Sermon
295 ~ FEAR OF GOD ~ Part Two
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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We welcome you to the Via Zayan Sermon podcast.
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We are a church based in Chennai, India.
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We are so happy that you tuned in today and hope that as you
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listen in, you will be inspired, strengthened and empowered to
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live for Jesus everyday. As we enter 2026, we believe
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that this is the year of a divine takeover.
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We believe that when we surrender our lives to Him, He
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will take over every aspect and bring breakthrough and blessing
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like only He can. Today we look at how we hand
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over the details of our lives before He takes over.
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Would you keep your eyes, ears, and hearts tuned into God today
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and every day of this year? Would your hands and feet be
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strong to do what you have been called and created to do?
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So as we saw last week, I think Geshom was leading us on an
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introduction of the fear of God, right?
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He was talking about how a fear of God is not actually a kind of
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paralyzing, crippling fear, but it is a fear of, you know, just
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being in reverent awe of God. And when we were preparing for
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it, when we were discussing about the theme, there was this
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verse that kind of jumped out at us from Ezekiel chapter 14,
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verses 12 to 14. And for the next three weeks,
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we're going to be actually dwelling on the 3 characters
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from this verse. Ezekiel chapter 14, verses 12 to
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14. It says the word of the Lord
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came to me, son of man. If a country sins against me by
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being unfaithful, and I stretch out my hand against it to cut
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off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its
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people and their animals, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel
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and Job were in it, they could save only themselves by their
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righteousness declares the sovereign Lord.
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You know, anytime in the Bible when cat characters from way
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before are mentioned again in reminiscence or just like a a
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recollection, we need to take take note of it.
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We really need to go and look at why were they being mentioned.
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So they're being mentioned in the book of Ezekiel, which is
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during the time of exile. And these three characters were
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way back. At least Daniel was close to the
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exile, but it's it's talking about Noah, Daniel and Job.
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So we're going to be looking at these characters over the next
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three weeks to understand what what God was actually meaning.
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Because think about it, the land was going had gone, was going to
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go into exile. The people are going to be
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punished at the hands of enemy kings, all because they had
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wandered far from God. They had, you know, set up idols
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in their hearts, idols in their homes.
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They had abandoned the true worship of the true God.
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And so God was getting their attention back in a difficult,
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in a stern, fatherly, disciplinary way.
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And yet he's saying in the midst of this, even if these three men
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who were there, obviously men who had touched his heart, men
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who were close to him, he says, even if they were there, I
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wouldn't be able to save them. And he is talking about how this
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country is so unfaithful and that even if these three guys
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were there, it wouldn't save the land.
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And that should get our attention that there was
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something about Noah, Daniel and Joe which got God's attention,
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which got God all gooey eyed and said, you know what?
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These guys, they're special to me.
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And so we're going to be looking today at Noah.
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Specifically, we're going to be looking at Noah from Genesis
Genesis 6 chapter mention
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chapter 6. I'm reading from verses 5 to 8.
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This is what it says. The Lord saw how great the
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wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that
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every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was
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only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that He had
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made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply
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troubled. So the Lord said, I will wipe
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from the face of the earth the human race I have created, and
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with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move
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along the ground, for I regret that I made them.
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But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
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Genesis chapter 6 verses 9 to 13, it says this is the account
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of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man,
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blameless among the people of his time, and he walked
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faithfully with God. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham
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and Japheth. We're going to just pause there.
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If you notice it said, but Noah found favor in the eyes of God.
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God was angry with humanity. He had.
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I didn't know that God could potentially have regrets, but he
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had regrets that he had made man.
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And he said that their every inclination of their heart was
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evil all the time. But Noah was a righteous man.
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And it's in the setting of this generation.
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He says Noah was blameless among the people of his time.
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This is the reason we're looking at Noah today.
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Noah was someone who was considered by God to be
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faithful, to be considered righteous and walking blameless,
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right? And the times that Noah lived in
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is not really different from the times we live in now.
