Scripture Title: Through the Eyes of Noah

Scripture Text: Genesis 6:9-22

Scripture Date: May 29, 2005

Scripture Message Psalm 46

Today I have a favor. Pretend that I am Noah. I know I don’t look like him, although no one knows what he looks like. Forget that he is male and I am female and listen to his story.

I am Noah and this morning we are going to look at some bible passages as if they were here when I was here. None of them were actually. This psalm was written long after I walked on the earth. So I invite you to let your imagination be stretched. Think outside the box. Listen with your heart.

My story is often told as a children’s story, a nice cute story. Bedrooms are decorated in the Noah’s Ark theme as if collecting two of every kind of animal was the only thing that happened. But so much more happened. This wasn’t just a story about saving animals, this was a story about the end of humanity as we knew it.

I am willing to admit that I was often embarrassed during this whole building thing. Here I was, a respected person in the community, and I was building a boat in my front yard - 450 feet long and 75 feet wide. 45 feet high and we not only going to fill it with animals, but all the food needed to feed us until the water went down. This was a really big project, huge, in fact. And I mean, did I even know for certain that this message from God was really and truly from God? What if it was the goat casserole I had for dinner that night that gave me indigestion, and not really a vision from God? But it seemed real. It felt real. Perhaps it really was real. I mean, how do you really know when it is God or when it is….something else?

I suppose sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you have to rely on the fact that if it feels like God, and you aren’t being asked to do something unethical or wrong, then maybe it is from God. And when we step out and do something risky, we need God’s encouragement. I hope this Psalm does that for you. Offers you comfort and encouragement in times of need and struggle. So hear these words as I hear them.

READ PSALMS 46 from the Message

Special Music Carrie Rust

Scripture Message Rom 1:16-17

Our next scripture is from Romans written by the apostle Paul. Obviously Paul and I were not contemporaries. I was long gone before Paul, the apostle, ever came on the scene. His is an amazing story though. Somewhat like mine if you think about it.

We were both asked to do some risky things. Oh, I didn’t attempt to rid the world of Jesus’ followers as Paul did. I wasn’t ask to change everything I believed and to follow the very one I had thought to be trouble to my religion. I was asked to build an ark, fill it with animals, one of each gender, take my family and sit on this boat waiting for the rains to come. Do you know how silly we must have looked? Think about it. We lived in a dry land. Rain didn’t come all that often anyway so we build this REALLY LARGE boat on dry land, away from any large body of water and the only answer I have for doing it is, “God told me too.” They laughed at me. What was I thinking? What was my family thinking? After all, I was embarrassing them too.

Paul was a Roman citizen bent on getting rid of the people who followed Jesus – just doing what he felt was right, what he believed in. Then one day he was going to Damascus seeking out more “enemies” when he was struck blind….by Jesus. While Paul sat in a home in Damascus for three days, fasting, God spoke to Ananias and told him to go and get Paul, then called Saul. He objected, of course, because Saul was the enemy, but God insisted and Ananias went. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me to that you may get your sight back and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he ate and was baptized and found strength.

So our stories aren’t the same but they aren’t all that different either. We both needed courage to do what God asked of us and it was given to us. Later, Paul wrote these words:

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes – Jews first and also Gentiles. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Hymn I have decided to follow Jesus 376

Scripture Message Matthew 7:13-29

I don’t feel very wise. Sometimes however I feel honored. I mean, God chose us to survive a terrible tragedy, one that will claim the lives of everyone around us. All that will be left is me, my wife, our sons and their wives, and a boatload of animals. So I have to feel honored that God felt that we were worthy of being saved. But wise? I don’t know about that one.

Sometimes I feel helpless. I watched as my friends drowned that day when the rains came. What had I done to deserve God’s favor? Surely I wasn’t the only one? Today you call it survivor’s guilt. We survived when everyone else died. And we don’t really know why.

Your New Testament passage says there are false gods out there trying to lure you to do the things that the world wants you to do. But Jesus told the disciples that taking shortcuts won’t lead you to God. The easy way is not the right way. He also says that if you are smart, you build your house on solid rock so that it will stand firm instead of building it on sand so that when a tsunami comes your home will be washed away. Jesus is saying to follow his words. When the words say “build a boat”…you build the boat. When the advice says, “follow me,” you follow him.

Hymn The Solid Rock 404