Today's scripture passages are found in Genesis 6, 7, 8, and 9.
These verses are found in your bulletin.
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land,
man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh,
for the earth is filled with violence through them.
Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.
Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch.
For behold, I will bring out a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh,
in which is the breath of life under heaven.
Everything that is on the earth shall die.
But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark,
you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month,
on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth,
and the windows of the heavens were opened, and rain fell upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.
On the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth,
and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark.
They and every beast according to its kind,
and all the livestock according to their kinds,
and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind,
and every bird according to its kind,
every winged creature.
They went into the ark with Noah,
two and two of all flesh,
in which there was the breath of life.
And those that entered, male and female of all flesh,
went in as God had commanded him,
and the Lord shut him in.
The flood continued 40 days on the earth.
The waters increased and bore up the ark,
and arose high above the earth.
The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth,
and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth
that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.
He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground,
man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens.
They were blotted out from the earth.
Only Noah was left,
and those who were with him in the ark.
And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
In the 601st year,
in the first month,
the first day of the month,
the waters were dried from off the earth.
And Noah removed the covering of the ark,
and looked,
and behold,
the face of the ground was dry.
In the second month,
on the 27th day of the month,
the earth had dried out.
Then God said to Noah,
Go out from the ark,
you and your wife,
and your sons and your sons' wives with you.
Bring out with you every living thing
that is with you of all flesh,
birds and animals,
and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth,
that they may swarm on the earth,
and be fruitful,
and multiply on the earth.
So Noah went out,
and his sons and his wife,
and his sons' wives with him.
Every beast,
every creeping thing,
and every bird,
everything that moves on the earth,
went out by families from the ark.
Then God said to Noah,
and to his sons with him,
I establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all flesh
be cut off by the waters of the flood,
and never again shall there be a flood
to destroy the earth.
And God said,
This is the sign of the covenant
that I make between me and you,
and every living creature that is with you,
for all future generations.
I've set my bow in the cloud,
and it shall be a sign of the covenant
between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow is seen in the clouds,
I will remember my covenant
that is between me and you,
and every living creature of all flesh.
And the water shall never again
become a flood to destroy all flesh.
When the bow is in the clouds,
I will see it,
and remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature
of all flesh that is on the earth.
God said to Noah,
This is the sign of the covenant
that I have established between me
and all flesh that is on the earth.
Good morning.
For those of you who don't know me,
my name is Eric Scott.
I'm the youth guy here at Watermark Church.
This past week,
we had a very special celebration.
It was Tobin's birthday.
And we as a staff decided to do a skit
to celebrate, not make fun of,
celebrate Tobin on his birthday.
And for some reason,
I can't think of why they chose me
to play Tobin in this skit.
And I had to dress up like Tobin.
I think I wore this exact outfit, actually.
And I had to say a number of lines
that Tobin always says.
One of those lines
that I've been thinking a lot about this week
is many Sundays he'll get up here
and he'll say,
Today's passage
is possibly the hardest passage
in the Bible to preach on.
And the first couple times
you hear him say that,
you're like,
Okay, this one must be a really tough one.
And then you hear him say it like five times
or eight times,
and you're like,
Where is the actual hardest passage
to preach on?
But as I thought about that line this week,
I realized the secret.
The secret is,
whatever passage you have to preach on this week
automatically is the hardest passage
in the Bible to preach on.
So today we're going to be looking at
the flood.
The past couple weeks
we've been going through the book of Genesis.
Tobin started us off two weeks ago
looking at creation.
And he said,
If you look at the Bible's story of creation,
it's different than every other
ancient creation narrative.
In all of the other ones,
there's creation out of chaos,
out of a conflict,
out of a lack.
But in the Bible,
you see God creating out of an overflow
of his goodness.
And because of this,
he makes the creation good.
He creates man in his own image
and gives him this worth
that you don't find
in any other creation narrative.
He creates man and woman
and makes them for community.
He places them in a garden together
and they're naked and unashamed,
the Bible tells us.
And Tobin pointed out
that that is not just a physical thing,
but also an emotional thing
where they were fully known
by each other.
They had no fears,
nothing to hide from each other.
And last week,
we had Michael Ramston come in
and he talked about the fall.
Adam and Eve,
they had one command from God
not to eat the fruit
from one tree.
They believed a lie
that that fruit would make them
just like God.
They ate the fruit.
sin entered the world.
And with that,
alienation came in.