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There was idolatry, there was immorality.
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Men did as they liked. They harmed each other.
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They fed their own lusts and appetites, Very similar to the
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times we're living in. Would God pick you out from the
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crowd? Would God say, this is my child?
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He or she walks blamelessly. He or she walks closely with me.
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Would God be able to say that? I thank God that unlike no one,
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no one lived in the time before Jesus came, and so his good
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works assigned him a certain righteousness.
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But today, you and I, we live in a time of the new covenant where
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Jesus has made us righteous before the throne.
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Jesus, because of his righteousness, it has now been
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accounted to us and so it's credited to us.
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And therefore, when the when God looks at us today, he sees us
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through the lens of Jesus's righteousness and we are made
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acceptable to him. But do we stand out in the
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generation that we are in? Can we be called blameless in
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our time? And the interesting thing is God
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takes note of the relentlessly righteous.
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God takes note of the blameless ones.
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When you look at it, it said Noah walked with God, right?
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It says he was blameless. He walked faithfully with God.
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What does it look like? It talks about Enoch in a later
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in an earlier chapter, it talks about Enoch walked with God and
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then he was with God. He he just transitioned into
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eternity. It symbolizes intimacy.
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It symbolizes closeness, a daily intentional journeying with God,
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walking faithfully. It was the probably the reason
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for his blameless ways, because on our own, we are wired.
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We were conceived in sin, the psalmist rights, which means we
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are our tendency is to wander. We're prone to wander, we're
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prone to leave God's side. But when you're walking closely
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with God, you tend to do what God instructs.
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It indicates a steady, everyday personal relationship between
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God and Noah. To be blameless, to be counted
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as righteous in that time was number small feat.
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And yet it was because of his close journey with God that God
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saw him for who he truly was. So you know, honestly, if you
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look at this to the degree that you pursue God and walk every
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day with him will be the degree that your life carries His
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presence, carries his essence. It's really about how closely
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you are walking with Him. Continuing from verse 11 to 13.
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Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of
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violence. God saw how corrupt the earth
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had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their
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ways. So God said to Noah, I'm going
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to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with
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violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy
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both them and the earth. Want to stop?
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There again, God notices the blameless.
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God loves the ones who walk steadily with him, faithfully
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with him. But God confides in those who
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fear him. Why would God have to tell Noah
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the plans of his heart because he had been journeying with him
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already? They had this, this familiarity,
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this closeness because of which God confided in him about his
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plans. And the interesting thing is,
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you cannot actually discern God's taking confidence in you
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unless you're actually paying attention, unless you're someone
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who's attuned to his voice. You know, it's so interesting
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when I have 3 kids and my second and third, their voice
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frequencies are very similar. So when I call on the phone
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sometimes to talk to them on the landline, if I'm out somewhere,
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I invariably mix up and I say oh Celeste or Calvin and they get
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so mad with me. But the the truth is this God
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when he walks with us, he doesn't fail.
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His parents often do. He knows us so intimately when I
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call on Him, He knows exactly who's calling on him.
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Vice versa, when I am walking closely to Him with Him I can.
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My ears are attuned to His voice.
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I know when He's nudging me in my spirit.
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I know when He's whispering something to me.
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The problem is the noises in our life are so loud we sometimes
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miss out on the small whispers of God and think about it.
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I don't know and I was preparing this.
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I was just my my mind was all over the place with thinking.
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How did God speak to know? Was it through a booming voice?
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Was it whispers? Was it impressions on the heart?
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Was it a nudging in his spirit? I don't know, but all I know is
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this, that God confided in him and Noah responded.
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Noah was listening. Obviously, Noah was used to
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listening to God, that when he confided Noah was listening in
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with rapt attention. Without an ongoing relationship
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with God, you will not receive revelation of your assignment.
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It's very clear. Sometimes we think about it.
