Hillside Free Methodist Church

Pastor Mark Adams

Evan Help Us: Worship Together (#3)

The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.

Noah Joke: The Lord spoke to Noah and said, “In six months I’m going to make it rain until the whole world is covered with water and all the evil things are destroyed. But want to sve a few good people and two of every living on the planet. So, Noah, build an ark.” “Okay” says Noah, trembling as he picks up the blueprints.

Six months later the clouds begin to form. Rain starts to fall in torrents. As God peered through the dark clouds he saw Noah sitting in his yard on a pile of wood, crying – no ark to be found.

“Noah!” shouted God. “Where’s my Ark!”

“Lord, please forgive me. I did my best but ran into a few snags. First, I needed a building permit for construction, but your plans failed to meet city code, so I had to hire an engineer to redo them, only to be hit with a long court battle over the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbors objected, claiming I violated zoning ordinances by putting a large boat in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning board. Then, there was a huge problem getting the wood I needed because of a ban on tree cutting to preserve the spotted owl – I tried to convince the fish and wildlife services that the ark was the only real way to save the spotted out but they wouldn’t budge. When I tried to gather the animals PETA intervened, and sued me on the grounds that saving only two of each was inhumane. Once that suit was dismissed the EPA hit me with a required environmental impact report on the proposed flood project, and would accept the globe I sent them as an appropriate proposed flood site. I’m still battling with the Equal Opportunities Commission over the number of minorities I need to hire for a project of this scale - they aren’t accepting that this is a family program, the IRS has seized my assets claiming that I am trying to leave the country and the state just slammed me with use tax! Lord, I think I’ll need at least five more years to cut through red tape before construction can begin.”

With that, the sky cleared up, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow arched across the sky. Noah smiled and asked God, “Does this mean you aren’t going to destroy the world?” God sighed and said, “No, the government already has.”

I don’t know that the government is the main problem with the world. In fact, I’m sure it’s not. But there are a lot of problems with the world, and a lot of voices that try to tell us what the different problems are. Clarity about what is right and wrong and the ability to live according to a moral compass seems to be increasingly difficult. I believe we live in a time when our moral compass has been often been thrown off-center to a large degree because we have ceased to know what God says is right and wrong.

We’ve shifted our moral compass from “Thus saith the Lord” to what’s good for you is okay, and what’s good for me is okay. That kind of moral compass is like saying I think north is this way, but it’s okay if you think north is that way. The fact is, for a family to have a moral compass, someone has to know what direction you’re going. Often however we can’t see the moral compass for the trees, so to speak.

The only way to know the direction your family ought to go is have a clear vision or sense of where that direction is. Over the past few weeks we’ve been discovering biblical principles to build family character. We’ve been looking at the life of Noah and the task he and his family had of saving the world. We’ve seen that playing together is a key element of the character of a happy family, but so is learning to work together. Today, we look at the importance of worshiping together. I believe is when we are worshiping together that we have the greatest opportunity to see clearly the moral compass God intends for our life, and to orient our life in the right direction.

I have another clip today from the film Evan Almighty. Let’s take a look and understand that God sees the world as it should be, as he created it to be, but we often allow our things to get in the way of seeing what God intended.

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I’m not sure that God looks like Morgan Freeman, in fact, being spirit, I’m fairly certain God does not look like Morgan Freeman. I’m pretty sure Noah did not look like Steve Carell. At the same time, this little video clip has a good insight into the reason for the great flood of Noah’s time. After all, while we’ve been trying to have fun with this story, it’s a pretty serious story.

“Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” That sound very harsh, it is very harsh, understand that the world had shifted dramatically what God had intended through his creation.

GE 6:5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

I am willing to bet that most of the people on earth along with Noah felt they were doing okay. Lamech probably felt he was no better or worse than Larry, Maria probably felt God loved her as much any one else. Their lives were oblivious to the reality of how broken they really were and how broken the world really was. Like Evan Baxter before he caught sight of God, they no doubt believed their homes and their jobs and their lives were all that really mattered, and that getting ahead was the ultimate test of life well-lived.

The Scripture says, however, that while all the world had become violent and wicked, God found favor in Noah. Noah had managed to avoid being corrupted by the pressures of the world, his family managed to avoid having a skewed view of reality. How does that come to pass?

It comes to pass through worship. Worship is how we reorient ourselves toward God, toward what is good, toward the true north of the true moral compass. When all the world was falling apart, Noah and his family were able to stay together because of their common and undiluted commitment to putting God first.

