SPEAKER_00: Hey gang.
SPEAKER_00: Happy New Year.
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, you guys came back.
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: It's always a blessing when guys come back.
SPEAKER_00: So fantastic.
SPEAKER_00: I hope y'all had a great holiday and uh hope you guys are uh excited.
SPEAKER_00: Your week is starting off again well, and uh it's just great to be back.
SPEAKER_00: I missed you guys.
SPEAKER_00: I missed Tuesdays.
SPEAKER_00: It's fun to uh it's fun to do this together.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, um, as we get started, uh I want to share with you a little bit, uh, you guys that are not a part of the First Baptist family, we you know we love you guys, and we're glad y'all are here and a part of Tuesdays with us.
SPEAKER_00: Want to let you know what we're doing as a church.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing uh a chronological study of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: We're reading through as a church the chronological version of the Bible, uh, all through 2026.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh what that means is we're reading the Bible just like any other deal.
SPEAKER_00: We're just not reading it topically, we're reading it in its date order.
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, uh Job is one of the oldest stories in Scripture, and it's one of the oldest written books in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're not really sure exactly where it goes, but what we did, the version platform we're following, uh they put it in before Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: So we read for a week in Genesis, and now this week we've started reading in Job, and we'll do that, and then when we're done with Job, we'll pick back up with Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you read the Psalms, you know, those were written over a long period of time, so there'll be times that we'll pick this psalm that was written about this moment in David's life, and we'll insert it in there and read it alongside that moment in David's life, you know, things like that.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what it means to read it chronologically.
SPEAKER_00: We're doing that as a church.
SPEAKER_00: The platform we're using, there are a lot of different really good platforms to that kind of help walk you through that.
SPEAKER_00: We're using one called the Bible recap, and so you'll see that around.
SPEAKER_00: We have a couple of the books around, we have a couple of the bookmarks if you're interested in that in the back.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the bookmarks just give us the readings.
SPEAKER_00: The journal is is nothing but here's the day's readings and here's three questions, and you write your own thing.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not studying somebody else's book, we're studying God's book.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: In a lot of the settings in our church, we're gonna take some time and uh and we'll unpack a lot of those daily readings.
SPEAKER_00: So, in a lot of our luncheons, I'm gonna teach from the readings of the previous week.
SPEAKER_00: So the way this works, our church reads, and then on Sunday I preach from one of those passages of scripture that we read that week.
SPEAKER_00: A number of our Sunday school classes, they're coming in and discussing what they've read that week.
SPEAKER_00: So on Tuesdays, a lot of times you'll see a Bible recap screen, and I will pull that lesson from the readings.
SPEAKER_00: Now, on Sunday mornings, and here I will reserve the right to put a parentheses on that at any time we feel like God leads us, and so we can go study something else and do whatever.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not like we're locked into that, but it is really uh it is really a joy.
SPEAKER_00: Our church has gotten very excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people have already started, they're jumping in.
SPEAKER_00: And so I told somebody it's great.
SPEAKER_00: We get a great star for two weeks, and then we hit Job and we come apart.
SPEAKER_00: All right, but uh, but everybody's doing a great job.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: But today I want to give you uh I did not want to run off and leave one of my absolute favorite stories in all of Scripture, and one of my top probably three favorite verses in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You see my little arcs here, and uh, folks that go to church here have heard me talk about that.
SPEAKER_00: Last night I had to take down all the Christmas trees and all the decorations and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: This is a big ceramic nose arc.
SPEAKER_00: In the entry hall of our house, we have what we call the Jesus tree.
SPEAKER_00: And the Jesus tree is a tree that's near the front door of our house, and all of the ornaments on that tree represent the pictures and images of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We call it the Jesus tree.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll have this big old ceramic arc right in the middle of the Jesus tree.
SPEAKER_00: And then right next to it is usually a big plastic loaf of bread.
SPEAKER_00: And over here's a hammer, and over here's a well, and here's a sheet on our tree.
SPEAKER_00: And like they're like, that's the weirdest tree I've ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you have an ark on your tree?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you about Jesus, the reason for Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the Noah's Ark that is on our Jesus tree every year and has been there for years and years.
SPEAKER_00: Our kids know it, love it.
