If you would, turn in your Bibles with me this morning to the book
of Genesis. Genesis chapter eight. Genesis chapter eight.
When you reach the book of Genesis chapter eight, please stand
for the reading of God’s Word. We are going to read verse seven
through verse twelve. Genesis chapter eight, verse seven
through verse seven through verse twelve. When you have it,
signify by saying, “Amen.” Please stand for there reading of
God’s Holy Word. In verse seven it says:
7. And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the
waters were dried up from off the earth.
8. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were
abated from off the face of the ground;
9. But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she
returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of
the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and
pulled her in unto him into the ark.
10. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth
the dove out of the ark;
11. And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her
mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters
were abated from off the earth.
12. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove;
which returned not again unto him any more.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank You and give You glory for who You are and for
what You do. Master, hide Your son behind the cross, that Your
people would see and hear You only, and not me. Lord God, I
decrease right now, that You would increase. And Lord, let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable
in Thy sight, oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. I thank You
for revelation knowledge that shall flow in this house, for I give my
head to you, that this is Your head, this is Your heart, this is Your
hands, this is Your feet. I am Your instrument, Your vessel, to do
with as You please.
I thank You, Lord, that the atmosphere is conducive this morning
to the giving of Your Word, and Lord God, that anything that’s not
like You is bound and forbidden to operate. We give You glory,
we give You honor, and we give You praise. In Jesus Name.
And the people of God said, “Amen.” You may be seated in the
house of the Lord.
Most of us have studied the water cycle. It’s called the
hydrological system. And what happens in this system is that
water circulates from the clouds to the soil, to streams, to rivers,
to the ocean. And then it returns again to the clouds. And when
that system backs up, it causes a flood. And there’s more water
flowing through that system than the system can actually draw off.
So when we look at what a flood is, a flood is an imbalance.
Things are thrown off. Things are out of proportion. Things are
not in line. And it causes things to react.
And when we look at our natural weather system, it is responsible
for predicting the weather and warning us of impending danger.
Amen, somebody. It is called the Doppler Radar System that
warns us of severe weather that’s getting ready to come. It is
supposed to be accurate at monitoring what is going on in the
atmosphere, so that we would be able to move at a moment’s
notice, if we need to move.
But how many of you know and understand that God is in control
of the weather? And no matter what system we have or what tool
we have in place, can’t nothing stop the power of God. Man is
always trying to predict what God is getting ready to do.
Even when we look at the disaster that happened in New Orleans,
they had a warning that the hurricane was getting ready to come;
however, I’m going to say it again. How many of you know that
you can’t stop God? God uses the elements to get His point
across. God uses the elements to bring judgment where there is
sin. God uses the elements so that if His people was to call by
their names (oh, my God), would humble themselves and pray,
and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will He
hear from heaven, and He will forgive our sins, and then God, I
said God is going to heal our land. Give God praise all over this
house today.
A flood is a natural disaster. Do you hear what I’m saying? And
God will send forth natural disaster when there’s wickedness in a
place. If you remember in Genesis chapter six and verse five, it
said:
5. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.
And then it went on to say that it grieved God that He even
created man. You see, whenever there is sin in a place, God is
going to take care of that sin by wiping out whatever needs to be
wiped out.
I know that scientists say that every forty years hurricanes begin
to spring up. Every forty years hurricanes begin to happen. But
isn’t it amazing where God will strategically allow that hurricane to
be? Isn’t it amazing how God will go down to Sodom and
Gomorrah, minister, and call . . . Oh, my God. I know somebody
understands what I’m talking about today. Because there’s some
things that are going on in the earth that need to be dealt with.
And God is getting ready to deal with them. Give God praise all
over this place.
When God was speaking about the thought and the imagination of
man being evil continually, He was noticing that there was an
imbalance in the soul of man. The Bible said in Proverbs, I
believe it’s 11 and 1, that a false balance is an abomination to the
Lord. Why? Because when there’s a false balance, it means that
God is no longer first in that place. And what happened in the
garden was, God was no longer the first. And God is playing
seconds to nobody. Oh, I feel the Anointing of God.
When there’s an imbalance in the soul of man, I can’t follow God.
