24 April 2011 (Easter Sunday)
I. Introduction
-- turn in your Bibles to Genesis 6:9-22
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all around.[d] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
-- I know that today is Easter Sunday, but when I was praying about what I might bring to you this Sunday, I kept thinking of this picture of Noah and the Ark
-- this is a puzzle that Kim put together several years ago -- it took her quite a while because there is a lot of detail in the puzzle -- but once she got it done, we glued it together and then put it in this frame and it’s been hanging on the wall ever since
-- I really like this picture because it reminds me of God’s grace and the salvation that He has given us through Jesus
-- I don’t know if you’ve ever considered that or not
-- I imagine that everyone here grew up knowing the story of Noah and the Ark -- as you remember, Noah lived in a very wicked and corrupt society -- not that different from what our society is like today
-- in Genesis 6:5 we read about Noah’s day -- it says in this verse that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time -- man was rotten to the core and not getting any better
-- and when God looked down on all of the sin and wickedness and evil that was going on, He was grieved in His heart and decided to cleanse the world from all that wickedness
-- but there was one man who was different -- one man who lived differently from everyone else -- and that was Noah
-- look back at verse 9 with me
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
-- while the rest of the world was filled with wickedness and evil, Noah walked with God -- He was a righteous man and blameless in all that he did -- and so God decided that He would deliver Noah and his family from the judgment to come
-- so, God comes to Noah and tells Noah what He is planning to do -- skip down to verse 17
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
-- God told Noah that a great flood was coming to cleanse the world of sin and evil -- but that He was going to protect him and his family and the animals that God would send to him
-- He told Noah to build an ark -- a great boat -- and He gave very specific details on how the ark was to be built -- He told Noah exactly how long and how high and how wide it was to built -- He told him what type of wood to use and how the ark was to be coated with pitch, inside and out, to keep the water from getting in
-- God told Noah to make three levels in the ark -- with one door in the side and a roof to keep the rain out
-- and He told him to get started, because the flood was coming -- and so Noah started work
-- it took him about 100 years to build the ark -- and all that time, the people watched -- they watched as the animals came to Noah and as Noah loaded them on the ark -- and they watched as Noah finally entered the ark with his family and the door was shut
-- seven days later, the rain started to fall -- and kept falling for 40 days and 40 nights -- the waters rose until they covered the highest points on earth and everything and everyone who was not in the ark perished
-- but Noah and his family and the animals inside were saved
-- however, the flood didn’t solve the original problem -- even though God had sent the flood to cleanse the world of wickedness and sin, when Noah and his family came out of the ark, sin came out with them and entered the world once again
-- and this is the reason that I really like this puzzle that Kim did -- look at it again -- look real close at it -- do notice anything about this picture? -- there’s a piece missing -- it’s not complete -- but that’s such a perfect picture of what is going on in the story of sin and mankind
-- Noah’s salvation wasn’t complete -- it was missing a piece
-- the ark saved Noah and his family from the immediate danger of the flood, but it didn’t finish the job -- it couldn’t finish the job -- of saving Noah from his own sins and his own sin nature
-- you see, from the moment that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, sin entered the world and turned them and all of their descendants into sinners
-- we aren’t sinners because we sin -- we sin because we are sinners -- it’s who we are -- it’s part of our nature -- and because we are sinners, we sin -- we disobey God -- we do things and think things that are wrong and don’t do the good things that we should do
-- sin made a hole in our heart -- and because of sin, all of us have a piece missing in our lives
-- if you think about it, a lot of what we do is nothing more than trying to find that missing piece
-- that’s why some people spend all their time chasing material things and wealth and looks and power and prestige -- they’re doing everything they can to fill that hole in their heart -- to find that missing piece -- and they think that if they’re rich enough or they have enough stuff or if they’re attractive enough or powerful enough -- that they will be satisfied -- but they never are
-- I remember reading a story one time about Howard Hughes -- he tried it all in his life -- he was an aviator -- an engineer -- an industrialist -- he produced and directed films -- he was a philanthropist -- at one time, he was the richest man in the world -- but he never was satisfied
-- someone once asked him just how much he needed in order to be happy -- he said, “Just a little more -- just a little more”
