Noah's Calling: More than a Boat Builder

Genesis 6:5–22 NASB95

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. “This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. “You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. “Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. “Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. “As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.” Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

INTRO: How many of you are familiar with the story of Noah and the ark? (It’s ok to raise your hands!) That should be most of you. Even the secular world has heard of Noah’s Ark.

A few years ago, my family went to Kentucky where we toured the replica of the Ark built by the team from Answers in Genesis. It was fascinating… and really big! If you’ve not been, I would encourage you to take your family. The details were amazing… although I’m fairly certain Noah didn’t actually have a gift shop and emergency exits.

But one thing that became evident is that this story of Noah and the Ark has been largely ripped out of its context and turned into some kind of kid’s fantasy-type story. Don’t get me wrong, we all like to see the cute pictures of a boat with little giraffe heads sticking out the top. We like to explain that these animals were brought in pairs- a mommy and a daddy for every kind. We like to sing “Arky Arky” and paint the picture of the rainbow that is God’s covenant promise… and all this can be fun and even good on some level, but we cannot miss the bigger picture.

The ark was an instrument of mercy in the midst of judgment. It was an incredible display of faith and providence.

But today, we are going to leave much of the familiar themes in the background and focus in on Noah’s calling. We are going to look at how God called Noah from what he knew to what only God could do.

Now, hopefully you picked up a bulletin on your way in this morning. I want to encourage you to follow along in the sermon guide provided for you on the inside flap. You’ll also notice that I’ve given you some discussion questions. We won’t go over these in this time period, but I hope you will talk them over during the week as you seek to grow in Christ. We will look at 3 specific calls on Noah’s life and look at how these might shed light on God’s call in our lives as we seek to build His Kingdom in our generation.

Let us look and learn together in Genesis 6, Noah’s Calling: More than a Boat-Builder.

The first piece that we will see here is that

Noah was called out of generational sin (8)

There have been a number of studies done on this idea of generational dysfunction or sin. Perhaps you have heard some of these numbers and stories- maybe you fall into one of those categories. Let me give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Children of divorced parents are 69% more likely to have their marriage end in divorce. If both husband and bride come from homes where parents divorced, their odds of divorce shoot up 189% (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-the-generations/201902/if-my-parents-are-divorced-is-my-marriage-doomed-fail)

Children of convicted criminals are 6x more likely to be incarcerated. (https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/hidden-consequences-impact-incarceration-dependent-children)

Children of addicts are 4-8x more likely to become addicts themselves (https://www.mentalhelp.net/addiction/does-addiction-run-in-the-family/)

And approximately 1/3 of children who were abused become abusers and increases the risk of alcohol and drug abuse (https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/24/science/sad-legacy-of-abuse-the-search-for-remedies.html#:~:text=Studies%20also%20now%20indicate%20that,poses%20a%20major%20social%20challenge.)

The stories continue, but you get the idea.

Noah was born into a family of sin- violence and unrighteousness was in his blood. We can see that Noah was the son of Lamech (Gen. 5:28-29). Lamech is only famous for his arrogant oppression. If you look back to Gen. 4:23, we see that Lamech is a descendent of Cain, and his wickedness surpassed Cain as did his pride in his sin. (READ)

So, what we have is a man who went around bragging about how he took the lives of people who dared offend him. I am not sure who we might compare him to today… maybe a gang-banger, or mafia goon.

At any rate, Lamech is not exactly the role model that would lead a young, impressionable boy to a life of pursuing God. Yet, Noah, found favor with God. (v.8) - READ

Noah didn’t earn favor, he found it. Favor, by definition is unmerited. So, what we see is that Yahweh, in His sovereignty and grace, saw fit to call Noah out of a generational propensity to sin to pursue the righteousness and holiness of Almighty God.

By any account, friends and family of Noah would have overlooked or made excuses for Noah if he turned out just like his dad. They might say “Aw, he gets it honest” or “What do you expect, his daddy is the same way”. But God had other plans for Noah’s life.

I just want to say, before we move from this point, you might be sitting here facing some battles of generational dysfunction. I want you to know that the power of God is stronger than the bonds of your sin. You might feel like you can’t win, but my God is able- My God is bigger! Listen, you can take that struggle, that stronghold, that sin and give it to Jesus this morning, and experience victory through His shed blood on the cross.

Discuss: What generational sins have you struggled with? How can you find victory over them?

