April 21-22 , 2007 HEROES! Hebrews 11:7, Selected

NOAH - AVERAGE GUY SAVES THE WORLD!
(Senior Pastor Roger Storms)

The Super Attribute Commended and Pleasing to God is: FAITH!

*** Hebrews 11:1-2 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. [2] This is what the ancients were commended for.” [New International Version]

*** Hebrews 11:5-6 “ By faith Enoch… was commended as one who pleased God. [6] And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” [NIV]

These Heroes:
• Believed in Evidence for God!

• Believed that God was Interactive!

• Stepped Across the Line into SIMPLE TRUSTING FAITH!

*** Genesis 6:5-7 “God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. [6] God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. [7] God said, "I'll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I'm sorry I made them." [Message Bible]

*** Genesis 6:8-9 “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous , blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” [NIV]

I Believe in the Noah Story:

• Because Jesus did!
*** Luke 17:26-27 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. [27] People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.” [NIV]

• Because of the Size of the Ark!

• Because of Non-Biblical Witnesses!

• Because of Geological Evidence!

Even When He Didn’t Understand, Noah Trusted and Obeyed God!

*** Hebrews 11:7a “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” [NIV]

Noah had Never Seen “Rain!”

*** Genesis 2:5-6 “Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.” [New American Standard Version]

Noah had Never Seen “A Flood!”

*** Genesis 6:22 “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.” [NIV]

*** Genesis 7:5 “And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.”

*** Genesis 7:13-, 15-16 “On that very day Noah and his sons…together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. [15] Pairs of all creatures…came to Noah and entered the ark. [16] The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.” [NIV]

*** Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” [NIV]

Trusting and Obeying Even When We Don’t Understand, That’s
HEROIC FAITH!

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

-- Hebrews 11:1 [NIV]