>> Pastor Eric
00:00:00.260 And in 1 Peter 1:3 says, "All praise to God, the
00:00:04.180 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great
00:00:07.920 mercy that we have been born again, because God
00:00:11.540 raised Jesus Christ from the dead." Church, we worship
00:00:15.520 a living God. We have a living hope, a God
00:00:19.520 who hears, a God who speaks, a God who knows and
00:00:23.420 loves us as his dear children. We worship not a dead
00:00:27.340 idol, not religion, but we worship a living,
00:00:30.860 breathing, speaking God. Amen? Amen.
00:00:34.600 Let's give God one more great big hand.
00:00:37.320 He is so, so good. You can be seated.
00:00:40.340 We actually are going to share a little bit about yesterday, of what took place
00:00:44.520 right here through Freedom Church and in our community.
00:00:47.860 If you're new with us, we want to say welcome.
00:00:50.400 And yesterday, we had what we call Summer of Serving, kicked off
00:00:54.500 our first ever Freedom Church community outreach.
00:00:57.820 Can we give God a hand? First time really getting outside the walls
00:01:01.720 of Freedom Church, and it was so exciting to see a team of people, I believe it was
00:01:05.520 24 people, who came together
00:01:09.200 to go out and pray for people, to give out snacks on the trail,
00:01:13.180 water bottles, went to some nursing homes, did some great
00:01:16.920 construction work at a community outreach center in Export that's going to be
00:01:20.800 used for kids and ministry and so many other things.
00:01:24.260 But I want to share with you, I want some others to share, of what they got
00:01:28.200 to experience yesterday while being out on the streets of Diego.
00:01:31.780 If you would come on up, and Jake's going to start off. He was on the trail.
00:01:35.400 I want him to share a story that he got to experience yesterday.
>> Jake
00:01:40.400 Good morning, church.
00:01:42.240 Is this on? There we go. Hey, guys. We had the opportunity
00:01:45.700 yesterday to go down to Export. If you're aware, there's a trail,
00:01:49.720 and there's a little caboose. So we set up a tent there for people walking
00:01:53.560 by on the trail. We had waters and
00:01:56.980 granola bars and some fruit, we were giving out fruit.
00:01:59.520 And this one lady came up,
00:02:02.760 and she had a little dog, and she had a big smile on her face, and we were all
00:02:06.740 excited to talk to her.
00:02:09.640 And she came up, and she started speaking.
00:02:12.460 But when she started speaking, the language, it wasn't English, it was
00:02:16.800 Ukrainian. So we don't speak Ukrainian, so we pulled out
00:02:20.700 the Google Translate and started talking to her with
00:02:24.400 that. And what we found was she was 80 years
00:02:28.160 old. She's been here for four years.
00:02:32.440 To our knowledge, she doesn't have any family members in the United States.
00:02:36.480 So we asked her if we could pray for her, what she needed prayer
00:02:40.400 for, because that's what we were there for,
00:02:42.660 praying for people in the community.
00:02:44.800 And she said, "I want prayer for my country.
00:02:47.680 I want prayer for my family and just all my friends over
00:02:51.520 there. I ultimately want people to stop dying." And it
00:02:55.340 touched us, and
00:02:57.780 she
00:03:00.160 asked us if
00:03:02.240 we were
00:03:03.560 Christian. And we said, "Yes, we believe in Jesus," and
00:03:07.520 she believed that we believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
00:03:10.780 And so she was encouraged that we believed in the same God.
00:03:14.020 So we prayed for her, and immediately she just started crying.
00:03:17.840 And she
00:03:19.960 showed us a photo
00:03:21.760 of
00:03:24.800 Jesus
00:03:27.360 on her wall,
00:03:29.300 and
00:03:30.920 she was like, "Is this who you worship?" And I was like,
00:03:34.840 "Yeah." And she smiled, and she got all excited.
00:03:38.640 So then we continued talking, and I just
00:03:42.840 felt like I needed to say, "Hey, we're going to continue to pray for you and your
00:03:46.540 family." So I started the Google Translate again and showed it to her,
00:03:50.760 and she just read it. It said, "Hey, we're going to pray for you,
00:03:54.660 your family, and your country,
00:03:56.840 and your friends all over there, and we ultimately want
00:03:59.900 them to stop dying." And she just started crying, and it was one of those, you're
00:04:02.160 crying so much, there's no more physical conversation.
00:04:05.180 You're just already gone.
00:04:07.120 So she just started going like this, just bawling.
00:04:09.400 But it touched me, because me and the
00:04:13.300 group, we're out there to tell people about Freedom Church,
00:04:17.260 to share our faith, to invite people to this community.
00:04:20.760 But it was cool to see a fellow believer
00:04:23.500 who, in her mind, feels so alone.
00:04:27.780 She doesn't know anyone, doesn't speak English, 80 years old, doesn't
00:04:31.730 have any friends or family nearby, and just feeling lost in a country
00:04:36.220 and just doesn't know anyone. So just seeing, God is here.
00:04:39.880 He sees you. And just being a part of that, having
00:04:45.140 the honor to be able to pray for her was amazing.
00:04:47.920 So definitely encourage you guys to join in the future.
00:04:52.000 Amen. Diego, come on up.
>> Pastor Eric
00:04:55.000 Diego was at a nursing home right here in Murrysville called WeCare.
00:04:58.040 So go ahead and tell them what you got to experience.
>> Diego
00:05:01.540 I didn't think that
00:05:03.600 my first time serving in the church in that capacity,
00:05:07.800 that that was the experience I was going to have.
00:05:11.000 The first interaction that me, Jerry,
00:05:14.860 Christine, and Holly went to see was,
00:05:18.740 I don't remember her name, but it was such a powerful story.
00:05:22.200 We walked in, and the first thing that she told us was,
00:05:27.900 "I don't think I'm going to heaven.
00:05:30.380 I think I'm going to hell."
00:05:32.500 She said that the devil had been
00:05:35.080 visiting her in her dreams.
00:05:37.760 And honestly, I had no idea what to say when she said that, but I
00:05:41.740 was so grateful to God for the support in that room.
00:05:44.640 We had Jerry, Christine, and Holly, who all,
00:05:48.380 after hearing her say that, walked up to her and told her, "Well, who told you
00:05:52.200 that?
00:05:53.320 Who said that?"
00:05:55.240 And after a conversation,
00:05:58.840 she told us that she believed in Jesus. She had Jesus in her heart.
