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Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

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This week we are continuing our sermon series Heroes of Faith where we look at those described

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in Hebrews chapter 11 as being examples of faith for us to follow.

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And this week we're looking at a guy that you've probably heard of.

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His name is Noah.

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And if you're anything like me, you have lots of questions about Noah and his ark and

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what it all means.

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So today Rob is going to dive deep into this story with us and show us the true meaning

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behind the ark and what Noah's faith has to teach us.

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So let's listen in.

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Our first reading is from the book of Genesis chapter 6 verses 12 through 19.

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God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on earth had corrupted their

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ways.

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So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all people for the earth is filled with

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violence because of them.

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I'm surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

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So make yourself an ark of Cypress wood.

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Make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

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This is how you are to build it.

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The ark is to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high.

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Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof and opening one cubit high all around.

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Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

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I'm going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens.

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Every creature that has breath of life in it, everything on earth will perish.

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But I will establish my covenant with you and you will enter the ark.

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You and your sons and your wife and your sons wads with you.

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You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive

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with you.

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Our second reading is from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7.

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By faith Noah, being warned by God of things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to

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save his family.

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By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is keeping

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with the faith.

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The word of the Lord.

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If you were to take a trip to the town of Darwin, Minnesota, you would come across a

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very unique museum.

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It is a hall of fame unlike any other because it contains within it the world's largest

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ball of twine.

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They go to great lengths there to make you feel right at home.

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That's one amazing museum.

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Maybe that's not your things.

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If you go over into the UK, they have over there in Leeds, they have another museum,

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another great hall of fame.

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Only this one is the dog collar hall of fame.

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It is filled with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dog collars from famous dogs down

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throughout history.

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Elsewhere in the UK you can visit the British Lawn Mower Museum.

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Let me tell you, this museum, it really mows down the competition.

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Yeah, yeah, all right, good.

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Or why not take a trip to Yokohama, Japan, where there is the Ramen Hall of Fame.

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There they celebrate the great noodle dish, ramen, and I hear it's unforgettable.

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But listen, not to be outdone, we here in Canada, we have got our own hall of fame.

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It's the Potato Museum, the Potato Hall of Fame in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island.

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How many of you have been to the PEI Potato Hall of Fame?

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Oh, yes, a couple, a couple.

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Yeah, it's worth the road trip for sure.

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Grab your buds and go see some spuds at the Potato Museum in Prince Edward Island.

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Well, today we are continuing our journey through an amazing hall of fame, an amazing

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hall of faith, if you will.

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It is a list of characters that is found in one chapter of the Bible, Hebrews chapter

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11.

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And there in these pages are exhibit after exhibit after exhibit of people, ordinary people,

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ordinary people who live their lives with great faith.

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And so far, we've looked at a few exhibits of these heroes of faith.

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We've seen about Abel's great faith.

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And last week we looked at the faith of Enoch.

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But today we come to a very special exhibit, and that is the exhibit of Noah.

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Noah was a great hero of faith.

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Now, if I had to ask you, if I had to ask anybody for that matter to name one or two

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Bible stories that they know, I think just about everybody knows the story of Noah and

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the ark and the flood.

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That story is found in Genesis, but in Hebrews 11, we get just one little verse devoted to

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Noah.

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And this is what we read.

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By faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear, built an ark to save

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his family.

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By faith, he condemned the world.

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Sounds kind of scary.

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And became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

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There's a lot in there.

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Like I said, you can read Genesis 6, 7, 8, 9, and you can read all of Noah's story there.

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But today we're going to just focus in on this one verse.

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Now, even though we know the story of Noah and the flood, it doesn't mean that we don't

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have some questions about the flood.

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Like for example, how could a good God who is loving and forgiving make the decision

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to flood the whole earth and kill all of creation?

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That is a real, farny one that a lot of people struggle with.

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And then there are more technical questions that we have about the story.

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But are we to understand that the whole earth was flooded?

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Or was this a regional flood?

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Or was this just a localized flood in a particular area of the world?

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And then what about this ark?

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What about the ark?

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If this ark really was constructed, shouldn't there be some evidence of that today?

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Some archaeologists believe there is.

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And so on and so forth.

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And then there's other questions.

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Like, well, how did Noah even get the animals into the ark?

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And how did he get one of each sex, male and female?

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Have you ever tried to tell the difference between a male pigeon and a female pigeon?

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How do you do that?

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There's so many questions.

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Perhaps the most thorny of all theological questions, though, is this one.

