21st, February 2010 Genesis 9:1~17, "(1) Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. (2) The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. (3) Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. (4) "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. (5) And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. (6) "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man. (7) As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it." (8) Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: (9) "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you (10) and with every living creature that was with you?the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you?every living creature on earth. (11) I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." (12) And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: (13) I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (14) Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, (15) I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. (16) Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." (17) So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth." Title: The God who gives a second chance. Among us, a lot of people have lost a great deal of power of the gospel because of the hardships and burdens of their lives. Even though they say they are Christians they are suffering from difficulties of this world. What did I say they have lost? The power of the gospel. Therefore I pray that God will restore all of us with it. You know C.S. Lewis, who is a world famous English novelist and great dialectician, don't you? He got married very late. He got married when he was 48. 5 years after marriage, his wife passed away because of cancer. He had been concentrating on his study and his marriage life was really happy. However, he was so hurt, frustrated and even he felt anger because God took away his wife. He was in such a big despair that he wrote a book titled 'Sorrow that he counts'. This means he counted his sorrow. In his book he describes his despair, scars and disappointment in God who never answers. He even says this. Despite his good faith, he says, "Where on earth is God? When I need only his help desperately, I feel I am shunned by God" Can you feel his despair? If you don't feel anything, I cannot help you. He continues to say "After hearing God locking His door more than twice, long silence follows." What should we do when we are faced with a hard situation in which we may have to act as if we were just non-Christians because we feel like we were thrown down on a floor. Then how did he get over the hard situation? In his book, he says, he is restored because of what his wife said to him just before she died. That is, she said, "Honey! I know you feel really bad because of my illness. I am in peace thanks to God." Then, C.S. Lewis realized that in the process of hardships his wife was going through, there was a peace God gives at the end of the hardship. And so his wife's pain does not end with pain but peace from God. Hallelujah! As a result, he confessed that whatever pains Christians are suffering from are controled by God. Please believe that all our sorrows and all of the end of our scars are in God's arms. However painful it is, our last moment is in God's arms where God's peace is with us. This fact can restore us. This fact can give us power with which we can restart again. Last Sunday I talked about the flood of Noah. I talked about the power of flood, the power of water but at the same time the fact that God remembers us at the very moment of flood. What is more powerful than the water? When the wind becomes stronger than the water, the situation can be restored even if there seems no hope with them. As for C.S. Lewis he was suffering from the flood of pain. However, when the wind of peace and comfort blows which is given by God and when the dynamics was reversed, he was restored. Hallelujah! Last week, I said if we realize that the true spiritual reality of our life is not all the problems or troubles we are facing now but the fact that God is controlling our life, God is our Lord in our life and God is ruling over all our situations, then we can be grateful to God. Am I right? That's why Noah built an altar to show his gratitude toward God immediately after he came out of the ark. I pray that the gratitude becomes our true reality based on the faith by which we believe that the true spiritual reality is from God who is holding us tight, leading us all the time, controlling and guiding us in a right direction. Now for us to be able to grasp the real meaning of this, I am going to tell you one thing. This will be applied to all our lives for the next six months. I want it to be very real to us. I have never tried this over the past 6 years and 6 months. I will try this now. That is, I would like you to do something with your body. Especially, the elderly people should do this. If you do this, you will become 10 years younger. Now, looking at each other, clench your fists and say 'We can do it'. Can you do it? Because Jesus rules us and because of Jesus, we can do it. Now try doing it. