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Well, today we are starting a new series, and we're going to be looking at the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, over the summer. And so I'm going to kick us off today, and we're actually going to be looking at heroes of the faith that are listed out. Not all of them that are listed out in Hebrews 11, but a number of them. And so if you have a Bible, encourage you to go ahead and open it up with me to Hebrews chapter 11. And we're going to start there today, and then we're going to actually jump to Genesis and look at one particular hero of the faith to kind of get us established in the series. But how many of you guys are movie buffs? You'd say you like to go to watch every movie that comes out, check it out. How many of you guys like to watch the heroes movies? Movies with uh superheroes in them. Uh I haven't seen a couple of the new newest ones that are out, the Avengers and uh it's a Fantastic Four. Uh anybody seen either one of those? Yeah, a few hands around the room. Uh I'm looking forward to going maybe checking a couple of them out. But I I like watching these heroes movies, and it is pretty interesting how um how popular they've been over the last few years, and all these hero movies have surfaced again, and and uh I think that it tells a little bit about our human nature that you know we love the idea of superheroes. We love the idea of people being heroic, uh, and we actually love the idea of these supernatural heroes that have these capacities to do superhuman things, uh, to save people, to rescue people. Um, and so, you know, I I think all of us probably have even maybe a a uh favorite superhero. And uh I know as I was growing up, you know, I was a big He-Man fan. Anyone He-Man fans? Okay, I'm just making sure I'm not the only one. Uh I loved He-Man, he was great. And uh, but we all have these uh kind of ideal uh, you know, these attractions to these particular superheroes. But this morning we're gonna actually look, like I said, at some of the heroes of the faith. We're gonna start that process. And I think the best place to start is in Hebrews chapter 11, which would be considered kind of the hall of faith, uh, where we get these characters who were in the Old Testament times. That's the you know first part of our Bible. Uh two-thirds of it actually is the Old Testament, 66 books in the scripture. And uh, and there's these stories of these men and even some women who came along and they did these great heroic things, the great heroic acts of faith. And so we want to look at their lives and say, what can we learn from them? What can we learn from these men and women of faith? Uh, we're gonna learn some things from their strengths, and we're gonna learn some things from their weaknesses. Is that okay? We're gonna look at some of the things that they did well and the things that they did not do so well. And both of those hopefully will help propel us forward in our walk with God, but also we really want to understand that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives, and he wants us to live by faith. He wants us to live by faith in him. So, Hebrews chapter 11, let's get started there, and then we will um, like I said, jump into Genesis in a little bit. Here it goes, first one from chapter 11. Now, faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. For our ancestors won God's approval by it. By faith we understand that the universe was created by God's command, so that what is seen has been made from the things that are not visible. By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was approved as a righteous man because God approved his gifts. And even though he is dead, he still speaks through his faith. By faith Enoch was taken away, so he did not experience death. That'd be pretty awesome, right? Um and it goes on to say, and he was not to be found because God took him away. For prior to his removal he was approved since he had pleased God. Now without faith, catch this, now without faith it is impossible to please God. That's a big statement right there. It's impossible to please God without faith. For the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him. In the last verse I want us to look at. By faith, Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, he built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Now I think in order to talk about heroes of faith, we need to just briefly touch on the issue of faith. This, what is faith and what is included in faith? Because there's really three primary components that have to be in place for it to be genuine faith. All right? And so I want to, these are not new to me, uh, these are not new to the church, these are not new to Christianity. These are actually foundational from our church fathers. They've been articulated different ways through the years, but I want you to know there's three components to faith that have to be in place for it to be faith. And so these heroes of the faith exhibit this kind of faith. The first is this understanding. Understanding. You know, when people hear the word faith today in our times, many of them immediately assume that faith is the opposite of thinking. You know what I'm saying? Many people hear people uh hear someone say the word faith, I have faith in this or I have faith