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Why on earth did Noah allow cats on board the ark?

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Just think about how the history of humankind could have been so much better if he had just

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made the decision to say, no, cats, no, no.

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But he blew his chance.

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And there we have it.

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Right?

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So I want to say that it is OK to have all these questions about the story of the flood

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and the story of the ark and all that.

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Researchers, theologians, people have puzzled over these things for years and years and

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years and years.

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Actually, maybe when you're in your life groups this week having conversations, it would be

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a good chance for you to try to unpack some of these big questions.

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But I just want to say this, that when it came to people like Jesus, who references

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the ark or Peter, who talks about the ark, their questions and their thoughts about the

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ark were not technical questions.

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They were not about geology or archaeology or zoology or carpentry or any of that thing.

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Those weren't the questions they had when they thought about the flood.

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For Jesus, the flood was this symbol, if you will, of what it's going to look like one

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day when God brings justice to the world and deals with all the evil empires of the world.

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That's kind of how Jesus thought about the flood story.

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And Peter, when he thought about the flood story, he was thinking about how the flood

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is a lot like Christian baptism and how in baptism we are washed clean and made brand

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new.

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And in the picture of the ark itself, I don't think people were so concerned about its structure

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and its dimensions and all that.

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But what they actually saw in the ark was like an early symbol of the temple, this place

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where people went for salvation, this place that lifted us up into the presence of God,

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lift us up to the heavens.

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Right?

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So maybe, all I'm saying is maybe, all of our kind of more technical questions, which

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are important, will give way to some of these other kinds of questions which Jesus and Peter

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and others seemed interested in too.

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The longer we sit with the story, the more our questions about the story might change.

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Now those questions aside, let's put them aside.

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What are we supposed to learn today from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7?

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And I want to say there's four things.

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And I have actually, as always, provided you with little study notes that try to help you

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keep track of them as we zoom through them.

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But I want to say that Noah shows us that to live by faith means four things.

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It means to listen up.

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It means to stand out.

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It means to put on.

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And it means to climb in.

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Listen up, stand out, put on, climb in.

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Let's start with this.

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Noah shows us that to live by faith means to listen up.

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And the reason I say this is that I think it appears that Noah may have been the very

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first person who heard the word of God come to them and then chose to obey it.

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Right?

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And this is why I say that because the writer says that by faith, Noah, when warned about

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things not yet seen, in holy fear, he built an ark to save his family.

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Or some translations actually say by faith, when Noah was instructed about things not

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yet seen.

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So somehow, work with me here, somehow God communicated a message to Noah.

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He instructed Noah.

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And importantly, Noah listened.

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Right?

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And based on what God said, Noah acted.

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And if so, I think that this is the thing that makes Noah different than everyone else

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that we've heard about so far in this hall of faith.

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And that is, it wasn't just that Noah believed in God, but it was that Noah believed God,

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believed what God said.

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And he believed it so much that he actually began to construct this ark.

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I don't know how the word of God would have come to Noah.

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Right?

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They didn't have a Bible in those days.

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That wasn't how it worked.

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What did it sound like?

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We don't know.

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But we do know that in Noah's world, like in our world, there were many voices.

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So much noise.

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People telling you how to live and how to behave and what was right and what was wrong.

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And yet somehow, Noah was able to tune out that noise and tune in to the voice of God

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and allow that to be the thing that dictated his actions.

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And he was able to do that so well that ultimately he started building this ocean liner in the

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middle of dry land.

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And Noah, through doing this, actually teaches us a little something about God's word.

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Sometimes when God speaks to us, it's what you might call informative.

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And other times, God's word is performative.

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Now, what do I mean by that?

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Sometimes God's word just gives us information.

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Like the Ten Commandments.

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Here's some information.

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These are instructions for how to live your life.

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Or like the construction of the ark.

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I wanted this many cubits by this many cubits made of this kind of wood.

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That is God's word that comes to us passing on information.

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It's informative.

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But other times when God speaks, his words actually do something.

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They perform something.

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They initiate action and they set events in motion.

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God's word can actually shape reality just by the speaking of it.

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So in Genesis chapter one, when God says, let there be light, he's not giving us information

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about light.

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He's not describing the wavelength of the light.

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He is actually bringing light into existence.

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That's his performative word, as theologians say.

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And in the same way, when God warned Noah about the coming flood, it wasn't just a friendly

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information announcement.

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Hey, Noah, I see some clouds on the horizon.

