Lord, wait on the Lord.

  164. That's one of the main things that we do is we wait.

  165. We wait patiently on the Lord.

  166. So if you're in a season of life where it feels like all you're doing is waiting, just know that God has not forgotten you.

  167. He hasn't forgotten you.

  168. He sees you and he loves you and he cares for you right where you're at in the midst of your life.

  169. He loves you and he cares for you.

  170. Now, here's what I encourage you to do as you wait on the Lord.

  171. Whatever waiting circumstances you are in, instead of focusing on the part of God's will that you don't understand, namely his timing,

  172. focus instead on the part of God's will that you do understand.

  173. And when you do that, God will give you patience as you wait on him.

  174. Verse number 15.

  175. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "'Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons

  176. and your sons' wives with you.

  177. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you, birds and cattle and

  178. every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth and be

  179. fruitful and multiply on the earth.'

  180. So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.

  181. Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird and everything that creeps on the earth,

  182. according to their families, went out of the ark.

  183. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord

  184. and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird

  185. and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

  186. Now, can you imagine the first time

  187. that door opened up to the ark

  188. and perhaps a cool breeze blew over them

  189. as they took in that fresh air for the first time

  190. in over a year, I'm thinking they went running

  191. and maybe skipping and leaping for joy.

  192. I think I would have.

  193. But after that moment, perhaps of ecstasy, in that moment, the first thing that Noah

  194. does is he builds an altar unto the Lord and he offers a sacrifice, not just a little sacrifice.

  195. It says, "'He took of every clean animal and of every clean bird,' and he offers this

  196. massive burnt offering unto the Lord.'"

  197. Here's our principle.

  198. God's gracious salvation deserves a generous offering of worship.

  199. I should get an amen about that.

  200. His salvation unto us deserves a generous offering of worship.

  201. Noah worshiped God.

  202. Now, we don't know if his sacrifice was a Thanksgiving

  203. sacrifice or if it was a sacrifice of dedication or if

  204. it was a sacrifice of atonement.

  205. I think that perhaps it was all of the above.

  206. But we do see here with a great sense of certainty that Noah was

  207. not taking God's salvation for granted.

  208. Chapter 8 begins with God remembering Noah, and it ends with Noah remembering God.

  209. Let me ask you, now that God has saved you by His grace, assuming you've experienced His salvation,

  210. what kind of offering have you given to the Lord?

  211. Noah gave the very best that he had to give, and he was generous.

  212. One of every clean animal and every clean bird he gave.

  213. I remember when my dad told a story one time about my brother Matt getting a playset of

  214. Noah's Ark for Christmas.

  215. If I remember the story correctly, I'm just a little guy at that time.

  216. As Matt's playing one day with this Noah's Ark set and the animals, Dad overheard Matt

  217. say, Andrew, now that all the animals are off the ark, we need to give God a sacrifice.

  218. Now that's a cute little story for a kid to say that,

  219. but it doesn't end there.

  220. My dad kept watching and listening,

  221. and he heard Matt say,

  222. here's the animal that broke its leg off,

  223. let's give this one to God.

  224. Now we might assume that a child

  225. would make a mistake like that,

  226. but how many grown men and grown women,

  227. saved by the grace of God, still make the same mistake?

  228. Here, God, this is broken.

  229. This is kind of left over to me.

  230. You know, I don't think I really need this anymore.

  231. Why don't you take this as my offering to you?

  232. My excess time, my excess money and resources, my excess whatever it is.

  233. What a slap in the face of God's grace.

  234. Now, the most generous offering that we could possibly give unto the Lord isn't an animal.

  235. It isn't wealth.

  236. It isn't money.

  237. It's ourselves.

  238. The Bible says that we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice unto the Lord.

  239. The most pleasing offering you could possibly ever give God is a heart that is fully surrendered

  240. and devoted unto Him.

  241. Verse 21, and the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.

  242. That means He was pleased with the offering.

  243. Then the Lord said in his heart,

  244. I will never again curse the ground for man's sake,

  245. although the imagination of man's heart

  246. is evil from the youth,

  247. nor will I again destroy every living thing as I've done.

