SPEAKER_02: You're listening to audio from the VIA.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd like information on how to get connected, tap the link to our website in the show notes.
SPEAKER_01: Hi, my name is Sydney Thompson, and I have the privilege of serving here at VIA.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to be reading a passage for us today.
SPEAKER_01: But before I do that, I'm just going to share a little bit of my testimony.
SPEAKER_01: Before I met Jesus, I was lost and broken, and I lived in isolation.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't have a lot of friends.
SPEAKER_01: But then I met Jesus and he changed my life.
SPEAKER_01: And in my obedience to him, I now get to live in such a great community.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that there's a purpose for my life, and I am so thankful for all that the Lord has done for me.
SPEAKER_01: Today I'm going to be reading out of Genesis 6, verses 5 through 9, and it'll be on the screen so you can follow along.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created, and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground.
SPEAKER_01: For I regret that I have made them.
SPEAKER_01: But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This is the account of Noah and his family.
SPEAKER_01: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, can we give it up for Sidney Thompson?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, well, Vita, how are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: We get it.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's me.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Vita, how are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: That's a little bit better.
SPEAKER_00: Uh well, hey, we are starting our fall series that we have entitled Same God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and I'm pumped uh to get to preach to you tonight.
SPEAKER_00: If you have not had the chance to meet before, my name is Chris.
SPEAKER_00: I get to serve as a part of our team here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but what we're gonna be doing throughout this series is we're gonna look at some maybe familiar passages from the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe you learned them in Sunday school, or maybe you just heard the stories before, but we're gonna take another look at them and we're gonna see how these stories ultimately, one, point to Jesus, and then we're gonna look at some principles and applications that we can take away from the stories and apply to our life today.
SPEAKER_00: But in honor of the fact that we are kind of pulling from some old Sunday school stories, I want to do a little old Sunday school thing.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you might know it, some of you might not, but we're gonna do a Bible drill to start out this fall.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you have your Bible, here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody in the room, if you have your Bible, I want you to hold it up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to hold it up high in the air, as high as you can.
SPEAKER_00: And everybody, all across the room, now pay attention, keep them up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you are in a committed relationship, I want you to put your Bible down.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the rest of you take a look around the room because these people love Jesus and they brought their Bible to video tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight we are gonna look at the story of Noah's Ark.
SPEAKER_00: And most of you, I think, are probably familiar with this story.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you've grown up in church, or if you've just been around, this is a pretty common story.
SPEAKER_00: It may have been painted in your bedroom mural as a kid, or maybe you read it with your parents in the storybook adventure Bible, you know, and you would look at it and you're like, hey, mom, what is this story with all the animals smiling and the guy on the boat?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, that's the story where God wiped out all of the earth, all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, cool, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, we're gonna read from the actual Bible tonight, and we're gonna see how this story ultimately points us to Jesus, and we're gonna pull some principles from the life of Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And so our passage begins with the reality of what Sidney just read to us.
SPEAKER_00: Starting in verse 5, chapter 6, it says that the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Great start.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Via, so nice to see you.
SPEAKER_00: But if we are gonna understand this story, we need to know that this is how human beings are naturally bent.
SPEAKER_00: That word inclination, it just means a natural tendency.
SPEAKER_00: And what's being communicated here is that the natural tendency of our hearts as humans is only towards evil all the time.
SPEAKER_00: And now, theologians would call this depravity.
SPEAKER_00: That we are sinful.
SPEAKER_00: And sinful humans cannot be in the presence of a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord looks down from heaven, he sees this evil tendency, and the Bible says that he, the Lord, regretted that he had made human beings on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And his heart was deeply troubled.
SPEAKER_00: Now, contrary to what you may have been led to believe about this story, God is not looking down on humans with the primary emotion of anger.
SPEAKER_00: He's not pissed off at the world, and so he says, screw it, I'm gonna flood the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: No, God is deeply troubled.
SPEAKER_00: His heart is in pain.
SPEAKER_00: Because the people that he created in his image to know him and to be known by him, the ones that he created for a relationship with him, they're running in the opposite direction.
