Doors, Windows and Rain

July 05, 2020
Pastor Clint Ziemer

Audio of the sermon preached on July 5, 2020, at Cable Community Church, Sherrard, IL

Episode Notes

Doors, Windows and Rain

Genesis 6-8, selected verses


Sixteen weeks.  We’ve been apart from one another as a church body for sixteen weeks of quarantine.  For those of you who are counting, that’s 112 days — or if you like, 2,688 hours.  It’s great to be back together, isn’t it?

How have you been spending your time?  For those of you who passed the days diving deep into your Bibles, I have a little quiz for you.  Don’t worry.  This is all in good fun.

First question:  Where in the Bible does it say, “This too shall pass.”?  I’ll make it easy for you.  I don’t need scripture and verse.  Just tell me in what Book of the Bible that’s found.  Answer:  It’s not in the Bible, but believed to originate in extra-Biblical writings attributed to King Solomon,

Next one.  Where in the Bible does it say, “The sun will come out tomorrow.”?  Now, if you looked ahead to today’s text from Genesis, you might be thinking that those words were a part of God’s promise, after the flood, in Genesis 8:22, but no.  That phrase actually comes from the Broadway musical, Annie.

Final one.  Where in the Bible does it say, “Where the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.”?  Maybe you’ve caught on to the pattern here today.  That, too, isn’t found in the Bible.  The origin of this phrase has been attributed to different sources, but most popularly, to Maria from “The Sound of Music.”

Thanks for playing along.  Do you realize how difficult it is to do something like that when preaching to an empty room?

Today we’re going to revisit the story of Noah from the first book of the Bible.  We’re going to take those events of history and put them into our modern context of quarantine.  Before we finish, we’ll discover what it means to completely trust God with all that we have. 
As we read selected verses from Genesis  6-8 we’ll examine  ...

The closed door

The open window   and finally,

The open door

  1. Body
    1. The closed door.  Gen. 7:13, 16b
        1. God shuts the door on the past.
      1. Man’s sin had become too much,
        1. Gen. 6:13. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.  
        2. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
      2. In His faithfulness, God found a righteous man in Noah
        1. Lamentations 3:22-23
          1. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
          2. Because His compassions fail not.
          3. They are new every morning;
          4. Great is Your faithfulness.
      3. When God closes a door, He encourages us not to look back
        1. Lot’s wife looked back (Genesis 19:26)
        2. Isaiah 43:18-19 
          1. “Do not remember the former things,
            Nor consider the things of old.
            Behold, I will do a new thing,
            Now it shall spring forth;
            Shall you not know it?
            I will even make a road in the wilderness
            And rivers in the desert.
      4. In God’s scheme of things, every day is a new day.
        1. That’s why Eph. 4:26 says,  Don’t let the sun go down on your anger…
        2. And Jesus, in Matthew 6:24, says,  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.The open window.  Gen. 8:6
        3. During the flood Noah can only obey and observe.  
      5. Noah had to endure.  Because God took him through the flood, not around it.
      6. Isaiah 43:2,  God speaks to His own, saying…— When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
        1. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
        2. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
        3. Nor shall the flame scorch you.
        4. (Note:  It says “WHEN” not if.)
      7. Like so many of us, during his quarantine Noah worked “from home” 
        1. Tended to the animals 
        2. Kept an eye on the flood — Gen. 7:5  
      8. A reoccurring theme of this story….  Noah did all that the Lord commanded him


C. The open door. Gen. 8:15-17

    1. God opens the door to a “new normal.”  
    2. What was it like on “the other side” of the flood?
  1. New opportunities— Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, 
    1. Because of what had happened, most everything needed rebuilt.
    2. This is the first time an altar is mentioned in the Bible.
    3. Also, this is the first mention of a covenant. 
  2. Renewed devotion—...taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
    1. God provides for the way forward.  There were more of the clean animals on the ark.
  3. Yet some things never change — SIN
    1. Noah’s drunkenness — Genesis 9:20ff
    2. Matthew 24:37-39 — But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,  And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.


