This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to week two of our look together through the book of Genesis. We're
in day nine. We're going to look at Genesis chapter nine today.

We talked yesterday about the fact that three things happened when Noah left the
ark. First Noah built an altar, which was an example of the motivational power
of worship. That motivational power of Noah's life is so, so significant.

First he built an altar, but then a second thing that happened, and we see this
in chapter nine verses eight to 16, is God made a rainbow. Listen to what
happened beginning in verse eight. Then God said to Noah and his sons with him,
"I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and
with every living creature that was with you, the birds, the livestock, and all
the wild animals, and all those that came out of the ark with you, every living
creature on earth.

I establish my covenant with you. Never again will all life be cut off by the
waters of a flood. Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.

" And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you
and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come. I
have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant
between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow
appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all
living creatures of every kind.

Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the
rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting
covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. " Now
before looking at this promise, I just want to make two notes out of these
verses because they're very significant.

First notice that God makes a covenant here not just with Noah, not just with
Noah and his family, but with all living creatures. When you and I talk about
honoring the earth that God has created, this is one of the incredibly powerful
passages of scripture because God makes a covenant here with all living
creatures. My responsibility to rule over this earth responsibly, as God gave
that responsibility in Genesis chapter 1, is backed up by this covenant that God
has made with all creatures on this earth.

God nowhere says that animals are like man. We are created in his image, animals
are not, but they are creations of God. And they're creations of God that God
loves his creation so much that he makes a covenant with all of his creation.

And you and I need to take that seriously. The other thing to note in these
verses is that God is saying, "I'm making a covenant to never again destroy all
the earth," going back to some who question whether the flood was universal. If
the flood wasn't universal, then God's promise here is silly, and it's been
broken.

There have been floods that have destroyed parts of the earth, but God is
saying, "I'll never have a flood that destroys all of the earth. " That is why I
believe so strongly that what God says stands. He says this was a flood that
covered all the earth.

It was a flood that covered all the earth. And God makes here a promise, a
promise, "I will never do that again. " And this was significant for Noah.

There are many who believe that when the clouds came and it rained again, that
the rain that came would be a fearful moment for Noah. Many believe that the
earth was watered somehow by a fog before the time of Noah's flood, that the
rains that came were the first time that anybody had seen actual precipitation
drops falling from the sky. And because of that, if that were true, then the
next time Noah saw that, he would think there's clouds, there's rain coming
again, "Oh no, it's happening again.

" And God is saying, "No, it's never going to happen again. " He builds his
promise in Noah's life to let him know before it even happens what he's going to
do. And God does that for me and for you too.

He builds his promise into my life, into your life, to let us know before it
even happens what's going to happen. He builds his promise of salvation, the
idea that I'm going to get to heaven and have to worry about whether I'm getting
in or not. He's already promised me, over in John chapter 5, that those who have
come to know Jesus Christ have passed out of death into life.

Promise already done, rainbow already seen, I can already count on that. Even in
my daily life, this is true. I wonder whether I can have peace.

Can I have peace? God says, "Don't be anxious about anything, but pray about
everything. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.

" That is a promise. I don't have to wonder. The rainbow's already in the
clouds.

Yeah, the clouds are there. Yeah, the rain is falling. But the rainbow is
already there.

God's promise is there saying, "You can have peace. " I wonder, is God going to
use me? Is God going to make a difference through my life?

God says very clearly that if I'll only faithfully follow him, he will bear
fruit through my life. He will show the world something of himself. Now other
people may not notice it in the way that I want to.

It may not get me the acclaim that I want, but that's not really the point in
eternity anyway. The point is, what does God want to do through my life? And God
says, "You see the clouds, look at the rainbow also, the rainbow of my promise.

I am at work. " Question I have to ask, I have to ask you is, what are you
focusing on more lately, the clouds or the rainbow? The circumstances that
aren't going right, the circumstances you can see rolling in that may not go
right, or the promise of God that you know is always right?

