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Living Hope SDA Church

Christian Martin

Preparing the Ark: Lessons from Noah’s Faith

All the way from Madagascar, across to Africa, up and across to South America, all the way to our very own country.

God speaks through every voice, to every culture, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.

And that's what God wants to do, prepare a people around the world ready for His coming.

We're here today because we want to be ready, prepared for His coming.

That's why my talk today is entitled Preparing the Ark, Lessons from Noah's Faith.

Let's pray together as we open God's Word.

Father in heaven, Whether we realize it or not, we are living in very, very unique times.

And the signs are all around us that we are living in a time of storm.

There's an impending, impending storm that's on its way that will be greater than anything we've ever experienced.

And today Lord we want to ask that you would draw near in a very intentional way.

May the Holy Spirit do what he does best, soften hearts and open our ears to listen to that still small voice speak to our hearts as we learn lessons from an ancient, ancient story that I believe is 1 of the most relevant stories for our day today.

And We thank you for answering our prayer in Jesus name, amen.

A young woman occupied herself preparing for a blind date.

This was not just dinner and a stroll down the river walk.

No, her date had planned dinner at an exclusive downtown restaurant.

Oh, with live music performances, I might add.

And waiting to make a good first impression, she took the day off to prepare for his arrival.

She went out that afternoon to get her hair done and get a manicure.

When she got home she put on her best dress and prepared for date's arrival.

Well his expected arrival came and went, but she continued to wait and to wait patiently.

Finally after waiting for over an hour She decided that she had been stood up.

She gathered her favorite snacks and she sat down to watch TV with her dog.

And sometime later there was a knock at the door, an unexpected knock.

And she went and opened the door, and it was her date.

He looked at her, surprised, and said, I gave you an extra 2 hours And you're still not ready to go?

I'm certain that we can all agree that delays have, man, they have some psychological impact on our minds.

It affects our readiness, our preparedness, to be prepared and well prepared for what is to come.

They do something, something to our minds.

You know, and You know, the sense that there is still ample time can lead to a lack of urgency in taking necessary actions.

When people believe there's a delay, they might shift their focus and priorities to more immediate concerns.

A delay can contribute to a sense of complacency where we become, you know, comfortable and less vigilant because after all, the anticipated event, oh, it's in the distant future.

I got time, even more time than I was expecting.

But I'm not here today to draw attention to a delayed repair of a car, or a delayed reimbursement of an expense, or a delayed delivery of a package, or a delayed re-status of a flight, or power restoration delays, which all of us have experienced more than once.

But in a marked era of delays, I'm here to draw attention to the greatest consequential delay of all time, the delay of the coming of Christ.

And we've been preaching for decades, no, centuries, no, millenniums That He's coming.

You know, Peter warned that this delay would draw the attention of scoffers, Particularly in the last days.

The last days being this this time period just before the coming of Christ.

That there would be scoffers who would say, come on, Where is the promise?

You have to raise your hand, but how many of you have heard that?

In fact don't raise your hand for this 1, but some of you may have said these kind of things yourselves So, it's no wonder then that only 1, only 1 in 10, 1 in 10 Americans say they believe the second coming of Jesus will definitely or probably occur during their lifetime.

1 in 4 are not sure if Jesus will return in their lifetime, 1 in 4.

And 1 in 5 say the return of Jesus will definitely not occur in their lifetime.

I would be hard-pressed to believe that the 1 in 10 that believes he's coming in their lifetime, they're all here today.

Not all of us here in this place believe that he's coming or convinced that he's coming in our lifetime.

His delay shouldn't be an unexpected surprise.

Because you would believe that most delays come unexpectedly, right?

That's why they're so stressful, because they come unexpectedly.

The delay comes unexpectedly, and that's frustrating.

Comes unexpectedly and that's frustrating, right?

But his delay is not an unexpected surprise.

As it was for us, for example, just a few weeks ago, 4 of us went to Guatemala to visit our Antigua, the living hope Antigua.

For those who may not know, we, by the grace of God, we did mission work this last November and as a result of that there were individuals that came to Christ and and they've gathered together and they've created, we have planted the Living Hope Antigua right there in the heart of Antigua Guatemala.

Anyways we went back to to to be able to encourage the Saints to encourage and and see how things were moving along and as we were there and don't don't don't hate but but man it was, the weather was beautiful.

I mean, we're talking like hot, bright sunshine that made us sweat.

And we, you know, most times we were in shorts, t-shirts, you know, you know, flip flops.

We, ah, just thinking about it, just so refreshing.

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Preparing the Ark: Lessons from Noah’s Faith

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