Building The Ark
Noah's Ark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Week 3: Building the Ark
Week 3: Building the Ark
Series Theme: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man." (Matthew 24:37)
This Week's Phrase: "In the days before the flood..." (Matthew 24:38)
Main Text: Genesis 6:13–22
(Drive a nail into a board.)
That sound.
If you had lived in Noah's neighborhood,
that's what you would have heard.
Not once. BUT Every day.
Season after season. Year after year.
Jesus said,
38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
We've spent two weeks...
looking at what the world was like and who Noah was.
This week I want us to slow down on a phrase that's easy to rush past:
"the days before the flood."
Before there was a single drop of rain,
there were days........A lot of them.
And on every one of those days, two things were happening at the same time.
The world was eating and drinking.
And Noah was building.
Genesis doesn't tell us exactly how long it took.
Noah was 500 years old when his sons were born
and he was 600 when the flood came
Somewhere in that stretch, the ark went up.
Whatever the exact number WAS....
it was long enough to become ordinary.
Long enough for the sound of that hammer to turn into background noise.
So this morning we'll walk through....
the building of the ark in five scenes,
because what Noah did in the days before the flood...
is exactly what God is asking of us...... in the days before His return.
Scene One: The Word Came First
Scene One: The Word Came First
13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
Before there was a blueprint,
before there was a board,
before there was a nail,
there was a word.
Noah didn't build because he saw clouds forming.
He built because God spoke.
Hebrews 11:7 says Noah was "warned about things not yet seen."
There was nothing in the sky.
All he had was what God said.
(don’t read)
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
That's still the order.
Faith doesn't start with evidence.
It starts with a word.
Paul says,
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If you wait until you can see it before you obey it,
you're not walking by faith.
You're walking by sight with a Bible under your arm.
But I WANT YOU TO notice what God told Noah first.
Before God ever said "build,"
He said, "I am going to put an end to all people."
WOW....THINK ABOUT THAT....
Noah received the heaviest news any human being has ever heard.
He knew what was coming for his neighbors,
FOR the people he traded with,
the families down the road.
And every day after that conversation,
he walked among people who had no idea.
I don't think we think about that enough.
The ark was not JUST a hobby.
It was built by a man who knew WHAT WAS COMING
Scene Two: The Blueprint
Scene Two: The Blueprint
14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.
God didn't say,
"Build something that floats. Do your best."
He gave Noah
the material TO BE USED,
the coating,
the dimensions,
the door,
the decks.
Three hundred cubits is about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.
A football field and a half.
Three stories tall.
Built without power tools,
without a lumberyard,
NO HOME DEPOT, NO LOWES
NO SENDERS
NO crane.
Here's what strikes me about this passage:
God was specific.
And when God is specific,
obedience has to be specific too.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY.....
Noah couldn't decide that...
YOU KNOW WHAT..... 300 cubits felt excessive
2OO IS GOOD ENOUGH.
He couldn't skip the pitch on the inside
because nobody would see it.
The details weren't suggestions.
Jesus asks one of the most uncomfortable questions in the whole Bible:
46 “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS TOUGH....
A lot of us live with a general obedience.
We ARE for God...... in general.
We're against sin....... in general.
But God doesn't usually speak...... in general.
He says forgive that person.
Walk away from that habit.
Make that phone call.
LISTEN TO ME.....
Partial obedience is still disobedience.
It just feels better about itself.
the details matter,
because the details are where the water gets in.
A boat that is 99 percent sealed is still a boat that sinks.
Scene Three: The Neighbors
Scene Three: The Neighbors
Luke records Jesus saying it this way:
26 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
Picture the job site.
Right in the middle of all that normal life
stands this enormous wooden frame.
People walk past it on the way to the market.
Kids play in the scrap lumber.
Weddings happen within sight of it.
People are planning futures in the shadow of the ark.
And it doesn't change them.
That's the tragedy.
They didn't have to go searching for the ark.
They walked past it every single day.
Peter calls Noah
"a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5).
So he wasn't hammering in silence.
He was warning them.
And still.........when the moment came......eight people went in.
His wife, his three sons, and their wives.
Not one neighbor.
Not one friend.
Can you imagine what that did to Noah?
Years of preaching and not one convert outside his own family.
Every board he cut,
he knew exactly whose faces would not be inside.
This is not a cute picture with smiling giraffes.
This is a man building a lifeboat while....
the people he knew laughed, shrugged, or just went home to dinner.
But there's another side to this scene.
Peter also says that
"God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built" (1 Peter 3:20).
20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
Every day of construction was a day of mercy.
That hammer was a warning,
but it was also an invitation.
As long as the hammer was still sounding,
there was still time.
The building years were God's patience,
and you could hear it from down the road.
Scene Four: The Long Middle
Scene Four: The Long Middle
here's the scene nobody paints.
We have pictures of the animals coming two by two.
RIGHT? MOST OF US HAVE SEEN IT.....
WE’VE SEEN pictures of the rainbow.
Nobody paints year 11, 25, 40, 50.
An ordinary Tuesday. WITH A Sore back.
Splinters. Another board.
No rain. No applause.
That's where most of the ark was built.
In the VERY......long middle.
Muhammad Ali once said,
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
Everybody remembers the fights.
The Rumble in the Jungle.
The Thrilla in Manila.
But a fight is a few rounds on one night.
What decided those nights happened....over months that nobody watched.
Running before sunrise.
The same drills over and over.
Nobody bought a ticket to watch Ali train.
But the training is why he won.
OH COME ON SOMEBODY....
The flood was the fight.
The building..... was the TRAINING camp.
And by the time the rain came....... it was too late to train.
That's why the days before matter so much.
