God Isn’t Mad at You | Seeing God’s Goodness in Noah’s Flood

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[Music: Count Me In, Crossroads Music]

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- Welcome to Crossroads. My name is Emily.

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- And I'm Debo.

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- And whether this is your first time joining us

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or your 500th time, I'm so glad you're here.

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This is a place that you can belong

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and bring your real life with you.

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- Yeah. Today we're continuing on a series

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called Epic Wonders, where we are taking a look

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at some of the most epic stories in the Bible

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that are also real, by the way.

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This is the last week that we're in this series.

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What's been your favorite part about the series?

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- Okay, actually, I genuinely think that this week

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is going to be my favorite because our lead pastor,

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Kyle, is talking about the story of Noah and the Ark.

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And I don't just personally love it

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because I love all the cute animals.

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It also touches me personally in a really unique way,

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so I'm excited for you guys to hear it as well.

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And Debo, don't you like have to be somewhere right now?

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- Yeah, actually I'm part of the band for our service,

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and we're about to hop into worship.

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And this is my favorite part of what we get to do

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every single week, because it's another way

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that we get to learn about who God is,

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and it's a way that we get to connect to Him through song.

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So I should -- I should probably go.

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- Yeah, you gotta go. Get out of here, go do your thing.

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Now where you are, don't skip this part.

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I know it might be tempting to skip to message button,

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but don't, because I think this is an opportunity

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for God to speak something so personally to you

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through these songs.

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So lean in right now and enjoy the moment.

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- Hello everyone. Welcome to Crossroads.

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So glad you're here. Why don't you stand on your feet.

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Let's start our time by singing

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to the one and true Savior.

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We invite Him in with us. We sing to Him.

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- Come on. Somebody just thank Him for all He's done.

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- Come on. This is a good time to say yes to Him.

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- I just sensed that there's some of us

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who struggle with those words. Yeah.

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That You are the one thing that we can give our lives to.

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It's such an admirable thing to sing and to say,

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especially for me.

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Because maybe in my humanity, I think immediately

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about the moments where I don't choose You,

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I choose other things, whether it's my own pleasure,

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enjoyment, my own gluttonous to overindulge in things,

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to spend more time doing what I want

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instead of spending more time with You.

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But I'm remind it when I sing this song, God,

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that You are my true heart's desire

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and that in You there's peace,

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in You there's an unlocking of everything

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that I need for fulfillment in this life.

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So when I lean into You, when I use a song like this

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and take it and put it in my pocket,

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whenever I feel like I want to be more selfish,

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or whenever I feel like I want to be

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mean with my words to other people,

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would I be reminded that You are the one thing

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worth giving my life to.

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Because you are. That's the truth.

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So God, thank you for this reminder.

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I feel blessed right now to be reminded of this.

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You're so good. It's in Your Name we sing and we pray.

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Amen. Amen. That's right. You can clap for that.

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It's beautiful to get to sing truth

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here in this room together.

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We're having the same experience,

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whether you're in this room

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or whether you're watching online.

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We're so glad you're here.

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Hey, why don't you find somebody around you,

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maybe find three people and give 'em

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a big ol' high five or a handshake,

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then you can have a seat.

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- Wow. I mean, after six weeks that video still gets me.

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I'm like, yes, that's right.

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Let's talk about the Bible. Let's go.

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My name is Kyle, if we've never met before.

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I'm the Lead Pastor here at Crossroads.

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This is the last week of our Epic Wonders series.

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Been looking at the biggest, most epic stories in the Bible.

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Today we're wrapping up with what I think

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is the most epic of them all, the story of Noah's Ark.

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Now, you could be like your first time in church today,

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and you're like, "I've heard of Noah's Ark.

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That's in Kentucky, right?"

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That's kind of --

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If you're not familiar with the story, this will catch you up.

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- Hey, guys. Welcome back to the channel,

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except, uh, this might be my last season.

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God, literally just slid into my DMs.

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The message? Grab your floaties.

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Neighbors keep walking by like, "Yo, Noah,

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you're building a cruise ship in the desert?"

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"Yes, Chad, yes, I am,

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and you're not on the passenger list."

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So here I am, warning everyone about this flood.

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And what do I get? Memes.

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They made the whole #Noah's Delulu trend. Cute.

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Don't tell the man upstairs, but I got no clue

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what most of these things are.

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How tall is this thing? Six, seven? Whatever.

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Hope they like boats.

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All right, fam, it's happening.

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Neighbors are outside, still cracking jokes.

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"Nice boat bro."

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"Yeah. Enjoy swimming lessons."

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Update. We made it!

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Look at that. A rainbow all the way across the sky.

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I'm gonna celebrate, find some wine, maybe a nice rosé.

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Don't forget to smash that like button

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and shout out to God for the collab.

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- Ha! Ha! Oh, that's so good.

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Our team made that, by the way.

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I think it'll be on Instagram later if you want that.

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Look at it. Pretty cool.

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That's the basic beats of the story.

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We just got a couple creative liberties there,

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in case you're curious, not exactly strict to the text,

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but the big idea is there.

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There's this guy, Noah, and then there's everybody else.

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Everybody else makes God mad.

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And so God, we think in this story,

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just gets super angry and decides to wipe everybody out,

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save Noah, plus a couple of each animal, start all over.

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Noah gets out of the ark at the end,

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there's a big rainbow. That's the story.

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What's the lesson?

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Well, I think it's pretty obvious.

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It took Noah up to 100 years to build that boat,

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and he only got to sail it for like a year.

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It drained all of his resources.

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And so I think the lesson is do not,

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under any circumstances, own a boat. Bad idea.

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Find a friend who owns a boat.

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That's a much better plan. I think that's --

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No, that's not exactly the story.

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But if you do need an ark, I know a guy. So.

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Dads, you can put that in your pocket.

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It'll make your kids have that same reaction later.

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It'll be awesome. They will super not like it.