SPEAKER_00: And can I tell you that when you run away from God, the primary emotion that he feels towards you is not anger, it's heartbreak.
SPEAKER_00: It's heartbroken.
SPEAKER_00: Because he sees the life that you're living and he knows that it's not actually life.
SPEAKER_00: That you're searching for these deep longings in your heart and all the wrong things.
SPEAKER_00: You you chase a hookup or a relationship because you want to feel loved and valued, you chase money and success to try to get some sense of significance and purpose, and you get stuck compromising your convictions and trying to please people because you want to belong.
SPEAKER_00: The thing that you think is giving you life may be the very thing that is slowly taking it from you.
SPEAKER_00: And can I tell you something else?
SPEAKER_00: That conviction and uncomfortability in your sin is God's grace in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It is his way of showing you that what you're doing isn't ultimately going to satisfy you.
SPEAKER_00: It's his way of drawing you back to himself.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Sin will become really comfortable when you're not the only one doing it.
SPEAKER_00: You can often quench the Spirit of God in your life by finding comfort in surrounding yourself with people who are stuck in the same sinful tendencies that you are.
SPEAKER_00: And you can convince yourself that something isn't a problem simply because the people around you also have the same problem.
SPEAKER_00: But God wants nothing more than for you to enter into life with Him.
SPEAKER_00: The problem of sin remains.
SPEAKER_00: And sinfulness and holiness do not mix.
SPEAKER_00: And so God looks at the earth and he says, I'm gonna wipe away from the face of the earth a human race that I've created, all the animals, for I regret that I have made them.
SPEAKER_00: He says, We're gonna start over.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a glimmer of hope for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: Because in verse 8, the Bible says that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And that word favor is a word that we would often translate as grace.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're gonna understand grace, then we need to understand justice and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Justice is getting what you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy is not getting what you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: But grace is getting something better than you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord looks at Noah and He shows him grace.
SPEAKER_00: He gives him something that he does not deserve.
SPEAKER_00: Because just like the rest of the people on the earth, Noah's heart was bent towards sin and evil.
SPEAKER_00: But there was something different about Noah, and verse 9 tells us it says that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
SPEAKER_00: The word righteous means that Noah was in right standing with God.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime that someone is righteous in the eyes of God, it is because of their faith in him, not because of anything that they have done.
SPEAKER_00: And so God looks at Noah with grace and he tells him to build an ark.
SPEAKER_00: And if I can blow your mind for a minute, maybe ruin your childhood, an ark is not a boat.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the only reason that we think of a boat when we think of an ark is because of this story.
SPEAKER_00: But a boat has a mode to move and to steer to get you from one place to another, like a rudder or sails.
SPEAKER_00: But an ark, on the other hand, is a container or a vessel of protection.
SPEAKER_00: It has no ability to steer, no ability to control, you simply enter in and you trust that you'll be protected from whatever is outside the ark.
SPEAKER_00: And so God tells Noah to build an ark.
SPEAKER_00: And then the Lord tells him, He says, I'm going to bring a flood on the earth to destroy all of life under heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is going to perish, but I will establish my covenant with you.
SPEAKER_00: And you will enter the ark.
SPEAKER_00: God makes a promise to Noah.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that word covenant means.
SPEAKER_00: It means a promise and agreement.
SPEAKER_00: And God establishes this promise with Noah, and it's a promise of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And Noah and his family enter the ark with all the animals, and they stay there through the flood for over a year.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says that God remembered Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And he sent a wind over the earth to dry up the waters.
SPEAKER_00: And as Noah and his family leave the boat, God makes another promise.
SPEAKER_00: He says that he will never again pour out his wrath on a sinful, wicked world with a flood.
SPEAKER_00: He's never gonna flood and destroy the earth again.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in chapter 9, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: It says, And God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I'm making between me and you and every living creature with you.
SPEAKER_00: A covenant for all generations to come.
SPEAKER_00: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever I bring clouds over the earth, and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures of every kind.
SPEAKER_00: Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that word rainbow?
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting because it's actually the Hebrew word that means war bow.
SPEAKER_00: Like a bow that you would take into battle.