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You know what? Someone's living in the fullness
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of their calling. They're doing so much for God.
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How come that's not happening for me?
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And then I have to revisit my closeness to God.
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I have to revisit if I'm really intentional about pursuing God.
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I need to review whether, you know, what am I intentional in
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following God every day? Am I getting deeper into His
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word? Am I taking the easy way out?
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Am I treating Him like fast food?
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Or am I sitting at the banquet of his word in His presence,
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enjoying him? Because the more intentional I
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am, the more committed I am to pursuing him, the more I'm
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attuned to his voice and the more I receive revelation for
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the assignment ahead. Genesis chapter 6, verses 14 to
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21, continuing to read it says this is the instruction he's
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giving. So he's telling him, this is my
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heart. I'm going to destroy both them
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and the earth. So verse 14 so make yourself an
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arc of Cyprus would make rooms in it.
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Coat it with pitch inside out. This is how you are to build it.
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The arc is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits
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high. Make a roof for it, leaving
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below the roof and opening 1 cubit high all around.
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Put a door in the side of the arc.
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Make lower, middle and upper decks.
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I'm going to bring flat waters on the earth to destroy our life
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under the heavens. Every creature that has the
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breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish, but I will
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establish, establish my covenant with you and you will enter the
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earth Ark, you and your sons and your wife and your son's wives
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with you. You are to bring into the ark
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two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them
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alive with you, two of every kind of bird, of every kind of
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animal, and of every kind of creature that moves along the
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ground that will come to you to be kept alive.
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You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and
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store it away as food for you and for them.
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I'm going to stop there. This is a huge chunk of verses,
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but I'm going to just split it into a few bits.
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If you notice, God confided in him, then he gave him the
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assignment. He said this is what you have to
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do, build this arc. But the interesting thing is
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he's not giving him superficial input.
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He's telling him the material. He's talking about the
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dimensions of the arc, how long, how high, what he should quote
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it with. He's even giving him details
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about the window, the doors and everything.
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But here's the interesting thing.
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Nowhere in it doesn't mention a rudder.
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Nowhere does it talk about an engine.
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Nowhere does it talk about a steering wheel.
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Noah was not being commissioned as the pilot of the ship or the
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captain of the ship. He was being commissioned only
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as the builder. He was asked to build.
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God was going to be the captain. God was going to set them sail.
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God, there was no sails. Even if it would be carried by
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wind, there should have been a structure of a sail.
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Nothing. Very interesting design, which
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meant that this was a perfect setup for a divine takeover.
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There was nothing that Noah could have done once he got into
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the boat. God would lead them.
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Their job was to create this boat that would float.
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That was it. God would lead them.
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God would direct. And maybe you're in this
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situation where you're probably believing that this is your
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theme as well for the year, a divine takeover.
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You're saying, God, I don't know what to do in this marriage,
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Lord, I don't know what to do with my team.
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I don't know what to do with my business.
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My work is so difficult. Maybe you feel you're in this
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arc where you just call to build something, but you don't know
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where it's going. I want to encourage you.
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It's a perfect setup for God to take over.
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We are not the captains of our ships, our lives ship.
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We are not the captain. Jesus is the captain.
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He's the one who leads us. We are many times called to take
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His yoke upon us, to rest, to rest and be refreshed in His
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presence, and to do His will in our lives.
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Most of the time, the reason for our stress, the reason for our
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anxiety is because we're trying to do all of it in our own
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strength. And God is calling us into a
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place of saying, hey, would you let me take this over?
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No, I had to build the ark. There was number shortcut around
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that. There was number like, you know,
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just snapping it, putting it through a 3D printer, None of
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that. He had to do the hard yards.
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But directing that boat, getting it on water, floating it
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through, moving it, navigating was God's work.
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Would you trust God with your life right now?
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You are not the captain. Surprise, surprise, you're not
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the captain. He is.
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If you look at that further down, God also gives him an
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inkling of what's coming after the flood.
