Rick Warren - Noah’s Story And The Hope God Puts In Your Storm

The Life of Noah teaches us what to do when

no one else understands your goal.

When you have a dream that God has.

Given you and put it in your heart and you're

trying to do something you believe God wants you to do,

and nobody else gets it. God used Noah to save

the future of the entire human race. Now, the bigger

the life vision God gives you, the bigger the problems

you can expect to have. And you could also expect

that when God gives you a dream or a goal

or a vision for your life, a lot of other

people just aren't going to understand it. Now, maybe you're

in this situation today you say, I know what I

want to do with my life. I know what God

wants me to do with my life. I know what

my goal is, my dream, my vision is, but nobody

else gets it.

Now.

You know, when most people think of Noah, they always

want to know about the details of the flood and

the details of the arc, this giant ship that he built,

and all the animals and how they got collected and

now the miracles occurred. And I'll agree that those are

fascinating details.

But today, for the purpose of.

This message, I want us to just set those details aside,

and I want to focus on the man himself, Noah,

and how he handled getting the arc built when nothing ever,

ever had ever been built like it, and when the

idea of a flood had never even been considered on

the earth. The Bible said, it had never rained on

Earth before the flood, So the people didn't even know

what Noah was talking about, and nobody believed that God

had told Noah that this was going to happen, and

that he was going to build an arc, and that

all of the world.

Was going to end.

And yet he had an assignment that took literally decades

and decades and decades. Now, just in case some of

you don't know this story, the Bible tells us that

there was a time on Earth when mankind got so

depraved and so wicked and so perverted that God regretted

creating human beings. And God was ready to just wipe

out the entire human race and start all over from scratch.

But he looked.

Down on Earth and he found one guy, one guy

with a pure heart, a true believer with integrity, who

genuinely loved God and he wanted to do the right thing.

And that guy's name was Noah. So God looks down

and he finds though, and he tells, no Noah.

I'm gonna make it rain. Now.

The Bible says before that that God had watered the

earth plants from a dew, a mist that came up

from the ground at night, So the entire firmendment of

the earth changed the climate you talk about climate change.

They had never rained on.

Earth before this, which is why they had never seen

a rainbow, why they had never heard of a flood.

And it was and by the way, it's probably why

they lived so much longer in those days. They lived

hundreds of years longer in the early years of the Earth,

the Bible tells us. In fact, Noah lived nearly six

hundred years and took him nearly one hundred years.

To build the arc.

But he said, I'm going to make it rain so

much that it's going to create a worldwide flood, and

it's going to cover the entire earth, and it's going

to wipe out everything. But I'm going to save your

family and your sons and your wives, and they're going

to repopulate the earth, which means Noah is your ancestor.

We're all related to Noah somehow, so we're all family

in that way. Now, God said, the way I'm going

to save you is, I'm going to have you build

this giant boat, which we'll call the Arc, and I'm

going to give you the plans and I'm going to

teach you how to build it with your sons. But

it's not going to take a long, long, long time.

To build it. And using the ages of.

Noah's sons, Bible scholars have figured out that it probably

took Noah about eighty years to build the Ark. It

was a minimum of fifty years. And during this time

no one, no one on Earth except Noah's family would

understand Noah's goal. And he's building this arc in the

front yard and they're not.

Nobody's going to understand.

The neighbors are going to understand what's going on, why

Noah's doing it. Everybody's going to think you're crazy, Noah.

Now this is the setup for the story of Noah

that we find in Genesis chapter six to chapter nine. Now,

on Noah's story, we learn that Noah was able to

reach his goal, to fulfill his mission, to achieve the

dream that God had put in his heart, and do

what God had called him to do with his life

in spite of four common pitfalls. They are distractions, doubts, detours,

and delays. Now, specifically, Noah shows us the antidote to

four things. First, cultural distractions. These are the things that

are around your life that waste your time and waste

your energy, and waste your focus and waste your money

when God says, here's what I want you to do

with your life. The second pitfall is what I call

voices of doubt, and that's those voices that you hear

from people around you that cause you the second guess

yourself and your goal in life. The third pitfall are

what I call tempting detours, and these are things that

look like shortcuts and this will save me some time,

but they actually points you in the wrong direction.

And the fourth.

