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Transcription
Noah was a man who lived his authentic identity in God. He had a deep, personal, active faith in God and walked faithfully with Him. Despite living in a wicked and corrupt world, Noah stood out because he chose a righteous life, different from those around him. He had a close relationship with God, spending time with Him and knowing His voice. Noah built the ark according to God's detailed instructions, even though he had never seen rain before. He faced ridicule and opposition from the people around him, but he remained faithful. Noah's faith was not based on his own strength, but on his knowledge of who God is. He trusted in God's word and did everything just as God commanded him. Are there times when God is calling you to do something that seems absolutely insane? And what did you do in those moments? Noah had to choose to trust. Even in the waiting, which let's be honest, is the absolute worst time period of our lives. Any waiting period is awful. And Noah had to trust God when they were shut in for seven days before the rain started. Welcome to Elevate from Authentic Life Church in Mobile, Alabama with Pastor John DiQuatro. We hope it builds your faith and helps you to live a life for God that you've always wanted to live. We hope it inspires you to be a fully devoted, authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the message and welcome to Elevate. Today's message is from Pastor John's wife, Dawn. The story, the next part, we looked at creation in the fall last week. And now we are on to the account of Noah. If there was ever a picture of a man in history who lived his authentic identity in God and spent his time seeking God, it's Noah. So we're going to look at the story of Noah. And I had to chop up the scripture verses because there are very long chapters with lots of details that tell the story of Noah. So first we're going to look at Genesis chapter 6 verses 5 through 14 and then verse 22. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created. And with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground for I regret that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. And then he goes on to give instructions about the ark. So make yourself an ark. And then we skip to verse 22 and it says, Noah did everything just as God commanded him. So just watching the news, turning on the TV or the radio, or scrolling on Netflix or Hulu to try to find something to watch, it's very obvious that our world resembles the world that Noah lived in. We are living in the same kind of world. Wicked, corrupt, violent, and the inclinations of the human heart are only evil all the time. But even with Noah living in the climate that he lived in, surrounded by all of the evil of his day, much like we are today, Noah had God's attention. Noah had God's attention because Noah had a deep, personal, active faith in God. Noah had an actual relationship with God. He didn't just know who God was. He had a relationship with Him. Noah knew how to seek God. So Noah, Old Testament, he was saved the same way we are, by grace, through faith, in a God that he never saw, in a time where faith was fully relevant on personal relationship and personal knowledge of God through divine revelation. Because in Noah's time, there was no scripture, there was no law. None of that had come into existence yet. So Noah had to have faith in a God who showed himself to humanity through divine revelation. Now Noah was a man who was raised in a rich heritage of faith, but that didn't automatically make Noah saved. Enoch, who was Noah's great-grandfather, was so loved by God and had such a relationship with Him that God just snatched him right up and took him to heaven. Like, he's the only person in the Bible who didn't die. Dude was just snatched up by God and went to heaven because God loved him so much. Sometimes I wish God loved me that much, but it's okay. It's okay. God has a purpose for my life. So Noah still, even having that heritage of faith that was instilled in him, he still had to believe for himself. There's a saying that God doesn't have any grandchildren. He's got kids, but he doesn't have grandkids. Because no matter how much we love God, no matter how much we want for our children to have a relationship with God, our salvation is not going to save our kids. Just like our parents' salvation couldn't save us. We have to choose for ourselves. And Noah made that choice. Genesis 6-9 describes that Noah walked faithfully with God. That implies that this is something that he did for an extended period of time. Not sporadically. It doesn't say he walked sporadically with God. It doesn't say occasionally. It says he walked faithfully with God. And he is described as righteous and blameless among the people. So righteous simply means acting in accord with divine or moral law, free from guilt or sin. Noah lived in a society that was very anti-morality. Sound familiar? Because he lived this righteous and blameless life, dude was going to stand out. He wasn't doing things everyone else did. And God calls us to stand out. Romans 12-2, and I'm using the New Living Translation here, says don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So Noah had God's relationship because he had... Noah had God's attention because he had relationship with God. And because Noah had relationship with God, he lived by a different standard. He chose a righteous life that looked different from everyone around him, and he stood out. So let's talk about relationship