BUILD AN ARK

BUILD AN ARK

ME I love Father’s Day. I love talking to men about men. I enjoy giving hope to men in the Good News of Jesus. We are in this together and all learning together.

WE Men want to be good fathers. They love their kids and want the best for them. Sometimes we don’t know how to do it. That’s why I like to look for heroes!

We love heroes. They do things we want to do. Think about your heroes. What are things they have that you wish you could have?

I grew up on comic books: Adventure Comics and the Justice League of America! I wish I still had them; they are worth a lot of money.

Movie heroes… Sports heroes… National heroes… Family heroes…

God has heroes too. They are the great men in Scripture. One of them is Noah.

The world was drowning in wickedness, so God decided to destroy the world by a flood. God saw that Noah was a righteous man and called him to build a huge boat to save a few people and a collection of animals to re-populate the earth. Noah did that; he gathered his family in the boat with a collection of animals. They survived the flood and became the ancestors of the entire world.

You may have heard his name, heard he built a big boat, but don’t know much about him. He is a great hero and he can teach up some things today about being a good father.

GOD Let’s read one verse about Noah. This is our text for this morning.

Hebrews 11:7 (NKJV) By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

The simple sentence is Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his family. The purpose Noah had was the salvation of his family! Can you imagine a greater purpose in life than that? Everything Noah did was for the salvation of his family. What a great epitaph for your tombstone: Here lies Gary Wilcox, who lived his life for the salvation of his family. That would do!

YOU What steps went into that purpose? What steps can you apply to build your ark for your family.

1. Faith “By faith, Noah…”

The just shall live by faith! Without faith it is impossible to please God!

How does faith enter into this? God has plans for our family. He wants them to be saved and live a good life. I know you want that too. We can believe God and agree with in prayer for His plans to come true.

Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

God loves our families more than we do and wants to bless them and prosper them. We can hold on to these promises even when we may not see it happening.

God warned Noah of things not yet seen. In fact, they had never been seen and would not become a reality for another 100 years! Yet, Noah believed God; he trusted God.

2. Vision “being divinely warned of things not yet seen…”

Romans 10:17 (NKJV) So, then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

God spoke to Noah what He wanted done with great precision: build a boat in the middle of a desert to prepare for rain that had never come before. Noah believed what God said and built the ark to the exact dimensions God showed him.

There was no Bible in those days. God spoke to Noah in great detail about how the ark was to be built. He can speak to you, He wants to speak to you, about how to build your house to prepare for the things that are coming.

In 1966, the Lord began to speak to my dad about quitting farming and moving to Albuquerque, NM. Dad did not want to move. For several weeks he wrestled with God about it. One evening after church, he knelt weeping in the front yard of our farmhouse and surrendered to God. That started a chain of events that led to my salvation, my brother’s salvation, my vocation, and ultimately, this church. Not only that, God rescued my dad from the farm collapse of the 1960s and prospered him and mom tremendously! God will speak and He will lead. He already knows what He wants to do!

It also led to my marriage to a young lady from Cuba whose parents had heard God to immigrate to America and then settle in Albuquerque. Our union came about because two families heard God and built an ark!

3. Reverence “moved with godly fear…”

Hebrews 12:28 (NKJV) Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Noah lived his life for God. He knew how to serve God acceptably. God desires obedience not sacrifice. He didn’t have to sacrifice his family to live for God. In fact, his family was his ministry, his purpose. The ark was the means; his family was the goal.

We often think that to live for God our family has to take second place. The truth is that if we sacrifice our kids for God, we lose both. If we see that we please God by ministry to our family, the we can keep everything in perspective. Our family is the only thing we get to take to heaven with us.

4. Action “prepared an ark for the saving of his household…”

James 2:20 (NKJV) But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

Faith always expresses itself in obedient action. Noah worked on the ark for over 100 years! That’s obedience. Not only that, he was preaching the entire time, warning others of what was to come. He was ridiculed, laughed at, called crazy. He just kept on building. He believed that “what God has promised, He was able to or perform!”

What action is God calling for in your life? It will be bigger than you can do because it has to be by faith. If you could do it, it wouldn’t take faith.

Matthew 21:21–22 (NKJV) So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Oral Roberts… “Dream no small dreams here!”

WE

How can we men all apply these things in our lives?

1.     What does God want for your family? What do you want for your family? This is vision.

2.     Make the main thing in your life be the fulfillment of that vision.

3.     Work to provide the opportunity for the vision to come true.

How will this work out?

Noah built the ark. His family entered in and was saved. Not only that, the entire human race was saved. The Hebrew nation would come from his linage and from the Hebrew nation would come Jesus, the Messiah, who would give his life as a ransom for many. In fact, Peter writes that the ark is a type of the salvation from sin that Jesus provides.

God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and all his descendants. What was it? God promised Hw would never again destroy the earth by a flood. What is the sign of that covenant! The rainbow. When we see the rainbow, it is a reminder that God is in covenant with man. He made a promise and all of us benefit from that promise.

They also became an heir of righteousnes, right standing with God, that comes by faith. Noah passed along a legacy of faith, a demonstration of faith, not just for his family but for all who would come after him.

Deuteronomy 7:9 (NKJV) Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

Who knows what God can do through your family? It doesn’t have to be a huge act like building an ark. It can be a simple life lived by serving Jesus in everything we do. Your children see your life and they get saved. Their children see their lives and they get saved. And on it goes for a thousand generations. In heaven you will have a crown filled with the jewels of your children’s children who are with you for all eternity. Just think of that! Dream about that!

Peter and Silas were in prison in Philippi for preaching. God sent an earthquake to free them.  The jailer was going to kill himself but Peter intervened.

Acts 16:30–31 (NKJV) And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So, they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

My and Alba’s youth pastor began to serve God at an early age. His parents gave him to God for service. When he was traveling all over the country preaching and singing, his family never worried. I asked them why? They said, “We gave him to God years ago. God can take care of His property!” Countless full-time ministers grew out of his life. His family built an ark that literally touched the entire world.

God can do the same thing with you and your family. Let believe it!

PRAYER