Pitfall that Noah had to avoid is what I call

discouraging delays because it took him almost one hundred years

to build this arc. Now we learn the same four

choices that Noah made are the same four choices that

you must make in order to fulfill God's purpose and

God's plan.

For your life. So let's get right into it.

Here's the first choice that Noah made that you're going

to have to make in order to get to the

fulfillment of the dream, the vision, and the goal God

hasked for your life. Number one, I must dare to

be different from my culture. I must dare to be

different from my culture. Now, until you settle this big issue,

you're never going to fulfill your destiny. You can forget

fitting in. You can't fit in with culture and fit

in with God's plan for your life. The Bible tells

us in Genesis, chapter six, verse nine, first part of

the verse. It says this, this is the account of

Noah and his descendants. Noah had God's approval. Notice this,

Noah had God's approval, and he was a man of

integrity among the people of his time, as from God's

words translations. Now, if you intend to do anything significant

with your life, it's going to be in spite of

our culture, not because of it. You hear that in

spite of the culture, not because of it. Culture will

distract you from God's purpose for your life. And would

you agree there are plenty of things that distract you

from your destiny. Yeah, let me just mention four cultural distractions.

Real quick Number one would be pleasure. Our world is

pleasure crazy, living for fun, living for comfort, living for entertainment.

You can't live for those things and live for God. Possessions,

you know, judging your success by how much stuff you accumulate. Possessions, pleasure, popularity,

worrying about what other people think. You can't focus on

being popular and doing what God has called you to

do with your life at the same time. And how

about profit if your number one goal is to get rich.

I just want to remind you that Jesus said you

cannot serve both God and money. He didn't say you shouldn't.

He said you can't. You can't have to do gods.

Whatever is number one in your life will be your God. Now,

in Noah's day, the human race had hit bottom morally.

Genesis chapter six, Verse eleven and twelve says this earth

had become corrupt in the sight, in God's sight, and

it was filled with violence. Now notice he might circle

these words corrupt and then violence, and God observed all

the evil. There's a third word done in the world,

and he noticed cruelty. There's the fourth world word and

depravity everywhere violence, depravity, cruelty, corruption, evil, sound vaguely familiar.

In Genesis chapter six, verse five and six, it says

when God saw the extent of human wickedness on the earth,

and that the trend and direction notice that phrase, the

trend and direction of men's lives were only toward evil.

He God was sorry that he had made them, and

it broke his heart. God had a broken heart. The

world was broken by all kinds of sin and all

kinds of evil, and that broke God's heart. When God

made it, he said, it's good, It's all good. But

it wasn't all good anymore. Does this sound familiar? By

the way, what do you think is the trend today?

What's the trend and direction of culture today? Is it

toward good? Is it towards civility or incivility? Is it

toward rudeness? Or is it toward love? Is it toward

people being more violent or being more peaceful?

We're in the same direction, you know. Jesus said this.

Jesus said in Luke seventeen, verse twenty six, when the

Son of Man comes again, Jesus is coming back someday,

he said, it will be like it was when Noah lived.

In other words, the same things that were going on

in Noah's day, violence, corruption, evil, depravity, cruelty, people being

cruel to each other. He said, you can expect that again.

We're seeing that today. These are distractions in our culture.

But here's the good news. And all of the darkness

that was going across the earth at that time, God

found one bright spot. And in Genesis sixth, verse eight,

I love this. In the message it says this, but

Noah was different. Noah was different. God liked what he

saw in Noah while the entire world, all of culture,

was headed in one direction. Two words saved the world.

But Noah, I want you to be that kind of

person in today's world. I want you to be a

But Noah, that you turn the other direction you're going.

But Susan, but Mary, but John, but Bill. But Noah

was going in a different direction. He's the only guy

in the world. He's counterculture.

Now.

Noah is not worried about fitting in. He's not worried

about gaining the approval of other people. He doesn't worry

about keeping up with the latest trends. Why, because the

trends and direction of the world were going in the

wrong direction. Friends, it's not important to be on the

right side of a trend. It's not important to be

on the right side of history. It's just important to

be on the right side. History is often wrong. Trends

are often wrong. And if God is going to use you,

if you're going to be all that God intends for

you to be as a man or as a woman,

you must be willing to be different. Noah was willing

to be different in order to fulfill his destiny. He

marched to a different drummer. Now I want you to

write this down. Okay, write it down. I can only

make a difference by being different. It's pretty simple thought,

but it's also profound. I can only make a difference

by being different. I can only make a difference by

being different. You want to make a difference in this world.

