Faith is belief in the unseen God and allowing that God to
affect the life you live.
Heb.
11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we
do not see. There are
experiences that give you the opportunity for your faith to be seen through
the eyes of experience. We can
truly experience the living God now. I
believe one of these experiences is called worship. But
there are different levels of experiences one may have.
You can hear about it, read about it, watch it, do it, and be involved
in it. Which of these levels of
experiences have you had with the Lord?
I went to
college to become a mining engineer. For four years I read book after book and
did multitudes of papers about things that I had never actually experienced.
I had taken a few field trips into the depths of the earth, but until I
actually put on my mine light, self-rescuer, and strapped on my kneepads.
I had never truly experienced the act of mining coal.
I had never held a number 2 shovel in my hands and shoveled coal on my
knees. I had never cranked the handle of a Joy 21 SC, an underground
truck, and hauled the coal from the loader to the tailpiece in 40 inches of
coal. I have never felt the shock
wave from the explosion that occurred when the fireman would shout the warning
“Fire, Fire, Fire!” Then I
felt things and experienced things I had read about and heard others talk
about, but now I saw face to face. My
face was now to face the coal where the actual mining took place. What a difference my view of coal mining was to undergo.
I had seen the coal face to face.
I had spent time with those who worked daily miles underneath the
surface of the earth to claim the precious treasures that lie therein.
I had been changed. The
coal that we took out from under those hills became that which supported us
and protected us. We earned our
living by taking the coal as it was also left in the hill in huge blocks of
coal to hold the top from falling on us as we worked.
A man by the name of Noah had heard of God and probably read about Him.
But until the day that the Lord called out his name and asked him to
build him an Ark he had never truly experienced Him face to face.
Although we are never told that Noah actually saw God, we are told that
the Lord spoke to Noah on a first name basis.
Noah’s faith brought him to face the Lord.
When that occurred the face of Noah would never be the same. His life would be changed forever. Noah would then come faith to face with the only true living
God, who would forever change his life and the life of his family.
The God who told Noah to build an Ark for his protection from the
judgment became his Lord. He had been changed.
The purpose of this message is to show how we can truly
experience the Lord through Worship in our daily lives.
Scripture Text:
Gen. 6:8
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 13
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for
the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy
them with the earth. 14 Make
thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt
pitch it within and without with pitch.
Gen. 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so
did he… Gen. 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house
into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Gen. 7:5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. Gen.
7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with
him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Will your faith bring you to face the Lord?
Faith to Face with the Creator of the Universe.
This is how it happens.
Can you experience God today?
·
Experiencing God begins with Grace from the Lord.
Eph. 2:8-9 The Lord doesn’t just sit by and watch his
creation go to pieces. He
intervenes and intercedes on our behalf. God looked with Grace on Noah.
Why did Noah need grace? Because
he was a sinner. But now the Lord
has looked on us with the same grace that he had back then.
That grace today takes the form of the sacrifice of his one and only
Son for us. Jesus came and died
so that we may live. We deserved to die but he said no, you can live.
All of mankind deserved to die but God said no.
I will give them grace and call Noah to be my servant.
·
Experiencing God continues by hearing his voice.
For 120 years Noah would hammer his sermon of repent for the
judgment is coming. But, no one except his family would listen to him.
He speaks to us today through his Holy Spirit.
·
Experiencing God is realized when we obey his command or we
could say that we follow what he wants us to be. God wanted Noah to be preacher with a hammer.
Noah would hammer his sermon for 120 years before the flood came.
·
Experiencing God becomes a reality in your life.
Gen. 6:22
Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he…
Gen.
7:5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
God is walking down the road of life, but he stops to notice someone
along the way. There was one of
his creations that was not going the way as all the others.
The others had forgotten him long ago.
But, this one was different. To
this one He called out and he heard and he followed and he listened.
This one made him happy. This
one built an ark for himself and his family to save.
Since all the others had long forgotten, God decided to start all over
with this one and his family and he came and followed.
We have the privilege of choosing which way will we go.
Will we go with God and experience our faith to face with the creator?
God becomes real to you. Is
he real? Have you followed him?
Do you see the result of not following him?
You and your family will be lost without him. With him you will rise above the storms that will drown so
many others.
·
Experiencing God becomes a reality in your worship.
Gen. 8:18 And Noah went forth,
and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: 19 Every beast,
every creeping thing, and every fowl, [and] whatsoever creepeth upon the
earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark. 20 And Noah builded an
altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl,
and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the LORD smelled a sweet
savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any
more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his
youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Worship is getting in touch
with the one true living God. Noah
built an altar and made a sacrifice to God.
Will you come to the altar of prayer today and make a sacrifice of your
self to the Lord? Noah’s
sacrifice smelled sweet to the Lord. How
does our sacrifice smell to God? Noah’s life was pleasing to the Lord who
had created him, saved him, and loved him.
Is our life pleasing to God? Do
we neglect him 6 days a week and try to be a Sunday morning Christian only?
Noah was truly thankful for what he had seen.
Are you truly thankful? How
does God know that you are?
Noah was truly worshipful of the
One who could have taken his life, but didn’t.
Noah was overwhelmed by the
power of the one who could touch all of his life.
Noah experienced God again in
his worship that day. Noah found
grace and so have you. Have you
said yes to God’s grace to you?
Would you make a sacrifice, bring an offering, invite
him into your life, yield to Him today and obey his voice?
What level of experience will you have today with the Lord?
It is up to you.