Build what others aren't building

Back-to-School Sunday

Text: Genesis 6:5-9

ORDER OF SERVICE

Before reading, note that Genesis 6:1-4 is being skipped on purpose. We will come back to it later.

Read Genesis 6:1-7 aloud, slowly.

Pastoral Prayer.

INTRODUCTION

The Loneliest Man in the Bible

"Who is the loneliest person in the Bible?"

For approximately 100 years, Noah:

A. Built an unwanted boat. B. Preached an unheeded warning. C. Was probably thought insane by the people around him.

Whatever loneliness you are carrying into this week, it has never once been that.

There is a smaller and more familiar version of that loneliness waiting for many people this week.

The Hallway

It is the first day back. "Do I fit in?"

"Am I alone in wanting something different?"

Illustration: Trying to Be Cool in Middle School

Holly / story about the slip being mistaken for a skirt and the entire outfit being assembled from the church's answers.

So, if you are worried about fitting in this week, don't.

I am saying: Don't fit in.

This week, build what others don't even know to build.

This is not only about school.

A. It happens in the break room. B. It happens in the subdivision. C. It happens in the group chat. D. It happens in retirement.

It is the same pressure at a different address.

We are studying Genesis 6:5-9 today. This is a word for everyone shifting into a new season.

Genesis 6:5 “5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

The majority was moving in one direction: away from God.

Then we read:

Genesis 6:8 “8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

Noah's family built what nobody else understood.

So can yours.

BUILD WHAT OTHERS AREN'T BUILDING

Build what others aren't building, even if they never understand why.

We will answer three questions:

What are you building?

Why are you building?

How are you building?

1. WHAT ARE YOU BUILDING?

Genesis 6:5-7

Left alone, every heart builds the same thing:

A. Corruption. B. Grief. C. Nothing that lasts.

A. Nothing but evil

Genesis 6:5

This was a culture-wide heart problem, not merely a collection of bad actions.

Notice the three-part total verdict:

Every.

Only.

Continually.

This verdict falls on both genealogies recorded in Genesis 4 and Genesis 5.

Bloodline was never enough.

B. Nothing but grief

Genesis 6:6 “6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

Sin causes God real relational sorrow.

The words "repented" and "grieved" do not mean that God changed His mind or discovered that He had made a mistake. Numbers 23:19 “19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

This is relational language, not a contradiction.

C. Nothing that would last

Genesis 6:7 “7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.”

The majority did not decide what God saw.

The majority does not decide what He sees in you either.

2. WHY ARE YOU BUILDING?

Genesis 6:8 “8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

The best answers to the question "Why?" always begin with grace.

Grace motivated Noah's life and everything he built.

Notice the precious word: "But."

A. Because grace interrupted

Genesis 6:8 “8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

God singled out one man from a corrupt majority.

Verse 8 is not merely comfort. It is proof.

Genesis 6:8 defends the fairness of the judgment described in Genesis 6:5.

The entire flood narrative pivots on one word: "But."

B. Because grace wasn't earned

Genesis 6:8 “8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”

This is the first use of the word "grace" in the Bible.

Grace is unmerited.

Noah found grace.

He did not earn it.

"Noah did not find favour in the eyes of men... But he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and this was honour and comfort enough." Matthew Henry

C. Because grace wasn't conditional

Noah was still part of the fallen human race.

He was not sinless.

Genesis 9:20–21 “20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: 21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.”

Noah failed after the flood, but grace still held him.

Illustration: The Foundation

No one builds on empty air.

Grace was the ground beneath everything Noah built.

The crowd never got a vote on Noah's grace.

It does not get a vote on yours either.

3. HOW ARE YOU BUILDING?

Genesis 6:9 “9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

Noah's life was not defined by one isolated decision.

He gave his life to the work.

Genesis 6:8 shows us grace found.

Genesis 6:9 shows us what a life shaped by grace looks like.

Illustration: Building Differently

Everyone else was building:

A. Reputation. B. Comfort. C. Temporary security.

Noah's family was building something that would survive.

A. By right standing

Genesis 6:9 “9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

The word "just" describes legal standing before a judge.

It does not merely mean that Noah was a nice person.

Noah is the first person in the Bible explicitly called righteous.

The doctrine of justification begins to appear here.

B. By undivided integrity

Genesis 6:9 “9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

The word "perfect" means complete or undivided.

It does not mean sinless.

The same word is used to describe an unblemished sacrifice.

Leviticus 1:3 “3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD.”

Noah was the same person in private that he was in public.

C. By actually walking

Genesis 6:9 “9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

The same phrase is used to describe Enoch.

Genesis 5:22 “22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:”

Genesis 5:24 “24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

Enoch's walk ended quietly.

Noah's walk produced a public witness.

Noah's obedience was specific and verifiable.

Genesis 6:22 “22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.”

Genesis 7:5 “5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.”

The statement that Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him is repeated twice.

Psalm 1:1 “1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

You cannot walk toward God and walk with the crowd at the same time.

Illustration: More Than a Hammer

Every plank Noah placed was a lesson in trusting God.

The building itself was discipleship.

Noah's Public Witness

2 Peter 2:5 “5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;”

Noah was "a preacher of righteousness."

He preached for decades.

The only converts were members of his own household.

Faithfulness was measured by whether Noah kept preaching, not by the visible results of his preaching.

The majority does not get a vote on what you build.

Build it anyway, even if you have to build it alone.

Illustration: An Insane and Lonely Project

Noah had no fellow ark-builders.

Boats are beautiful to us now.

The ark would have looked insane in a world with no rain and no ocean in sight.

People do not understand boat-building families.

They never have.

Being understood was never the goal.

CONCLUSION AND CHALLENGE

Review

What are you building?

The world was building nothing that would last.

Are you building an image, or something God actually sees?

Why are you building?

Grace is the ground.

Grace is not the reward for finishing.

How are you building?

By righteousness.

By integrity.

By daily walking with God.

Look at your calendar.

Does your calendar show that you are building what you say matters?

This message applies to every person in the room, not only the students.

Noah built in a world that had stopped building anything worth keeping.

You can build in one too.

1 Peter 3:20–21 “20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”

The boat was never just a boat.

What Should You Actually Be Building?

A. A marriage nobody has to convince you to keep faithful. B. Children who know your prayer voice before they know a stranger's voice online. C. A household rhythm that outlasts this cultural moment.

That is not vague.

That is an ark built out of different materials.

One Thing This Message Is Not Saying

None of those things are your ark.

Noah's boat saved him because God shut the door, not because Noah's craftsmanship was sufficient.

Genesis 7:16 “16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.”

Your good life was never meant to be the boat.

Jesus is.

FINAL TEACHING CHALLENGE

Tell God what you have actually been building this year.

Ask for grace to build something different.

Invite one person to pray with you.

Do not build alone.

One More Thing: You Are Not Alone

Families and students, you may feel alone while building.

You are not.

Illustration: "Me Too"

Story about the teacher emails and Chuck.

"I told him that I loved Jesus, and he said, 'Me too.'"

Go find the other Chucks in your hallway.

You will walk back into that hallway this week and keep building.

Just don't build it alone.