Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

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I think I’ve shared before how I’m an extremely competitive person. I’m the kind of guy that takes games seriously. I’m not a sore winner or loser, but I will say you shouldn’t play me in a game and expect to win very often.

Well, awhile back I mentioned to a few people that I was the best Words with Friends player around, which is a game much like Scrabble if you’re not familiar with it. And almost immediately, I found myself being flooded with friends challenging me in the game. They wanted to put me to the test. They wanted to prove me wrong. They wanted to beat the best. And all of a sudden I was being bombarded with opening words like, ?shorten,? and ?bogeyed,? and then slammed with ?quids? for 116 points. How can I compete with that? I eventually had to eat my words, as I’ve been defeated many times in that game since then.

Do you ever feel like the whole world is against you? We have an uphill battle as Christians. What we believe and how we live is so different from those around us. And if how you live isn’t all that different, you really ought to ask yourself if you really believe what you say you believe. Our God is holy, and righteous, and perfect, and when God the Spirit comes into your life, God begins to mold you to be holy and different as well. And because God is molding us to be entirely different from the world, the world is going to challenge us. They’re watching! They’re waiting for us to stumble. They want to catch us when we slip up so they can dismiss our faith and dismiss our God. What can we do when we feel the whole world is against us?

We can go to God’s Word. Because we’re not the first people in this situation, and we can find encouragement from someone who really had the whole world against him.

Read Hebrews 11:7

Noah is a great example of a man who lived out his faith in God when the whole world thought he was crazy. Here you have a man who says he hears from God, and then takes 120 years to build this insanely large boat because it’s supposedly going to rain for 40 days which is going to flood the whole earth. I’ve got to be honest, if I heard someone saying something like that today, I’d think they were out of their mind!

There are a lot of people in mental institutions who say they hear from God. Of course many of them are there because they’ve done some very ungodly things. So some of you might be wondering, ?How do I know if that voice I hear is really God?? I’ll give you a really easy way to know. God’s never going to tell you do to something God wouldn’t tell you to do.

God’s never going to tell you to blow up an abortion clinic. God’s never going to tell you to steal in order to feed your family. God’s never going to tell you leave your spouse. How do I know these things? Because God’s very clear about what He would have us do and not do in His Word. People of faith hear from God, and God primarily speaks through His Word, so read it!

Notice it says Noah had faith, and then he heard from God. People often want it the other way around. They want God to speak so that they’ll believe in Him. You’ve heard of people asking God for a sign. Someone somewhere put up a sign which reads, ?Looking for a sign from God? This is it!? But God’s already given us much bigger signs. God Himself has spoken to us. He’s spoken throughout time. He’s spoken through Christ. And He still speaks through His Word, which bears witness to Christ. Do you want to hear from God? Believe in the God who still speaks today. And then hear from Him through His Word.

Because Noah had faith, he not only heard from God, but he acted on what he heard. God told Noah a flood was coming, so Noah built a boat. Noah didn’t debate with God. He obeyed. It says Noah obeyed ?in reverent fear.? Noah knew that God was capable of what He warned him of. God is powerful. God is the Judge. We all need to realize that God is a God to be feared. Not that we need to be shaking in our boots scared of God, because if you know Christ, then there is no condemnation for you. But if you don’t know Christ as Savior, you need to be woken up to the reality that God’s wrath will be poured out against your sin for all eternity unless you embrace Christ as Savior.

It says Noah obeyed God ?for the saving of his household.? Noah didn’t just obey God so he would be saved, he obeyed God so his wife would be saved. So his kids would be saved. Husbands and fathers have a great responsibility to lead their families to follow God. Husbands, pray for your wives. Fathers, pray for your children. Set an example of faith by living your faith out in front of them. Because like Noah, we aren’t merely to be hearers of God’s Word, we’re to be doers. When God gives you a warning, you better pay attention. Listen, God has warned all of us of the coming judgment. God has warned all of us what our sins deserve. But God has also provided a way of escape. You see, the whole story of Noah and the ark ultimately illustrates the gospel. Just as there was only one way to survive the great flood ? to board the ark ? there is only one way to eternal life, and it’s through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, ?I am the way and the truth and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through Me.? (John 14:6)

It takes faith to live out God’s Word. If you trust in Christ and live out this book, the world around you is going to think you’re nuts. But if you have faith in the God of this book, you’re going to love to obey His Word. It’s so important that we live lives of integrity. So much more important than winning silly games like Scrabble or Foosball. Someone once said, ?Don’t ask God to guide your steps if you’re not willing to move your feet.?

By having faith in God and obeying Him, Noah condemned the world. We have a message of good news that the world refuses to accept. We want them to trust in God, but they refuse to humble themselves. Are you willing offend people with the gospel? Are you willing to be hated for the sake of Christ? If God is for us, who can be against us? Don’t worry what people think, they don’t do it very often. I have a book on my shelf called, ?Everybody’s normal til you get to know them.? It’s true! The more I get to know people, the more I realize they’re a bunch of crazy people. If you’re going to be crazy anyway, don’t you want to be crazy for the one person worthy of all your heart? Worthy of all your life? Worthy of your weird behavior, and your weird beliefs, and the weird way you talk and encourage others and pray for others? Don’t waste your life being crazy just because you’re a weirdo. Be crazy for Jesus!

By having faith in God, Noah became an heir of righteousness. This means that Noah received righteousness as his inheritance from God. A lot of people have this backwards, too. They think they have to righteous in order to start coming to church, or to be accepted by God. But God is the one who makes us righteous! We receive righteousness as a gift, by faith in God. Maybe you’ve been working your whole life to be good enough for God. But God invites you this morning to come to Him, broken, with all your sins and all your all your baggage, and He will make you clean. Have the faith of Noah, and be crazy for Jesus.