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Don't do it yet. We have a lot of things to do today. Even if I say softly, please don't say it softly. Next, please look at your thumb. I emphasized it once. All blessings come from above. All graces come from God who is above us. Do you understand it? So from above. Now begin! What did I say? Where are all the blessings from? From above. And secondly, say "Let's win with the power of God." Do you understand? Let's win with the power of God. I will say "With the power of God" Then you say "Let's win". With the power of God, Let's win! Now, three times a day. How many times a day? Three times. Let's say "Thank you Lord!" Can you do so? Three times a day, let's say "Thank you Lord!". One more time. Three times a day, let's say "Thank you Lord!" What about four fingers? This means "I love you in Jesus Christ" Do you understand? In Jesus Christ! I love you. I love you in Jesus Christ! Then you will have endorphin. Do you understand? Now the last five fingers. You know 'High five!" Hitting a person's hand next to you, "Your are right!" You got it! Now begin "You are right!" One more time, "Your are right!" High five! I will say 'Oh' Then you are going to say "You are right". Now shall we try it? "Oh! You are right!" High five! "Yes". One more time. Let's try doing it. Shall we stop it? Let's do it one more time. In Jesus Christ, Let's cheer up! All blessings come from above. With the power of God let's win. Three times a day, let's say "Thank you Lord!" In Jesus Christ, I love you. Again, "Oh! You are right." Oh! Young people tend to say Oh! Yes! But it sounds a bit light, isn't it? We say "Oh! You are right!" Now I am sure that all our depression will disappear throughout this year. And then you will become younger in your spirit. And you will confirm again about what is the true reality in your life. How many months did I say you should try? Those who take this seriously and who are going to try what I am saying now will make difference from those who are not going to try it. Why am I saying this? Such an attitude based on the gospel, the capacity of blessings, and the power of the gospel are more important than your ability, talents and your gifts. Why do those who are famous in the world, who have everything, who are intelligent or who are second to none commit suicide, suffer from insomnia? Our life does not depend on our ability, talents or gifts but as I am saying today on the words of God, the blessings of the gospel, the enthusiasm of our faith and the capacity of grace. You should believe this. Do you understand? With this in my mind, I am going to sum up Genesis chapter 9. Genesis chapter 9 is the last part of the story of the flood of Noah. Today's text is the last part. We have been dealing with chapter 6, 7, 8 and today chapter 9. Just imagine that a journalist come to you and ask you to make titles for these chapters as headlines. Then a lot of people will say "God sends great punishment with flood" Now we cannot say it's completely wrong. It will be OK for the title. However, this may show something just superficial. I think through this text, I believe that God gives another chance to God's children. What did I say God gives us? Chance! This is a confession that can be made only by those who have opened their eyes about God's blessings. How does God give one more chance to God's people? Through three things. I will summarize verses 1 through 17. First from verse 1 through 3, God gives us chances through new beginning. And then from verse 4 through 7, God gives people new commandment. And then verse 8 through 17, God gives people new covenant. I praise God who gives a new chance through these three things. What is the first thing? New beginning. New beginning. Now let's read the verse 1, "Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.¡° What did God say about the number? ¡±Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.¡° Now isn't it familiar to you? Those who are familiar with the Bible will know where this verse appears. This word is told by God to Adam in Genesis chapter 1 verses 26, 27, 28 after God created the world. This is repeated here in chapter 9 verse 1. This has a very important meaning in terms of theology and the stream of God's world. What does this mean? God said this to Adam. However, this became null and void because of human being's sins, the Adam's descendants' sins as written in Genesis chapter 4, 5 and 6. Genesis chapter 6 verse 17 talks about this. Let's read it together, "I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish." "I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish." This is called 'uncreation' in a technical term. 'Creation' means God made everything in this world. Now a prefix 'un' is added to this word, making 'uncreation'. This means creation is null and void. Through human being's sins creation became null and void. Human beings were supposed to increase in number in this world. However, God destroyed all life under the heavens. What does this mean? As human beings spread through Adam, God rearranged the system in which through Noah human beings began to spread. After everything is rearranged, there are Noah's sons' genealogies in Genesis chapter 10. Genesis chapter 10, verse 5, "From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language." In the book of Genesis chapter 10, there are 70 tribes are introduced. There are 70 nations. These 70 nations began to spread in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 32. As God commanded Adam to increase in number, now God commanded Noah to increase in number. Now what this shows us is that even though every living creature in this world may die under the declaration of 'uncreation', God gives one more chance to those who believe and obey God's commandment that we should increase in number in this world. They also want to be used by God in their lives. God is sure to give one more chance to those who believe it