You want to make a difference in your family. You

want to make a difference in your community, your school,

your business. I can only make it if it's by

being different. If I try to be like everybody else,

I'm never going to make a difference. You're never going

to make a difference unless you're willing to be like Noah.

Where you ignore cultural distractions. Great people never never, never

follow the crowd. They take the road less traveled. The

Living Bible says Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.

I want God to be able to say that about you.

I want other people to be able to say that

about you, that you were a pleasure to the Lord

that God looks down at Noah says, that guy makes

me smile. Can God say that about you? Are you

going the way of the crowd? You go in the

way of culture, you go on the way of society. Genesis,

Chapter seven, Verse one. God told Noah, out of everyone

living in this generation, you are the only righteous person

on earth. That's why we're talking about in thousands of

years later. Could God say that about you? Out of

everybody living today, you're the only righteous person on earth?

Now, how does that happen?

Well, living with integrity requires the courage to be different.

And if I'm going to fulfill my destiny in life,

you're going to fulfill your destiny in life, you must

be willing to walk a different direction than everybody else

around you. All right, here's the second choice that Noah

had to make. I must listen to God, not the

voices of doubt. I must listen to God, not the

voices of doubt. Can you imagine all the doubts that

Noah had when God comes and says, I'm going to

destroy the world to start over. I'm gonna start over

with your family. You're going to build an arc. There's

a thing called rain. It's gonna rain. There's going to

be a flood, and you're gonna be able to do this.

You go, really me, Moah. Now.

Voices of doubt can come from many, many different places

in your life. Some of you are listening to voices

of doubt right now. God has given you a vision,

given you a dream that's been in your heart since

you were young, or maybe it's a new vision, a

new dream about You've caught a vision of what God

could do in your life. But maybe your spouse doesn't

believe it, or maybe your parents don't believe it, or

maybe your girlfriend or your boyfriend, or somebody at work

or even your best friend. Voices of doubt can come

from a lot of different places. They can come from critics,

you expect that, they can come from competition. Who do

you think you are? Why would you even try to

do that? Why would you even try to develop that product,

that business? Whatever it can come from Satan. The Bible

called Satan the accuser of Christians, the accuser of the brothers,

and he's always saying, you can't do this year, no good,

You'll never amount to anything. When you hear that, that's

not God talking to you, that's Satan. Satan accuses God comforts.

The Bible says there's no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus, but visions of doubt cann actually come

from your friends and their friends who say, you know,

we grew up with you. Who do you think you are?

Or they can even come from your family. Imagine all

the dreambusters in Noah's life. I mean, he's he's building

this giant arc out at his front yard, and his

neighbors are going, hey, mister Noah, what are you doing?

I'm building an arc? What's that for? Because it's got

a flood. What's the flood. It's when you get a

lot of rain. What's rain, Well, it's water comes down

from heaven. They've never seen it. They go, do do,

do do do do This guy's crackpot. He's he's lost it.

I'm sure he had to live with year after year

after year after year of ridicule from his neighbors. He's

a nut, he's a crackpot, he's a kook. This guy

thanks God talk to him. Yeah right, he thinks God

talks to him. And he's building the Queen Mary in

his front yard. Where is the Homeowner's Association when you

need him? Where are those people that you can't build

that ship.

In your front yard?

I mean imagine even the pressure from his own family.

I mean his teenage boys going, Dad, come on the

ship on the front lawn.

It's embarrassing.

I can't bring my girlfriend, I can't bring my friends over, Dad.

Why can't you get a normal job. You're building on

this thing for decade after decade after Deactorady. This doomsday

talk is all over town, Dad. Our family is in

the National Enquirer. You know, noah family building arc. The

world is going to end. If you were Noah, would

you be willing to endure the voices of doubt like that?

Year after year after year, no rain, no rain, no rain,

no rain, no rain, no rain, for decade after decade

after after, the arcs getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

God's gonna bring all the animals.

Where are they?

I don't see him? It took an awful lot of faith.

Now let me just apply this to your life. Dream

Busters will try to stop your dream. Okay, they will.

Try to stop you.

And critics and cynics are going to say to you,

who do you think you are to try to live

for Jesus Christ to do something great for God?