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Noah just knows the world is going to be flooded.
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I bet he didn't think of the semantics of it.
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He was not planning on what's going to happen.
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If it was us, we're probably going to think, should I want
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some relatives or I hope that particular relative goes off in
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the flood. None of that.
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It just talks about him getting down to work and then the rest,
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as we know is history. The flood comes.
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But Genesis 622 is where I want to take a quick pause.
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It says Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
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Isn't that amazing? And the thing about this is when
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you are completely in in a trust relationship with God, when you
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fear him in this reverent awe, you will become totally
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submitted to his will. You will obey Him even at all
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odds. Imagine the neighbors must have
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been laughing, relatives must have been mocking them.
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His own children must have had doubts.
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If his wife is anything like me, she would have had 1000
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questions. She's like, what are you doing?
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Why are you spending all our resources on this?
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People are looking at us. Think about it.
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And yet Noah did everything God had commanded him.
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And that's when a divine takeover happens, when our
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obedience is complete, when our obedience is is in this place,
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we're saying, Lord, whatever you say, I will do.
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Genesis Chapter 7, verses 6 to 9 says Noah was 600 years old when
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the floodwaters came on the earth.
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Noah and his sons and his wife and his son's wives entered the
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ark to escape the waters of the flood.
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Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and all
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creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to
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Noah and entered the ark as God had commanded Noah.
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Where is the divine takeover? The divine takeover is that the
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animals came to Noah. We cannot even control our pet
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at home. She decides to do what she will
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do, when she will do it. There is no controlling house.
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Many times I've said, can you come here, go outside.
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We have someone coming in to check on her, you know, a
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plumber or she will not move. She will not do as told.
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Maybe she's just untrained. That's my bad.
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But the point of this is every living creature at that point, a
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pair of them had to come to the Ark.
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God said you need to take these guys along with you and the next
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verse says they came to the ark. God brought them.
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Isn't that amazing when yours and my obedience is complete,
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When we do everything that God says, we can trust that He will
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take over and do the impossible. Our job is through the natural.
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Noah built the ark, he prepared the three levels, he set all the
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stalls in place, and then God did the supernatural.
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What things do you need to do in obedience in the natural so that
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God can step in with the supernatural?
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The next thing that happens is the floodwaters start.
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The great springs of the deep open up.
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The rain start coming down and go.
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Once they've entered in, it says God shut him in.
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God shut him in. The interesting thing about this
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is when God shuts them in, the rain picks up.
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If any of you have been in a flood, we've been in a flood.
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It's very scary when the rains don't stop.
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You freak out when the water levels of water bodies around
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you start to rise abruptly. You get scared when the water
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starts coming in from different crevices and openings and
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starts, you know, piling up outside your paydio, outside
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your garage. It is scary.
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But what God was doing was he took Noah and his wife and his
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three sons and three wives, puts them in the ark and shuts them
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in. And then the the the springs
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break out, the rain start to fall.
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It when God shut him in. What must have felt like, you
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know, literally separation was God actually changing the
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scenario as he knew it to be. And what happened was all the
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animals that lived and breathed, birds, creatures on the ground,
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humans, everything was wiped out.
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Trees and other things were completely submerged.
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It comes to a place where the mountains are submerged by many,
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many feet, almost 23 feet, and the ark is floating above that.
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Thank God that Noah was shut in because he couldn't see what was
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happening all around. He could not have fathomed it.
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He would have doubted the possibility of surviving that
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many times. God shuts us in for our good.
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I know Geshom and I have been through seasons where we were
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shut in. We felt anonymous, we felt
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unseen. God could see us.
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But you don't feel seen by people.
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You don't feel used by anyone. You feel God.
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I've got so much potential, why are you not doing anything with
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me? But he shuts us in.
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To set the scene for us, to prepare things for us, to move
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certain things out so that he makes room for us.
