Sermon Summary 26 March 2017
Obedience:
Please read Genesis 6:9-22.
The amazing thing about the plans given to Noah for the ark, is in the detail. God tells him what specific
materials to use; how much to use, and what it should look like when it’s all done. It is as if the hands
of the ‘Divine Carpenter’ Himself reached down from heaven and inscribed a blue print in the
perishable mind of a feeble old man. He tells him details, sometimes we forget that our God is a God
of details. He is a God of order. He does not operate sporadically and on a whim. God has a plan. It
wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that a ship of this magnitude would ever be constructed again,
yet what many people don’t know, is that this 30:5:3 design ratio is still considered the golden mean
for stability during storms at sea to this very day. Building the
“When your life is over, the world
ark required a rare combination of brains and brawn. But more
will ask you only one question:
than anything else, it took an incalculable amount of
Did you do what you were
perseverance fuelled by faith.
supposed to do?”
~ Korczak Ziolkowski
Noah built the ark because God commanded it. Sawing planks
and hammering nails were acts of obedience. After all was said
and done, it was the longest act of obedience recorded in Scripture. From start to finish, Noah’s one
act of obedience, took an estimated 43 800 days! We can’t fully appreciate the kind of thoughts that
must have been going through Noah’s mind when God told him to build the ark. Did he think, “Where
am I going to get the money to buy all this lumber?” Did he worry about what his neighbours would
think? Can you imagine your reaction if God told you to do such a thing? Yet Scripture tells us that
Noah obeyed every bit of revelation God gave him. Noah was committed to obeying God. Sure it would
be difficult. Sure he would be mocked and made fun of. Sure it would mean making sacrifices. It would
literally take decades of hard work. But Noah obeyed. And his obedience proved that he loved God
and believed what he said.
Sometimes all we have to go on is a command. The very act of moving and acting on that command is
a test of our faith. All too often we first want God to reveal the second step before we are prepared
to take the first step of faith, but experience shows that God doesn’t generally work that way. We’ve
got to be obedient to the measure of revelation God has given us if we want more of it and that’s
where a lot of us become unstuck. We want more revelation before we obey more, but God wants
more obedience before He reveals more. Most of us are only ever comfortable with following Jesus
to the place of precedence (that place where we’ve been before). We’re afraid of doing what we’ve
never done because it’s unfamiliar territory, so we leave unclaimed the new gifts, new anointing, and
new dreams that God wants to give us. If you want God to do something new in your life, you can’t
keep doing what you’ve always done. You’ve got to push past your comfort zone and dare to be
different. When’s the last time you made yourself vulnerable for a Kingdom cause?
The African Impala is well known for its remarkable leaping ability. It can jump up to a distance of 10
meters in length and 3 meters high. One would think that zoo keepers would have a pretty tough time
keeping impala’s in their enclosures, but it’s actually quite simple. A one meter high wall usually does
the trick, and here’s why: apparently an impala will not jump if it cannot see where it will land. For
many Christians they have the exact same problem. We want money back guarantees before we are
willing to take a step of faith, but the hassle with that is that it eliminates faith from the equation.
Sometimes we need to take a flying leap of faith. We need to step into the conflict without knowing
if we can resolve it. We need to share our faith without knowing how our friends are going to respond.
We need to pray for a miracle without knowing how God will answer. We need to take the plunge and
put ourselves in situations where we will activate a spiritual gift we’ve never exercised before. Perhaps
we even need to go after dreams that will fail if there is no divine intervention. Rather try and fail than
never try at all.
Our obedience proves that we love God and that we believe what He says. Obedience is faith and love
in action. It’s easy to say that you believe, but it is another thing to prove it by the way you act (see 1
John 2:3-6). In other words, our obedience proves how much we love Him.
When it comes to Noah, we read in Genesis 6:8 that at a time when the Lord was utterly heartbroken
at the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and He was actually sorry that He had ever made
them, it says, “But Noah found favour with the Lord.” Mark Batterson describes this favour as “that
which God can do for you that you cannot do for yourself.” So how do we find favour? The short
answer is obedience. It starts by surrendering our lives to the lordship of Jesus. Favour is a function of
surrender. If we don’t hold out on God, God won’t hold out on us. Life on the ark couldn’t have been
easy. It must have been smelly and messy in the ark and that’s a pretty accurate picture of what
obedience can look like. If we’re honest with ourselves, obedience is hard work. No matter what vision
God has for your life, it will probably be harder and take longer than you ever imagined. The account
of Noah offers us a little reality check. It’s amazing what God will do if you keep hammering away for
120 years!
There was once a boy who was going to turn 18 on his next birthday and so he approached his dad
about the possibility of getting his first car. His Dad responded by saying that driving a car took
maturity and he needed to prove that he was responsible. In order to prove himself his Dad said he
must first up his grades, secondly he must read his Bible every day, and then last but certainly not
least he must get a proper haircut. Well at the end of the next school term the boy proudly took his
report card home and with a big smile on his face showed off his excellent grades. His Dad was
certainly proud. He said that his son was one third of the way to earning a car. He asked his son if he’d
been reading his Bible, which he had, and the Dad said that he was two thirds of his way to getting a
car. But when he asked about the obvious lack of a haircut, the son responded, “Dad, Jesus had long
hair” to which the Dad replied, “True, but Jesus also walked everywhere he went!”
Just like that boy, some of us try to do the least amount that we can to still be considered obedient.
We look for loopholes. Sure, we’ll obey God in some things. We won’t kill anyone, but we’ll gossip
about them behind their back. We may not commit adultery, but we’ll allow ourselves to be carried
away with lustful thoughts. We’ll love others, but only if they love us first. Obedience like that is no
different than the world’s obedience. It is motivated by fear or the hopes of getting a reward. God
doesn’t want us to obey part way, He wants complete obedience. Obedience is not just about getting
where God wants you to go, it’s also about becoming who God wants you to become in the process.
It’s not about how quickly you get there, it’s about how far you’re prepared to go. It’s about crossing
the finish line the way the apostle Paul did and so aptly described it in his second letter to young
Timothy, as his earthly life was drawing to a close.
Please read 2 Timothy 4:6-8.