Here’s a question to chew on: Ever felt like you’ve baked something into your life that can’t be undone? Join us as Kent dives into an unlikely story (of Noah’s Ark) where the ingredients are set, and we’ll explore together how God offers a fresh start. Don’t miss it! 🌈📖 #TuneIn #FreshStart IT’S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ). Get the fill in the blank bulletins my.harmonychurch.cc/bulletins.
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
My wife is seriously one of the best bakers in the world. I had to put a moratorium on cookies in our house because when she bakes them it’s almost impossible to resist them. I literally think she might be trying to kill me… 🙂
Baking is interesting, it’s really chemistry. If I mix all the right ingredients and put them at the right temperature, I get a particular result. and here’s the thing, once it’s cooked – it’s nearly impossible to untangle the mingling of the ingredients… Maybe you can separate things a little bit before they are baked – quickly remove a yoke from a white cake if you accidentally put it in. But there is a point of no return for sure when you are baking where once the ingredients are mixed in, they can’t be separated out.
This is true of not just baking, but life as well.
There are things that once done, can’t be undone…
b
There are bells that can’t be un-rung
You know this to be true right?
WE:
New husbands learn this real quick the first time their wife asks them if a dress makes them look fat
Or what about that time you were asked on a job interview about the funniest thing you ever did and you actually answered honestly…
Or what about that time you called your husband lazy and worthless…
Ah, see, there are funny things we can’t unring and there are serious things…
Today, we are going to look at a story about a people who had rung a bell that could not be unrung, had baked into their story ingredients that couldn’t be removed…
I want to read you a series of passages from the book of Genesis, then we’re going to talk about some of the difficulties of the story and then we are going to look at how it ties into the overall story of God…
SCRIPTURE:
Genesis 6:3
3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”
Genesis says this happens because the sons of God were coming down and having relations with the daughters of man…
-scholars think this is referring to angels coming and intermingling with humans and creating a breed of humanity that was giant.
We also don’t know if the 120 refers to how human’s life span will be shortened or the number of years God is giving them until the destruction comes. OR both.
This is what God says in light of all this…
Genesis 6:5-8
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
I’ve heard people talk about the story of Noah and call what we are about to read about a “Genocide”. That God just wiped a group of people off the face of the earth who had done nothing wrong.
That’s not the picture the scripture paints.
b
This is a group of people who have grown to value wickedness and evil.
b
The cake has been baked – there is no untangling the sinfulness and wickedness of these people. It’s pervasive and is “who” they are
6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:13-14
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. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.
Genesis 6:17-21
17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
God essentially preserves mankind, animals, and plant life through this ark.
Within 6 Chapters in Genesis, we have gone from God saying, “It is very good” to Him saying, “Nothing is good…”
b
I want you to see this is a complete corruption of the good God had created – the rebellion of man was like a cancer, out of control and bringing violence & wickedness to the earth.
b
It’s not just that the cake has been baked, but that it’s been baked with poison in it.
God looks out and he sees one righteous man.
The Jewish oral tradition about this called Midrash says that God told Noah on his 600th birthday that the flood would come and that Noah preached to the people for 120 years trying to get them to repent, to turn. On his birthday the rains didn’t come but on that day his grandpa Methuselah did die – the oldest man to ever live. He lived with Adam for 249 years – being taught by him all the way to Noah. The Jewish tradition says that in Genesis 7:4 after God has told Noah to go into the boat, that the 7 days God references Noah waiting for are the days of mourning for Methuselah. The Jewish tradition is that these 7 days were given as one final chance for the people to repent, and yet they didn’t. Noah is standing outside the ark when it starts to rain and God has to force him to go in. Because he wants to give people as much time as possible to repent.
I don’t know how much of that story is actual truth – it is a tradition handed down from rabbi to student for generations. What I do know is that the flood story creates complications for us as modern readers.
Here’s what I know about God, He’s a good God, who is patient and wants to give people time to repent.
b
From the beginning, wickedness ruled in the hearts of mankind.
– from Adam & Eve’s rebellion to the very first murder perpetrated between their sons.
God had every right to end it in the Garden with Adam and Eve.
b
So why didn’t He?
b
And why does He now save Noah and his family
Because God had a plan for redemption…
One day, He would come to earth and He would redeem the system out from under the corruption.
b
He would face the evil in this world and be tempted by it all and He would give His own life as an ark for all of us to enter into to escape the destruction of death.
CLOSING:
Do you understand?
God had baked into the system – a fix that was coming – it would come through Noah’s line and He Himself would stand outside the ark while the rain started coming down saying, “repent and come in…”
Don’t believe me? Listen to what Peter says about this…
1 Peter 3:18
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.
The ancient theology of the church is that Jesus went to hell and preached to those who died in the flood – that He preached redemption even for them…
b
It wasn’t genocide, it was waiting for Jesus to arrive…
And listen to how Peter finishes this section up…
In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Peter says baptism is how you enter the ark of Jesus. It is how you become the next Noah.
What are you waiting for? Don’t you know your cake has been baked? Your bell has been rung? God offers you a way out, He has baked into the cake a way for you to find freedom, hope and be made new. To be forgiven of your sins. To start over!
