Your Environment Isn't the Issue // David Swart

All right.

We are in Genesis chapter 8.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention

If you want to open your Bible, we are carrying on where Aaron left us off last week.

He was preaching about Noah and the flood, and we're going to pick up where the flood has happened.

And now what?

Where are we?

So who's been thinking about Noah this week?

I mean, I hope we're uh we're we're taking this word and mulling it over a little bit during the week.

I mean, have the has the implication of that event ever um messed with you just a little bit?

I think the the the story of Noah and the flood must be up there in the top three or top five most significant and dramatic events in the history of humanity.

Water coming from the sky, filling the earth when there was no time of rain at that point.

Water was being came up from the ground before this.

And wiping out all of humanity, with the exception of those on the ark.

It is dramatic, it is big, it is emotional.

Genesis 6, verse 6 told us that the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.

Genesis 6:6

I want us to keep this idea, this concept in our mind as we carry on with this story and not just pick up here with a brand new story.

There was a major event that had just happened.

There was so much wickedness in the earth.

Verse 5 of chapter 6 says that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The emotion in the story is heavy.

The evil must have been great.

And in that context, we carry on with this story, this rescue story, this story of grace of the Lord saving some in order that all of humanity may eventually be saved through the offspring.

Now, if you're visiting with us, welcome.

We don't usually start this intense, but here we are.

Um we have been going slowly.

Our series is called Creation to Covenant.

We've been going slowly this year through Genesis chapter 1 through chapter 12, is where we're gonna end the end of March, and then in April we're gonna carry on.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

I cannot wait to tell you about that, but let's focus.

And we've been slowly going through, then, and if you remember, if you've been visiting with us, if you're visiting with us, let me remind, let me tell you, um, there's like five major doctrines that are introduced in the first three chapters of scripture, which then get reintroduced and re-these patterns just carry on from there.

Here are the five words that we've been covering.

One, who is God?

The nature of God, the character of God, the sovereignty, the awesomeness of God we've seen since chapter one.

Who is man?

What who are we?

What in whose image are we made?

What is the substance of mankind?

Was very important.

Thirdly, what's the purpose of man?

Back in Genesis and today, what is your purpose?

What is the the focus and the goal of your life?

It was established in chapter 1, 2, and 3 of Genesis.

We saw number four, what was the problem with humanity?

What is the true problem of humanity?

And it's just reiterated as we keep going on.

And number five was the covenant promises of God.

The covenant promise of God.

And it's so important.

The story of Noah and the Ark is no different.

You see all five of these things reiterated again.

We saw the sovereign power and intimacy of God that he would save some.

We saw how man continues to be at the center of God's creation and made in his image.

And we've seen God dealing with sin and evil in the world.

We've seen the problem, the heart that is wicked.

It was in their heart that evil was being devised all the time.

Now, when we read from chapter 8 to 9 today, we're going to see number four and five, we're going to again see the purpose of mankind.

And number five, we're going to see the covenant promises of God.

And that's where we're going to go today.

So, chapter 8, if you will go in your Bible, there's two long chapters.

I'm not going to read all of it.

Allow me to touch on a few of the main verses and uh interpret a little bit in between for the sake of time so we get the gist of this story.

Genesis chapter 8, verse 1.

Genesis 8:1

Let me read here.

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.

And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

Sounds a lot like Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

There was waters and the wind hovering over the waters.

This story continues.

But it took time for the water to subside.

Something like six months at first, and then this process then continues of Noah sending out a dove, sending out to see.

Wait, is it actually, because apparently there were no windows in the ark.

So, like, is it is a time as the water subsided?

Jump to verse 13.

In the 600 and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth.

And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry.

This was just over a year after the rain started.

Something like 370 days later, finally it was dry.

Verse 17.

Bring out, the Lord said, Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, that they may swarm on the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

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

This is huge.

This is huge.

The first thing as he steps out of the ark is verse 20.

The first thing he does in this new reality, verse 20, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Neither will I ever strike again strike down every living creature as I have done.

And God blessed, chapter 9, verse 1, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

We see here worship as the first response coming off the ark, building an altar, offering up this fragrance to the Lord, honoring who God is.

And in response to this worship, we see God in his heart making this decision.

I will never again do this.

Beginning to set the stage for the covenant that he is about to make with Noah in chapter 9.

And at the same time, he also gives a commission.