Now, in the days of Noah there were as many people who walked along their own paths, but only Noah, and his family, according to 6:9 “walked with God.” Noah spent time with God, Noah cared about cultivating a relationship with God, Noah knew the good of his family depended upon the goodness of God and knowing what that meant.

Coming to church together as a family builds a sense of family character. Worship is the primary act of the creation of God. Jesus says that the Father in heaven in seeking real worshipers, people who worship God in spirit and in truth. Now, by the time Jesus walked the earth close to six thousands years had passed between he and Noah. When Noah lived there were no churches or cathedrals, there were no synagogues or temples. There were no video clips or pipe organs.

In fact, when Noah lived, there were many worshipers. The dating of the flood places the event as occurring between 2,000-3,000 BC. Now, before I go on it might be worth noting that among Christians there is debate about whether the flood really happened, or it’s extent. It may be of interest to note that ancient people from all over the world record a flood event, and the majority of these revolve around a man or family who saved humankind, and usually animals as well, from a terrible deluge by either building a boat or raft and then rebuilding the global population afterward.

In fact, the biblical elements of the divine being destroying the world with a flood because of the transgressions of wicked people, a favored family being spared, and animals saved as well are extremely common global themes. Every continent has such a story. In Tanzania the story is told of two men save the world by taking seeds and animals on a giant boat when their rivers flood the region, finding safe passage by letting a hawk loose until it returned with evidence of dry ground. The ancient Chinese tale of the Family of Fuhi tells of a massive flood that wiped out everything except one family in a boat, allowing Fuhi and his wife and three sons and their families to become the father of Chinese Civilization. The Australian aborigines tell of “Dreamtime Flood” in which the Woramba - a large boat - carried the Australian tribesmen to safety, along with their flocks and food supplies – they believe the white missionary stories about Noah are designed to undermine the aboriginal tale to make them subservient. I could go on and on, multiple Native American tribes have similar stories, multiple African tribes have similar stories, multiple Latin American tribes have similar stories. My favorite is the native Hawain tale not of Noah but Nu’uh, who saved humankind and the animals on a giant catamaran with a house built on top of it.

That ancient civilizations all over the world have tales that bear a remarkable similarity is not proof of a global flood. But it is interesting evidence. The dating of the story of Noah, following Biblical genealogies places the events between 2,600 and 2,900 BC. It might be interesting to note that in the Mesopotamia region at that time there is geological evidence of a massive flooding of the Euphrates river at 2,900 BC, with deposits from the flood being found throughout the Mesopotamia region. Was this a worldwide flood? I don’t know, taking a very literal interpretation of the Bible the answer could go either way. The whole known world could have been either Mesopotamia locally from the point of view of the readers, or the globe.

Here’s what I do know. The Bible story dates itself as late iron or early bronze age. What little is known of the religion of the time makes it clear that religion and worship were very important to people of the time. Multitudes of stone and emerging metal statues of gods and goddesses, and animal gods and gods of nature have been discovered. The worship practices were usually associated with performing various rites and rituals designed to bring favor from the gods, and favor was usually seen in either good crops, more children, or victory in battle. Bones of children are found as sacrificial offerings buried in the foundations of homes – sacrificing children – your most precious possession – to have a happy home. Unique among all the religions of the ancient world was the religion of the Bible. Sacrifices and worship were part of ancient biblical worship, but not for the same reasons. Most iron and bronze age religion involved sacrifices to get blessings and favor from the gods, and grew out of a worldview that saw the gods and spirits as being hungry, self-serving deities that arbitrarily caused good or evil unless placated.

Only biblical worship tied the practices that demonstrated devotion to god to doing right and good based upon a consistent moral ideal. The best sacrifices are obedience to god, according to scripture. And obedience to god meant caring for the poor, the alien, the hungry. The ancient world view on crop success was that if you pleased the gods through proper worship - usually involving sexual practices – you might get a good crop. The biblical worldview was that if you worked hard to make a good crop, you can give thanks to God for the bounty which the created world made possible. The ancient world view was that everything is pretty much dictated by the arbitrary playfulness of either nice or devious deities. The biblical world view was that you make choices that impact what happens to you – and that god and the universe is not random and arbitrary but governed by rules and laws that human beings can live out and as a result find success. The pagan world view was that the gods get mad if they don’t get the right sacrifices, the right offerings, the right rituals. The biblical world view is that God gets made when people act sinfully toward God and one another.

When we come to church and worship God we are contributing to building a biblical world view. We are coming face to face with the invisible, almighty, all-powerful God. As a family we come to say we recognize that the world is bigger than we are, that God is our source of everything, and that our lives are lived out not in isolation but in connection with all that God made. This connectedness to God builds a character of connectedness in our family.