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And the thing about Noah was he didn't have what most of us have
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in today's world called FOMO. You know, the minute someone
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goes off social media on a fast, they'll tell everybody they
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know, you know what, I'm on a fast, so I don't know what's
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happening on social media. But what that's actually
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sounding like is severe FOMO, that you don't know what is
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actually happening out there in the world of social media.
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Noah didn't have FOMO. There was work to be done on the
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ark. There were stalls to clean,
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animal poop to be cleaned, stalls to be cleaned, animals to
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be fed, probably a couple of fighting animals that had to be
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sorted out. So many things to be done.
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Noah got busy with what he had to do while God shut him in.
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And it it indicates A surrendered life, a life that
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says, Lord, I know you're shutting me and I know you're
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doing something on the outside. I will trust you when I wrote my
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book, The Wilderness, when I sometimes reread it now you know
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when I'm looking for a post or when I have to teach somewhere.
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I realized that sometimes the shutting in is the best thing
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God can do for us because where we to understand the magnitude
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of what He's preparing around us, it would scare the daylights
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out of us. And God is bringing us into a
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place where he's saying, you know what in this position of
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being shut in might feel like a wilderness to you might feel
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like a barren land, but God is expecting you to work with what
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you have there. The wilderness is not cause for
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you to just lay down and sleep. The barren place is not a place
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where you just switch off and say no more, I'm done.
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No, it's a place where you do what is in your hand.
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You work with what you have. Noah kept doing what he had to
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do while God was doing things all around him.
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Scary things. But the degree of our surrender
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is is displayed with the contentment and satisfaction we
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have in that season. Many times there's been a
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tendency of going getting really angry with God and seeing God.
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Nothing is happening. It's like a season of
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nothingness, Lord, and I realize that that was me not being
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satisfied with being shut in. Noah found satisfaction in his
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surrender. He's completely content.
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There is no mention of Noah going to that one window and
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peeping out. There is no mention of him
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sending his kids here and saying go check what's happening,
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what's going on. Nothing.
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Complete satisfaction in being shut in.
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True surrender is displayed when we have that level of
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satisfaction. So when you feel shut in, I want
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you to trust God that He is doing something that you cannot
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even begin to fathom. He's aligning situations and
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people for you. How satisfied are you in that
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season of being shut in? Coming to Genesis 8 verse one it
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says but God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the
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livestock that were with him in the ark and he sent a wind over
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the earth and the waters receded.
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When I was reading this verse the word wind caught me.
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So when I went to the concordance to check the word
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Can you believe the word there is ruach.
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God sent his spirit, the spirit that was hovering in Genesis one
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over the waters. The same spirit is now sent as a
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wind to cause the waters to recede so that the new season
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can begin. A season when everything is
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going to come back to a place of origin point where it's going to
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be again. The land gets dry, trees come
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up, the mountains are revealed, the waters go back to their
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boundaries. The Holy Spirit did that.
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And I want to encourage you, no matter how how much you have
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felt shut in, hold on because the wind is coming.
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A second wind is coming. The Holy Spirit was at work
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before is currently at work. He never stopped working and
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he's going to work even now He is bringing about the divine
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takeover. How ready are you for the wind
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of the Holy Spirit to come into your life, to take away the
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things that held you back in previous seasons and launch you
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into your next? You know, the things that maybe
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caused you to wreak. Musty and smelly from the old,
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The Holy Spirit is bringing in the new.
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And the Holy Spirit cannot be rushed.
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That's what I'm realizing. He has all the time in the
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world, and so he shapes us as he sees fit.
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We can't rush him. And if you look at the way Noah
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comes out of the ark, there's a process.
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He first sends out Raven Ravens. The Ravens fly around and come
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back in because there's no place to sit.
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And then he sends a dove out. The dove gets an olive tree's
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branch, a twig, but it comes back home.
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And then he sends it out after a week.