firmly. Especially, you should believe that God has helped us to become persons who can embrace the whole world. In Genesis chapter 12, this genealogy entered into the Abraham's. Then what did God say to Abraham? God says, when Abraham keeps the words of God, all races in the world will be blessed through Abraham. Abraham couldn't think of all races in the world. He left his hometown and was in trouble. Nonetheless, in the wilderness of Israel, under a small oak tree, Abraham may seem nothing to people's eyes, however, God says through him all races in the world will be blessed. When Noah heard God's voice, when Noah opened his heart before God who helps him restart, God had him embrace all the nations in the world, likewise, God will make it happen again to us now. What happened to Jesus's disciples who used to be poor fishermen? When they gather together with one heart thinking God gave them one more chance, what happened to them? They were all poor and nothing in their society. They were told to make all people God's disciples. How do poor fishermen make all people God's disciples? Please remember this in this situation. Don't cry because of our own inability. I pray that all of us will open our own eyes to see God's ability with which we can embrace the whole world. The core point of the verses 1 through 3 is this. God does not change God's plan because of human beings's sins. Even though people's sins caused the flood to occur, or even though human beings's sins seem to hinder God's plans, once God make it go again, we can become people who can embrace the whole world. To us, it may seem take several months, several years or several hundred years, God's plan will be accomplished in the end. We should know about it. God's words are sure to be accomplished in the end. Whatever sins human beings commit cannot hinder God's plans. Therefore in the book of Romans chapter 5, Paul says something very insightful. God's plans cannot be disturbed because of sins. Paul says something incredible. What is abundant when sins are prevalent? God's blessings. This does not mean we can commit more sins. This means there are God's blessings which are like waterfalls that cannot be compared with sins. With these blessings, the sins will be wiped away by torrential water. God's blessings incomparable to sins. God's blessings that wipe away sins. God's blessings will never fail. You know a hymn song tiled 'Do we have an anxiety while we are in God?" The fourth verse of this hymn song goes like this, "The covenant that I make with God is never changing forever, until we go to the kingdom of God, we are always protected by God." Amen! Please don't hesitate to come before God because of your own sins. Once God helps us restart, we can embrace the whole world and increase in number. Don't think it as too difficult. Isaiah chapter 55 verse 7 says, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon." Amen! Please don't give up thinking "I cannot make it." Please come before God. Through God who reorganize the whole world and who helps us to embrace the whole world and through Noah God will open a way through which we will be used by God. With this in our mind, any one can restart again with ability granted by God. Secondly, there is a new commandment between verse 4 and 7. According to the verse 4, "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it." Here it says 'blood is life' Leviticus chapter 17 says, "Blood is life." God gives Noah a new commandment, as in the verse 3, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything." Especially, God allowed them to eat meat. In Adam's era, people didn't eat meat. They ate only vegetables and fruits. But after Noah's era people were allowed to eat meat. If here are vegetarians, you can eat meat, you will not die. However, there is one condition. As in the verse 4, "But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it." Those who like 'Seonjiguk' should think it over. I came to know that Korean people like eating blood a lot. You know in Vietnam, people have made bear breeding farms and invite Korean to drink bears' blood directly from their gall bladder. I think it's against the Bible. Now, I'm not going to take much time to explain the new commandment. The core point is in the third one. This shows respect for man's life. Look at the verse 6. Chapter 9 verse 6, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man" Amen! This means we must not kill people who are created in the image of God. If I talked about Capital Punishment now, it would take too much time. What does it say is in the blood? Life is. You will see three buses waiting for you where you can donate blood. Three weeks from now on you will see them as you go out of our church. Blood contains life. Donating blood to others is a good attitude for Christians. I have done several times. To my surprise, whenever I donated blood, I felt some new strength. I don't become weak because of donating blood. Nowadays, we need to donate blood more. There is no enough blood at hospitals. When you go out, if you are blessed by God, please donate your blood. Anyway, God gave a new commandment about respect for our life. Therefore we don't have rights to undermine or degrade other people's lives. When we respect other people's life, God will give us new power with which we can restart again. Now, the third one, the most important thing of today's message is written verses between 9 and 17. What do they say is given to Noah? New covenant! This new covenant has two features. The first feature is written in