Is Your House in Order? Read Genesis chapter 7: 1- 5 1.

God will build his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against (Matthew 16:18-19). Even if God has to start with a remnant of just eight people, composed of four men and four women. God is calling for a people to get His house in order. Think about the fact that if one man (Adam) would have kept his house in order, we may be in a different position todaybut we are not. 2. When the article was first written, the year 2011 was rapidly drawing to a close and 2012 was fast approaching. I am convinced by what is going around us that the coming of the Lord is not far away. We only have to watch the news to get a glimpse of what is taken place. We have earth, wind and fire constantly breaking out in all parts of the world: earthquakes, hurricanes and the devastating fires. All of this is amazing but it seems to be a sign of the times. 3. This is certainly not the time to be idle but we must be busy building His kingdom (Matt 6:9-13). As men, we have to men of righteousness. According to John Maxwell says, the kind of morally virtuous lifestyle powered from above that qualifies a person to lead Gods people. Noah, the man God chose to rescue the human race from extinction, demonstrated just this kind of righteousness. Selah. When Christ returns for His church, how He finds us? Will we be found sleep? Will He find us sleep, not on post, so that the enemy comes and sows tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:25)? Equally important, will He find first here on this earth (Luke 18:8). 4. Just think for a moment that during Noahs time, the world had grown so evil God pledged to destroy it and all living things on earth (Gen 6:7). But the Lords pronouncement of judgment did not come without hope. In the case of Noah, God knew whom he could count on. What about us men and women today? Can we be counted on to be witnesses for the Lord? In our homes, on our jobs? In our communities? 5. Note that God does not necessarily call on those who have the most talent, or skill, or social standing in our community. Rather, it is the one who walks with him, and one who has his or her ears attuned to Gods voice and then obediently follows his lead. Enoch was such as a man. He was man who pleased God. All of these need to work toward pleasing the Lord on a daily basis (See Hebrews 11:5).

6. Noah stands out as a man, an example, of the kind of person God wants to use. Guess what, He has not changed. He wants to use us as righteous leaders, righteousness men and women, to build his church. And while we continue to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life (Jude 20-21). This is a good thing. Understand men and women of God that we can WE CAN change the course of our families, the course of our city. We can move forward under the leading of the Holy Spirit and turn this world upside down? Be ready, however, because there will opposition to hinder your progress. 7. Let us take some time now and discover why God sought to destroy what He had created, a very good creation, indeed. Adam represents the first Adam, the first leader to drop the ball (Gen 2:17, 3:4-19). This was unfortunate for him and it certainly impacted us. But God always has a ram in the thicket. Thank God for sending his son Jesus to be our propitiation, our redeemer, and our savior. What was Adams mistake right at the beginning? I believe he allowed himself to be wrongly influenced. Some wise counsel: Dont allow yourselves to be negatively influenced. This includes me as well as anyone with a made up mind to serve the living God. 8. Adam, the first man on the earth with human flesh had everything in the garden he could possibly want. God gave him a family, a home and a piece of land. And all Adam needed to do was follow the commandment God had given to him. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eateth thereof thou shalt surely not (Genesis 2:16-17). 9. As we move deeper into the story, we find that, When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3:6). Adam did eat, and went against what God had told him not to do. And once God confronted him with the issue, he squarely put the blame on his wife. This was a tragic mistake for Adam, one that resulted in the LORD God driving them out of the garden, cursing the ground and man reduced to eating from this cursed ground all the days of his life, and in the sweat of his face eating bread (Genesis 3:17-24).

10. His tragic mistake; he put the blame on his wife although rather than standing up and being accountable for his action. Has anything changed in 2012? No. Men and women are still blaming one another. He obviously forgot or just blatantly ignored Gods commandment. Can we afford to ignore the LORD Gods commandments today? Certainly not. We must stand up and be accountable for our actions. 11. Let us observe a few other things that take place regarding the fall of the man in the garden. God had given instruction for Adam to dress and keep. He did not dress and keep it. In other words, he failed to place a hedge of protection around his family, his house and the peace of land that the LORD God had given them. Adam was supposed to keep his household. The word keep comes from Strongs concordance #H8104 and it means, to keep, have charge of, to guard, to keep watch, protect, save life. Like Adam this is and area where men has really dropped the ball. And so from that point forward we have been born in sin and have a sinful nature, in a situation where death passed to all of, both men and women (Romans 5:12-15). 12. Now let us take a look at yet another flawed man. Cain, we find, was a man who had a chance to do right, but he did wrong. Does this sound familiar? It hits home with me. Cain his regarded as the first murderer, going out and killing his brother. Why? The Bible states that, Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous (1 John 3:12). 13. Are brothers and sisters killing each other today? Answer: yes. How? They kill each other by their words and their actions toward one another. We will address this subject more thoroughly in another commentary or lecture in the very near future. Under also that failure doesnt end with Adam and Cains failure. It even extends to Noahs day, where men and women marrying and giving in marriage until the flood came and took them away, never to be seen again.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and

drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left (Matthew 24:38-40).

