Read Textual Sermon from Charles Stanley
The Bible says that Noah found favor in the eyes of God. When I think about that, I think about what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 6. If you want to turn there for a moment: the reason he found favor with the Lord, first of all, is because he listened to God. That’s what we talked about last week—he listened to God. He found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He not only listened to Him—what the Scripture says—he also trusted in Him. And that’s the part that I want us to deal with this morning in this passage. He listened to God, and then he trusted Him.
So when you think about yourself, ask yourself this question: Do you know how to listen to God, and would you say that after you listen to Him you are willing and ready to not only listen to Him, but you’re willing to trust Him?
Think about this: you can pray all you want to pray—if you don’t trust God, you’re wasting your time, because faith is absolutely essential. It was absolutely essential to get you saved; it’s absolutely essential to live the Christian life. And a lot of people say, “Oh, well, I’m saved.” Well, do you ever listen to God? “Well, no, not really—but I know I’m saved.” First of all, if you are saved, you had to listen to God, because He’s the One who told you that you needed to be saved. And once you listen to Him, He’s going to tell you what to do. So you trusted Christ as your Savior. But many people don’t listen to God, and if you don’t listen to Him, how can you know whether you’re doing the right thing or not?
Trusting God in Prayer
Then do you trust Him when you ask Him something? When you ask God for something, do you close your prayer with a sense of expectation of God answering your request? Or do you do like most people do? They pray and talk to God about this and that, and they end, “In Jesus’ name, Amen,” get up, and walk away. First of all, we must listen to Him; secondly, we must trust Him. That’s what this passage is all about, and this sermon is all about.
What Is the Favor of God?
We talked about, What is the favor of God? The favor of God is His acceptance of us, His approval of us, His support of us, His provision for us, His divine energy He provides for us, and His joy.
Proverbs 3: Trust, Don’t Lean
So with that in mind, I want you to turn to Proverbs chapter 3, because this is an awesome passage of Scripture, and it’s really the way Noah lived in those days when he heard the Lord. Look in Proverbs chapter 3, beginning in verse 5. The Scripture says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil.”
So the first responsibility is to listen to Him. I would ask you this question: Do you take time to listen to God—not just kneel, or whatever you do, and start doing the talking? And secondly, once you pray, do you begin to think about what you’ve prayed about? Do you begin to think, “Well, this is what I’ve asked God for”? Do you trust Him? Do you have a sense of expectation when you get up off your knees? That’s not me just saying it; this happens to be the way I pray. When you finish, do you expect Him to do something about what you said?
I think most people don’t pray that way. They talk to God, telling Him what they want Him to do and what they need Him to do, and then say, “In Jesus’ name, Amen.” No—wait a minute. If I’m really going to ask Him that, am I going to trust Him? Do I stand up, sit up, walk away saying, “Yes, God, I’ve asked You this. I’m expecting—I'm trusting You to answer my petition”? If you do not end your prayer with a sense of trust, you’re just mumbling words.
How Salvation Works: Listening and Trusting
Think about this: your entire relationship is built on that. How did you get saved? You got saved by listening to the Word of God, and you got saved by trusting that what God said He would do—Amen? That’s—that’s a pretty weak “Amen.” You trusted Him to save you, and all you did was to ask Him verbally—repent of your sins, confess your sin—and you asked Him that, and then you got up, walked away, and you trusted God that He answered your prayer.
Noah’s Favor: Listening and Trusting
So the reason Noah found favor in the eyes of God is, first of all, he listened to what God said to him; and secondly, he trusted Him. We know the story, so I want you to turn back to this sixth chapter for a moment, because he’s a perfect example of the absolute three essentials if God’s going to work in our life and we’re going to accomplish what He wants us to accomplish: first of all, to listen to Him; secondly, to trust Him.