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I'd recommend telling it.

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Simple story. We think. Right?

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Misbehaving humans make God mad.

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God punishes them. Lesson: don't make God mad.

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And while there are flood narratives that fit that mold,

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in fact, I'll tell you about one of them later on,

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that is not at all the story of Noah in the ark.

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See, Noah's Ark is one of the most known

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and most misunderstood stories in the entire world.

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One that we mostly get wrong.

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When my first nephew was born, my sister got a lamp

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and put it next to his crib.

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And the lamp was a Noah's Ark themed lamp.

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It had an ark on it, and then all these animals around it

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and put it right next to his crib.

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And the first time I went over, I looked at the lamp

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and I was like, "Do you know what the story is about?

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I mean, yeah, there's some cute animals,

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but it's about genocide.

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That's really that's what you want

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to put next to your kid's bed? Okay.

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I don't understand, because just so we're clear,

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this is a story in which it appears

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that a supposedly good, loving Father

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decides to brutally murder most of His kids

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when they mess up.

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In fact, I'll say, if this story

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hasn't bothered you before, it should.

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It raises this really valid and important question,

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which is it's so violent,

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how on earth could a good, loving Father

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possibly allow it?

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Now, this story does appear that way,

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but what I hope to convince you of today,

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I would hope to help you see, is that

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I actually believe this is a story that gives us

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one of the most profound, and personal,

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and powerful pictures of the gospel you can ever see.

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And my hope and my prayer is that some of us

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in here today have never said yes to Jesus before

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because we've had this question of

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Is God really the good, loving Father I can trust?

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Is He good for me?

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And my hope and my prayer is that some of us,

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for the first time today, are going to see

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the picture and say, yes.

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Let's pray before we go any further.

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God, thank You so much for the epic stories

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that aren't just fairy tales,

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that aren't just fables, but are real

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and show who You really are.

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I'm asking today, for all of us, God,

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we would get a clearer picture of who You are and say yes.

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Amen.

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My son goes to a small Christian school

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and he had a school project last week.

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It was to make a newspaper, group project,

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newspaper about Genesis.

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And the two instructions were have fun and be creative,

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something my son loves.

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He's very good at both those things.

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And so he drew a picture of the ark on the water,

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and then a little surfer on a wave next to the ark.

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And one of the kids in his group got really mad at him.

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He was like, "That's not what happened.

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There was no surfers. Everyone died."

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And so that kid is probably not a good hang.

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But he was right. That's what the story is.

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It starts with brutal divine judgment,

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not something that's super popular right now.

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Stock price very down.

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We see this antiquated backwards.

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It's just offends us.

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But it's the beginning of the story

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and so we have to deal with it.

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Genesis 6:5:

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The Lord saw that the wickedness of man

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was great in the earth, and that every intention

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of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth,

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and it grieved Him to His heart.

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So the Lord said, "I will blot out man

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whom I have created from the face of the land,

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man and animals and creeping things

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and birds of the heavens,

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for I'm sorry that I've made them."

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But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

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Skip ahead a little bit.

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God said to Noah, "I've determined

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to make an end of all flesh,

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for the earth is filled with violence through them.

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Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

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Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

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Make rooms in the ark,

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and cover it inside and out with pitch.

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This is how you are to make it:

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The length of the ark 300 cubits,

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its breadth 50 cubits, its height 30 cubits.

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And if every living thing of all flesh,

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you shall bring two of every sort into the ark

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to keep them alive with you.

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They shall be male and female.

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Now we don't know exactly how long

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it took Noah to build the ark.

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Somewhere between a few decades

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and up over a hundred years.

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What we do know is the ark was very large.

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For those of you who don't use cubits

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to measure on a daily basis like I do,

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the ark was big. How big?

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Well, if you were to put it next to a football field,

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you would see it's about a football field

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and a half large, long.

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And that 30 cubits by 50 cubits,

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that's about the same length and height

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as a typical suburban house.

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So it's very, very, very large.

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You got that part of the story right.

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But I made the claim earlier that it's one of

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the most misunderstood stories in the world.

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And I'll prove it to you.

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How many animals of each kind

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did Noah invite into the ark? Two.

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No, that's actually -- That's actually not true.

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Two of some kinds of animals. Yes.

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But a deeper read into the story,

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going just a few verses later, says, actually,

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he had more of some kinds.

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Genesis 7:2:

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God says, take with you seven pairs of all clean animals,

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the male and his mate,

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and a pair of animals that are not clean,

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the male and his mate,

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and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens,

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also male and female, to keep their offspring alive

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on the face of the earth.

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And so from the very get go, "We go,

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there was two of every kind of animals.

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Pretty sure about that."

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No, actually not not at all.

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Seven pairs, 14 of every clean animal

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and 14, seven pairs, of every kind of bird.

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And so if you've ever wondered

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what is God's favorite animal, it's birds.

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Clearly it's birds.

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All the dog people are like, "It's not dogs?

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Really, it's not dogs?

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All the cat people are like, "I get it.

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I know why it's not cats, I get it.

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I know, I know."

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I'm a dog person myself.

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My daughter took this picture

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of our two dogs the other day.

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I thought it was hilarious.

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That's that's Annie and that's Rooster.

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And it looks like they're taking a selfie, doesn't it?

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And that made me think, like,

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were there auditions for the ark? You know?

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Did animals send in headshots?

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Because if you're Noah, you don't want

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just like any two old elephants.

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You want, like, the two best elephants in the world.

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And so maybe they were tryouts, I don't know.

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And then it made me think about, like,

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what if you were the third placed elephant?

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Sad, I know. I mean, imagine Noah, he has to break the news.

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He puts his arm around the elephant.

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He's like, "Pickles, my man. Uh, good news.

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I mean, you are officially

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the third best elephant in the world.

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That's amazing. You should be so proud of that.

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Now, unfortunately, we only have room for two.

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And so you're going to drown like everybody else.