When we come to church and worship God, we are not participating in some form of magic voodoo, heebee jeebee, wishful thinking mishmash. We come face to face with the creator of the principles that make the world worth living in and become, more and more aware and more and more conformed to the image of the creator. We are connected to the virtues of truth, honesty, peace, joy, hard-work, perseverance, humility, courage, respect and fundamental to everything God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit taught and are – we are connected to the virtue of love.

When we are true worshipers of the God of the Bible, when we are followers of Jesus Christ, when we are led by the Holy Spirit – as was Noah – we have a good shot at focusing on making the world it is meant to be. When we gather for worship, we sing the songs of the faith, pray to the God of universes, immerse ourselves in the Word of God, unite with our brothers and sisters to move in the direction of true north following a good and faithful creator. Worshiping the God of the bible is the touchstone to all that is noble, true and good. It is the fundamental, core act that constitutes what the Bible calls walking with God. When we worship, we are walking with, not away from God. When we worship we are checking our compass so our lives can move in the direction of righteousness.

Now, Noah and his family did not merely pray and sing songs. They provided the best act of worship possible - they obeyed what God asked of them. God asked them to save the world God asked them to build a boat and bring animals on board. God found them righteous because they were – they walked with God, they knew God’s moral compass and tried to follow it, and they obeyed God. In a world in which every message surrounding Noah’s family was contrary to the intent of God, it would have been easy to be sucked into the culture. I am convinced that Noah’s commitment to worship, to walking with God, kept his vision clear.

It’s not a story from a bronze age era. According to the University of Mississippi, which released a study in May of this year in the Journal of Social Science Research, found that children who go to church with their parents are significantly better behaved than their peers. 16,000 children were rated by parents and teachers regarding self-control and the exhibition of disruptive behavior. Children who attended church with their parents were twice as likely to be reported by their teachers as being well behaved, self-initiators in school, and the numbers increased when the parents reported having regular conversations with their children or prayers with their children. However, children who went to church were more likely to exhibit behavior problems than their peers if their parents routinely argued about religion.

Patrick Fagan is Senior Research in Family and Cultural Issues for the Heritage Family. He summarizes a body of research regarding the impact of worship on families.

Churchgoers are more likely to remain married, and less likely to divorce making for a healthier, more stable family environment.

Church attendance is, in fact, the most significant predictor of a healthy marriage and family.

The regular practices of church attendance is significantly related to moving the poor, particularly youth, to greater levels of income and self-sufficiency, escaping the cycle of poverty.

Moral decisions are best formed in the context of a church environment.

Regular church attendance is significantly negatively correlated with several common social problems, including suicide, substance abuse, births out of wedlock and violent crime.

Religious belief and practices are demonstrated to be the most effective means of support and healing for those who have suffered from substance abuse, divorce and violent crimes.

Church attendance is significantly correlated with personal physical health, including longer life spans, faster recovery from illnesses, and lower incidences of cardio-pulmonary disease.

That’s a mouthful friends.

If you want to build family character, it matters a lot wether you worship together. Worshiping together keeps your focus on God, and keeping your focus on God keeps your focus on how things ought to be, and keeping your focus on how things ought to be gives you a path that leads to health and hope not only for your immediate family, but for those you encounter. In a very real way, God’s big plan to save the world is through families today who, like Noah thousands of years ago, keep God and obedience God at the center of their heart.

Today as we conclude, I invite you and your family to participate in a fun way to symbolically pattern your life after Noah. Noah and his family demonstrates their extravagant worship and love for God by building a tremendous boat and places animals from everywhere on the ship. This was an act of obedient worship – they had seen the world ought to a place where all of creation was living in harmony with itself. Last we week we symbolically built the ark. This week, we are going to fill it with animals. If you brought a stuffed animal, I invite you bring it up and place in the ark, and if you weren’t prepared, we have several here to share because we want everyone to be able participate. Why do this? Several reasons – Noah’s style of worship was participatory - he didn’t just talk and sing about God - he built a boat and filled it with animals. Second, worship that brings character to a family is best done when the family participates - everyone going together is what leads to the benefits we’ve described together. Third – biblical worship almost always involves growing more and more aware of how the faith community can share its true concern for the world in need – Noah saved animals, we’re going to give stuffed animals to Project Smile and demonstrate concern for the world in need. Finally, as we’ve seen over the past few weeks – fun and joy are part of biblical worship, so I hope we have fun as enter in the presence of God and build family character through worship.

(Instructions for flow)