Who do you think you are to.

Have a mission from God, a plan, a purpose, a

great vision from God? Friends and family may do this.

Joseph's families tried to kill his dream. Remember when we

looked at that he had that dream and they all

tried to kill him. Jesus family tried to stop him

from fulfilling God's purpose. You go all through Bible, person

after person. Family members often tried to stop another family

member from doing what God had called them to do.

But you know what, the biggest voices of doubt can

actually come from inside you. And the second most important

words you say in life are to yourself. The first

important words that you say are to God. But the

second most important words that you say in life are

the words that you say to yourself. And you talk

to yourself constantly, and you're saying to yourself things like

I'm no good who do I think I am. This

won't work. You're talking yourself down, you're giving yourself seeds

of doubt all of the time. Or you're listening to

the word of God and you're telling yourself what God

says about you, and you're saying things like I can

do all things through Who strengthens me.

My confidence isn't in myself.

My confidence is in Christ, who gives me the strength

to do. If God has called me to do something,

He's going to give me the strength to do it.

God never calls you to do something that he doesn't

give you the energy and the power and the equipment

and the friends and the contacts to actually get done.

So let me ask you, how do you talk to yourself?

You talking to yourself with doubt, voices of doubt all

the time. Some of you, if you talk to your

friends the way you talk to you, that wouldn't be

your friends. You need to talk to yourself the way

you talk to your friends. You know, I need to

say something else here. You can't be trusted to always

tell yourself the truth. You've heard me say this many times.

You lie to yourself more than you lie to anybody else.

The Bible says, the heart is deceitful, and we tell

ourselves things are better than they really are.

When they aren't. And sometimes we tell ourselves things.

Are worse than they really are, and we don't always

get it right. I'm giving you permission to not believe

what you tell yourself, because not everything you tell yourself

is the truth. We have motivated reasoning, we have insufficient evidence,

we have messed up data, and all kinds of things.

Not everything you're thinking is the truth. Just well, I

think it, it must be true. I feel it.

It must be true.

No feelings lie, and even ideas that you come up

with lie. You have to listen to God if you're

going to fulfill God's mission for your life. Now, what

is the antidote to fear and doubt in your life?

Well, in a word, it's it's faith. It's faith.

Hebrews eleven, verse seven. Chapter eleven, verse seven says this,

it was by faith that Noah heard God's warning about

the things he could not yet see.

Now look at that verse.

It was by faith that Noah heard the warning about

things he could not see. He couldn't see the flood,

he couldn't see the animals coming. He couldn't see what

the arc was going to look like with his belt.

These are all not visible. But he hears God, and

he trusted what he heard God because he could not

see it at the time. Now, let's just apply this

to your life. You can't always see God's destiny for

you either. You can't see the end of the game.

You can't see the goal. You can't see where you're

going to end up. You don't know where you're going

to be in ten years, or twenty years or thirty years,

much less next week. You have to trust your future

to God. That's faith. In fact, the Bible says this

in Hebrews eleven, verse one. Faith is being sure of

what we hope for and certain of what we do

not see. Noah was a man of faith, and the

faith was the antidote to his fear, and the faith

was the antidote to his voices of doubt. Paul dealt

with this and second Corinthians four eighteen. He says, we

don't look at the troubles, which we can see right now.

That's anybody to see the troubles we're in. Instead, we

look forward, We look past the troubles to what we

have not yet seen. Okay, that's perspective. Why for the

troubles that we see now will soon be over. They're

not gonna last, But the unseen joys will come to

last forever. They're gonna last forever. Now, some of you,

you may be depressed, you may be even despairing of

your life right now. Never make a major decision when

you're depressed, and never make a permanent decision when you're

in a temporary mood, because feelings don't last, they don't

come to stay, they come to pass, and they're not

gonna last. So whether you right now are blessed or

whether you you are stressed right now or in your future,

whether you're blessed in your future or whether you are

stressed in your future, is going to be determined by

one thing, what you choose to focus on. Will you

listen to the voices of doubt or you will listen

to the voice of God. Again, Remember, it says Noah

chose to be different from everybody else around him by

listening to God instead of listening to the voices or

in culture Hebrews eleven, verse seven. The second part of

the verse says this Noah's belief in God get this underline.

