01(Gen 06) Weird Families and How to Be One
As we need the end of our series on “Families in Crisis”, there are still a few areas of Scripture that need to be probed concerning family life according to God’s plan. I hope by now you have seen how relevant for today this ancient Scripture really is. Today is no different. I want to look at the unusual way in which God deals with a family and your family’s need to anticipate the unusual.
God is looking for families today that will anticipate the unusual, step out of the expected to risk the unexpected for God. I should warn you up front: if you follow God’s plan for your family you will be known as a “weird family.” Let’s see how to become one.
Wise is the family that let’s God be God, that anticipates His right to throw an inside curve ball when normal life would expect it high and outside. Remember: His ways are past finding out! God is full of surprises. About the time we think we’ve got things nailed down into a manageable routine, He introduces the unusual.
(Read Job 5:8-15). Why does God do all that? (Read Job 5:16). I love this passage because it describes God’s unpredictable style. He sees the helpless and give them hope by doing the unusual.
Rom 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
When it comes to God’s decisions, we cannot search them out. When it comes to His ways, we cannot get to the depth of them. Yet I meet people all the time who try to figure everything out. God is infinite. He is incomprehensible. He is full of surprises. He is in the business of recruiting the helpless and causing the wicked to shut their mouths.
I think there are some families here today that are on the verge of the unusual, yet you don’t know it. It would probably shock you right now if you knew God’s ultimate plan for you and your family. But if you are not careful, you will let the predictable lull you to sleep! Wake up. God has a weird plan in the world’s eyes for you.
I want us to look at an ancient family that accepted the unusual for them. I challenge you think outside the familiar realm. I hope you’re ready to act, that nothing will keep you from believing that God may want to use your family in an unusual way. I pray that you are ready to be classified as “weird” by society as you live out the plan God has for you.
(Read Genesis 6:5-7). Noah and his family lived in a world much like ours. It was a dreadful time with violence and sin abundant. But in the midst of worldwide depravity, notice verse 8.
(Read Genesis 6:8-9). If ever there was a passage that proved that environment does not dictate character, it is this one. In the midst of human corruption, he was a godly man rearing a godly family.
You may not have a godly heritage. Your family tree may be checkered. You may have made an unholy mess of your life. But the encouragement you need to focus on is the phrase, “but Noah.” This is the place of beginning.
I. A frightening prophecy … a creative plan.
(Read 6:7, 13, 17). Such an event had never occurred before and would never happen again. It was a one time, unique event where all flesh was to perish on earth…and the Lord’s plan was to involve Noah’s family.
God had two essential elements for Noah’s family to do. Verse three tells us the first one.
A. Noah was to preach (6:3).
God’s judgment was to take a 120 year course to fulfillment. For twelve long decades there would many opportunities for Noah and his family to warn their neighbors to respond. That is called grace.
Peter called Noah a preacher of righteousness. The word used by Peter for preacher is the word for herald, or announcer.
B. They were to build an ark (6:14-15).
450 x 75 x 45 high. How would you like to see that in your neighbor’s driveway! Whitcomb and Morris, in The Genesis Flood, state that the ark had a carrying capacity equal to 522 standard freight cars.
How weird can you get? To make matters worse, they likely lived 500 miles or so from the nearest body of water. On top of that there had never been rain! (Explain canopy).
Yet here is a family doing the unusual, busy as beavers, constructing this mammoth sea-going barge. Can you imagine the mockery of people who saw Noah, his wife and kids building this thing in their yard?
They had to haul in wood. It took decades I am sure just to do that. What a strange family! They must have flipped! It is enough to make us smile, even today. But what a wonderful step of faith!
I can’t help but wonder about Noah’s family as they sat down for supper at night. What they talked about… prayed about… how they felt. They were called upon to do the unusual as a family. They were called upon to break the mold of what families do, and to trust God entirely.
God is tapping some father on the shoulder today saying, “I don’t want you to stay where you are in the same career. I want to change and you your skills to serve Me.” If you are not careful, you will read all about Noah and his family and not see God’s message to you.
II. Some practical suggestions.
A. Remind your family that the unusual is God’s standard procedure.
Do that today. Don’t wait until after He leads you to risk. Do it before the fact. Remind your family the Bible is full of individuals and families who broke the mold of the predictable as they accomplished the incredible. Begin anticipating what weird project He may have in mind for you. Make it a part of your table talk today. Children love such ideas!
B. Keen in mind that God is still looking for families who model faith.
This might be worth talking over with your spouse to begin with.
“Are we a couple who models faith? How?”
“In what way do we demonstrate confident trust in God?”
“Are we afraid for our family to take a risk? Why?”
God’s plan is not that all Christians gather in one corner of the world and live there in a well-protected bubble of affluence. His plan is that we shake salt and shed light all across the earth. He is still interested in families who model His message.
Sitting at your table may be a miniature hero. Does your child know how special he or she is? Are you challenging them…believing in them…encouraging them to soar, to live above mediocrity?
The history books are full of stories of gifted persons whose talents were overlooked by a procession of people until someone believed in them. Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read. Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school. A newspaper editor fired Walt Disney because he had “no good ideas.” Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college, and Werner Von Braun failed ninth grade algebra. Hayden gave up ever making a musician of Beethoven, who seemed a slow and plodding young man with no apparent talent – except a belief in music.
C. Fight the tendency to prefer security to availability.
Quit hanging on to today’s comfort. It will keep you from anticipating God’s challenge for tomorrow.
What are you and your family doing to demonstrate faith…to risk trusting God? Are you really open to anticipating the unusual? Are you sincerely honest when you say you are available to model faith?
Take a risk, even if your friends and family think you’re weird. Choose faith. Let the chips fall where they may.