Here you are off the ark.

I will never do this again.

He makes a covenant, and again he reiterates the purpose of mankind, the commission that God gives to humanity.

Let's jump to chapter 9, verse 11.

I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

We're gonna go over the covenant in a little bit more detail in a few minutes, but again we see here in chapter 9, over and over, the word covenant is being used exactly seven times.

Now, that's me nerding out again.

Seven times when you see something like that, seven times there's a wholeness, a completeness about the covenant of God that He is making with mankind.

Verse 16.

And when the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.

God said to Noah, This is the sign of the covenant that I've established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.

Here is the introduction of the rainbow as a sign of God's covenant with humanity.

Therefore, every time you and I see the rainbow in the sky, it's a it's a sign to him.

I think he gets the best view of the rainbow.

It's a sign to him that he will never do this again.

And it's a sign for us to remember the covenant promise of God.

Verse 20.

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and he became drunk, and lay uncovered in his tent.

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside.

Now these are the next verses in the story of Noah, but we've got to keep in mind this likely happened a few years later.

First he had to plant, then they had to grow, then he had to make the wine, and then he had to partake in it.

But the scriptures is showing us the more the next significant event that happened.

And in one way, it's a little sad.

And right away we see the problem with mankind wasn't external.

It continues to be internal.

It continues to be in our heart that we are wicked.

And it's in our heart that you and I need saving.

So that's a bit of an overview of chapter 8 and 9, an overview of the story that I want to cover.

I want to highlight two things that are repeated in chapter 8 and 9, and then end on where do we go from here?

So the first thing that I see repeated a lot, three times actually, is the mandate given to Noah and his family.

Chapter 8, verse 17, be fruitful and multiply on the earth.

Chapter 9, verse 1, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Chapter 9, verse 7, be fruitful and multiply.

Increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.

Does it sound familiar to you?

Genesis chapter 1, verse 28.

Genesis 1:28

What did that say?

When God spoke to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion.

There's a lot of consistency here between what God told Adam and what he's telling Noah.

This is important.

Now, I'm going to talk about the implications of something like this.

Firstly, there is a very obvious implication.

There are eight human beings, and it's a big old earth.

So be fruitful and multiply.

What does that mean?

Good.

Very, very clever.

Now I I look a little bit at the history of uh unfortunately I uh read too much news.

Um, there is predictions right now and facts right now that humanity is in the decline.

Uh, population decline is actually about to start happening and get a pretty big serious problem over the next at least 75 years.

Um this is a big deal.

It has a lot of implications economically, socially.

There's a lot of things going on.

In in the history, there have been a few periods when global population declined, but it was usually from plague or famine or war.

That is not our current problem.

The current problem is low fertility rates, delayed marriage, high cost of raising kids, all reasons why people in mostly the developed world and also China and India around those areas are having fewer and fewer children.

For population to just stay flat, you need about 2.1 kids per woman.

Um, some countries it's less than one child per woman that's happening.

So it's got big implications.

There are obviously some uh uh areas where this is not the case.

Fun fact, you ready for a fun fact?

The future belongs to Africa.

Predictions are showing by 2100, 40% of the world's population will be in Africa.

Today it's around 15.

In 1950, it was around nine.

They're fruitful and multiplying a lot.

So, what do we do with this?

I wrote down, I don't want to tell you what to do, but will you think about this for a minute?

I do want to encourage you to read scripture and allow scripture to read you.

Amen.

Let me say this with all the conviction of my heart.

If you feel a call to singleness, I see you, I honor you, you are right in the will of God, like Jesus says and Paul says.

This is an honorable thing that you feel God is calling you to, and as Paul describes it, man, you are focused on the mission.

Awesome, love it.

If that's not you, can I talk to you for just a minute as well?

There is more than just a Christian mandate for us to be fruitful and multiply disciples.

This is for us as well.

Today, I think we need to recover in the church, we start here in the church, recover the value and the importance of the family.

Today, more than in America, more than 50% of kids are growing up in families where the parents are not married.

One in four children in America right now are growing up in families where there is no father presence.

Statistically, this is not me making a value statement or a judgment.

I have it, but I'm not gonna give it for you right now.

Statistically, those people who grow up without a father or in a family without married parents, statistically, crime is higher, poverty is higher, mental health is lower, and there's an ongoing consequence of this just carrying on.

