Teacher: Pastor Will    Text: 1 Cor. 7:19    Date: 9-19-2021

Q. Consider, what is more real to you; this week’s to- do list or the Lord’s return? A. Then we should be doing what MATTERS MOST! Obeying God.

1 Corinthians 7:19 (NASB) 19Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God.

Mark 12:28 – 31 (ESV) – The Shema (Shem – maw) (scribes added 613 rules to the Law)

28And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

• Obedience to these laws was never about legalism or trying to earn God’s favor. Obedience in the Old Testament is about love and listening. If an Israelite loves God, it will make it easier to listen and absorb his teachings and guidance. This is why the words “listen” and “love” are so tightly connected and repeated in scripture.

Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household” (50 -75 years: building & preaching, only 8 saved – account in Gen. 6-7)

Gen. 6:22 Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.

Gen. 7:5 Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.

Genesis 7:9 (NASB) 9 there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.

Genesis 7:16 (NASB) 16 Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the LORD closed it behind him.

Matthew 24:36 – 39 (NASB)

36“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.

37“For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah.

38“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,

39 and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. (account in Gen. 6-7)

Luke 17:26 – 29 (NLT)

26“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.

27In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.

28“And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building—
29until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

• Life as usual, many will come to realize, was never life as usual.

Gk. “Giving in Marriage” (Matthew 24:38 & Luke 17:27) = ekgamizō; means to give away into marriage: a daughter and to marry, to be given in marriage.

The crime indicted here by Jesus is NOT gross sin. It is secular indifference. The sin of Noah’s generation was NOT doing “vicious” things nor was it wedding parties. It was being nonchalance about the things of God. The evil here is immersion in the everyday withour thought for the Last Day!!!

Years came and years went. Spring turned to autumn, autumn to winter. They grew and grew old but never awoke. “Normal life” lied to them. So, Jesus foretells,

Noah’s real life was different. Even though he too ate and drank and arranged marriages for his three sons, he did these with an ear bent to hear God’s voice, a hammer in his hand for God’s work, and eyes returning to the skies waiting for God’s promise. His feasting was not forgetful. His drinking was not distracting. His giving in marriage did not deter his mission. Unlike the citizens of this world, he lived ready, he lived prepared. He believed God that the waters would come.

As decades multiplied, Noah kept working, kept proclaiming, kept resisting the temptation to stop and return to life as usual.

Our goal: 1 Corinthians 1:18 – 19 (NASB)

18For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

¹⁹For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”

MONDAY MORNING MOMENT: “ Loving God = Listening + Learning + Living”  John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Be a Berean “Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11

Monday – Review: 1 Cor. 7 and the MMM

Tuesday – Read: 1 Cor. 1

Wednesday – Meditate on: Matthew 24:36 – 44

Thursday – Memorize: 1 Cor. 1:18

Friday – Write: What has become your new normal during the pandemic?

Saturday – Study: Gen. 6-7