Bible Verse for Sunday Service February 11, 2024
1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Announcements:
Deacon’s meeting soon to consider some of the things that were brought up in the annual meeting as possible projects for the coming year, kitchen updating, striping the parking lot, and sound insulation in the fellowship hall. We need to work out a date.
The church purchased an AED and training in its use. Terri Wofford will teach the class on Monday afternoon, March 11. Each trainee completes an online course prior to attending the skills and practice session. Please be sure to let us know if you would want to take this training. In addition to the AED training, the teacher may provide training in first aid, depending on interest.
On March 23, we will once again host the AWANA Grand Prix, which is a fun day of racing cars that the Awana kids make. Beside being fun, it is a great outreach to families, and a good opportunity for involving parents in a project with their children. We run the races in the morning and serve lunch as noon. Please volunteer to help set up the track, run the race, and serve lunch. Let us know if you can help. Car kits are available for $10 each. Any child, attendees at Awana or not, may participate.
Royal Lepcha, the director of ACTS Siliguru, India institute has provided a report of how God has used the training to help equip believers to further the work of the Lord. We have committed to provide support for another year of training. His report is posted on the foyer bulletin board. We also provide copies on the foyer table.
Sermon:
Today, Pastor Jim spoke to us from Hebrews 11:7 and Genesis 6 in a sermon he titled “Faith before the Flood – Noah.” In last week’s sermon, Pastor had introduces Noah as hero of the faith. This week he went over Noah’s qualities and aspects of his life that commended him to God in a series of brief points.
To introduce his sermon, Pastor started with Noah as a man of faith. Genesis 6 tells the story of the early world falling into chaos as godly men such as Noah diminished while those like Cain increased. Nevertheless because of his faith, God gave Noah grace to survive and flourish in this environment.
Next, Pastor noted that Noah had foresight God having warned him about what was to come. Noah didn’t understand, but because of his belief, his faith, God gave him instructions, those for the Arc.
Noah had fear, a godly fear that moved him. Whenever the Scriptures speak of fear, we are tempted to think of cowering in fear of harm or aggression. But, this is not Biblical fear, which is more a deep reverence for the person of God, a strong confidence in Him and His word. So Noah was able to act on the instructions God gave him, motivated by this reverence for the person and word of the Lord.
Genesis 6 also speaks to Noah’s faithfulness in completing the instructions God gave him. He worked 120 years. He gathered building supplies, used them to build the Arc then stocked it with food for the 40 day flood. Pastor wondered if it was not the case that God might be giving each of us an Arc to build? If so, we need to be faithful like Noah.
Noah had followers too, those of his family and household. Others found Noah’s work pointless and remarked things in the world carried on just as they always had with eating, drinking, and marrying. While this was how the general population acted in Noah’s time, Pastor encouraged us in our witness to those around us in our time. We perhaps can have more influence than Noah with his generation.
Lastly, Noah was a man with a future. Scripture tells us that his future was righteousness on account of his faith. All the evil in the world was wiped out and Noah had a fresh start. Evil was not completely removed from the world because it continues in our corrupted hearts. But, pressure for evil by many men’s actions was gone. By cleaning the world, God points to a future we hope for, a new heaven and a new earth.
Pastor asked us in closing to consider all these aspects of Noah’s life, a hero of the faith noted in Hebrews 11. Could we be an agent of the Kingdom now like Noah?
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
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