in that, and they immediately go, okay, well then you're just you're not very smart. You're not thinking about reality. You're not considering, you're not understanding, okay? And I want you to know this morning that faith requires understanding. It requires thinking through what we believe, and that Christianity actually is an invitation to think, not to dismiss and to act like we can just kind of blindly go through life. In fact, I've found that a number of people I've interacted with who are atheists or agnostic or some form of this idea that we've gonna want to reject faith. Uh, what they fail to understand is that every single person on this planet operates by faith. We all operate by faith. We all have a sense that we are making assumptions about life. We assume where things came from, we we understand, or we we make the uh maybe this statement somehow with our lives that we actually know the why behind the what. And if you've ever done any studying in science, you know that science has a lot of theories, and they have to start somewhere with a premise, right? Based on human reasoning. But where does that human reasoning point us to? It points us to that we still don't know why this stuff exists, even if we can explain what exists. And the point that I want you to understand this morning is that Christianity is faith, but faith also includes thinking. So when you come to church, the way we like to say this is don't check your brain at the door, right? Think about what you believe, consider it, wrestle with it. And I want you to know that Point Community Church is a safe place to wrestle with what you believe, to ask hard questions, to think through it. And I would actually submit to you today that when you consider all the options that are on the table for us to live by, that Christianity is the most reasonable explanation for all that exists. And for the reason that you and I are sitting in this room today. I absolutely believe that with all my heart. And I say that unashamedly. I say that because I believe as a Christ follower, but even more so, as I have wrestled and I've reasoned and I've thought, it makes sense. In a very interesting way, it makes sense that this is what God has done and God has established. Are there questions, are there issues, are there concerns, are there things that are still vague to me? Absolutely. Do I know everything? No. Will you ever know everything? No. But I will tell you today that the case for faith is strong, strong, strong if you've actually ever considered it. So that's why when people say, I don't believe in God, I don't believe in the Bible, I don't believe in Jesus, and they've never read the Bible, I'm like, hey, go read the Bible and then let's come back and talk. Let's go, let's have an honest conversation about what's really going on in Scripture. So the first thing is we need to think. The second thing is not only that we need to think or understand, but conviction is a part of faith. Conviction is when we take an idea, a theory, and we actually move it into belief. It moves from our head to our hearts. Maybe that's one way to say it. That we really genuinely believe in something. We believe that it is true. We've moved to that place. In fact, the word conviction comes from the idea of being convinced and being convicted, kind of in combination. I'm convinced that this is right. I am convinced that this is what is true. And so in our lives, I know that faith doesn't just stop at thinking and reasoning and wrestling with ideas. It actually moves us to a place of belief, to a place where we say, I genuinely believe that this is true. Which really leads us to the third component of faith. And again, we're moving really quickly through these three. We could actually do a whole series on each one of these and talk through them. But it leads us to the third place, which is if we genuinely have thought through it and if we have come to a place where we are convinced that this is true, then we commit. We act. And that's what makes these great men and women that we're going to talk about over the summer heroes of faith, is because they didn't just talk about God theoretically. They didn't just talk about their own beliefs, but they acted in line with what they believed. And if you genuinely believe something, it will cause you to do something. Right? So, for example, how many of you have ridden an airplane? Yeah. So let's just talk about this for a minute. We we operate in faith to get on this airplane, this big piece of metal that's somehow going to go up into the sky and fly us. Now, again, we can look out the window, we can see planes fly over, we can go to the airport, we can watch planes take off and land, and we can go, oh wow, there's a lot that's there. But it's an act of faith to actually get on an airplane and to let it take us to where we're going, right? It's an act of faith uh to ride with some of our teenagers in a car, right? Um it's an act of faith. There's different things we have. Faith, um, a few years back, I actually was struggling, I have all my life with chronic uh allergies, and and so that's kind of played into some fatigue and ongoing headaches and all these issues. And so uh somebody told us, hey, look, you you really need to have this stuff checked out. And so I was thinking through it, I was reading about