And Michael went through
this comprehensive list
of the types of alienation
that entered the world
with sin.
There was internal,
psychological alienation
where we are not at peace
with ourselves anymore.
There's spiritual alienation
where we're separated
and cut off from God.
There's social alienation
where we are cut off
from fully being able
to interact with one another.
There's ecological alienation
where the world around us
is a broken place
and it is breaking down
and we have global warming.
There's vocational alienation
where the jobs
that we were created to do
don't satisfy us
and don't function
like they were created to.
And then there's
physical degradation
where our bodies break down
and eventually we die physically.
And Michael said
that this picture of death
that enters the world at sin
is the most comprehensive view
of death that you can ever find.
But that despite humanity's rebellion
against God,
despite the fact that we had failed
so terribly,
despite the fact that we had brought
this death on ourselves,
God did not simply hit a reset button
on creation to start over.
He decided that he was going
to rescue this creation.
And so today we're going to start
looking at the story
as it moves forward.
If you follow the story,
the first two chapters of the Bible,
Genesis chapter 1 and 2,
tell of creation.
Genesis 3 is Adam and Eve
eating the fruit.
In the next chapter,
Genesis 4,
Adam and Eve have two sons,
Cain and Abel.
And Cain murders Abel
in cold blood
because God accepted Abel's sacrifice
and not Cain's
and Cain was angry about it.
And then you get to Genesis chapter 6
where it says,
the thoughts and intentions
of man's hearts
were only evil continuously.
It's a sort of big, rapid jump.
Eat a fruit,
three chapters later,
the thoughts and intentions
of man's heart
are only evil continuously.
I think, for me at least,
when I look at that,
it's like,
what happened here?
Why did this escalate so quickly?
But the thing is
that it's actually
a very logical progression.
In the garden,
God created Adam and Eve
to have a relationship with him.
He created himself
as the center of their lives.
And then,
by eating the fruit,
by disobeying him,
they separated themselves from him
and cut themselves off
from this life.
Moving forward,
humanity is operating
in the sense of separation,
in the status of separation from God
and spiritual deadness.
And that,
as the human actions get worse,
it's not that humanity's condition
is actually becoming worse
and worse and worse,
it's just that they're showing
more and more symptoms
of their state
that's already inside themselves.
The fact is,
ever since Adam and Eve
eat the fruit,
humanity is dead,
separated from God,
alienated.
And the question's not
how did it escalate so quickly
in just three chapters
and a few generations
to,
from eating a fruit
to being only evil continually.
The question is,
how much grace did God
have to show
to restrain it
from just happening
instantly like that?
But we get to Genesis chapter 6.
The thoughts and intentions
of man's hearts
are only evil continuously.
It's a great,
happy way
to start out this passage,
right?
And we see God
looking in
at this situation
and he says
something has to be done
about this.
This cannot endure.
I'm going to wipe out
everything on the earth.
And he decides
to send a flood,
to destroy everything,
but out of this creation
he's going to save
one man
and his family.
He's going to save
a man named Noah.
He's going to save
a couple
of every type of animal
out there
so that they can
repopulate the earth
after this destruction
is complete.
Now as a kid
I was always
sort of taught
that God saved Noah
because Noah
was a good guy.
But if you look
at the Bible
that's not actually
what it tells us.
It tells us that
Noah found favor
in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah received grace.
Noah,
just like everyone else
in his day,
was a sinner.
Noah,
just like everyone else
in his day,
deserved death
for his sin.
And the one thing
that saved Noah
from being destroyed
in this flood
with the rest of creation
was grace.
And so
I think,
again,
I have a question
that I ask
when I look at this story.
why didn't God
save more people?
He sends a flood
on the earth,
he saves eight people.
Why not more?
But I think
that's the wrong question.
I think the question is
why would he save
any at all?
Why would he choose
to show grace?
Because it was
only by grace alone
and not
by their merit
that they
are chosen
to be saved
in this situation.
So God comes to Noah,
he says,
Noah,
I want you to build
an ark.
He says,
go for wood,
here are the dimensions
that you have to build,
build it,
fill it with animals,
and I'm going to send
a flood,
I'm just going to wipe
everything out,
you're going to be on there,
you're good to go.
And as God comes to Noah,
Noah obeys.
We see that repeatedly
in this passage.
God tells Noah
to do something,
Noah obeys.
Noah can't see
the full picture,
but every step of the way,
as God tells him
what to do next,
he does it.