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And I would say better luck next time,

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but you know there's no next time.

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So get yourself a Noah's Ark T-shirt on the way out.

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I don't know, it's kind of --"

00:29:49

Pickles the third elephant.

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Now, there are two elephants in the room

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that we do need to address before we can dive into

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what this story says about the character of God.

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There are two of them.

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And the first one is this:

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Really? I'm supposed to believe that

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every animal in the whole world got onto one boat?

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As a rational, logical, my wife says

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most of the time my brain works even,

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I'm supposed to believe that two lemurs

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swam across the ocean from Madagascar to Africa,

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walked all the way up?

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I'm supposed to believe that two chameleons

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from the middle of the Amazon rainforest

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just like, slowly walk to the sea.

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And then got a cruise ticket to the -- I don't --

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Like really? And I'll say a couple things about that.

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One, as somebody who believes, me myself,

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somebody who believes in a God who created the universe,

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an all powerful God who can do whatever He wants,

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of course, I have to believe that that could happen.

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Of course He can do anything by nature

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and definition of being God.

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How can He fit all the animals into the ark?

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He can make it like Mary Poppins' purse.

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It's just a bottomless you can pull lampstands out.

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You know, I don't --

00:31:05

He could totally, absolutely do that.

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But I'll also say, as a science minded person,

00:31:11

one of the things I most appreciated

00:31:12

when I first started coming around Crossroads

00:31:14

was not just the request, but the plea from stage

00:31:17

that I heard to not check my brain at the door.

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They said, "God gave you a rational mind.

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God gave you logic. Scripture says actually use science.

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Examine reality, look at

00:31:26

the physical elements of the earth.

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The Bible says you can learn

00:31:29

God's invisible character that way."

00:31:31

And so the plea I would have for you is

00:31:33

you can also not check your brain at the door

00:31:35

if that bothers you,

00:31:36

if that's not what you want to conclude.

00:31:37

And I think there's room to conclude that

00:31:39

this was actually maybe a localized flood

00:31:42

that covered every animal in Noah's whole world.

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Now, the reason I would say that,

00:31:49

a couple pieces of evidence.

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First is the geological record.

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There is no worldwide geological record of a flood

00:31:56

that covered the face of the earth,

00:31:57

all at exactly the same time.

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However, if you look at the ancient Near East

00:32:02

where this story takes place, and you look at

00:32:05

the two rivers that flow through it,

00:32:07

the Tigris and Euphrates, what you will find

00:32:10

and what has been found are large deposits

00:32:13

of clean clay up to eight feet thick.

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Clean clay is what's left after a flood.

00:32:19

And it's been found in three cities around here so far.

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And so the conclusion from believers

00:32:25

and nonbelieving geologists alike is that

00:32:28

this area was once covered in

00:32:30

a massive, catastrophic flood.

00:32:33

The whole place filled with water.

00:32:36

And if you look at the curvature of the earth

00:32:37

and you're Noah and you're in the middle of the flood,

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what you would have seen, absolutely, is only water

00:32:43

as far as your eye could get to the horizon.

00:32:46

This is in the record, by the way, at 2900 BC,

00:32:49

about the time that this story takes place.

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Now, second reason, we got to talk about

00:32:56

the word that's translated Earth

00:32:58

in our English translation of the story.

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It's used about 45 different times

00:33:01

in the story of Noah, the word earth.

00:33:04

It's actually the Hebrew word erets,

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which appears in the Bible 2504 times.

00:33:11

71% of the time it doesn't mean the whole Earth.

00:33:15

It means a piece of ground, a piece of land.

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So it's quite possible it means the same thing in this context.

00:33:23

Another thing to think through.

00:33:24

We tend to backwards apply our understanding

00:33:28

of the universe on the people of ancient times

00:33:31

that they didn't have.

00:33:32

When I say to you, imagine the earth,

00:33:34

you picture the blue marble, right?

00:33:37

The ball in the sky, the sphere.

00:33:38

And if I said imagine it's covered in water,

00:33:42

you would immediately in your mind,

00:33:43

you'd surround it in water.

00:33:44

On the other side of the globe, China gets covered,

00:33:46

Africa gets covered, everything covered in water.

00:33:48

If you said the whole world, you would mean all of that.

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But for the people who lived at the time

00:33:53

this story was written, they did not have

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any concept of a planet. None at all.

00:33:59

There was no concept of the other side of the world.

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So when they talked about the whole world,

00:34:03

what they meant is the whole world

00:34:05

that I can see and that I know about.

00:34:07

That's all that they meant.

00:34:09

I just share that again, to say,

00:34:10

if that's an elephant in the room

00:34:11

that stops you from listening to the character of God,

00:34:14

let me just Gently take that elephant

00:34:15

out of the room for you.

00:34:16

There is room to be a faithful person

00:34:18

and still believe this.

00:34:19

Many of the leading theologians, including,

00:34:21

by the way, C.S. Lewis, have you ever heard of him?

00:34:24

Took this view, so plenty of room there for you.

00:34:26

The second elephant we got to address,

00:34:28

the second elephant is the one

00:34:30

that's creeping up more and more

00:34:32

on YouTube and TikTok.

00:34:33

And it's this idea that the Bible is unreliable

00:34:36

because stories are borrowed from other places.

00:34:38

And one of the key ones,

00:34:40

probably the key story that people

00:34:41

make this claim about is the story of Noah.

00:34:44

They say it's actually stolen from earlier

00:34:47

ancient Near Eastern myths about a flood.

00:34:50

And to be clear,

00:34:51

there are other flood narratives in this area.

00:34:54

There's actually two that predate the writing of Noah,

00:34:57

and they form into one

00:34:58

that's called the Epic of Gilgamesh.

00:35:01

This is the one that you hear about most.

00:35:02

Give you the beats of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

00:35:04

Don't recommend it. Not light reading, not super fun.

