Dios No Está Enojado Contigo | Viendo La Bondad De Dios En El Diluvio De Noé

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My name is Kyle, if we've never met before.

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I'm the Lead Pastor here at Crossroads.

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This is the last week of our Epic Wonders series.

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Been looking at the biggest, most epic stories in the Bible.

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Today we're wrapping up with what I think

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is the most epic of them all, the story of Noah's Ark.

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Now, you could be like your first time in church today,

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and you're like, "I've heard of Noah's Ark.

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That's in Kentucky, right?"

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That's kind of --

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If you're not familiar with the story, this will catch you up.

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- Hey, guys. Welcome back to the channel,

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except, uh, this might be my last season.

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God, literally just slid into my DMs.

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The message? Grab your floaties.

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Neighbors keep walking by like, "Yo, Noah,

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you're building a cruise ship in the desert?"

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"Yes, Chad, yes, I am,

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and you're not on the passenger list."

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So here I am, warning everyone about this flood.

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And what do I get? Memes.

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They made the whole #Noah's Delulu trend. Cute.

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Don't tell the man upstairs, but I got no clue

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what most of these things are.

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How tall is this thing? Six, seven? Whatever.

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Hope they like boats.

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All right, fam, it's happening.

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Neighbors are outside, still cracking jokes.

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"Nice boat bro."

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"Yeah. Enjoy swimming lessons."

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Update. We made it!

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Look at that. A rainbow all the way across the sky.

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I'm gonna celebrate, find some wine, maybe a nice rosé.

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Don't forget to smash that like button

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and shout out to God for the collab.

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- Ha! Ha! Oh, that's so good.

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Our team made that, by the way.

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I think it'll be on Instagram later if you want that.

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Look at it. Pretty cool.

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That's the basic beats of the story.

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We just got a couple creative liberties there,

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in case you're curious, not exactly strict to the text,

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but the big idea is there.

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There's this guy, Noah, and then there's everybody else.

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Everybody else makes God mad.

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And so God, we think in this story,

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just gets super angry and decides to wipe everybody out,

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save Noah, plus a couple of each animal, start all over.

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Noah gets out of the ark at the end,

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there's a big rainbow. That's the story.

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What's the lesson?

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Well, I think it's pretty obvious.

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It took Noah up to 100 years to build that boat,

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and he only got to sail it for like a year.

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It drained all of his resources.

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And so I think the lesson is do not,

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under any circumstances, own a boat. Bad idea.

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Find a friend who owns a boat.

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That's a much better plan. I think that's --

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No, that's not exactly the story.

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But if you do need an ark, I know a guy. So.

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Dads, you can put that in your pocket.

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It'll make your kids have that same reaction later.

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It'll be awesome. They will super not like it.

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I'd recommend telling it.

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Simple story. We think. Right?

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Misbehaving humans make God mad.

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God punishes them. Lesson: don't make God mad.

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And while there are flood narratives that fit that mold,

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in fact, I'll tell you about one of them later on,

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that is not at all the story of Noah in the ark.

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See, Noah's Ark is one of the most known

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and most misunderstood stories in the entire world.

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One that we mostly get wrong.

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When my first nephew was born, my sister got a lamp

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and put it next to his crib.

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And the lamp was a Noah's Ark themed lamp.

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It had an ark on it, and then all these animals around it

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and put it right next to his crib.

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And the first time I went over, I looked at the lamp

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and I was like, "Do you know what the story is about?

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I mean, yeah, there's some cute animals,

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but it's about genocide.

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That's really that's what you want

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to put next to your kid's bed? Okay.

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I don't understand, because just so we're clear,

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this is a story in which it appears

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that a supposedly good, loving Father

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decides to brutally murder most of His kids

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when they mess up.

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In fact, I'll say, if this story

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hasn't bothered you before, it should.

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It raises this really valid and important question,

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which is it's so violent,

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how on earth could a good, loving Father

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possibly allow it?

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Now, this story does appear that way,

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but what I hope to convince you of today,

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I would hope to help you see, is that

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I actually believe this is a story that gives us

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one of the most profound, and personal,

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and powerful pictures of the gospel you can ever see.

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And my hope and my prayer is that some of us

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in here today have never said yes to Jesus before

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because we've had this question of

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Is God really the good, loving Father I can trust?

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Is He good for me?

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And my hope and my prayer is that some of us,

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for the first time today, are going to see

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the picture and say, yes.

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Let's pray before we go any further.

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God, thank You so much for the epic stories

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that aren't just fairy tales,

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that aren't just fables, but are real

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and show who You really are.

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I'm asking today, for all of us, God,

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we would get a clearer picture of who You are and say yes.

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Amen.

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My son goes to a small Christian school

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and he had a school project last week.

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It was to make a newspaper, group project,

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newspaper about Genesis.

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And the two instructions were have fun and be creative,

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something my son loves.

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He's very good at both those things.

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And so he drew a picture of the ark on the water,

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and then a little surfer on a wave next to the ark.