for a second. To be in relationship with somebody, you've got to spend time with them. You can't have a relationship with somebody that you don't know, that you don't spend time with, that you don't get to know. And the only way that you can have a true relationship with somebody is to be vulnerable, to be completely yourself, to admit where you fall short, to admit the things that you wish you could change, to have accountability to another person. And we can only assume that Noah had this type of relationship with God because of the intimacy that they had because he heard God and he knew God's voice. So Noah took the time to know God and to be known by God, which means he had to do something, and he lived his life according to God's standard. So Noah had great faith, but it wasn't because of the strength of his personal faith. It was because he knew who he had faith in. He knew who God was, and he knew the strength that God had and the power that God had, and that's where Noah's strength came from. So I know that we've glossed over this a little bit, but God gave Noah very detailed instructions to build the ark. And I found this description in my study, which I love, because I'm a visual person, and if you tell me 450 feet, no clue what that means. So the ark is said to be 450 feet long, which is about one and a half football fields. So this is how my brain works, hoping it would help somebody else here. It was 75 feet wide, which is about the length of seven parking spaces, and 45 feet high, which is the size of a four-story building. So during this time when God instructed Noah to build this ark, this boat, this thing that's supposed to float, there had not been any mention of rain in that time, up to that point. It took Noah 120 years to build the ark, and that was the same amount of time that God said that he was going to limit the number of days of man, was 120 years. Don't think that's coincidental. You look at another ancestor of Noah, Methuselah, he lived to be like 969 years old. So God seriously limited the number of man's years. So Noah had to stay in relationship to know God, to know that God was speaking. He had to trust that God was the God of his word, and that he was going to do what he told him to do. So the Bible says that the vegetation on the ground was watered by streams that came up, and watered the ground. Not by rain. No mention of rain at this point. But God said he was going to send rain. So Noah's trusting God to send something that he's never seen. And he lived in a desert climate. He didn't live somewhere where there were, like, oceans and rivers and large bodies of water that you would think that maybe something could float on it. He lived in a desert climate. So this dude is building this big boat because God is saying that it's going to rain, and that the earth is going to flood, and he has never seen this amount of water before. At all. So to say that Noah was normal in his time is probably not accurate. And knowing humanity, and knowing the way that men and women are, the Bible doesn't speak to exactly what was going on in the community while Noah is taking all of this wood with his family and building this big boat in a desert for this thing called rain that they don't know what it is to come. But he's telling the people, the Bible tells us later in the New Testament, that Noah preached. So Noah's telling the people around him what he's doing, why he's doing it, who said to do it. And these people live a very opposite life to God's standard. So I would guess that while Noah and his family are building this ark, they're hammered with ridicule and opposition and whatever other corrupt things men can do. Because that's what the Bible says the men were like. So let's continue looking at Noah's account. Genesis 7, verses 1-10, and then 24. The Lord then said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made. And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came on the earth, and Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds, and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days. And then Genesis 8, verses 15 through 18, goes on to say this is after the flood. Then God said to Noah, Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you, the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground, so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it. So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives. And the reason that I chose these portions is because it shows that Noah had to be continually listening to God to know what his next steps were. He had to hear the call to action, which was to build the ark, and he had to follow the instructions. Because if he didn't follow the instructions, the ark wouldn't work, they would sink, humanity gone. He had to hear when it was time to enter the ark with the animals and his family so that they would be saved. And then he had to know when it was time to exit the ark. So every time that God spoke, Noah had to be listening. And every time Noah heard God's voice, Noah had a choice to make. He had to choose every time God spoke to obey or not obey, to move or not to move. Noah had to choose to continue the relationship and keep seeking God's will, not just his own. We also have the burden and privilege to choose for ourselves every day to remain in relationship with God. When we wake up, are we going to seek His will for our lives, or are we just going to do whatever we want? Are we going to live to being held to a righteous standard, or are we going to live according to the world