Genesis 9:12-17(NKJV)
12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
I’m super excited to speak in Genesis this morning – Pastor Christian finally said it was ok after me nagging him day and night
I’m just kidding, I didn’t nag him at all
but just a side note – I don’t ask Pastor Christian to speak, I just heed the call if I’m asked to speak because I feel like If I’m not the lead Sheppard of this church then I’m going to trust the Lord to tell me when he wants to use me instead of exalting myself – I’ve had people ask me “why don’t you speak more often or why don’t you start your own church? And I’m like “that’s not my mantle and it’s not my calling. I’m here to support the vision and leadership of this church. I’m called to be an armor bearer for Pastor Christian and Pastor Amanda and to lift up their hands when they can’t. Some of us need to make sure we are walking in the callings that we are given by God and not in what we think we’re good at or what we want our callings to be. Just like some of the covenants God has given to man – they are conditional. We don’t get to tell God what we’re going to do. It’s His covenant and He makes the rules. I don’t want to offer unauthorized fire like the son’s of Aaron – so I’m praying the Holy Spirit takes over because I want you to hear the Lord and not me – Amen?
Ok, that was the mini message before the message. You guys ready for this?
Pastor Christian gave a wonderful message last week “Behold the God of Covenants” which was about Beholding the covenants of God – How they are worthy of beholding and how we shouldn’t behold the wrong things
He talked about how Covenants are different from promises – how they are more of a blood pact – it’s not just God saying words – He’s putting His power and His reputation on the line – When God says it – you can believe it! He doesn’t fail!
PC talked about the 5 major covenants God has made and also talked about personal covenants God has made with us one on one
And today I get to talk about rainbows – yes you heard me right
Which is kind of funny because in some of the messages I give I go out of my way to say we aren’t talking about rainbows and fluffy bunnies – so there’s that
Genesis 9:13-15(NKJV)
13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
So this morning I really want to focus on these 3 verses
- As I read that passage those two things popped off the page to me – My Rainbow – My Covenant
- It’s a sign for us and it’s something that God uses to remember that He will never destroy all of mankind again with a flood – that’s what perpetual means – forevermore, never ending
- I had so many thoughts as I prepared this message, but I really want to focus on a couple of key points this morning and I will do my best not to rabbit trail into too many different mini sermons as possible because there a lot going on in these verses even if it doesn’t initially seem like it
- This is God starting to show that when He makes a Covenant – He doesn’t break it – He’s saying I don’t have to do this, but I want you to know that I was making covenants thousands of years before you were born – and I have a flawless tract record of keeping my Covenants – My promises are all intact – You can count on me
- Raise your hand if you have seen a rainbow in person? Good, because if you haven’t seen one, you might miss out on some of this message
point one: God wasn’t just putting a rainbow in the sky because He likes fluffy bunnies and butterflies – it show’s one of the most powerful characteristics of the Father – His grace
- If it wasn’t for the Father’s grace, we wouldn’t be here right now
- His patience would have ran out, and He would have destroyed the world and “started over” so many times – “I hope the 431st times a charm!”
- Even His chosen people Israel He talked about destroying them and starting over with Moses
Exodus 32:10 (NKJV)
10 Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”
- I spoke about this a few weeks back on a Wednesday night, God was ready to start over again with Moses and Moses basically asked God to relent and God did
- Makes me wonder if Moses was like “You know what God, that works for me” if God would have destroyed them
- Later in the next chapter, chapter 33 God says this to Moses
Exodus 33:19 (NKJV)
19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
- Compassion and Grace are a gift of a Holy Righteous God and the Rainbow could be considered a gift from the Lord as well
- I can tell you what the rainbow is not – Let me interrupt this regularly scheduled sermon to say this – This is not a gay bashing sermon, one of the biggest lies in the enemies arsenal is that Christians hate anyone in the LGBTQ lifestyle – We do not – We aren’t called to hate the sinner, but to hate the sin and I think that gets muddied along the way and either the Christian is actually hating the sinner too or the enemy is twisting the narrative to make it seem like it
- So when we see our neighbor or President or relative waving a rainbow flag, let us be like God and remember mercy – let our gut reaction not be “those heathens, to hell with them” but instead be “God, thank you for being patient with them, lead them to repentance, let them find Jesus, use me to show them the way, let them find the cross before they find the fire, thank you for letting me find the cross too
- The rainbow is God’s, He’s made that very clear in the scriptures
- The enemy’s goal is to take the things of the Lord’s and corrupt them
- The rainbow is not meant to be the sign of LGBTQ, in fact the rainbow has 7 colors in it – Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red
- Isn’t it funny how the enemy will try to add or take away things from what God has made?
- The rainbow does not have the colors black, brown, light blue, pink or white
- In fact there’s 32 different pride colors and each color has a meaning
- I’m not going to go into all that – but it just shows you how much the enemy thrives on chaos
- How many chains do you have? 32? Come on!