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And one of the kids in his group got really mad at him.

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He was like, "That's not what happened.

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There was no surfers. Everyone died."

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And so that kid is probably not a good hang.

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But he was right. That's what the story is.

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It starts with brutal divine judgment,

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not something that's super popular right now.

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Stock price very down.

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We see this antiquated backwards.

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It's just offends us.

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But it's the beginning of the story

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and so we have to deal with it.

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Genesis 6:5:

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The Lord saw that the wickedness of man

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was great in the earth, and that every intention

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of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth,

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and it grieved Him to His heart.

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So the Lord said, "I will blot out man

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whom I have created from the face of the land,

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man and animals and creeping things

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and birds of the heavens,

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for I'm sorry that I've made them."

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But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

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Skip ahead a little bit.

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God said to Noah, "I've determined

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to make an end of all flesh,

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for the earth is filled with violence through them.

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Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

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Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

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Make rooms in the ark,

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and cover it inside and out with pitch.

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This is how you are to make it:

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The length of the ark 300 cubits,

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its breadth 50 cubits, its height 30 cubits.

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And if every living thing of all flesh,

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you shall bring two of every sort into the ark

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to keep them alive with you.

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They shall be male and female.

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Now we don't know exactly how long

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it took Noah to build the ark.

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Somewhere between a few decades

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and up over a hundred years.

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What we do know is the ark was very large.

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For those of you who don't use cubits

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to measure on a daily basis like I do,

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the ark was big. How big?

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Well, if you were to put it next to a football field,

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you would see it's about a football field

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and a half large, long.

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And that 30 cubits by 50 cubits,

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that's about the same length and height

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as a typical suburban house.

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So it's very, very, very large.

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You got that part of the story right.

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But I made the claim earlier that it's one of

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the most misunderstood stories in the world.

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And I'll prove it to you.

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How many animals of each kind

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did Noah invite into the ark? Two.

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No, that's actually -- That's actually not true.

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Two of some kinds of animals. Yes.

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But a deeper read into the story,

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going just a few verses later, says, actually,

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he had more of some kinds.

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Genesis 7:2:

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God says, take with you seven pairs of all clean animals,

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the male and his mate,

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and a pair of animals that are not clean,

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the male and his mate,

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and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens,

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also male and female, to keep their offspring alive

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on the face of the earth.

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And so from the very get go, "We go,

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there was two of every kind of animals.

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Pretty sure about that."

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No, actually not not at all.

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Seven pairs, 14 of every clean animal

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and 14, seven pairs, of every kind of bird.

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And so if you've ever wondered

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what is God's favorite animal, it's birds.

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Clearly it's birds.

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All the dog people are like, "It's not dogs?

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Really, it's not dogs?

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All the cat people are like, "I get it.

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I know why it's not cats, I get it.

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I know, I know."

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I'm a dog person myself.

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My daughter took this picture

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of our two dogs the other day.

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I thought it was hilarious.

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That's that's Annie and that's Rooster.

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And it looks like they're taking a selfie, doesn't it?

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And that made me think, like,

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were there auditions for the ark? You know?

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Did animals send in headshots?

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Because if you're Noah, you don't want

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just like any two old elephants.

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You want, like, the two best elephants in the world.

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And so maybe they were tryouts, I don't know.

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And then it made me think about, like,

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what if you were the third placed elephant?

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Sad, I know. I mean, imagine Noah, he has to break the news.

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He puts his arm around the elephant.

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He's like, "Pickles, my man. Uh, good news.

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I mean, you are officially

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the third best elephant in the world.

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That's amazing. You should be so proud of that.

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Now, unfortunately, we only have room for two.

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And so you're going to drown like everybody else.

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And I would say better luck next time,

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but you know there's no next time.

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So get yourself a Noah's Ark T-shirt on the way out.

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I don't know, it's kind of --"

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Pickles the third elephant.

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Now, there are two elephants in the room

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that we do need to address before we can dive into

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what this story says about the character of God.

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There are two of them.

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And the first one is this:

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Really? I'm supposed to believe that

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every animal in the whole world got onto one boat?

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As a rational, logical, my wife says

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most of the time my brain works even,

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I'm supposed to believe that two lemurs

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swam across the ocean from Madagascar to Africa,

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walked all the way up?

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I'm supposed to believe that two chameleons

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from the middle of the Amazon rainforest

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just like, slowly walk to the sea.

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And then got a cruise ticket to the -- I don't --

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Like really? And I'll say a couple things about that.

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One, as somebody who believes, me myself,

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somebody who believes in a God who created the universe,

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an all powerful God who can do whatever He wants,

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of course, I have to believe that that could happen.

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Of course He can do anything by nature

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and definition of being God.

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How can He fit all the animals into the ark?

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He can make it like Mary Poppins' purse.

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It's just a bottomless you can pull lampstands out.

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You know, I don't --

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He could totally, absolutely do that.