00:06:03.120 In some
00:06:06.364 instance from the last weeks to months, she had
00:06:10.724 convinced herself that she was going to go to hell.
00:06:15.144 And to see the conviction that all of us there together,
00:06:19.544 all glory to God, had to just pray for her and ask, "How can we
00:06:23.404 pray for her?" And she said she doesn't want to go to hell.
00:06:28.104 That alone, to me,
00:06:30.664 impacted my life for the weekend, if not the year.
00:06:34.044 Seeing, just
00:06:35.684 almost in tears, of this woman who was believing that she
00:06:39.644 did not have the chance to go to heaven while she was still here on this earth,
00:06:45.284 that struck me hard.
00:06:47.144 And after that, that was the first one.
00:06:48.924 I felt like that was the most difficult conversation ever.
00:06:51.664 And after that, we just kept going at people and people after the nursing home.
00:06:55.404 A lot of them were praying for healing, a lot of them were praying for loneliness,
00:06:58.524 and just to see the light in their eyes from them saying, "Yes, I do
00:07:02.504 believe in Jesus. Yes, I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior." To
00:07:06.304 see those eyes brighten up with us just being there and asking, "How
00:07:10.284 can we pray for you?" Was alone, amazing.
00:07:13.954 Amen.
00:07:14.004 I can't describe it in words. I don't have a word for the spirit.
00:07:16.904 But I absolutely recommend you go serve, whether it be
00:07:21.184 with people alone, with the church, as much as you can, because that
00:07:25.144 changed my life, dude.
>> Pastor Eric
00:07:26.004 Amen. Let's give God a great big hand. Thank you, Diego. Thank you, Jake.
00:07:31.604 So if you say, "I would love to be a part of that.
00:07:33.724 I want to be a part of helping people, loving on people, praying for people," your
00:07:37.244 next opportunity is in two weeks, July 11th.
00:07:40.344 We're going to be doing outreach again, some more construction work, some more
00:07:43.864 visiting to nursing homes, going to grocery stores, being on the trail,
00:07:47.764 just being present in the community, looking for those opportunities.
00:07:51.524 How do we be the church outside of the walls?
00:07:54.364 Because there are thousands and thousands of people, even Christians, who
00:07:57.764 desperately need to know that they're loved by God, that there's a people and a
00:08:01.304 community of people that want to support them and stand with them, and do life with
00:08:05.024 them as well. So get signed up. Again, it's completely free, but it
00:08:08.984 takes some time. It takes intentionality.
00:08:10.984 It takes putting it on your schedule to be there Saturday, July 11th.
00:08:14.483 We do need you to sign up so we can best prepare and plan.
00:08:17.444 Also on that Saturday is the Embrace Grace baby shower that we're
00:08:21.164 throwing for a single mom who's gone through the whole program, and we're going to
00:08:24.944 celebrate her having her baby. As a church, we're going to throw her a baby shower.
00:08:29.024 So you can get signed up for that, and we'll give you all the information you need,
00:08:32.064 the times, locations, all those things, as well as kids camp coming up.
00:08:35.884 It's like a vacation Bible school, is what we're doing, for three evenings,
00:08:39.725 Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, in July 15, 16, and 17.
00:08:43.704 It's about two hours of time to serve.
00:08:45.684 I encourage you, invite you, get connected, get serving.
00:08:48.684 You're going to get to know some other people.
00:08:50.384 You're going to build some relationships, and we're going to really take Jesus to
00:08:53.484 more people in and outside of the church walls.
00:08:56.944 When it comes to giving to Freedom Church, this is just a
00:09:00.924 small part of what your finances go to.
00:09:03.134 We're going to receive an offering at this time, and many ways to
00:09:07.064 give. You can give on our website. You can use Tap Card on the seat back in front
00:09:10.224 of you, cash or check in an envelope in a box in the back.
00:09:13.724 Whatever way you choose to give, know that your money, your finances, is going to
00:09:17.624 making an impact and a difference to people right here.
00:09:21.664 The lady that God prayed for on the trail, we're going to continue to go back.
00:09:24.624 We're going to go witness to her and share, bring groceries to her, and do some
00:09:27.964 other things, get her connected, hopefully get a translator, somebody to help
00:09:31.864 us with communicating with her. But that's just part of what your finances, when
00:09:35.564 you give to Freedom Church. We don't exist just for ourselves.
00:09:38.604 We want to get Jesus to as many people as possible outside these walls as
00:09:42.464 well. So I'm going to pray, and then we'll get ready for today's message.
00:09:45.904 Heavenly Father, we thank you for all the stories.
00:09:48.004 God, I thank you for the lives that we were able to touch and impact yesterday.
00:09:51.704 God, for the work that was being done in the outreach center that's going to be
00:09:54.464 used for your kingdom, for your name to be known to more people right
00:09:58.464 here in Murrysville and Export, and the surrounding communities.
00:10:01.624 God, I thank you for the generosity of every single person who
00:10:05.244 gives to Freedom Church to build your kingdom, to expand your kingdom
00:10:09.144 right here in this location, in this community, Father.
00:10:12.104 I pray you'd multiply it, you'd bless us abundantly as we
00:10:15.824 give back to you, God, as you've so generously given to us.
00:10:19.804 It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Let's get ready to hear today's
00:10:23.824 message.
00:10:58.424 Good morning. Welcome back. Did you enjoy that intermission?
00:11:03.564 Less than a one-function break is what I would say.
00:11:06.184 Hey, I'm Pastor Eric, lead pastor here at Freedom Church, and so glad to get to
00:11:09.884 share some of those stories and worship with you already so far this morning.
00:11:13.324 I want to say welcome to everyone watching online as well.
00:11:16.294 I know many people message us and tell us they're so thankful for the online
00:11:20.204 live streaming, so you can catch up on missed weeks if you miss Sunday or
00:11:24.164 just participate with us and sharing that with people.
00:11:26.584 I want to encourage you to share our website, share the live stream with as many
00:11:29.804 people as you can, people around the country.
00:11:32.144 I know there's people who can't leave their home. They can't make it to a church.
00:11:35.464 What if we could share some Jesus with them, whether it's a YouTube link or on our
00:11:39.404 website, and get more people connected to the word of God, because that's what
00:11:43.844 helps change and renew our minds. Amen.