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You better get ready for some water.

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No, it was a divine proclamation.

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His word set events in motion.

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It wasn't hypothetical.

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His word accomplishes what it declares.

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That is what it means for God's word to be performative.

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God says that my word, when it goes out, it will not return to me empty.

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It always accomplishes that for which I sent it.

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God's word does not describe reality.

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God's word creates reality.

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And that means that when God makes promises to you of forgiveness or when God speaks to

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you about transformation or about eternal life, these words are not just describing

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ideas to you.

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They are creating a reality for you.

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The same word that created the universe, the same word that summoned the floodwaters speaks

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over your life and speaks into your life, changing you as he speaks it.

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So like Noah, we better listen up because faith comes by hearing, the Bible tells us,

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and hearing by the word of God.

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Can you hear God?

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Can you hear what God is saying to you above all the other voices, above all your other

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doubts, above all the cultural noise, above all the social media, above your own inner

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critic that is going on and on and on?

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Can you hear what God is saying to you?

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Can you hear what God is saying about you?

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Because like Noah, we have got to figure out how to tune in to God's word.

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And the easiest way to do that, of course, is by regularly reading these words, the Bible.

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The Bible is how God is still speaking to us.

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This is his living word coming to us today, transforming us, not just informing us.

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And the more time that we spend in God's word, the more clearly we will hear that voice above

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all the other noise.

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So that's why I say Noah's first lesson to us is that faith begins by listening and we,

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like him, need to listen up.

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Okay?

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That's point number one.

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The second point that Noah teaches us is faith is not just about listening up, it's learning

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how to stand out.

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And normally, we do not like to stand out in a crowd.

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We'd like to blend in with the crowd.

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As a tall guy, I don't like to stand out.

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There's many times I wish that I was a foot and a half shorter and I could just blend

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in with everybody.

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But in Noah's corrupt and evil generation, he and his faith stood out.

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Now how do we know this?

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We know this because of this line here.

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It says that by his faith, he condemned the world.

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Now when you read that, it sounds pretty harsh.

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It sounds like what Noah did is he went around wagging his finger at people, pointing and

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scolding everyone.

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Oh, you are so condemned and you're condemned.

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You're definitely condemned and you are so going to get it.

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Right?

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And believe it or not, there actually is an old tradition that says that Noah was this

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fiery preacher of damnation.

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Right?

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And although it's not in the Bible, a first century Christian leader in Rome wrote these

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words.

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He said, Noah preached repentance and those who obeyed were preserved alive or Noah preached

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a new beginning to the world.

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Question, was Noah really a preacher?

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I don't think so.

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Not really.

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Noah shamed people, not by preaching damnation to them, but just by living his life before

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them.

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Noah didn't have to preach sermons to condemn his world.

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His life was a sermon.

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It says by faith, he condemned the world.

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And you've seen this kind of thing in your own life.

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Nobody did something that was remarkable, very kind, very generous action.

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They never said a single word to you yet when you saw them do it, you felt, you felt in

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some ways condemned, you felt challenged, you felt inspired and they never said a single

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word.

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I think that's the better way to understand what Noah was doing in his own generation.

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Jesus said, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify

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your father in heaven.

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When people see how you live, that alone speaks volumes.

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Now I suppose Noah could have preached and he could have warned and condemned as a fiery,

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fiery preacher, but instead what he does is he starts building this ginormous box.

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And that's all that the word arc means, by the way, just means box, a big square, rudderless

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box, the size of an aircraft carrier.

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And you know, if, if that didn't say enough, then I'm not sure what his words would have

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added to it.

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He built this thing in land, nowhere near water in the middle of Iraq.

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So that speaks volumes, it speaks volumes about what God is about to do.

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Now don't get me wrong.

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I totally think words are important.

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After all, here I am.

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I'm a preacher.

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I'm preaching words to you this morning.

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And I don't think you can really preach the gospel without using words at some point.

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Paul says, how can they believe in the one whom they've not heard?

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And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

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So sharing our faith with others happens both in our actions and in our words.

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And I am sure that in Noah's day, when many people saw what he was doing, they asked a

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lot of questions and those questions probably led to some pretty amazing conversations.

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Peter said, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the

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reason.

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Why are you doing this?

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What is this all about?

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Noah, tell us some more.

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To give a reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect.

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My point is Noah stood out.

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Do you?

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Noah's life caused people to ask questions.

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Does yours?

