LBC Sermons & Messages

Genesis 8:20-22

This world was not created for the unrighteous. In Noah’s time only he and his family trusted the Lord God, so the Lord judges the unrighteous by sending a flood and all were destroyed , except for Noah and his family.

The very first thing he does when he steps off the ark, is to build an altar and by sacrificing some of these animals offers a “burnt offering” unto the Lord as an act of worship. Six hundred years after this event the Lord makes the “burnt offering” an integral part of the Levitical worship system as the only way to approach God.

From this act by Noah, we are given the basic implication of the burnt offering, that it was to signify our consecration and gratitude to a Holy, Righteous God.

Noah was praising God for saving and protection him from the wrath of the flood (his salvation). Also it revealed his complete dependence on God to sustain him, for this offering took food off the table. A lesson that some Christians today need to learn and appropriate.

Rom 12:1, relates the theme of worship for us today. “Therefore … by the mercies of God”, refers to everything Paul has written about in Chapter 1-11, how God has saved us, renewed us and protect us. Same as he did with Noah. Because of that we are to “present our bodies a living sacrifice”. Every aspect of our lives, our talents, our abilities, our desires, our aspirations to the Lord in dedication and gratitude for our salvation.

The problem of a living sacrifice, is that we keep crawling off the altar. We need to develop the same attitude in worship that Noah had of consecration and gratitude for this “so great salvation”.