00:11:47.204 Well, as we get ready to jump into the message, we've been in this series titled
00:11:51.114 "Timeless," looking at Old Testament characters and stories,
00:11:55.204 past lives, and seeing how they apply to our present purpose,
00:11:59.264 to our lives and our lives today. So, so far, we've talked about
00:12:03.244 Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We've talked about Abraham and Isaac last
00:12:07.204 week with Father's Day, and today, we're going to be talking about a guy by the
00:12:10.424 name of Noah. Anybody ever hear of Noah? Yeah, right?
00:12:13.716 What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Noah?
00:12:17.676 The ark. The ark. I heard flood, maybe fishing.
00:12:20.496 Somebody like, "I love fishing so much, I think of the water." But then boat.
00:12:24.676 The ark. And I may say the ark, the boat, it's a big thing that floats.
00:12:28.596 So the ark, Noah's ark, is the main thing most people think about, but there's
00:12:32.536 so much more to the story. There's the rainbow that we're going to talk
00:12:36.516 about a little bit today. We're going to talk about some physical evidences that
00:12:40.136 exist today proving Noah's ark and where it's located.
00:12:43.836 But really the story of Noah, it's about a man who stood for
00:12:47.636 God when almost nobody else would.
00:12:50.856 It's about a story of a man whose faithfulness to God, that when opposite
00:12:54.796 of culture, when culture was moving one direction, Noah stood and walked
00:12:58.616 away with God. He remained faithful.
00:13:02.036 That same challenge and that same lesson applies to us today, where
00:13:06.036 culture is moving one direction away from God, but our
00:13:09.976 job as Christians, if we're really Christians, we're followers of Jesus, the
00:13:13.956 challenge for us is to be obedient and faithful to God, to
00:13:17.955 walk with God, because the culture is changing
00:13:21.156 rapidly. How many of you are over 30? Over 40?
00:13:24.816 Yeah, look at those hands. There's a lot of us.
00:13:26.516 You know because you've been around long enough to say, "Man, things were so
00:13:29.856 different 20 years ago. Things were so different 30 years ago.
00:13:32.536 Things were different five years ago."
00:13:35.216 Culture's changing. As time goes on, culture's changing more and more
00:13:38.856 rapidly from year to year, to month to month.
00:13:41.826 Things change as time goes on. Opinions change.
00:13:45.236 Values change. I don't want to talk about politics, but the political
00:13:49.016 climate changes depending on what month you're in. Depending on what's going on.
00:13:53.136 Definitions of words have been changed.
00:13:55.776 Gender explanations have been changed.
00:13:57.626 There's so many ideologies and things that are changing, but one thing that does
00:14:01.526 not change is the word of God. God's truth, the
00:14:05.376 Bible, is timeless. It means it does not change.
00:14:08.456 It's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
00:14:10.856 As we talk about God, God does not change.
00:14:14.156 And today we're going to look at some life lessons from the life of Noah,
00:14:18.256 how to stand firm for God, how to love people and how
00:14:22.256 to do it properly, and then how to remain faithful in a changing
00:14:26.076 world. So we're going to start Genesis chapter 6.
00:14:28.916 Now there's four chapters, Genesis 6 through 9, that really talk
00:14:32.816 about the story of Noah. And starting in verse nine, it says,
00:14:36.576 "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people
00:14:40.516 of his time, and he walked faithfully with God." Now
00:14:44.236 Noah wasn't perfect. This doesn't say that Noah was
00:14:48.136 perfect in every way, he never did anything wrong, and the Bible actually gives us
00:14:51.856 some things that Noah didn't do well.
00:14:53.676 He had sin in his life, but he was found to be righteous.
00:14:57.076 That's in right standing with God.
00:14:59.376 He had a good relationship with God, and he was blameless among
00:15:03.345 the people of his time. He walked with God.
00:15:06.756 He knew God. He had a relationship, and actually the verse right before this says
00:15:10.416 that God found favor with Noah. Noah found favor with
00:15:14.496 God. Before Noah ever built the ark, he built a
00:15:18.436 relationship with God. It's the most important
00:15:22.226 thing any of us could ever do. More than your job, more
00:15:26.176 than who to marry, more than what decisions you make in life.
00:15:28.896 The most important decision you can make is to have a relationship with the living
00:15:32.936 God, because that changes everything.
00:15:36.306 And here at Freedom Church, we don't just want people to attend church or just to
00:15:40.176 show up, but we want you to grow in your relationship with God.
00:15:43.856 I want you to participate, to engage.
00:15:46.076 That's why we give opportunities to serve on a team, we have opportunities to serve
00:15:50.016 in the community, we make Bible studies, we have things available because we want
00:15:53.816 you to have a growing, healthy relationship with God.
00:15:58.216 One where you're pursuing Him in His word.
00:16:01.185 You're pursuing to understand the Bible.
00:16:03.396 And many times people don't know that they can understand the word of God.
00:16:07.256 If you've confessed your sins to God and you've asked
00:16:11.156 God to forgive you of your sin and you've received His salvation, the
00:16:15.136 word becomes much more aware to you, becomes much more clear to
00:16:19.056 you because God illuminates things within the scriptures.
00:16:22.316 This isn't a subject book or a textbook to study.
00:16:25.216 It's the living, breathing word of God that speaks to us.
00:16:28.636 And maybe you've read the Bible before and you say, "I couldn't understand it." I
00:16:31.656 invite you to pray and ask God to help you understand it and read
00:16:35.356 it again. The Bible is the primary way we grow in our
00:16:38.456 relationship. We grow in our relationship through the church, by being connected
00:16:42.376 to one another. Noah knew God. He had a
00:16:45.756 relationship with Him,
00:16:47.796 but he also did a bunch of work for Him.
00:16:49.906 And there's this challenge, there's a tension that comes up with religion versus
00:16:53.776 relationship. Now, the question I believe all of us should answer is, am I
00:16:57.876 walking with God or simply working for God?
00:17:02.076 Because at times, religion will say you have to do a bunch of
00:17:06.017 work, you have to do a bunch of good deeds, and then God will love you,
00:17:10.017 then God will accept you, then God will let you into heaven if you do enough good.
00:17:14.257 And I've had many conversations with people who think, well, as long as I do more
00:17:17.237 good deeds on a scale than bad deeds, then God should let me into heaven.
00:17:21.777 Have you ever heard that before? Maybe you think that right now.
00:17:24.777 If I do a bad thing, I just got to do a good thing and it evens it all out.
00:17:28.656 And as long as my balance at the end of my life is a little bit more good than
00:17:32.656 bad, then God would let me in. That's simply not true.