it, I was considering it, and so I was doing some of the reasoning on okay, maybe I should. So I go to this ENT, this specialist, this doctor, and they say, Yeah, sure enough, man, your sinus cavity is terrible. It's just full of junk and these polyps and all this stuff, and you we need to go in there, we need to clean that out, we need to fix you up, we need to straighten your septum, all these fun things you are like gross, right? Um so I'm thinking about this, I'm processing it, I'm considering it, I'm reasoning through it, and I'm like, I mean, he's pretty convincing in his talk, and so finally it's like, okay, I'm gonna believe this. I'm gonna believe that he has convinced me, I'm now convicted, I need to get this done, right? And everything's moving that way, and then I get to the hospital the morning of the surgery, right? And they're like, hey, this is gonna be a simple little surgery procedure, and I'm gonna come in, we're gonna put you under, we're gonna do this, and you're gonna wake up, it's gonna be awesome, you know, and you're gonna recover for a couple of days and three days, whatever. But you know, in that moment, I'm I'm thinking, I've gone through this whole process of wrestling with what I think about this, to okay, I'm gonna believe this. But at that moment, there's now doctors walking in and out, and people are like giving IVs, and I'm smelling these strange smells, and I'm hearing these weird noises, and I'm thinking, okay, am I really convinced that this is gonna help me? Right? And I cross the line of faith and I say, okay, do it. And I'm committed at that point. I'm all in. In our lives, this plays itself out over and over and over again. And in with God, we need to think about God. We need to consider Him. We need to ask ourselves, what do we genuinely believe? And then we need, if we genuinely believe it, it will shape our behavior. It will shape our lives, it will move us to a place of action in response to God. So these heroes of faith exhibit all three of these things because that is genuine faith. In fact, James, the half-brother of Jesus, who's also a pastor in the New Testament, he says it this way He says, faith without works is dead. For those of you who have been around church, maybe you've heard that. Faith without works is dead. So to say I believe in something, but to actually not act on it, you really don't believe it. True? And so we see that play out. And again, we could talk about faith all day long, but I want us to look at this first person of faith, which I want to reread verse 7 in Hebrews 11 before we jump to the Genesis 6 account. It says this, by faith, Noah, after he has warned us, or was warned about what was not yet seen, as in the flood coming, impending danger, and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith, he condemned the world and he became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Now, any Noah fans in the house? I mean, I know people who are not Christians and who uh would say we don't believe they don't believe in God, they've never really read the Bible, but they've heard about Noah and the Ark. Okay? This is a very popular story. It's a very common story that you hear. Uh you see it on walls in in the preschools and and you see it around kids, which is a little bit interesting considering that a lot of people drowned. That's almost like a little freaky. I don't know. You know, it's like let's put it on the wall in our in our elementary preschool area. So uh, but but Noah and the Ark is a very common story. And and so when we hear the this account of Noah, some of you, this may be like, oh yeah, I've heard this a hundred times. But I want you to hear it with fresh ears today. I'm not gonna be able to cover the whole thing. It's actually from chapter 6 in Genesis to chapter 9. So it's four full chapters, lots of detail. We're gonna give you the Cliff Notes version, some highlights, and kind of three acts, if you will. And I want you to hear some of this storyline, and I want us to think about Noah and what made him a hero, and what also reveals that there was something missing in Noah that we find somewhere else. The first thing that we notice in Rome in uh Genesis chapter 6, okay? If you want to flip over there, you can. Uh it's kind of a distracting thing to kind of read through it, honestly, but there's so many different parts moving and different things going on in the story. Um but I love the story, but it doesn't start out so well. In fact, it starts out pretty bleak. And in verse 5, it says this to kind of summarize what's been going on on the earth when the story begins. It says, When the Lord saw that man's wickedness was widespread on the earth, and that every scheme in his mind, uh, mind, thought of was nothing but evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. One thing you note there is that when he looks across the earth, this is being God, he looks across the whole earth, he sees that every scheme that these human beings are thinking of is evil. Wicked. That's pretty dark, isn't it? Now, I don't know how many of you actually went and saw the movie Noah that came out, uh, I can't think the last couple years. Uh I didn't go to the theater to see it, but on my way to Indonesia, uh I actually watched it on the plane. And uh it's off biblically uh in some different places. They