What do we do about this?

Now, if you're sitting in this room, statistically, half of you are growing up or did grow up in a family without married parents.

I am not here to judge you in any way.

It's not your fault.

Is that okay?

It's not your fault.

But I'm now speaking to you, where do we go from here?

Can you and I begin to recover again the value of relationships, the value of doing relationships the way God teaches us to do?

The value of looking at marriage as a gift from the Lord and something that needs to be nurtured and developed and trained in and fought for.

Amen.

Broken marriages.

Legally, yeah, it's super easy.

Emotionally, spiritually, it's devastating.

We need to fight for it.

We need to talk about it here again.

We need to talk about it in the church.

We need to train one another again.

We need to train one another in conflict resolution.

Anyone right now in a relationship?

Thank you.

Have you had a fight in the last few weeks?

My hands are still up.

Right, it happens every now and then.

If you've stopped fighting, it was another problem.

Um we need to learn how to work through that.

We need to learn how to bring people alongside us.

We need to learn how to fight for marriages to last 40, 50, 60, 70 years.

Amen.

It is, it is our future depends on that.

The future of our nation depends on it, the future of the world depends on it.

It is really, really important for us to do this.

It lays the foundation for healthy, healthy life.

Amen.

Good.

We can get less comfortable more comfortable now.

Let's move on to the spiritual implication of this mandate.

We talked about this a little bit when we were in chapter one of Genesis and chapter two, but I want to reiterate it again.

There is a spiritual implication of be fruitful and multiply.

And it's highlighted in Matthew chapter 28, the great commission that says, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

We are in the business of making disciples and teaching them all that Jesus commanded us.

Acts chapter 1, verse 8 tells us, When the Spirit comes upon you, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.

Acts 1:8

There is a mandate on Christians today to spread the gospel, to make disciples where you live, in your city, in your town, in your state, in your country, and around the world.

And we do it all at the same time, somehow, through the Spirit of God.

Amen.

There are parts of the world where population is actually growing pretty rapidly.

It's also the places where the Muslims are growing very rapidly.

Now, I'm not mad at the Muslims in any way.

I love them, they're some beautiful people, but the the religion and the ideology is a dangerous one and one that is anti-Christ.

It is catching the church asleep.

And the church needs to stand up and go and do what Jesus commanded us to do.

This is not fear speaking.

This is me waking the church up again.

Me, myself, my family.

Let's wake up again and let's go back to what scripture told us in chapter 1 of Genesis, chapter 8 of Genesis, Matthew 28, Acts chapter 1, and become disciple makers in Columbus, in Ohio, in America, and around the world.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention Acts 1 · chapter mention

This is the time, this is the season.

The harvest is plentiful.

It's the workers that are few.

It's the workers that are few.

And as long as I'm leading this church, we're going to keep talking about this.

Amen.

We're going to talk about it.

Here's the practical implication for each one of you.

Do you have a passport?

Thank you.

I hope you all have a passport.

I want all of us to go out.

Can let's put a number on.

This is not the word of the Lord, this is just my thoughts, right?

How about every two years?

Each one of us are somewhere else in the world.

Getting a heart for that nation, putting our feet on that nation.

Not just having a theoretical picture of what it looks like to serve the poor and spread the gospel, but having an actual picture of man, I went to Guatemala, I went to South Africa, I'm going to Mozambique, I'm going to Munich.

Who's coming with me?

Uh uh May to Munich.

We're gonna go to an equip over there, and we're going to see what the Lord is doing in Germany and in Europe.

Go sign up for Guatemala.

Let me tell you, Aaron said it, it was real quick, and we half of us were talking.

When you go on a missions trip, you learn something about God, you learn something about the gospel that, yes, intellectually you read it, but until you stand in front of a people where the only answer you have for them is the gospel of Jesus Christ, it hits you differently, and you begin to appreciate this message in a whole new way.

Amen.

Is this expensive?

Yeah.

It is.

Do you have the money right now?

Maybe.

Maybe.

I mean, let's boycott Starbucks, right?

There you got six to ten dollars a day.

Amen.

I love Starbucks.

No, I don't love Starbucks.

I lie.

But you know what I'm saying.

Okay?

Alright, good.

Listen.

The world is filling up with people in some places, but much of them have not heard the gospel.

And we need to take our mandate way more seriously.