00:17:36.956 Because the wages of our sin, of our bad deeds, is
00:17:40.936 death. There is no way to overcome that by
00:17:44.436 ourselves. It's only through Jesus that we can be forgiven of
00:17:48.436 our sins and have that relationship with God.
00:17:51.276 If your relationship with God looks like, "God, please forgive me.
00:17:54.156 God, I'm trying really hard. God, I'm doing all these things for you.
00:17:57.916 Will you forgive me? Will you let me in?" You're trying to earn His love or
00:18:01.836 His mercy or His grace, that's religion.
00:18:03.916 That's going to leave you feeling drained and empty and lifeless.
00:18:08.552 But a relationship that says, "God, I accept you as the only way to be forgiven.
00:18:12.692 God, I love you. I know that you love me.
00:18:14.332 And God, even while I sinned, you sent Jesus to die for me,"
00:18:18.092 that leads to a life of joy, of peace, of
00:18:22.212 I get to serve in the community, I get to be at church, I get
00:18:26.192 to go to Bible study, I get to be used by God to do His work to
00:18:30.072 reach more people. It's not about earning His favor, it's about
00:18:33.812 receiving what He's already done for us, walking with God, not just
00:18:37.852 simply working for God. See the culture at the
00:18:41.752 time when Noah was alive, it says this in Genesis 6:5,
00:18:45.832 "The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the
00:18:49.872 earth. He saw that everything they thought or imagined was
00:18:53.432 consistently and totally evil." That everything that was
00:18:57.072 happening, the people on the planet were totally evil.
00:18:59.752 It says, "Consistently doing evil things."
00:19:03.772 Do you ever watch the news? You ever turn on the TV? What do we see in the world?
00:19:07.772 There's so much evil and wickedness and darkness and
00:19:11.532 sorrow and grief and loss. Culture moves
00:19:15.392 away from God more than it will ever move towards God.
00:19:18.652 But as Christians, as followers, we must choose, as Noah chose,
00:19:22.912 to be faithful to God, to be faithful to His way.
00:19:26.062 And when God told Noah to build the ark,
00:19:28.892 it doesn't explicitly say in the Bible, but most scholars determine that
00:19:32.892 there's a mention of Noah being 500 years and then 600 years, and it probably
00:19:36.752 took anywhere from 50 to 100 years to build Noah's Ark,
00:19:40.852 to build this massive structure that had never been seen
00:19:44.232 before. I imagine, because it happens today, how many of you have
00:19:48.152 ever been ridiculed, mocked, criticized for your faith?
00:19:51.552 Anybody? Maybe made fun of, maybe joked about, maybe
00:19:55.432 threatened at work, "Hey, you better stop that Jesus thing.
00:19:58.132 Don't be praying with anybody. Don't share Jesus with-- We don't do that in the
00:20:01.232 workplace or the school." I hear from people all the time like, "I can't share
00:20:04.592 Jesus at work. I might get fired." That's the real persecution,
00:20:08.232 criticism, ridicule that exists today.
00:20:10.692 So certainly in Noah's time, he probably faced ridicule.
00:20:14.512 He probably faced criticism. I'm sure as he's building this
00:20:18.032 massive boat, people were making fun of him saying, "What are you
00:20:21.792 doing?" He says, "God told me to build this boat." And they're like, "What's a
00:20:25.012 boat? What's an ark? Why are you doing this?
00:20:27.652 You're putting your life into this thing that it doesn't make sense.
00:20:31.292 We've never seen water." They've never seen rain, these things that have never
00:20:35.092 happened before, but Noah chose to follow God, not the
00:20:38.892 crowds, not all the voices. Because reality is the crowds
00:20:42.832 typically go one direction, where God wants us to go a different direction.
00:20:47.152 When you follow the crowd, the way of the crowd typically leads to things that
00:20:51.052 are not good. But to follow Jesus is a narrow path.
00:20:55.052 In fact, Jesus said it this way in Matthew 7:13.
00:20:58.352 He said, "You can enter God's kingdom only through the narrow gate.
00:21:02.772 The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many
00:21:06.992 who choose that way."
00:21:09.552 Our culture today says, "You do you.
00:21:13.612 Whatever your truth is, is truth for you." But if truth is
00:21:17.312 everyone's opinion, everyone's a feeling, or it changes week to
00:21:21.292 week on how you feel, then it's really not truth.
00:21:24.312 The only timeless truth we really can confidently stand upon is the word
00:21:28.252 of God. Now, there's science, there's math, there's other things and subjects, but
00:21:32.072 this truth, and truth are things that guide our lives, that lead our lives,
00:21:36.132 is found in God's word. This is our standard.
00:21:39.612 That the standard does not change just because we feel like, well, hey,
00:21:43.632 it's 2026, times are changing, the world's changing, there's
00:21:47.302 technology. So maybe let's change the word of God.
00:21:49.892 This is the standard that does not change.
00:21:52.912 This is above tradition, this is above religion, this is above our
00:21:56.972 good ideas. It's God's word and His ideas that have stood
00:22:01.252 the test of time for thousands of years.
00:22:05.312 Jesus said that the path to destruction, the path to
00:22:09.052 hell is broad. Most people take that path.
00:22:13.272 The path to Jesus, the path that is narrow through God's
00:22:17.212 kingdom, it's small, it's narrow.
00:22:19.112 And people say, "Man, Christians are so narrow-minded." I said, "If you're talking
00:22:22.672 about the narrow path to follow Jesus, amen, I want to be on that
00:22:26.812 narrow path." Not exclusive in the sense that we don't want people to come with us.
00:22:30.912 No, we want everyone to take that narrow path, to take that narrow gate, that not
00:22:34.732 all roads lead to heaven. Jesus said it's the narrow
00:22:38.872 path, that narrow gate that is the only way we can enter into
00:22:42.812 God's kingdom.
00:22:45.172 Hebrews 11:7, talking about Noah, he says, "It was
00:22:48.392 by faith that Noah built a large boat
00:22:52.392 to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him
00:22:56.292 about things that had never happened before."
00:22:59.932 God gave Noah this insight about things that are going to happen that have
00:23:03.852 never happened before. He said, "There's going to be a massive flood.
00:23:06.512 I'm going to destroy all life on the planet, but I want you to save your
00:23:10.192 family." So you know who else was on the boat? It was Noah.
00:23:13.552 And do you know Noah's wife's name?
00:23:15.672 Mrs. Noah. So we have Noah, we have Mrs.
00:23:18.052 Noah, and then he has three sons and their wives.