When there’s an imbalance in the soul of man, I can’t really have
a relationship with God. Because what happens is, I begin to be
my own god. I begin to be self sufficient within myself. I don’t
know about you, but I’m leaning on the everlasting arms of God. I
don’t want to do it myself. I want God to be in the midst of me.
You see, if you’ve never been to New Orleans, you probably don’t
understand what I’m talking about. I’ve walked Bourbon Street.
I’ve seen with my own eyes what goes on. I’ve smelled with my
own nose the stench of the atmosphere. The only thing about
New Orleans is that a lot of people consider it to be a great tourist
attraction. But the only tourist attraction is actually Bourbon
Street. But the rest of it is an industrialized place. So in one
particular key location Satan makes his home, and then he sends
out demons all over the city to do his bidding.
We’re talking this morning about the imbalance in man. God told
us even this morning that when sin is finished, it bringeth forth
what? I can’t hear you. When sin is finished, it bringeth forth
death. And this is what happens here in the book of Genesis. Sin
had given birth to death.
Whenever God gets tired of something, somebody’s getting ready
to die. Oh, it’s a hard and tight word this morning, but you got to
hear what I’m saying in this hour. God has winked at evil, but He
said, “In this hour I will wink no more. I will not turn around and
look the other way. I’m seeing what’s going on in the land.”
Here we have righteousness in the midst, in the midst of this sin.
And God is not looking to destroy righteousness. God is looking
to save righteousness.
Look at your Bibles, this morning. Look at chapter six, and verse
eight. When you have it, say amen.
8. But Noah found . . .
What? Noah found what? I want everybody to say it. Noah
found what? The reason you have not been destroyed is because
you have found grace. Oh, my God.
It said:
8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
The Bible says in Zechariah that the eyes of the Lord go to and
fro. God is watching and looking and seeing what’s going on.
He’s not looking for the sin all the time, but He’s looking for
somebody that’s standing in righteousness. Somebody say,
“Righteousness.”
Look at your Bibles. Look at verse nine.
9. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a (what?) just
man and (what?) perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with
God.
10. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Let me explain something to you. Just like sin and different spirits
pass generationally . . . Because you see, a lot of times if daddy
was an alcoholic (do you hear what I’m saying?), a lot of times the
son will be an alcoholic. Do you hear? Do you understand?
Because it’s a spirit that has traveled generationally. But don’t
you know that righteousness can travel generationally? And if I’m
righteous, it can save my children that are coming. Oh, my God.
You need to hear what I’m saying today. Mama and daddy, you
need to walk in righteousness.
Righteousness can extend from generation. That’s why God will
have a whole bunch of preachers in one family. Have you ever
seen a family that every time you turn around, “This is Reverend
So-and-so, and this is Reverend So-and-so. This is Reverend So-and-so.” He’ll put a whole lineage of preachers, because
somebody was walking in righteousness. Righteousness. It has
the ability to extend past you, to extend past me.
He found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and the righteousness
that he walked in kept him from destruction. The righteousness
that you walk in is keeping you from being destroyed. And a lot of
saints, their children are in sin, and they’re going through certain
things, and they should have been destroyed, but because you’re
walking in righteousness, God has spared them.
He’s talking to us today, because He sends natural disaster to get
our attention, to get our attention.
The Bible said in Genesis seven . . . Go with me. And verse
twelve. It said:
12. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
In chapter eight and verse two, it says:
2. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven
were stopped . . .
God is going to fulfill whatever judgement He has placed. Do you
remember when Abraham was down there in Sodom and
Gomorrah, and Abraham was looking for God not to destroy the
land? He said, you know, “If I find X number of righteous people,
God . . .” He said, “Will You save them?” He said, “Yes.” It didn’t
matter the number. God said, “Wait a minute. I don’t see any
righteousness going on, so I got to do what I’ve got to do. Now,
because you are righteous, you need to get out.”
Because you are righteous, you need to get out. You need to
learn how to hear from God. Noah heard from God. When you’re
walking in righteousness (oh, my God), righteousness will warn
you of a coming destruction, and righteousness will tell you to get
out while you can get out. But if you stay (oh, my God), it’s
because you chose to stay.
That’s why it’s so important to have a relationship with God.
That’s why it’s so important to be able to distinguish the voice of
God.
