[Faith-talk] Requesting prayer for preaching this Sunday and sharing my transcript

[Poppa Bear]

Hello Faith family, I am hoping that some of you will take some time to pray
for me over the next few days that I will be able to deliver God's word with
truth, grace and humility this Sunday. Also pray that hearts would be moved
and motivated to really live for Jesus and come to find freedom and safety
in his service. Below is the message that I wrote, if you take the time to
read then perhaps pray over it as well. I am preaching to a small
congregation of Alaska natives and have tried to make things as plain as
possible with small contrasting statements and illustrations that they can
relate to up here. I had to shave about a thousand words off in order to fit
the service time, LOL. Blessings

Genesis 5: 9 through 22 Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people
of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem,
Ham and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw
how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted
their ways. 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. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood;
make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are
to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide
and thirty cubits high.  Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an
opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and
make lower, middle and upper decks. 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. 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. You are to bring into the ark two of all
living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 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. You are to take
every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and
for them."

Noah did everything just as God commanded him. The Lord then said to Noah,
"Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you
righteous in this generation.

Prayer

Have you ever had something stole from outside of your home? You just knew
that you shouldn't have left it outside, but complacency and laziness got
the better of you and you just continued to leave it out there and then one
morning you came outside and noticed that it was gone. A shovel, a gas can,
fishing pole, a tool box in the back of your truck? I remember one time my
step father had a pair of brand new winter tires in the bed of his truck. I
had commented to my mom that he didn't want to leave them there, she kind of
shrugged it off, and she imagined that he knew better, he could manage it,
but the next day when I talked to her the tires were gone. Those tires cost
a thousand bucks. It would have taken all of ten minutes to get the tires
out of the truck and bring them inside. At that rate he would have saved a
hundred bucks a minute. This is a picture of our attitude towards the Lords
coming. Often we think, or rather do not think that it is really that
serious. As Christians we know that He will come back for his church at some
point, but we for some reason just push that idea towards the back of our
mind and go on, business as usual, clock in, clock out, another day, another
dollar. Bills to pay, taxes, birthdays and holidays. I want to challenge
you; I want to ring the bell, the alarm, I want to say, wake up. We need to
wake up. As I heard a preacher say recently, the Titanic has already struck
the iceberg, the world is already sinking. Now it's a matter of who will
make it into the life boats. If you have watched the movie the titanic you
may recall that as the boat is sinking, some on the ship just continue to do
what they were doing. The orchestra carries on with their songs, dancers
continue dancing and the people at the bar continue to get drunk. That is a
picture of what is going on today. It is the same picture of life when Noah
was building the ark and the flood came. People were drinking, marrying and
being given in marriage. They saw Noah building this massif structure, I am
sure that he was the talk of many nations, I am sure that people traveled
hundreds of miles to see him, this wild eyed crazy old man hammering on this
boat and preaching this message of repentance. I mean, he was gathering
together an entire zoo as well; it must have been like a modern day
amusement park. Over the hundred years that it took him to complete the ark
he may have even employed laborers to help build the ark, men who put their
own sweat, time and energy into help build this mammoth boat. But still when
the first drops of rain started falling how many entered into the safety of
the ark? The bible says that there was only 8 in all that entered the ark
when that door shut. Now this is what it will be like when the Lord comes
and takes his church. See the titanic is the world, and there is a giant
gaping hole in it and it is sinking, but the life boat is Gods ark which is
a picture of Christ and whoever enters into it by faith will be saved. Here
is something that I thought was interesting, the ark as big and imposing as
it was had only one door, God told him to just put one door. That is against
every fire code in the book, but no not God's plan, He says Noah, just one
door to go in and out of. What God, how can I get thousands of animals in
one door? I'll work it out Noah, you just trust and obey. You see, God only
needs one door. What did Jesus tell his disciples and the people about
doors? He said in John 10:9 that "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he
will be saved," There is only one door to enter into his safety, He said in
John, that he was the way, the truth and the life, not a way, but the way.
So in the ark we have the same thing, one door to enter into safety. People
will be playing their Xbox, browsing their face book, getting ready to go
out to a ball game and then, 1 Cor CH 15 says that in a moment, a twinkling
of an eye that we and those who have had their earthly bodies laid in the
grave will be taken up to heaven with Him. The bible said that Noah was
righteous, not perfect, but he was righteous. Just like Abraham wasn't
perfect, but by living by faith in Gods promises and commandments, living by
faith they walked as God's friends. 

