The Bible teaches that there are three forms of evil influence that exert their power over the lives of people to lead them into sin and away from God.  These are the Unholy Trinity.  The first influence is the world (following the course of this world).  The second influence in the passage is the devil (following the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit).  Finally, the passage directs us to the third influence, our own flesh (in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind).  The World, the Devil, the Flesh.  We see this tripartite description of sinful influences elsewhere in scripture, for example James 3:15 says of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.” Earthly (The World), Unspiritual (The Flesh) and Demonic (the Devil).

I understand that for at least half of us in this room, the first thing I need to convince you of is the reality of our spiritual warfare.  In a sense this is Paul’s main concern in introducing the concept of spiritual warfare to the Ephesians in chapter 6 when he counsels us to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might and put on the full amour of God to stand against the devil, for – and here is his explanation – for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Be strong, for, or because, you in fact are engaged in a spiritual wrestling match against the forces of darkness.  You must be strong in the Lord, for this is the reality of your situation.  This is not a choice for the Christian – you can’t opt out of this struggle, there is no dodging this draft. 

Let me tell you about this king. Pharaoh Thutmose I, the third king of the 18th dynasty – the Golden age of Egyptian prosperity. Thutmose was not born to be Pharoah, but was born a commoner. Thutmose was a military genius, rising in the ranks to become the right hand man of the Pharaoh before him, staging a series of military campaigns that solidified the dynasty and establish Egypt once again as a world power. He was rewarded with the hand of the Pharaoh’s daughter, placing him next in line to become the most powerful man on the face of the earth. This commoner went on to become Pharaoh, revered as the son of God among his people. History validates the Biblical picture of this Pharaoh, a builder of great cities, yet as many who come from nothing to rule everything, becoming increasingly paranoid that his power would be taken away just as quickly. This military genius knew the danger of having a great population in his midst (estimated at 2.5 million Israelites at this time) that did not know him as God and king. Therefore, he dealt shrewdly with them and placed greater and greater burdens upon them, keeping them in fear of his great might. He would be their Lord.

Can you imagine the burden of knowing that one of your children may save the world? Imagine knowing that it could be one of your kids who could grow up to be the deliverer – the savior? Think of the expectations, the pressure. As parents, having that promise from God, how could you resist watching your children, looking for signs – is he the one? Is it his brother? Imagine pondering these things in your heart – and then imagine what it might do to your children. Every sign of obedience and spiritual zeal would be noticed, praised and encouraged and reinforced – its him, it’s got to be him. Every act of disobedience or hint of rebellion would disappoint – it can’t be him. Inevitably, possibly unintentionally, but inevitably nonetheless, you as a parent begin to think you have a pretty good idea which child is the chosen one. Although you may not mean to treat him any different, how could you help from doing it? One of your kids is going to save the world! You’re only human after all, how could you help from treating him differently from favoring him? As you can imagine, being the family of the promise is indeed a blessing, but it would be a very heavy burden – something that could in fact strain even the most united of families.

The first thing to notice about this “promise of renown” is that God will do it. “I will” God says 5 times. The fulfillment of these promises to Abraham is totally dependent upon God’s faithfulness. This is “according to his purpose that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ”. This plan cannot be thwarted and it does not hinge on man, but on God alone.

Today we are going to be considering the story of Noah, that Sunday School favorite, with the cute little animals and pretty little rainbows and the near complete annihilation of every living being on earth.  It’s funny how we package this story to children when it is most definitely not a children’s story.  Today we are going to take three approaches to the account of Noah.  First, I want to look at it from a literary/historical approach to see how this account moves the story of the Bible along in light of God’s plan for humanity.  Second, I will take an apologetic approach. An apologetic approach seeks to find answers to difficult questions that are asked. The story of Noah (and other stories of God’s destructive judgment) raises difficult questions about God’s character that we must take seriously.  Finally, I hope to take a theological/personal approach and ask, so what?  What does this mean for me?

At some point, one of the heavenly beings rebelled against God and was expelled from his service and cast down to earth.  We call him Satan.   In his hatred of God and his creation, he devised a scheme to wrestle away the dominion from humanity for himself.  So he approached Eve and told her that if she violated God’s command, “her eyes would be open and she would be like God”.  Eve fell for it and then she in turn led her husband into sin.  That is the moment we refer to as the fall of man, and what I want you to see it that it was indeed a fall.

Brother and sisters, God has a plan.  It may not seem like it at times, but God has a plan.

It may not seem like it when bills are due, when kids are sick, when your stuck at a a dead end job, but God has a plan.  It may not seem like it when your stuck in a cycle of sin, or when you feel no closer to God than you did last year, but God has a plan.  It may not seem like it when you turn on the news and see war, famine, climate crises, but God has a plan.  To the praise of his glory, God has a plan.

Last we talked a bit about disillusionment with religion.  It is not uncommon to hear tales of people leaving the church behind or walking out on their faith.  Tim Keller, in his book, “The Reason For God” cites the behavior of Christians – as individuals and as the church – as a key reason for this disillusionment.  In this passage, James asks a question that many of us in our more cynical times of disillusionment with religion have probably asked: “What good is it, if a man says he has faith but does not have works?” (2:14) The two law students critiqued Christianity because they saw it failing to live up to what they would consider the marks of true religion.  Notice that these two law students are making an assumption about the relationship between faith (what one believes) and works (how one acts).  They have concluded that Christianity is not worth believing, because they haven’t seen it acting in ways that they expect it to were it the true religion. 

We live in a day and age in which people are very disillusioned with religion.  I am not talking so much about the Christopher Hitchens/Dawkins/Harris down with religion neo-atheist books that seem to be what everyone is reading these days.  No I am talking more so about people in the church.  People who look around at the other others in the pews each Sunday and say. “is this all there is?”, “is this what Jesus died for?”  People like Sarah Cunningham – a pastors kid who wrote “Dear Church”. She cites research done by various organizations which paint a picture of disillusionment among those under forty – particularly young adults – who believe in Jesus and long for a spiritual life, but are fed up or hurt by the church.  This is also the thesis of another recent book whose title says it all, “They Like jesus, but not the church”