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Noah's faith showed people the difference of a life that has lived in obedience to God

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and a life that has lived apart from him.

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And in that way, all of us should stick out.

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In that way, all of us should condemn the world.

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Not by going out to the streets and chanting slogans or waving billboards or yelling into

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a megaphone or cornering people on the sidewalk, but our life should stand out in a way that

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challenges people and invites them to know more about God and more about Jesus and more

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about faith.

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So Noah teaches us two things so far, to listen up and to stand out.

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Thirdly, though, he also teaches us to put on, to put on.

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What do I mean by that?

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Noah showed us that to live by faith, you don't have to produce your own righteousness.

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Instead, you put on God's righteousness.

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You see, the writer of Hebrews says this, and this is admittedly a bit of a complicated

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line and we have to unpack it.

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It says that by his faith, Noah became an heir of the righteousness that is in keeping

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with faith.

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That's complicated.

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But see, most people operate on the principle that you are made right with God.

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You are made righteous with God by somehow earning it.

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Most religions work this way, too.

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Most religions say you've got to develop some righteousness.

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You've got to develop some moral character.

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You've got to be a good person.

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You've got to do good things.

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You've got to be kind and truthful and honest, and you've got to help old ladies across the

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street.

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And if you do all of that, then you can take your record of righteousness and you can show

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it to God.

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And God will look at it and be pleased.

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And God will say, I like it.

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I love you.

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I'm going to answer your prayers.

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You're included, well done.

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I'm going to save you based on the wonderful record that you have shown me.

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But Noah, Noah shows us that is not how it works.

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You might think that's exactly how it works for Noah.

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God, look what I'm doing for you.

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God, look at the size of this thing.

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Look at all the wood.

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Look at all the nails.

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Look at all the pitch.

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Look at all the trees I've chopped.

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This is an enormous piece of work I am doing for you.

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God, look at it.

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Now will you accept me?

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Now have I earned your favor, God?

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You would think that's how it works, but it's shockingly not how it worked.

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Right?

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We are told that what pleased God was not all of Noah's works, but it was Noah's faith.

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That's where his righteousness came from.

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And the way that we know this, it all trickles down to one word in that sentence, and that

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is the word air.

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Air.

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What is an air?

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An air is someone who receives something they didn't earn.

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An air is someone who gets rich because of someone else.

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I'll give you an example that I heard Tim Keller use once.

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Imagine, if you will, there's a very, very ambitious lady who goes to school, studies

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for years and years, works really hard, and eventually starts a company.

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And that company grows and grows, and she invests more time and energy.

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And she's up all night.

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She's working all day.

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And this company grows, becomes very profitable.

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She hires more and more people.

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And soon she's amassed quite a fortune.

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She becomes the CEO of her own company, and the thousands turn into millions and even

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into billions.

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And the thing is, she earned every last little bit of it.

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But when she dies, she leaves everything to her children, those kids, those yahoos, sitting

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back there on the couch, on their iPads, you know, Snapchatting their friends or whatever.

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And now they are rich.

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And why is that?

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Not because anything they did, right?

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They're rich because of their relationship to her, right?

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And they are heirs now of her fortune, receiving it all, receiving everything as a gift, not

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because they worked for it.

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That's how it works for Noah.

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That's how it works for us too.

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By faith, we become children of God.

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And as children of God, we become heirs to his fortune.

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Romans 8, 17 says, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ.

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Everything God has is ours.

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Everything Jesus has is also ours, given to us by faith.

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Those kids, they didn't earn anything by their own effort.

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They are just as wealthy as their mom, though, because of their relationship to her.

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And you and I, right, we don't earn any of our own righteousness either, but we're made

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righteous by our faith in God, by our relationship with God.

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You put on God's righteousness, it's given to you through that relationship.

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Now, of course, Noah's faith led him to do all sorts of amazing works for God, building

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the ark, all that, of course, and our faith should too.

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But that wasn't what made him righteous.

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We need to hear that, because some of you here today are working as hard as Noah, tirelessly

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00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:03,760
trying to build a righteousness of your own, striving to prove ourselves to God or to other

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00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:08,320
people or even to ourselves, hoping that if we just do enough, then we'll finally feel

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00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:13,320
worthy and we'll finally earn God's love or earn his acceptance.

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God does not ask us to build a life of perfection.

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He just asks us to become his children by adoption and become his heirs and to put on

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his righteousness instead.

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And that leads to our fourth and final point.

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So what have we learned so far?