It was in direct contrast. Noah's belief in God was

in direct contrast to the disbelief of the rest of

the world. Nobody else believed. This is counter culture living.

I want to challenge you to become a counterculture revolutionary.

How by trusting God instead of trusting culture. By listening

to God instead of listening to society, By doing what

God tells you to do and listening to what God says.

Is that of the doubts in your head or the

doubts of people all around you who are giving the

words a doubt? Now, of course that takes courage. You go,

I don't have that kind of courage. How did Noah

have that kind of courage to keep on going after

what God had told him to follow his dream, to

go after his purpose. How do you get that kind

of courage? There's only one way. You got to stay

close to God. You have to stay close to God.

The Bible tells us that Noah heard God speak. Remember

that verse we just looked at Noah heard God speak?

So well, I don't ever hear God speak. How do

you hear God?

All right?

Write this down? You hear God by getting near to God.

You hear God by getting near to God. You can't

hear God when you're far away. You got to get

near to God. I mean, spend time with God every day,

reading the Bible, being quiet, listening, being quiet, and just

listening to God listen, reading His word and listening, talking

to God in prayer, and being silent. Genesis six, verse nine.

The third part of the verse is this, Noah walked

with God. That means he was near to God. He

walked with God. Now that word walking, I like that,

are you walking with God?

So well? I don't know.

Well what is walking imply? When you walk with someone,

it implies two or three things. Let me let me

let me first say. The New Living translation says, Noah

enjoyed a close relationship with God. That's what it means

to walk with God, to enjoy a close relationship with God.

Today's English version says, Noah lived in fellowship with God.

So what does that mean to live in fellowship, to

have a close relationship, to walk with God.

Well, just think about this.

Anytime you're walking with anybody, it implies three things. First,

it implies affiliation. In other words, you're not ashamed to

be with them. You're not ashamed to be seen with them.

How about if we were walking through you know, Irvine

Spectrum shopping center and my wife Kay decides she doesn't

want to be seen with me, so she walks ahead

of me. Well, that's not walking together if I walked

ahead of her. Affiliation means you're not ashamed to be

seen with the person you're walking with. Are you ashamed

to be seen with God? Are you ashamed to be

known as a follower of Jesus? Are you the affiliation

of walking with God means you're not worried about telling

people you're a believer. That's what implies to walk with God.

I tell people I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. It

applies affiliation. Second implies agreement. By poll tells us an

amous chapter three, verse three that two cannot walk together

unless they're agreed. In other words, you can't walk that

way and me walk that way, and let us walk together.

If we're going to walk together, we have to be

in agreement that we're headed in the same direction. So

there's affiliation and there's agreement. And then the third thing

walking implies is alignment. In other words, we're headed at

the same pace. In other words, you can't walk faster

than me, and I can't walk slower than you. We're

not only in the same direction, we're at the same pace.

That's what it means to walk with God. You're not

ashamed of him. You're going in the same direction, and

you're going in the same pace. How do you know

if you're walking on God those same three things. Oh,

by the way, let me give you a fourth way.

You know, if you're walking on God, you'll be out

of step with the world. You'll be out of step

with the world. You can't walk in step with God

and being step with the world the same time. So

great on the world. Now the result, this is really important.

I want us to get this. What is the result

of walking with God? Like Noah did? When you walk

with God, when you're near to God, you fear nothing.

Noah wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid of.

Disapproval, He wasn't afraid of people's comments, he wasn't afraid

of being rejected, He wasn't afraid of criticism. You lose

your fear when God is near. The fear goes out

when you're near to God. In Genesis chapter six, Verse

seventeen to eighteen. God says this, Noah, I'm going to

send a flood that will destroy everything that breathes, and

nothing's going to be left alive. But I solemnly promise.

This is God's promise. This is what Noah put his

faith in. I solemnly promised that you and your wife,

and your sons and your daughters in law will be

kept safe in the boat. Noah is not afraid of

a worldwide flood, because when God is near, you lose

your fear. What are you afraid of? What's been putting

you in knots? What's been scaring you to death? What's

caused you to be anxious, what's caused you to be

sleepless at night? What just tightens your stomach into a knot?

Many of you have been living in fear. That has

got to end. Now You've got to stop listening to

the voices of doubt and anxiety and fear and start

listening to the voice of God by walking with God,

by getting near to God, and when he's near, you

lose your fear. Now there's a third choice that Noah made,

and you're going to have to make this choice too.