-- that’s the problem with trying to fill that hole in our heart with things or with power or pleasure -- it just won’t work -- nothing will fit -- and we’ll always find ourselves needing just a little bit more to make us happy
-- other people try to find that missing piece through religion -- through doing good works or by going to church
-- if you think about it, religion is really nothing more than man’s attempt to make his own way to heaven -- but that won’t work, because there’s nothing that we can do in our own power that will fill that missing piece and save us from the judgment to come
-- the Bible says that all our good works are like filthy rags compared to God’s goodness -- and that we can do nothing of any lasting value apart from Him
-- I know what it feels like to run through life trying to find that missing piece because I’ve been there and I’ve done that -- when I was younger, I thought I had it all figured out -- I thought I knew how to make things right with God
-- I grew up in church -- we weren't real regular church goers, but I grew up going to Sunday School -- worship service -- I knew who God was and who Jesus was -- and when I was 12 years old I marched down the aisle to get baptized and join the church -- not because of any spiritual decision I had made -- not because I had accepted God's offer of a relationship with Him through Jesus -- but simply because it was time -- everyone in our church got baptized and joined the church when they were around 12 years old -- it's what you did -- it was expected of you
-- but, you know, nothing really changed in my life -- I stayed right there in my comfort zone at my church and nothing changed -- I still sat in the same pew -- I still sang the same songs -- the only thing that was different was that my name was now on the church roll
-- on the surface, I looked like a Christian -- it looked like I had it all together with God -- I was doing all the right things and saying all the right words -- part of the problem was that my faith had never really been tested -- I was getting by just going to church because at that time in my life, I had never really needed God -- I never had gone through any real crises -- anything that came up, I was able to handle on my own -- and if I couldn't do it, then my family and my friends stepped up
-- but then something happened -- when I graduated from ABAC, I transferred to the University of Florida and moved to Gainesville -- and for the first time in my life, I was put out of my comfort zone
-- I was alone in a big city --- in a big school -- working full-time and trying to go to a college I was unprepared for -- I had moved away from my family and my friends -- and for the first time in my life, I didn't have any real friends -- I felt alone -- I felt empty -- I felt kind of like something was missing -- like I had a big hole in my heart that needed to be filled
-- so, I tried to fill that hole with other things -- growing up, I didn't drink -- I never drank a drop until after I graduated from high school -- but when I got to Gainesville, I started drinking just to fit in with everyone else
-- I desperately wanted friends -- I needed company -- and so I started hanging out with guys after work, drinking in the parking lot and going to bars with them to chase women -- I started hitting all the frat parties and doing everything I could to fill that hole -- to stop feeling so alone and unloved -- but the drinking and the partying didn't work
-- so, I moved on to other things -- when I wasn't working, I was in the woods -- I spent all my time hunting and fishing -- even though I had moved down to Gainesville to go to school, I would skip school and go hunting -- I was majoring in wildlife biology -- in my mind, I thought I was just working on my degree -- made sense to me -- but when I got my grades that semester, I found out my professors didn't agree
-- you see, I thought if I was busy enough -- if I drank enough -- if I partied enough -- if I had enough hobbies -- that that empty feeling would go away -- but it didn't work -- nothing worked -- I might be happy for a while -- I might have fun for a while -- but in the middle of the night, after the party ended -- after I came home from a day of hunting and fishing -- I still felt empty -- I still felt alone -- I still felt like something was missing
-- I needed a change -- I needed to find my missing part -- so, I came home and went back to ABAC and got a degree in wildlife technology and took a job on Ossabaw Island off the coast of Savannah -- I thought it was just the place for me -- if I couldn’t find that missing piece, then I would go to a place where I could hide and just get away from the world and not worry about it anymore -- but God knew where I was and He knew what I needed, so He met me there
-- One day -- just right out of the blue -- a coworker there on that island asked me a question that changed my life -- he said, "Do you know God?" -- I told him "Yeah, I go to church" -- I was lying and he knew it -- I was living out there on that island that didn't have a church -- he knew better -- he knew I wasn't going to church -- but he didn't say anything about that
-- instead he said, "I didn't ask you if you went to church -- I asked you if you knew God -- Have you asked Jesus to forgive your sins? -- have you accepted God's offer of love? -- are you in a personal relationship with Him?"