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But I'll also say, as a science minded person,

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one of the things I most appreciated

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when I first started coming around Crossroads

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was not just the request, but the plea from stage

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that I heard to not check my brain at the door.

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They said, "God gave you a rational mind.

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God gave you logic. Scripture says actually use science.

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Examine reality, look at

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the physical elements of the earth.

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The Bible says you can learn

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God's invisible character that way."

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And so the plea I would have for you is

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you can also not check your brain at the door

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if that bothers you,

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if that's not what you want to conclude.

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And I think there's room to conclude that

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this was actually maybe a localized flood

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that covered every animal in Noah's whole world.

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Now, the reason I would say that,

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a couple pieces of evidence.

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First is the geological record.

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There is no worldwide geological record of a flood

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that covered the face of the earth,

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all at exactly the same time.

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However, if you look at the ancient Near East

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where this story takes place, and you look at

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the two rivers that flow through it,

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the Tigris and Euphrates, what you will find

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and what has been found are large deposits

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of clean clay up to eight feet thick.

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Clean clay is what's left after a flood.

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And it's been found in three cities around here so far.

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And so the conclusion from believers

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and nonbelieving geologists alike is that

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this area was once covered in

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a massive, catastrophic flood.

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The whole place filled with water.

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And if you look at the curvature of the earth

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and you're Noah and you're in the middle of the flood,

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what you would have seen, absolutely, is only water

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as far as your eye could get to the horizon.

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This is in the record, by the way, at 2900 BC,

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about the time that this story takes place.

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Now, second reason, we got to talk about

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the word that's translated Earth

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in our English translation of the story.

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It's used about 45 different times

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in the story of Noah, the word earth.

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It's actually the Hebrew word erets,

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which appears in the Bible 2504 times.

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71% of the time it doesn't mean the whole Earth.

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It means a piece of ground, a piece of land.

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So it's quite possible it means the same thing in this context.

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Another thing to think through.

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We tend to backwards apply our understanding

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of the universe on the people of ancient times

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that they didn't have.

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When I say to you, imagine the earth,

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you picture the blue marble, right?

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The ball in the sky, the sphere.

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And if I said imagine it's covered in water,

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you would immediately in your mind,

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you'd surround it in water.

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On the other side of the globe, China gets covered,

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Africa gets covered, everything covered in water.

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If you said the whole world, you would mean all of that.

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But for the people who lived at the time

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this story was written, they did not have

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any concept of a planet. None at all.

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There was no concept of the other side of the world.

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So when they talked about the whole world,

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what they meant is the whole world

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that I can see and that I know about.

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That's all that they meant.

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I just share that again, to say,

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if that's an elephant in the room

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that stops you from listening to the character of God,

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let me just Gently take that elephant

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out of the room for you.

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There is room to be a faithful person

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and still believe this.

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Many of the leading theologians, including,

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by the way, C.S. Lewis, have you ever heard of him?

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Took this view, so plenty of room there for you.

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The second elephant we got to address,

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the second elephant is the one

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that's creeping up more and more

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on YouTube and TikTok.

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And it's this idea that the Bible is unreliable

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because stories are borrowed from other places.

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And one of the key ones,

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probably the key story that people

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make this claim about is the story of Noah.

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They say it's actually stolen from earlier

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ancient Near Eastern myths about a flood.

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And to be clear,

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there are other flood narratives in this area.

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There's actually two that predate the writing of Noah,

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and they form into one

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that's called the Epic of Gilgamesh.

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This is the one that you hear about most.

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Give you the beats of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

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Don't recommend it. Not light reading, not super fun.

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But the story goes like this.

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There are many gods, polytheistic culture.

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The gods are capricious. They are unpredictable.

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They're always backstabbing each other.

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They're just they're self-interested.

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And one day, humanity makes too much noise

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and it interrupts the gods' naps.

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And so the gods decide they're going to kill everybody.

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And then one god, just to play a trick on the other gods,

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Ea, finds this man Utnapishtim.

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And he goes to Utnapishtim and he says,

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"God's going to, all the gods

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are going to kill everybody

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so build a boat, throw some animals in it

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and you'll survive."

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The story says that Utnapishtim

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had seven days to build his boat.

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It rained for six days,

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and at the end of the six days,

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the gods regret having wiped out people. Why?

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Because people made sacrifices

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and sacrifices were their food,

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and so they were literally hangry.

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That's the story.

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And it does share three surface level details

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along with Noah's Ark.

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There's a God, there is a man, there is a boat.

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Yes. These things, these are all the same things.

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But the important parts of the story,

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the parts that matter about it,

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have all completely different pieces.

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Reason for the flood, the character of God,

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the character of the hero, the time to build,

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the design of the vessel, God's response,

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the relationship between God and man afterwards.

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All of that, that all matters the most

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is all completely and utterly different.

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Saying that the Epic of Gilgamesh

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or any other flood narrative and Noah match

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is like saying Titanic and Pirates of the Caribbean

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are the same movie because, you know,

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they both have water and boats and surprises.

