 We are living in the greatest hour of church history. You may be looking around and saying things are getting darker out there. The world seems to be becoming more vile and it seems to be turning away from Christ. But the truth is that the church shines brightest in dark places. Remember this, the greater the pressure upon the church, the greater the power within the church. Noah the Patriarch lived during very dark and vile times. Yet God used him to preserve entire generations. So God can use you during these dark times, and we're going to look at Noah's life to see exactly how. But first, Stephen Mock DeZuma is here with me, and then we're going to get right back into this lesson, which is a continuation in my series, God's Anointed. Here is Stephen Mock DeZuma. I give myself away, I give myself away So you can use me, I give myself away I give myself away, so you can use me I give myself away, so you can use me As I said at the top of the lesson, we truly are living in dark times. But God can use your life even in the darkest of times. In fact, you may feel like you're in a situation right now where you're alone or we're isolated, and you may look around at the people who surround you. You may look around at the situation and say, how is it that I find myself in this place? But here is the good news. God puts his light in dark places. You may think that the enemy is attacking you, not realizing that God has placed you in a certain situation. Among certain people, among certain family members even, to be a light in that dark place. And Noah was the righteousness of God demonstrated in the earth during his time, even when there was nothing but evil things going on all around him. Let's go to Genesis chapter 6 and read at verse number one where the scripture says, and I'm going to read a few verses here. Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, my spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years. In those days and for some time after, giant Nephalites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times. Now, I have a lesson where I talk about the Nephilim. It's called The Origins of Demons. And in that lesson I detail very clearly how the sons of God is not a reference to earthly beings. That term, the sons of God, was actually a reference to angelic beings. Things had become so bad. The world had become so sinful. And the nature of humanity so vile that there was a mixing between fallen angels and human beings. So, for whatever reason God had to start things over. Now, this is a very dark time. This is very twisted. This is very wrong. This violates human nature. This violates God's holiness. And there are many other things going on during this time that caused God to feel sorrow in his heart over his own creation. Now, going to verse number five, the scripture says, The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth. And he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the Lord said, I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing, all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them. Now, think about the depths of sorrow that God must have experienced during this time, during this dark period in human history. And it's much like today, to be honest with you, except now we have the grace of God because of the shed blood of Jesus. But I'm reminded of a scripture in Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 where Jesus says, You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. Now, light shines brightest in dark places. And we as believers are in a dark world. And we as believers must face the facts of life. And we must preach the gospel in the face of all that is occurring on this earth. Number one, the called are placed in darkness. The call of God is not all about comfort. The call of God is not all about fellowship with one another. Sometimes the call of God will place you in areas that are uncomfortable. Sometimes the call of God will put you right in the middle of darkness. Like a soldier that has been sent to an area in enemy territory. So you have been sent to this earth to preach the gospel, declare the freedom that is available to all who put their trust in Christ. You are called to dark places. And this doesn't mean that you participate in the darkness. Obviously, we're not talking about that. But this means that you are God's shining light and you are a representative of the hope that has been given to you. You are a representative of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You are an ambassador of heaven going into the dark places and shining the light of Christ. And we call to humanity. We call to all who will hear us and we say step out of the darkness and come into the marvelous light of Christ. The called are placed in darkness. Verse number eight says, But Noah found favor with the Lord. Two, the called are favored of God. Now, Noah was living in a time where man was extremely sinful. And again, we can compare those times to our times very easily. We can draw some parallels. But we see that God in the middle of all of this is able to see someone who lives righteously, someone who lives holy. And Noah finds favor in the sight of God. When you are favored of the Lord, you don't have to promote yourself. When you are favored of the Lord, you don't have to try to be noticed. When you are favored of the Lord, God will open doors for you that he wouldn't open for anyone else. Now some will say, well, the Lord is no respecter of persons. That's right. That means that he treats people according to their actions and whether or not they obey his voice. So God is no respecter of persons in that anyone can become favored of the Lord. But the scripture is very clear that there are some who are favored by God. How do you become favored by God? Well, look at Noah as an example. He lived righteously. He obeyed God. He acknowledged God. He heard God. He sought God. And it is that pursuit of God that brings about his favor. And when you are favored of God, you don't have to worry about a single thing. God brings the protection that you need. God brings the provision that you need. God brings open doors that you need. And God will guide you. God will direct you. God will bless you because you are favored. So number one, the called are placed in darkness. Number two, the called are favored of God. Now let's read verses 9-13 as the scriptures continue here. This is the accounts of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time. And he walked in close fellowship with God. Noah was the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Verse 11, Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. God observed all this corruption in the world for everyone on earth was corrupt. So God said to Noah, I have decided to destroy all living creatures for they have filled the earth with violence. And let me stop there. You notice that the Lord gives Noah insight. That's one thing he'll do for the favor that he won't do for anyone else. He will give you insight into his plans. