So I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it today? The year was 2016, and it was my first attempt. Urshana and I and a few friends ran the Chicago Marathon for the first time. And we got started and training and training. Listen, nobody runs a marathon because they like running. We ran a marathon in order to raise money for children and clean water around the world. And so we started training, and then on race day, it turned out to be like one of the hottest race days ever in the history of the Chicago Marathon. And so we started running. And I will just tell you, like the first seven miles, well, seven's God's number anyway, so that's what they say. And like the first seven miles were like the greatest seven miles of my life. I had my running jersey on, and I had my name plastered across the shirt, and people were just going, Go Chuck, Chuck, you rock. You got this, Chuck, go Chuck. And they would try to read Ursana's name, which she had Ursh on there, and they were like, Go, you go, girl. You go. So she was mad for the first seven miles, and I was like living in this euphoric heaven moment of like everybody knew my name and was cheering me on, and I felt great, and I felt like I just my feet were light. And then the eighth mile hit, and I was like, oh man, I guess I've been running for a minute. And then number nine and number 10, and by the 10th mile, I saw Arshana just starting to leave me in the dust. And then I started to get mad, and then I started to get worried. And by the 12th or 13th mile, I was like, oh no. And at the 16th mile, I saw somebody from the church. I said, Have you seen Arshana? I haven't seen her in a while. He said, Oh yeah, she's way ahead of you. And then I was like, Well, I'm gonna have to just buckle in and finish no matter how I feel. And so there were moments where I was like, I want to quit, I want to give up. And about the 19th mile, uh, somebody came out of the crowd with a giant Gatorade and gave me the Gatorade and said, Drink this whole thing and let's keep running. I was like, I don't think I can make it. And they said, just keep drinking. So I started drinking this giant Gatorade and started kept running, and that person actually ran with me for the next mile. And then he said, Listen, you're so close. You're gonna run up to that. You'll see just a little bit down the way, and then you'll turn right, and then you'll hear the crowd again, and then you'll be inspired to finish. And sure enough, that's exactly how it happened. And as soon as I crossed the finish line, Ushana wanted to hug me and congratulate me. And I said, Don't touch me. It was because I was mostly tired, but mostly I was mad she beat me. And it was in that moment I decided I'm running next year and I'm gonna train harder and I'm gonna beat her. By the way, I did. Which is really not that much of a flex, but it is for me. But it's the year I learned one person on your journey can make a difference. So why don't you lean over and just say, hey, you can make a difference. And then look at back at the one you've been ignoring and just say, I'm ready to keep running. So I'm gonna start this new series, a little mini-series, get us into November, and it's really gonna look at different stories of Bible characters that I think if they if they could run with us, they would encourage us and they would help us. And I'm gonna title it Make a Difference because Make a Difference is really the fourth pillar of the mission of this church. You know, we're all here to help people know God, and we do that on Sunday, and we're here to help people find freedom, and we do that through small groups. And man, I just heard so many wonderful stories and testimonies of small groups of what they've been accomplishing in our life, and we know that relationship leads to discipleship, and so it's powerful, powerful for us to have that community around us that knows us and knows us. K N O W knows us and N O knows us. Like, no, that's not a good idea for you to do that. You need to be in the house of God. Oh, it's raining. You should say, No, you should be in God's house preaching to the choir. I actually said that for everybody watching online right now. A little bit of rain can't keep you out of God's house. Come on, somebody. Because look what you would have missed. So we help people know God on Sunday, find freedom in small groups. We help them discover purpose through the freeway, which is today. And if you've never been through the freeway, I would encourage you to take the opportunity. You can just DM Renee right now, forward slash freeway. We serve you a light lunch. It is our path to membership, and you can still come and attend and give and not really be formally a member. That's fine with us, but we'd love you to go all the way in with us and help us carry the vision I shared last week about vision. And you know, vision's not heavy if we all carry it together. So we want you to join us in the journey of helping people know God and find freedom and discover purpose, make a difference is the last one. This is the fourth one. We do that through the dream team, and I'm always amazed this morning while we were fighting through the Frank Lloyd Wright course, trying to find our way to church this morning and couldn't park close to the church, and people were walking in the rain and parking up north of Chicago so they could get to church this morning at the 9 a.m. service. I'm always amazed at our dream team who shows up early, some of them here as early as six in the morning, and we're just so thankful for our team that serves. And um, you know, and and really I can tell you that you may think, oh, we have a we have a great team. Look at all the things they're doing. They are great, but you know what? One more person can make a difference. And I'm just gonna share this message today about Noah. And I think the big lesson we would learn from Noah is really that just what's on screen right now. One person can make a difference. Let's look at God's word. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, it says this. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination and thought of the human heart was only evil all the time. It kind of sounds like sounds like today. It doesn't sound much different than today, right now, honestly. If you pay attention to what's happening in culture and we'll pay attention to what's happening on the big screen, it's just like it just seems like that is the verse for our day and age right now. But the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and his heart was deeply troubled. That's a another whole message. I'm not going to get into that whole sentence right there. It's a deep thought, but I'm just going to tell you, it gets better. Wherever there's trouble, it always gets better. So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I've created, and with them the animals, birds, and creatures, and move along the ground. That's why I sometimes think, uh, this is probably a verse in there so that you can say, you know what? Maybe I'm not so bad after all when I want to just say, let's then let's just get rid of everybody. Let's like, come on, mom, you know you've been there when the kids are going crazy, you're like, that's it. Taking y'all out. And the dog. No, just kidding. So that says, I regret I made them. But then here's the hope. Because wherever there's a story of uh disaster, there's always a hope you can find in it. And here's the hope. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And my compelling thought today is for you to be the person that decides, no matter what you're facing, no matter what's around you, because of your journey of following Jesus, that you live in the favor of God and that you stand in the favor of God, and you recognize because of that favor of God, you can make a difference right where you're at. So you can make a difference. Here we go. Ready, making a difference. Number one, you can make a difference for your family. You can make a difference for your family. Genesis 7 1. Then the Lord said to Noah, Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Now, it's an incredible thing to me that Noah had lived his life and led his family in a way that it caught the attention of God and it caught the favor of God so much so that God says, You know what? I'm gonna save humanity through your family. And he says, get yourself in that boat because because of your righteousness, your family's gonna be saved. And I just want to preach to somebody that feels like you're alone. You might be the first generation Christian, you might be the only one attending church today in your family. But listen, because of the favor of God on your life, you can make a difference in your family. In Acts 16, Peter said this, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household. It was actually Paul and Silas. They were ministering to the guy that was the jailer. And the deer, when they sang in the night, the doors were open, and Paul's sitting there and the chains are broken, and the jailer thinks everybody's left. And Paul says, No, we've not gone anywhere. And then the guy inquires, Well, why would you stay if you were set free? He said, Because you and your whole family can be saved in this moment. And I'm just going to tell you, I want to encourage you that you can make a difference in your family. The second thing Noah encourages us is this you can make a difference in your generation. You can make a difference in your generation. So in your whole family, your circle of influence, and then in your generation, you can have an amazing reach because of your willingness to stand and declare the favor of God in your life. You can impact your generation. I think so many times we get overwhelmed by the thought and the idea that Jesus saved us not only so we could go to heaven, but so that we could make a difference. And that we have this opportunity to declare God's faithfulness in the house. Look at this Acts 13 and 36. Now, when David had served God's purposes in his own generation, then he fell asleep. Then he had lived a long, successful life. Did he have up and downs? Yeah. Did he have trouble? Yeah. But you know what he did? He served his generation. I'm just here to declare to you that when you live in the favor of God, you can impact your generation. The next thing Noah would tell us is this. He would tell us that you can make a difference for God. You can walk in the favor of God. You can be a light in a dark world. You can be a voice amongst all the chaotic voices around you. You can be a voice of truth and declaration for God's promises. That God wants to use you. He didn't save you because you were so bad. He saved you because he has a purpose in your life. He has a promise he wants to fulfill through you as you make a stand for him. And you can be used by God to make a difference. And what I'm so thankful for is you don't have to be perfect for God to use you to make a difference in the lives of other people. You just have to be available and willing and teachable. So Noah would tell us listen, you can make a difference for your family and for your generation, and you can make a difference for God. And so I'm just here to say, why don't you just go mad? Let's all go mad. Let's all go make a difference. Let's go make a difference. Number one, if you're gonna go mad, you gotta do this. You gotta go ahead and stand out. And I just want to let you know, I'm a little bit tired of everybody trying to fit in to this world. Rather than deciding we're gonna be set apart and we're gonna stand out. You're trying to fit in, and God has purposed you for a time such as this to stand out. He's marked you with identity and purpose just as he wished and willed. It was his desire and his plan. You're born just the way he made you. And he says, Listen, I'm here for you to stand out. I'm empowering you, gifting you, giving you the grace to stand out and not be afraid, not be ashamed, but to stand on God's word and declare a truth to a people that need it. God wants to use you, and you've got to decide. I'm gonna just go ahead and stand out and stop fitting in. We work so hard to fit in. Oh man, there's so many stories going in through my mind right now. I'm