00:23:21.212 So eight people total on the boat, right?
00:23:23.352 Total eight people, and he says, "Go on the boat. I'm going to save your family.
00:23:26.712 You're going to be the ones to be fruitful and multiply and
00:23:30.072 repopulate the Earth." God asked Noah to build
00:23:33.912 something that he never saw before.
00:23:36.732 He didn't have all the answers. He just had the next step.
00:23:40.252 And if it took something 50 to 100 years, I'm sure day by day, month by
00:23:44.252 month, year by year, I wonder, my human mind, I'd
00:23:48.232 be like, "God, are you really sure about this?
00:23:50.892 This is taking forever." Anybody have a project that just seems like it never ends?
00:23:55.212 Think about 50 plus years of building something that you're like, "Okay, can
00:23:59.172 you give me a little sprinkle, a shower?
00:24:00.972 Just help me believe that you are going to do this thing," because it's
00:24:05.152 got to be hard. I imagine the faith of Noah.
00:24:08.452 We don't talk about Mrs. Noah, but she had to have faith too to stay with him.
00:24:11.732 I mean, think about this. All the ladies out there with your husband have a
00:24:14.712 honey-do list. I'm sure that hasn't taken 50 plus years.
00:24:17.532 But she had faith to stand with him, to follow him, to be with him
00:24:21.412 as well. He simply trusted God's voice.
00:24:25.512 Faith is obeying God before the outcome is visible.
00:24:29.872 It's easy to obey God after the rain,
00:24:32.832 right? It'll be easy to say, "Okay, now I believe you," but you're already seeing
00:24:35.772 it. That's not faith. Faith is obeying before we understand,
00:24:39.612 before we have all the answers. Before that first
00:24:43.472 raindrop fell, Noah was obeying. In fact, in Genesis
00:24:47.312 6:22, it says, "Noah did everything
00:24:50.472 exactly as God had commanded him."
00:24:54.212 Noah did everything, all the details, how to build the boat, all the
00:24:57.992 dimensions, and said Noah did everything exactly as God had
00:25:01.872 commanded, because Noah had a relationship with God.
00:25:04.812 Noah could hear from God. He obeyed God.
00:25:07.492 Imagine what your life would look like if this could be said of
00:25:10.992 us. What would your life look like if you did everything
00:25:14.632 exactly as God had commanded it? Would you receive ridicule,
00:25:18.912 criticism, people mocking you? Probably.
00:25:22.792 Would you receive persecution, maybe threatened to lose your job?
00:25:26.232 Would there be maybe attack against you in some ways? Most likely.
00:25:29.911 Would you have to do something foolish or that looks ridiculous, like building a
00:25:33.252 massive boat when there is no water to be seen? Yes.
00:25:37.642 Most likely, we're all going to be asked to do things if we really follow
00:25:41.292 everything God commands. We do things we don't understand.
00:25:44.812 But let me tell you, when you do, the best possible outcome for your life
00:25:48.852 is the result.
00:25:50.372 The best way to live your life is to follow God, to obey God.
00:25:54.592 Just like we tell our kids, "Don't just hear what we say, but obey what
00:25:58.492 we say." The same thing applies to God.
00:26:01.312 Not just hear what God says, but now obey what God says.
00:26:05.192 And as a result, this mention of Noah, one of the best things I think could
00:26:09.112 be said about Noah, is he did everything exactly as God had
00:26:12.852 commanded him.
00:26:14.252 We see the next chapter, chapter seven,
00:26:16.682 "And when everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, 'Go into the
00:26:20.612 boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that
00:26:24.632 you alone are righteous.'"
00:26:27.632 He told him that time has come, the boat is finished.
00:26:30.252 Now it's going to start to rain. Now I'm going to send the flood.
00:26:32.812 He says, "Go into the boat. I can see that you alone are righteous among all the
00:26:36.552 people." And he took his entire family and did exactly as God
00:26:40.432 commanded, went into the boat, and his obedience
00:26:44.012 ultimately led to the protection and salvation of his
00:26:47.572 family.
00:26:49.202 That his faith became a legacy. That this one man's faithfulness,
00:26:53.292 one man's obedience, not only saved himself, but saved
00:26:57.112 his family, and actually is what saved all of humanity.
00:27:00.992 All of us are descendants from Noah, so he's our great, great, times
00:27:04.892 50, whatever, grandfather. In some ways, Noah,
00:27:08.452 in being a descendant of him, his faithfulness, his
00:27:12.032 obedience is really why we are all still
00:27:15.272 here. God chose to use him and his family to repopulate
00:27:19.152 the Earth. You know the greatest gift, I want to speak to parents, the greatest
00:27:22.652 gift you can leave your family is not more money, it's not more
00:27:26.472 activities, it's not a busier, fuller schedule.
00:27:29.322 The best thing you can leave your children and your family is spiritual leadership,
00:27:33.632 a relationship with God that never stops growing.
00:27:36.912 It's the best thing you can offer anybody, any one of us, your workplace,
00:27:40.892 your church, the church, our community.
00:27:43.272 The best thing we can do is have a healthy, growing relationship with God,
00:27:47.161 because that's where the best of us comes out of.
00:27:49.972 Not pride, not full of ourselves, not perfection, but
00:27:53.732 being the best follower of Jesus that we can be.
00:27:57.592 We see in verse five,
00:27:59.512 God told Noah to take his family into the boat.
00:28:01.752 Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him.
00:28:04.462 A second time, God's word says Noah did everything
00:28:07.812 again. He did exactly as the Lord commanded.
00:28:10.932 He gets all the animals, as you know the story, you've seen the pictures, all
00:28:14.872 the animals on the boat, which that's amazing feat as it is.
00:28:17.392 God led them to go into the ark. And then in verse 11,
00:28:21.372 it says, "When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th
00:28:25.292 day of the second month, all the underground waters
00:28:28.772 erupted from the earth, and the rain fell
00:28:32.532 in mighty torrents from the sky." So the world was created.
00:28:36.432 I personally believe, the Bible doesn't clearly state this, I believe that the
00:28:39.912 Earth and the Garden of Eden and how God created it was one land mass, and He
00:28:43.851 says there's this firmament, there's this water that's above and around the
00:28:47.152 Earth where the people are. At this point in time, on the
00:28:51.152 17th day of the second month, talk about being specific, right?
00:28:54.512 This isn't some time in the last 50 million years.