If you were at our conference just three weeks ago, I want to ask you guys a few questions.

Have you responded to the challenge that Jackie Pullinger gave us?

It's been three weeks.

Have you looked at your closet and the 45 hoodies you have and asked yourself, how many hoodies do I actually ever need?

You're going to give it to somebody.

Have you looked at what's in your home and said, Lord, what can I do today to serve those around me that you put us in this city?

Have you looked at a mission strip?

Have you have you been stirring on your heart, asking the Lord, how do I respond?

Not to Jackie's words.

She was quoting scripture all the time.

Constantly, remember the poor.

Remember the poor.

Remember the poor.

What are we doing about it?

Have you looked at your calendar?

Is your calendar too full to be making disciples?

This doesn't show up in our calendar, friends.

We are literally just having a nice social club over here.

And we're learning some cool things and we're worshiping together, and the music is great, and the music was great today.

Awesome.

And we're leaving out of here unchanged.

If we don't allow the word of God to go in us and through us to a world that desperately needs it.

But I think it's so important.

The second repeated idea, and I've alluded to this a little bit, is this idea of the promise or the covenant of the Lord.

In chapter 8, verse 22, it says, While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, it shall not cease.

This was the covenant of the Lord that first he said in his heart, and then he repeated this seven times the word covenant, uh, Genesis 9, verse 9.

Genesis 9:9

Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth, with you, as many as came out of the ark, it is for every beast of the earth.

I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

God's covenant is in chapter 9 established, it's promised, it's given a sign, it's remembered and it's reaffirmed seven different times.

We have to remember the context of this.

God had just pushed the big reboot button on Project Earth, but it was not done without justification.

The Lord is perfectly righteous and perfectly just.

The consequence of evil is death.

He was perfectly justified, but for those he saved, he showed an incredible amount of grace.

To us sitting here today, the fact that we are still sitting here is we are experiencing the current, present grace of the Lord on your life.

That though you deserve death, he is withholding it from you.

He has invited us into his kingdom.

And while you're sitting on this earth, the mission he has given us is still valid and is still active and is still in reach in front of you, no matter where you live.

God's covenant is universal.

It was with all flesh, all mankind, not just Israel.

It's all of us.

There are promises in scripture where he says, if you do so, I will do so.

This came from his heart.

I will never again do this.

What a gracious God we serve.

It is cosmic and it's perpetual.

He said, I make an everlasting covenant with you.

This was God's initiating.

It was not negotiation, this was his idea.

And the implication for you and I in 2026, when you look at the war going on in the Middle East right now, be still, my heart.

There's a lot of fear-mongering going on, a lot of like, well, what if this, what if that, and what if this one pushes this button and that one and this.

God's covenant is the world will not be destroyed again until the final day of judgment, and he will decide what the next step is.

It's not human catastrophe, it's not humans who are gonna destroy this.

God will decide when the end is, and he will place all men and women before his throne of judgment, and we will face it then.

To me, this gives me tremendous peace.

I'm like, I'm looking at what's going on there, and I'm like, oh, that's not good.

Get me away from CNN and the Fox, you know.

Uh, it's like you gotta listen to both, really, to get the even half of the truth out there.

That was just for free.

Let me just say this again.

History will not end through human catastrophe, but through God's final judgment.

And that gives me peace.

That gives me peace.

It also gives me some focus.

Should I be stressed out about everything or should I just carry on with what he's already told me to do?

I suggest we just carry on with what he's called us to do.

Amen.

The Bible, some theologians talk about this as covenant theology.

And it's this view that the entire Bible tells one unified story of redemption structured around these covenants that God made with humanity that culminate in Jesus Christ.

Here in Noah, we see this covenant made.

Next, we're gonna see Abraham, the covenant made, Moses, David, and then Jesus.

This ongoing story of God redeeming and making a way for humanity to have relationship with Him again and for all things to be made right.

Each covenant is initiated by God, each covenant shows a means of God's grace to us, and each covenant has a sign.

This covenant was a rainbow, the next one is circumcision.

Nice.

The next covenant with Moses was Sabbath, the covenant with David was about a king and a kingdom, and the covenant with Jesus was communion.

The sign of his covenant is communion.

We have a gracious God.

And as we finish this, where do we go from here?

I've got to read verse 20 for us again.

Now, now Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in his tent.

And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside, we see the sin of man showing up right here as the next part of his story.

