Hebrews 11:7

7 It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.

Faith is the common denominator, everyone expresses faith in something. We can’t go a single day without exercising faith in the physical world around us. The difference between the faith we exercise in our daily routine and our religious faith is the object of that faith. Yet here too everyone places their faith in something or someone. The humanist puts his faith in himself, the follower of religion, in his own good works. Your faith is only as good as the object in which you place your faith and the Bible insists that we personally put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 says, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Today we look at a very familiar story of faith, Noah and the ark. We don’t know a whole lot about Noah, what he did for a living, whether he was well off or poor. We do know that his name means rest, that he was the grandson of Methuselah. That it wasn’t until Noah was 500 years old that his sons Shem, Ham & Japheth were born. Most importantly the Bible tells us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and that he walked with God. What mattered to Noah was his relationship with God, he made the goal of his life to live to please the Lord, voyaging by faith means:

• Revealing the Redeemer

The story of Noah’s life involves not one, but two great and tragic floods. The world in Noah’s day, like ours, was flooded with evil. Nine generations and over 1,000 years of human history had passed since Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Paradise had become a sewer and the number of those who remembered the God of creation, perfection, and love had dwindled to one family. So God informs Noah that He is going to bring judgment and wipe mankind off of the face of the earth. God then informs Noah that He is going to preserve his family if Noah will build an ark. Why would God ask anyone to build an enormous ship miles from the ocean? Was it because God was giving anyone who would pass by this unmistakable structure a second chance, God’s response to the severe situation was over a hundred yearlong last chance.  God called Noah to use his life to build a graphic illustration of God’s message of salvation to the world. When Noah’s neighbors passed by his house, they had to make a choice. Either they believed that there was a God who was worthy of worship, or Noah was wacked. Day after day as Noah built he revealed the Redeemers plan and for over one hundred years they had an opportunity to respond. Nothing like a huge boat on dry land to make a point, it’s not like God didn’t reveal Himself.  God’s will for Noah was to reveal God to the word in which he lived by faith and he responded. Today we have reduced God’s will to our wants, and the walk of faith to feelings. Faith reveals the Father, everyday Noah’s neighbors saw him committed to God’s picture for the world not his own.

For Noah this was a long-term commitment and it is interesting that the length of Noah’s obedience was greater than the lifespan of people today. Many of us have trouble sticking to anything for more than a few weeks, yet for over a hundred years he worked at constructing the Ark. The only comparable long-term project is our very lives. God’s vision for us is a life of faith that reveals the love of the Lord. What if we caught God’s vision to reveal the Savior to the sinner? It’s God’s vision that enables us to live above mediocrity, to live, in gratitude of God’s grace. Noah is the second great father of the human race, he is the connecting link between the old and the new world. Like Noah we too can be the connector between the old life and the new.

• Choosing God’s Call

There was a clear call from God and Noah had the choice to respond or refuse. God’s call included His plans, God is specific in both the design and what materials to use. Using the most conservative estimate available for a cubit, approximately 18 inches, the ark would have been roughly 450 feet long, 75 wide and 45 high. Picture yourself building a boat the length of one and a half football fields, over four stories high with approximately 1.5 million cubic feet of space. Choosing God’s call means responds to conviction not the crowd. Today are you willing to take a stand, to live by conviction in a world craving what is comfortable? Or will you compromise your beliefs in order to conform to the crowd? Noah was a man who did what God wanted him to do, not what the world expected him to do. Just like in Noah’s day there is violence and evil all around us and the crowd is calling us to compromise. Noah had to rest in God’s plan of provision, His design, it was built for seaworthiness not speed, it wasn’t about getting somewhere it was about salvation. Following Gods plan means resting in His provision, there were no lifeboats, no “plan B”. If this ark didn’t work, then all was lost, Noah’s total faith and trust had to be in God’s one means of salvation. So it is with us. There is no plan B apart from Jesus, we have to place all of our trust in Him. Noah followed the Father and that determined the direction of His life. When we watch the weatherman, if we believe him, it changes the way we live our lives, at least for that day. It determines what we wear, whether we go and where. Our faith in the weatherman, who is statistically not a very good prophet, changes the way that we live our lives. Noah believed God, and that belief impacted his behavior, it changed both his attitude and his actions. Instead of a fearful attitude about what others thought Noah revealed God to them through his actions. Today we allow fear to stifle our activity but God can use you to do what you never thought possible if you are willing to do what He says. Are you willing to do that, are you willing to do things God’s way rather than your own? Are you willing to trust Him rather than yourself? Over and over God uses ordinary people, He called reluctant Moses to reveal His rescue. He called young David to slay the giant, the teenager Mary to reveal the Savior and Saul to speak of His salvation. God specializes in calling the ordinary to the extraordinary. He is calling you to a life of faith and the real question is, without God, how long can you tread water?