SPEAKER_00: We've had it for years.
SPEAKER_00: If we ever break it, there will be great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the Addison clan.
SPEAKER_00: And so we love this, and this is the ark.
SPEAKER_00: This is a wooden ark that we have gotten, and we got it when our kids were little.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the wheel right here is broken off, right?
SPEAKER_00: So it's we've had this forever.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's older than this one, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so we have lots of Noah's arcs all over our house.
SPEAKER_00: And I could have brought a bunch of them, but this one right here is important because our grandson Killian is two.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you have to live through another Killian story, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh and so this one we brought out because his mom played with it when she was a toddler, and his uncle Grant played with it when he was a toddler, and so this year we put it under the tree for Killian to play with it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Killian loves animals, and so when you take the door off, you have all these wooden animals that all come out, and this is Noah, right?
SPEAKER_00: So he's learned about Noah, and then you start pulling out all the animals, and uh, that's the wheel that broke off.
SPEAKER_00: So here is an elephant, and so Killian loves elephants, and what does an elephant say?
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says, right?
SPEAKER_00: Here is the giraffe.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is really fun.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he began as he started talking, calling all the animals by the sounds that they make.
SPEAKER_00: So a horse was a neigh, a cow was a moo, a pig was a, you know.
SPEAKER_00: And so what sound does a giraffe make?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know what sound a giraffe makes?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knows.
SPEAKER_00: So my daughter Mavery made up a sound.
SPEAKER_00: So a giraffe is a l-ol-lol in our house.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So there's two lols, and they two, and so we're teaching him as the animals come in and out, two by two, and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But the most important thing that Bomber is teaching Killian is when all the animals are in, God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the greatest pictures in all of Scripture that I can possibly imagine.
SPEAKER_00: There have been very few scriptures that have been as much of an encouragement in my life as God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: And so, even as a two-year-old, we're beginning to teach Killian the character of God.
SPEAKER_00: This was God's plan of redemption, and when God has you, God shuts the door.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So that's the scripture we're going to look at for a few minutes today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the story of the flood and all of that is found in Genesis chapter 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to entitle this The Magnitude of God's Grace.
SPEAKER_00: The magnitude of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: So let's be reminded of the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: You got all of that description and all those two chapters, and we don't need to read through all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what we need to know.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter 6, the Bible says, Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The King James Version that a lot of folks have heard says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word, it's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that the sin had become rampant in the world, and it was so bad God had was was grieving over why did I make this mess?
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm gonna bring judgment and start over.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was gonna bring judgment on every human and all of the earth and flood it with a flood through rain, first time it rained.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So God extended his grace and protection and redemption to Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And then in chapter 7, you get the short version of that.
SPEAKER_00: In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, uh, on the day that all the sources of the watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, and rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
SPEAKER_00: On that same day, Noah, along with his sons, Shem, Him, and Japheth, Noah's wife and his three sons' wives, entered the ark with him.
SPEAKER_00: They entered it with all the wildlife, according to their kinds, all livestock, according to their kinds, the creatures that crawl on the earth, according to their kinds, all birds, every flower, everything with wings according to their kinds, two of all flesh, that Noah has the breath of life in it, entered the ark with Noah.
SPEAKER_00: Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered just as God commanded him, and then the Lord shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: Shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: The ark is an incredible picture of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And is one of my favorite things to teach on is all the different ways that the ark is a picture of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's an Old Testament picture of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I could spend two weeks doing just that, but I really want to focus on the encouragement of the magnitude of God's grace, that when you are saved, you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: No judgment touches you.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in Romans, there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so if the ark is the picture of Jesus, it is an incredible picture to know that God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean for us in our salvation and in our life?
SPEAKER_00: In church life, often we refer to this as the eternal security of the believer.
SPEAKER_00: Once saved, always saved is how I grew up hearing it.
SPEAKER_00: Like we believe that when we're saved, we're saved forever.
SPEAKER_00: In a lot of modern life, we have so many intellectual, you know, theological, whatever, and that's fine and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, we have a tendency at times to go take these verses in the New Testament and we parse them down to such a minutiae and we do violence, torturing these one verses here or there, or this phrase or comma in this thing, trying to sort, you know, and get all that.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of one of the beauties of reading the entire scripture chronologically through is you understand the threads and the context of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And so if Jesus is found on every page of Scripture and salvation is found on every page of Scripture, then the overarch and the story of Scripture should speak into all these matters for us.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a perfect example of one of the places where we understand when God saves, he saves.