and the flesh? If God gives us an instruction, do we just listen to that and do that forever? Or do we keep listening and make changes if needed? Proverbs 3, verses 5-7 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and shun evil. This verse brings me great comfort because not only does it say that God will establish a path, a straight path for me, but it says that He will make my path straight. So if I am in humanity not listening and not choosing to follow God, that doesn't mean that I'm off my path and I'm done forever. That means that God will course correct and make my path straight. But I have to be listening to Him, trusting in Him, and not leaning on my own understanding. Proverbs 11, verses 5-6 says, The righteousness of the blameless makes their path straight, but the wicked are brought down by their own wickedness. The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the unfaithful are trapped by evil desires. So our right standing with God, our choice to live according to His moral code, His divine code, makes us blameless and makes our path straight. But the unfaithful are the ones who get trapped by evil desires. So if we are living faithfully, God is going to honor that. If we step out of faithfulness with God, that's when we get stuck. But God is graceful, and God is merciful, and we have the opportunity to come back to righteousness. So we need to have an active faith in God if we are to follow His plan for our lives. If we're going to walk in the authentic identity that He set out for our lives. And we've talked about this a lot, but we have our identity, and we have our authentic identity. Our authentic identity is God's plan for our life. Our identity is the package that we have and things that we could choose to do that would be good. But our authentic identity is the fulfillment of God's promise for our lives. Now, I want to bring up something that I never noticed before in this story. And y'all, I grew up in church. There are pictures of me in the church nursery from when I was three. We were in church every time the doors were open when I was growing up. And less like I had a fever, but even then it had to be a really high fever, otherwise I was going to church and laying on the back pew. So, I was in church. I knew the story of Noah. I know the story of Noah. Seriously, I was studying and this, like, was illuminated, which, again, God's word is living and active, and he just shined a light right on this. Genesis 7-4, God says to Noah, seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. This is after he told him to go in the ark. He didn't say seven days from now, go in the ark. He told him, go in the ark and then seven days from now, I will send rain. And then 7-10 tells us, after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. Y'all, Noah and his family were on this ark for seven, not seven, seven days before any precipitation came. I never noticed that before. Because what do we do as humans, even if God tells us something, and we trust God, if we don't see it right away, if we don't, do we not start questioning, okay, did God really say that? Did God really say to do that? Did God tell me to go do this thing? Because I don't see how it makes sense. I don't see a path. Noah's on this ark for seven days. Now, it talks about Noah's faith, but it doesn't talk about his family's faith. So, can you imagine what he was hearing from the inside and the outside? Like, there were still people on this earth who were corrupt and thought Noah was crazy. You think they were quiet when he's in there for seven days with the doors shut and nothing's happening? I can guarantee they weren't. So, what about your own life? Are there times when God was calling you to do something that seemed absolutely insane? And what did you do in those moments? Noah had to choose again to trust. Even in the waiting, which, let's be honest, is the absolute worst time period of our lives. Any waiting period is awful. And Noah had to trust God when they were shut in for seven days before the rain started. So, quick, I'm going to summarize this a little bit. You know, I had, we had a Noah moment in our lives where we knew that God was telling us to do something and it made no sense. And this is one of those times that I know that I know that I know. Like, there is no doubt, there's no question in my mind that God was speaking to me. And it was when we were at our church in Pennsylvania and it was time for us to leave. Like, God's grace had lifted on that situation and it was time to move. And He was telling us it was time to go. And I remember talking to my husband and saying, it's time. Even if that means that we lose everything, this is what we're supposed to do. And everything meant all of our friends. Like, the potential for losing our house, it was our livelihood because He was the sole, well, I mean, I was working part-time at that point, but it was His income that was sustaining our family of three young children. But I knew that I knew that I knew that God said it's time to go. Had no idea what that looked like. Had no plan in place for where we were going to go. It was just time to go. And it did not make any logical sense looking at it from the outside. And then in this process, you know, God always shows Himself faithful and He did provide for us. And as my husband was trying to find another job, this opportunity in Alabama came up. And at that point in time, I had my heart set on South Carolina. Like, looking, literally looking at houses, looking at house plans, looking at