took a lot of liberty with it, just FYI. It's not all what scripture says about the story, but I will tell you this. They did an amazing job, sadly, they did an amazing job of painting the depravity of humankind. I mean, I actually got finished watching it and my heart was so heavy. My heart was so overwhelmed with the the reality of what happens when humans are just left to themselves and they just rebel against God and they just do their thing. It's so wicked, so evil, so destructive. You know what I'm talking about? And I just remember getting into the end of that movie and I was like, God, we are a broken people. We are a mess. We are a train wreck. But in this passage, he tells us that everything they thought of was evil and wicked and bad. And so he actually, it says he regrets making them. He regrets making people. He regrets, he regrets creating the world as we know it. And it even says that he was grieved in his heart. Now that's an interesting thought. Because there are a lot of people who think God is a robot. That he has no emotions, he has no feelings, that he's completely disconnected, that he's just stale and stagnant, just kind of disconnected, right? And it says that he was grieved in his heart, which tells us about the personal nature of God. That God loves people and that he is he was hurt. He's not controlled by our emotions like we are, but he felt pain, he felt hurt over the the depth of depravity of mankind. So that's kind of scene one, if you will, is just the condition of humanity. The second thing we see here, though, is actually God's plan to judge and rescue. What is God gonna actually do about this? And it starts in verse 7, and I just want to read verse 7 and 8 to you because I think this is really important. But we see God's plan to judge and a little bit of inkling about how he's gonna rescue some people. Verse 7 says, Then the Lord said, I will wipe you off from the face of the earth, every man kind man whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky, for I regret, that's the second time he's now said that, that I made them. Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the Lord. So, what's God gonna do to right the ship? What's he gonna do to fix the problem of all the depravity and all the mess that's going on in the world? He's going to bring a flood. And again, for most of us in this room, that's not a new idea, that's not a new part of the story. We understand this story, we've heard this story many times. But it says that he is going to wash the face of the earth, he's gonna remove uh all of this depravity, this wickedness by just drowning it away. And so he is going to judge the earth. Now, let me just be honest. This is a hard thing for us as human beings to wrap our minds around because we hear things a lot about God is loving, God is good, God is gracious, God is merciful, and then you read stories like this and you're like, wait, is this the same God we're talking about? Because he's getting ready to like destroy all these people. Now, I want you to understand, first off, we don't get to decide what God is like. I don't get to determine what I what what parts of God I'm just gonna adopt and what parts I'm gonna reject and just say, okay, I'm gonna take this part of the Bible out, I'm gonna throw that away, and then I'm gonna, you know, hold on to these parts. You know, you know what I'm saying? We aren't God, and so we don't get to determine what God is like. We know the scripture gives us a full picture of what he is like. And what we do know is this is when God talks about himself in the scripture, it tells us that he is holy and that he is full of wrath towards sin. He is just. Just like when somebody does something to my kids and and it makes me angry, I'm going to act on that, right? I'm gonna I'm gonna defend my kids, I'm gonna defend uh, but even more so with God, he sees sin, he sees wickedness, he sees evil, he sees its offensiveness, and he doesn't just sit back and play a passive role. He acts and he does something about that. And we would say that's a good thing, right? That he doesn't ignore sin, that he doesn't act like it, that there's not really uh bad things going on, that people aren't getting hurt, that sin's not causing problems. And so in this story here, it tells us that he is going to wipe off from the face of the earth mankind and everything that he created. But verse 8 is really powerful because not only has he got a plan to wipe it off, but he also has a plan to rescue. And it and I don't know what translation that you're looking at, but in some translation it says, but Noah. But Noah found favor with God. Mine just says, however, Noah found favor with God. I love the but Noah because I think throughout the entire Bible we see this theme, don't we? Here is man, here is our humanness, here is our mess, here is our brokenness, and it says, but God steps in. But God sees it and he moves on behalf of the people there. And so we see this even like in Romans where it says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So, yes, there is a plan for judgment in this story, but there's also a plan for redemption. Because our God is a God of redemption, he's a God of grace. And let me just say a word here, because this is gonna come back at the end. Yes, it is hard for us to swallow the pill that God