  248. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and the day and night shall not cease.

  249. So God promises here that even though mankind's heart is still going to be full of sin, the flood didn't solve that.

  250. It's going to still be full of sin.

  251. I'm never going to send a year-long flood again.

  252. Instead, moving forward, he says, as long as the earth remains,

  253. there's going to be a rhythm now to the seasons of the earth.

  254. There's going to be summer and winter, day and night.

  255. Now, in chapter 9, we see detailed out for us what has been called the Noahic covenant.

  256. As God starts over with humanity after the flood with Noah and his family.

  257. Verse number 1 of chapter 9 we read.

  258. So God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them,

  259. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

  260. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth,

  261. on every bird of the air, and on all that move on the earth,

  262. and on all the fish of the sea.

  263. They are given into your hand.

  264. Here's our principle.

  265. God still expects humanity to exercise dominion over the earth.

  266. You see, God blesses Noah here, and he repeats the same command,

  267. the first command that he gave Adam and Eve,

  268. be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

  269. In other words, have a lot of kids and spread out all over the globe.

  270. And then he basically says, now you are still to exercise dominion

  271. as Adam and Eve were, but now it's going to be a little bit harder.

  272. Because the animals now, they're going to be scared of you.

  273. That's going to cause some danger.

  274. That's going to cause a lot of problems.

  275. Now, I love how verse number three articulates things,

  276. because God tells us that part of our dominion over the earth

  277. and our dominion over the animals

  278. includes our freedom to eat meat.

  279. Look at verse number three.

  280. That makes me happy.

  281. It says, every morning, every moving thing that lives

  282. shall be food for you.

  283. I've given you all things.

  284. even the green herbs, but you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood."

  285. Now, some translate that last phrase as lifeblood, meaning don't eat the animal if it's still alive.

  286. In other words, make sure you barbecue it first. That's how I'm reading it.

  287. Up to this point, apparently human beings were vegetarians.

  288. Remember, there was no death prior to sin.

  289. And so they were at this vegetarian state for a period of time.

  290. But now God is blessing the eating of meat.

  291. He's opening that door to eat meat.

  292. Now, why would he do that?

  293. I don't know, but I'm thankful that he did.

  294. because I love a good steak.

  295. Now, to be clear, God isn't saying you have to eat meat.

  296. He's saying you can eat meat.

  297. Some may choose not to eat meat for dietary reasons

  298. or preference reasons, but eating meat or not eating meat

  299. isn't a moral issue.

  300. It's not a spiritual issue because God gives mankind

  301. freedom here to eat the meat of animals.

  302. Verse number five.

  303. Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning.

  304. From the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man.

  305. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man.

  306. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

  307. For in the image of God he made man.

  308. And as for you, be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply in it.

  309. God is saying...

  310. You can kill an animal and you can even eat its meat,

  311. but you cannot kill another human being

  312. because people are made in the image of God.

  313. And therefore, we are all of more value, value than animals.

  314. Here's our principle.

  315. Human life is sacred because we are made in the very image of almighty God.

  316. Now, the word sacred means set apart.

  317. We are set apart by God as different and more value

  318. than the rest of creation.

  319. So valuable, in fact, that human life is to be protected,

  320. God says.

  321. And part of that protection includes capital punishment

  322. for those who murder, whether it be an animal who takes the life

  323. of a person or another person who takes the life

  324. of another person.

  325. Life for life is what He is saying.

  326. Now, this right here is the very beginning of the rule of law that God institutes after sin to help deter and to help rein in, corral sin.

  327. Now, God would later detail out the law through Moses.

  328. But we know that the rule of law is given for one main reason, to protect life.

  329. And so that we can live with a sense of peace

  330. among one another, not in fear of danger constantly,

  331. because there's gonna be consequences

  332. if someone were to take actions into their own hands,

  333. a sense of harmony within society.

