KIDS OF THE KINGDOM // LESSON 6
Memory Verse: John 10:9
“I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
Noah and the Ark
1. REVIEW
- Let’s talk through some of what we explored last lesson!
- What does it mean to have faith in God? To believe in your relationship with Him and obey Him!
- How do we receive and grow in faith? By hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
- How was Enoch different than everyone else? Oh yeah, he didnt die! God snatched him up
- What are some of the ways God speaks to us today? Through His Word, through his Holy Spirit, through His people, and through His creation!
- Today, we’re going to talk about the consequences of sin through the story of Noah and the flood. BUT! We’re also going to talk about the way that Jesus protects us!
- Let’s jump right in
2. GOD ASSESSING WORLD
- God has big feelings, and the way humans live affects how God feels!
- Do you remember how God felt about the world in the very beginning?
- Let’s turn to Genesis 1:31 “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”
- How did God feel about things? So happy! Now, let's read Genesis 6 to learn how He was feeling about the earth just 5 chapters later…
- Genesis 6:5-6 The Lord saw how great the** wickedness **of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
- Does this sound like God in the beginning of Genesis? When he was naming everything as “very good?” No! In this chapter, God seems so sad. What changed?
- Well, when sin entered the scene with Adam and Eve, everyone after them was born a sinner. Life with God is a choice, and these people weren't choosing to do life with God.
- Think about the city that Cain made. Sure, people were building things, but they weren't building them with God! The world became full of greed, fighting, and bad decisions– the world was dangerous for humans. God wants life abundant for us, not sickness, death, and evil.
- God looked around and decided that something needed to change– He started crafting a plan to make things right again.
3. GOD’S PLAN OF ACTION
- Let’s go back to Genesis 6 to see what God’s plan was.
- Genesis 6:7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
- God just explained that He planned on wiping out the entire planet. That was His solution.
- While this may seem mean or intense of God, His judgment and consequences actually put things back into the order of the Kingdom
- What is His Kingdom? The realm where God reigns as King of everything! While God is already King of everything, God invites us to choose to live in this truth!
- While God was looking at the very sick earth and the people that lived on it, something stuck out to Him! A family stuck out to Him! Do you have any idea who this might have been? Let’s keep reading Genesis to find out!
4. GOD’S RELATIONSHIP WITH NOAH
- Genesis 6:8 says that “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord… Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”
- Does this remind you of anyone from the last lesson? Yeah, it reminds me of Enoch! Enoch was actually Noah’s great grandfather!
- Because Noah walked with God in life, God began sharing His plan with Noah.
- When we put God first in our lives and live from our union with Him, He shares His life and thoughts with us!
- In John 15:15, Jesus is talking to His disciples and says “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
- This scripture shows us that God loves to share what He’s up to with His children!
- As God talked with Noah, He told him that He was going to wash away the wicked world with a flood. God was ready to start over, and He knew that making things new would be better than working with what was already there.
- Why was Noah able to know what God was up to? Because he was a faithful friend of God!
5. THE ESCAPE PLAN
- After God told Noah about the flood plan, He instructed Noah to build an ark (or a super huge boat)! He told him exactly how to build it, what wood to use, what to put inside of it, and who to let on!
- God is so faithful to give us instructions in life, and it’s really important to follow His instructions!
- The ark was huge– about one and half football fields long, really wide, and really tall– There was one window and one door.
- The ark was made to float more than it was made to sail! God was using the ark to protect them, not to take them on a trip.
- The ark was a protective home for Noah, his family, and a LOT of animals.
- We see that God makes a way for His people! God loves protecting those who love Him– He is a good Father, Shepherd, and Friend.
- Noah and the family got to work! Hebrews tells us that Noah did all of this by faith!
- We learned last week that to walk with God is to believe in God and obey Him!
- Noah did just that! What God said must have sounded so strange to Noah… he had never seen a flood before! He might not have even seen rain before! Instead of questioning God, Noah trusted God with his heart and obeyed Him!
- The Bible later calls Noah a “preacher of righteousness”; while he was building, Noah probably tried to warn all kinds of people about what God told him. Sadly, no one outside of Noah’s family believed what Noah said– they thought he was crazy!
- Instead of choosing to follow God, they chose to do life without GOD. Thankfully, Noah and his family didn't let other people’s unbelief keep them from following God– they put their trust in God’s Word and kept on building!
6. NOAH ENTERS THE ARK & FLOOD
- After the ark was totally built 57, it was time to load up! Do you know the feeling of packing everything into a car for a family trip? Well, that was like this felt like, but this must have felt a million x’s crazier !
- In Genesis 6, God instructed Noah to load “two of all living creatures, male and female” Why do you think He specified male and female animals? So they could have babies and fill the earth again after the flood!
- Noah and his family walked in the ark, God shut the door for them, and they waited for 7 days for rain to come! It rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and the flood stayed on the earth for 150 days! Everything inside the ark stayed alive, and everything outside the ark died.
- One day, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven. It didn't come back! Next, he sent out a dove. It returned back to the ark because the water was still covering the earth.