- This is why I believe that it takes a God who does miracles and loves hard to love people to break down those walls and to free someone from those chains – amen?
- I do want to take a moment to talk about the history of God giving grace up to this point
- I find it amazing that the word “grace” wasn’t used until Genesis 6:7-9 and it was talking about Noah – It says Noah found grace – It’s stated that way so we understand that he didn’t earn it by his conduct and it gets even more interesting when in verse nine it says “This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” The word “perfect” does not refer to his ancestry but to his habitual, daily conduct
- The terms “just,” “perfect,” and “walked with God” all signify his conduct among those in his family and community. Noah was a righteous man who could be trusted because people knew he kept the laws of God. “Walking with God” denotes one so close to God in his manner of life that He would keep company with him because he was obedient despite all the corruption surrounding him on every side. That he was perfect (“blameless,” KJV) among all the other people on the earth suggests he had no major flaws in his character. In addition, II Peter 2:5 calls him “a preacher of righteousness.”
- But if he was perfect why did he still need the grace of God? – Because even though he might not have had any issues with sin, he was still in need of God’s grace due to the fall of man and the sin nature that was still in his DNA
- You look back on to the other people God gave grace to (even though Adam and Eve sinned – God showed them grace – Same with Cain – God could have just spoke them out of existence and started over – the amount of patience God must have with us is amazing
- Even when you look at the wrath of God – it may not have been satisfied in Genesis by any means – but it was satisfied on the cross when He poured out all His wrath on Jesus due to the sin of the world being on Him – Past, present and future – That’s a lot of sin – it’s also a lot of Grace given to mankind
- God has multiple ways of pouring out His wrath – One way was a flood – He won’t do that again – another way is through fire – He promises to do that soon and another one is the Cross
- The fire is judgement and the cross is mercy
James 2:13 (NKJV)
13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- So we should desire the cross, not the fire
- We certainly desire the cross for ourselves, so we ought to desire it for our neighbors or our enemies
- This brings me to my second point
Point Two: You can only see My Rainbow when you are facing the right direction
- Believe it or not, you can only see a rainbow when you are facing the right direction – You have to be standing in the right place and facing the right direction
- Does anyone want to nerd out with me for a minute?
- Who else here knows that God is ridiculously creative?
- Who else here knows that God doesn’t waste any opportunities to show His attention to detail and meanings so that we understand His power and wisdom better?
- What I’m getting at is God doesn’t just create stuff to just create stuff – There’s always a purpose in what He creates
- The same goes with a Rainbow
- It takes two things to create a rainbow – Sunlight and water droplets
- Rainbows are actually full circle and really the only people that can see that are pilots when flying
- To see a rainbow, you need to be standing so the sun is behind you, and the water in front of you.
- No one has ever found the end of a rainbow.
- You will most likely never see a rainbow at noon – That’s because the light has to hit the raindrops at a 42 degree angle for the rainbow effect to form
- Why are the facts important? – it’s important to see all the packaged up goodness from the Lord in them
- Isn’t it amazing that no two persons see the exact same rainbow?
- It like it’s a personal gift from God
- Isn’t it also amazing that most rainbows are seen after it rains? It’s like God is saying – I’m still here – I haven’t forsaken you – You just went through something hard – I was with you the whole way
- Isn’t it cool that a rainbow is actually a full circle, which signifies God’s never-ending covenant – Makes you think about your wedding ring.
- I think the awesomeness of God’s wisdom in making a rainbow is this – and Dc Dan spoke to this this last Wednesday – It’s a blessing – but if you aren’t standing or looking at it the right way – you will miss the rainbow altogether – you will miss the blessing
- I remember times when my mom or dad would quickly grab me when I was just a kid and they would point to something awesome because if they didn’t assist me, I would have missed it – I feel like sometimes the Lord does that for us – He’s saying “You don’t want to miss this”
- I think that this is why we sometimes miss what the Lord is doing, because we’re so focused on the storm, or the 25 different things we need to accomplish this week – and God is over here like – hey child – come here, I want you to see this and we simply say “no, I got to get this finished or I’m going to be behind – and we start making idols that go before the Lord
- And then we wonder why we aren’t as close to God as we once were or why we haven’t heard from him in a while
Proverbs 16:25 (NKJV)
25 There is a way that seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
- So how do we know we are facing the right direction?
- Do you see the rainbow? Are you seeing the blessings of the Lord show up in your life? Are you seeing the grace of the Lord on a regular basis? Do you go through hard things and still praise the Lord on the other side?
