Sermon Tone Analysis

Prayer

The Circumstances

Slide

Ee are all familiar with the story of Noah’s Ark.

Two weeks ago we showed that it was God that rescued Noah from the sin that had deeply infected the whole world.

The Bible used the phrase that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil, all the time, and as a result God sent this great flood to destroy the wickedness on earth, and God saved Noah and his family.

We turn to Genesis 7 and read about this flood coming on the earth.

To give us a picture of what is going on let me read some more skipping down to verse 17.

Did you happen to see the downpour this week?

That was something.

The rain poured down in sheets.

The water was running in the streets up to the curb.

Some roads were temporarily flooded.

That happened in only a couple of hours.

That was tiny in comparison of the Biblical flood, and still the internet blew-up with pictures and videos of the flood.

But what happened with Noah was nothing like that.

Not only was the water coming down, but the text says all of the springs of the great deep burst forth.

The water was coming up from the ground, and the rain kept coming, for 40 days.

I can’t even imagine what that was like for Noah and his family.

The Lord had shut him and his family in the ark.

Now I enjoy a good rain storm, especially when I am inside and protected.

We had a rainstorm camping this week.

I enjoyed being cozy and huddled in the camper, while the rain poured down outside, I was cozy.

I don’t know how cozy Noah felt.

This rain wasn’t stopping.

How do you sleep?

Wouldn’t you be worried?

Did he wonder, is this thing going to capsize?

The Bible unfortunately doesn’t tell us, but I do know what I would be thinking.

Continuing on.

Everything on the face of the earth perished, only Noah, his family and the animals on the ark survived.

Imagine the loneliness.Think about that for a second.

Even after the rain stops there you are floating, nothing else left alive, except you shut in a wooden boat, the likes of which you have never seen.

That is ominous.

Not to mention being in an enclosed space with your family for 150 days!

I mean I love my family, but any family, in confined quarters, after a period of time gets challenging.

While it was raining, we could other campers with large families trying to keep the kids occupied.

Families were clearly going a bit stir crazy confined in their tents and campers, and this was only one day!

So there they were, the only ones left, no way to steer no place to go, shut in , raining, lonely floating.

Slide

The Human Response

Noah had to be wondering, maybe even worrying, what was going to happen.

I think God was merciful that Noah and his family had the animals to take care of.

Maybe they didn’t realize it at the time.

Was it frustrating trying to care for all those animals?

However, perhaps God in His mercy knew that having something to do probably kept them sane.The silence except the wind, and waves hitting the side of a wooden tomb, it would be maddening, you would have nothing to do but worry.

The Bible did not record any further communication of God to Noah.

In Genesis 6, God gave Noah instructions, we know that.And Noah did what God had commanded.

But what we don’t know is if God communicated any further with Noah.

We don’t have a record of God telling Noah that it would rain for days, we don’t have a record of God coming to Noah while it was raining or while the ark was floating and saying it is going to be ok.

We don’t know, but for some reason it is not recorded in the Bible.

But we do know the Bible said Noah walked with God.

Worrying about circumstances is not walking with with God.

Walking with God is the Bibl’e way of saying that Noah was in a relationship with God.

Noah listened to God.

Noah knew was Genesis 6, verse 18.

Maybe, those long nights, when the boat would be rocking and rain was coming down Noah would be tempted to lie awake and worry.

But He also could have thought about what God said, But I will establish my covenant with you.

Maybe he had to do it over and over again.

But I will establish my covenant with you.

Perhaps he would replay it in his mind, if God told me to build an ark, and if he saved me and my family up to this point would he really destroy me now?

Nope, God said, but I will establish my covenant with you.

I would lie awake in the ark and wonder, did I hear God correctly?

Did I somehow sin and was God going to allow me to perish.

Was I going to get off this ark, and find an empty world and be lonely?

All those types of thoughts would play over and over again in my mind as the waves hit the side of the boat over and over again.

All I could do was to replay Genesis 6:18 over in my head.

But I will establish my covenant with you.

And I would say to myself, now Greg, God saved you, God reached down and told you what to do, and God brought you and your family into the Ark.

And I would hope, things would work out.

Hope

These days, we have been given more scripture than Noah had.

Noah could not open the scriptures to read God’s hope to get Him through his current suffering but we can.

We can turn the pages of God’s word to find our Hope to get through the most difficult and trying times.

The problem is that we as humans are wired for the wrong kind of hope.

We are naturally, or by our human nature wired for a hope that is based on our experiences.

Greek philosophy recognized that human beings, by nature, expressed hope.

But the hope that they expressed was based on their experiences both good and bad.

For example.

Thursday, we had that torrential downpour, those that do not know God, by nature hoped their house would not flood.

This hope is based on their experience.

Experience that they need to hope the power does not go out and the sub-pump keeps running.

Hope that the house is built high enough.

Without God, they are simply hoping that the odds won’t come up bad.

Their is no certainty, their hope is only in statistics, it could go either way.

People with this kind of hope have a terrible life.

In job interviews, their hope is in their interview, their resume, and ultimately themselves.

When medical problems come their way they hope the doctor can solve the problem.

But biblical hope is very different.

This is a definition of Biblical hope from the Lexham Bible Dictionary.

HOPE The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future

For the visual people I have a slide for you as well.

slide

Hope is confidence in the following equation.

God’s (redemptive) act’s in the past+our response in the present (faith)+ our ability to experience the fullness of God.

Ok practically let’s apply this Noah in his situation.

Noah’s hope is confidence in that equation, and it begins with God.

His hope is not based on his experiences good or bad, but in God’s past.

So for Noah to have hope he starts with God’s redemptive acts in the past.

God saved Noah.