01/08/2023
A short message for today.
SEEK GOD WHILE YOU STILL CAN
I was lying in bed this past Saturday evening awaiting the high winds and heavy rains that had been forecasted in our area when God placed a question to me. He said: “Who closed the door to the ark?” Well, I know from my mom always telling me that as a pastor if God hasn’t given me a message for the week, I can always preach on Noah’s ark. There are so many messages one can glean from this event. Having said all that, I know from Genesis 7:13-16 that “the LORD shut them in”. God had been warning the world that a great and mighty flood was coming and the only way to be saved would be if they turned to Him. Hopefully we all know the story. The world mocked Noah. And why wouldn’t the world mock him. He'd been building it for 40 years and in fact, up until that point in time, there had never been rain on the earth. But my point is this. Once the LORD shut the door, they were doomed to everlasting death. God poured out His wrath upon the entire earth destroying all mankind. I can’t imagine the sadness that Noah and his family endured as they heard the screams and pounding on the side of the ark as the flood waters rose. Friends and family were about to die and at this point, there was nothing they could do about it. God had shut the door and when God shuts a door, mankind cannot re-open it.
For 40 days and 40 nights, God flooded the earth, washing all human life into oblivion. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen the aftermath of a flood. It was in 1986 that my mom and stepfather had their yogurt shop washed away from a broken levee due to flood waters. In a blink of an eye, their livelihood was gone. The waters lifted their machinery and tossed it around like you and I would toss a plastic whiffle ball. Dirt, sewage and sediment was all that remained once the water receded. I know this because I flew up from my home in San Diego at that time to help them get all there equipment out. The stench was so strong that at the end of 7 days, I didn’t even try to wash my clothes. I burned them because I knew I would never get that smell out. This was the results from only 10 days so I could only imagine the stench and devastation from 40 days and 40 nights.
God looked around after the flood waters receded and swore that never again would He pour out His wrath upon mankind. That is until the last days. In the interim, God sent His Son, Jesus to take a portion of His Father’s wrath by getting up on that cross and dying for our sins. Christ didn’t just die; He felt the full force of God’s wrath upon Himself. The wrath that God should take out on you and me for our sins, He took out on His Son. Scripture says that;
Isaiah 53:4-6
(4) Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
(5) But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
(6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Because of Jesus, we have access to Him. In other words, He opened the door again for a direct, personal, intimate relationship with God through His Son, Jesus. God is still saying to this day, “Come into the Ark”. Enter into safety. Enter while there is still time. Enter through the only door that is available to go through to get to God. That door is Jesus Christ.
3 people lost their lives in the flooding that took place around the Sacramento area on New Year’s. Their time came to an end. I pray they had already entered into a personal relationship with Jesus. One day, your time and my time will come to an end. Everybody’s will. Seek God through Jesus while the door is still open because there is coming a day when that door will close. Whether by natural death or once His prophesy is fulfilled and is culminated at the second coming of Christ.
If you wait until then, it’s too late. The people of Noah’s day realized the moment the door to the ark closed and the flood waters rose that as much as they pleaded, begged and prayed – it was too late.
One day this world will pass away and there isn’t anything mankind can do about it. You can go ahead and buy an electric car, give all your money to global climate initiatives. You may even decide to walk everywhere you go and live totally off the grid under a tent. God will once again pour His wrath out on this world. Mountains will be brought down, rivers will be turned to blood and dried up. Don’t believe me? Read the Book of Revelations. Supernatural things will happen that had nothing to do with whether or not we used fossil fuels, natural gas, wind energy, nuclear energy, hydrogen energy or any other sort you can think of. It will end because God has told us through His Word that it will end. It will end in order that sin and the creator of it will once and for all be banished. It will end so that one day, He will remake this world into the paradise He designed it for until sin entered into it.
So how do you get to inhabit this new earth, by entering into the ark called Jesus. In Him is life everlasting. The door to Jesus is now open so seek Him while you still have time. Give your heart to Him and watch Him change your sinful ways into His righteous ways.
