This week has been jam-packed with all types of Kingdom goodness. With all the great time we had at the Gathering, I have not posted my notes on this week’s discipleship group focus with Noah and the Ark.
Here are some notes I made during personal and group study:
- God’s regret was not based on what he had done wrong, but what humanity had done wrong.
- LORD, is this how you see us now (Gen. 6:5)?!
- God feels both anger and grief. One without the other is not a complete picture of him.
- Noah’s favor was not an inheritance to his family but a benefit for them due to association.
- This story is not a cuddly children’s story – it is a depiction of the awful and terrible and all-consuming wrath of God.
- Unless Noah was hidden behind the wood of the ark, he would have perished! Unless I am hidden behind the wood of the cross, I will perish!
- Note the order: Noah received God’s favor, was declared righteous, and this his family benefited from that righteousness (cf. Gen. 6:8, 18).
- Grace precedes righteousness (Gen. 6:8-9)!
- Noah’s faith (Heb. 11:7) led to obedience (Gen. 6:22).
- It wasn’t that Noah obeyed and that’s why he was saved. It was that Noah received grace, and that’s why he obeyed.
- Can you imagine watching the door close and knowing who was on the other side (Gen. 7:16)?
- God takes sin seriously.
- The water that pulled many down was the same water that lifted others up.
- This dry land is not Eden. Sin and fear have not yet been erased.
- God doesn’t promise the destruction is over. He promises not to destroy the earth again – by flood. Next time will be with fire (2 Thess. 1:2-8).
- The flood rid the sinners from Noah but could not completely rid the sinner within Noah (cf. Gen. 9:20-21).
Travis Agnew serves as the Lead Pastor of Rocky Creek Church in Greenville, SC. His most recent book is Just (About) Married.