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No, those don't turn out to be the most important details.

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In fact, if you go across the the Earth,

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you'll find many cultures that have flood narratives.

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All around the globe, by the way.

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There are over 200 flood narratives

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found in Native American cultures and religions alone.

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The Mayans had one, the Incans had had one.

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And that could be, you could say, "Well, maybe

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that's evidence that there really was a worldwide flood."

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Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

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It could also be because, do you know

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what happens everywhere around the world

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and was utterly devastating and a huge surprise,

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and therefore a big cultural moment

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and marker for every culture around the world.

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Floods. It flooded a lot.

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Still does once a generation,

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once in 100 year flood, those things happen.

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People had no idea where they came from.

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And so guess how you would survive. In a boat.

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Hence lots of flood stories

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and about people who survive in boats.

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Now those elephants we needed to address.

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However, they are not the real elephant

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that we need to deal with. They're not.

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The real problem is actually Pickles.

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The real problem is the third elephant.

00:18:10

The real problem is the bronze medal elephant

00:18:14

who dies because the story says

00:18:17

that almost all life is wiped out.

00:18:21

Not just animals, but people too.

00:18:24

See, the third elephant raises the question.

00:18:27

It's so violent, how, how, how, how

00:18:31

could a good, loving Father allow it?

00:18:35

It took Noah a long time to build the ark.

00:18:37

He's working on it for a long time.

00:18:38

But one day the storm comes in.

00:18:42

One day the clouds cover the sky.

00:18:46

It turns dark and it starts to rain

00:18:49

and it starts to storm.

00:18:51

And it goes on for 40 days.

00:18:54

The entire area is covered in water.

00:18:58

Every living thing not on the ark dies.

00:19:03

Genesis 7:21 says:

00:19:05

And all flesh died that moved on the earth,

00:19:07

birds, livestock, beasts,

00:19:10

all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth,

00:19:14

and all mankind.

00:19:18

This is the elephant we've got to talk about.

00:19:21

This is the reason that many of us are distant from God,

00:19:24

because we see God as this punishing,

00:19:27

untrustworthy figure who's going to be unpredictable

00:19:30

and who, when we mess up, is going to come after us

00:19:32

and give us exactly what we deserve.

00:19:36

Now to start to understand God's motive in this moment

00:19:38

I think we have to ask what's going on in His heart?

00:19:42

What's driving Him? What's the emotion that God feels?

00:19:44

Is it anger?

00:19:46

And if you dive into the story,

00:19:48

you'll find this, Genesis 6:5:

00:19:50

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man

00:19:52

was great in the earth,

00:19:54

and that every intention of the thoughts

00:19:56

of his heart was only evil continually.

00:20:00

And what's His response to that?

00:20:02

And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth,

00:20:05

and it grieved Him to His heart.

00:20:10

See, the picture in the story

00:20:12

is not the picture like you get in Gilgamesh

00:20:15

or any of the other narratives

00:20:17

where the gods are angry over what humanity has taken.

00:20:21

This is a story where God is grieved

00:20:23

over what humanity has given away,

00:20:26

the chance at life, the chance at peace,

00:20:29

the chance of prosperity.

00:20:31

Humanity's abandoned all of it.

00:20:32

That verse says that it was only evil

00:20:34

all the time, continually.

00:20:38

And God says, "It makes Me so sad.

00:20:40

It grieves Me to my heart."

00:20:43

If you want the picture, I think,

00:20:44

of what God looked like in this moment,

00:20:48

you can find it in Jesus.

00:20:50

Jesus said in John 14:9:

00:20:52

Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.

00:20:56

And so, in any instance in your life,

00:20:58

whatever you're struggling with to connect

00:20:59

with God as a Father, great pro tip,

00:21:01

go to the Gospels, read about Jesus.

00:21:04

Because when you see Him, you see what He's like,

00:21:06

how He loves, that's how God loves.

00:21:08

When you see how He gives grace,

00:21:10

that's how God gives grace.

00:21:11

We see how He heals. That's how God heals.

00:21:14

So we can look at Jesus to this to understand the Father.

00:21:17

And there's this one scene that I think

00:21:19

really ties in to this scene.

00:21:21

It's almost a one for one with what's happening with Jesus.

00:21:25

And it happens on Palm Sunday.

00:21:27

Maybe you've heard of Palm Sunday.

00:21:28

It's five days before Jesus goes to the Cross.

00:21:31

He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

00:21:34

And people have palm branches

00:21:36

and they lay them down before Him,

00:21:38

a sign that He is a king.

00:21:40

They praise Him. They worship Him.

00:21:42

And we'll talk about that a lot.

00:21:44

But rarely do we talk about

00:21:45

what Jesus actually said when He was on that donkey

00:21:49

riding over those palm branches.

00:21:51

These are the words of Jesus in that moment, Luke 19:

00:21:56

And when He drew near and saw the city,

00:21:59

he wept over it, saying, "Would that you,

00:22:03

even you, had known on this day

00:22:05

the things that make for peace!

