Traveling Into A New Year with Noah: Performance or Faith (Part I)

January 28, 2026

Hopefully many of you have seen the film, Evan Almighty, a story of a young politician whose plans are suddenly disrupted when God appears to him and asks him to build an ark.

Evan attempts to get out of this calling, but God will not let him off the hook, which leads to several embarrassing predicaments—including having the lead congressman enter his office to find multiple pairs of birds sitting on Evan’s shoulders and desk.

After porcupines, mountain lions, and even tarantulas follow Evan… after his General Electric clock breaks and wakes him every morning with “GEN 6:14” (“Make a boat”)… after his beard grows immediately back when he finishes shaving… Evan finally gives in, stops fighting God, and builds an ark.

God has to do many things to get Evan’s attention. And once God gets his attention and Evan begins to build an ark in the middle of suburbia, things get rough. He is put on probation as a congressman, with people suggesting that the pressures of the job have been too much for him. Crowds gather outside to watch the ark going up, yelling wisecracks and laughing at his predictions of a flood. Even his own family leaves home for a time, leaving him alone in the seemingly insane task of building a boat of literally “biblical” proportions.

Throughout the journey—from the first boards coming together until the door of the ark is pulled shut and the animals are safely aboard—Evan must repeatedly make a choice. This is not a one-time decision, but many decisions:

• Should I go on and continue building this ark, or return to my goals?

• Should I trust God, or scrap the whole project?

• Should I fight to get my life back, or continue to give my life up for God?

• Should I follow His plans or mine?

• Should I listen to those around me or to the One above me?

  
  

Evan must choose, moment by moment, who his audience will be.

Likewise, I’m sure Noah questioned what must have seemed like the futility and ridiculousness of what God was asking him to do—especially while neighbors, friends, and family members laughed, mocked, and ridiculed him.

Don’t you think Noah wondered: “Maybe I’m hearing wrong… maybe God has the wrong person… this is insane… a boat… a flood… I should just go back to my normal life and forget any of this ever happened”?

Noah must have felt tremendous pressure to put down the hammer, stop building, and return to the way things were. Rain? God was going to make it rain? There wasn’t a raincloud in the sky, nor had there ever been one.

The people believed Noah to be insane. Yet despite the looks, the mockery, and the disbelief of his neighbors, Noah persevered and obeyed God’s directions. Noah built an “ark of cypress wood… 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.”

Noah—and Evan—did not give up. They continued to choose to follow God. They made a daily decision to obey, to listen, and to have faith. They made a daily decision about who their audience would be. Their audience would not be people—the loud voices of the world that try to drown out God’s “still, small whisper.” Instead, their audience would be the God of the heavens—the One they sought to please.

Genesis 6:11–22 (NLT) says:

Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence… So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures… Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar… Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high… Bring a pair of every kind of animal… And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”

And then this powerful line concludes the passage:

“So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.”

Regardless of the snickers, the laughter, the looks, and the ridicule, Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him. Noah knew whose he was—and whom he served.

Joyce Meyer writes:

“You will notice in Scripture that Jesus never tried to defend Himself, no matter what He was accused of. Why? Because He knew the truth about Himself, and that was the important thing to Him. He was not addicted to approval from people; therefore, He was free from the tyranny of what they might think of Him or say about Him… He did not need anyone else’s approval except His heavenly Father’s, and He knew He had that.”

I believe Noah had to know this same truth in order to build an ark in the midst of an unbelieving and evil generation. I believe Noah would say confidently that the only approval he needed was his heavenly Father’s.

As Paul writes in Galatians 1:10 (VOICE):

“Do you think I care about the approval of men or about the approval of God? Do you think I am on a mission to please people? If I am still spinning my wheels trying to please men, then there is no way I can be a servant of the Anointed One, the Liberating King.”

This week, pay attention to your “audience.” When you feel pressure, fear, or ridicule, pause and ask, “Who am I trying to please right now?”

Choose daily, like Noah and Evan, to trust God—even when His call feels uncomfortable, unpopular, or impossible.