is a wrathful God and that he's actually gonna judge. But I want you to know that what's about to happen is Noah is about to implement God's plan, and for 120 years, you heard me right, 120 years, Noah's gonna build this boat. And guess what God is doing during those 120 years? God is waiting for people to turn away from their sin. He is waiting patiently, mercifully, for them to come to Noah and say, hey, you know what? We're in sin. We're gonna, we're gonna we're with you now. And what do they do? They ignore God. They ignore Noah and they reject this plan. Point being is this sometimes we make God out to be a bad person, but you need to understand that God is both good and he is right, and he is also incredibly gracious and merciful to us, so that he has given them an opportunity to turn, and they didn't turn. So that's kind of the middle of the story. But the last part of the story is the actual flood. And it rains and pours for what? 40 days. The rain comes, the door is shut, and Noah and his family, the eight of them, survive. They're the only survivors in this story. They're the only survivors of the flood. Nothing on the earth, I mean, the whole earth is covered. Think about Mount Everest, the tallest mountain, whatever you've ever climbed. Think about the tallest. Every mountain, everything is covered in water. Water's coming up from the ground, water's coming down from the sky, and the whole earth is flooded. That's what the Bible tells us. Crazy thought, isn't it? I mean, we've had a lot of rain lately, and we've had to deal with some floods, but nothing on this scale. That the whole earth was covered with water. And here's this ark floating along on the water for 40 days and 40 nights while this water comes. And nothing, no one survives except for those in the ark. But once again, chapter 8, verse 1, it says, But God remembers Noah. But God remembers Noah. In the midst of this judgment, in the midst of this wrath, God remembers Noah. And eventually, what happens in the story? Eventually what happens is that the rain stops, and the waters begin to subside, and the water begins to go away. And Noah sends out some birds, and eventually there's some dry land, one of the birds brings back a branch. And then finally, this boat, this ark, it lands on top of a mountain and settles there. And then Noah and his family come off, and what's the first thing they do? They worship God. They build an altar and they worship God. And they say, Thank you, God, for rescuing us. And that's the story. That's the story of Noah. So what can we actually learn from this character, Noah? Well, every superhero, every hero has a strength, right? They've got something that's their go-to. And so when you look at all the different hero characters, they're always going to have something that they're good at and something that they kind of are leaned into. So if you've seen Avengers, you know that each character has their hero feature. Well, Noah has a strength that I think we can all learn from today. And his strength is this Noah faithfully obeyed. He faithfully obeyed. Now let's think about this. All the world around him is rejecting God, living how they want to live, doing what they want to do, and yet this scripture says that Noah found favor with God. That's not because Noah was perfect. But he did find favor with God, and God knew that Noah was a humble servant and that he would obey. He, in fact, he faithfully obeyed to the degree, as I said a while ago, for 120 years, he works on a boat. He gets his three boys, Ham, Shem, and Japheth, and he says, We're going to work on a boat. And they're like, What's a boat? And he's like, I don't know. He had no Home Depot. He had no nails. He had no power tools. I mean, he is out there working, enslaving, obeying God, following the blueprint. He had no DIY website. He had nothing. Right? He's working and working and slaving and working through this thing because he was a faithful, obedient servant of God. Not even knowing. That's why it says in Hebrews, he didn't know what was going to happen. He didn't know what this whole thing was going to look like. He couldn't see it, but he just kept operating in faithful obedience to God. Has God ever asked you to do something that you couldn't really see what was going to happen? Or it didn't make sense to you? You couldn't figure it out? I mean, chances are, if you're like me, many times you're like God. As soon as I get some more clarity, then I'll think about obeying you. I mean, to be honest, right? Can you show me some more details? Can you give me a little more clarity of this picture of what's going to happen? Then I'll think about obeying you. Then I'll think about following you. No, it's just like, yes, I will obey. I will follow. I will trust you. I know that you are God. I believe in my heart that you are good, and I'm going to act on that. That's challenging, isn't it? This is why he's a hero of faith. Because he believed God, trusted God, and he was willing to step out and do what no one else would do on the earth at that time. And not only was he a faithful worker doing that, he was also a great zookeeper. He actually ended up being a zookeeper, and he has this whole arc full of animals, which had to be kind of crazy. And I'm still wondering why they brought the mosquitoes with them, okay? But