SPEAKER_00: And when God saves, he saves completely, he saves totally, and he saves eternally.
SPEAKER_00: And so when God saves us, he saves us.
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to just focus a little bit on a few minutes that we have about that security that we have in our salvation when we have trusted Jesus Christ as our Savior, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so here's the first thing I want you to think about.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we know that we have security in Jesus, just as Noah and his family had security in the ark, because that was God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan of redemption is to redeem.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't create a plan where, hey, I'm gonna bring judgment, but I'm gonna I've found uh favor with Noah.
SPEAKER_00: He loves me, he follows me, I'm gonna save his family, and then leave some creaky spot or a window that's half broken, and Noah falls out a window and drowns in the flood waters.
SPEAKER_00: That's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: God's not gonna do it in such a way that uh Noah gets mad at his wife one day because he's just tired of being on the boat with her and smelling all the animals, and they have a big argument, and he screams at his wife and says something ugly, and then he goes and falls out a window and dies and loses his redemption.
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: What God has created a picture of is he created the means of Noah's redemption and he sealed him in that redemption.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible in ver in chapter 6, when he says, I am going to repent of all this, I'm going to exercise judgment on the human race, I am going to start over with Noah and his family.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan was to redeem in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And his plan was to redeem Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And if God's plan is to get Noah to the other side of the flood, God is going to get Noah to the other side of the flood.
SPEAKER_00: Period.
SPEAKER_00: That's what redemption is.
SPEAKER_00: When in the beginning of times, we talked about on Sunday, the beginning of recorded human history, when Adam and Eve sinned, and God steps in and he tells them about their sin and he teaches them, this is what happened because you sinned, this is the result of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: But then he gives the prophecy I am going to one day send a redeemer through the line of the wife, and she is going to bring a fatal blow to the enemy, Satan, and all of this sin.
SPEAKER_00: God created a plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: When God creates a plan of redemption, nothing is going to stop God from accomplishing his plan of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: He is Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: And so I love this picture of God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't matter how many whales lived in the water and survived through whatever or whatever, you know, you go to the museum.
SPEAKER_00: We went to London last year on one of the mission trips with our deal, and they have this big old humongous prehistoric whale or whatever, and it's the length of the building in the main thing.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: That may be somebody's little brother, and his father attacks the ark.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing was going to get Noah in his family.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's plan was to redeem.
SPEAKER_00: And the redemption of salvation, if this is a picture of Jesus, it's a picture of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told us in John 3.16, for God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: Again, God's plan is to redeem.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him will never perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus died on the cross to purchase for us redemption and everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't die on the cross and shed his blood and his holiness for us in his place, for us to have some conditional redemption or some redemption that depended on us and our ability to stay obedient or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It's not ten-year life that he bought you.
SPEAKER_00: He bought you eternal life when you were saved.
SPEAKER_00: And when you give your life to Jesus and you trust him as your Savior, God has redeemed you and He has a plan of redemption for you, and you are going to be redeemed, and nothing is going to get in the way.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, God has placed him in my hands or in my Father's hands, and no one can pluck them out of those hands.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing.
SPEAKER_00: God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because He was had a plan of redemption and He was going to get Noah to the other side.
SPEAKER_00: And when you give your life to Jesus Christ, I want you to know no matter what happens, God is going to get you to heaven because Jesus died for you to redeem you, and God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: And we are sealed inside.
SPEAKER_00: Now that ought to get you excited right there.
SPEAKER_00: If the pie didn't put you to sleep, that ought to be good.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the next thing I want you to see: the sufficiency of the vessel.
SPEAKER_00: The sufficiency of the vessel.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's design and plan of an ark, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is scripture.
SPEAKER_00: There's an old old joke that old time preachers used to tell all the time, and I love old time preacher jokes.