Noah was called out of generational sin. But, beyond that,

Noah was called out of cultural brokenness (5-6, 9-12)

Some of you came in this morning wondering, “Why is he not preaching from Genesis 4 or 5? Well, let me tell you, all we see from the murder of Abel in the field by his brother, to the days of Noah is wickedness upon wickedness, sin upon sin. Even as mankind was multiplying on the earth, their sin was compounding and they forsook the worship and reverence of Yahweh God and exchanged it for their lusts.

Let me read again verses 5-6 and 11-12.

Does this paint a picture for you or what? Ungodly men married godly women and corrupted them. By the time we get to Noah, the generations were so lost, they didn’t know which way was up.

I want you to use your imagination here: Imagine a world where men and women worshiped their possessions. Imagine a people whose identity was more wrapped up in their personal lust than reality. Imagine a people who would celebrate the killing of their own children or who would leverage anything they could to gain control and power over one another.

Psychologists say that we are products of our environments. Noah’s world was broken.

I believe that when Noah went to town to go to the Walmarts, he couldn’t even look up without being exposed to idolatrous worship, sexual promiscuity, and violent oppression.

Nobody in that culture would have expected anything less than for Noah to be a selfish, idolatrous, pervert. In fact, I believe that those in the culture likely were very intentional about trying to lure Noah into the lifestyles that they deemed acceptable and appropriate.

But, notice this: Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time. He walked with God (9)

I want you to see, friends, that Noah lived in a world that was just as messed up as our world is today. There was evil in every intention of mankind, but God called Noah to walk with Him. Sin was everywhere! Noah could have looked around and thought, “well, everyone else is doing it, so I guess I can too...”

But Noah understood what James would later teach in

James 4:4 NASB95

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Or, as some have paraphrased, “You can’t walk with God while holding hands with the Devil!”

Now, listen, I’m not saying that we are to be legalistic and can somehow behave our way into God’s heaven. No, but I am saying that Jesus has called each one of us to walk with Him.

We’ve been studying Luke on Wednesday nights here in the Fellowship Hall. In this, we’ve seen Jesus call those who want to follow Him to forsake all in order to do so. Jesus does not ask for us to sprinkle a little gospel into our life, but instead He calls us to die to ourselves and take up our cross! He calls us to decide what is of utmost importance and give ourselves wholly to Him!

Church, it’s real easy to try and look around and get caught up in the hustle and allure of the culture around us. But friends, it is broken and corrupt. God has called us to something greater. In a world where sin and corruption abound, the church of Christ is called to walk with God.

Discuss: How do you see the culture today in comparison with Noah’s culture? How can you walk with God when the world around you is broken?

Noah was called out of generational sin and out of cultural brokenness. And finally, we see that:

Noah was called beyond his qualifications (13-22)

This is perhaps one of my favorite sections of Scripture to remind me of God’s call on my life.

Now, again, we must understand that to a degree, we are getting a summary account of God’s conversation with Noah. But I want you to put yourself in Noah’s place.

Noah was about 500 years old when God tells him to build an ark. Let me point out a couple things:

To our knowledge, Noah had never built an ark before.

It took about 75 years or so to build the ark. (How long have you been able to stick with a project?)

Fun Fact- with modern equipment, it took 18 months to build the ark replica in KY

Not only did Noah have to build a ginormous ark without a crane, skill saw, Dewalt Power tool set, etc., but then he had to be a farmer, and bring on all those animals and feed them and keep them alive for about a year.

Now, I know it’s a big boat, but I imagine there was a bit of a smell, some rocking back a forth, maybe a little cabin-fever…

All of this that God was calling Noah to was beyond what Noah was qualified to do. But I want you to look over to v. 22 with me (READ v. 22)

I told you this is a favorite for me. Can I tell you something, I didn’t feel qualified to go into ministry. I didn’t feel qualified to pastor a church, to lead mission teams, to train and equip others to do the work of the church… I still don’t feel qualified. But folks, the beauty of it is that God is the one who qualifies His servants!

As that banner says in the library of Fruitland Bible College “God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called!”

Here is where I want to drill down for just a minute. I believe that there are some here that God is calling beyond your comfort zone. I believe that He has placed a yearning in your life to serve Him- perhaps as a missionary or as a minister. And look, I know that you don’t think you can do it- and you’re right. But God can. When we lean on Him, when we trust in Him, He will use us for His glory and our good.

As I often joke, “If God can use that donkey of Balaam’s, he can use me too!”

Noah was called out of generational sin, out of cultural brokenness, and beyond his qualifications.

Is God calling you this morning to turn from your sin? Is He calling you to walk with Him and to be used by Him? My prayer is that you will respond to that call today.

Discuss: Is God calling you to be a missionary or minister? How might God be calling you beyond your qualifications?