PASTOR BRIAN K. BROWN, St. Mark M.B. Church
Genesis 9:1, 20-23
Over the past two Sundays Pastor Brown has brought a word from the story of Noah and his family from the book of Genesis. On the second Sunday the message was ‘On Your Return – What Should We Consider’. The third Sunday’s message was ‘Believer, Beware on Your Return – What Should we Be Aware of on Our Return’. We were reminded that in Genesis 9:1 God stated that ‘man did evil continually in the sight of God’ so much so that God destroyed all except Noah, his family and the animals that were preserved. In Genesis we find Noah, the father, Ham, son that saw the nakedness of his father, Shem and Japheth covered the nakedness of Noah. Noah and Ham failed to do some things for success in their return.
In our returning, will it be a responsible or reckless return in our interaction with others? What’s the responsible way we should return? What is God expecting from us? The first point for consideration from verse 1 is ‘There’s a Community That Needs Our Help to Grow’. We need to be considerate of the community God has put us in (neighbors, on jobs, with family, etc.). God appealed to Noah and his sons to go out and grow the earth. We should be looking for something in our community that needs to grow. If we aren’t something is wrong. Some things should be better because of our return. God didn’t intend for our return to be worse.
From verses 22 and 23, the second point “There’s a Crowd that Needs Our Guidance’. We see the crowd of Ham who went in without permission and then went and told his brothers what he saw. His brothers though, acted in a responsible way. They didn’t celebrate what their brother had seen. Those who know better do better and teach others how to do better. Those who are saved should show others how to be saved. Shem and Japheth showed how to teach others what was right. Even if others don’t want to hear the lesson, teach on. It’s not our job to get them to do, but to show the greatness of God. If we know thing others don’t emulate that before them.
The last point from verse 23, “There’s a Crime that Needs Our Grace. The crime started with Noah getting drunk off his vineyard and wine and exposed himself and his son entered his tent and saw his nakedness. It’s not our job to look at the crime but we should extend grace to the crime. When we see a crime, we tend to video the crime and talk about the crime. We are not to condone the crime but to be godlike and cover the crime with grace. God used his grace to cover our crime, our sin. God has covered us so that we might be seen as the vessel God wants us to be so we should meet out grace as God does for us. Everyone want grace but do we extend grace to others? To much is given much is required.
We are back in the sanctuary! Live stream services are also on YouTube @ St Mark MBC at 10:20 for Sunday School, worship service at 10:45 a.m. each Sunday and bible study on Wednesdays @ 7:00 p.m.