If you're going to have the comeback from your setbacks.

This third choice is the only way you're going to

make it to the finish line that you're going to

fulfill the vision, the dream, the purpose that God created

you for. Here, it is just like Noah, I must

do exactly. I must do exactly what God tells me

to do. Now, Noah doesn't just hear God's word. He

obeys it, he obeys it. He does exactly whatever God

tells him to do.

He obeys God's words.

And this is the third key to fulfilling your mission

in life. Hebrews eleven, verse seven. Second part of the

verse says is Noah obeyed God, and he built a

large boat to save his family. That's a new century version.

So what I'm saying here is that I must not

only do what God tells me to do. I must

do it the exact way that He tells me to

do it, and I've got to do it at the

exact time that he wants me to do it. I

mean methodology, I've got to do it what he wants

me to do, when he wants me to do it,

how he wants me to do it. I do it

exactly the way he wants. Partial obedience is disobedience. This

is the third key to Noah's life. In Genesis chapter six,

verse fourteen to twenty two, God tells Noah this, Noah,

I want you to build a boat from cypress wood

and seal it with tar inside and out. He's given

him very specific details, and he said, he tells you

the wood and how he's put tar on the inside out.

He said, then build decks and stalls throughout its interior.

And he said, I want you to make this boat

four hundred and fifty feet long. I want you to

make it seventy five feet wide. I want you to

make it forty five feet high. He tells the exact specifications.

He says, at the top, I want you to leave

an eighteen inch opening airspace all the way around the boat,

just below the roof.

That way hot air can get out and cool air

can get in. He says.

Then put three decks inside the boat and put one

door on the side. And then he says, I want

you to include a male and female pair of every

kind of animal that I bring to your boat to

keep alive during the world wide flood. And remember taking

enough food for your family and for all your animals now,

notice here's the important line. Then Noah did everything exactly

as God commanded him. This is why we're talking about

Noah today. This is why you're alive. If Noah had

not done everything exactly as God had commanded him, you

wouldn't be listening right now, because the human race wouldn't

be here.

So thank you, mister.

Noah for doing everything exactly as God commanded. If he

had not done everything exactly as God commanded, partial obedience,

as I said, is disobedience, and we wouldn't be here now.

In your own life.

At whatever stage of journey in your life here and

you may be at the very beginning, you may be

near toward the end, or you may in the middle.

But at any stage of your life, you're gonna be

tempted to cut corners. You're gonna be tempted to take shortcuts.

You're gonna be tempted to do the easy thing, to

take the easy way out, to skimp a little here,

to skip a step, to fudge a little. And God

will say, I want you to do these things, and

you know, well, I'll do it, but I just want

to do it my way. And in your mind you're

gonna think that you know better than God. You're going

to go, Lord, I think I could reach my goal

faster my way than your way. And that's fatal. That

is a tempting shortcut. That's the third thing that will

cause you to miss your purpose and God's plan in life. Lord,

I think I could reach my goal faster my way

than your way.

Have you been trying to.

Do that, trying to accomplish what you want to accomplish

in life your.

Way rather than God's way?

I mean, can you imagine Noah saying to God, excuse me, Lord,

let's have a little talk here. Are all these animals

really necessary? Do we really need all of them on board?

Why don't we forget some of these animals? I mean,

Greenpeace will never know why they went extinct.

They're never gonna know, So, you know.

By the way, I would have been just happy if

he had left mosquitoes off the arc. In Genesis chapter seven,

verses one to five, we find the exact same phrase

a second time, where it says Moses did exactly what

God told him to do. God says this about him

twice in the Bible, that he just didn't do what God.

Told him to do. He did it.

Exactly as God told him to do. Genesis seven, verse

one to five. Finally, the day came when the Lord

said to Noah, now get into the boat with all

your family, and now take a long notice pair of

each of the animals that I've approved for eating. They

had to have something to eat while they're on board.

Take seven pairs of each of the animal I've proved

for eating and sacrifice, along with one pair of each

of all the other animals. And he says, also, I

want you to take seven pair, not just one pair,

seven pair male and female birds, pairs of every kind

of bird. And again Noah did exactly as the Lord

had commanded him. So twice we're told that he's not skimping,

he's not skipping steps, he's not taking shortcuts. You cannot

take tempting shortcuts and reach the goal God has for

your life. And he said, what are you talking about,

rick at tempting shortcut? Well, it could be a moral shortcut.