Have you ever been in a situation when there was impending
danger, and something just was in you . . . It didn’t have to be an
audible voice. Something within you said, “You need to get up out
of here.”
Even when you was out there in the club . . . Oh, I’m going to
bring it home, huh? Even when you were out there in the club,
you just sometimes sat there, you felt like something was about to
go down and happen. And all of a sudden you grabbed your
belongings, and you said, “I got to go.” And then the next day or
whatever you hear about what happened at the same club where
you were. But it missed you. It missed you. It missed you.
Now, those instances is because of somebody else’s
righteousness. Did you hear what I’m saying? Somebody else’s
prayers that have been going up for you. Somebody’s been
praying for you. I know when I was out there, somebody was
praying for me. Mama was praying for me. Grand-mama was
praying for me. And so things that should have taken me out
never got a chance to get me.
The flood stopped. The rain stopped. But it didn’t stop until every
living creature was destroyed. All the animals, all of humanity,
except all that went into the ark. There was a flood. There was a
flood.
You see, we’ve got to count the blessings, that God didn’t just
totally destroy, that He was trying to get our attention. I got
relatives down there, New Orleans, Baton Rouge. I got relatives
down there. God spared them.
God is getting our attention. He’s calling us together to pray.
Satan’s still trying to keep us distracted with our day to day activity
of living. Yes, we’ve got to live. Yes, we’ve got to have our day to
day activity. But yet we have to have our years open to what the
Spirit of the Lord is saying to the church. Because I don’t know
about you, but I’m getting up out of here. Do you hear what I’m
saying? I’m going to be changed, in the moment, in a twinkling of
an eye, and I’m going to be just like Him. I want to hear the
trumpet sound. I want to hear the voice of the archangel. I don’t
want to miss him. I don’t have time to get caught up in sin. I don’t
have time. I don’t have time.
That’s why when I told you this morning, I said, “Paul solicited the
prayers of the saints.” I solicit your prayers, because I don’t want
to be caught in no snares and no traps. Do you want your pastor
caught up in snares and traps? Because I got to hear for you the
things that you can’t hear.
It was judgment that fell on the earth, a total annihilation, except
for the righteousness. And God is speaking to us this morning
that there is peace after the storm. Because when he sent the
dove out, the dove kept coming back. But once everything was
dry, the dove came back, the olive leaf in its mouth, and went
back out and never came back again. And then he knew that
there was peace, that it was time, and the storm was over.
That’s why we thank God for the Anointing. Because when the
Presence of God is in a place, not only is there the fulness of joy .
. . Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and so is peace. And when God is
present there’s the fulness of what? And there’s a fulness of
peace.
So when you come to the house of God and there’s been
Anointing of God flowing, the Bible said cast your cares upon Him,
because He cares for you. And when you begin to give Him the
cares, then that’s when you’ll start to have peace. That’s when
the flood will be over. You have the ability to be in a hard place,
but yet still have peace.
I remember days when I was just, “Oh, God.” I prayed louder and
louder, like praying louder and louder was going to get God . . .
God can hear me. He hears me before I open up my mouth.
Have you ever been there, you been going through something,
“Oh God! If You would just do it, God! Oooooohhhhh, God!”
And God just seem like He still don’t hear you. He heard you, but
He wants you to have peace in the midst of the storm.
There’s someone here this morning that needs peace. You’ve
been in the midst of a flood, but you were not destroyed, because
you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. But now you’re
ready to walk out on dry land.
Every head bowed and every eye closed.
The storm may be raging in your life right now, but if I know God
like I know God, when He said He’d never leave you nor forsake
you, He meant just that. He’ll never leave you, and He’ll never
forsake you. Though the storm may be raging and the billows are
rolling, He’s right there with you. He said, “I’ll be with you when
you walk through the flood. I’ll be with you when you go through
the fire.” He said, “I’ll be with you.” He said, “When you’re at the
lowest point, and it seems like you can get no lower,” he said, “I’ll
be with you.” But all you got to do is trust Him.
The Bible said in Proverbs three, “Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all of your
ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.”
Somebody needs direction this morning. Somebody needs
guidance this morning. Somebody needs a touch from the Lord
this morning. Just lean on Him.