the verse 11, "I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." Let's read the verse 12 together, "And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:" Amen! The first feature God gave Noah is that it's an unconditional covenant. This is strange. This is mysterious. Noah did nothing to gain God's covenant. Noah didn't devote anything or didn't do something precious or didn't take any steps to gain God's covenant. This is just an unilateral covenant. God never required any conditions to him. This is not a bilateral covenant but a unilateral covenant. As in the Romans chapter 8 verse 26, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness." God does not help us because of our qualification. God helps us in our weakness. This is God's unconditional covenant that is given to us even if we don't do anything or even if we don't devote ourselves. You should know about this. Then again, this covenant is not given because humans will not commit any sins or Noah will be perfect or Noah will do better and so on. Noah was not perfect anyway. Not long after this, humans began to commit sins again. Nonetheless, God gave this covenant without any condition. This is God's merciful and unconditional covenant. Even if we commit sins ceaselessly, God gave this covenant without condition. I told that covenant is mysterious. A pastor Lloyd Jones said, "If we don't know about the word 'unconditional covenant', we cannot understand however diligently we read the Bible." Why? This covenant between God and human beings are not kind of negotiation. This is not bilateral anyway. Who does this covenant entirely come from? This comes from God 100%. This covenant is not done by both parties with an equal qualification. This is done unilaterally by God. This covenant is so mysterious that however clever people are in this world, they cannot understand it fully. Even angels cannot understand it fully. Now, who does God give His unilateral covenant? As I said before, God gave it to Abraham. God blessed Abraham. When God said all nations in the world will be blessed through Abraham and the number of Abraham's descendants will be like stars in the sky or sands in the beaches, did Abraham understand it fully? He never understood this. He with his ife said, "God! It's impossible. I cannot understand it." He couldn't understand it because it is too mysterious. However, the core point of God's unconditional covenant is in God's unconditional accomplishment. Even if humans cannot understand, it doesn't matter to God. While preparing today's message I read Joshua chapter 21 verse 45 and I felt shudder. I thought our God is really incredible. Let's read it together, "Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." Amen! Amen! "Not one of all the LORD's good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled." So as far as this unconditional covenant of God is concerned, I have two words to describe this in my mind and I assert them very confidently. God's unconditional covenant works despite our inability or lack of qualification. Do you understand? As I have been working as a pastor for around 30 years, and as I have seen a lot of people around me, I feel God's unconditional covenant works and God accomplishes it despite our inability. These two words. The first one is 'Nonetheless' and the second one is 'Finally'. When you simply believe this, God will give you a new strength with which you can restart. You will open your heart before God who gives you one more chance. Please confirm that despite all your weaknesses God finally works and accomplishes. One more feature of God's covenant shows in the verse 13, "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Through the rainbow God showed the feature of God's covenant. Where does the verse 13 say the rainbow is located? It is in the clouds. In the verse 14 and 16 as well, we can see similar phrases. I have checked the original word for this in Hebrew. God allowed the rainbow after clouds after rain. Whenever the rainbow appears, it is connected to clouds. God gave the rainbow as a token of His covenant. The feature of the rainbow is that it appears after rain. Is it right? I can put it in this way. That is, it is not that unconditional covenant can be given to us without any difficulties such as painful incidents, or floods, fires or strong storms in our lives. We can experience all kinds of hardships such as starvation, wars, viruses, exploding, suicide, depression, being attacked by evil things while fighting against it and so on. We can experience all these things. God said that He would never punish people with water but God didn't say God would not allow storms or clouds in our lives. That's why we should believe that God is sure to give us the rainbow as unconditional covenant after storms, clouds or rains. While I was in Africa, I saw really wonderful rainbow. The rainbow I saw in Korea is rather light and small but the one I saw in Africa is really huge. From the end of this side to the end of that side it spread and its color is really bright. I remember it very vividly. The previous night it rained a lot. Hails in Korea are just small but the ones in Africa are really big. The size of them is like an egg. They can make a dent on a car roof. After the hails the rainbow appear in the sky. That is really bright. Why am I talking about this? God allowed the rainbow as God's unconditional covenant. This is one of the unique features of God's covenant. The rainbow is the one after rain and clouds. And not only Noah but also a lot of Christians