  334. Now, without the rule of law, anarchy reigns and might becomes right.

  335. And sinful people, they start thinking that just because they have the power to do something that they can.

  336. But God says through the rule of law that he institutes.

  337. No, all people, he says, have rights.

  338. All human life is to be protected.

  339. Just because a person's weaker or more vulnerable doesn't give anyone the right to take their life.

  340. You see, God is pro-life in every sense of the word.

  341. He demands that human life made in his image be protected by society so that every person,

  342. regardless of race or color or age or development, is precious to God and is to be protected

  343. by those in power.

  344. Now, my brother, Pastor Matthew, said regarding this passage, he said, God says we are to

  345. protect the life of the innocent and take the life of the murderer.

  346. But the twisted logic of the world says to take the life of the innocent and protect

  347. the life of the murderer.

  348. I don't think I could have said it any better than that.

  349. Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying,

  350. And as for me, behold, I established my covenant, my promise with you,

  351. and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you,

  352. the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you,

  353. all that go out from the ark, every beast of the earth.

  354. Thus I establish my covenant with you.

  355. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood.

  356. Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

  357. Obviously talking about a worldwide flood.

  358. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant

  359. which I make between me and you

  360. and every living creature that's with you

  361. for perpetual generations.

  362. I set my rainbow in the cloud

  363. and it shall be for the sign of the covenant

  364. between me and the earth.

  365. It shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth

  366. that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud

  367. and I will remember my covenant which is between me

  368. and you and every living creature of all flesh.

  369. The waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

  370. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember

  371. the everlasting covenant between God and every creature of all flesh

  372. that is in on the earth.

  373. And God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant

  374. which I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

  375. So God establishes here a covenant with Noah and every other creature who lives after him,

  376. that he's never going to destroy the earth again by water.

  377. Now there are a number of covenants that God makes with people throughout the Old Testament.

  378. Some of them are conditional covenants.

  379. and some of them are unconditional covenants.

  380. This is an unconditional covenant,

  381. meaning it's not based on mankind at all.

  382. It's based on God's grace.

  383. Now God's covenants often come with an outward sign, don't they?

  384. The sign of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision.

  385. The sign of the Mosaic covenant was the Sabbath.

  386. The sign of the new covenant that we have in Christ Jesus is baptism and the Lord's Supper.

  387. And here we read that the sign of the Noahic covenant is the rainbow.

  388. Here's our principle.

  389. The rainbow is a sign of God's common grace to all mankind.

  390. Theologians call all of the blessings of God that non-believers experience in life, they

  391. call it common grace.

  392. These are universal blessings such as health and happiness, prosperity, the restraint of

  393. God upon the full effects of sin and evil.

  394. All of those things are common grace.

  395. God's declaration here is a blessing upon mankind that we don't deserve.

  396. That's what makes it grace.

  397. And the rainbow is put in the sky to remind us

  398. and to remind God of His covenant promise.

  399. Now, I don't know about you,

  400. but I am deeply bothered by how God's symbol

  401. of His covenant promise has been stolen

  402. by some in our culture.

  403. It's now become a symbol of the LBGQ community

  404. and lifestyle, and I'm telling you,

  405. I have a deep desire to take back the rainbow.

  406. I really do.

  407. But I have no idea how that can be done because in our day and age, a church can't even display

  408. a rainbow without people freaking out, and I actually understand why.

  409. A few years ago, the ladies, some of the ladies who decorated for Vacation Bible School had

  410. a bunch of colors flying in the foyer, and it created quite a firestorm.

  411. because people, they thought that looked too much like a rainbow.

  412. And my first reaction was, so what?

  413. The rainbow is God's symbol to us, a promise to us.

  414. But then, recognizing

  415. how it was being so misunderstood, I reluctantly agree

  416. that it should be taken down.

  417. I'm telling you right now,

  418. While for obvious reasons, we may not be able to put a rainbow up on our campus,

  419. I praise God that He still puts a rainbow up in the sky for us.

  420. And every time I see His magnificent, beautiful rainbow in the sky,

  421. painted, painted across the sky, I thank God for His mercy and His grace

  422. and His promise to all mankind.

  423. Now, with all of that said about God's grace,

  424. We need to understand what God says here

  425. and what God does not say here.