SPEAKER_00: And what God is communicating here is that the sign of his covenant with the people of the earth to never destroy the earth again is that he will hang his war bow in the sky.
SPEAKER_00: As if to say, I am putting up my weapon.
SPEAKER_00: I am not going to use it on a sinful, wicked earth again.
SPEAKER_00: But what's amazing is that if we look at the rainbow and we know that it's God's war bow, which way is it pointed?
SPEAKER_00: It's pointed up towards heaven.
SPEAKER_00: It's as if God is saying, the next time that I draw my bow to pour out my wrath on sin and evil in the world, it will not be pointed at the sinful people of the world.
SPEAKER_00: It will be pointed at me.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, our story begins to point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because almost 2,000 years later, the world didn't look much different.
SPEAKER_00: Sin, death, and destruction, they're running rampant, but this time instead of God pouring out his righteous wrath on a depraved humanity and earth, he poured it out on his son.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who stepped into our sinfulness, into our brokenness to offer us a different kind of ark.
SPEAKER_00: The ark of salvation through faith and trust in him for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the ark, we see a foreshadowing of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because you and I, we we are sinful, broken people.
SPEAKER_00: We do not deserve to have a relationship with the holy God of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: We deserve to drown in a flood.
SPEAKER_00: But God looked at us the same way that he looked at Noah.
SPEAKER_00: And he showed us grace.
SPEAKER_00: And where justice should have been poured out on us.
SPEAKER_00: He poured it out on his son.
SPEAKER_00: And we got something far better than we deserved.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus took our place.
SPEAKER_00: He took all of our sin, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_00: And he went to the cross and he died the death that we deserve so that we could be restored in our relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: The cross is where God's justice and mercy meet.
SPEAKER_00: And where the flood reveals just how seriously God takes sin, the cross reveals just how seriously he loves sinners.
SPEAKER_00: You can rest in the finished work of Jesus on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: This is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Paul would put it this way in 2 Corinthians 5.
SPEAKER_00: He said, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so just like Noah, when God looks at you, he doesn't see the sinfulness of the world, he sees the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's been given to you.
SPEAKER_00: That is how our story tonight points us to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want to do is I want to switch gears for a minute, because you and I both know that I can't just preach one sermon on a Thursday night.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want to do is I want to look at the character of Noah.
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe a lot of you in this room, you are here because you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you have not done that yet, then we're going to give you the opportunity to do that.
SPEAKER_00: We're happy to answer some questions and walk alongside you as you navigate that.
SPEAKER_00: But for those of you in the room who do know Jesus, if we're honest, I think that you find yourself in a very similar position to the one that Noah found himself in.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to follow the Lord in a world that's running in the opposite direction.
SPEAKER_00: I think you know what this feels like.
SPEAKER_00: So many of you, you find yourselves trying to navigate following Jesus in spaces where everyone else is running away from him, like on your sports team in a fraternity or a sorority in a specific major or career path or in a particular workplace.
SPEAKER_00: And it can be hard not to fall into the culture of the crowd that you find yourselves around.
SPEAKER_00: Noah found himself in a very similar situation.
SPEAKER_00: He felt alone.
SPEAKER_00: But can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_00: This is not where we're going tonight.
SPEAKER_00: But just can I tell you that you are not alone?
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you that God, in a world that seems to be running away from him, he always preserves a remnant of people that are still following him?
SPEAKER_00: And so if you feel like you're the only one trying to follow Jesus in this world in your season of life, you can look around the room and you can see 400 of your closest Jesus following friends who are saying, I'm here to try to do that too.
SPEAKER_00: That one was free.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want to do is I want to look at three things that set Noah apart from the world around him.
SPEAKER_00: How he was able to follow the Lord in a culture that wanted nothing to do with God.
SPEAKER_00: And these are straight from our story tonight.
SPEAKER_00: That Noah walked with God, that he believed God's word and lived in obedience to it, and he experienced the fruit of a life with God.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you want to follow the Lord among a culture that's running away from them, this is what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: But what I want to do is I want to kind of categorize these things under a banner definition of what it means to have faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith, at its core, is relational trust.