00:22:07

But now they're hidden from your eyes.

00:22:10

For the days will come upon you,

00:22:13

when your enemies will set up a barricade around you

00:22:16

and surround you and hem you in on every side

00:22:19

and tear you down to the ground,

00:22:22

you and your children within you."

00:22:26

Don't miss this, Jesus is weeping,

00:22:28

weeping as He pronounces a judgment of destruction

00:22:33

coming on the city that He loves.

00:22:36

He's weeping. The word in Greek in that moment,

00:22:38

it literally means wail aloud.

00:22:40

It's not the silent.

00:22:41

There's a different word that means silent mourning.

00:22:44

It's not that. It is weeping aloud.

00:22:46

As he's on the donkey, if your picture is

00:22:48

this guy smiling, riding into Jerusalem.

00:22:50

No, He's crying.

00:22:52

He's crying because the people have chosen destruction.

00:22:56

See, the reason that judgment was coming,

00:22:58

the reason that destruction was coming

00:23:00

was for the same reason this water rose up

00:23:02

in the story of Noah.

00:23:03

It's because God gives us the fruit of our choices.

00:23:08

I'll say it again.

00:23:10

God gives us the fruit of our choices.

00:23:15

One of my favorite songs right now

00:23:16

is called Lemonade by Forrest Frank.

00:23:18

Anybody know that song? Right? Pretty good song.

00:23:21

Life gives us lemons, but my Jesus,

00:23:23

He be making lemonade. Lemonade.

00:23:26

Right? That song. Anybody?

00:23:28

I think I did that pretty much as good as Forrest.

00:23:30

Pretty good.

00:23:31

Now, that's built on the saying that we have,

00:23:34

which is life gives us --

00:23:36

When life gives us lemons, make lemonade. Right.

00:23:42

One problem with that statement, one small little problem.

00:23:46

Do you know that life doesn't give us lemons?

00:23:51

We made them, literally.

00:23:54

The lemon is a human made hybrid

00:23:56

of a bitter orange and a citron fruit.

00:23:58

You can look it up.

00:23:59

Some of you right now, you're so distracted.

00:24:01

You're already on Google.

00:24:02

You've got chat out and you're like,

00:24:04

"Is that? No, really?"

00:24:06

You can look it up later. Promise.

00:24:08

Lemons are human made.

00:24:10

Life did not give us the sour.

00:24:14

We make it.

00:24:15

Life doesn't give us the problems.

00:24:18

We're not innocent bystanders.

00:24:20

We create the problems.

00:24:22

And I think we have this picture of God

00:24:23

that's off of how he views our lives.

00:24:25

We like to talk about our problem

00:24:27

as if we've been separated from God. You know?

00:24:29

Like we're the lost child in the grocery store,

00:24:31

and we just need somebody to grab us

00:24:33

by the hand and walk us back to dad.

00:24:36

No, that's not the problem.

00:24:38

We act as if the problem is

00:24:39

we're just kind of off the right path.

00:24:41

We just need a little bit of guidance to get back on.

00:24:43

No, not the problem.

00:24:45

We're not stumbling around in the dark

00:24:47

and just need a little bit of light to find our way.

00:24:49

No, we were dead. Dead.

00:24:52

Ephesians 2:1 says:

00:24:54

You were dead in trespasses and sins.

00:24:58

You were in another word, as you wanted to be.

00:25:02

And you got to get this picture, this is --

00:25:05

The gospel will never make sense

00:25:07

if this doesn't make sense to you.

00:25:09

God gives you what you want.

00:25:11

He respects your choices. Why does he do that?

00:25:14

Well, it's His judgment.

00:25:16

His judgment is to respect your choice.

00:25:17

He does that because He wants a real relationship with you.

00:25:21

He doesn't want to force relationship.

00:25:22

He doesn't want to have to strong arm you

00:25:24

and twist you and make you do what I want.

00:25:27

He gives you a choice because He wants love to be able to exist,

00:25:30

and love can't exist if it's forced.

00:25:33

That's not a loving father relationship with a child.

00:25:36

That's a slave master relationship. No good.

00:25:39

And God says, "I don't want that.

00:25:40

I will not force you. I will give you a choice."

00:25:43

But please hear me clearly, there's only two choices.

00:25:46

There's God, from whom all life comes,

00:25:49

in whom only life is found,

00:25:51

or the other choice is death and destruction.

00:25:54

There is no third choice.

00:25:56

I think what we want is for there to be a third choice,

00:25:58

a convenient one that doesn't require me to follow God,

00:26:01

doesn't require me to believe in Him,

00:26:03

doesn't require me to shape my life to Him.

00:26:05

But it still doesn't end in this death destruction thing.

00:26:08

Just kind of a nice, quiet life. Doesn't exist.

00:26:11

You either choose God in His life

00:26:12

or the other option, only other option is death.