God wants me to be happy, so I'm gonna divorce

this person and marry that person. That's a moral shortcut.

It can be an ethical shortcut. Well, everybody else cheats

at work, so.

I'm gonna cheat it.

It could be a financial shortcut, and you know you're

not really honest here or there.

You're not tithing.

You think I'm gonna use God's money, the money that

God says give back to him and to honor him.

I'm gonna keep it myself. That's shortcut, and you're gonna

lose on that one.

You need to be tithing.

Maybe a relational shortcut, and you're attempted to do something

faster than the right way to do it. And he said, well,

you know you're gonna go to bed with him before

you get married. You know, Lord, I think we could

get to my goal quicker than my way. Quicker my way.

Shortcuts friends are usually short sighted, and they often point

you in the wrong direction. Genesis chapter six, verse nine,

it says Noah consistently followed God's will, That's why God

blessed him. Would you like God's blessing on your life?

Then you need to be like Noah can consistently follow

God's will. Not well, I'll pick and shoes what I'm

going to do. I'm going to do it. In everything,

I will obey God's will. Genesis sixth verse nine that

second part of the verse, Noah always tried to conduct

his affairs according to God's will. What a great verse

you might want to write that one out. God, I

want to conduct my affairs according to your will. Now,

let's just put you in Noah's shoes right now. What

if God gave to you one day said I want

you to build a giant ship, a battleship, an arc.

Don't you think you might have some questions and you

might want to take some shortcuts. I mean, I can

think of.

A lot of questions that Noah might ask.

First, if God came means and it had never rained

on Earth, I my first question would be, what's flood?

What's flood? He said, You're gonna flood the world. Well,

I don't know what a flood is. We know that

we know that Earth had some kind of tropical climate

because the fossils show that, and that their atmosphere changed,

and now we have you know, animals and human beings

live shorter lives. Second, I would ask, so, okay, Lord,

how do you build an arc? There's no home depot

for the lumber. I'm going to go after literally cut

it all down, find find you know, forest, and cut

it all down. And then okay, how am I going

to get this boat to the water? Because Noah lives

about one hundred miles or hundreds of miles from the

nearest ocean. Okay, so how am I going to get

the boat to water? And then God, how are you

going to turn all this around and round up all

the animals? Well, if God created the world, he can

do anything. A lot of people think that this is

such a such an unbelievable story.

Well, God could do anything.

If God created a universe, he can bring all the

animals together, He can do whatever he wants to do.

But Noah doesn't argue. Noah doesn't complain. He does everything

exactly as God says, and he says, whatever you say, Lord.

His faith was incredible because the request was incredible. Again,

Noah did everything exactly as God commanded him. If you

will make this the goal of your life. I want

to do everything God asked me to do, exactly as

God asked me to do. God blesses that kind of person.

God blesses people who follow directions even when it doesn't

make sense. Question what has God asked you to do?

And it doesn't make sense? Forgive somebody take a different job,

start tithing, you know, go share your faith with somebody

that you're scared to death.

To share your faith with faith.

Is obeying God, even when I don't understand why. Now

there's a fourth choice that Noah took. Noah made, and

you're going to have to make this choice too, if

you're going to fulfill the life that God intended for

you to have. Number four, I must never give up

on the dream that God gives me. I must never

give up on the dream God gives me. If anybody

had the right to be discouraged because it took so long,

the project was taken so long, it was Noah, As

I said, it took at least eighty years to build

the arc. The Bible tells us that the door to

the arc closed. He got in there and closed the

door exactly one hundred and twenty years after God.

Told him to build it.

Would you be able to maintain enthusiasm for a project

that took you one hundred and twenty years and nobody

else in the world believed in, and everybody else criticized and

made fun of. Could you handle that kind of opposition?

You see the reason why most people don't succeed in

life short term thinking they give up too soon.

You can't. They don't sustain it over the long haul.

And often, as I said a couple weeks ago, it's

in the middle of your life that you want to

give up, and it determines whether you're going to end

successfully or not.

Do not give up.