  426. God says very clearly,

  427. I will not destroy the earth again with water.

  428. But he does not say that he will not destroy it again.

  429. 2 Peter 3, verse number 12 says,

  430. "...looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God,

  431. because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire,

  432. and the elements will melt with fervent heat."

  433. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which

  434. righteousness dwells."

  435. You see, someday the earth will be destroyed, not with water but with fire, and then God

  436. will create a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness and only righteousness

  437. will dwell.

  438. Now, the New Testament I pointed out last week tells us that the ark is actually a picture

  439. of Jesus.

  440. And just like God waited patiently in the days of Noah

  441. for people to repent, God waits patiently now.

  442. The Bible says that God is patient,

  443. not wishing or willing that any should perish,

  444. but that all should come to repentance.

  445. God has not yet destroyed the earth with fire,

  446. because he's waiting on some of you who are listening to this message

  447. and others to repent of their sins

  448. and to come to him in salvation.

  449. Now, we know that the flood

  450. did not change humanity's sin problem.

  451. Mankind, we still continue to have a heart full of sin without Christ.

  452. But what the flood could not do, Jesus has done.

  453. You see, Jesus took on the flood of God's judgment in such a way that he is now able

  454. to forgive us of our sins while God remains just.

  455. And he is able to give us new hearts.

  456. That's what Christianity is all about.

  457. That Jesus did for us what we couldn't possibly have done on our own.

  458. That he died on the cross for our sins, paying the full payment of it.

  459. He rose on the third day.

  460. Then he sent his spirit.

  461. to forgive us and to give us new hearts and to replace our heart of stone

  462. with a heart of flesh.

  463. And the Bible says that all who will believe,

  464. all who will come unto him are now in Christ.

  465. And just like those who were in the ark were saved,

  466. those who are in Christ are saved.

  467. So you know in his family, they didn't have to work hard in order to be saved.

  468. They were saved by grace through faith.

  469. It's not like God, you know, told them, hey, attach some ropes to the side of the ark and just hold on for dear life.

  470. If you're able to hold on throughout the flood, you're going to be saved.

  471. No, God didn't do it that way.

  472. He said, come into the ark and be saved.

  473. Come unto me, come into the ark, and I will save you.

  474. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

  475. We can't possibly do enough to earn favor with God.

  476. It is by grace.

  477. Noah found grace in the eyes of God

  478. is what the scriptures teach.

  479. So I wanna invite you today,

  480. very simply, to come into the ark of salvation,

  481. to come in to Christ Jesus by faith.

  482. and to receive God's grace.

  483. Not the common grace that all the descendants of Noah receive, but the saving grace that

  484. only the descendants of Jesus receive.

  485. Now, let's bow together in an attitude of prayer, if you will.

  486. This is a holy moment in the life of our church, both here and at Olive Drive.

  487. This is a time of reflection.

  488. This is a time of prayer.

  489. This is a time of response to be doers of God's word and not just hearers.

  490. It might be that you know Jesus as your savior and you are one of God's children.

  491. But it could also be that in the midst of that, you're still going through a terrible storm in life.

  492. Maybe you've lost a loved one.

  493. Maybe you've lost your job.

  494. Maybe your marriage is in trouble.

  495. Maybe a child is wayward.

  496. If you're going through a storm today, I want to encourage you to look for God's rainbow.

  497. Look for it.

  498. Look for God's promises.

  499. And then cling to those promises because God always keeps His promises.

  500. In just a moment, we're going to have pastors and other leaders all across the front of our worship center,

  501. both here and at Olive Drive.

  502. I'm going to pray.

  503. And after I pray, we're going to stand to our feet

  504. and we're going to sing a song, but we're also going to invite everyone

  505. who is willing to come forward and give their life to Christ.

  506. Anyone who God is touching your life today,

  507. He's bringing an awareness of your sin,

  508. It's maybe it's just dawning on you in a new, fresh way.

  509. The light bulb of of God's plan and his love and his grace is it's flickering on.

  510. I want to invite you to to turn that light bulb, keep it on by faith,

  511. accept what God is doing in your heart.