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth. Now the scripture says in verse 14, build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Leave an 18 inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side and build three decks inside the boat, lower, middle, and upper. So he's giving him very specific instructions. But I want to stop and look for a moment here, specifically at verses 9 through 13. And you notice within this context here, we see God giving Noah the information of what is going to take place upon the earth. Then he gives him instructions on how he's going to avoid it. I'm going to make a point on that in just a moment. But what I find interesting is that God is basically telling Noah I want to start over. I want to give this all a clean slate. I want to wipe it clean and I'm going to start again. Now that is the righteousness of God. Some people become offended at the righteousness of God, especially when they're on the side of his wrath or the receiving end of his wrath because they don't want to be punished. But the truth is that God's righteousness, His holiness, and His mercy are one in the same. It was because of His mercy that he decided to start over. Why? Because then millions upon millions and even billions of people would be subject to the sinfulness of previous generations. It would only have gotten worse. So God in His mercy decides he's going to start over. Now why? There were many sins they committed. Could it have been that the genetic code of man was disrupted because of the mingling between angelic beings and human beings? Who knows? There was a great deal of evil in the earth and God decides he's going to start over and he tells Noah, I'm going to use you. He instructs him to build this boat, to build this ark, that it might be the preservation for him and his family. Number three, the called preserve their generation. Here is what is so powerful. Even though this is tragic in that God had to wipe out the entire earth, this is also very filled with hope because Noah was the preservation of generations. I want you to think about that. It was because of the righteousness of Noah that his family was saved. It was because of the righteousness of Noah that generations would be spared. It was because of the righteousness of Noah that humanity survived and God saw a righteous man and he said, I can use that man. I can use that man to continue. I can use that man to continue what I started. I can use that man to partner within the earth and cause about generations to be blessed. Now, Noah is like Abraham almost because we see Abraham, remember this, Abraham in Genesis chapter number 18, the scripture describes, beginning at verse 17, a very interesting dialogue between Abraham and God. And this is what the scripture says. Should I hide my plan from Abraham the Lord asked? For Abraham will certainly become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. Now here again, we see that the Lord reveals his plans to the righteous. Verse 19, I have singled him out so that he will direct his sons and their families to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then I will do for Abraham all that I have promised. So verse 20, So the Lord told Abraham, I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know. The other men turned and headed towards Sodom but the Lord remained with Abraham. Now this is powerful because the Lord is telling Abraham about his plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the wickedness of sin. And he's giving this information to Abraham. Now Abraham comes after Noah so Abraham would not even have existed had it not been for Noah. Noah was the preservation of generations. And so Noah leads all the way to Abraham and here we see Abraham fellowshiping with the Lord, dialoguing with God and God is telling him I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah but this is so powerful. Verse 23, Abraham approached him and said, Will you sweep away both the righteous and the wicked? Suppose you find 50 righteous people living there in the city. Will you still sweep it away and not spare it for their sakes? Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same. Surely you wouldn't do that. Should not the judge of all the earth do what is right? And the Lord replied, If I find 50 righteous people in Sodom I will spare the entire city for their sake. And so Abraham seeing an opportunity continues to deal with the Lord and he begins to talk to the Lord and the Lord agrees with Abraham that he would bring down that minimum and we find in verse 32 the conclusion of their dialogue where the scripture says, Finally Abraham said, Lord please don't be angry with me if I speak one more time. Suppose only 10 are found there. And the Lord replied, Then I will not destroy it for the sake of the 10. When the Lord had finished his conversation with Abraham he went on his way and Abraham returned to his tent. There we see this point reiterated that you are the preservation of a generation. The righteous in the land are the preservation of that land. Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 says you are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled under foot as worthless. Salt preserves. You are the preservation of this generation. I want you to get this because this is so powerful when you do. This means that your life of righteousness truly counts. Have you ever looked around the world and seen how everything is going and said to yourself what can I possibly do to make a difference? Perhaps you are intimidated or overwhelmed by all that is happening in our world. The darkness seems to be spreading. Sin seems to be intensifying. And people seem to want to have nothing to do with Jesus. But your life counts. Your righteousness is the preservation of this generation. Just the fact that you are living righteously before God is key to God not pouring out His wrath on this land. Why hasn't God judged this world? Well, first of all, we know it's because of the shed blood of Jesus. But we also know in principle that it's because God sees the righteous in the land. God is giving men everywhere time to repent. But in the meantime, for the sake of the righteous, He's holding back. He's holding back His wrath. Your life counts just you living righteously. Just the right