And every step of the way,
as Noah obeys,
God shows himself
to be faithful.
God takes care of Noah,
God protects Noah
and his family.
And I think,
just as a side note,
Noah can be a great example
to us in this.
If you look at the story,
God comes to Noah,
gives him a command
to do something
which had never been done before,
in preparation for an event
that had never happened before.
If you look for any
human logical explanation
for why Noah
should have done this,
there was none.
The Bible tells us
that before Noah's time,
it had never rained before
on the earth.
Noah lived in a dry area.
And God says,
build a big boat.
And Noah's like,
okay.
He starts building.
There had never,
if Noah looked
for a logical reason
to build this boat,
to obey God,
he never would have found one
because it didn't exist
because the things
that God was saying
were going to happen
had never happened before.
And yet,
Noah trusted God's goodness.
Noah trusted God's faithfulness.
Noah obeyed.
Noah built the boat.
And God rescued him.
And I think a lot of times
in our lives,
we feel God calling us
to do something.
And we're like,
I need to find
a logical reason
why I should obey God.
But the thing is,
he's God.
And sometimes,
there's no logical,
reasonable explanation
for why we should do things
other than that
God said to do it.
And everyone else
will look at us
and say like,
that's weird,
what's he doing?
But if God tells us
to do it,
then God will be faithful
to protect us
and keep us safe
and take care of us
through that.
And so,
Noah obeys.
Noah builds the ark.
God protects him
and his family.
Noah loads the animals
onto the ark.
They get everything ready.
And then,
the doors of the ark close
and the rains come.
And if you look
at the story of the flood,
it's actually really interesting.
In many ways,
it's an undoing
and redoing of creation.
If you look at the story
of creation
in Genesis chapter 1,
you have,
it starts out with just,
there's darkness
over the face of everything
and there's water everywhere
and the spirit's hovering
over the water.
And then,
the days of creation come
and God makes light
and then God separates
the water below
from the water above
and he brings chaos,
he shapes chaos
into order.
He makes land,
he makes plants
and trees,
he makes the sun,
moon,
and stars,
he makes birds
and fish
and animals on the ground,
he makes man
in his own image.
And as you look
at the story of the flood,
basically all of this
happens backwards.
birds.
So,
day one,
the light was created.
In the flood,
the clouds come in
and cover up the light
and darkness is here
once again.
Day two of creation,
you've got the waters
below on the earth
separated from the waters
above,
but in the flood,
the rains come
and these waters
are once again combined.
Day three of creation,
you've got the land
coming up out of the water,
but as the flood comes,
it comes up
and it covers up
all of the land.
Day four of creation,
the sun, moon,
and stars are created
and again,
they're covered
by the clouds
so that they can't
be seen temporarily.
Day five of creation,
the fish are created,
they can sort of
survive the flood,
I guess,
but the birds,
the birds are wiped out.
And then day six
of creation,
the animals that go around
on the ground
and man are created
and again,
they are wiped out
by the flood
so that by the end
of the 40 days,
we're back to the state
where water is over
the face of everything.
We're back
to the very beginning
of the creation story
where there's just
darkness and water.
And it's at this point
that God begins
to restore
this work of creation.
And interestingly,
he doesn't,
like Michael said
last week,
he doesn't just
hit a reset button,
he saves a remnant
from the original creation
to come back
and repopulate
this new creation.
creation.
But as we look
at the story,
the clouds part
and light comes in again
in day one.
The waters below
and the waters above
separate as the rain stops,
mirroring day two
of creation.
As time goes by,
the waters on the earth
lower and the land
once again comes out
and trees and plants
begin to grow,
mirroring day three
of creation.
The sun, moon,
and stars,
they'd always been there,
but they become visible again,
mirroring day four
of creation.
The first animal
that Noah sends out
of the boat
is a raven,
a bird,
which was created
on day five
of creation.
And the second animal
he sends out,
the story tells us,
is a dove.
And then finally,
the ark lands
and they unload
and all of the animals
created on day six
leave the ark.
And the parallels
don't end there.
after the creation narrative,
God tells man
in Genesis 1
that he has been created
in God's image.
And in Genesis chapter 9,
after the people
get off the ark,
God reminds them
of the fact
that they have been created
in his image.
In Genesis chapter 1,
God gives man rule
over the earth.
In Genesis chapter 9,
God again tells them,
you are in charge
of these animals.
In Genesis,
the creation narrative,
God gives this command
to be fruitful
and multiply
and build the earth.