00:26:16

And God says, "I will not force you

00:26:19

into relationship with me." That's His judgment.

00:26:21

And by the way, God has never, ever judged wrongly, ever.

00:26:28

When we think about divine judgment,

00:26:29

we have a problem with it because

00:26:31

we apply our human limitations to God.

00:26:35

I'll raise my hand and I'll say,

00:26:37

you know what happens to me all the time?

00:26:39

I get wrongly judged all the time, all the time.

00:26:45

Also raise my hand and say, do you know

00:26:47

what I do all the time?

00:26:49

I wrongly judge all the time.

00:26:53

And so what happens to us is we go to God

00:26:55

and we feel like God's doing the same thing,

00:26:57

that He's making these wrong judgments.

00:26:59

No, He's rightly judging every single time.

00:27:03

And His right judgment is that

00:27:05

He will not force you to follow Him.

00:27:08

He will not force His plans on your life.

00:27:10

You must choose them.

00:27:11

If you're waiting around for God to, like,

00:27:13

steer your life in a great direction

00:27:14

and you're just kind of sitting around like,

00:27:16

"I don't know, maybe He's just kind of,

00:27:18

I don't know why things aren't going so great."

00:27:19

He's never going to force Himself on you.

00:27:21

You have to stand up and say yes to Him.

00:27:23

That's the only way that it has ever worked.

00:27:28

If you go back into the story of Noah,

00:27:30

this idea of not forcing shows up right at the beginning.

00:27:33

Genesis 6:3:

00:27:36

Then the Lord said, "My Spirit

00:27:39

will not contend with humans forever."

00:27:42

The word contend means force.

00:27:46

God says, I will not force humans

00:27:49

into a life they do not want forever.

00:27:51

I will allow them to have the fruit of their own choices.

00:27:56

And so when the waters rise

00:27:58

and all of the death

00:28:00

and all of the destruction plays out,

00:28:02

all of the horrible things, God isn't angry.

00:28:05

God's not fist pumping, "Yes, This is what I wanted."

00:28:09

God is grieved. Going, "This is not what I would have chosen"

00:28:14

But He honors our choice.

00:28:16

He's a heartbroken Father, weeping

00:28:19

for the choices his kids have made

00:28:21

to reject His plans for life and instead choose death.

00:28:24

It's what we always do, even, by the way,

00:28:27

after the rain stops, after the flood ends.

00:28:32

Because it does. It rains for 40 days.

00:28:35

Earth fills with water.

00:28:37

But slowly the water recedes.

00:28:40

If you add up the timelines in the Bible,

00:28:42

Noah and his family and the animals,

00:28:44

they're in the ark for about a year.

00:28:46

Finally the water goes down

00:28:48

and the ark comes to rest on a mountain,

00:28:50

and Noah and his family get out.

00:28:53

Now, what do you think the first thing

00:28:55

Noah does when he gets out of the ark?

00:28:57

So what's the first move that he makes?

00:28:59

Well, it turns out it's to act

00:29:00

exactly the way that we accuse God of acting.

00:29:04

He acts exactly as the angry father

00:29:07

who just harshly penalizes his kids.

00:29:11

The Bible says that Noah gets out of the ark

00:29:13

and he really needs a beer, like super needs a beer.

00:29:15

You've been there. I've been there. Needs a drink.

00:29:17

Apparently he forgot to pack the vino.

00:29:19

And so he gets out, all the bars are gone.

00:29:21

They've been wiped out,

00:29:22

so he's got to do it the old school way.

00:29:24

He plants some vines, they grow.

00:29:27

He waits for the grapes to grow, to mature.

00:29:29

Then he makes wine out of the grapes.

00:29:31

And as soon as he's got the wine,

00:29:32

he drinks all of the wine

00:29:36

and he passes out in his tent.

00:29:37

Gets super drunk, takes his pants off,

00:29:39

passes out in his tent.

00:29:41

Okay, who am I to judge, right? Who does that?

00:29:44

And then his son Ham,

00:29:46

which some of us are parents to be.

00:29:48

If you're looking for names for your kids,

00:29:49

Ham and Utnapishtim are two options you've heard today.

00:29:52

Just put those on your bingo card.

00:29:55

Ham opens the curtain

00:29:57

and he sees dad face down, buck naked,

00:29:59

and he's like, "Ha ha ha!"

00:30:00

And he calls his two brothers over.

00:30:02

He's like, "Look at that. Isn't this hilarious?"

00:30:04

Noah wakes up and he's really mad.

00:30:06

I mean, he's hungover mad. Like real mad.

00:30:09

Tongue tastes like cardboard mad.

00:30:11

And he does this thing where he curses Ham,

00:30:15

literally curses him,

00:30:16

and every generation that comes after him.

00:30:18

In fact, Ham, all of his descendants

00:30:20

become the enemies of the nation of Israel.