See culture says live only for today. Bible says, think

about eternity, think about your future. I want you to

write this down. Everything takes longer than I think. All right,

everything takes longer than I think. I'm sure Noah faced

loneliness and fatigue in how long it was taking to

reach his goal. And yet he's a model of patience

and persistence and determination. Why because of his faith in

God Hebrews eleven seven. Noah trusted God. Do you do

that when things don't look like they're going to happen,

when you're in the middle of the journey, when you

can't see either end. When he heard about God's warning

about the future, Noah believed him even though there us

no sign of a flood. What is it in your

life that you see no sign out that God has

told you and promised you it's going to happen.

Are you going to give up? Are you going to

keep trusting?

For forty two thousand and one days? Noah had one goal,

fulfill my destiny, and I bet on many of those

forty two thousand and one days. Noah didn't feel like

going to work, and he comes home every night and missus.

Noah says, well, how is work, honey, same place, same thing.

Nobody else is noticing.

Everybody else ignores him, or if they do notice, they

criticize it.

But he never gave up. Now, I don't know who I'm.

Talking to you right now, but I know God wants

me to say this to you. You may feel like

giving up, don't don't. God is in control and he

is going to write the final chapter of your life.

This is not the end of your story. And maybe

the end of a chapter, but it's not the end

of your story. And Galatians six nine says, let us

not get tired of doing what is right, for after

a while we will we will reap a harvest, a

blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up. But

did you know that the arc is actually a symbol

of salvation in Christ, Because just like the arc in

the Ark. Noah and his family was saved from destruction

in Christ. We are saved from destruction by being in Christ.

No is saved by being in the Ark. The ark

for you is Jesus Christ. How is Noah saved same

way as everybody else?

By grace? Do faith?

Did you know that the first mention of grace in

the Bible is Noah's story. Hebrews eleven, verse seven says,

by faith, Noah showed the world that the world was wrong.

Noah showed that the world was wrong, and he became

one of those who was made right with God through faith,

faith in God's grace and Genesis six, verse eight says

this King James version, Noah found grace in the eyes

of the Lord. That's the first mention of grace in

the Bible. Chapter six of the Bible, grace is mentioned.

People were saved in the Old Testament the same way

we are in the New Testament by grace through faith.

Have you found and accepted that grace. It's the only

way you're going to be saved. To you, it's the

only way you're going to get to Heaven. Friend, this

is the only way you will be saved, just like

Noah by grace through faith. You must put your faith

in God's grace. You don't earn it, you don't deserve it.

You just accept that gift of God's love and forgiveness,

and you needed to do it.

Today.

God is looking for people to use. Would you let

him use you? Would you let him fulfill his destiny

finny that he asked for you. If you want to

fulfill your destiny life, you've got to do what Noah did.

You've got to make the choices that Noah made. Let's

bow our heads. Let me pray for you. You know, Father,

I know that in our broken culture today, you're looking

for men and women who will choose rightly like Noah did,

and will choose to trust you. We'll choose to obey you.

We'll choose to do exactly what you tell them to do.

We'll choose to ignore the critics and to go the

opposite of the way culture is going. May our family,

saddle back family, be filled.

With people like that. Now, I want to invite you

to pray.

So whether you're listening to me in sitting in a

chair in a service, or on the internet, or on

the radio, or wherever I want you to just say

these words in your heart.

Say Dear God, I say.

Dear God, I want to be the kind of person

like Noah who brings a smile to your face. You

said that Noah brought you pleasure. I want my life

to bring you pleasure. And I want my faith to

be strong to the finish, to make it to the end.

I want to fulfill the destiny that you have for

my life. Dear God, Please forgive me for all the

times I've worried about what other people think, and I've

listened to the voices of doubt rather than the voice

of God. Give me the courage to be different so

that I can fulfill your destiny for my life.

I want to get near to you so.

I can hear you and no longer fear you or

anybody else. And the days ahead, I want to do

exactly what you tell me to do with my life,

even when it.

Doesn't make sense.

God, I want to trust you and Lord, when I'm

tired and I'm discouraged, help me to be like Noah

and never never give up, but to keep your dream

for my life in my focus. Father, I want to

thank you for these who've prayed this prayer and I

ask that you fill them with confidence and fill them

with courage. And may this next week the days ahead

be filled with new vitality, new energy, new enthusiasm as

we refocus on your plan rather than the pressures around

us in society. And I pray this blessing on all

who are listening, in the name of the Father and

the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.