-- I didn't know what to say -- No one had ever asked me that before -- not my family -- not my friends -- not even the people in the church I grew up in
-- I thought I was a Christian simply because I had gone to church my whole life -- I thought I was a Christian because I had marched down that aisle and got baptized and joined the church when I was 12 years old -- it didn't matter that I wasn't going to church right then -- my parents were still going -- and I had to gone to church in the past and my name was on the roll and that made me a Christian
-- and at that moment, I realized what had been missing in my life -- I knew why that hole was there -- I knew why I had been feeling so lost and so empty and so alone -- I knew why all of the partying and hunting and working and everything else didn’t work to fill that hole
-- it’s because I had been looking for the wrong thing -- and all of a sudden I knew what was missing in my life
-- Jesus was what was missing -- Jesus was the missing piece
-- if you would, please turn over to Ephesians 2 and let’s finish up there
-- look down at verse 1
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
-- dead in our transgressions and sins -- separated from God and bound up in wickedness and sin in our inner parts -- all of us -- every single one of us
-- that’s why it says in Romans 3:23 it says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- that’s who we were -- that’s how we lived
-- just like the people in Noah’s day before the flood came -- just going through life following our own desires and the cravings of our own sinful hearts -- knowing that something wasn’t right and chasing after whatever we thought might fill that missing piece in our heart
-- verse 4
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
-- just like God provided the ark to deliver Noah and his family from the flood, God’s grace sent Jesus to deliver us from our sins
-- the Bible tells us in John 3:16 that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall have everlasting life
-- God sent Jesus to earth to die on the cross in our place -- to pay the price for our sins -- and to fill that hole that sin had created in our hearts and in our spirits
-- and just like there was only one ark and only one door in that ark and you had to enter in through that door to be saved, there is only one Jesus -- only one Son of God -- and only one way to be forgiven of your sins
-- in John 14:6 Jesus said, “I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life -- No one comes to the Father apart from Me”
-- Jesus is THE way -- and everyone who enters in must come through Jesus -- His promise is that everyone who believes in Him will be delivered from their sin and receive eternal life -- but you have to come through Jesus because He is the missing piece in your life
-- verse 6
6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
-- after Jesus died on the cross in our place, He rose from the dead on the third day -- on Easter morning -- to prove His victory over sin and death
-- and when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we rise with Him to new life -- we are a new creation and receive a new heart with no missing pieces
-- you can sum it all up there with verses 8 and 9 -- it is by grace you have been saved -- through faith -- and this not of yourself
-- it is a gift of God -- it’s not something that we can earn -- it’s not something that we get because we go to church or because our parents are Christians or because we live in America -- it’s not something that we deserve -- it’s not something that we can obtain through our works or by doing good things
-- it is a gift -- freely given by the Father to us -- that’s why we call it grace
-- and once you believe -- once you repent your sins and trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection -- then that hole is filled -- the missing piece is put in place -- and your life begins anew
-- and that is what makes today so special -- that is why we have gathered together today -- we are here to celebrate the risen Savior -- the God who has conquered sin and death -- who has filled that hole in our hearts -- and given us new life with Him
-- so, as we close in prayer, let us join together in praise and in thankfulness that we have found the missing piece and that the salvation that began with Noah is finally complete
-- [give altar call]
-- let us pray
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