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This time it doesn't come back. So he knows, OK, it's found a
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place to nest. And then God gives him the word
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to step out. There is a way in which God does
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things. We cannot bypass the process.
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God loves a good process in our life because that is where His
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Holy Spirit does His greatest work on us.
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Genesis chapter 8 verses 13 to 19 says by the first day of the
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first month of Noah's 600 and first year, the water had dried
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up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering
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from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
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By the 27th day of the second month the earth was completely
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dry. Then God said to Noah, Come out
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of the ark you and your wife, your sons and your wives, bring
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out every kind of living creature that is with you, the
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birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the
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ground so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and
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increase in number on it. So Noah came out together with
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his sons and his wife and his son's wives.
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All the animals and all the creatures that move along the
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ground and all the birds, everything that moves on land
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came out of the ark, one kind after another.
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But look at Noah's response to coming into a new world.
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It was literally a new world. The old had gone.
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A new season had started. Genesis 8, verse 20.
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Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and taking some of the
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clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on
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it. I'm going to pause there.
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How did Noah know what to do when he came out?
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If you remember, before the ark, God had this conversation with
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Noah and he said, you know what, I'm going to wipe out the earth,
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but I'm going to make a covenant with you and your family to
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subdue the earth. He gives them this word in verse
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18, right? And it feels like an Abel
-
situation. You can and Abel where Abel just
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brought the best of his cackle and he came and offered it
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before God, whereas Cain brought some old crops and came and
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offered it and expected it to be, you know, accepted.
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But God rejected Cain's and accepted Abel's.
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How did Noah know what to offer? Because of the word covenant
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that God had already spoken with him.
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God said I will make a covenant with you.
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He didn't tell Noah you have to make a covenant with me, but
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almost expecting that, anticipating what God was going
-
to do with him know or knows what to do in response.
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So what is the word covenant that God gave him?
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In six verse 18 he talks about covenant and the word for that
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is berith. Berith means a treaty that is
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signed or a pact that is signed, and it is usually made by
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passing through pieces of flesh. And I realized that in the time
-
of Abraham further down, Abraham does that when he he cuts these
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animals, he chops them and he lays them on an altar.
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And then this, this Lantern passes through it, indicating
-
that God was making a covenant with Abraham.
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But this is way before Abraham. This is a covenant being made
-
with Noah, but Noah anticipated because of remembering God's
-
word to him that he said, I'm going to make a covenant with
-
you. Noah in preparation offers his
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these the best animals, the clean animals as a burnt
-
offering. And it says over here, I love
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what God's response to this is. You can just see the friendship
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between both of them. The Lord smelt the pleasing
-
aroma and said in his heart, Never again will I curse the
-
ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the
-
human heart is evil from childhood.
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And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have
-
done. As long as the earth and yours,
-
sea, time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and
-
night will never cease. Noah's remembrance of what God
-
told him caused him to prepare this beautiful altar and offer
-
sacrifices on it. God responded to the flavor of
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that that sacrifice, the aroma, and his heart was moved towards
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humanity that was going to arise out of Noah and his family and
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makes this covenant and marks it with the rainbow.
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But here's the thing, what is the word that God has given you
-
in seasons past that you have probably forgotten about?
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With all of the shutting in that happened, all of the darkness
-
that you've experienced, all the chaos you've endured, it's time
-
to look back at what God has said He would do because God is
-
faithful to His Word. If He told you He is going to do
-
something, He is going to do it. Noah remembered and acted on it
-
in faith, and God responded by establishing the covenant.
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You and I today live in the time of the New Covenant where Jesus
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has put His law in our hearts and minds.
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The Spirit of God lives in US, moving us and urging us to live
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in a way that pleases God. What is our response going to
-
be? What is the offering we bring?
-
Anticipating God coming through? Maybe you're still saying, you
-
know what Jan 2026 feels like. In the whole of 2025, God's
-
barely begun. He who has started a a fresh
-
thing is faithful to complete it.
-
But what is the offering you're bringing in the interim?
