First Baptist Family of Asheboro, NC

Have you ever needed a fresh start?   This past week we got snow and there was a temptation to build a snowman.   When there’s not a lot of snow to work with you have to work really hard to build a snowman.   When it’s not working out well we just say, “I’m going to start over.”   Genesis eight is about a fresh start.   God gives us a fresh start too, a new opportunity.   We’re at the end of the flood and they’ve been on the ark for about a year.   It’s time to worship.   We’ve never seen anything like what they’ve just experienced.   Water covered the whole earth.   Even after all the loss they’ve experienced, they’re worshipping.   They spent 120 years getting ready for the flood and then a year on the ark. Worship through the storm.                      20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as ...

The Bible is filled with great heroes of faith.  Hebrews 11 names many of these heroes and Noah is one of them.  Noah lived in a time when lots of people were not following God.  Last week we looked at the condition of humanity, people were made in God’s image but they chose their own way.  It was the same in the time of Noah.  People were going their own way.  Noah was different and he is an example of how we can be different.  We too can walk with God even though we live in this world where many don’t walk with God.  Noah didn’t start walking with God when the floods came.  He was walking with God long before. Walking with God prepares us for the chaos of life. Times in life will be uncertain.  If we have a foundation and are walking with God when chaos hits, our foundation helps us make sense of what’s happening.                   ...

Genesis begins with God creating order out of chaos and establishing the world as it should be.  God says it is good and then chaos enters back in through Adam and Eve eating the fruit.  God wants Cain and Abel to know that what we do in worship spills out into the rest of our lives.  Cain kills Abel and chaos begins to build.  We see this in our own lives as well.  In our homes paint starts to crack and doors creak and there can be a slow descent into chaos.  Weeds grow up in our flower beds.  As we look at Genesis there’s a slow progression into chaos and we wonder what God will do.  In Genesis 6:5-8 we see chaos in our world because we have moved away from God.  We sometimes move away from God.                      5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his h...

We have the opportunity in worship to bring ourselves to God.  Each time we gather in worship we bring something to God.  How but thought do we give to what we bring to worship? The passage we study this morning is early worship, it’s close to creation.  We learn what it means to bring things to God.  Calling what we’re doing this morning a worship service can be confusing to us.  We gather at set times in modern forms.  It can be thought of a similar to going to a movie or a concert.  We tend to think more about what we will get.  Will there be songs we like?  Will the message be interesting?  The essence of worship is what are we bringing to God?  In Genesis 4 there’s a heavy surprise: not all worship is acceptable to God.  God has specifics He looks for in our worship.  Why?  God loves us.  It matters because it’s a reflection of our heart. Not all worship is acceptable to God. Cain’s offeri...