And in Genesis 9,
this command is repeated.
The parallels are amazing.
And there's one more parallel
that's there as a reminder
of the effects of sin
that remain after the flood.
Because in the creation story,
we see Adam and Eve
after the creation
has been completed.
They're in this garden.
Things are good
and they're naked
and they're unashamed.
And they're together.
And this nakedness
is a sign of trust,
of obedience,
of faith in God,
a perfect community.
But with Noah,
after the ark lands,
he goes and he plants
a garden of his own.
He plants a vineyard.
Out of this vineyard,
he makes some wine.
He drinks the wine
and gets drunk.
And he lays naked
naked in the tent
in his garden.
But unlike Adam and Eve,
whose nakedness in the garden
was a picture of faith
and obedience and trust,
Noah's nakedness in the garden
is a sign of sin and shame
that remains
from human rebellion against God.
His son walks in
and sees him
and Noah ends up cursing
his own son
because of this.
So we can see
that God takes
the creation
that had been there.
He wipes it out.
He brings back
man and the animals.
But the effects of sin
that God had been
working to wipe out
are not fully wiped out
in this creation.
Although he had wiped out
the sin around
Noah's family,
he had not wiped out
the sin
within Noah
and his family.
And so as I looked
at this story this week
and I thought,
how does this make
a difference in my life?
I found a few different ways.
The first way
is that
all of my community
must be centered
around God.
If you look at
Genesis chapter 1,
God creates man and woman
and as he creates them
he puts himself
at the center
of their community.
He creates Adam
out of the dust
and the first thing
that Adam sees
when he comes to life
is God.
And he knows himself
as created
in God's image
in this relationship
with God.
And when God decides
to make a woman
he doesn't just say
oh, here's a woman Adam.
He puts Adam to sleep,
takes Adam's rib
and makes a woman
and the first thing
that the woman sees
when she comes to life
is God
because her boy is asleep.
And she sees God
and she understands herself
in this relationship
with God
and it's only after
she's established
the fact
that she is in this
relationship with God
first and foremost
that God introduces
Adam and Eve
to each other.
And as they go
through life together
they understand
that although
this is good
although they are meant
to be together
God is ultimately
the one at the center
of it.
And with the fall
that understanding
is lost.
At the fall
human community
in many ways
replaces God
in our lives.
So that when you look
at Genesis chapter 6
as God's explaining
why he's sending
the flood
it talks about
how the sons of God
saw that the daughters
of man were attractive.
Many people think
that this means
that the guys
who believed in God
were going
and marrying
any girl
regardless of
whether she believed
in God
or cared about God
or whatever
and they were
putting their desire
to be loved
and their desire
to be with someone
in a relationship
before their desire
to be in a relationship
with God.
And this community
that God created
for good
to point us back
towards him
instead becomes
an idol
that replaces him
in these people's lives
and that drives them
away from God.
And this is something
that I see in my life
all the time.
Like I love
love being around people.
Like I think
I have a problem
because I just
like I get energized
by being around people
I enjoy being around people
and when I'm by myself
for too long
I'm just like
I want to scream
because I want to be
around people.
And I think
in many ways
this is a good thing
right?
This is an echo
of that need
for community
that God created
within us.
But in many ways
this is also
a product
of my fallen state
because when I reach
this point
I just want people
around me so badly
that I reach out
and I cling to people
and rather than
seeing them
as gifts
from God
to help point me
back to them
I see them as tools
to help fulfill
my desire
to be loved.
Rather than
using them
to help me
worship God
I use them
as idols
that point me
away from God.
And in these times
rather than
engaging in true
gospel community
I look for people
who I think
will make me feel good.
I look for people
who I can be
comfortable around.
And rather than
using community
for worship
it drives me
away from God.
Rather than
having God
at the center
of my community
I put myself
at the center
of my community.
And everyone there
is there for me.
At least in my mind.
And this story
reminds me
that God
has to be
at the center
of my community.
In this story
when man
puts himself
at the center
of his community
rather than God
God wipes him out
and after the flood
he again
places himself
at the center
of human community
by making
a covenant
with man.
The first thing
off the boat
he makes a covenant
reestablishing himself
as the center
of our community.
And so in my life
I need to
put God
at the center
of all my community.
The second thing
that I saw
from the story
of the flood
that I think
really impacts my life
is that I need
to remember
this one
this one's gonna like
make us
cringe a little bit
I think
when we hear it.
but remember
God's role
as judge
in the earth.