00:35:07

But the story goes like this.

00:35:09

There are many gods, polytheistic culture.

00:35:12

The gods are capricious. They are unpredictable.

00:35:14

They're always backstabbing each other.

00:35:16

They're just they're self-interested.

00:35:19

And one day, humanity makes too much noise

00:35:23

and it interrupts the gods' naps.

00:35:25

And so the gods decide they're going to kill everybody.

00:35:29

And then one god, just to play a trick on the other gods,

00:35:32

Ea, finds this man Utnapishtim.

00:35:36

And he goes to Utnapishtim and he says,

00:35:37

"God's going to, all the gods

00:35:39

are going to kill everybody

00:35:40

so build a boat, throw some animals in it

00:35:42

and you'll survive."

00:35:43

The story says that Utnapishtim

00:35:44

had seven days to build his boat.

00:35:47

It rained for six days,

00:35:49

and at the end of the six days,

00:35:50

the gods regret having wiped out people. Why?

00:35:53

Because people made sacrifices

00:35:55

and sacrifices were their food,

00:35:57

and so they were literally hangry.

00:35:59

That's the story.

00:36:02

And it does share three surface level details

00:36:05

along with Noah's Ark.

00:36:06

There's a God, there is a man, there is a boat.

00:36:11

Yes. These things, these are all the same things.

00:36:14

But the important parts of the story,

00:36:16

the parts that matter about it,

00:36:18

have all completely different pieces.

00:36:21

Reason for the flood, the character of God,

00:36:22

the character of the hero, the time to build,

00:36:24

the design of the vessel, God's response,

00:36:26

the relationship between God and man afterwards.

00:36:28

All of that, that all matters the most

00:36:30

is all completely and utterly different.

00:36:34

Saying that the Epic of Gilgamesh

00:36:36

or any other flood narrative and Noah match

00:36:38

is like saying Titanic and Pirates of the Caribbean

00:36:40

are the same movie because, you know,

00:36:43

they both have water and boats and surprises.

00:36:47

No, those don't turn out to be the most important details.

00:36:52

In fact, if you go across the the Earth,

00:36:54

you'll find many cultures that have flood narratives.

00:36:56

All around the globe, by the way.

00:36:59

There are over 200 flood narratives

00:37:01

found in Native American cultures and religions alone.

00:37:05

The Mayans had one, the Incans had had one.

00:37:08

And that could be, you could say, "Well, maybe

00:37:10

that's evidence that there really was a worldwide flood."

00:37:12

Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

00:37:14

It could also be because, do you know

00:37:17

what happens everywhere around the world

00:37:19

and was utterly devastating and a huge surprise,

00:37:21

and therefore a big cultural moment

00:37:23

and marker for every culture around the world.

00:37:25

Floods. It flooded a lot.

00:37:29

Still does once a generation,

00:37:30

once in 100 year flood, those things happen.

00:37:33

People had no idea where they came from.

00:37:34

And so guess how you would survive. In a boat.

00:37:38

Hence lots of flood stories

00:37:39

and about people who survive in boats.

00:37:43

Now those elephants we needed to address.

00:37:46

However, they are not the real elephant

00:37:50

that we need to deal with. They're not.

00:37:53

The real problem is actually Pickles.

00:37:57

The real problem is the third elephant.

00:37:59

The real problem is the bronze medal elephant

00:38:03

who dies because the story says

00:38:06

that almost all life is wiped out.

00:38:10

Not just animals, but people too.

00:38:14

See, the third elephant raises the question.

00:38:16

It's so violent, how, how, how, how

00:38:20

could a good, loving Father allow it?

00:38:24

It took Noah a long time to build the ark.

00:38:26

He's working on it for a long time.

00:38:27

But one day the storm comes in.

00:38:31

One day the clouds cover the sky.

00:38:35

It turns dark and it starts to rain

00:38:38

and it starts to storm.

00:38:40

And it goes on for 40 days.

00:38:43

The entire area is covered in water.

00:38:47

Every living thing not on the ark dies.

00:38:52

Genesis 7:21 says:

00:38:54

And all flesh died that moved on the earth,

00:38:56

birds, livestock, beasts,

00:38:59

all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth,

00:39:03

and all mankind.

00:39:07

This is the elephant we've got to talk about.

00:39:10

This is the reason that many of us are distant from God,

00:39:13

because we see God as this punishing,

00:39:16

untrustworthy figure who's going to be unpredictable

00:39:19

and who, when we mess up, is going to come after us

00:39:21

and give us exactly what we deserve.

00:39:25

Now to start to understand God's motive in this moment

00:39:27

I think we have to ask what's going on in His heart?

00:39:31

What's driving Him? What's the emotion that God feels?

00:39:34

Is it anger?

00:39:35

And if you dive into the story,

00:39:37

you'll find this, Genesis 6:5:

00:39:39

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man

00:39:41

was great in the earth,

00:39:43

and that every intention of the thoughts

00:39:45

of his heart was only evil continually.

00:39:49

And what's His response to that?

00:39:51

And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth,

00:39:54

and it grieved Him to His heart.

00:39:59

See, the picture in the story

00:40:02

is not the picture like you get in Gilgamesh

00:40:04

or any of the other narratives

00:40:06

where the gods are angry over what humanity has taken.

00:40:10

This is a story where God is grieved

00:40:12

over what humanity has given away,

00:40:15

the chance at life, the chance at peace,

00:40:18

the chance of prosperity.

00:40:20

Humanity's abandoned all of it.

00:40:21

That verse says that it was only evil

00:40:23

all the time, continually.

00:40:27

And God says, "It makes Me so sad.

00:40:29

It grieves Me to my heart."

00:40:32

If you want the picture, I think,

00:40:33

of what God looked like in this moment,

00:40:37

you can find it in Jesus.

00:40:39

Jesus said in John 14:9:

00:40:41

Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.

