10-9-22 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Genesis 8:15-22 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, October 9, 2022 “Give an Offering of Gratitude”

Just off Interstate Highway 75 in the small city of Williamstown, Kentucky stands a unique building designed to look like a giant boat. The central feature of Ark Encounter is a building built to replicate the dimensions and possible shape of Noah’s Ark. That means this boat-shaped building is 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet tall. Just like the ark described in the Bible, this building has three floors, but this one is not full of animals. It is full of museum exhibits that explain and describe what life could have been like aboard the real ark, the one built by Noah that carried him and his family through the flood.

Ark Encounter was made in order to answer some questions and to respond to some criticism. There are lots of people who do not believe that the flood the Bible talks about in the book of Genesis actually occurred.

They think it would be impossible to preserve on a boat enough animals to allow for what we see today. But the people behind Ark Encounter take God’s Word seriously. They know that it is true, and that the account of the flood is true, too. At a time when wickedness was widespread around the world, Noah, a faithful believer, listened to God and built an ark. His progress preached volumes to the people around him as he also warned them about what God had declared. A flood was coming. It would wipe everything off the face of the earth, everything except what was inside the ark. And into the ark went Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives. And into the ark went many animals, animals of many kinds in male and female pairs, and more of certain other clean animals.

And then the rain came. All of the people and all of the animals that were outside of the ark were buried under the flood waters and likely under the churning mud and perhaps under volcanic activity as well. We may even have direct evidence of this from many of the layers of fossils found throughout the world.

Judgment had come. It was intense and complete. And deliverance had come. Noah and his family, after over a year on board the ark, walked out and onto an earth that must have seemed so different.

We really need to remind ourselves of that context, the truth about what had happened to Noah and his family, in order to appreciate the words of our sermon text today. As God describes for us through the pen of Moses what happened, he tells us about what Noah did when he got off the ark. The first thing that he does, at least the first thing mentioned, is that he builds and altar and he gives an offering. And it is a generous offering. Perhaps as much as one-seventh of an entire kind of animal or bird, and Noah offers it to God by giving it as a burnt offering. That gratitude showed by Noah is an example for us. We too, are called to give an offering of gratitude. We can give an offering of gratitude because of what God has done and because of what God has promised.

I am not sure what I would have done in Noah’s place. I am not sure what the first thing would have been.

Maybe go exploring? Go and see what this world looks like and seems like without so many of its previous people and animals. But Noah doesn’t seem distracted by all of that. Just think what he had been through: over a year on the ark, before that years of preparation and building. He had spent all of the time before entering the ark in the midst of wickedness and greed and corruption. He had been mocked and ridiculed.

He had been ignored. He had been rejected.

And he had been rescued. He, his wife, his three sons, their wives were all aboard the ark along with many animals. And for days of torrential rainfall and a year of high water—over the top of the highest mountain water—they were safe. And then the moment had finally arrived. They walked out of the ark and stood on dry ground again.

How could Noah do anything besides what he did? How could he do anything besides giving an offering of gratitude? He had so much for which to be thankful. He knew that he could have perished in the waters of the flood. He knew he wasn’t perfect. He knew he relied on God’s pure grace and mercy. That was the reason Noah had reached that place and that time together with his loved ones. And that is the reason that he immediately built an altar and gave an offering.

It may not be immediately obvious, but we have a lot in common with Noah. We, too, have been called out of wickedness and darkness that surrounds us. We, too, are surrounded by a society that ridicules and ignores the message so dear to us, around which we gather on Sunday mornings week after week. We, too, know that we are not perfect but have far too often been tempted by the wickedness and greed and corruption, not to mention the far too many times we have given into those temptations. And God, the perfect Creator, has every right to destroy such wickedness just as he once did at the flood.

But what he did was something completely different. He sent a rescuer. He gave us an escape. He sent his Son Jesus to live perfectly in our place and to suffer and to die on our behalf. In calling us to faith, God has snatched us out of the floodwaters of judgment and placed us firmly on the solid, dry ground.

So what do we do? Do we wander around to explore? Do we think back on the temptations and the wickedness that once held us? Aare we like the nine lepers whom Jesus healed, but who never came back to offer their thanks? Noah would tell us what to do. Give an offering of gratitude. Acknowledge that you did not deserve God’s rescue, but he rescued you anyway.

And give generously. That means taking the time and making the effort. Give generously to the people who depend on you. Give generously to the work of God’s kingdom through the church. Give to those who are less fortunate. Give your very life as an offering of thanks. Fall at Jesus’ feet with your prayers of thanksgiving. Noah built an altar and presented his burnt offering. Your response may look very different, but it serves the same purpose of expressing your gratitude and thankfulness for what God has done.

And that same gratitude is also appropriate for what God has promised. Our account ends with God saying in his heart that he will never do again what he had done, destroying every living thing. What he affirms is that he will preserve the orderly progression of seasons for the benefit of his people. Planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, things we might take for granted, but they are absolutely essential for us. And God promises that he will continue to provide them. He will bless us with them.

And he says this in spite of us. The nature of people hadn’t changed when Noah and his family walked off the ark. Every child born to them would be born in sin. God says about people, “the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth.”

Every one of us has been born in this condition, and every one of our descendants will be, too. But God remains gracious. He remains generous. His promises stand to preserve the world for us and for our needs.

And he has even greater promises that he gives to us, too. He promises to one day take us out of this world of sin to be with him in heaven. In fact, this very promise of God hints at the ultimate goal of our lives under his love. He says, “While the earth remains seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” These words remind us that the time will come when this world is no longer. Summer, winter, day, night will all pass away when this world passes away.

What will remain is what God promises to us, eternity in heaven with him because of what Jesus Christ has done for us.

And that is simply more reason for us to show our gratitude. That is more reason for us to give our generous offerings. What God has promised to us is just as sure as what he has already given us.

God had indeed done great things for Noah. He had rescued him and his family from the waters of judgment he sent in the flood. It is a true account, one that we should not doubt. And when all aboard the ark were able to come out, right away Noah gave a generous offering. He was full of gratitude. May we take to heart his example. May our faith be overflowing with gratitude, for what he has done and for what he has promised. Lord, increase our faith.

The Text: Genesis 8:15–22 (EHV) 15God

spoke to Noah. He said, 16“Go out of the ark—you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out with you every living thing of every sort that is with you, all flesh, including birds, livestock, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may swarm over the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

18Noah

went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives along with him. 19Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever swarms on the earth went out of the ship, species by species.

20Noah

built an altar to the Lord and took from every clean animal and every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21The Lord smelled the pleasant aroma. The Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the soil anymore because of man, for the thoughts he forms in his heart are evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike every living thing, as I have done. 22While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”