SPEAKER_00: We don't keep them alive enough as much as we should.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it says in the in the scripture when you're reading it that the ark was 900 cubits long and you know, 300 cubits wide, and whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh the old joke goes, there's this new Christian, he's reading his Bible for the first time, and he reads that uh in scripture where it says, and Noah took a wife.
SPEAKER_00: And because he was a new Christian, he had a new Bible, and you know how the pages get stuck together in new Bibles, right?
SPEAKER_00: So his pages were stuck together, he didn't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Noah took a wife, and she was 360 cubits wide.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I don't really understand it, but God said it, so I guess I'm gonna believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So God gives the instructions for this vessel, and he tells them how to do it, and he tells them the dimensions, and he tells them the shape, and he tells them the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: He creates the capacity of it, he creates the plan for it.
SPEAKER_00: God is the author and designer of the vessel of the ark.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that Noah did it according to the dimensions and instructions that God had given him, right?
SPEAKER_00: So there's all kinds of pictures of this ark, but I just want to give you one in all of this.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible said it was made of gopher wood.
SPEAKER_00: We believe that in modern language would be cypress, cypress wood.
SPEAKER_00: Often they use that for coffins in that culture because they were hard and they didn't rot, and they would, you know, do that.
SPEAKER_00: And so it it has the shape of a coffin.
SPEAKER_00: It's a box, it's not a boat with a stern and a and a bow.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big thing, it looks like a coffin, but here's what it says it was made of gopher wood, and then it was sealed with pitch.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get that picture, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're putting that pitch in between those log walls or the shaved boards, however he built that and put that together, and it's sealing that tight so water can't get in.
SPEAKER_00: Pitch.
SPEAKER_00: Now there is a there is a Jewish word for the word pitch that's commonly used, but there's a unique word that is used only once in scripture relating to the pit in terms of being translated in English, the pitch, and the word actually means atonement.
SPEAKER_00: It actually means atonement.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that word pitch could actually be translated to the word atonement.
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the many ways that we know that the ark is a picture of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so what you get is the atonement on the ark kept all of the judgment waters out.
SPEAKER_00: The boat, the vessel, was sufficient to protect them from the judgment of the flood and the flood waters.
SPEAKER_00: And the and when we know that Jesus came and died for our sins, atonement is the concept that we use for Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, paying the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He redeems us or ransoms us out of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We are sinners by birth, by nature, and by choice.
SPEAKER_00: We would have been in the flood waters absent God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is he um Jesus died for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: He was born of a virgin.
SPEAKER_00: We just celebrated that at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't have the sin nature of Adam.
SPEAKER_00: He lives a sinless life.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the cross and he voluntarily allows himself to be killed.
SPEAKER_00: He sacrifices his life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, No one takes my life.
SPEAKER_00: I lay it down.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus goes and he dies on the cross for us, a life that has no death attached to it, and it has no judgment attached to it.
SPEAKER_00: And so he dies on the cross, and his death is now a death unencumbered by judgment.
SPEAKER_00: He rises from the dead on what we celebrate as Easter.
SPEAKER_00: I am captive to my sin because of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: I am judged under sin.
SPEAKER_00: I am under the penalty of sin.
SPEAKER_00: I am under the under the chains of sin.
SPEAKER_00: I can't help but sin.
SPEAKER_00: All of that's there.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I come and make Jesus my Savior, when I give my life to Him by faith, and I say, Lord, I believe that Jesus died on the cross and I believe that I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive me for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: I trust Jesus and I give him my life because he gave his life for me.
SPEAKER_00: What happens is my sins are atoned for, or the ransom is paid, or the penalty that is required of my transgression has been atoned for.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is the atonement for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And so that means no judgment is attached to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the book of Romans says that verse I quoted a minute ago.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Noah and his family are in the ark.
SPEAKER_00: And because of the atonement that seals the ark, there is no judgment attached to them.
SPEAKER_00: And when you are in Jesus and He has been the atonement for your sins, there is no condemnation.
SPEAKER_00: There is no judgment that touches you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has saved you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how do you accept that salvation?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that Noah and his family went into the ark.
SPEAKER_00: They place their faith in God.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrews chapter 11, verse 7, the Bible says this by faith, Noah and his family went into the ark and they were protected from the waters.
SPEAKER_00: What we do as a matter of choice is we place our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We give our lives to him in trust, the same way that Noah entrusted his life to the vessel God had created for him.