00:40:45

And so, in any instance in your life,

00:40:47

whatever you're struggling with to connect

00:40:48

with God as a Father, great pro tip,

00:40:51

go to the Gospels, read about Jesus.

00:40:53

Because when you see Him, you see what He's like,

00:40:55

how He loves, that's how God loves.

00:40:57

When you see how He gives grace,

00:40:59

that's how God gives grace.

00:41:00

We see how He heals. That's how God heals.

00:41:03

So we can look at Jesus to this to understand the Father.

00:41:07

And there's this one scene that I think

00:41:08

really ties in to this scene.

00:41:10

It's almost a one for one with what's happening with Jesus.

00:41:14

And it happens on Palm Sunday.

00:41:16

Maybe you've heard of Palm Sunday.

00:41:17

It's five days before Jesus goes to the Cross.

00:41:20

He rides into Jerusalem on a donkey.

00:41:24

And people have palm branches

00:41:25

and they lay them down before Him,

00:41:27

a sign that He is a king.

00:41:29

They praise Him. They worship Him.

00:41:31

And we'll talk about that a lot.

00:41:33

But rarely do we talk about

00:41:34

what Jesus actually said when He was on that donkey

00:41:38

riding over those palm branches.

00:41:40

These are the words of Jesus in that moment, Luke 19:

00:41:45

And when He drew near and saw the city,

00:41:48

he wept over it, saying, "Would that you,

00:41:52

even you, had known on this day

00:41:54

the things that make for peace!

00:41:56

But now they're hidden from your eyes.

00:41:59

For the days will come upon you,

00:42:02

when your enemies will set up a barricade around you

00:42:05

and surround you and hem you in on every side

00:42:09

and tear you down to the ground,

00:42:11

you and your children within you."

00:42:15

Don't miss this, Jesus is weeping,

00:42:18

weeping as He pronounces a judgment of destruction

00:42:22

coming on the city that He loves.

00:42:25

He's weeping. The word in Greek in that moment,

00:42:27

it literally means wail aloud.

00:42:29

It's not the silent.

00:42:30

There's a different word that means silent mourning.

00:42:33

It's not that. It is weeping aloud.

00:42:35

As he's on the donkey, if your picture is

00:42:37

this guy smiling, riding into Jerusalem.

00:42:39

No, He's crying.

00:42:41

He's crying because the people have chosen destruction.

00:42:45

See, the reason that judgment was coming,

00:42:47

the reason that destruction was coming

00:42:49

was for the same reason this water rose up

00:42:51

in the story of Noah.

00:42:52

It's because God gives us the fruit of our choices.

00:42:58

I'll say it again.

00:42:59

God gives us the fruit of our choices.

00:43:04

One of my favorite songs right now

00:43:05

is called Lemonade by Forrest Frank.

00:43:07

Anybody know that song? Right? Pretty good song.

00:43:10

Life gives us lemons, but my Jesus,

00:43:12

He be making lemonade. Lemonade.

00:43:15

Right? That song. Anybody?

00:43:17

I think I did that pretty much as good as Forrest.

00:43:20

Pretty good.

00:43:21

Now, that's built on the saying that we have,

00:43:24

which is life gives us --

00:43:25

When life gives us lemons, make lemonade. Right.

00:43:31

One problem with that statement, one small little problem.

00:43:35

Do you know that life doesn't give us lemons?

00:43:40

We made them, literally.

00:43:43

The lemon is a human made hybrid

00:43:45

of a bitter orange and a citron fruit.

00:43:47

You can look it up.

00:43:48

Some of you right now, you're so distracted.

00:43:50

You're already on Google.

00:43:51

You've got chat out and you're like,

00:43:53

"Is that? No, really?"

00:43:55

You can look it up later. Promise.

00:43:57

Lemons are human made.

00:43:59

Life did not give us the sour.

00:44:03

We make it.

00:44:04

Life doesn't give us the problems.

00:44:07

We're not innocent bystanders.

00:44:09

We create the problems.

00:44:11

And I think we have this picture of God

00:44:12

that's off of how he views our lives.

00:44:14

We like to talk about our problem

00:44:16

as if we've been separated from God. You know?

00:44:18

Like we're the lost child in the grocery store,

00:44:20

and we just need somebody to grab us

00:44:22

by the hand and walk us back to dad.

00:44:25

No, that's not the problem.

00:44:27

We act as if the problem is

00:44:28

we're just kind of off the right path.

00:44:30

We just need a little bit of guidance to get back on.

00:44:32

No, not the problem.

00:44:34

We're not stumbling around in the dark

00:44:36

and just need a little bit of light to find our way.

00:44:38

No, we were dead. Dead.

00:44:41

Ephesians 2:1 says:

00:44:43

You were dead in trespasses and sins.

00:44:47

You were in another word, as you wanted to be.

00:44:52

And you got to get this picture, this is --

00:44:54

The gospel will never make sense

00:44:56

if this doesn't make sense to you.

00:44:58

God gives you what you want.

00:45:00

He respects your choices. Why does he do that?

00:45:03

Well, it's His judgment.

00:45:05

His judgment is to respect your choice.

00:45:06

He does that because He wants a real relationship with you.

00:45:10

He doesn't want to force relationship.

00:45:11

He doesn't want to have to strong arm you

00:45:13

and twist you and make you do what I want.

00:45:16

He gives you a choice because He wants love to be able to exist,

00:45:20

and love can't exist if it's forced.

00:45:22

That's not a loving father relationship with a child.

00:45:25

That's a slave master relationship. No good.

00:45:28

And God says, "I don't want that.

00:45:29

I will not force you. I will give you a choice."

00:45:32

But please hear me clearly, there's only two choices.

00:45:35

There's God, from whom all life comes,

00:45:38

in whom only life is found,

00:45:40

or the other choice is death and destruction.

00:45:43

There is no third choice.