When the storm hits,
you won't suddenly become someone you haven't been preparing to be.
OH MY LORD....I GOTTA SAY THAT AGAIN
I SAID....
WHEN THE LORD RETURNS
THERE WON’T BE TIME TO DECIDE TO BE SOMEONE YOU HAVEN’T TRAINED TO BE
Whatever you built in the dry season....
is what you'll have in the wet one.
Paul writes,
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Noah is..... that verse with a hammer in his hand.
He didn't build on a feeling.
He built on a word........one board at a time.
Some of you are in the long middle right now.
You've been praying for a son or a daughter for years.
You're staying faithful in a marriage that's hard.
You're keeping your integrity at a job where cutting corners would be easier.
And it feels like nothing is happening.
OH MY LORD.....I NEED YOU TO HEAR ME
nothing is wasted.
Every board counts.
YOU NEED TO KNOW..........You're not stuck.
You're building.
Scene Five: The Last Board
Scene Five: The Last Board
LISTEN TO HOW Genesis sums up Noah's whole building project:
22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
And just in case we missed it,
the Bible says it again in the next chapter:
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
That's Noah's biography in one sentence,
and the Holy Spirit says it twice.
HE DID NOT SAY.... "Noah did most of it."
HE DIDN’T SAY..... "Noah did it until people started laughing."
IT SAYS.....HE DID IT............All of it.
According to all......THAT GOD COMMANDED....... So he did.
LET’S Think about the day the last board went on.
CAN YOU IMAGINE THE FEELING OF ACCOMPLISHMENT????
The last seam was sealed.
And then what happened?
It still hadn't rained.
Noah finished obeying before he ever saw why it mattered.
That's what faith looks like when it's complete.
Jesus told a story about two builders,
listen to the words He chose:
47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. 48 It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. 49 But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”
A flood.
Jesus reached for the same picture
AND USES A FLOOD
From the street,
those two houses might have looked exactly the same.
Same roofline.
Same paint.
The difference was underground,
THE DIFFERENCE WAS in the work nobody saw.
One man dug down deep.
UNDERSTAND THIS...
you can't dig a foundation once the river is rising.
Here in the Valley, when a big storm shows up in the forecast,
the county puts out piles of sand and stacks of empty bags.
On a dry, sunny afternoon before the storm,
you'll probably see a few people out there shoveling sand into bags...
while everyone else drives past.
It looks a little unnecessary.
The sky is blue.
AND YOU’VE PROBABLY THOUGHT.....YOU KNOW WHAT I’LL DO IT LATER
THERE IS STILL TIME
nobody fills sandbags once the water is in the street.
LISTEN TO ME....
Sandbags are a dry-weather job.
So is building an ark.
So is building a life on the rock.
AMEN????
..........WORSHIP TEAM COME................
Jesus said,
"As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be."
That means we are living in the days before THE FLOOD.
BEFORE THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
BEFORE THE END
the days before...... are not panic season.
They're not...... guess-the-date season.
They're building season.
So what is God asking you to build while it's still dry?
SO HOW DO WE KNOW THIS PASTOR CHRIS???
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT HE IS ASKING US TO BUILD
IF HE IS ASKING YOU TO BUILD SOMETHING SPECIFIC TO YOU AND YOUR CALLING
THAT IS BETWEEN YOU AND HIM
BUT THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE CAN KNOW FOR SURE
ALL WE HAVE DO IS LOOK AT WHAT WE’VE LEARNED SO FAR
Build on what He said, not on what you see.
Noah had a word and no clouds.
You have the Word of God in your hands.
Don't wait for a crisis to make it real.
2. Build according to all.
Think of one area where you've been obeying God "in general."
What is the specific thing He has already told you?
ONCE YOU KNOW THAT.......That's your next board.
3. Build where people can see it.
Noah's obedience was a sermon to his neighbors before he ever said a word.
Jesus said,
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Your faithfulness is preaching to somebody who's watching.
Don't hide the hammer.
BUILD SO THEY CAN SEE
BE THAT LIGHT
4. Keep building in the long middle.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
YOU LABOR IS Not in vain.......
Not one board.
......STAND TO YOUR FEET........
There's a bowl of nails up here.
There's nothing special about them.
It's JUST a reminder.
If God has been speaking to you about something specific,
something you know you're supposed to build,
SOMETHING YOUR SUPPOSED TO start, finish,
or JUST obey, BEFORE YOU LEAVE come take one nail......PARENTS THIS IS FOR YOU....I DON’T WANT KIDS TAKING THE NAILS
Put it in your pocket or your car.
Every time you see it this week, let it ask you one question:
"Did I put a board on today?"
And if you've realized this morning that....
you've been living near the ark but never building on the rock,
if you've heard the hammer your whole life and it never changed you,
this is your day.
The hammer is still sounding.
AND THAT MEANS.......There is still time.
WOULD YOU Come.
LET’S WORSHIP
COME ON.....
PASTOR CHRIS I DON’T KNOW THE DETAILS OF WHAT I’M SUPPOSED TO DO NEXT
BUT I KNOW THAT I NEED TO DO SOMETHING
IF THAT’S YOU.....YOU NEED TO BE UP HERE TODAY
YOU NEED TO BE SEEKING GOD FOR THAT DIRECTION
LORD WHERE DO YOU WANT ME TO GO
WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO
WHERE DO I START
GIVE ME COURAGE AND STENGTH TO START BUILDING TODAY
Closing
Closing
Next week we come to the next phrase Jesus used:
"up to the day Noah entered the ark."
The building is finished.
The animals are coming.
And God is about to say a word that changes everything.
This week, read Genesis 6:13–22 every day.
Read it slowly, and let God show you what He's asking you to build.