  512. The Bible says, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  513. Sometimes people overthink it.

  514. Sometimes people, they think, well, I've got to do this and I've got to do that.

  515. No, no, no, no, no.

  516. All you need to do is surrender.

  517. That's what it takes.

  518. Humbling oneself, swallowing one's pride to recognize that you can't possibly do it.

  519. Only God can do it.

  520. The good news is God has done it.

  521. Jesus accomplished what we couldn't.

  522. And so it's not that we earn God's grace,

  523. we receive God's grace.

  524. So I want to invite you to receive God's grace today

  525. if you've never experienced it,

  526. if you've never had the weight of your sin

  527. lifted off your shoulders

  528. and to feel the lightness of knowing God

  529. and that kind of a way to be clean before him.

  530. There's nothing like it in all the world.

  531. The only way you experience that

  532. is that you come unto the ark,

  533. you come unto Jesus in faith.

  534. The Bible says, as many as received him, that's Jesus,

  535. to them God gave the right to be called the children of God.

  536. I want to invite you to become a child of God today by faith.

  537. As soon as we stand in just a moment.

  538. I want to invite you just to come as you are down one of these aisles,

  539. down one of these staircases, both campuses.

  540. Say, I want to give my life to Jesus.

  541. These this team of leaders, they're going to know exactly how to help you.

  542. They're not going to embarrass you.

  543. They're not going to ask you a question that you can't answer.

  544. They're going to help you take that step of faith.

  545. Maybe you say, I want to be baptized and go public with my faith like

  546. many are doing today.

  547. Say, I want to join this church family.

  548. It's time for me to be an official member of Valley, to be a family member.

  549. Well, we'd love to have you.

  550. We'd love to visit with you about that.

  551. We can set up a time for you to join.

  552. We can set up a time for you to be baptized.

  553. Maybe just a few weeks from now is our 40th anniversary.

  554. We're hoping and praying we're going to have many people that we baptize in celebration of our 40th birthday.

  555. Come, let us know you'd like to be baptized.

  556. We can schedule a time for just that.

  557. Let's pray.

  558. Our gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your amazing grace.

  559. Lord, we recognize today that your love and your grace is not really truly and fully understood unless we understand it in light of your holiness and your justice.

  560. You're perfect, and we're not, Lord.

  561. So we thank you, Lord, that you're patient with us.

  562. I thank you that you continue to be patient.

  563. Oh, how we look forward to the coming day of the Lord

  564. when you shall return and you shall set into motion

  565. all the end time events that shall take place

  566. that will culminate someday in a new heavens and a new earth.

  567. Lord, we long for that.

  568. We wait patiently for that.

  569. But also, Lord, we're thankful.

  570. that that day has not yet come in your perfect timing and plan

  571. because you're still waiting for people to come to you.

  572. You're still extending grace.

  573. You're still being patient with people.

  574. Lord, I pray that people would not take advantage of that patience or

  575. or ignore your patience, Lord, but that would prompt them

  576. to get right today.

  577. Your scriptures say today is the day of salvation.

  578. And it's today because we don't know what tomorrow holds.

  579. So, Father, would you do a great work in our midst, in the hearts of our people, in the hearts of people that don't know you yet.

  580. Would you just draw us close?

  581. Would you tug on our hearts?

  582. Would you open our eyes?

  583. Help, Lord, help people believe.

  584. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

  585. Thanks for listening today.

  586. We hope you enjoyed this message.

  587. And if you did, we would be so grateful

  588. if you left us a review.

  589. Also, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast

  590. if you would like to be notified

  591. when a new sermon is released.

  592. If you feel the Lord calling you

  593. to take the next step in faith

  594. through salvation, service, or giving, don't wait.

  595. Reach out to us by texting podcast to 88988.

  596. That's podcast to 88988 or connect with us on one of our social media platforms.

  597. You can also visit our website, valleybaptist.org to find even more great resources.

  598. No matter where you are in your journey, know that we love you.

  599. We're praying for you and we can't wait to see what God will do in your life.