See I think
we don't like
to think about God
in his role
as a judge
because it's uncomfortable
it's not fun
it's not safe.
And I think
there are two main reasons
why we don't like this.
First off
we want God
to exist
to make us happy.
At least I do
in my life.
In my life
I am the person
that I spend
the most time with.
Everything that I do
I think back to
how will this impact me?
When I look around
at the world
I think
I want to be happy.
I'm aware
of how everything else
in life impacts me.
And I want God
to be just as concerned
about making me happy
as I am.
And I think
that's probably
a pretty universal thing.
Am I the only one?
I hear giggles
so I think
I'm not the only one.
I think they're
nervous giggles.
I don't want to confess
that that's actually me too.
And so
I want God
to exist
to make me happy.
And if God is judge
and if God's judgment
can mean that he sends
a flood
that wipes people out
that seems contrary
to their happiness.
Because part of happiness
would seem to be
being alive
to enjoy that happiness.
And so the fact
that God is judge
goes against
my desire here
for God to exist
to make me happy.
We think
God's job
is to give us
good grades in school
help us get the right job
get the right promotion
find the right spouse
have the right kids
have a great house
and put us in a position
where we can get
everything else
we need in life
on our own.
I think that
a lot of times
is the definition
of happy
that we assign
God to give us.
But the thing is
if you look at the Bible
that's not
God's role.
That's not why
God exists.
It's actually not
that God exists
to make us happy
but that we exist
for God's sake.
Colossians chapter 1
verse 16
says
Now we fall into that list
under visible things
and things on earth.
So we're included
in that list
and it says
that we have been created
by God
for God.
We exist
for God
not Him
existing
for us.
If we continue
looking at the Bible
Psalm 4610
says
Be still
and know
that I am God.
I will be exalted
among the nations.
I will be exalted
in the earth.
The purpose
of the earth existing
is not for Eric Scott
to be happy
and comfortable.
The purpose
of the earth existing
is for God
to be glorified.
And again
in Ephesians 2
when it's talking
in this wonderful passage
about God's work
of saving us
when we were rebels
and aliens against Him.
It says
that God's work
of saving us
was not so that
He could show
how wonderful
and amazing we are
but so that
in the coming ages
He might make known
the riches
of His mercy
in kindness
towards us
in Christ Jesus.
He saves us
so He can show off
how great and amazing
He is.
we exist
for the glory
of God
which means
that God
has the right
to do with us
what He pleases
and if that includes
judging us
when we deserve it
then He has
the right
to do that
according to the Bible.
Now the second reason
that we don't like
the idea of God
being a judge
is that we don't
actually think
we're that bad.
we look around
ourselves
and think
Hitler
he was a bad guy
I'm not him
I deserve another chance
Stalin
he was a bad guy
I'm not that bad
I haven't killed
that many people
yet
I deserve another chance
and as long
as we look
around ourselves
at broken humanity
we can always find
someone worse
than us
to compare ourselves
against
so that we can say
I think I deserve
another chance
and we think of God
as operating on
this same scale
like we're a little
better than someone else
maybe he's a little
better than us
but that doesn't
give him the right
to judge us
right?
The problem is
that's not how
the scale works
it's not that
Hitler is here
and we're here
and God is here
the problem is
that God is totally
different than us
that he is perfect
he is good
and we are not
that we as his
creation
owe him
our allegiance
and we instead
have been rebels
and traitors
and turned against him
and as a result
of this
it's not that
we deserve to just
be looked down on
a little
and be like
sorry you're not
as good as me
but we deserve
death
and so
as we look
at our state
we see
that
God has the right
to judge us
because we exist
for his sake
that we deserve
to be judged
because we're sinful
and we are not
up to his standard
and that just
doesn't make
any good news
does it?