- One week later, Noah sent the dove out again!. That night, it came back with an olive leaf in its beak. Seven days later, Noah sent the dove a 3rd time!!! This time, it didn't come back! It found land to rest on! That means it was time to unload!
- Noah and his family stayed in the ark for an entire year! Can you imagine being closed in a huge ship with every single animal for a YEAR?
7. MEMORY VERSE
- Time to conquer our memory verse!!
- Let’s read it out loud together: John 10:9 “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
- What does Jesus say He is? The gate!
- Just like the door to the ark kept Noah and his family safe from God’s judgment of the evil on earth, Jesus keeps everyone who believes in Him safe from God’s coming judgment of the evil in the world!
- We have to get in the boat of salvation to be kept safe from this judgment. Jesus made the perfect way for us, and there simply is no other way.
- “They will come in and go out, and find pasture”, Jesus says. Once we get in the boat, we will be provided everything we need! He will nourish and refresh us and bring us into life.
- Let’s read our verse one more time to remember it! John 10:9 “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
8. NOAH’S NEW ASSIGNMENT
- Once the dove stayed gone, God told Noah and his family to come off the ark!
- It was time to “multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number”. Wait a second! Does this remind you of anything?
- It reminds me of when God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply! Both times that God made beginnings (first with creation, and now with the freshly flooded earth), He gives similar instructions.
- I love that God gave Noah’s family the same assignment that He gave Adam’s family.
- This seems to be the way God wants humans to live– filling up the earth with Godly goodness and growing God’s Kingdom on earth.
- What do you think Noah and his family did once they got off the boat they had been in for a YEAR?
- Have a feast? Have a dance party? Take a long nap? Nope! They decided to worship God!
- They were so thankful that God protected them from the flood and from death– He brought them through one of the craziest times ever!
- Genesis 8:20 “Then Noah built an altar 36 to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds 39, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.”
- Noah and his family put God first! Thanking God had the absolute priority in their plans! God loves to be the priority of our lives– He designed us to live this way!.
- When we put God first, we get His best! That’s the order of the Kingdom. When we seek first His Kingdom and its righteousness, everything else is added to us!
- Jesus rescued us even more than the ark rescued Noah’s family!
9. COVENANT
- The moment of sacrifice made God so happy! We can tell that Noah and his family impacted God’s heart so much!
- RIGHT after the moment that Noah’s family worships with the altar, God starts explaining the promises of His Covenant.
- In Genesis 6:18, God mentioned the word “covenant” for the first time EVER!
- Covenant is pretty much just a fancy word for a partnership between God and humans. God comes to humans to enter into partnership! He loves when we do things with Him– that was always the plan. He never wanted us to do things alone.
- There are 5 main covenants throughout the Bible: God’s covenant with Noah, God’s covenant with Abraham, God’s covenant with Moses, God’s covenant with David, and the New Covenant God made with us through Jesus!
- With all of these covenants, God makes promises to His people!
- In the covenant with Noah, God enters a serious relationship with Noah and all the other living creatures.
- Genesis says that “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart: ‘Never again will I curse the group because of humans”. He goes on to say “never again will I destroy all living creatures” (Genesis 8:21).
- I can almost feel God’s smile in this verse!
- He promises that no matter how bad humanity gets, He will never destroy the earth by flood again!
- He even gave a beautiful sign of this covenant to Noah! Do you know what the sign was? a rainbow 63! Every time there’s a rainbow, it’s a sign that God remembers us and an invitation to remember Him!
10.SUMMARY AND APPLICATION
- What did God ask Noah and his family to do when He was ready to wipe all the sin from the earth? Build an ark!
- Why did they spend so much time building an ark? Because they trusted God and obeyed His Word.
- Why did all the other people on the earth die? Because they didn't choose to believe God’s Word and share life with Him!
- How do we make a choice to believe in God and obey Him?
- Let’s say our memory verse together and think about this!
- John 10:9 “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.”
- The cross reminds us that Jesus died to save us from the punishment of our sins. It also reminds us that Jesus is the only way to become one with the Living God.
- How do we enter through the door?
- First, we trust God, just like Noah, and believe that Jesus is the only way to be right with God! Then, you simply walk through the door and let Jesus into your heart! When you let Him into your heart, He invites you into life abundant– life with God!
- Take a moment to be real with God. Let Him in, and begin to let Him lead you into life with Him! No one can do this for you, but Jesus has done everything to make this possible for you.
11. DECLARATIONS
- It’s important to declare out loud what is true about God! It helps our heart come into line with what our minds understand! Say these things to God from your heart with me!
- The way we live affects how God feels! He feels so happy and loved when we make Him King of our lives and hearts.
- God’s judgment and consequences actually make things right– His responses don't mean He is mean. His actions are always caring, and He always has everyone’s best in mind.
- When we walk with God, He shares His plans and thoughts with us!
- We can trust God and His Word, even when we don't understand what His plans are!
- God tells us everything we need to know to obey Him completely.
- Following God’s instruction leads to life!
We are including Sara's notes for complete transparency for parents.