SPEAKER_00: When we talk about what it means to follow Jesus, to place your faith in him, this is the core of what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: A trust that is built on a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus died for us to have a relationship with God, that we would know him.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus said in John 17.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Now this is eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
SPEAKER_00: Noah was able to trust God when he told him to build an ark because he knew God.
SPEAKER_00: He had been walking with him.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see it again in chapter 6, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the foundation of our trust, our faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is formed by walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: In the Gospel of John, Jesus would call this abiding.
SPEAKER_00: Remaining in relationship with Him, staying connected with Him.
SPEAKER_00: And really practically, this means things like spending time in prayer, spending time reading and studying God's word, spending time with God's people to be stirred up in your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And as you do these things, God will begin to speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot expect intimacy with God when you're giving him the leftovers of your time.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you wake him up, and the first voice that you hear is that on your TikTok or Instagram reels.
SPEAKER_00: You pick up your phone first thing in the morning, you scroll through other people's lives and opinions, and then you wonder why it's difficult to hear the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if your phone gets the first hour of your day while God gets the leftovers, then don't be surprised when the world gets louder than his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not telling you to throw your phone in the river, but I am asking you, who's discipling you more?
SPEAKER_00: Is it Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it your algorithm?
SPEAKER_00: We've got to walk faithfully with God.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to choose him.
SPEAKER_00: Spend time with him, and when you do, he will speak to you.
SPEAKER_00: When he does, the only right response is to believe what he's saying and to live it out in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: It's exactly what Noah did.
SPEAKER_00: We see it two times in this story that God spoke to Noah, and then Noah responds in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And this is often the hardest part about following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is one thing to say that you believe God's word, that you agree with what it says, but it is another thing to change your life to live in accordance to it.
SPEAKER_00: Believing God's word and living in obedience means changing your life even when you don't want to.
SPEAKER_00: Especially when you don't want to.
SPEAKER_00: True belief in God's word will always lead to action.
SPEAKER_00: Belief leads way to behavior.
SPEAKER_00: This is why the apostle James says, don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, but do what it says.
SPEAKER_00: You can know what God says, and you can still live a life of disobedience, and then you wonder why your life is in shambles and you have no joy, no peace.
SPEAKER_00: You can't discern your next steps.
SPEAKER_00: But obedience to God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Choosing the hard ride over the easy wrong, choosing to follow Jesus when everyone else around you is running away from him, it will always lead to you experiencing the fruit of following Jesus in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience will always, always lead to blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it may not look how you want it to, and it may not come when you want it to, but obedience will always lead to blessing.
SPEAKER_00: Most often, that blessing is deeper intimacy and dependence, trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: And now I know that this is hard.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know that some of you you wrestle with kind of how to navigate a relationship that you know isn't honoring God.
SPEAKER_00: How to stay sexually pure in a culture that struggles with sex and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: How to say no to something when you feel like your friendships and social status hangs in the balance.
SPEAKER_00: But just because obedience is difficult does not mean that it is not worth it.
SPEAKER_00: And you cannot spend your entire life trying to make everyone else comfortable with your obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience to God will often look foolish to the ones who don't know him.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what it means to have faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is trusting the character of God enough to obey him, even when everyone around you thinks that you're crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And obedience to God will always lead to blessing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close by sharing a little bit about my story.
SPEAKER_00: When I was in college, I ran away from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I had known him in my teenage years, but when I got to college, I started chasing this football career, started chasing a girl, what I thought that abundant life was going to look like.
SPEAKER_00: Made some dumb decisions, and with the help of the Lord, I found myself at a spiritual and emotional rock bottom.
SPEAKER_00: But it was actually the grace of God that led me there because he was going to use that moment to change my life.
SPEAKER_00: I was anxious, I was tired, I was scrambling for some sense of identity and purpose, and I was stuck in the worst possible place.
SPEAKER_00: I knew all the things about God without actually knowing him.
SPEAKER_00: I was trying to say that I followed Jesus while my life looked nothing like a Jesus follower.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the worst place to live your life.
SPEAKER_00: Because you will know all about the love of Jesus without ever experiencing it.