-
Because in the middle is where life happens.
-
So as you're waiting on that word, what is the sacrifice
-
you're offering? Is it one of praise and
-
Thanksgiving for who God is, who God has been, and who God is
-
going to be? Or is it your pain, your
-
grumbling, your dissatisfaction? What is the offering you're
-
bringing? Is your very life a living
-
sacrifice? Have you said lot here?
-
Take all of Maine, Take over all of this?
-
What is your position when it comes to worship today?
-
So my question of you is, what is the offering you're bringing
-
to God? Irrespective of what your
-
situation looks like, what is your offering?
-
Is it one of praise and Thanksgiving for who he is, who
-
he has been, who he's going to be?
-
Or is it one of blame and pain and complaining and grumbling
-
and dissatisfaction? What is the offering?
-
Is your very life a living sacrifice to Him, Everything
-
about you? Have you submitted it to him and
-
said, Lord, here I am, I'm all yours.
-
Because the beautiful thing is that in Jesus, when we accepted
-
Jesus, the Holy Spirit is now in US and he moves us to to live in
-
such a way that brings glory to God in such a way to please God.
-
So my question to you is this Noah was not perfect.
-
Neither are we. The story goes that Noah
-
actually drank a bit of wine from his vineyard and got drunk,
-
lay uncovered in his tent. One of his sons, Shem saw,
-
Sorry, not Shem Ham. Ham saw it and went and told his
-
brothers about it, and the other two brothers, without exposing
-
him, covered him up. Because of which Noah in a fit
-
of rage, cursed one son and elevated the other two, blessed
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the other two guys. He was not a perfect man.
-
He was not a perfect parent, but what he did in that moment set
-
up Israel differently when he praised Shem and Japheth.
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Shem was where the Israelites came out of.
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That's the the ancestry of Abraham and his sons.
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God knew what he was doing. Noah was not perfect, but Noah
-
was yielded. He was yielded.
-
He was in close connection with God.
-
That set him apart. Today you and I in Jesus have
-
come close to God. We are no longer far away.
-
So we already have God's favour on our lives.
-
We already have the Father's love lavished upon us.
-
But the question remains, have we gotten so familiar because of
-
Jesus, the Son of God? Because of the of God who came
-
down in flesh Incarnate, Have we gotten familiar with him?
-
I want to remind us today that we would come back to a place of
-
a reverent awe of this God, a reverent awe which will cause us
-
to not live ordinary lives, but to live lives that are first of
-
all outrageously, outstandingly obedient.
-
The writer and me is going to give you a lot of alliteration,
-
but I hope it sticks with you because God is going to ask you
-
to do things that are countercultural.
-
God is going to ask you to stand up for him in a, in a world that
-
sits down. God is going to ask you and me
-
to do things that are close to his heart, to bring peace on
-
earth in order to heal people, to restore people to original
-
design. And when he asks us, it's going
-
to be the blueprint is going to look different for each of us.
-
He's going to ask each of us to do different things based on the
-
skills he's placed in US, based on the influence we carry, based
-
on the cities we are placed in. But my question to you are, is,
-
are you willing to be outrageously, outstandingly
-
obedient? Noah was that he was obedient to
-
everything God commanded him. Can that be said of you and me?
-
The second thing that I want to leave with you is would you be
-
radically and relentlessly righteous?
-
What does that look like? You've already been.
-
It's been credited to you as righteousness because of Jesus.
-
So we are clothed in his righteousness, but this
-
righteousness is one that grows with every passing day.
-
The Spirit of God is constantly shaping us into the image of
-
God, which means my everyday decisions, my choices, the way I
-
live, the way I conduct myself in private and public, my the
-
things that I consider secretive, all of it contributes
-
to how God views me. God loves me, He cherishes me,
-
but He desires that I live a blameless life before Him and so
-
would I be radical about it, which means I say no to certain
-
things which I said were OK before.