The Character of Noah
I want us to look at this in the light of the character of Noah. What kind of fellow was he? And the way God said for him to look at his society—here’s what He said. In the sixth chapter, God saw that the wickedness of man—verse 5—was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He made man on the earth; He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of this land—from man to animals, creeping things, the birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I’ve made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
This was a horrible society that he was in. God spoke to him, and God looked upon Noah different from all the other people. What He saw was, He saw a man who had a different view. And so the Scripture says he found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Now look at this: “These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” Now think about this seriously: can it be said of you—by your conversation, your conduct, and your character—that you are a person who walks with God? When somebody thinks about you—some friend, somebody you work with, someone in your family, whatever it may be—would you say that that’s the way they see you? By your very character and your conduct, do they see you as a person who walks with God? We’ll see in just a moment as we begin to look at all these things.
God’s View of Noah
So I want us to see God’s view of Noah. He said, first of all, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. His record was: righteous, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Can that be said of us? If that cannot be said of us, what can people say? That you’re rich? That you’re famous? That you’re busy? You’re a good employee? You’re a good manager? You’re a great neighbor? You’re a church person—you attend church; you listen. What would be more powerful to be said of you than, “You walked with God. You had favor with the Lord”?
We have favor with the Lord when we listen to Him and when we trust Him. That is true in the life of Noah.
God’s Instruction and the First Step
So I want us to think about it for just a moment. God said to him, “The world is only unrighteousness and sinfulness and wickedness everywhere. I have found in you a blameless man, so here’s what I want you to do.” God began to speak to him, and He commanded him to build this ark. Now what in the world was an ark? Nobody had ever heard of an ark before—wouldn’t have any idea what it was. When you think about something 450 feet long, about 50 feet wide, and about three stories high—and the Lord spoke to him—then the question was, Was he going to trust what God said? But you see, he walked with God, and the Scripture said he had favor with the Lord.
Now watch this carefully—are you listening? Say, “Amen.” When you ask God for something and He gives you the first step, it may be a juvenile step; it may be something very, very simple that anybody could do. Whatever God has said to you—when He gives you the first step and you don’t take the first step—you miss it. Now human nature says what? “Well, God, if You show me how—tell me how I’m going to do this—and I’ll do it.” God said, “Get busy,” so he had to get busy doing the first thing God told him to do.
So I want to ask you a question: when you have an impression—a deep impression in your own heart—about something God wants you to do, do you give Him some excuse for not moving ahead, saying, “Okay, God, whatever You say”? Or do you have to have an explanation for everything? I think about many things God has said to me that He didn’t explain. If He did explain, I’d probably have had a bigger problem. He just says, “This is what I want you to do. Trust Me. Not only listen to Me, but trust Me.”
Three Key Words
There are three key words in Noah’s life: “Listen to Me, trust Me, and obey Me.” Those are the three bottom-line questions in life: listen to Me, trust Me, obey Me.
He had to deal with this. He simply said to Noah, “Noah, I have found in you a righteous person—blameless. Here’s what I want you to do.” That was his instruction at the time. I’m asking you: when you ask God about something and God gives you—whatever you call it, whatever you receive—I just say, “God spoke to my heart,” and that’s the way I hear it. When He does, what do you do?
The Bible said he walked with God and he had favor with God. So the challenge to him was his faith: “Am I going to do what God said do, when He said do it, even though I don’t understand any possibility of it? I don’t know what this looks like.” So think about this: when he did, he had a head-on collision with his society. Think about it—he was the only righteous person, and here he is beginning to do something that is totally unbelievable—looks absolutely ridiculous. Only somebody out of his mind would even think about such a thing, not only attempt to do it.
Watch this carefully: there will be times when God will tell you to do something that nobody else will probably agree with—or even you may not understand it—but that’s not a sign for you not to obey God. You do what He says do, when He says do it, how He says do it; and what you do—you leave the consequences to Him. When you obey Him, you can leave all the responsibilities to Him.
