MOTIVATE

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WARNING SIGNS –    Red light or Stop Signs –    Speed Limits –    Road Construction –    Deer crossing –    Rocks falling –    Steep hill, run away ramp –    Trucks make wide turns –    Trucks carrying explosive cargo –    Radio ads of storms or tornadoes

A warning is a statement or an event that indicates a possible or impending danger, problem or other unpleasant situation.

• The last few months carried numerous references warning the world’s end. This is nothing new.

○    Jeremiah 8:11 “They say, ‘Peace, peace’, when there is no peace.”

○    AD 40’s people in Thessalonika concerned over parousia (1Thess 5:1-2 “Now concerning

times and the seasons , brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

○    1666 (1000+666) was ominous year with Great London Fire lasting 3 days, destroying 10K buildings and also the Bubonic Plague taking over 100K lives.

○    Charles Taze Russell (JW) predicted end in 1914

○    Pat Robertson predicted end judgment on world in 1982

○    Publication “88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988”

○    1992 David Koresh of Branch Davidian group inWaco,TXcalculated end was near and gained following ending in horrific and terminal standoff with the FBI.

○    Nostradamus’ teachings predicted end terror in 1999

○    Y2K paranoia

○    Harold Camping predicted end in 1994 and again in 2011.

○    Mayan Calendar ends in Dec 2012 bringing many predictions

○    Numerous others…

• The Bible reveals both God’s warning and promise about the end times:

EXAMINE           Beautiful Warning (Genesis 5-6)

So far in Genesis we have seen God’s beautiful creation and then its disruption by sin and satan. As a result, there are generations that have strayed from God’s design.

God warns of mortality (5 – 6:3)

Genesis 5 gives a genealogy from Adam to Noah (1656 years – 10 Generations), which then forward focuses on the life of Noah and future patriarchs.

Adam lived 930 years and he died

Seth lived 912 years and he died

Enosh lived 905 years and he died

Kenan lived 910 years and he died

Mahalalel lived 895 years and he died

Jared lived 962 years and he died

Enoch lived 365 years and he was not, for God took him

Methuselah lived 969 years and he died

Lamech lived 777 years and he died

Noah was 500, fathering Shem, Ham and Japeth

This genealogy is not just a list of random names with insignificance. Certainly, they do not make for great reading (like reading a phonebook) but they do communicate about life and God’s purposes. In this genealogy, two facts stand out:

1)       Life is limited. Reading of each individual, the repeated phrase is “and he died”. Some epitaph!
Psalm 90:10 “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.”

James 4:14-15 “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

ð      Value friendships & seasoned mentors that God gives you. Danielle’s great AuntFlorencesays “getting old isn’t for sissies”. We learn a lot from those with age & experience.

ð      What will be said of your life? What will be your legacy beyond ancestry.com?

2)       God can counter the curse of death. Enoch escaped death because of a faith relationship with God. The only way around death, breaking the curse of Genesis 3, is to “walk with God”. This phrase is repeated twice of Enoch (5:22, 24), and the again concerning Noah (6:9). Likewise, it is used of future patriarchs Abraham and Isaac (17:1; 24:40; 48:15). What does it mean to walk with God?[1] It means to love Him. A walk is an intimate journey and experience you have with someone you care. That is God’s desire with you; a walk is a picture of the Christian life. Walking, talking, laughing, crying, running, crawling – each step in the journey you grow and learn about life and love for each other. When you understand that God desires us to walk with Him, you understand what people mean that Christianity is not a religion but a relationship.

Hebrews 11:5-7 “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

ð      God countered the curse through Noah (5:29; 6:8-9). More mentioned through rest of text.

God warns of judgment. (6:6-17)

As we have seen from Genesis 3, everything is broken and corrupted. Sin has preyed every generation. Mankind is a sinner because of choice and inherited from genealogical line of Adam. As the Serpent attacked the first marriage, so the purpose and function of marriage is diminished in imaging the glory of God; the sons of God marrying the daughters of man (6:2). Likewise, the wickedness of man was great in the earth. Total Depravity: Corrupted head, heart, hands, emotions and intentions.

Because of these things, God is sorry and grieved over man. God’s justice demands punishing the guilty by blotting them out through a flood of waters. This should remind us of two characteristics about God:

1)       God is just not fair. God’s justice means that His holiness is untouched by human sin. He is holy and mankind is not. His perfect righteousness demands the same from His creation and when it is not it must be punished. There is not a doctrine of God’s fairness. If God were fair he would judge every single person and no one would escape. However, God’s justice is most often combined with his mercy; as in Noah received favor.

In The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe: Susan asks if Aslan (Christ figure) is safe. The Beaver character responds, “Course he isn’t safe, but he’s good.” Later in the narrative C.S. Lewis has the line, “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time.

God is to be feared for his justice but worshiped for his mercy.

2)       God is personal. It is overlooked in the Flood story that God is sorry and grieved by human sin. God has emotions to some form and is moved by our actions. He is pained by rebellion and rejection of Him. Perhaps, the greatest pain is not of Himself but for us in what we miss from our created design and purpose.

God promises salvation by grace (6:8-22).

Though God punishes the guilty, sin-tainted creation with a flood, He chooses to extend favor and save a family. Noah’s relationship with God reaped the benefits in being rescued from the flood. His faith was exercised in obeying God to build an ark to endure the flood.

This teaches us 2 truths

1)       Salvation is a gift not a right, therefore our response is humble adoration and worship. There is no room for pride or self-righteousness toward others. Death is escaped because God’s justice was satisfied through His own Son, taking on the sin of the world. Therefore, “and he died” is not our final epitaph but that “we have been made alive” (Ephesians 2:4).

2)       Salvation leads to obedience. Noah obeyed all God commanded and it was a long obedience. The following passage (and message) will show this more fully and how it applies to the Christian life of faith and obedience with God.

APPLY/THINK

µ      The warning of Jesus’ return is not to be taken lightly.

Jesus said, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:36-39

 

Peter said, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens  will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness?” 2 Peter 3:9-10

 

• Are you ready personally? What have you done with Jesus?
• Are you ready in stewardship? What have you done with God’s gifts/resources?