Genesis 12:10-20

10 At that time a severe famine struck the land of Canaan, forcing Abram to go down to Egypt, where he lived as a foreigner. 11 As he was approaching the border of Egypt, Abram said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, you are a very beautiful woman. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife. Let’s kill him; then we can have her!’ 13 So please tell them you are my sister. Then they will spare my life and treat me well because of their interest in you.” 14 And sure enough, when Abram arrived in Egypt, everyone noticed Sarai’s beauty. 15 When the palace officials saw her, they sang her praises to Pharaoh, their king, and Sarai was taken into his palace. 16 Then Pharaoh gave Abram many gifts because of her—sheep, goats, cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels. 17 But the Lord sent terrible plagues upon Pharaoh and his household because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. 18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and accused him sharply. “What have you done to me?” he demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ and allow me to take her as my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and get out of here!” 20 Pharaoh ordered some of his men to escort them, and he sent Abram out of the country, along with his wife and all his possessions.

Abraham focused on the Promises not the problems and secondly on the Provider not a plan and thirdly on

• Faith not Failure

The challenge is not just to start out in faith, but also to stride forward in faith; faith isn’t just the start of the journey it is the sustainer in the journey.  The Bible describes the next painful chapter in Abram’s life, one that resulted in failure, when he departed from the path of faith. Abraham started out wonderfully and then he wondered away, heading down to Egypt because of a famine. This famine tried Abram’s faith and as he started to focus on the food he lost focus of the Father. No Scripture shows him receiving any direction from God about this; he just pulled up stakes and moved. Whenever we stop living by faith, we start doing what we think is smart or what circumstances dictate. God had told Abram to sojourn in the land of Canaan that was God’s will for Abram. The test for Abram was not really about food, the test was could God care for him in that land even though a famine had arisen. Abram failed the test because he forsook God’s will for food, turning to Egypt for aid instead of the Almighty.  Abraham turned to the world believing that it could support and sustain him. Like Abraham we too can start off well but then end up out of God’s will because as we choose to react to our circumstances instead of Christ. Today our famine may come in the form of an economic pinch and the question that will arise will be “will our faith fail in the famine or will we lean on the Lord?” Sometimes we walk away from faith because we don’t really trust God, other times it’s because our pride causes us to trust in self. Either way we get into trouble quickly and soon find ourselves in a weakened position. When we forsake God’s will we also end up forsaking our time of devotion and fellowship with Him. You never see Abram at the altar in Egypt, it’s only after he comes back to Canaan that we see him return to the altar. One act of disobedience can kill our devotional life, because disobedience brings guilt which causes us to fear God and run from Him rather than to seek Him. When we forsake the will of the Father we forfeit the assurance of the Father. Up until this point in his life, Abraham was not afraid of the inhabitants of the land, he was trusting in God’s promises. Now, when he wasn’t where God wanted him, he didn’t have that assurance. Fear always replaces assurance, the fear that God doesn’t love us any more, the fear of getting caught, or fear of the future. When we forsake the will of God we also end up adopting and walking in the world’s ways, Abram ended up trying to lie his way out of the situation. When we walk away from God’s plan it also effects other people, as they neared the Egyptian border, Abram took one look at his beautiful wife and said, “Sarai, I see some problems down the road. Pharaoh and his men will desire you, and they’re going to kill me in order to have you, so we’d better lie and say you’re my sister instead of my wife.” That little scheme only half-worked, the world’s ways always create bigger problems than they solve. Abram avoided losing his life, but poor Sarai was led away to join the royal harem. What an outrageous and low-life thing to do to your own wife, he saved his own neck, but risked Sarai’s virtue and future. Sarah was not the only one hurt by her husband’s actions, Lot watched his uncle and learned some bad habits. Not just those around us but generationally, his son Isaac later committed the same sin of deceiving, as did his son Jacob. Believers who adopt the world’s ways will hurt those around them.

What a remarkable lesson that in the life of faith, we can wander from the promises and plans of God, we can fail miserably but we don’t have to stay there. Abraham got back up and back on track, which required coming back to the place where he left God. How do you do that? Acknowledge that you should never have walked away and this calls for humility and honesty. Admitting you left “Canaan” is called confession, God, you are right and I am wrong, and that is the first step. He also had to act upon his confession and that’s called repentance, turning away from the world and back to the Father. When Abraham came back to the place where he had built the alter, he worshipped God. We need to come back and call upon God, to reconnect and rebuilt the prayer altar of our lives. Before fire fell at Mt. Carmel and revival took place the altar had to be rebuilt. The greatness of Abram was not in his perfect walk but His pursuing walk. Too often we worry about me instead of walking with the Master. We worry about who is forgetting us, who is not giving us credit, who is reaping benefits at our expense, we become anxious about things that are better left in God’s hands. Worry always nips at the heels of faith and tries to drag us down. Faith deals with the invisible things of God. It refuses to be ruled by the physical senses. As Abram came back, God met with him, ready to forgive and restore the relationship. Just as the prodigal’s father waited and longed for his sons return so God waits and longs for you. If you have “gone down to Egypt” why not start afresh today, repent and return, follow in the footsteps of the father of faith. God has promised to receive everyone who comes to him through Jesus Christ our Lord. Don’t hesitate because of how far away you have strayed or what you did while you were there. Don’t be afraid when you don’t know exactly how God will lead and supply, instead, hold onto his hand of hope. So what’s your next step, will it reveal the footprint of faith?