Remembered By God

Remembered By God

Let's turn to Genesis chapter 8. If you're visiting this morning we have been going through the book of Genesis and for the last couple of weeks we've been looking at the familiar account of Noah's ark and the flood. This passage picks up right after all the devastation of the flood has already happened.

Genesis 8:1-19

Apocalypse Now

I get these crazy ideas sometimes when I'm working on a message and for some reason I was curious about how many movies have been made recently about the end of the world. I found out there have been a lot! Here are just a few:

• War of the Worlds (2005 remake of the 1953 classic)
• Andromeda Strain
• The Day After Tomorrow
• I Am Legend (and its original The Omega Man)
• Cloverfield
• The Day The Earth Stood Still
• Knowing
• Watchmen
• And the 1990's movie that Noah probably could have related to: Waterworld

Whether the world ends by disease, fire, violent weather, killer creatures that come out only at night, aliens from another planet, or the melting of the ice caps, we seem to have a strange fascination with apocalyptic depictions - I think in part because of the massive scale of it - it's hard to imagine anything bigger or scarier than the entire world being destroyed - but I also wonder if it's because deep inside we have this subconscious feeling that it really could happen.

Actually, it already did.

And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died...Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. Genesis 7:19-24 

This is an apocalyptic scene: The earth is covered in water and every living thing (that breathed air) died. Because of the intense sinfulness and wickedness of mankind at this point the Bible says the earth was corrupt - basically rotten - and God, who is patient and merciful, but who is also holy and righteous and must judge sin, determined the world was beyond salvaging and decided He would wipe the earth clean and start over, saving only Noah and his immediate family. There's more that could be said, but we've already said a lot about that and so I need to move on, but what I want us to see this morning is this is not a localized flood with a few hundred people dying. This is the end of the world with millions if not billions of people and everything else dying. The water rose higher than the highest mountains.

Now this raises some questions. Was the water higher than, say, Mount Everest? Kinda hard to believe, isn't it? Could that even happen? And if it could, could anyone survive at that altitude for over a year? Well, this opens up some pretty interesting study that we don't have time for this morning, but the best explanation is that before the flood the earth's surface was much flatter than it is now. If you leveled the earth's surface of the by raising the ocean floor and lowering the higher elevations, there is enough water on the earth now to cover the earth to a depth of 1.7 miles.
Chapter 7:11 says that the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and all the windows of the heavens were opened. In other words the flood burst upward from the ground as well as downward from the sky. It's a description of violent geological shifting that went on for weeks and months. This could well be the massive shifting of tectonic plates that would be necessary to create the rapid uplift of the higher mountains. We find a description of this in Psalm 104:6-9:

You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
7At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them.
9You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they [the waters] might not again cover the earth. Psalm 104:6-9

In fact, scientists have found fossil evidence on Mt. Everest and other high mountains that they were once under water. I also think it is a very real possibility that it was the flood that divided the continents and formed the current ocean beds but that is much more than we can discuss. I'm going to provide a link to a very interesting article on all of this on my blog so check it out.

God remembered Noah

Point is we're talking apocalyptic! Chapter 7 ends with the ark floating on a watery wasteland - no life, no land, no food, nothing but water in every direction. Noah and the others are alive, but they are in a bad way: they can only last so long in the ark, there is nothing outside of the ark that could sustain life for them and they are helpless to change their situation.

In light of this the opening words of chapter 8 are filled with hope: But God remembered Noah... When the Bible says God remembered Noah, it doesn't mean He forgot them for a time and then remembered, it's a phrase used often in the Bible to God's seeing and acting on behalf of His people and in this case God stopped up the rain and the deep fountains and He caused a strong wind blow over the earth and the water began to recede. In time they will be setting their feet on dry land again. Through it all, though it might have been difficult at times, it probably seemed like God forgot the little ark at times, but Noah's faith in God never wavered and God's faithfulness to Noah never wavered. God remembered Noah.

Application: Our circumstances may be very different than Noah's but the nature of our faith is no different than Noah's. And one of the precious assurances of the Christian faith is that we know that no matter what the situation, God remembers us. God has acted, God will act, God is acting, on our behalf. Like God remembered Noah, our faith assures us that God remembers us.

I. God remembered us at Calvary

That might seem to be a strange statement. How could God remember us at an event that happened 2000 years before we were born? Actually, the truth is more amazing than that because the Bible teaches that God chose us in love to be adopted in Christ before the world was even created. God isn't traveling through time like we are, wondering what's gonna happen next. God sees the end from the beginning and is in sovereign control of all events working them out for our good and for His glory. He knew we would sin, He knew He would have to judge that sin. The flood is just a preview of the devastating and eternal judgment that God will pour out on all sin - that would include all of us. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

There was no way we could save ourselves - we were doomed to eternal destruction. But God remembered us and acted by sending His Son to live a perfect life and to die for our sins on the cross. He took our place on the cross so that God could pour out the flood of His righteous anger against sin on His own beloved Son and then open the floodgates of His mercy and love and forgiveness on us.

"I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:25 (ESV)

God remembered us at Calvary! Just as all those who were in the ark were safe from the flood, the Bible says that all who put their faith in Jesus Christ will be saved from God's judgment of sin.