14. When the Lord returns, we will be judged, just like the people here who were judged. In the case of those who failed to believe, believe in God as well as believing a flood was coming, God saw that the wickedness in men was only evil continually. And so God repented that he had even made him (Gen 6:1-8). Let us stop her for a moment and look at this passage. First note that this word multiply is #7231, rabab, meaning to become much or many, like a population explosion, like we have today. There are so many people on the earth, and so many that fail to believe in the God of this universe. 15. The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth, currently estimated to be 6.96 billion by the United States Census Bureau as of July 1, 2011. [1] The world population has experienced continuous growth since the end of the Bubonic Plague, Great Famine and Hundred Years Wars in 1350, when it was about 300 million. [2] The highest rates of growthincreases above 1.8% per yearwere seen briefly during the 1950s, for a longer period during the 1960s and 1970s; the growth rate peaked at 2.2% in 1963, and declined to 1.1% by 2009. Annual births have reduced to 140 million since their peak at 173 million in the late 1990s, and are expected to remain constant, while deaths number 57 million per year and are expected to increase to 80 million per year by 2040. Current projections show a continued increase of population (but a steady decline in the population growth rate) with the population to reach between 7.5 and 10.5 billion by the year 2050. This is a huge population! 16. Where do we go from here but to offer a solution to fix the problem. We know in Noahs day that God, because of what men were doing, decided to destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. This word destroy comes from Strongs number #4229, Machah, meaning to wipe out, to blot out, obliterate) to blot out, exterminate, to destroy, corrupt, go to ruin (Gen 6:7). The people were corrupt, a word in Strongs concordance #7843, shachat, meaning to destroy, corrupt, go to ruin, decay, to be marred, be spoiled, be corrupted, be corrupt, be injured, be ruined, be rotted. 17. The solution given to Noah and his family after leaving the ark was to start over again and be fruitful and multiply. In John Maxwells words, God determined to start again, even without the guarantee that the survivors (my emphasis 4 men and 4 women) and their descendants would do a better job of following Him. God made a covenant with Noah, giving up His right to ever again flood the earth to cleanse it of sinful humanity, but by fire. 18. Noahs life gives us something we need to chew on for a little while. Noah had

to give up everything he had accumulated in his life in order to start over but one writer has said, Sacrifice always precedes success. Sometimes we have to give up to go up. That must have been some experience in the ark, in their Tebah, Strongs number #8392, for more than a year. And this is hard to imagine, but our God is able to do anything but fail. We know something about the ark adventure. Noah entered the ark in the 600th year of his life, on the 17th day of the 2nd month (Genesis 7:11-13). Noah left the ark on the 27th day of the 2nd month of the following year (Genesis 8:14-15). Therefore, assuming a lunar calendar of 360 days, Noah was on the ark for approximately 370 days. Noah was told to go on the ark and in 7 days it would rain. So Noah was on the ark 7 days prior to the flood adding to the 370 making it 377.1 19. Now we know that the family of Noah experienced more corruption after the flood but we will reserve this lesson for another day. God has given us His savior Jesus Christ and we as men and women need to strive to get our houses in order before He returns. What can we do as men and women to maintain a Godly link to God and to keep our houses in order? The following scriptures do provide many of the answers to this question (2 Timothy 2:15, Psalm 1, Exodus 20:117,Matt 22:36-40, Hebrews 11:7). We can: a. We should spend quality time studying His word and showing ourselves approved unto God (2 Timothy 2:15). b. We should strive to be like trees planted by the rivers of water that gets its fruit in due season. That means we need to spend time meditating on His word day and night (Psalm 1). c. We should strive to maintain a vertical relationship with the Lord, for example, Thou shalt have no other gods before me (Exodus20:3). Horizontal relationships pertain to relationships with our fellow man, such as honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and Thou shalt not kill, and That shalt not murder, (Exodus 20:1-17). d. Take on a Noah attitude and be perfect as Noah was perfect (Gen 6:9). The word perfect comes Strongs concordance #8549 and means to be complete, upright, sound, walking in integrity. e. Do according to all the Lord commands you (Gen 7:5) and live a long life. Http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_was_Noah_on_the_ark. This is not the best source to rely upon for information. However, for purposes of this paper, it meets the need.
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Noah lived to 950 years old, living about 350 years after the flood. f. Be a just man or woman, righteous in conduct and character. g. Be a perfect man or woman sincere, whole, without blemish, without spot, acting in accord with truth and fact, a man or woman of integrity. h. Always move with Godly fear and become an heir of the righteousness according to faith. i. Maintain godly fear to act cautiously and circumspectly; to reverence and stand in awe of. 20. Signs of a House Out of Order a. Physically Shingles falling off the house In dire need of a paint job Things strewn throughout the house and the garage Poor time management b. Spiritually Give more time to worldly affairs than to God Being fed with all kind of nonsense such murder, rape, lying, cheating, homosexuality, and division in all areas of life Prayer has been reduced to 15 minutes on a Tuesday evening Strayed away from the Word Only Word you get is from the pulpit Allowing the cares of this world to pull you off track God does provide hope. Read and meditate on Isaiah 54:1-17. Remember to keep your house in order. There is hope: Isaiah 54:1-17.