00:28:57.272 There's a very specific day of the month that God says
00:29:01.232 all the underground waters erupted from the Earth, rain
00:29:05.052 fell in mighty torrents from the sky.
00:29:06.772 So all this massive water coming from top and bottom, I believe, is when all
00:29:10.712 the tectonic plates and the continents and everything separated.
00:29:14.112 And it all became what we now know of as our planet.
00:29:17.792 That all these mountains were created, all these valleys, the Mariana Trench, and
00:29:21.352 all this stuff happened, this massive flooding happened at this time.
00:29:25.692 And what's interesting is even the non-Christian atheist
00:29:29.312 scientists and geologists and archaeologists, they all
00:29:33.152 say that they believe a massive global flood happened around this
00:29:37.132 same time period. Now, they don't believe the Bible, but hey, there was a
00:29:40.752 massive global flood that took place at this time based on the
00:29:44.232 geology that they can study. Many other cultures, non-Christian
00:29:47.892 cultures, Egyptian cultures, Mesopotamian, they all acknowledge some
00:29:51.472 massive flood, a great flood, took place around the
00:29:55.292 same time that the Bible recounts this taking place 4,300
00:29:59.172 plus years ago. The evidence points to what God
00:30:03.152 has said in His word. We can trust it because it's true.
00:30:07.192 It says, "That very day, Noah had gone in the boat.
00:30:10.412 The rain continued," kind of summarizing the rest of chapter seven here.
00:30:14.262 "The rain continued for 40 days and 40 nights." Now, this isn't just like a little
00:30:18.192 rain. I know Pittsburgh, it's like we can have 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and
00:30:21.492 it's not a flood, but this was a massive amount of water pouring down,
00:30:25.452 torrents from the sky,
00:30:27.712 covering the entire Earth. It says, "Over the highest mountaintop." All the
00:30:31.692 land is completely covered with water.
00:30:35.042 "Then the Lord closed the door behind them." This is before the flooding
00:30:39.072 really began. Catch this. Noah built this entire boat.
00:30:43.048 He had to get all the material. He had to follow the instructions.
00:30:46.448 God gave him the wisdom to do it. He provided the material, his family,
00:30:50.468 and the faith to obey. But Noah could not close the door.
00:30:55.448 Ultimately, without God closing the door, there would be no
00:30:59.448 salvation.
00:31:00.968 Noah did all the steps of obedience and faith, but he needed God to
00:31:04.888 ultimately do the final step to seal their salvation for
00:31:08.368 humanity as well as his family. He needed God to close that door.
00:31:13.027 Our salvation is not something we can do on our own.
00:31:16.288 It's only by God. Only God can save us.
00:31:19.588 Only God and His work that He's done is the way that we can be
00:31:23.128 truly saved. It says the water rose, the boat
00:31:26.768 floated, and ended up resting on the mountains of Ararat,
00:31:30.808 which is a real-life place today in eastern Turkey.
00:31:34.388 And it says that they rested after several months, and the waters receded for
00:31:38.168 several more months. They actually were on the boat for one year and
00:31:42.068 10 days. Now, I've heard from some people about family
00:31:45.448 vacations and traveling this summer, and you're like, "I am done
00:31:49.268 spending time with my in-laws." It's like, that was a week.
00:31:51.568 That was a 12-hour car ride. Imagine a year with the eight of you and all
00:31:55.468 these animals, like a year stuck on the boat.
00:31:57.588 Talk about faith, and none of them killed each other. Amen?
00:32:01.108 But praise God that they were able to spend a year and 10 days, and they did all
00:32:05.108 make it out alive.
00:32:07.008 But what happens? So the waters recede. Noah sends out a raven.
00:32:10.988 He sends out a dove. He sends out these birds to go check and see if there's enough
00:32:14.448 ground and land cover, and the dove brings back an olive branch,
00:32:18.368 so they know it's safe to leave. So it says they leave the ark, and the
00:32:22.188 very first thing Noah does is he builds an altar and makes a
00:32:26.088 sacrifice to God. The very first thing when he get off the boat is he makes a
00:32:29.768 sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. Thank you, God, for saving us.
00:32:33.668 Thank you, God, for sparing my family.
00:32:35.748 Thank you, God, that you've given us hope and life and a new
00:32:39.768 second chance at this world. And while he's doing that, God
00:32:43.668 says this in Genesis 9: "I am giving you a sign of my
00:32:47.628 covenant with you and with all living creatures for all
00:32:51.268 generations to come. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds.
00:32:55.568 It is a sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth."
00:33:00.148 After judgment came mercy. After the storms
00:33:04.108 came a promise. The rainbow became a covenant sign,
00:33:08.208 a visible sign of God's promise that every time it
00:33:12.228 rains and the sun shines and we see a rainbow, it's to remind us
00:33:16.208 of God's covenant, His promise with us.
00:33:19.368 But it's interesting, the word that God uses there is not actually rainbow, as we
00:33:23.048 call it, but it was a bow. He uses an archer's term, like an
00:33:26.708 archer's bow. He says, "I put my bow in the cloud." Now, it's speculation.
00:33:30.468 It's not what the Bible clearly says, but it talks about how he puts a bow in
00:33:34.388 the cloud. He's saying, "I put my weapon of warfare up, and I'm not shooting
00:33:38.328 judgment down on the earth anymore, but I'm aiming it up to heaven because God
00:33:42.008 Himself took the judgment upon Himself through Jesus." Again, it's a little
00:33:46.008 bit reading into the text, and I always want to be careful of that, but the reality
00:33:49.388 is God does not— He does promise He would never destroy the
00:33:53.248 Earth by floods again.
00:33:55.568 He gives us this rainbow as a promise.
00:33:58.208 But unfortunately, many people see the rainbow, and they think different things.
00:34:01.448 It's become, in our culture, associated with gay pride or Pride Month
00:34:05.748 and various identity movements. But hear me out.
00:34:08.468 As Christians, we should not be responding or treating people who
00:34:12.428 are having rainbow flags or celebrate that with anger,
00:34:15.649 hostility, or fear. But we should show love and
00:34:19.388 compassion, patience and care, to love
00:34:23.008 people into the kingdom of God. You don't argue and fight and battle people into
00:34:26.748 the kingdom of God. You love them into the kingdom of God.
00:34:29.488 That every person matters to Jesus.
00:34:32.169 Here at Freedom Church, everyone is welcome.
00:34:34.808 Everyone has value. We believe everyone can encounter God's
00:34:38.448 grace. But we also know God's truth is timeless.