just gonna pay back attention to my notes so I stay on time today. In most cases, God is going to ask you to do what goes against the grain. He's gonna ask you to walk the straight and narrow path when everybody's walking the wide path. He's gonna ask you to go against the current when everybody's just going with the flow. Like he's gonna ask you, like, follow me, which means you're gonna have to turn from the direction you're traveling in order to follow him the way he's leading you. And he wants you to stand out, and when you stand out, you experience the favor of God in your life. Look at what happens in this idea of Proverbs 29, 25 says this fear of men will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe. So you know, you've been trying to fit in because you think it's safe, but that's not really the safest place to be. The safest place to be is trusting in God for your life and following his commands and lifting that living after his word and standing on his truth, making a difference and standing out. The second thing, if you want to make a difference, is this you go ahead and do something new. Now, if you if you pay attention from the early stages of Genesis, there there was no such thing as rain. And God says, Noah, I'm gonna cause it to rain. Well, what's that, God? I'm gonna flood the earth with water. But I'm gonna put you in a situation and I'm gonna save you in a boat. Your family, because of your righteousness, I'm gonna put you in a boat. What's a boat? Well, I'm gonna give you the instructions on how to build it. I'm gonna give you the dimensions and the size and everything you need to know and where to go get the wood. And then, by the way, you're gonna bring all the animals with you, which by the way, don't you want to ask Noah, Noah, why'd you why'd you why'd you let flies come along for this journey? Like, we could have made this world so much better. Get rid of the flies and the spiders, and get rid of the Chicagoland, rats and mice. Let's go, everybody. Who needs them? I mean, we could have solved them. That's the first thing I'm gonna ask them. And by the way, the thing is, I know they didn't bite him on the boat because if he'd have done like that, it'd have been over. So they weren't biting then for some reason, but now they do, so go figure. All right, see, that's just sometimes how my mind my mind works. But go ahead and do something new. Do something new. You have to imagine. He starts working, and as he's working on a boat, people are going, no, what are you doing? I'm building a boat. A what? A boat. What for? Because it's gonna rain. What it's gonna rain. No, since you'd be doing something else, yeah. No. God told me it's gonna rain and I need to build a boat, and so that's what I'm doing. It's something new, but God asked me to do it. And I wonder how many of you keep doing the same old thing, expecting different results. But God's asked you to do something new. Something new. Stand up, stand out and do something new. Make a declaration you've never made before. Make do get involved where you've never been involved before. Like get out and do something new because it's gonna lead to the salvation of God and the favor of God and the people around you. Look at this in Hebrews 11:7, which by the way is the Hall of Fame of faith chapter, so it's a chapter full of people of faith. It says that's by faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. Like that just has to be like God warned him of what's about to happen, but he couldn't, he didn't see it. It's not like he knew what it looked like. It's not like he knew what was about, he just had, he just had faith that what God said God was going to do, and so he better follow through with what God asked him to do. And sometimes I think the limitation of us following through with what God asks is we don't really see what God sees. And I just want to pray for your eyes to be open to see what God has revealed for you through visions and dreams, so that when you see those things, you can say, Listen, I know it's new and I know it's different, but I gotta build a boat. I gotta build the vehicle that's gonna save my family and reach my generation and do something for the glory of the Lord. And the last thing Noah would say, if you want to go mad, is go ahead and keep declaring God's promises. Again, like don't let it be lost in the simplicity of reading the story over and over and over again. And you're reading it and you're like, yeah, I read this before, so your mind kind of puts in like recircular fashion of like it just kind of knows it already, so it doesn't look for what's new in the story. But I just want to tell you, you got to imagine Noah is out there and he is he's he's building this boat with his family, and his boys are there and they're involved and they're engaged in the work, and and they're the people are ridiculing them and and making fun of them. And who's ever heard of rain? And who's ever seen a boat, and what on earth is all of this about? Why not just put it all down and come and party with us and come live with uh like live after what we're chasing after, which is usually nothing. I always say this the world is so good at being so loud about nothing. They make nothing look so inviting, they make they make nothing look so spectacular. It's nothing. And the only thing I think that kept Noah and his family engaged in the process of what God had asked them to do was that Noah had to just keep speaking the promises of God over his family. Listen, guys, I know it's hard work. I know we're building something no one's ever seen, but listen, God promises he's gonna save us because of what we're building. Like I know it seems overwhelming, but God promises he's gonna deliver us from whatever chaos is about to ensue. He's gonna keep his hand upon us. The favor of God is what's leading us to do this, the favor of God is what's positioning us to be in this situation for salvation. It is by God's grace and his mercy that we're here. I'm just declaring the promises of God. And it's what enabled them to keep working. And I just want to say, families, sometimes it seems so difficult every seven days to wake your family up and get them to church. But listen, I just gotta say, you've got to keep declaring the promise of God over. When they don't want to go, just keep declaring the promises of God. When they don't want to follow after the plan that God has for our lives, we keep declaring the promises of God when the child is young. If you train him up in the way he should go, he won't depart when he's older. You declare the promise of God over that sickness that the Bible says the report of the doctor might be, it might be whatever it is, but the report of the Lord says you're healed and you're free and you're filled. The promises of God say that he'll be with you always. Look at the verse right here in Matthew 28 and 19. It's where we get the mission and the vision of the church. Go and make disciples, so make a difference. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I've taught you. That's finding freedom and discovering purpose. He says, This for I'm with you always to the very end. You know, whenever God gives vision and mission, he always follows it up with a promise. Wherever there's vision, wherever there's mission, according to God's word, there's always going to be a promise. Look at this. I mean, sometimes we call the mission and the vision a commandment. Children, honor your mother and father. The mission. The promise so that you'll live a long, healthy, successful life. Wherever there's vision and mission, there's always a promise. And look what Peter says about the promises of God. The Lord is not slow in keeping promises as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but for all, everyone to come to repentance. See, wherever there's trouble and trial and chaos and disaster, calamity, whatever it might be, wherever all of that is, there's always hope. There's a promise of God. And God's never failed. We just sang it. Never failed, never will. So I'm just gonna keep calling the name of the Lord. Why? Because there's a promise. There's a promise. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. There's a promise. There's a promise. In my um in my current situation in this life, I have to carry these glasses with me. And a lot of times I look at them and they're super dirty, so I like to try to clean them up a little bit before I put them on. They're wonderful, actually. I hate them. But they're wonderful. Because when I put them on, I can I can read the smallest print known to mankind. I don't know why they make Bibles with such small print. I would gladly carry a book if it would be printed in a readable, legible size print font. Can I get a witness? So if I just look at this page without this, I I really I got like there's no place, there's nowhere, there's no situation where I can actually read it. But as soon as I put them on, I can read it. But if I'm trying to read this and talk to you, I can read this, but when I look up to talk to you, I can't see you. And it actually hurts and gives me a little headache to try to pre. That's why you see me with these on. I I think I recognize who you are, but maybe not. Because I can't really see. Like I I have to have them to see this, but I can't see beyond when I have them on. And you know what I'll it's a terrible thing, honestly, getting old. But there's something that I just want to relay to you in circumstance. That spiritually, it's almost a gift to not be able to see right in front of you in order for you to be able to see further down the road. The promise is further down the road, the problem is what's in front of you. But you know what? You need to quit focusing on your problem and start looking ahead to your promise. When I take these off, I actually see spiritually the promise better than when I put them on and can only see and focus in on the problem. And so when I'm declaring God's promise, it is it is a type of me taking off my reading glasses so I can see beyond what's right in front of me. And so, yeah, I know, I know my kids are not living the way I want them to live. Or I know my job is not doing what I thought it would be doing. I know there's a sickness in my life or my family that I didn't count on, and I know there's difficulty all around me, but you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna take off the reading glasses and I'm gonna look ahead to the promise of God that declares my family will be saved, that declares my life will be filled, that declares my freedom is for me, that I'm gonna declare these things even though it doesn't look like it in front of me. Because God is faithful and just and not slack concerning his promise. Now, even though it seems like a long time, what's a long time to God? The Bible says the day with the Lord is like a thousand and a thousand like a day. David said, one minute in the court of like one day in the house of God is better than a lifetime apart from it. So, like, what is a long time? I'm not gonna I'm not gonna judge things based on the literal time. I'm gonna just look to the horizon to my promise. I'm gonna look to the hill. There's another one. The Bible, like we we we quote Psalms, it says, I will look to the hills whence cometh my help. And so everybody says, Well, we look to the hills. That's not what the verse says. The verse says, I will look to the hills, but does my help come from the hills? And you know why the psalmist writes that? Because it was in the hills and the high places that they would put the sorcerers and the palm readers and and the witchcraft up in the hills. And David says, I'm looking to the hills. My help's not in the hills, my help comes from the Lord. My help comes from the promise God spoke long ago that He would never leave me or forsake me. David says, I've been young and I've been old, but he's never left me. I've never been to have to beg for bread. It's the promise of God. And it's time for us to just get a little mad. Go a little mad, go make a difference. Pick up the pace and making declarations, pick up the pace in doing new things, pick up the pace in standing out in the world God's called us to stand out in. Can you receive that word today?