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Noah teaches us to listen up, to stand out, to put on, but then really all of that comes

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down to this last one.

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He teaches us to climb in.

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You see, Noah ultimately had to climb in to that ark.

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When the floodwaters began to rise in Genesis, the beginning of Genesis chapter seven, we

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read that God issues this invitation.

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He says, Noah, it's time.

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I want you to come into the ark.

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The rains are coming down and the ark was this thing that was going to save them.

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God had appointed this vehicle to be the thing that would save them.

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And it was only by getting in, if they didn't get in, it wouldn't save them.

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It was only by getting in that they could find shelter and find survival and find salvation

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in the face of judgment.

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Right?

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I'm sure that many people here today and many people who are maybe watching this message

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later on, your life feels like a flood.

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Even right now, there's a flood of problems.

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00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:46,120
There is a storm of struggles that you are facing relentless waves that are crashing

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00:27:46,120 --> 00:27:53,400
on you, maybe financial stress or maybe relationship problems or maybe the crushing weight of grief

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or loss.

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And you feel the water.

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You feel like you're barely keeping your head above it all.

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But I want to let you know that today, Jesus is here and he is calling you into the boat

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and he's reaching out his arm and he's ready to lift you up and pull you in and rescue

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00:28:12,480 --> 00:28:13,800
you.

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And that is the truth.

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But I want to add that even if you manage somehow to survive all the storms of this

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00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:28,640
life on your own, there's another flood that's coming and it is a flood you will never be

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00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:30,000
able to withstand on your own.

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And that is what the Bible calls the final judgment.

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Final judgment, it sounds super scary, but here's the thing.

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00:28:38,460 --> 00:28:43,200
One day, God's going to deal with everything in this world that is wrong and he's going

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00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,580
to fix everything in this world that is broken.

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00:28:46,580 --> 00:28:49,040
He's finally going to deal with the sin.

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He's finally going to deal with our sadness once and for all.

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But when that day comes, my goodness, who of us is going to be able to stay afloat on

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our own?

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I mean, I know we've tried to be good people and we've tried to live by the golden rule

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00:29:04,780 --> 00:29:07,160
due to others as you'd have them do to you.

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But let's be honest, we are going to sink like stones.

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We have not lived up to that.

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We haven't even lived up to the standards that we set for ourselves.

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But here's the good news.

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Here's the good news.

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Jesus has this great ability to walk on water and he lived this perfect life, a life we

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could never live.

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And then he died this death, a death that we truly deserved.

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And as such, you know what Jesus becomes?

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Jesus becomes our ark.

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And Jesus becomes the one who can save us.

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All we need to do is climb in.

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00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:48,360
I mean, you think about it.

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Think about how that ark, how the hole was slammed by waves, but the people inside, they

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were dry.

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Or think about how all the debris and the rocks battered the sides of the boat, but

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the people inside were safe in the same way on the cross.

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Jesus's body, his whole, if you will, is beaten and battered and it is broken.

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But we are safe in him.

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All we got to do is just get into the boat.

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00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:26,880
And that is actually precisely the language that the Bible used to speak about this.

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In Romans 8.1, Paul says, there therefore is no condemnation for those who get into

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the boat, for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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Guys, whatever storms you're facing right now, Jesus is reaching out to you.

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He's tossing you the life ring.

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Grab hold of him.

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Stop trying to float on your own.

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It's impossible.

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00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:51,640
You'll never be able to do it.

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00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:59,440
Climb inside and hide yourself in him and you will be safe.

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Give your life to Jesus.

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Put your life in Jesus.

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And I'll tell you this, not even the waves of death will be able to touch you.

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In Jesus, we are floated upwards.

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We are floated heavenward in the end.

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So there you have it.

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Noah, what an amazing figure in the great hall of faith.

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First he shows us we got to listen up, listen up to God's word, trust God's word and be

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ready to act in obedience even when you can't see where it's going.

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Second, he challenges us to stand out, to live lives of faith that are so distinct and

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hopeful that the world around sees and they see God and they want to seek God for themselves.

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And then put on the righteousness of God, not by trying to earn it for yourself, but

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by joining God's family and inheriting everything.

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And then finally, and lastly, climb in, acknowledge you can't save yourself.

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Reach out to Jesus for his help and let him carry us.

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He is our ark.

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He is our refuge.

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He is our way to safety.

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Thanks be to God.

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Amen.

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Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons.

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This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church, Streetsville in Mississauga, Ontario on January

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26th, 2025.