00:45:45

I think what we want is for there to be a third choice,

00:45:47

a convenient one that doesn't require me to follow God,

00:45:50

doesn't require me to believe in Him,

00:45:52

doesn't require me to shape my life to Him.

00:45:54

But it still doesn't end in this death destruction thing.

00:45:57

Just kind of a nice, quiet life. Doesn't exist.

00:46:00

You either choose God in His life

00:46:01

or the other option, only other option is death.

00:46:05

And God says, "I will not force you

00:46:08

into relationship with me." That's His judgment.

00:46:11

And by the way, God has never, ever judged wrongly, ever.

00:46:17

When we think about divine judgment,

00:46:18

we have a problem with it because

00:46:20

we apply our human limitations to God.

00:46:25

I'll raise my hand and I'll say,

00:46:26

you know what happens to me all the time?

00:46:28

I get wrongly judged all the time, all the time.

00:46:34

Also raise my hand and say, do you know

00:46:36

what I do all the time?

00:46:38

I wrongly judge all the time.

00:46:42

And so what happens to us is we go to God

00:46:44

and we feel like God's doing the same thing,

00:46:46

that He's making these wrong judgments.

00:46:48

No, He's rightly judging every single time.

00:46:52

And His right judgment is that

00:46:54

He will not force you to follow Him.

00:46:57

He will not force His plans on your life.

00:46:59

You must choose them.

00:47:00

If you're waiting around for God to, like,

00:47:02

steer your life in a great direction

00:47:03

and you're just kind of sitting around like,

00:47:05

"I don't know, maybe He's just kind of,

00:47:07

I don't know why things aren't going so great."

00:47:09

He's never going to force Himself on you.

00:47:11

You have to stand up and say yes to Him.

00:47:12

That's the only way that it has ever worked.

00:47:17

If you go back into the story of Noah,

00:47:19

this idea of not forcing shows up right at the beginning.

00:47:23

Genesis 6:3:

00:47:25

Then the Lord said, "My Spirit

00:47:28

will not contend with humans forever."

00:47:31

The word contend means force.

00:47:35

God says, I will not force humans

00:47:38

into a life they do not want forever.

00:47:40

I will allow them to have the fruit of their own choices.

00:47:45

And so when the waters rise

00:47:47

and all of the death

00:47:49

and all of the destruction plays out,

00:47:51

all of the horrible things, God isn't angry.

00:47:54

God's not fist pumping, "Yes, This is what I wanted."

00:47:58

God is grieved. Going, "This is not what I would have chosen"

00:48:03

But He honors our choice.

00:48:06

He's a heartbroken Father, weeping

00:48:08

for the choices his kids have made

00:48:10

to reject His plans for life and instead choose death.

00:48:13

It's what we always do, even, by the way,

00:48:17

after the rain stops, after the flood ends.

00:48:21

Because it does. It rains for 40 days.

00:48:24

Earth fills with water.

00:48:26

But slowly the water recedes.

00:48:29

If you add up the timelines in the Bible,

00:48:31

Noah and his family and the animals,

00:48:33

they're in the ark for about a year.

00:48:35

Finally the water goes down

00:48:37

and the ark comes to rest on a mountain,

00:48:39

and Noah and his family get out.

00:48:42

Now, what do you think the first thing

00:48:44

Noah does when he gets out of the ark?

00:48:46

So what's the first move that he makes?

00:48:48

Well, it turns out it's to act

00:48:49

exactly the way that we accuse God of acting.

00:48:53

He acts exactly as the angry father

00:48:57

who just harshly penalizes his kids.

00:49:00

The Bible says that Noah gets out of the ark

00:49:02

and he really needs a beer, like super needs a beer.

00:49:04

You've been there. I've been there. Needs a drink.

00:49:06

Apparently he forgot to pack the vino.

00:49:08

And so he gets out, all the bars are gone.

00:49:10

They've been wiped out,

00:49:11

so he's got to do it the old school way.

00:49:13

He plants some vines, they grow.

00:49:16

He waits for the grapes to grow, to mature.

00:49:18

Then he makes wine out of the grapes.

00:49:20

And as soon as he's got the wine,

00:49:21

he drinks all of the wine

00:49:25

and he passes out in his tent.

00:49:26

Gets super drunk, takes his pants off,

00:49:28

passes out in his tent.

00:49:30

Okay, who am I to judge, right? Who does that?

00:49:33

And then his son Ham,

00:49:35

which some of us are parents to be.

00:49:37

If you're looking for names for your kids,

00:49:38

Ham and Utnapishtim are two options you've heard today.

00:49:41

Just put those on your bingo card.

00:49:44

Ham opens the curtain

00:49:46

and he sees dad face down, buck naked,

00:49:48

and he's like, "Ha ha ha!"

00:49:49

And he calls his two brothers over.

00:49:51

He's like, "Look at that. Isn't this hilarious?"

00:49:53

Noah wakes up and he's really mad.

00:49:55

I mean, he's hungover mad. Like real mad.

00:49:58

Tongue tastes like cardboard mad.

00:50:00

And he does this thing where he curses Ham,

00:50:04

literally curses him,

00:50:05

and every generation that comes after him.

00:50:07

In fact, Ham, all of his descendants

00:50:09

become the enemies of the nation of Israel.

00:50:12

It's from Ham that we get the Egyptians

00:50:13

and the Philistines and the Canaanites,

00:50:15

all from this guy, because his father lashes out in anger

00:50:19

when his kid does something he doesn't like.

00:50:21

Noah does exactly what we accuse God of doing.

00:50:25

Why would Noah do that?

00:50:27

Because three things boarded the boat:

00:50:31

Noah and his family, the animals, and sin.

00:50:36

See, even when you strip us back

00:50:39

to our ultimate best person in all of humanity,

00:50:43

the one guy we're like, "I don't know,

00:50:44

if anybody's got it, this guy's got it."