- I remember a pact I made with the Lord a few years back – I basically said I promise not to shy away from hard things if you will use me
- Not an easy thing to do – It’s not easy being in the fire – but it does make you look at things from a different perspective – You understand someone’s pain more, you can relate to what they have been through, their sorrows become your sorrows
Romans 5:1-5 (NKJV)
5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
- This brings me to my final point
Point Three: My Rainbow should bring you hope
Genesis 9:12-17 (NKJV)
12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
- So we’re going to talk about hope for a minute
- Hope from a biblical perspective is the confident expectation and sure certainty that what God has promised in His Word is true, has occurred, and or will in accordance with God’s sure word will happen. It is dynamic, active, directive and life sustaining. A Christian’s definition of hope is far superior to that of the world, as it is grounded in the Word of God and we know that God cannot lie
- There is two definitions of the word Hope – there’s the biblical definition which I just stated and there’s a worldly definition which is sad
- I want to make sure that we know what the difference is so we can properly see what God was meaning here in His word
- You see, the worlds definition of hope is based on chance or we shall see
- I’ve caught myself many times saying things like “I hope the Hawkeyes win the championship” I hope I don’t get sick while I’m on vacation” It’s sounds completely normal – but that’s not hope – that’s not the hope we find in the Word of God – It’s not the confident expectation and sure certainty that God doesn’t fail
- So we need to make sure we are seeing God’s promises correctly – it’s not “Oh I hope they are true” It’s “my hope is secure in Jesus because He doesn’t lie – He doesn’t go back on His promises – I can take all His promises and His covenants as yes and amen – Not “I hope it works out”
- I love that Biblical hope is dynamic – it’s full of energy – it’s continuously pouring into our hearts and situations – it’s active – not passive, it’s directive which means it has authority – its completely backed by the God of the Universe – it’s life sustaining – it brings and gives life to our bones – it causes us to live in a way that is not imaginable or conceivable by the world – hope does not disappoint
- I believe one of the greatest gifts God has given us is hope. After all, that is what His promises are designed to do – inspire hope. It gives us the ability to look at any situation and know that regardless of how it may appear God is going to come through. This is the essence of what hope is
- Hope (Dictionary) – The general consensus from all dictionary definitions is that hope is a feeling of expectation, a desire or wish for a certain thing to happen
- I’m glad we have a hope that is far greater than this
- I hope you can see the difference. One is a wish or desire, the other is a certainty or guarantee
- That’s pretty amazing if you ask me – you go from a wish or desire to “it’s going to happen”
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
- Why do I bring up this verse? You cannot have hope unless it is tied together with faith. In essence, you have hope because you have faith and you have faith because you have hope. However, you don’t just have faith in faith or hope in hope, there is no real value in that. What matters most is the object of your faith and hope – that makes all the difference
- The thing that separates the basic definition of hope and the biblical definition of hope is what I call The God Factor. Your hope should be based on the fact of who God is and nothing else. If God is not the object of your hope then you don’t have true biblical hope because the certainty has been removed. Without that, your hope simply reverts back to a wish
Hebrews 6:17-19 (NKJV)
17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the [a]immutability of His counsel, [b]confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two [c]immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we [d]might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil,
- If God has said it, you can trust his promise because it is impossible for God to lie. This trust therefore becomes an anchor for the soul. Anchors are designed to keep you steady so that you will not be moved. This anchor that it is impossible for God to lie is the foundation for your certainty and the backbone for your hope. It is the reason why you can have hope today
- I call this type of hope “in spite of.” In spite of what you see; in spite of what is going on; in spite of how dire the situation looks, you can have hope because God cannot lie. Regardless of your situation, find out what God has said about it and let that be the truth you believe about it. This does not guarantee that your situation will change immediately but the beauty of hope is that even if the situation remains, so does your hope. Because of hope you have confidence knowing God will respond and come through on your behalf. If that is what he said you can be certain that is what he will do
- The verses I am going to share with you are all things God has said he will do for you. (By the way there are more, I just couldn’t fit them all in one sermon.) As you read these remember what hope is, knowing that God will come through for you.
- The hope of God’s provision
Matthew 6:31-32
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
Philippians 4:19 (NKJV)
19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
- The hope of God’s presence
Deuteronomy 31:6 (NKJV)
6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
- The hope of God’s protection
Psalms 119:114 (NKJV)
114 You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in Your word.
Psalms 27:1 (NKJV)
27 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
The hope of eternal life
Titus 1:1-2 (NKJV)
1 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, 2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began
- The hope of Christ’s return
Titus 2:11-13 (NKJV)
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ
- The hope of inheritance
1 Peter 1:3-4 (NKJV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance [a]incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you
- Finally the hope of answered prayer
1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV)
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
- I’m going to close with this – When you see a rainbow – I hope you take a moment to praise the Lord – For His grace – For the Hope that you have in Him – and you can see the Promises of God in a way they are intended
- I just want to take a moment to speak to anyone in this service that doesn’t have a relationship with Jesus – you never given your heart to God or you never asked Jesus into your heart
- You hear my talking about this hope that you have never heard of before and you want that hope, a hope that never fails – a hope that only comes from knowing God on a personal level
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Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God. Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids. 2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404. www.CedarRapidsChurch.com
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