Let’s think about it for a moment. He had a head-on collision. Think about the public uproar when Noah begins this construction of something that looks like it’s going to be huge, and they wonder how he thinks he’s going to do all this. He had a head-on collision with his society. They didn’t understand it and thought it was messy—going to mess up that beautiful terrain, so forth. Secondly, when he says, “God told me to do it”—watch this—“Who is this God that’s told you to do this which seems impossible?” What did that do? That gave Noah an opportunity to tell them who God is. Did they understand that? No. Did they believe it? No. How do I know that? Simple reason: God wiped them all out.
“Who Is This God?”
They wanted to know, “Who is this God who’s told you to do that?” Let me ask you a question: have you ever told somebody something that God told you, and they said, “Well, what kind of authority was that? God doesn’t speak to me that way. Who is this God that told you that? God doesn’t talk to me that way.” Someone once said something that God told me—another said, “Well, God never tells me things like that.” Maybe you don’t ask Him big. Watch this: God doesn’t treat us all the same way. It depends upon His will for your life.
Our responsibility before God is not to answer all the questions, but to listen to Him and to trust Him. Because if you don’t trust Him, nothing else is going to work in your life. Think about it: if you don’t have four wheels on the car, it’s not going anywhere. If you don’t have any trust for God, you’re not going anywhere in life.
“So this God you worship—how are you going to find answers? Noah, you don’t look like a rich man—how did he finance it?” I don’t have any idea how God provided, but one thing I know for sure—watch this—if God tells you to do something, God assumes responsibility for making means—whatever is necessary—for you to be able to do His will, whatever it is. And if you always wait till you have all the answers in life, God will never be able to bless you the way He wants to bless you.
He listened to God—did you get that? Yes. And what else did he do—come on now—he listened to God, and what else did he do? Trusted Him. And that’s where a lot of people get hung up. “Here’s what I believe God said, but surely He didn’t say that.” That must have been probably what Noah was thinking when God first told him to do this, because if you think about what He told him to do—and He said, “Here’s what I’m going to do,” and He says, “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood,” and then He describes everything. He describes that it’s going to be 450 feet long, 50 wide, three stories high—on and on. But he listened to Him, and having listened to Him, he trusted God.
Why Noah Had Courage
Now watch what happens. The reason he had the courage that he had was God had spoken to him, and he trusted the God that he’d been worshiping to fulfill His promise. So what happens? God said, “Here are the plans; I’ll answer the questions.” Watch this: God is just as willing to give you as clear an answer to your request—when those requests are sincerely offered to God, cried out to Him—as He did to Noah. We’re just not building arks; we’re doing something else. We are purchasing something, or moving somewhere, or doing something—whatever it might be. We have a right to ask God, “What do I do next?”
“How Many Times, Lord?”
How many times do you think Noah said, “You mean 450 feet long? Right here?” Listen, there’s nothing in the Bible that says I should never ask any questions, but to doubt the Word of God is something else. The Bible says Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Why? He found favor because he listened to Him and because he trusted Him.
So ask yourself the question: Do you listen to Him? Do you trust Him? Then, if that’s true in your life, God will show you favor in every single area of your life—if, in each area of your life, you listen to Him and you trust Him. That’s two-thirds of it. We’re in the process of trusting Him, and what’s God going to do? He’s going to bless whatever you do. Noah is such a perfect example—listeners—of everyday life. Everyday life, what do you do? You listen to Him, you trust Him, and if you’re wise, you obey Him—A-B-C, 1-2-3.
Now think about this: what do you need to add to that formula for living? I think the Bible is absolutely—well, I can hardly describe it—in one story thousands of years ago, in one man God laid down the foundation to live every single day of our life: listen to Him, trust Him, and obey. Can you beat that? No. If you can count to 1-2-3, or A-B-C, you have God’s solution for living life in a wicked, vile, sinful, corrupt, unrighteous world. And we want to make it complicated.