00:30:23

It's from Ham that we get the Egyptians

00:30:24

and the Philistines and the Canaanites,

00:30:26

all from this guy, because his father lashes out in anger

00:30:30

when his kid does something he doesn't like.

00:30:32

Noah does exactly what we accuse God of doing.

00:30:36

Why would Noah do that?

00:30:38

Because three things boarded the boat:

00:30:42

Noah and his family, the animals, and sin.

00:30:47

See, even when you strip us back

00:30:50

to our ultimate best person in all of humanity,

00:30:53

the one guy we're like, "I don't know,

00:30:55

if anybody's got it, this guy's got it."

00:30:58

The first thing he does is still on his own

00:31:01

choose death and choose destruction,

00:31:04

which makes the first thing that God does

00:31:07

after they get out of the ark

00:31:08

even more powerful and profound.

00:31:11

The first thing that God does, He puts a bow across the sky.

00:31:16

Genesis 9:12

00:31:18

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant

00:31:20

that I make between me and you

00:31:22

and every living creature that is with you,

00:31:24

for all future generations.

00:31:26

I've set my bow in the clouds,

00:31:29

and it will be a sign of the covenant

00:31:31

between me and the earth.

00:31:33

When I bring clouds over the earth

00:31:34

and the bow is seen in the clouds,

00:31:37

I'll remember my covenant that's between me and you

00:31:40

and every living creature of all flesh.

00:31:42

And the waters shall never again become a flood

00:31:44

to destroy all flesh.

00:31:47

Did you notice that God doesn't say,

00:31:49

"I put a rainbow in the sky?"

00:31:52

God says I put a bow in the sky.

00:31:57

At the time of this story,

00:31:59

the most powerful, sophisticated weapon of war

00:32:03

was a bow and arrow.

00:32:06

This is like God hanging an AK47 in the sky, it really is.

00:32:10

And I want you to think about,

00:32:11

you know how a bow is used, basically, right?

00:32:14

There's the bow and you, you pull the string back

00:32:16

and then the bow arcs.

00:32:18

Tell me where the bow is pointed.

00:32:20

Is it pointed down at humanity?

00:32:23

No. God hangs a bow in the sky, draws the arrow,

00:32:28

and he says, "If you want to know

00:32:29

what kind of father I am, I'm the one

00:32:32

who's going to take the shot myself.

00:32:34

That's who I am. I'm the loving Father."

00:32:36

And He hangs this picture in the sky.

00:32:40

3000 years later, a man rode a donkey into a city.

00:32:47

The people praised Him. They sang shouts.

00:32:50

They were on their best behavior.

00:32:53

Hosanna! Glory to God in the highest.

00:32:55

They were on their best behavior.

00:32:56

And five days later, Jesus knew

00:32:59

they would do what they did, which is

00:33:01

they turned on Him and demanded His death.

00:33:04

And that man decided in that moment to go to the Cross,

00:33:09

to die for the very people who put Him there, you and I.

00:33:14

So it is so violent is your objection.

00:33:18

It's so violent. God would say it is.

00:33:21

It was so violent. You have no idea how violent.

00:33:25

My body was broken. My skin was flayed.

00:33:28

My blood was spilled on the ground.

00:33:30

You know that Jesus suffered

00:33:32

more than you and I could ever imagine.

00:33:33

People will ask me, they'll say,

00:33:35

"Why does God allow suffering?

00:33:38

How could He ever do that?"

00:33:40

And my most honest answer is, I don't know.

00:33:43

But I do know this.

00:33:44

I know it must be worth it,

00:33:47

because we're not the only ones suffering.

00:33:49

In fact, I think it's accurate to say

00:33:51

that God has suffered the most.

00:33:53

Billions of times.

00:33:55

Billions of times His kids have rejected Him.

00:33:59

Billions of times, despite His pleas,

00:34:01

despite Hs wooing of us, we've said no to His plans

00:34:05

billions and billions of times.

00:34:07

And every time He wept.

00:34:09

He didn't just weep. He went to the cross.

00:34:13

He climbed on and He took the arrow

00:34:15

aimed at His own heart.

00:34:19

So how could a good, loving Father allow it?

00:34:24

Because He loves you and He's for you

00:34:28

and He always will be,

00:34:30

even if you're the one who put Him on the cross,

00:34:33

even if you're the one who messed up again,

00:34:37

even if on your best day, it's still not good.

00:34:41

Even then, He's a good Father who loves you

00:34:44

enough to make a way through death.

00:34:48

You know there's an ark for you to climb into if you want it.

00:34:53

The word ark only shows up twice in the Bible,

00:34:55

once for Noah's Ark,

00:34:56

and then another time for the basket

00:34:58

that Moses was placed in as a baby.

00:35:00

It doesn't mean boat.

00:35:02

It means a box for preservation.

00:35:05

In both stories, both instances,

00:35:07

there's this detail that makes it clear

00:35:10

that Noah and his family and Moses

00:35:12

were both sealed inside of their box for preservation.