seriously, like, think about this. This is a wild thought just to be in this position that he was in. And as Noah works through this, I'm sure he's thinking, man, maybe I am crazy. Maybe this is just insane. You know, everybody's around him ridiculing him. I'm sure every day as he goes and gets ready to go out and work on this ark, then people are showing up saying, look at this foolish man. Look at this crazy guy. He's got his whole family out there putting this big box thing together. For what? We are in a desert for crying out loud. What's a flood? What's rain? You know? And here they are doing this thing, and Noah stays faithful despite what people say, despite what people do, he's faithful to God. But Noah not only had a strength, Noah also had a weakness. Noah had a weakness. Noah was a sinner. You're like, oh, that's pretty generic. Well, let me tell you why this is so significant. Because remember what happens in the story. God sees the sinfulness of humanity, and he wants to wipe off the face of the earth of that. He wants to clean that all up and start over fresh and new, right? But notice what happens. I said a while ago, when they got off the ark that Noah and his family build this altar, they worship God. But a little bit further in the story, we're reminded by the writer, which, by the way, the first five books of the new of the Old Testament written by Moses, he's clearly trying to help us get a grasp on the fact that Moses that Noah was not a perfect man. In verse 20 of chapter 9, this is what it says. It says, Noah, a man of the soil, some translations actually say farmer, was the first to plant a vineyard. He goes out and plants some grapes. That's no big deal, right? Go plant some grapes. But then it says, He drank some of the wine, he became drunk, and he uncovered himself inside of his tent, as in, i.e., he became naked. Alright? Let's just say what it is. He's naked. And here's the thing. In the Hebrew language and in the understanding, the best of our ability, we can speculate, and we've got to be careful how much we speculate here, but what the writer clearly is pointing to is that something was going on that dishonored God and it brought shame upon himself. Which in essence is sin. It was sinful. Whatever he did, it was simple. He got drunk and he got naked. It even goes on in the story to say that his sons, one of his sons walks in, he's like, whoa, and then, you know, it's like, then he goes and tells his brothers. Of course, it's what you do, right? Dad's naked in the tent, drunk. You gotta come check this out. See, God was gonna wipe off all the sinfulness of the earth. But guess what? Because humans still lived, sin still lived. Sin still reigned. Because in our humanness we are broken. Every single one of us in this room, we have sin in us. If we were the only person on the planet, we would still sin. Which is a good reminder. It's not everybody else's problem, it's our problem, right? We can point at our finger all day long, but we all are sinners. We are broken. We have these issues. And so in this text, we're reminded that Noah was a sinner and that he had issues in his life. Just like we do. And that's kind of encouraging, isn't it? To see these biblical characters who, even though they did these great things for God, they're human beings just like us. And yet, God still showed them grace. God showed them mercy. But there's a bigger picture, and this is where I want us to land the plane today because you have to catch this, okay? There's a bigger picture in this whole story. There's a bigger truth going on, there's a bigger narrative, there's a bigger point. First, we need us to understand this morning that the bigger picture shows us that the floods did come, just like God said, and in life, God has said judgment day is coming. There is a day that's going to come when Jesus Christ is going to return and he's going to judge all humanity again. In the story, we know at the end of that that God makes a covenant with Noah. And we know that in that covenant, he promises not to destroy the earth ever again in that way. Right? And he paints a rainbow in the clouds to signify that commitment, that promise. And so every time we see a rainbow, it's a sermon. A rainbow is a sermon saying to humanity that God is promised this, that he will not destroy humankind in that way, but also it's a sermon of God's grace. His redemption. He could have destroyed all the people, but he did not. We're here today because he didn't. And so there's a bigger point in that the flood points us to God's judgment that is going to come. Whether you know it, whether you believe it or not, there's a day coming according to Scripture where God is going to judge all humanity. But the second thing we notice is that Noah is actually a type of Adam who points us to a need for something greater. And you're like, what does that mean? Well, throughout the Bible, we find these types, and these types are basically people who point us to the person and work of Jesus. And so Noah is a type of Adam. In fact, in Genesis 1, chapter verses 1 through 3. Genesis chapters 1 through 3, notice this are some parallels that happen in Genesis 6 through 9. For example, Genesis 1 through 3, chapters 1 through 3, the water covers the whole earth. In Genesis 6 through 9, water covers the earth. In Genesis 1 through 