SPEAKER_00: And so, very much like Noah goes into the ark, we are giving our lives to Jesus and we are in him.
SPEAKER_00: And his atonement means that no judgment touches us.
SPEAKER_00: He is more than sufficient for any life and any sin and any person, because God has made the vessel of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, it's his personal work.
SPEAKER_00: It's his personal work.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, here's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't delegate that to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who is the actor in our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: From the very beginning of Genesis, as we read through all of Scripture, we see constantly that God, as it says in Hebrews, is the author and finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: God envisions salvation for us.
SPEAKER_00: God planned Jesus, the Bible says, to be our Redeemer from the very beginning of time.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was set aside to be that vessel.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what's incredible.
SPEAKER_00: As we talked about on Sunday here at First Baptist, the picture of the Trinity is built in from the very foundation of the story.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter 1, the Bible says, God said, Let us make man in our image.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the Word.
SPEAKER_00: That's John's word for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: And through Him all of creation was made.
SPEAKER_00: He is the author and finisher of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus stepped out of heaven himself to die for us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't create somebody else to do it.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't delegate it to somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus accomplished that.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus is encouraging his followers, hey, I'm John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to go to the cross, and I'm going to die for y'all, and all those pictures of Passover and lambs and shed blood and all that business y'all been doing for generations and generations that God gave to point to me, I am now that, and I am the Lamb of God, and I'm going to that cross and I'm going to die for you.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to be raised again, and I want you to understand, do not let your hearts be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: That is so much more than just what Sean Hannity says at the end of his broadcast.
SPEAKER_00: Let not your hearts be troubled.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in God, believe in me.
SPEAKER_00: In my Father's house are many mansions, and I will go and prepare a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: And if I, Jesus, go to prepare a place for you, I, Jesus, will come again to receive you to myself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who saves us.
SPEAKER_00: He is the actor in our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is the vessel of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is the author of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is the finisher of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is the strength of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And he does it personally because he loves us.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world.
SPEAKER_00: God demonstrated his love towards us, and while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: Not that we loved him, but he first loved us and gave his son to be the payment for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't send Gabriel down and shut the door of this ark.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says God shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: God takes care of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God, the Father, is in whom we trust.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is in whom we trust.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit, the Bible says, is the seal and confirmation of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He is the down payment.
SPEAKER_00: He is the earnest money on the contract and covenant of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: God took care of it himself.
SPEAKER_00: And I can't tell you a greater picture than to sit there with my grandson and begin to teach him from the very first times.
SPEAKER_00: He only has an inkling to understand it, that God loves you so much.
SPEAKER_00: God himself shut the door.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is it a book of incredible truth and promise in all that theological discussion of how we're saved and how we live for you and the pictures of eternity and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so grateful for what those promises and what that teaching means to us and how it helps us understand our salvation and who you are and all of that.
SPEAKER_00: But I also thank you for these incredible stories that you give us in Scripture that illustrate for us that truth in real life terms, in experiences that we can relate to, in history moments that are fascinating to us and grab our minds and attentions and draw us to you in the way the story unfolds.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the story and the history of that eight of Noah and the Ark.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for all the myriads of minds of boys and girls and men and women who have been fascinated and drawn to study you and to search for you because of the amazing reality and the incredible nature of this story of this man and his following you and the grace that you give him and how you save him through this flood, through this ark.
SPEAKER_00: People have been searching for the ark since we even knew to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You've put this in there to draw our attention to you, to call us to you, to get us to search for you, to intrigue our minds and hearts and draw us.
SPEAKER_00: And in that incredible picture, you have woven in this beautiful picture of Jesus and the majesty of your grace.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for that and what that means to us today.
SPEAKER_00: I pray it's a blessing and encouragement to these guys.
SPEAKER_00: It encourages their faith, it draws them closer to you.
SPEAKER_00: Bless them and keep them today.
SPEAKER_00: Bless them and keep them this week.
SPEAKER_00: Give them a wonderful first week and a wonderful first month of 2026.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you most of all for Jesus, the vessel of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: In his name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody said.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, great to see you guys.
SPEAKER_00: What an awesome group today.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you all for being here.