SPEAKER_00: You'll know all about the joy and the peace and the life found in him, but you will still feel broken and empty and dead inside.
SPEAKER_00: And I woke up one morning and I literally felt disgusting.
SPEAKER_00: I can feel what I felt like in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: And by the power and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I felt the weight of my sin.
SPEAKER_00: I was brokenhearted over who I was, who I'd become, and what I had done.
SPEAKER_00: And like the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, I came to my senses.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I've got to go back to my father's house.
SPEAKER_00: And so in that moment, I prayed one of the simplest, most honest prayers that I have ever prayed.
SPEAKER_00: I said, God, I am done with this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anything to do with this.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anything to do with the life that I have been chasing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm tired of doing things my way.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to know you, but you have got to show me what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Because I've got no idea.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Bring me back.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I felt the Lord give me a word.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the few times in my life that something like that has happened.
SPEAKER_00: That word was obedience.
SPEAKER_00: God's love came rushing into my heart, and I was beginning to develop this love for Him.
SPEAKER_00: And these words from Jesus, I'm sorry, from John in 1 John.
SPEAKER_00: It said, sorry, this is from Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_00: That was what I wanted to characterize my life.
SPEAKER_00: Obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went on Amazon and I bought a new Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't anything wrong with the old one, but you know you got to get a fresh start sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I started reading God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And as I read, I made a decision.
SPEAKER_00: That whatever God said to do, I was going to do.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Everything changed.
SPEAKER_00: Not because my circumstances immediately became perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Not because I lived it out perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things we didn't hit about Noah, we just talked about how great Noah was.
SPEAKER_00: You know what happens right after the flood?
SPEAKER_00: He ends up drunk in a tent naked.
SPEAKER_00: That's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Not perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: But I started walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: I started trusting him.
SPEAKER_00: I began to obey him.
SPEAKER_00: And I experienced what I had spent so long looking for in everything else.
SPEAKER_00: I experienced the love of Jesus take over my heart.
SPEAKER_00: A peace that surpasses my understanding.
SPEAKER_00: A deep-rooted joy that goes beyond my circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: God convicted me of sin, but he did not leave me there.
SPEAKER_00: He invited me into life to know him.
SPEAKER_00: To know his son.
SPEAKER_00: And ever since that day, looking back, one word has characterized my life.
SPEAKER_00: Redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Because the things that I thought were gonna give me life were actually killing me.
SPEAKER_00: And the things that I thought that I needed to hold on to, God was asking me to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: And in their place, he gave me gifts of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't know where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is that God is asking you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been asking God for clarity when he's already given you a command.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're praying, God, show me your will.
SPEAKER_00: While God is saying, I've already told you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a sin that you need to confess, a relationship that needs to end.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to stop compromising because you're afraid of what people are going to think.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's somebody in the room that you need to offer forgiveness to.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe for a lot of you, you need to stop running from God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to come home.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to understand everything that God is doing to obey the thing that He's already told you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Because faith is relational trust.
SPEAKER_00: And it flourishes in dependence.
SPEAKER_00: Enough to obey him when everybody else around them said he was crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And you can trust him too.
SPEAKER_00: You may not know where he's leading.
SPEAKER_00: You may not understand what it is that he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: You may feel like you're the only one trying to follow Jesus, but you are never foolish for trusting a God who has proven himself faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And the same God who was faithful to Noah is faithful to you.
SPEAKER_00: The same one who offered up an ark of salvation to Noah out of grace has offered up a way of salvation through Jesus for you.
SPEAKER_00: And the same God who called Noah to walk with him is calling you to walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me pray that you would.
SPEAKER_00: God, I just bless these men and women in the name of your son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you that it pierces our heart and it leads us to repentance.
SPEAKER_00: God, all that the gospel requires is repentance and faith.
SPEAKER_00: God, would your Holy Spirit begin to produce obedience in our hearts tonight?
SPEAKER_00: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you.
SPEAKER_00: We give you all glory and honor.
SPEAKER_00: We never want to get over what it is that you have done for us through the giving of your son Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his name that we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.