00:50:47

The first thing he does is still on his own

00:50:51

choose death and choose destruction,

00:50:53

which makes the first thing that God does

00:50:56

after they get out of the ark

00:50:57

even more powerful and profound.

00:51:00

The first thing that God does, He puts a bow across the sky.

00:51:05

Genesis 9:12

00:51:07

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant

00:51:09

that I make between me and you

00:51:11

and every living creature that is with you,

00:51:13

for all future generations.

00:51:15

I've set my bow in the clouds,

00:51:18

and it will be a sign of the covenant

00:51:20

between me and the earth.

00:51:22

When I bring clouds over the earth

00:51:24

and the bow is seen in the clouds,

00:51:26

I'll remember my covenant that's between me and you

00:51:29

and every living creature of all flesh.

00:51:31

And the waters shall never again become a flood

00:51:34

to destroy all flesh.

00:51:36

Did you notice that God doesn't say,

00:51:38

"I put a rainbow in the sky?"

00:51:42

God says I put a bow in the sky.

00:51:46

At the time of this story,

00:51:48

the most powerful, sophisticated weapon of war

00:51:52

was a bow and arrow.

00:51:55

This is like God hanging an AK47 in the sky, it really is.

00:51:59

And I want you to think about,

00:52:00

you know how a bow is used, basically, right?

00:52:03

There's the bow and you, you pull the string back

00:52:05

and then the bow arcs.

00:52:07

Tell me where the bow is pointed.

00:52:09

Is it pointed down at humanity?

00:52:12

No. God hangs a bow in the sky, draws the arrow,

00:52:17

and he says, "If you want to know

00:52:18

what kind of father I am, I'm the one

00:52:21

who's going to take the shot myself.

00:52:23

That's who I am. I'm the loving Father."

00:52:25

And He hangs this picture in the sky.

00:52:29

3000 years later, a man rode a donkey into a city.

00:52:36

The people praised Him. They sang shouts.

00:52:39

They were on their best behavior.

00:52:42

Hosanna! Glory to God in the highest.

00:52:44

They were on their best behavior.

00:52:45

And five days later, Jesus knew

00:52:48

they would do what they did, which is

00:52:50

they turned on Him and demanded His death.

00:52:53

And that man decided in that moment to go to the Cross,

00:52:58

to die for the very people who put Him there, you and I.

00:53:03

So it is so violent is your objection.

00:53:07

It's so violent. God would say it is.

00:53:10

It was so violent. You have no idea how violent.

00:53:14

My body was broken. My skin was flayed.

00:53:17

My blood was spilled on the ground.

00:53:19

You know that Jesus suffered

00:53:21

more than you and I could ever imagine.

00:53:23

People will ask me, they'll say,

00:53:24

"Why does God allow suffering?

00:53:27

How could He ever do that?"

00:53:29

And my most honest answer is, I don't know.

00:53:32

But I do know this.

00:53:33

I know it must be worth it,

00:53:36

because we're not the only ones suffering.

00:53:38

In fact, I think it's accurate to say

00:53:40

that God has suffered the most.

00:53:42

Billions of times.

00:53:44

Billions of times His kids have rejected Him.

00:53:48

Billions of times, despite His pleas,

00:53:50

despite Hs wooing of us, we've said no to His plans

00:53:54

billions and billions of times.

00:53:56

And every time He wept.

00:53:58

He didn't just weep. He went to the cross.

00:54:02

He climbed on and He took the arrow

00:54:04

aimed at His own heart.

00:54:08

So how could a good, loving Father allow it?

00:54:13

Because He loves you and He's for you

00:54:17

and He always will be,

00:54:19

even if you're the one who put Him on the cross,

00:54:22

even if you're the one who messed up again,

00:54:26

even if on your best day, it's still not good.

00:54:30

Even then, He's a good Father who loves you

00:54:33

enough to make a way through death.

00:54:37

You know there's an ark for you to climb into if you want it.

00:54:42

The word ark only shows up twice in the Bible,

00:54:44

once for Noah's Ark,

00:54:45

and then another time for the basket

00:54:47

that Moses was placed in as a baby.

00:54:49

It doesn't mean boat.

00:54:51

It means a box for preservation.

00:54:55

In both stories, both instances,

00:54:56

there's this detail that makes it clear

00:54:59

that Noah and his family and Moses

00:55:01

were both sealed inside of their box for preservation.

00:55:05

Both of them are sealed, which is an odd detail to put in.

00:55:09

But there's a reason.

00:55:10

It's because there's a third ark

00:55:12

that you and I can climb into,

00:55:13

and it's the ark of the crucified Christ

00:55:16

whose tomb was sealed with a stone,

00:55:19

and who promises that if we give our life to Him,

00:55:21

if we'll hide ourselves in Him,

00:55:23

He will seal us with the promise of His Holy Spirit.

00:55:27

Ephesians 1:12:

00:55:28

In Him you also, when you heard the words of truth,

00:55:30

the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him,

00:55:33

were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

00:55:38

You have that option

00:55:39

to climb into the box of preservation.

00:55:43

I don't know if you've noticed this whole time,

00:55:45

maybe the ark and the way it looks

00:55:47

has looked kind of odd to you.

00:55:48

You're like, "That doesn't really look much like a boat.

00:55:50

There's no prowl.

00:55:52

There's nothing that would make it --

00:55:54

It doesn't curve on the sides.

00:55:56

And the reason for that is because

00:55:57

these are the exact instructions of God.

00:55:59

If you want to know what the ark actually looked like,

00:56:02

it actually looked like this. Why?

00:56:06

Well, if you go back and you look at

00:56:08

Jewish ancient coffins, you'll see

00:56:13

they look something like an ark.

00:56:15

In fact, if you were to shrink that down

00:56:17

to the size of a person,

00:56:19

it is perfect to put a body inside.

00:56:22

See, the ark is a coffin. It's a death.

00:56:26

It's a laying down of your life

00:56:28

and entering into the crucifixion of Christ

00:56:29

in order to find life.