We see Ham instead of covering his father's nakedness, he started gossiping with his brothers.

We see again in the story that though they had witnessed the annihilation of all evil apparently in the world, there it was still there in them.

And where Noah, in a sense, is a new Adam, he fails exactly like the first Adam.

Noah was Adam was in the garden, Noah was in the vineyard, Adam was consuming fruit, so was Noah.

It's called wine.

And they both ended up naked and ashamed.

The cycle of sin restarts immediately.

It's the sin inside of us that keeps taking control.

It's the sin inside of us that needs to be killed and brought into relationship with Jesus.

The symbolism of the baptism where we die with Christ and we are resurrected with him.

He does a transformation in our lives.

Thankfully, Noah wasn't the end of the story.

Noah again was just a foreshadowing of the need of a perfect redeemer, and that is Jesus.

The perfect Adam, the perfect Noah was yet to come.

But it points to our desperate need of a savior.

Someone who was perfect, someone who sacrificed, someone who was powerful enough to break, to break the power of sin in our lives.

I'm gonna read for you one more verse from Ephesians chapter 5, verse 2.

Ephesians 5:2

Paul writes that Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Do you see how this reflects Genesis 8 21 when he came off the boat, off the boat, the ark, and he made an offering on an altar before the Lord, and there was this language of a fragrant offering, the sacrifice that came up to the Lord.

That worship started there as they got off the ark, but it was perfected in Jesus.

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

A fragrant offering and sacrifice to the Lord.

Friends, the story of Noah is a story of the coming king who will finally deal with the sin and wickedness in this world.

And it begins for you and I when we submit ourselves to the true King.

I don't know many of you in this room, but I have to ask you again.

Will you bow to Jesus?

Will you submit your life to Jesus?

I want to give you an opportunity right now to receive Jesus.

And coming into the kingdom of God, yes, we do church every week, and yes, we talk about praying and reading the Bible.

All of that comes after receiving Jesus.

Going to church doesn't save you.

Reading your Bible doesn't save you.

Putting your faith in the risen Son of God will save you.

Would you mind closing your eyes for just a second?

And ask us to close our eyes.

We start here just.

This is very personal.

And it starts there, but there is a moment where you do need to make a public confession and tell somebody what you believe and who you believe in.

But I want to ask you this question this morning.

Do you believe in Jesus?

Have you submitted your life to him?

And not just believe that Jesus exists, do you believe that he is Lord and therefore you're submitting your life to him?

Even Satan believes in Jesus.

He knows he's real.

Are you ready to submit your life to Jesus?

And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna lead you in a prayer, in a in an honest conversation with the Lord.

The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 10 that those who believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and confess it with their mouth, they will be saved.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

There's a promise of eternal salvation that He gives you, but it starts with believing in your heart and confessing it with your mouth.

And I'm gonna lead you in a prayer that reflects something like that.

And it's not my magic words that are gonna do anything, it's your heart being honest with God and putting your faith in him.

So with every eye still closed, would you tell me if you want to receive Jesus today?

Would you slip up your hands so I know who I'm praying for this morning?

Thank you, sir.

It doesn't make you a part of us, church.

We're just helping you start this journey with him.

Anyone else who wants to pray?

Let's pray today.

Church, can we pray together?

Say, dear Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God.

I certainly don't understand everything about this.

But I put my faith in you.

I believe that you died for my sins, and I believe you rose from the dead.

I believe you're seated at the right hand of the Father.

Will you forgive me of my sins and make me new?

Jesus, I'll follow you all the days of my life.

But I'm asking for help today.

Would you help me?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

If you prayed that today for the first time, or you're you're just beginning to submit your life to Him, congratulations.

The most important decision of your life is following Jesus.

Can we stand together?

Just as we close this out this morning, if you prayed that prayer today, or if you need prayer for anything, I believe there's a grace here today for dealing with the brokenness in the life that maybe you're growing up in or you're sitting in right now.

The Lord wants to help you come to healing and wholeness.

If you need to be physically made whole, come and pray with our prayer ministry team.

If you guys want to come up, if you want to give your lives to Jesus, come and pray with them.

If you need someone to just stand with you, come and pray with this team.

Or just come and kneel before the Lord.

He is here, he's here in this midst.

And he has life and wholeness for all who call upon his name.

Amen.

It's worship.