00:34:42.859 This standard does not change. So we stand on God's word that
00:34:46.788 the things that are celebrated by the culture, whether it's
00:34:50.268 homosexuality, whether it's sexuality and perversions, all the
00:34:54.109 things of the culture, that's not to be celebrated because God clearly says that
00:34:57.868 goes against what is best for us. That doesn't mean we hate
00:35:01.727 people or we treat people poorly. No, quite the opposite.
00:35:05.328 We love them all the more, and we welcome them, point them to the
00:35:09.068 standard of God's Word, just like every single one of us
00:35:12.908 needs to be guided away from our selfish, sinful
00:35:16.368 lifestyles towards a selfless lifestyle, following and
00:35:20.188 walking with God.
00:35:22.648 Long before the rainbow became a cultural symbol, it was God's
00:35:26.328 covenant symbol, His promise to us.
00:35:29.268 When we see the rainbow, it should remind us of God's faithfulness, of His
00:35:32.828 mercy,
00:35:34.088 of His promises, and of His grace. We should remember
00:35:38.028 that He kept His word, and God always keeps His word.
00:35:41.668 4,000-plus years later, God still puts a rainbow in the cloud to
00:35:45.308 remind us of His word.
00:35:48.828 The Bible teaches that all pride separates us from God.
00:35:52.288 Not just one type of pride, but all pride.
00:35:54.648 Any pride that says, "I define truth. I am my own God.
00:35:58.328 I don't need God." Any pride that says that, "I determine what is right,"
00:36:02.368 is pride that leads us to separate from God.
00:36:05.728 All sin separates us from God. So we're not highlighting one sin over
00:36:09.708 another, but all sin is wrong. All sin should be repented of.
00:36:13.928 All sin can be covered by the blood of Jesus when we confess it and
00:36:17.588 repent to God for it.
00:36:20.108 But our culture says self-expression or self-definition should be the highest
00:36:24.028 goal. As Christians, submission and surrender to Jesus
00:36:28.068 Christ should be our goal. But the invitation of Jesus is not
00:36:31.948 to condemn people. As Christians, we should not be condemning people.
00:36:35.828 God does the condemnation. That doesn't mean we condone and affirm
00:36:39.648 people's lifestyles, but we don't condemn them either.
00:36:42.768 We point them to Jesus to be, "Let Him do the transformation.
00:36:46.708 Let Him do the cleaning up and the work that needs to be done in every one of
00:36:50.668 us," but especially people who are going to use the rainbow as something that God
00:36:54.328 never intended it to be used for.
00:36:58.336 Paul said in Ephesians 4, "Instead, we will speak the truth in
00:37:02.236 love, growing in every way more and more like Christ." You know
00:37:06.236 what Christ Jesus did? When he encountered people, he spent
00:37:10.006 time with people. He loved people.
00:37:11.836 He met them right where they are, but he also pointed them to truth, but he
00:37:15.796 did it with love. Truth without love is just
00:37:19.426 harsh. We just tell people, "Stop it, you're wrong.
00:37:22.636 Don't do that." That's truth, but it's not very loving,
00:37:26.596 and it usually doesn't result in people actually turning to God.
00:37:29.076 If the goal is we want people to know God, we want people to find freedom,
00:37:33.236 then we don't beat them up with truth, but we love them and share truth
00:37:37.136 in love. But love without truth really
00:37:41.036 isn't love. That's the opposite of what people say, "Well, love, love, love," and
00:37:44.536 they've redefined love. But love does not just affirm and accept
00:37:48.196 everything. Love actually speaks truth.
00:37:50.896 "Hey, I don't think this is what's best for you because God's word says so.
00:37:54.536 Because I just don't think it's what's best for you, and I want to help you.
00:37:57.266 I want to support you. Do you struggle with anything?" Not just Pride Month in
00:38:01.276 June, but it's every time of the year, we should be helping people, pointing
00:38:05.256 people as we ourselves are looking at ourselves saying, "What can I
00:38:09.096 do in me? How can I change? How can I live a more
00:38:12.376 God-honoring life?" Not following the crowd, but following
00:38:16.376 the way that Jesus has given us. And he's given us such a beautiful
00:38:19.556 example, that Jesus did it best. He put it together.
00:38:22.656 He spoke truth, but he did it in love, and that's what led to people's
00:38:26.496 lives being transformed.
00:38:28.736 So we're going to switch back a little bit to the boat because I want you to catch
00:38:31.796 some of this. There's some modern evidence for the boat that came to
00:38:35.656 rest on the Mountains of Ararat. One year and 10 days, they were on the boat.
00:38:40.076 But there's a picture, actually, of a real-life photo, this is
00:38:43.656 current, of an area in what's known as the Mountains of
00:38:47.416 Ararat in Eastern Turkey. Now, you tell me, what does that shape
00:38:51.256 look like?
00:38:52.996 Anybody? You can throw it out. Not an almond. Tell me something.
00:38:56.136 It looks like an ark, right? And then what happens, you look at what has
00:39:00.096 the scientists and the arche— This was actually discovered in the 1940s as a
00:39:04.076 plane was flying over, and they saw something.
00:39:05.536 They said, "What is that?" And they've been doing explorations there since the
00:39:08.296 '80s. More recently with new technology, they've been doing soil
00:39:12.016 samples and testing, and they found that the soil that's in
00:39:15.816 this specific region is very different than all the soil
00:39:19.796 of the mountains all around it. That's the soil composition.
00:39:22.566 They found petrified wood that doesn't exist anywhere else.
00:39:26.036 They found some other articles and items just by doing some small
00:39:29.696 excavations. They've been doing ground-penetrating radar, some LiDAR
00:39:33.596 testing that shows the layers of the ground going underneath without digging it
00:39:37.536 up, and they show that there's structural patterns that appear to be
00:39:41.096 man-made. There's these lateral lines that look flat.
00:39:44.596 Remember the ark had the lower level, the middle deck, and the upper deck.
00:39:48.776 It looks like there's layers within underground going down
00:39:52.576 about a few meters, just like the same
00:39:55.756 dimensions that are given in Genesis 6.
00:39:58.596 Now he said 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits.
00:40:02.096 Guess what the size of that is? 300 cubits by 50 cubits by
00:40:05.956 25 cubits. The measurements are almost identical to the
00:40:09.816 measurements that God gave Noah in the Book of Genesis.