00:35:16

Both of them are sealed, which is an odd detail to put in.

00:35:20

But there's a reason.

00:35:21

It's because there's a third ark

00:35:23

that you and I can climb into,

00:35:24

and it's the ark of the crucified Christ

00:35:27

whose tomb was sealed with a stone,

00:35:30

and who promises that if we give our life to Him,

00:35:32

if we'll hide ourselves in Him,

00:35:34

He will seal us with the promise of His Holy Spirit.

00:35:38

Ephesians 1:12:

00:35:39

In Him you also, when you heard the words of truth,

00:35:41

the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him,

00:35:44

were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

00:35:49

You have that option

00:35:50

to climb into the box of preservation.

00:35:54

I don't know if you've noticed this whole time,

00:35:56

maybe the ark and the way it looks

00:35:58

has looked kind of odd to you.

00:35:59

You're like, "That doesn't really look much like a boat.

00:36:01

There's no prowl.

00:36:03

There's nothing that would make it --

00:36:05

It doesn't curve on the sides.

00:36:07

And the reason for that is because

00:36:08

these are the exact instructions of God.

00:36:10

If you want to know what the ark actually looked like,

00:36:13

it actually looked like this. Why?

00:36:17

Well, if you go back and you look at

00:36:19

Jewish ancient coffins, you'll see

00:36:24

they look something like an ark.

00:36:26

In fact, if you were to shrink that down

00:36:28

to the size of a person,

00:36:30

it is perfect to put a body inside.

00:36:33

See, the ark is a coffin. It's a death.

00:36:37

It's a laying down of your life

00:36:39

and entering into the crucifixion of Christ

00:36:40

in order to find life.

00:36:43

And when you do that, nothing can touch you.

00:36:47

Romans 6:3 says:

00:36:49

Don't you know that all of us

00:36:51

who were baptized into Christ Jesus

00:36:53

were baptized into his death?

00:36:55

We were therefore buried with Him

00:36:57

through baptism into death, in order that

00:37:00

just as Christ was raised from the dead

00:37:02

through the glory of the Father,

00:37:03

we too may live a new life.

00:37:06

For if we have been united with Him in a death like his,

00:37:09

we will certainly also be united with Him

00:37:12

in a resurrection like Him.

00:37:16

See, the end of the story of Noah

00:37:17

is not no death, it's one death that covers all.

00:37:21

Everyone who's willing to say, "I see you, God,

00:37:25

I see Your heart for me and I'm willing to admit

00:37:27

that Your judgments about me are right.

00:37:31

I do choose death, even when I want life,

00:37:33

even when I, with all of my might,

00:37:34

with all of my willpower, with everything I have,

00:37:36

I say, I'm not going to do it this time.

00:37:38

Instead, I'm going to make the good choice this time.

00:37:40

I still fall short.

00:37:42

Even when I say I'm not going to yell.

00:37:44

I'm not going to get angry. I still lash out.

00:37:47

But You, God, You always judge rightly

00:37:50

and You offer a path to life.

00:37:54

Some of you have never seen a picture before

00:37:57

of Jesus who would love you that much,

00:37:59

of a God who would serve you that much.

00:38:02

If that's you, I want to invite you

00:38:03

for the first time to give your life to Him,

00:38:06

to put yourself in the ark of Christ

00:38:10

that you might experience the resurrection life someday.

00:38:13

Yes, but the life that He offers here and now, today.

00:38:17

If that's you and you want to take this step with me,

00:38:19

you can just pray these words silently in your own heart.

00:38:22

Say it with me, God, I believe You are who You say You are.

00:38:28

I believe You're a good, loving Father.

00:38:32

I believe that I do deserve death and destruction.

00:38:36

It is what I have chosen.

00:38:40

But today I want to make a different choice.

00:38:43

Today I choose You. I hide myself in You.

00:38:50

Forgive me for my sin.

00:38:53

Lead me to new life. Amen.

00:38:57

For others of us, we've made that prayer before in our lives.

00:39:01

And today is not our first time.

00:39:03

But maybe it's a time of renewal for you.

00:39:05

Maybe you've been in a season

00:39:06

that feels like the weather outside.

00:39:08

It's just dry. We're in a drought.

00:39:10

No clouds, no rain, no rainbows.

00:39:12

And so you haven't seen this picture.

00:39:14

And maybe you just need to get out your phone

00:39:17

and take a picture of the rainbow.

00:39:20

Take a picture of the bow aimed at God

00:39:22

so you remember this week

00:39:23

you have a Father who loves you.

00:39:25

You have a Father who says, "I will pay the price for you.

00:39:29

I'll do anything for you because I love you that much.

00:39:31

If you need that reminder, take a picture.

00:39:33

And I pray for all of us.

00:39:34

God, thank you so much for the epic stories

00:39:36

that show Your character, God, that's above and beyond us.

00:39:41

Thank You for being a good judge.

00:39:43

Thank You for being a loving Father.

00:39:46

We love you. Amen.

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