God makes a rainbow. The story of Noah is an interesting story. There's this
righteous man, this blameless man.

He goes all the way through the flood, all the way through the faithful time,
all the way through trusting God. And here after he gets off of the ark, Noah
builds an altar, Noah sees a rainbow, and then, this is not the Hollywood ending
you were expecting, Noah gets drunk. Listen to what happens in verses 20 to 23.

Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of
its wine, he became drunk, and he lay uncovered inside his tent. And Ham, the
father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told two of his brothers
outside.

But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders, and they
walked in backwards and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were
turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. This
is a great ending, isn't it?

This is like Rocky getting knocked out in the last round. This is like Forrest
Gump leaving his friend to die in Vietnam. This is like John Wayne waving the
white flag.

It just should not end this way. But it does. It does.

And it reminds you and me that God uses imperfect people. Never forget two
lessons. Your sins do not remove your spiritual victories.

And your spiritual victories do not remove your tendency, your temptation to
sin. Your sins do not remove your spiritual victories. God's done great things
in your life.

He's done great things in your life. And if you choose to sin, that doesn't mean
all those things are wiped out, all those things are gone. There's still great
things that God has done.

Don't let Satan tell you it's all wiped out, now it was all meaningless. No, you
sinned. Ask for his forgiveness and then continue to build on the spiritual
victories that happened.

Don't let Satan, don't let Satan lie to you like that. And your spiritual
victories, they don't remove your temptation to sin. Maybe that's what happened
in Noah here.

I don't know. I know it's happened to me. It's probably happened to you.

Where you get on top of the world, you feel spiritually victorious, you think
you've got it all together. And it's at that very moment you realize you're
depending on yourself and you fall flat on your face. Or in Noah's case, you
fall naked in a tent.

And because his son ridiculed him for it, to his two brothers, Ham's son Canaan
is cursed. He doesn't curse Ham, but Noah curses Ham's son Canaan. And he
blesses his two other sons, Shem and Japheth.

There were consequences that happened because of this very day. The reality of
our human sin, even in a perfect family like Noah, is a reminder to me of the
desperate need to trust God through daily life. You may feel like you have a
good family, everything's going right.

Even in good families, things go wrong. And this is a good family where some
things went wrong. And because they went wrong, there were some consequences
that happened.

But the truth is, I'm not trying to have a good family where I'm trying to be
perfect. I'm trying to recognize God's goodness in my family and allow that
goodness to become a part of my daily life. It's not me trying to be good.

It's God being good in me. That's what I trust. That's who I trust.

Genesis chapter 9, verse 28 and 29. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. And
altogether, Noah lived 950 years.

And then he died. That is the life of a faithful man. Not a perfect man, but a
faithful man.

That is the kind of life that I want to live, a life of faith. Jesus says, we
talk to you today, we ask first that you help us to live a life of faith. And
that instead of being caught up in our sin, you would allow us to be caught up
in you today.

Lord, we'll be tempted. And there are times when we will fall to those
temptations. When we fall, Jesus, help us to turn.

Help me to turn right now to you. Recognize your forgiveness, recognize your new
life, and to live in that life today. The doubts that Satan is throwing at me, I
pray that you would help me to reject those.

Help me to instead listen to the voice, the life of faith that you and only you
can give to me. Lord, help me today to see the rainbows, the promises. Help me
instead of seeing the clouds and focusing on those, to see the rainbows and
focus on those, to see the promise of faith, the promise of peace, the promise
of life, the promise of you abiding in me, the promise of you bearing fruit
through me.

Help me to see that those promises, nothing can take those away. Any more than
somebody could erase a rainbow from the sky, nothing can take those away. And
Lord, I pray you would send circumstances and people into my life today to
remind me of that.

And I ask this, Jesus, in your name, in your name, amen. Join us tomorrow as we
end this second week of our look through the book of Genesis. We're going to
look at the legacy of Noah.