The Rescue Boat

The Rescue Boat

Ever been tired of where you live?

Or, tired of the things you have to live with?

You tried to change things, but they won’t change?

You have prayed, “God deliver me.”

And it seems like nothing happens.

Maybe God wants you to be like Noah.

Maybe He has something for you to build.

Something you never heard of before. 

  

If God has you build a boat - build it right!

 

We read in Genesis

that Noah was a righteous man.

And in 2 Peter 2:5,

he is described

as a preacher of righteousness.

How intimidating it must have been for Noah.

Can you image the pressure

he must have faced.

As we read the account of the flood,

we can easily see the anger of God.

But can we see the deliverance of Noah?

God’s method for delivering Noah

required him to build his own rescue boat.

Noah’s deliverance did not come in a day.

Noah had to take part.

He had to invest years of hard work

doing something that had never been done before.

Think about it;

what if

God would not have sent the flood.

What would have happened

to Noah and his family?

The one scenario

would be the people of the land

would have tired of his preaching

and killed him.

The other scenario

is Noah would have compromised

to get along with his neighbors

and forfeited his faith.

Noah could not change his environment.

There are times when we can not change

the things around us

and we need to build a rescue boat.

Jesus said to His disciples,

“Leave and shake the dust off your feet

when a city rejects your message.”

I have found that mission trips

give people an extra measure of courage

to share the good news

because they are around people

they don’t know.

Some of us may need to build a rescue boat

because our environment is not going to change

and if we stay we will be the one changing.

Remember how bad

Noah’s environment was

and that he continued

to preach righteousness.

When God told Noah it was time to go,

it still took him years to built the rescue boat.

Be prepared…

God’s plan of deliverance

may require some work

and patience on your part!

Scripture Reading

Genesis 6:8-22 NIV

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

9 This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time,

and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.

12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become,

for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

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 wood;

make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.

15 This is how you are to build it:

The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  

16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top.

Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

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."

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.