Sermon 1/25/09 – Genesis 8:15-16 – I’m Just Like
You
I’m Just Like You
“Go out of the ark, you
and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you”
(Genesis 8:15-16)
My wife is mostly Irish and we have come to
share and enjoy the music of an Irish group called “Celtic Woman.” We find the music haunting and
beautiful. The lyrics of one of their songs are as follows: “We're all a part of one world, we all can share the same
dream, and if you just reach out to me, Then you will find, deep down
inside, I'm just like you...”
The fears we have, the hopes, the dreams, the
lingering childhood that lives in us all, the need for love and safety…
we have differences, but we are all more the same than we realize or
acknowledge. If you are from Africa or China, Europe, the U.S. or
wherever, we may seem different, but inside, we are far more alike than
not. As I share with you, and as you listen, “you
will find, deep down inside, I'm just like you.”
When I was a very little boy, before I
contracted rheumatic fever and spent five years in bed and in
wheelchairs, I loved to play with toys in my room. Especially it seemed
wonderful to shoot my little dart gun at things. This was one of those
“guns” that fired darts with harmless little suction cups at the end. I
was already becoming a “reader” who especially loved the series called “Better Little Books.” They were fat little books with
more pictures than words, which was fine with me at the time. The little
books would stand up on end and my imagination they became soldiers or
cowboys who would “fire” the little darts at each other. As boys do, I
not only read those books, but I also playfully “shot” them, as well.
My wife, when she was little, had a “Barbie” doll, and she had a “Ken”
doll also. She enjoyed playing with the Barbie and you might expect that
she would have liked the Ken doll. But that wasn’t the way it was. She
liked it best when Barbie associated with “G.I.
Joe,” a very different kind of doll than “Ken.”
The play of children is not that different from other children
everywhere. And so much that “grown-ups” do is really – play.
People everywhere need love. We all want to feel
safe, to succeed, to be respected, to have enough food, and to be
acceptable in appearance. We want income that is sufficient for our
needs. We would like it to be warm enough when we want and yet we want
that cool breeze on a hot day. Deep down, we need companionship, even if
we have been hurt by others in the past and send signals that we don’t
want friends. We would like to do something in life that everyone agrees
is significant and meaningful. “We're all a part
of one world, we all can share the same dream, and if you just reach out
to me, Then you will find, deep down inside, I'm just like you....”
In today’s Scripture, we find God “speaking” to
Noah, the man who built the ark at the Lord’s command and was now being
told to leave the ship that had been their home for the past year. He
was told, “Go out of the ark, you and your wife,
and your sons and your sons’ wives with you” (Genesis 8:15-16).
Were these eight people reluctant to leave that place of safety?
And was there an ark at all? Are you able to
believe that a deluge of water at a certain point in history covered the
entire planet? Do you believe that Noah ever existed? Is there in you
the faith to accept that at least two of every land creature and seven
of others, voluntarily migrated to the ark at God’s command? “What
happened to the dinosaurs?” and you might add. “If Moses wrote Genesis,
how did he know anything about Noah and his family, who lived hundreds
of years before Noah did?” These are important questions because the
truth of all this, or its lack, is foundational to everything that is.
There is a God who loves us enough to judge humanity and cleanse the
world of sin. Genesis 6 to 9 presents all of this as truth. But what do
YOU believe?
It’s important because Scripture does teach
creation by an Almighty, loving God, who, at the same time, gives free
choice to those He loves. God’s Word, the Bible, teaches that mankind
became so bad, so “evil” (Genesis 6:5),
that God eventually, reluctantly covered “all the
high hills upon the earth… (with the “waters”)…
the mountains of the earth were covered…
and all flesh died” (Genesis 7:19-21 &
context). And it continues that everyone in future history came from “the sons of Noah… and from these
the nations were divided…” (Genesis 10:32). Everyone on earth,
the stranger on the street, the neighbor you don’t speak to, the
relative you either like or don’t, the person who is different; every
one on earth is a part of your human family. We are all one people, one
human race.
There’s more to this than just who people are
and how they relate to each other, for the Bible, the Word of God is
essential to our lives: “ALL Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The phrase, “all Scripture,” includes the
Book of Genesis - our verses for today. Some people decide to pick and
choose which Scriptures they like, stating, “I believe this one, but I
don’t believe that one.” It’s a kind of Christianity in which they
become sort of like a “judge” of what is true and what is not. The Word
of God is either truth or it isn’t. There is no middle ground.
The benefits of trusting in the written Word of
God are huge. The “Scriptures” were written
to give us “hope” (Romans 15:4). “FAITH,” essential to all, but only found by some, is,
given through God's Word. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The Bible is
ALIVE with the life of God and that life will spread into your very
soul, changing you for the good. “The Word of God
is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
This is true for the so-called “Old” Testament
as well as the “New.” Jesus quoted the words of Moses in Mark 7:10,
calling them as the “Word of God” in Mark
7:13. Peter said about the Old Testament prophets that, “prophesy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (1 Peter 1:21).
Peter also said that “no prophesy of Scripture is
of any private interpretation” (1 Peter 1:20). To like one part
of it and reject others is to have a “private
interpretation.” It’s important to prayerfully be open to all of
the Bible, including today’s Scripture, for it reveals we are one
people, far more alike than we ever thought. We are all descended
from just eight people on that ark.
“We're all a part of one
world, We all can share the same dream, And if you just reach out to me,
Then you will find, deep down inside, I'm just like you...”
Jesus’ command is that we “love one another”
as He has loved us (John 13:34-35); including that person who resists
your attempts at friendship. They are much like you, and God intends
that you’ll love them.
Father, we pray that Your Word will come
alive in us and that we will trust in what we read. Help us, Lord, to
see our kinship with others, and to love them. In Jesus Name. Amen.