living is holding back the wrath of God. I want you to think about that. Your purity matters. Your righteousness matters. Your holiness matters. Your obedience matters. Your prayer life matters. Just the fact that you are living and you're supposed to preserve this land. Think about that. You are being used of God to preserve a generation. God is sparing the generations because of you. Your family will be blessed because of your righteousness, because of your obedience toward God. Think about this even. Some of you are first generation Christians. I'm blessed in that I have a godly heritage. You're blessed in that you get to be the founder of a godly heritage. You may say, my family's not saved. My parents aren't saved. My brothers and sisters aren't saved. I'm the only one in my family who serves the Lord. That's the spirit of Noah within you. And you are preserving a generation and your whole family will be blessed. Look at it. The scripture says, it's interesting that the scripture says that Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on the earth at the time. The only blameless person, yet his family was able to go on the Ark too. It didn't say his family was blameless. It said Noah was the only one who was blameless. But because of the way Noah lived, it was preservation to his family. Because of the way Noah obeyed God, his family was able to be spared from the wrath. You don't know what your obedience will do. You don't know who your obedience will affect. You are not aware if you could open your eyes and see into the spirit how your righteous living is preserving a generation. You would be encouraged to continue to live righteously. You invite the mercy of God in the earth because of the way you live. So let it be known that you matter. Your obedience matters. Now verse 17, we continue reading that portion of scripture where it says, Look, I am about to cover the earth with the flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die, but I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat, you and your wife and your sons, and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animal, a male and a female, into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird and every kind of animal and every kind of small animal along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals. So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him. Number four, the called must act in faith. Now, you have often heard it said and preached that Noah was mocked for what he did, but that's not really the case. We don't find that anywhere in scripture. In fact, in Matthew chapter 24 verse 37, the scripture says, As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, verse 39, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. So we see that the people who were caught up in this flood weren't even aware of what was coming. They weren't even aware of what Noah was doing. They were just surprised by the flood and the judgment of God. Now, Noah wasn't necessarily mocked, but that doesn't mean that what he did didn't require faith. In fact, Hebrews chapter 11 verse 7 tells us, It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith, Noah condemned the rest of the world and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. So Noah steps out in faith to obey God. Now, some will even say that it had not reigned upon the earth until that time. But this also is not true. Otherwise, you wouldn't have vegetation and those are just a couple of myths. You have to disregard. You won't find that in the scripture. But the point is that Noah stepped out in faith and he just started acting. He did what God told him to do. Sometimes, believer, those who are called have to stop thinking about it, have to stop analyzing, and yes, even stop praying about it. I know some of you don't like that because it sounds a little bit sacrilegious, but the truth is some of you have to just stop praying about it because you already know in your heart what God's told you to do. And you're hoping for a different answer. Here's the thing about the Lord. The Lord will speak and not speak again until you obey what He's already spoken. And that is the truth. So begin to act in faith. Say, Lord, I'm available. Lord, I want to do what you've called me to do. So let's review. Number one, the called are placed in darkness. Number two, the called are favorite of God. Number three, the called preserve their generation. And number four, the called must act in faith. I want to pray with you now that the Lord would help you to become a light in dark places and that you would continue to walk in righteousness as Noah did even in these times where there is this pressure to conform with how the world is living. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray for that one watching now. I pray for that one receiving. And I ask, Lord, that you would begin to strengthen them. I pray, Father, you cause them to shine as a light, a brilliant beacon of hope. And I pray, precious Jesus, you would so saturate us with your presence that we would carry power and truth wherever we go. I pray, Lord, for that one receiving this now that you would give them the strength and the boldness and the perseverance to continue in righteousness. Gird us, Lord, with grace. I speak the grace of God and the strength of the Holy Spirit toward righteousness, Father. Lord, make us more righteous than we were yesterday. Make us more righteous this moment than we were a moment ago. Father, moment by moment, day by day, help us to walk in that righteousness. We thank you, Lord, for your grace. We thank you, Lord, for your spirit. And I pray in Jesus' name for strength. And I want those who believe it and receive it to say amen. Well, that is it for the lesson. