the motivational power of obedience…

we all need models, somebody to show us how. when we look at the book of genesis in the ot in the bible, we see some people whose lives were driven by GOD’s purpose and one of them was a man by the name of noah.

this man noah was asked to do things by GOD that were so absolutely absurd that they were almost amusing. but when we take a second look at him, we think, “wow! what faith! what an example! what a person to follow!” there’s a longing to learn how to have faith from him.

now i want us to see the different parts of noah’s life and how we can learn about motivation from each of those things that happened in his life.

here’s one: noah built an ark and that teaches us the motivational power of obedience.

genesis 6.13-16 (msg), GOD said to noah, “it’s all over. it’s the end of the human race. the violence is everywhere; I’m making a clean sweep. build yourself a ship from teakwood. make rooms in it. coat it with pitch inside and out. make it 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high. build a roof for it and put in a window eighteen inches from the top; put in a door on the side of the ship; and make three decks, lower, middle, and upper.”

so noah begins to build this ark, this ship and it’s huge. the length of it was one and a half football fields. GOD gave noah an incredible project. and in this project, HE allowed noah to have a SPIRITual experience in his life like none other. but it was an experience of obedience. every foot of width, every foot of length was obedience to GOD. he had to be thinking, “what am i doing? what’s going to happen?”

genesis 6.22 (msg), noah did everything GOD commanded him to do. that’s a dream of my life. i’d like to get there someday. did everything. that’s exact obedience. what incredible obedience.

noah was motivated because he was obedient. there are days in my life when the only thing that motivates me to serve GOD is my obedience. i don’t feel like doing it, nobody’s telling me i'm doing a great job in doing it. they might even tell me i'm doing a terrible job in doing it. satan’s throwing lots of temptations at me. there are days like that in all of our lives. there are days when the only motivation is obedience to the ONE who loves us the most. i trust HIM more than i trust me. noah had that. that’s why GOD was able to use HIM to change a world – literally.

just a thought from the front porch…