Sunday Message- the story of Noah- and us

So let me talk to you about the man who faced the thing he had no control over.  He could neither arrest it, prevent it, or learn a way to defeat it.  He was a Christian, so he knew in his mind he had to give it to God.  By hook or crook, he was familiar with the "Five Guys" lesson I shared a while back, and as it was the second day of the week, he noted that today was "Noah's Day", for the guy who had to sell his entire planet, and everything he had ever known- in a way we can't begin to imagine- to God.  And to trust God for the ride he was to take.

And he thought about Noah and his story.  He had served God with his whole life, and thanks to 2 Peter, we knew Noah was a man who shared his knowledge of God and His righteousness.  He knew that he entered the ark with all those animals and his tiny family in a box a ninth the size of the Titanic, and God sealed him in for over a year.  The behavior of the animals, the handling of the waste, the provisioning of the cargo, all were up to God.  And on the other side of the testing, God opened the door to a world unlike what they had known.

Yes, God was faithful- IS faithful.


But, how did Noah HANDLE it?  What did he do?  What did he pray along the way?  How scared was he?  How did he deal with the churning of the sea, the creaking of the ship, the deaths outside its walls?  If Noah is to be my example, the man said to himself, WHAT WAS THE EXAMPLE?

We just don't know, he said to himself.  Noah never spoke a word (save the curse on Canaan and the blessings to the other two sons).  Not one bit of his preaching came to us.  Not one meditation, not one prayer.

We only know three things about Noah's character:  He was righteous, he preached righteousness, and he "did all the Lord God commanded him."

So, the man said to himself and to God:  How do I face MY testing?  How do I do as Noah did without knowing what that was?  And in his heart, he knew the answer:

God had told him everything he needed.

Wait, what?  What have You told me, Lord?

The Lord had told him the one thing that was necessary for him- Trust Me.  Give it to Me.  I will ride out the storm WITH you.

And this answer didn't seem good enough.  The man didn't know enough.  And all day long, he struggled with this.  Time after time, he accepted the Lord's comfort... and time after time, the same objection came up:  What did Noah know that he did not?

And it was a long time later, after his protests fell back from exhaustion and he praised the God into Whose hands he finally committed himself, that he remembered the end of a devotional he read just that morning:

The key to godliness is not more knowledge but more obedience.
-Woodrow Kroll

And more, he finally looked past what Noah was giving up to what Noah gave up.  Does that sound contradictory?  But here's the thing:  Noah gave up everything he knew- but what he knew was a world full of people for whom " the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. "  And came into a world bright with a new-seen sun, and the potential for the Greatness of God.

And he began to realize that God never told Noah's own FULL story because the man's OWN story was different- and so is every one of ours.  But the part we need to know- about God taking care of everything- the part common to us all- THAT God told.