If we look at
this problem
of God being judged
if we put ourselves
in the story
of the flood
basically we see
that we're drowning
with everyone else
and we deserve
to be drowning
with everyone else
which at least
in my book
is not good news
but there is
good news
in this story
see the flood
was an act of love
the flood
was an act of love
because God's
greatest concern
among us
is setting his people
apart for himself
because he knows
that the path
to true life
lies in a relationship
with himself
and that sin
is a barrier
to that relationship
so in the flood
when God acts
to wipe out
sin
he's tearing down
the barriers
that keep Noah
and his family
from being able
to experience
this perfect relationship
with him
that God
cares
so much
about his people
being able to have
this right relationship
with himself
that he would sacrifice
everything
including the rest
of creation
in order to accomplish it
and tear down the barriers
that keep it from happening
and as we look
at the story
of the Bible
there is one
other place
where we see
the great extent
to which God
will go
in order to tear down
every barrier
that keeps his people
away from himself
there's one other story
in the Bible
that shows
the great extent
to which God
hates sin
the great extent
to which God
wants this sin
torn away
from creating
a barrier
between us
and him
and unlike
the flood
this other one event
is absolutely
successful
in its work
and that one other event
that shows
how great
God's love is
for us
how much
he desires
to have this barrier
of sin
taken away
from our relationship
with him
is the death
of his son
on the cross
the cross
is how
God's role
as judge
can be good news
to us
because although
we deserve
his judgment
although he has
the right to judge us
he steps in
and he takes
our place
and takes
his full wrath
upon himself
so that we don't
have to bear it
the cross
is the place
where God's justice
as one who is perfect
and cannot be
in the presence
of sin
and God's love
as the one
who wants
to rescue
the sinners
who have turned
against him
come together
and where once
for all
sin is defeated
and destroyed
and we
who stand
deserving of judgment
can be set free
without God
having to give up
his justice
and I think
as long
as we
try and downplay
the role
of God
as judge
we're going
to create
a lot
of problems
we're going
to downplay
the severity
of our sin
because
if God's not
actually going
to judge it
then I can
do whatever
I want
we're going
to downplay
the importance
of salvation
because if
Christianity
is a life system
that works
for me
and Buddhism
works for someone
else
and atheism
works for someone
else
then they found
what works
for them
no problem
but if there
is a God
who is judge
then it's not
just about
finding what
works for you
it's about
finding truth
because the truth
is if God
exists as a judge
like the Bible
says that he does
there's going
to come a day
of judgment
and the only hope
for us
just like the only hope
for Noah
of being saved
is grace
and that grace
is found
through the cross
and so if it is
true that God
is a judge
as the Bible
says that he is
we must emphasize
the importance
of salvation
in our lives
and the lives
of those around us
because Christ's
work on the cross
is the only way
to escape
this judgment
if we downplay
God's role
as judge
we downplay
God's love
for us
because if there's
no judgment
coming on us
what's the point
of the cross
what's God
showing us
in the cross
the thing
that makes
the cross
so powerful
is the fact
that God
is a righteous
judge
that God
does have
wrath
coming against
us
for our sin
and that he
stepped in
and he took
our place
that the judgment
that we deserve
fell on him
instead of us
if we downplay
God's role
as judge
we're going
to rob others
from the opportunity
to hear about
this great salvation
because we're not
going to be inspired
to tell them
about it
and so
understanding
that God
is judge
is hugely
important
in the story
of the flood
and the one
other way
that the story
of the flood
should impact
my life
is to give me
hope
because as we
look at the
Bible's story
of the flood
and its effects
God works
this great
catastrophe
that wipes
sinful humanity
off the face
of the planet
but it does
not ultimately
succeed
the sin
around Noah's
family is wiped
out but the sin
within Noah's
family remains
and it carries
through to today
so that each
of us
is sinful
each of us
rebels against
God
each of us
lives in this
broken world
each of us
feels the effects
of this broken
world
every day
the Bible
promises
us
that a day
is coming
when God's
going to step
in and he's
going to make
all things
new
that a day
is coming
when there
will be a
new heavens
and a new
earth
and that God's
people will
live with him
forever in this
new earth
and that it
will be free
from sin
that what
was accomplished
in part in the
flood will one
day be accomplished
in full
that we can live
in this place
of perfect joy
perfect peace
perfect happiness
with God
forever
and that the
accomplishment
of this
is made possible
only through
the cross
and the death
of his son
so let's pray
father we thank you
for the fact
that you
love your people
we thank you
for the fact
that you are
committed to do
anything
to tear down
the barriers
that keep us
from you
we thank you
for the cross
for you
stepping in
and bearing
the judgment
that we deserve
for dying
in our place
for taking
the punishment
for our sin
for defeating
its power
once and for all
we pray that
as we go
throughout this
week
that this
reminder
of your power
of your justice
and of your love
will empower us
to love our
neighbors
to share your
good news
with them
and to walk
in a way
that is obedient
to you
and to live
with hope
of the day
when you will
step in
and once for all
make all things
new
and that we will
be able to live
with you forever
on this new earth
in Jesus name
amen
you