after Noah have experienced this rainbow as the same covenant. As a good example, just think of Joseph. According to Genesis chapter 50 verse 20, Joseph confesses this, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Amen! Here "You intended to harm me," This is Joseph's rainbow. "You intended to harm me" This is rain and storms to him. A heavy storm. However, what did God change this into? God changed this into the rainbow. "but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." This is Joseph's rainbow. The retranslation of this verse is Romans chapter 8 verse 28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Here the word 'in all things' represent storms sometimes hails and sometimes scars. However what happened later on? "God works for the good of those who love him" This is New Testament's rainbow of Paul. Psalm 90 is a confession of Moses. In here we can see a lot of pains in the process of wilderness as if the flood washed people away. Now, Moses made a good confession. Psalm 90 verse 15, " Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have been trouble." Painful days mean storms. Days we have been trouble mean storms too. However, what do they change into? The meaning of their becoming glad is the rainbow to Moses. The rainbow of Noah's, Joseph's, Paul's and Mose's is the same to us today. We should feel throbbing in our hearts. Despite our age, we should feel in this way. While looking at a rainbow, I tend to think of the poem written by William Wordsworth, a poet laureate in England. It says, "When I see a rainbow in the sky, I feel throbbing. I did so when I was young. I do so even now when I am old." He is throbbing in his heart when he sees a rainbow. He continues to say, "Otherwise, take away my life. Children are fathers of adults. I wish to have a pure heart of heaven every day." I pray that all of us here will be able to receive the power with which we can restart through the expectation or anticipation of rainbow which will be given by God despite our age. While reading all the covenant of God in chapter 9, I thought of what this is like. I came up with this thought by looking at the word as a whole. A prophet Habakkuk prayed in the book of Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 2 for his people by looking at their pain. Because of their sins they must be punished for them. However, prophets prayed for them nonetheless. He described it very briefly. Habakkuk chapter 3 verse 2. Please repeat after me, "in wrath remember mercy." "in wrath remember mercy." This is a summary in one phrase. This is the same as Moses says, "Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have been trouble." Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Please be a master of rainbows. God will grant you a new strength or power with which you can restart. I would like to apply this to our church situations. How can I do it? These days, a new stream will come to us. The first thing is that the axis of power of the world is now moving from the West to the East. The axis of the power of the world is moving from the West to the East. Especially to the North East. China and Korea is in the middle of the axis. Now how can we deal with this situation well with the power and blessings given by God? How can we deal with the new chance? I think we should see this world with the heart of shepherd. Therefore I would like to give you one prayer request. This is called 'Three, Five, Seven' prayer. What did is say this is? 'Three, Five, and Seven'. This means within three years our church members will understand God's calling for mission work given to the North East Asia. Please let Korean churches work as a gate that opens Chinese churches. Please let us manage our duty as an axis of the power of the world. Please bless Sarang Community Church so that we can manage the work for the world in this globalized world within five years. And please help us work properly within 7 years to accomplish peaceful unification based on the gospel through the internationalization of discipleship training. Please help our church have a great influence on world mission. Within 3 years we understand God's calling for the mission work. Within 5 years help us to be able to manage our duty in this globalized world. Within 7 years help us to have a critical influence on the world because of our serving and our earnest wish in our hearts. For all of these I wish our church to work as a spiritual lever in this world. And I hope that our church will be able to change the noise and sad sound into life energy. I wish our church to become a school where we can educate spiritual leaders of the world. A lot of people destroy others with 49% of their weaknesses rather then 51% of their strengths. I pray that Sarang Community Church will be a great school where we can educate and grow great leaders by encouraging people's 51% strengths. I pray that Sarang Community Church will be able to lead our nation through strategic thoughts that will embrace the future. I pray that God will bless us so that we will be able to make Korea spiritually powerful country. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! For all of these, we should run toward God more diligently during the first half of this year. Whenever we feel tired, we should approach the cross closer. I think we should run to the cross not walk to the cross. Whenever you think of pastor Oh, please think of the cross and think of running not walking. Please remember this. I earnestly wish all of you to become God's sincere servants who can restart.