Agape House Fellowship 愛家

By Pastor Kung-Li

Noah's Ark and The Rainbow...Emm

I promise it will not be a typical Sunday school story time..... Bear with me for a moment.....

I am inviting you to pretend with me for a little while that you and I lived in the time of Noah…..

Let’s set our watch in the week just before the flood. We all know that the long-promised flood finally came as recorded in Genesis 6—9….Did those live in Noah's time know? What is their response?

Let’s start with interviewing Noah’s neighbors, friends and people who know him:

From his neighbor, Al SAM:

“They are nice people but I think they are insane. They have been doing this huge wooden barn, called “ark”, for years, yea, about 100 some years already. They even invited us to go over and have a party of some sort in that barn just last week. What Noah said after that wonderful dinner is absolute craziness. Going into the ark to avoid the coming flood? What flood? No way!! Besides, I have too much to do here”

From his best friend, Old Joe:

“Well, we like this fellow. Just that he is too much in the “God” thing. A flood caused by our wrongdoings and wickedness? Come on. We are just having a little fun on the side.”

“Yes, Noah, that strange figure, with his, err, strange family. His whole family just does not get it: they do not fit in this society at all”

This is the Time of Noah

Today, are we hearing similar voices around us, from our society, from our friends? Jesus said in Mathew 24:38 “For in the days before the flood came, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up the day Noah entered the ark”

Verse 39, “and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away”

In fact, all the signs of the end time Jesus talked about in Mathew 24 are here TODAY!!

- FALSE PROPHETS AND CHRIST: verse 5 Many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Christ”, and will deceive many / verse 11 Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people

- WARS: verse 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom

- FAMINES and EARTHQUAKE: verse 7 There will be famines and earthquakes in various places

- PERSECUTION: verse 9 you will.. to be persecuted and put to death

GOD’s CHURCHES ARE FALLING AWAR FROM FAITH!! Verse 10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other
My dear friends, we are in the age of end-time that Jesus was talking about!!

God made a covenant with a household

I want to single out persecution from the list above. You may not feel it is here in the US comparing with other conutries. However, as I shared in the last message (Jan 18), our enemy’s strategy was to destroy family, as he did to the first family of Adam and Eve.

How true is that for today!! Just in the United State alone, more than 50% of families are eventually heading toward divorce or separation between husband and wife. This statistics also applied well within the churches and Christians!!

Average time a dad spending with children during a week is quickly diminishing to less than a Super Bowl game time!!

So God has His ultimate plan at work: He made a covenant with a house, a family to null the enemy’s attack.

Genesis 6:18, “But I will establish my covenant with you and, you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons wives with you”

God is seeking houses to stand up and together to face this end time persecution to family.

Can our next generation stand firm facing this on-going persecution that comes in a very subtle way? The answer is in a house accepting and standing on God’s covenant. In Noah’s time, only one household was responding to what God called. As a result, only one family was saved. Today, this House is being built on the corner stone of Jesus Christ. God's voice is still the same. Are you and I in this House of Salvation?

What can we do in our house to stand in this covenant?

What can we do to strengthen our family in this end-time?

Five things to do in a God’s house at the end-time

The secret is in Hebrew 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that come by faith”

- Listening to God’s word: let’s read God’s word and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying regarding our houses. Listen watchfully to His voice about things to come regarding your family relationship, finance, education and yes, everything!! We can only start off to a right track until we are fully aware we are in the end time. This is the time to wake up and face the reality we are in.

- Live in the holy fear of the Lord: build our house upon the fear of the Lord (please see message on the fear of the Lord http://agapehousenet.blogspot.com/2009/01/fear-of-lord.html )

- Build an ark: Take action to build a God's house and stick with it. Against all odds, Noah took action to build an ark. It took him almost 120 years from the start to finish!! And only when Noah finished the work that God sent the first rain drop. God is seeking faithful servants, many will be just like Noah: common, normal folks, to start listening and taking action to build God's house for their family!!

- No compromise in our faith: we will not compromise our faith in the face of persecution that comes in various of forms. In term, our action will set us apart from this world that is growing darker every hour.

- Bless other family: we can help and preach this good news to our loved one, friends and even strangers!! They can also receive this faith and become heir of righteousness with us if they agree to come into this covenant, this ark, this house of God!!

My sincere prayer is that, as we are building a new wineskin in Agape House, a house church, that we may walk into this covenant that God established to save this world.

Are you ready to build this house? Let’s listen, fear, build, persist and bless others together in 2009!!