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. And again, I always say that because I always mean it. If you'd like information on how you could join the Spirit family, just go ahead and use the link at the bottom of the screen. The link is a URL that you can use and you'll have to type it in manually. YouTube is constantly changing its policies and technologies, so we have to constantly adjust. So you can't click it, but you can go there. You just use that information. And by the way, we have over 2,000 members of Spirit Church from all over the world now. And I'm so blessed to know that we are unified in the Spirit. And I love you and we are praying for you. So go ahead and join the Spirit family. I'm going to read your comments now. And at the end of the comments portion of this video, I want to talk to you and give you an update on where we are with our fundraising campaign. We have some good reports to give to you. So stick around for that. I'm going to read your comments now. And these comments come from last week's lesson in our God's Anointed series. And this time I talked about Anna the prophetess. And actually, we even touched a little bit on the Women in the Ministry controversy or so-called controversy. Our first commenter writes, Thanks for such a wonderful message on this topic of Women in Ministry. In my country, many say women cannot be preachers, but this video is really a blessing. God chose both men and women for the gospel. Thanks, David. Blessings from India. Valencia Rose writes, This is the first video I have seen where someone is preaching about a woman. I remember one preacher I saw spoke about women and said that they can't be used by God and only men can. You are the first to say women can be used by God. Thanks, David. God bless. Well, I certainly am not the first to say it, but I do want to emphasize that point. Listen, if you're a woman, God wants to use your life. God has anointed both men and women, and we make that very, very clear on last week's edition of Spirit Church. Megan writes, Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, for blessing me with this teaching. Reina writes, Here in the Philippines, we have a lot of women pastors. They're very anointed and courageous for the grace of God. We treat them equally. I myself even believe that God has anointed me to call out the saints. Mary March writes, Brother David, I heard in the last series that you were planning to touch upon the topic women in the ministry. However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear this topic so soon. This message was like a balm for my soul, and it was definitely healed. Thank you, my dear God, for this unique church, and this is Mary writing from the Ukraine. And finally, Pauline Galloway writes, Brother David, all your videos have helped me. May God keep blessing you and all at Spirit Church. Please pray that someday I can see you preach live in my country, the United Kingdom. I will keep you in my prayers. God bless you, brother. Well, I do want to go all over the world, and this is actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Many of you know, we are in the middle of a ministry fundraising campaign. Now, I want to make this very clear. There is a difference between a one-time donation and a monthly gift. A one-time donation is a donation that you give to a ministry one time. You know, $100, $50, $10, and you donate it, and it's done. However, a monthly partner is someone who comes along a ministry and pledges to give a monthly amount. And in fact, our partners all sign up for the automatic giving plan. Now, let me tell you the benefit of monthly partners. The benefit of monthly partners is it enables you to project and plan months in advance what you're going to do as a ministry. And the more time you have to plan, the more effective you can be with your resources, and in fact, you can even go about finding more valuable options as far as finances go. So, having a monthly partner and having a monthly partner database and having a monthly partner system enables this ministry to plan things with excellence, with quality, with accuracy, with efficiency, and we are really growing and we are so thankful to those of you who are partnering with us. So, recently, for a few months, we've been raising monthly support. Now, we needed a thousand new, 1,000 new $30 a month partners. That means $30,000 of monthly income needs to be coming in in order for us to move. That's not just $30,000 period. That's $30,000 more than what we were taking in before. So, that extra $30,000 a month is going to go toward a couple things. And by the way, here's where we are on raising that. Here's where we are on the campaign. Here's how close we are to 1,000 new $30 a month partners. Now, here's what we're going to do with that support. We want to move into a new facility and the reason we want to move into a new facility is because it will allow us to produce more videos more often. It will allow us to bring in studio audiences. It will allow us to do weekly meetings where you can attend the worship and hear the teaching. And it will allow us to have a 24-7 prayer room. In addition to opening that facility and that production studio, it will also enable us to do more events in more places more often. This means we'll be able to have a budget to go to many different nations, many different states all over the world and we will plan more events. Right now we do about two or three of our own events a year and then I go around preaching at different churches and conferences. But we want to start doing miracle services all over the world. And we have some footage coming up very soon of the recent miracle service in Orange, California. And that'll give you an idea of what we want to do all over the world. And maybe I'll show some on Spirit Church in a couple weeks. But my point is that that is the practical side. Ultimately, everything we do is going to enable us to win more souls and build more believers. And that's what we're all about. We want to win souls. So help us do it. Help us get to the next level of ministry. Help us build and grow so that we can reach more people than ever before. There are many more things we want to do when we get to that next level of ministry. Some of it includes our own online TV network. It's going to include bringing on more staff members who are able to do more for the ministry. There's a lot involved in that. But we're just promoting the two main things, which is a ministry facility and more events. So to recap, help us win more souls by becoming a $30 a month partner. And when you become a $30 a month partner, that will go toward the costs that we'll have for having a facility and doing more events. And that is all of it in a nutshell. And those of you who do sign up to become a $30 a month partner, we have a special gift for you. It's going to be an initiation gift. When you sign up, we will send you either Carriers of the Glory or 25 Trues about demons and spiritual warfare. And those will be signed copies. That is our thank you gift for signing up to become a monthly partner. You can do a one-time gift if you want. You can do a monthly gift. But do something today. Help us take the gospel all around the world. Now, a link is going to appear at the end of this video. So as soon as I say goodbye, stick around to the end. If you're watching this on YouTube, if you're not, then just use the information at the bottom of the screen to go and give a donation one time or monthly. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, Nothing is Impossible with God.