3, spirit, the spirit is over the waters. In Genesis 6 through 9, wind is over the waters. In Genesis 1 through 3, Adam rules the animals. In Genesis 6 through 9, Noah rules the animals. In Genesis 1 through 3, Adam falls with fruit. In Genesis 6 to 9, Noah falls with fruit. In Genesis 1 through 3, Adam realizes his nakedness. In Genesis 6 through 9, Noah becomes naked. In Genesis 1 through 3, sin brought a curse. And in Genesis 6 through 9, sin brought a curse. This is not by accident, guys. God has a plan, it's unfolding, and this narrative of scripture, as Moses recorded it, is to point us to a greater truth. And that is this is that no matter how great Noah was, he still failed to be the Messiah for all humanity. He could not be the ultimate redeemer. He could not fix all the problems that started in the Garden of Eden. Are you with me? He couldn't do it. He was a hero, but he could not be the ultimate hero. He could not be the redeemer. You see, because not only was Noah a type of Adam and Jesus pointing us to the fact that Jesus is the greater Noah, but Jesus is not only the greater Noah, he's the true ark. Jesus is the true ark. You're like, what do you mean he's the true ark? That's kind of a weird thought. Well, how is Jesus a boat? Because Jesus is salvation. And when we come into Jesus, when we put our faith in Jesus, when we enter in, when the judgment comes, we will be protected from the judgment of God by what? By being in Jesus. This is pointing us to a bigger picture. Maybe you've never thought about the story that way before. Maybe you've never thought about that picture, but that is without question what God was trying to do to say to humanity that this is true of Jesus, that there is one coming who is greater than Noah, and he is the true ark. And he symbolizes, in this picture, the ark symbolizes the salvation and the rescue that we all desperately need. In fact, in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 20, it says, Those who in the past were disobedient when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while an ark was being prepared. In it, a few, that is, eight people, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if you're tracking, if you're hearing what I'm saying, this passage in Peter is telling us that we are not saved by water, we are saved by the person and work of Jesus Christ. That we enter into a relationship with him, and just as Jesus said about himself in John 14 6, he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. No one comes to God except through Jesus. That's it. Only salvation is found in Jesus. So the question today, because the story clearly says that if you disobey God, you're gonna get wiped out. But God has provided a way not to get wiped out. He's provided a way to salvation, and it's Jesus. He's the rescuer, he's the redeemer, he's the true ark, he's the greater Noah. He is the one who saves all of mankind. So, believer in the room, those of us who've put our trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, we don't have to fear destruction. That's a good thing, right? We don't have to fear ultimate destruction. The question for you and I today is is there anything in our life that God is asking us to do where we are disobeying? Is there anything in our life that God is asking us to do right now in this moment that we have ignored God's instruction on? Because even though we don't have to be fearful of ultimate destruction, we can still live with the consequences of disobedience every day in our lives. Can't we? You can still be a Christian who's gonna spend eternity with God and have a train wreck for a marriage because you don't want to obey God's plan. You can still be a Christian who believes in God, and you can disobey God and how you manage your finances, how you manage your time, how you do life. And listen, God is saying to you, listen to me, I want to bless you, but you've got to do it my way. May we be more like Noah who say, God, whatever you say, I want to obey you. No matter what, no matter what people say, no matter whether I get ridiculed, I want to obey you. But there's another group of people in this room, and that's those of you who maybe are an unbeliever. Maybe you're exploring faith, maybe you're not completely sure, maybe you don't know really where you stand on all this thing. But the Bible says that if we've not put our trust and our hope in Jesus to save us, that we are lost. That we need a rescuer, we need a redeemer. And here's the cool thing: you don't have to earn him. You can't work your way to get him. You can't work your way to forgiveness. You can't go to church enough, you can't do enough kids' clubs, you can't serve people enough. The only way is by faith in Christ. Because of his great grace. And so, my question to you, unbeliever, today, is have you responded to the incredible invitation that God's offered? Have you entered into the ark that will protect you when the judgment comes? It's a real true thing that will happen. And my prayer as a pastor of this church, as a leader in our community, is that every single person in this room would say, I want to follow and trust Jesus. Because the judgment is imminent. It will happen. And my prayer is that all of us here in this room will get to spend eternity with our God. Because He's so good. Let me pray for us.