II. Conclusion 

  1. As we’ve all experienced, the government can shut you down. 
  2. In Isaiah 22:22, speaking of the Southern Kingdom, Judah’s ruler, Isaiah wrote; “The key of the house of David. I will lay on his shoulder;  So he shall open, and no one shall shut;  And he shall shut, and no one shall open”
  3. In Revelation 3:7, Jesus says similar things about Himself to the church in Philadelphia; “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens…”
  4. Today we’ve been looking at the story of Noah and how God closes doors on the past and opens up new opportunities for the future.  We must be like Noah and listen for God’s leading, get onto the boat before the door closes, and then, in due time,  walk out through the open door into whatever God has prepared for our future.
  5. What was is like for Noah enduring the flood on that ark?  Chances are that we can never even begin to imagine.  Steve Wende is a retired Methodist pastor and a Contributing Editor of Preaching Magazine.  He writes…. I was attending Yale Divinity School and I worked in the summers as a YMCA counselor, taking the kids out backpacking and canoeing. We had one group that was really advanced. We wanted to take them white water canoeing. It would not be serious white water, not the type that could actually hurt somebody, but we wanted to give them a taste of what it meant to hit really exciting waves. We found a place on the Housatonic River where the water narrows underneath an historic old covered bridge. It looks like a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting, and under that covered bridge there were no hazards or rocks. Nobody could get hurt, but the waves were wild. The water just foamed and fumed and it was extraordinarily exciting. I thought, “The kids will love this.”
  6. I took them up them river and I put them in a line. I put the two biggest boys in the front canoe. I mean these were good looking guys. They were strong. They looked like they stepped out of a GQ magazine. I figured if the first canoe went through OK, all of them would get through OK. I looked at those guys and said, “Now, all you have to do is point that canoe straight down the river. Go right under the bridge. I am going to be calling out instructions and advice while you go under the bridge. Just listen to me, do what I say, and point the canoe straight down the river. Don’t worry about anything. You will be fine. Can you do it?” They said, “Count on us, Steve! We’re ready.”I got them all in the river in their canoes. I ran down the bank and got up on the bridge so I could shout instructions as they came past. I cried, “Come on down!” They looked so good. The boys in the front were paddling their way down the river in perfect form. Then, they saw it. They saw the white water. When you are in the canoe, your eyes are only two feet above the surface of the water. You can’t see what is coming at you until you are right on it. But now they were there, and it looked like Niagara Falls! I mean, the river just dropped away. It wasn’t dangerous, but it looked horrifying.
    1. I saw the look of fear in their eyes, so I started shouting, “Don’t worry! Don’t worry! Just paddle.” And they did. They started back-paddling as hard as they could. The problem was that they were already in the current. When the river narrows it forms a “V”. If you go into that current, the river is stronger than you are. Once you are in the “V”, you can’t get out. They were in the “V” so when they started back paddling, they just succeeded in turning the canoe in circles! They just started spiraling down toward the white water. This wasn’t good. I knew that. So I shouted at them, “Stop! Don’t back-paddle. Just steer. Just try to steer the canoe!”
    2. Do you remember the air raid training schools used to do with kids? The one in front threw his paddle away, put his head down between his knees, and covered his head! I guess he thought, “If it works for a bomb, it will work for the river.” So, I shouted at the one in back, “Just use your paddle like a rudder!” Then, he stood up! He stood up! He didn’t use the paddle to steer. Instead, standing there, he reached up to hand it to me! He was quite a distance from me, but I guess he thought I was going to catch it!
    3. And that is how they went through the white water: spinning in a circle, the one in front ducked over and the one in the back yelling, “I want to go home!” Of course, they capsized.
    4. They were not hurt. I would never have put them someplace they could be hurt. They just floated on down through the white water into the river beyond where it smoothed out. But all their gear was lost and that aluminum canoe was pounded into tin foil at the bottom of the river. You could have wrapped sandwiches in that canoe.

L. As a YMCA counselor, I was responsible not only for the kids, but also for the equipment. After being sure that the boys were okay, my next thought was that I might have to pay for that canoe, so I was worried. I looked up to see the other kids coming behind them. Apparently, this had been a bad idea. The next canoe behind them was already in the “V”. It was already in the current and I could not stop it – and in it were the two skinniest little girls you could ever imagine. They were the smallest kids in the whole group. I said, “Oh no! I am going to be bankrupt by the time we finish this! I’ll have to pay for all these canoes!” But I could not stop them, so I just started shouting to them, “I know it’s going to look scary. I know it’s going to look fierce, but just paddle! Keep on paddling. Do what I tell you to do. It’s OK to be scared! Just do what I tell you! Just keep on paddling!”

  • I could see it in their eyes when they saw the water. I could see the fear. I could see the blood drain out of their faces. I could see their eyes get large. But you know what? They kept on paddling. Scared to death, shaking like leaves in a winter wind, they kept on paddling. They went into that white water, and then they were down and up, down and up, and finally down and out! They went sailing through, screaming for joy, having more fun than they had ever had in their lives! They came through soaking wet and absolutely triumphant! And then those two little girls went paddling on down the river to pick up the boys.
  • What is God saying to the church at Philadelphia and to you and me this morning? “Keep on paddling!” I know it is scary. I know it can be turbulent. Some of you are facing incredible white water episodes right now. Remember that God does not ask us not to be afraid. He gives us permission to shake like leaves, but He says, “Keep on doing what I tell you. Keep on paddling! As you do, the day will come when you break through to smooth sailing.”
  • Remember Genesis 7:5 — Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
  • His seas were extremely rough, but he endured.  Like many other examples from the Bible, he trusted God.
  • Will you do likewise?
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