00:40:13.676 Now,
00:40:14.916 there's this
00:40:16.736 picture. It looks like a boat. There's soil composition that has elements
00:40:20.756 of a boat. It's the same size as the boat, in the same area as where
00:40:24.776 the Bible says it landed on the Mountains of Ararat.
00:40:27.556 You tell me what that is.
00:40:29.646 I don't have enough faith to believe it's not Noah's Ark. Right?
00:40:32.596 The evidence and everything points to the geologists and the people who are
00:40:36.296 non-Christian, they say, "Well, it's just formations.
00:40:38.036 It just happened by circumstances." That takes more faith
00:40:41.976 to believe that than to believe the biblical narrative of this is actually Noah's
00:40:45.936 Ark that landed here. Now it's on the mountains near the border of Iran, so there's
00:40:49.756 some reasons why they're not doing extensive digging, but they are working towards
00:40:53.636 that. They actually found a massive stone that they determined was thousands of
00:40:57.056 years old that has a picture of a boat carved on it.
00:41:00.076 It has birds on it. It has a mountain range on it, and it has eight
00:41:03.976 people's names listed. They can't quite make it out, but it looks like eight
00:41:07.816 names listed. It's like, remember how many people were on the boat? Noah, Mrs.
00:41:11.776 Noah, the three sons, and three— Eight people, and just all the evidence
00:41:15.696 points to this biblical narrative that must be true.
00:41:19.235 But not only this, they found on many different mountaintops,
00:41:22.696 plankton, sea fossils, clams. They found these sea creatures
00:41:26.356 near the peak in the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet,
00:41:30.016 and many other mountains. They find sea creatures.
00:41:32.266 And now they study and they say most scientists and geologists determine, well,
00:41:36.156 they must have been the mountains were actually at the bottom of the ocean or were
00:41:39.136 under the water at some point in time.
00:41:41.236 And their deductive reasoning tells them that
00:41:44.016 how long it would take for this to grow, the mountains to grow 28,000 feet, it
00:41:48.016 must have taken 50 to 500 million years.
00:41:51.236 That's what most websites, when you look on science and History Channel, they say,
00:41:55.246 "Well, it must have taken 50, 75, 100, 150," some say
00:41:58.996 500 million years, but that it must have taken for these places
00:42:02.936 to go all the way to the top. Or we could believe the biblical
00:42:06.716 narrative that says a great massive flood happened, the Earth
00:42:10.456 burst up from the ground, these waters pushed the Earth up and created
00:42:14.416 these mountains that just 4,300 years ago, that
00:42:18.676 story has not changed. That explanation we have is the
00:42:22.496 same story for over 4,000 years. But science keeps
00:42:26.336 trying to change the narrative. Every 10 years, they add 50 million to their story
00:42:29.916 because it doesn't make sense. The story of how long it would take for sea
00:42:33.976 creatures to be on the top of the mountains.
00:42:36.696 I say it takes less faith to believe in what this says than to believe in something
00:42:40.496 that somebody else is trying to come up with as an explanation.
00:42:44.376 But regardless whether this 100% is or is not Noah's
00:42:48.216 Ark, our faith is not dependent on finding Noah's
00:42:52.016 Ark. Our faith is not whether this boat exists and is real.
00:42:55.736 And actually, the country of Turkey, which is a Muslim nation, has determined and
00:42:59.116 declared that that is Noah's Ark. The Muslims believe, the Jews believe,
00:43:03.076 and the Christians should believe that that is actually the location of Noah's Ark.
00:43:06.796 Why is that important? Well, because it proves more of what we already
00:43:10.646 know, that the Bible is history. It's truth.
00:43:14.366 It's timeless. And the things we learn, if God speaks the truth for
00:43:18.306 4,000-some years ago, and we see the evidences of it today, I think it
00:43:22.206 just builds our faith to trust even more of what's written in the
00:43:26.066 Bible. See, the ark was God's provision for
00:43:29.966 salvation. There was one ark, one door, and one way
00:43:33.986 to be rescued. God didn't say, "Hey, pick a boat." He said there's one
00:43:37.746 boat. There's one door that he had to close, and there's
00:43:41.586 one way to be rescued. But the ark wasn't built because God hated
00:43:45.306 people.
00:43:46.586 The ark was built because God wanted to save people. He could've wiped us all out.
00:43:50.006 He created life. He could wipe it all out.
00:43:52.606 And who are we to tell God what he's going to do?
00:43:55.806 The cross, likewise, wasn't given because God hates sinners.
00:44:00.176 The cross was given because God loves sinners.
00:44:02.526 He loves us, and he wants what's best for us.
00:44:05.746 Jesus said it this way, in John 14, he said, "I am the way,
00:44:09.766 the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father
00:44:13.286 except through me."
00:44:15.686 With all the things that can change, with culture changing, with circumstances
00:44:19.466 changing, the Bible does not change.
00:44:22.826 God's word, Jesus' own words, he says he is the way, the
00:44:26.246 truth, and the life. He reminds us that he keeps his promise,
00:44:30.786 that the broad path to hell is for those who choose it, but the
00:44:34.666 narrow path is the ones who are going to inherit the kingdom of God.
00:44:37.666 We're going to enter God's kingdom when we choose him.
00:44:41.246 It's one way,
00:44:42.706 one person. His name is Jesus. So the question
00:44:46.646 isn't whether culture is changing.
00:44:48.786 It's will we be faithful when it does?
00:44:51.686 It's changing all around us, and it's not to be mean to people.
00:44:54.766 It's to love people. It's the opposite.
00:44:57.026 But understanding what really is love, what really is
00:45:00.986 truth in love.
00:45:03.786 The rainbow ultimately reminds us of God's faithfulness, his promises.
00:45:08.196 The rainbow also points us to Jesus.
00:45:10.546 That covenant that God kept was saying, "Hey, in 2,000-plus years, I'm
00:45:14.546 going to
00:45:15.546 send the Savior. I'm going to save my people again." But this time, not just in a
00:45:19.386 natural sense, but an eternal sense.
00:45:22.186 That what Jesus did on the cross wasn't just saving us in the physical
00:45:25.866 nature, but saving us spiritually.
00:45:28.406 That the only way we can go to heaven is by receiving what Jesus Christ did on the
00:45:32.346 cross. And every single time we see the rainbow, we remember God's promise,
00:45:36.426 God's covenant, as that's his promise to us, that he would save his
00:45:40.426 people, that he would redeem us, and that there is a heaven to be spent with
00:45:44.426 him. So I'm going to pray.