History Repeats Itself

History Repeats Itself

This is the story of Noah and his sons after the flood. It picks up a number of themes, but perhaps the main ones will be (a) that even heroes can have weak spots and failures, and (b) that our failures tend to have ripple effects through our families and elastionships, where the same problems have a way of repeating later on.

Outline

1. The Noah and the foold story
2. Twp big themes
   • History repeats itself
     • God creates a good world, making human beigns "in His image," blessing them and telling them to "be fruitful and mutiply" (Genesis 1:26-28)
     • He makes humanity (adam) from the dirt and places them in a garden
     • They sin, taking forbidden fruit.  Their eyes are opned and they realize they are naked.  They can't hide their shame, so God covers them (Genesis 3;6-21)
     • They have several children, one evil and others good (Genesis 4).  Evil spreads in some family lines, while God works through others (Genesis 4-5)
     • God cleanses and rewes the world.  He begins again with human made "in His image" (Genesis 9:6), blessing them and instructing them to "be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 9:7)
     • Noah is a farmer - literally a "man of the dirt", and he plants a garden (Genesis 9:20)
     • Noah grows fruit, makes wine, and gets drunk.  This is bad, and he ended up naked (Genesis 9:21-22).  His sone Shem and Japheth cover him
     • Noah has seeral children, one behaving badly and the others behaving well.  Evil spreads in some family lines, while God works through others leading to Abraham (Genesis 10)
   • Family is important
3. Lessons from Noah and his sons
   • Addiction
     • The problem of addiction
     • The Bible's focus: Control
     • Anything in myu life that steals my ability...
     • Be filled with the Spirit
   • Secrecy
     • The problem of secrecy
     • Ham, the father of Canaan, saw...
     • So, I will be careful to lead a blameless life
   • Redemptiveness
     • The behavior of Noah's sons teaches us the importance of redemptiveness.

The family was God's idea,
and our Heavenly Father wants to shape our familesand our church family -
into something that images Him beautifully. 
Once again this week, the invitation is let's let Him do it!