00:56:32

And when you do that, nothing can touch you.

00:56:36

Romans 6:3 says:

00:56:38

Don't you know that all of us

00:56:40

who were baptized into Christ Jesus

00:56:42

were baptized into his death?

00:56:44

We were therefore buried with Him

00:56:46

through baptism into death, in order that

00:56:49

just as Christ was raised from the dead

00:56:51

through the glory of the Father,

00:56:52

we too may live a new life.

00:56:55

For if we have been united with Him in a death like his,

00:56:58

we will certainly also be united with Him

00:57:01

in a resurrection like Him.

00:57:05

See, the end of the story of Noah

00:57:06

is not no death, it's one death that covers all.

00:57:10

Everyone who's willing to say, "I see you, God,

00:57:14

I see Your heart for me and I'm willing to admit

00:57:17

that Your judgments about me are right.

00:57:20

I do choose death, even when I want life,

00:57:22

even when I, with all of my might,

00:57:23

with all of my willpower, with everything I have,

00:57:25

I say, I'm not going to do it this time.

00:57:27

Instead, I'm going to make the good choice this time.

00:57:29

I still fall short.

00:57:31

Even when I say I'm not going to yell.

00:57:33

I'm not going to get angry. I still lash out.

00:57:36

But You, God, You always judge rightly

00:57:39

and You offer a path to life.

00:57:43

Some of you have never seen a picture before

00:57:46

of Jesus who would love you that much,

00:57:48

of a God who would serve you that much.

00:57:51

If that's you, I want to invite you

00:57:52

for the first time to give your life to Him,

00:57:55

to put yourself in the ark of Christ

00:57:59

that you might experience the resurrection life someday.

00:58:02

Yes, but the life that He offers here and now, today.

00:58:06

If that's you and you want to take this step with me,

00:58:08

you can just pray these words silently in your own heart.

00:58:11

Say it with me, God, I believe You are who You say You are.

00:58:17

I believe You're a good, loving Father.

00:58:21

I believe that I do deserve death and destruction.

00:58:25

It is what I have chosen.

00:58:29

But today I want to make a different choice.

00:58:32

Today I choose You. I hide myself in You.

00:58:39

Forgive me for my sin.

00:58:42

Lead me to new life. Amen.

00:58:46

For others of us, we've made that prayer before in our lives.

00:58:51

And today is not our first time.

00:58:52

But maybe it's a time of renewal for you.

00:58:54

Maybe you've been in a season

00:58:55

that feels like the weather outside.

00:58:57

It's just dry. We're in a drought.

00:58:59

No clouds, no rain, no rainbows.

00:59:01

And so you haven't seen this picture.

00:59:04

And maybe you just need to get out your phone

00:59:06

and take a picture of the rainbow.

00:59:09

Take a picture of the bow aimed at God

00:59:11

so you remember this week

00:59:12

you have a Father who loves you.

00:59:14

You have a Father who says, "I will pay the price for you.

00:59:18

I'll do anything for you because I love you that much.

00:59:20

If you need that reminder, take a picture.

00:59:22

And I pray for all of us.

00:59:23

God, thank you so much for the epic stories

00:59:25

that show Your character, God, that's above and beyond us.

00:59:30

Thank You for being a good judge.

00:59:32

Thank You for being a loving Father.

00:59:35

We love you. Amen.

00:59:38

- I don't want to skip past what just happened.

00:59:40

If you just said yes to Jesus, we would love to pray with you.

00:59:43

Seriously, you can text in and very real people like us

00:59:47

want to get connected to you and pray with you

00:59:49

through that decision that you just made.

00:59:51

- Yeah, and if you want to take a next step

00:59:53

in your relationship with God, we have

00:59:54

some really cool things happening here at Crossroads

00:59:56

that we want you to jump into.

00:59:58

We have Revival and Anywhere Weekend

01:00:01

happening at the same weekend, November 1-2.

01:00:05

This is a time where we're just going to have

01:00:08

church outside in the woods.

01:00:10

It's going to be amazing.

01:00:11

Thousands of people coming out to Revival.

01:00:13

It's happening November 1-2.

01:00:15

And we believe that God is doing amazing things.

01:00:18

We believe for awakening,

01:00:20

and we're going to make room for it.

01:00:23

So we would love to see you there.

01:00:24

- Yeah. And it's Anywhere Weekend.

01:00:26

In the past, these have been two separate weekends,

01:00:29

two separate events.

01:00:30

But if you're a part of our Anywhere community,

01:00:32

we want you to be joined in person

01:00:34

with our entire church on Base Camp land

01:00:36

to experience what we believe will be

01:00:38

an awakening that God has put on our hearts.

01:00:41

So we want you to be a part of it with us.

01:00:43

So that means if you're from Florida

01:00:45

or New York or Seattle or Japan,

01:00:48

or anywhere in between and far beyond,

01:00:50

this is for you to come in person and experience

01:00:53

all that God has for us that weekend.

01:00:55

- Yeah. And that's going to be a huge weekend.

01:00:57

So if you feel led to help out and volunteer,

01:00:59

we would love to have you.

01:01:01

This is going to be an amazing time

01:01:02

where thousands of people come together.

01:01:04

And so we're looking for all the help we can get.

01:01:06

So if you want to learn more,

01:01:07

you can go to Crossroads.net/revival.

01:01:10

- And God works through the generosity of people

01:01:13

giving to our church and things like Revival

01:01:16

and Base Camp land itself, and weekends like this

01:01:20

happen because of your generosity.

01:01:22

So if you want to be a part of that as well,

01:01:24

and join thousands of other people in our community

01:01:27

who love to give to Crossroads,

01:01:28

you can do that by going to Crossroads.net/give.

01:01:31

- Yeah, thanks for joining us this weekend.

01:01:33

We would love to see you next week for our new series

01:01:35

Go Reach Your People. Have a great day.

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