neighborhoods, like, we're going to South Carolina. And I decided to say, okay, God, You put this in our path, so if this is Your will, change my heart. And that was the prayer that I prayed. Because, and I told him, I argued with him, I will be honest, I'm like, you have to change my heart because this is where I want to go and this is what I want to do. This is the plan. But, if you have another plan, you're going to have to change my heart. And y'all, I'll tell you, God is faithful because He did change my heart. And we had different opportunities, and we prayed in the beginning, one door open, that's it, that's all we want. So that there was no question that it was God. And we had these doors opening, and then slowly they were closing, and we would talk about different opportunities, and I would be the one to say, and don't forget, Alabama. And he was like, oh yeah, Alabama, okay. And I'm holding back vomit as I say it because I want to go to South Carolina, but nothing panned out in any of the other places. And when I say that God slammed every door shut but Alabama, He slammed every door shut, and we didn't know that Alabama was still an option when all those other doors were closed. So, from our family's perspective, I'm sure we looked insane moving to Alabama. From the North to Alabama. Very different. Not that there's anything wrong with Alabama, this is home. I love Alabama. So y'all, I share my story to encourage you that if you know, don't waver. Don't falter. Don't listen to common sense around you. So, in our day and age, one of the biggest hindrances to our spiritual walk is technology. I mean, you feel completely lost without your phone. But we have access to any information we want, any time of day, within a matter of seconds. There's a pill for everything anymore that can take care of what we need instead of actually like putting in the time and waiting and doing what we need to do. So, technology has kind of messed up with our waiting period. And our ability to be still in the waiting. But if we want to live victorious, faith-filled, satisfying lives, we have got to learn the art of perseverance. We have to wait on God's timing and trust that there is a working that's happening in the waiting that cannot be accelerated. God never asks us to do anything, including wait, without a bigger purpose in mind. He's not in heaven all willy-nilly saying, hmm, let's give this one everything they want right away. Like, right away. Whatever it is, let's just give that one whatever they want right away. That one, I don't like her hair, so let's make her wait a little bit longer for stuff. Ooh, and that one's super sassy, so we're just going to say no to her all the time. That's not how God operates. But sometimes we get that in our brain, that that's how He works. That He's just deciding on a whim what to do and what not to do. But He is our Heavenly Father. He created each and every one of us for a purpose, with a plan in place for our life. So He's not just like, eh, whatever. He knows. And He knew before you. And He knows what's best for you. You just have to choose to trust Him. 1 Corinthians 15.58 says, Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that in your labor, that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Stand firm for what God promised for your life. Because if you are working in what God promised for you, your labor is not going to be in vain. Hebrews 12 1 and 2 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Run this race of life for you. Your life is not your own. Your life is not just for you. We were put on this earth to impact other people. Our lives make a difference in the lives of those around us. The worst thing that we could do to derail God's plan and timing is insist that our plans and timetables are better than His, and that we know better for our lives. With our limited perspective, we can see right now, we can see what's past. We can hope for what we have coming in the future, but we can't see it. God's got it all in mind. He knows the beginning from the end, not just for humanity, but for your individual life. And then the last thing we see with Noah's story is he had to stay faithful in the storm to know when to exit. John 10-27 says, My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. Jeremiah 33-3 says, Call to me, and I will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Noah lived his authentic identity. He lived his life following God's leading and plans for him. And it wasn't a once and done thing. He didn't just hear once and then move on. He actively listened to God. If he hadn't, the entire world could have perished, or there wouldn't be animals, or everybody would have died on the boat. If at any point in time Noah had stopped listening and stopped doing what he heard to do, things could have been so different. But Noah had such a relationship with God that he knew when to move, he knew how to move, and he knew what to do in the waiting. Thank you for listening to Elevate. We hope this message encouraged, inspired, and challenged you. Authentic Life Church is located at 50 Michael Boulevard in Mobile, Alabama. Visit our website authenticlife.tv for more information about Authentic Life Church. To find out what we have going on, or to make a donation, you can also find us on Facebook. We'd love for you to join us on Sundays at 10 a.m. for our weekend service. We have excellent children's, nursery, and youth programs, so bring the family. For Pastor John DiQuatro, I'm Scott Chestnut. Thanks again for listening, and God bless you.