-
Would I be relentless in pursuing holiness because that
-
is what God is calling me towards?
-
And finally, would I be completely satisfied and
-
surrendered when shut in? There will be seasons in our
-
life when we are shut in. It could be because of a health
-
condition. It could be because of a certain
-
shift in your career. It could be because of just
-
circumstances happening globally.
-
Whatever it looks like, in that shut in season will you be
-
completely satisfied and surrendered to God Because when
-
you are, you can keep doing the thing that is at hand.
-
Noah was called to build. He was not called to Captain.
-
You and I, we're rebuilders of the gap.
-
We're repairers of the breach. We are not the commander in
-
chief. We are not the Lord of all.
-
We are not the master of everything.
-
He is the minute we know our position and this whole thing, I
-
think the divine takeover happens much easily.
-
It's easier to say, Lord, here are the reigns.
-
You take me where you need to go.
-
I'm here. I'm just following after you.
-
So I want to encourage you that like Noah, when God looks at the
-
earth at this point of time, 2026, January 18th, when he's
-
looking at the earth, he will be able to pick us up by name.
-
Saying that one there. She's righteous, blameless in
-
her generation. I'm going to confide in her.
-
I'm going to tell her things. I'm going to act on it.
-
Maybe you're thinking, you know what, I've been shut in for so
-
long, I don't know what's going to happen.
-
I want to tell you that the Holy Spirit, Ruach, he is moving in
-
you. He's moving around you.
-
He's setting things in place. You're going to be launched into
-
your destiny. You're going to be launched into
-
that trajectory which will carry you forward.
-
God is doing something and whether you see it or not, it's
-
happening. And it's time that we actually
-
say, Lord, you know what? You take over, You lead, but
-
when we live with the fear of God, we can obey, we can live
-
surrendered, and we can choose to pursue righteousness every
-
day. And that's my desire for you.
-
Can I just pray for you? Father in heaven?
-
I just pray that your people will right now experience Your
-
love. Wash over them.
-
I thank You that you see them as righteous because of your Son
-
Jesus, because they have said yes to Him.
-
I pray for those who don't know Jesus yet.
-
I pray that Lord, they will say yes to Him at the time when you
-
have marked for them. I pray, Lord, right now for
-
those who need a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit upon their
-
lives. Ruach, I invite you in that you
-
would come in and move out of their way, every obstacle, every
-
barrier, and set them on the path marked for them.
-
Lord, I just pray for those who have been shut in, those who
-
have been in a season of obscurity, those who have been
-
in a season of invisibility. I pray that God, they will be
-
completely surrendered to you in the middle.
-
They will wait on you, and I believe You're going to launch
-
them at the right time. Father, I pray that our lives
-
will be sacrifices. Lord, I pray that every element
-
of our lives, we will expose it to your touch.
-
Have your way, God, have your way.
-
Continue to work deeply within us.
-
We love you, we thank you. We pray that you will confide in
-
those who fear your name. I pray that Lord, you will raise
-
us up to be outrageously obedient, to be relentless in
-
our pursuit of righteousness. I pray, O God, that you will
-
help us to be so satisfied in the places you have placed us in
-
right now. We love you and we thank you in
-
Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
-
God bless you. Even as you get into a new week,
-
I would urge that you would get into the story of Noah yourself.
-
Not just to look at it in animated form, but if you could
-
read the story from the Bible from Genesis 6 to 9.
-
If you could just read it. It is one of the most beautiful
-
stories. I have such a renewed respect
-
for Noah. I have a renewed love for God
-
after reading His word and his intervention that you would, you
-
know, just take your life to him, leave it before him like
-
that ark and say, Lord, I'm willing to be shut and I'm
-
willing to be LED. You take charge, you do you.
-
I pray that that would be the story of your life.
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Remember this, that whoever finds Jesus finds life.
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God bless you. Have an amazing week.
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Thanks for listening to this message.
-
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-
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