The kids asked a good question this morning during our Bible reading, "how do you get something out of a story that you have read so many times."

We were reading Genesis 7 today. The story of Noah collecting all the animals and getting them stored away on the ark. The ark being sealed and rains coming down and the floods coming up. The complete destruction of everything except that which was on the ark. If you have spent any time at all in church you have heard this story.

So, what do you get out of a story you have heard so many times. Well, verse 1. That's right, I didn't even have to go very far to find some meaningful morsel of truth. Verse 1 says, Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." God used Noah because he was righteous before Him in that generation.

Noah was used to do something amazing because he was seen as righteous. Noah didn't go into this thinking, "I am going to be famous. Someone is going to write all this down, compile it into the world's bestselling book, people are going to preach about me and use me for children's stories. I can't wait to see what people will say about me!" No, he did what was right because of a fear of God. Because of his right-standing before God in his generation, he was used to restart the population of the earth. But it wasn't because of what he wanted out of it.

You can't be seen as righteous when you are doing what you are doing for the wrong motives. You are only seen as righteous when you are obeying God because that is what is right. Can you imagine what God could do with a bunch of Noah's in this generation? How he could "restart" the earth with a generation of people who were righteous before Him.

Are you doing anything? Are you in a place to be used by God to affect this generation and those to come? With what motive are you doing what you are doing? Let's be known as a people who were "seen that are righteous before God in this generation," and let's see what God does with that.