They had heard of this one true God, and I’m sure he tried to tell them who that was. I can imagine what they must have said to him: “God? Who is this God? Why are you the only one who’s heard from Him? Why hasn’t somebody else heard from Him?” Because God said they were wicked as the devil, and they paid no attention to God. The world was so corrupt that God said, “I’m going to wipe this whole thing out and start all over again.”
Now, this is so simple a five-year-old could get it. Watch this: you can take that formula to any single part of your life. What do you teach your children? Listen to you, trust you, and obey you.
When you think about how Noah expressed his courage and his trust in God—it was so simple to him. And think about this: there wasn’t any of such-and-such; he’s one of the first guys. What did Noah have? He didn’t have a written Bible. All he had was the voice of God speaking to his mind, his heart, his spirit, because he was attempting to live a righteous, holy, and godly life—probably knowing very little about God. But God had made it clear enough to him that he knew to obey the Voice that was within him, and God showed him how to do the impossible. Thousands of years later, we find in one man the key to living life. You know, I could just stop right there and praise God the rest of the day: you listen to Him, you trust Him, and you obey Him.
When you trust God, sometimes you’ll be in situations where—watch this—nobody else understands it. Nobody understood him. Think about how simple and profound this is: God said to one man, the only man on the earth—and his family—whom God would save from the absolute total destruction of society. One man. “This is the reason: I’m going to favor you with life. You listen to Me, you trust Me, and now you’re willing to obey Me.”
One of the most important men in the Bible teaches us—in the beginning of the Bible—how to live our life the rest of our life. The way you live a godly life, the way you live the Christian life, is you listen to God—and you listen to God primarily by reading it in His Word—you trust what it says, then you obey what it says.
If you think about how awesome God is—that He has all knowledge about all things; He has all power in every single circumstance of life; nothing is beyond Him—what does He do? He boils it all down to three things: “I want you to listen to Me. I want you to trust Me. I want you to obey Me.” And you know, I think about how many millions and millions of volumes are written about the Word of God—about so many aspects of the Word of God—and we can put it down in one sense: everything in this Bible is an explanation of, or an illustration of, their failure or their willingness to listen, to trust, and to obey.
We sing it: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus.” But they forgot one thing—listen. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to listen to Him, trust Him, and obey Him.” How could you ever forget this sermon? It has nothing to do with me; it has to do with a simple truth of God’s Word. And the next time you read the story of Noah, you’ll remember this: you listen to Him, you trust Him, and you obey.
So what happened? What happened was the whole world was destroyed, and Noah—and a bunch of animals—came out alive. Was Noah a perfect man? No, he wasn’t. But he listened to God, he trusted what He said, and he obeyed Him.
Invitation to Trust Christ
Maybe you’ve never trusted Jesus as your Savior—you don’t know what all this is about. This is all about this: that God loves you. He has a plan for your life. If you listen to Him and you’ll follow His leadership and His guidance—that is, if you will trust Him with your life, your future, and obey Him—you’ll find life at its very best. If you fail to do that, you’re on your own. God’s not going to force you; He gives you a choice—a fantastic choice, an awesome choice. You have to decide. Now think about it—only three things: will you listen to Him, will you trust Him, and will you obey? If you want life at its very, very best—no matter who you are—that’s the solution right there. Amen.
Father, we love You and praise You and thank You for this simple, childlike study that is so profound. I pray the Holy Spirit will speak to somebody here who’s never been saved because they haven’t been listening. I pray that they’ve listened today, that they will trust You to forgive them no matter what they’ve done, and that they will obey You today—trusting You as their Savior and their Lord. We’re going to trust You from now on. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Selected Scripture Quotations (KJV)
- “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” (Genesis 6:8)
- “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” (Proverbs 3:5–7)
- “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)
- “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
- “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Questions This Sermon Answers
- What does it mean that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord?
- How do listening and trusting relate to answered prayer?
- Why are “listen, trust, obey” the core of daily Christian living?
- How did Noah’s obedience confront and witness to a corrupt society?
- What simple pattern can guide parents, children, and every believer?