II. God will remember us in His kingdom

The Christian faith not only assures us that God remembered us at Calvary but also that God will remember us in the future. Consider the thief who was crucified next to Jesus. As he hung there next to Jesus, faith rose up in him that Jesus was no ordinary man. This is really pretty amazing faith cause as Jesus hung there dying, with crowds mocking him, and a sign over Jesus' head that sarcastically read, King of the Jews, there wasn't much to indicate that Jesus was a king! But crazy faith rose up in this poor thief's heart and he turned to Jesus and said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Man, he was saying a lot with that - he was saying, Jesus I believe You are a king and I believe you have a kingdom and I think the day is gonna come when these mockers are going to be sorry that they mocked you - and on that day when you come into all that power and glory and authority please remember me with kindness, with mercy. Faith sees Jesus as the king of glory, the Lord of heaven, who died on the cross to save lost sinners like the thief and like me. God responds to that kind of faith with all kinds of love and mercy.

Jesus assured him, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

Jesus' words are so personal to this thief - he didn't just say, today you will be in Paradise. Yeah, dude, we can work something out. I'll have my people talk to your people and they'll set you up. He said, Today you will be with me in Paradise. Jesus will do more than remember him - he will personally escort him through His kingdom. That's true for everyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. He will be there to welcome us when we come into His kingdom.

ILL: Janice's mother has had advanced Alzheimer's disease for well over a decade. She cannot remember her children or even her husband of over 50 years. Her memory is gone. She is a strong Christian and for many years when we would sing a hymn tears would roll down her cheeks evidencing a remembrance of the faith that meant so much to her. But in recent years there has been no recognition, no visible evidence of her Christian faith. In her present state it is pretty sure that she can't remember God or Jesus or the Bible or any of the things that once were everything to her. And we are preparing to say goodbye to her any day now - she will probably be gone within a few days. She is about to leave this earth and she has no memory of her Savior.

But He remembers her and that is all that is important. She is secure in Christ not because of her hold on him but because of his hold on her. He will remember her as she comes into His kingdom and on the very day she leaves her earthly tent He will be with her. While we are sad to say goodbye, we are so glad to know that Jesus will soon personally usher her into His eternal kingdom and her now broken memory will be completely healed. One day we all of us will lay our heads down for the final time and take our last breath and how good it is to know that God will remember us in His kingdom. Our faith is in Jesus Christ and His unshakable promises.

III. God remembers us in the middle of our worst trials

But what about right here, right now? There isn't a moment of a single day that God doesn't remember us - and that includes in the middle of our worst trials and hardest days. Chapter 8 opens by telling us that God remembered Noah, but it was months and months before they could step out on dry land. Noah had to have faith that God was acting on his behalf cause it probably didn't look like He was! And there are times in our lives when we pray and pray and nothing happens. Not that we can see. Maybe the situation gets worse. Ever have that happen?

ILL: Yesterday I lost my connection to the Internet for no reason that I could see. A little pop-up said "click here for solutions to your Internet problem" so I clicked. Another pop-up said it was working on problem #1 out of 541 problems! 541 problems! One minute I don't know I have even one problem, the next minute I have 541 problems being worked on one at a time. I'm embarrassed to even have to confess that to you. I'm the guy with 541 problems. Loser.

After a while it said that solutions are available online only - so make sure you're online and go get those solutions to all those problems! But the only problem I know I have is that I can't get online. If I could get online I wouldn't have a problem!

Prayer can seem like that sometimes, especially when you're going through a really tough time. Just when you need to connect with God the most, it seems impossible to connect with Him. Faith is weak, having a problem hearing God, seeing His activity. What we need to remember is that prayer isn't primarily about connecting us to solutions, it's about connecting us to our Savior. He remembers us in the midst of our trials - and faith believes that and holds onto that.

I don't know about you but I've had many times in my life when I felt overwhelmed by some trial or heartache. I am thinking specific times: as a young Christian (and teenager) kneeling next to my bed crying and feeling helpless in a particular trial and pouring out my heart to God. I'm thinking of a time not so long ago when I wrote in my journal about a trial that wouldn't seem to lift, God please act! Please do something!

And often as much as I want to see something happening right away, nothing's happening that I can see. But I have felt deep in my heart a sense of reassurance, and I believe that God wants to meet some people here with this same reassurance: I will remember you. I will not forget you. I am acting and I will act on your behalf. That may mean He takes away the trial or it may mean He gives you grace to go through it. It may mean He answers the way you want Him to or it may mean He answers in the way He knows is best for you. Faith brings reassurance that God will remember you.

And that's enough. Stop demanding immediate signs that things are changing - God's working on your problems - stretch out your faith and just believe that! Let it be enough that God is faithful and He remembers you. Do your part - send out the ravens and the doves. Look for signs of land, signs of deliverance. But have faith in God even when you don't see the land. God remembers you - you are engraved on His hands. What could be more strengthening to our hearts than that?

Invite band up - Here is Love

Invite people who need prayer answered - need to see God act - to raise your hand and we want to pray for you. Right where you are we want to pray for you so some people will gather around you and pray.