Life!

pray

Hook - Opening Question

When was the last time you remember that you had to sign your name on a document? (Think Financial Aid, forms for a job, signing for a package, E-signatures)

Why do you think that was?

We sign documents because we are saying, “I believe this is important, and so I will hold up my end.”

So today in his word, we’re going to see how God signs his name, and because of that signature, he’ll show us what he believes is important, and why we should value it too.

Remember, this is God’s word, and where he shows himself to us, pay close attention to him.

Blessings for Life (v.1-3)

Pick someone to read Gen 9.1

Genesis 9:1 ESV

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Q: Why do you think God keeps telling humanity to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth?” (Adam and Eve 1x, and Noah 1x and in this passage 2x he tells Noah 2 more times.)

In a way, he’s telling humanity, here’s your shot at redemption. Here’s your fresh start. I told the first Adam, and now I tell you.

Jesus This gives us a cool picture into the new creation that Jesus gives us. He was the new Adam that Noah never was, and he lived the perfect sinless, human life to lead us into new creation. And because of that, we are blessed with new life in him. More on that later.

This is God’s blessing for Life to spread among the earth. Because he loves life! He loves to give life!

And this love is something that we ought to imitate, even as our society shrinks deeper into death.

Be Basic 1. Multiplying Life (Gen. 9:1, 7)

Starting with the Revolutionary War, in nearly 200 years of American history, 1,200,000 military personnel have been killed in nine major wars. But in one year in the United States, 1,600,000 babies are legally aborted.

If we love God, we gotta love life, and walk to God, who is our life, even when the world wants to lead us into death.

And then we get these interesting verses.

Ask who wants to read Genesis 9:2-3

Genesis 9:2–3 ESV

The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

Q: What to you guys think it means when it says that the animal kingdom will fear and dread us?

“It’s more scared of you than you are of it.”

God has given us the power of life and death over the animals, and the animals know it.

Why do you think God waited until now to give animals for mankind to eat?

He wanted to bless us.

After the Fall, death is a daily part of life.

Our society is strange because we’ve had the death process pretty removed from us.

Q: Why do you think it’s important to remember the reality of death?

Laws for Life (v4-8)

Ask Lamont to read.

Genesis 9:4 ESV

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

Q: What is a blessing that you’ve recieved that came with major responsibilities?

Transportation (Driving, Flying)

Money

Family

With the blessing of food from animals, God lays down some guidelines for taking the life on an animal.

Q: Why do you think he tells us not to eat their blood?

Taking the life of an animal is not to be a light task

When paramedics spot someone who might be hurt and start CPR, the first thing they do is they go through is their ABC’s. First, they check Airways, (are they choking on something), next they check for Breathing, and lastly they check for circulation (can I feel their heart beating, is blood pumping through their body.)

When we check to see if something is alive, we check their blood. And even though God has given us animals to eat, we are to still respect their life by following his rules.

Have someone who hasn’t read, read Genesis 9:5-7.

Genesis 9:5–7 ESV

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”

Even though God has given us authority over the lives of animals, it’s not the same over humans. Only God has the authority to take the lives of humans.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

And that’s the way we want it, because he cares for human life and humanity is especially precious to him, so we can trust his timing.

No sin shows greater contempt for life than homicide. Whereas an animal’s blood may be shed but not eaten, human blood cannot even be shed.

Because God loves life, he puts laws around it, to protect it.

And the reason that humanity is so special is because God made man in his own image…

Q: What do you think that means, to be made in his image?

We can’t know for sure, but we do know that it at least shows us our purpose (to be with God), and our value over all the other animals.

And so with the law he also shows the punishment for breaking it.

He will “Require a reckoning.” Whose Bible uses a different word?

God is saying, if you kill man, you shall be killed by man. V.5 says, that this reckoning is “from man” and v.6 says, “by man shall his blood be shed.”

God is setting up the death penalty for those who take human life, that’s how much he cares and values our life.

And he shows that through Jesus, doesn’t he? God himself paid the death penalty on our behalf so that he could give us life, see how much he loves our lives? We may never commit murder, but Jesus said that hating or insulting your fellow human is murder in the heart, and so he came to pay that penalty that you and I deserve.

And again in v.7, we see that God says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” And I think we ourselves can do this.

Q: How might we be fruitful and multiply, excluding the obvious baby making?

BRING PEOPLE TO JESUS, THE LIFE GIVER!

Grace for Life (v.8-17)

Finish the reading.

Genesis 9:8–17 ESV

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 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 have 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 waters 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.”

The reason he brought the flood in the first place was to show his justice on the earth, that sin will not go unpunished. And now, he shows us his grace!

God’s signature is the rainbow, and what he thinks is important is life!

God’s rainbow in the sky is his signature that says, “I love life.”

And he cannot lie, no matter how wicked humanity gets, he will not wipe everyone out again like he did in the flood.

Q: How can he do this, how can God be just, and let sin go unpunished?

Romans 3:23–25 (ESV)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness (or justice), because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Jesus gives us blessings for life, he gives us laws for life (love your neighbor as your self), and he gives us grace for life.

He gave us all this through his own blood. If man’s blood is worth one life, imagine how many lives the blood of the God-man is worth.

The rainbow is God’s signature of future grace for us, he will punish sin, but for those who are in Christ, we are a part of his new covenant of grace, and no flood will ever overtake us, he has promised that.

Application:

The one point of this whole study I want you guys to remember is this, God loves life, and we should too.

So as we go along, remember that each human being you come into contact you, whether during ministry, or retail work, or at college, treat them with love and value, and point them to the giver and lover of life.