I know that it is very hard to walk with God in this day and age. Everywhere
we look we see the Devils hand at work. You turn on the TV and even the
commercials are pushing sin, let alone the actual movies. It is so easy to
just go with the flow, relax, and loosen up. But we're not called to just go
with the flow; we're called to be vigilant, Even when the world says come
on, come with us, look at everyone else their doing it, we dig in our hills
and set are faces towards the cross, towards the thrown of God. We don't go
with the flow, we are like the Salmon, and we fight to go up stream even
when the current is going the opposite way. When the world says sit down, we
stand up for Christ. When the world bows down to idols we bow down to the
living God. When the world says take as much as you can get, we give as much
as we can for the sake of the Cross and a love for others. You see, we are
different now, when you come to Christ a change takes place, we become a new
creation in Christ, all old things have passed away, and behold, and all
things are new. We don't do what we did when we were living unsaved lives.
Friends and family may try and get you to do what you used to do, but we
crucify the old man. The old ways are gone, we walk in newness of life now,
1 Peter 4:3 through 5  in the Living Bible says, You have had enough in the
past of the evil things the godless enjoy, sexual sin, lust, getting drunk,
wild parties, drinking bouts, and the worship of idols, and other terrible
sins. Of course, your former friends will be very surprised when you don't
eagerly join them anymore in the wicked things they do, and they will laugh
at you in contempt and scorn. But just remember that they must face the
Judge of all, living and dead. They will laugh at you. Yes, they may laugh
at you but friends, Jesus says, blessed are you when they persecute you for
righteousness because you will see the kingdom of God. I don't know about
you, but I want to see the kingdom of God, I want to be a citizen of that
kingdom. Some people save for years to go to New York City, visit the statue
of liberty and eat at the famous restaurants in grinige village, some people
dream about going to Paris, the city of lights, fashion, perfumes, they
dream about gazing on the iafole tower, listening to the French accents. But
I want to see the Kingdom of God; I want to hear the voices of thousands
upon thousands singing praise to the Lamb. I want to cast my crown across
the Chrystal floor of the throne room at the feet of Jesus. I want to look
in my Saviors face, kiss his nail scarred hands. That is where I want to
take a trip to. And you know what? Just like when you plan for a vacation,
you start to imagine what it will be like, you tell your friends all about
it and you pack your bags, that is what I'm doing, I'm telling people about
it, I'm reading the brochure, the Bible, I'm packing my Spiritual bags and
I'm ready to blast off like a rocket when that Trumpet calls me home to
Glory.  Let me ask you something? Does a thief make an announcement ten
minutes before He makes off with the snow blower in the middle of the night,
does he come and bang on the door and say, by the way I was just passing by
and I am going to slip your weed whacker in my trunk, thanks? No! He doesn't
do that. Jesus isn't going to say, "Hello earthlings I am going to take all
my children home today at 3 o'clock don't forget to pack a lunch. He has
been telling the world that he was coming back for the last 2 thousand
years. The thief comes when everyone is a sleep, when people are distracted
and comfortable and unconcerned about anything. But Christ says, be on
watch, the apostle Paul says wake up sleeper. Are you watching, waiting?
Right now the water is rising, the titanic is slowly sinking, what are you
going to do? Is there any excitement or anticipation of the Lords return
that bubbles up in your heart when you think about the rapture? The apostle
Paul, who spent much of his ministry in prison, on the run or being
persecuted said this,  that to live is Christ, but to die is gain, to live
and walk with the Spirit of God is great, but to die and walk in glory, see
the Master face to face, now that's hitting the jackpot! If the bible
describes the Lord and his life, death, his acts of compassion, thoughts
about religion, sin and love, his sacrifice for us in such forceful and
enduring words and you have no desire to open the Bible up or hear it being
preached on a consistent basses, then you might have to ask your self do you
really even want him to return?  if you claim to be a new creation who has
been crucified with Christ, redeemed by his blood, sealed and marked by His
Holy Spirit, get your head out of the world's toilet bowl, stop playing in
the pig pen and acting like his death on the cross was on the same level as
some movie on the hallmark channel that made you tear up. That is a sad
reality. I once heard a story about an older woman. Her family invited her
out to a secular movie and she said no thanks she would pass on it. Her son
and law asked her why she didn't want to go and she said because if the Lord
decided to come back for his Church that she just didn't want to be watching
a movie like that. Wow! What if that mind set was in all of God's children.
I am not saying that all secular movies are bad, but I am saying that most
of the time that we never give anything like that a thought. In Revelations
3:15'16Jesus says, "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I
could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and
neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Does that seem
harsh? He said it. You know why? He gave everything on that cross, he left
the magnificent Glory of heaven, the worship of angels, his kingdom  to come
down to this ball of dirt, be spit on, beaten, whipped to the point that he
was not even recognizable as a man and then say, "Father forgive them for
they know not what they do. Then he threw off the chains of death to show us
that he was the giver of life, then he promised us eternal life, gives us
his holy Spirit, gives us a bible that thousands of people have given their
blood by being burned at the stake, crucified, flung into lion pits for
entertainment, hunted down like dogs, all so that we can have his word, his
promises, warnings, examples of love. We have that heritage of faith and we
want to be Luke warm? Are you watching, waiting hoping? The water is rising.
are you lounging around, feet up tossing potato chips in your mouth, popping
open another soda pop, channel surfing wondering why life feels like it has
no meaning? Don't keep wondering, there is no purpose in that life, at that
point you're like a zombie, you're moving, breathing, but you're really
dead. Without Christ and the new birth, the bible says that you're what?
You're dead in your trespasses and sin. If the son doesn't give you life,
the life that you get in his name then you have no life. Jesus said that you
can only serve one master. He didn't say that either you're the boss or I'm
the boss, it's either the devil or God. Who's your master, who are you
serving? You don't have to justify yourself to me, you don't have to defend
your spiritual life to me, open up Gods word, dust off your bible and find
out. 

This isn't a guilt session, this is an intervention on the behalf of your
soul, you could walk out this door and for some reason never see another sun
rise again. In the time that I have preached this message hundreds of people
in this world just stepped into eternity and guess what, most of them
probably planned it when they stepped out of bed this morning. The water is
rising, which boat are you on, who is the captain of your ship?

Closing prayer and invitation