Lesson 5: Service

The Ark speaks…SERVICE.  What we do?  We are God’s people.  Like Noah, we witness God in our community.  We live for this to share Good News of Jesus Christ.  We are The Ark people in our generation.  How can we serve our neighbours?  How can we influence our community?  From Noah, we can simply gain two serving principles of how to have a positive influence among our friends and neighbours.

First is having faith to depend on God even the task seemed to be not possible like in Noah’s case.  God commanded Noah to build an ark, a huge cruise which Noah neither has any electrical tools to help out nor sufficient manpower to construct, not mentioned he was not an engineer nor a professional ship builder.  The task was beyond his imagination.  And in fact, it was not logical.  First, the Ark has to be built on dry land, a couple hundred kilometres from the nearest coast.  If I were Noah, how can I put it in water once it had been built?  Second, it was never rain (not only in southern California, just a song…but also…) on the whole earth up to the time of flood.  Noah had never been experiencing rain.  What is rain?  Noah couldn’t understand.  Third, how Noah could bring all animals into The Ark and let them live together harmony?  Only just imagine would make him crazy!  To Noah, all these doubts and worries condensed into a single key: faith.  “God, I don’t understand.  I want the whole picture behind.  I would do it and obey You, God, but You let me know Your whole plan and what the future looks like.”  The Bible says Noah didn’t question God.  He projected his faith not to himself but God.  I don’t know all but God knows all.  It’s not possible on my own, but God can.  Noah depended on God even the task was hard and unimaginable huge.  He responded: God, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.   Genesis 6:22 says this, “Noah did everything that God commanded him.”  Even it surpassed his intellect, Noah took action to obey what God commanded him to do.  The Bible didn’t say Noah asked God why?  Faith is obeying God even when we don’t understand, even it doesn’t make sense and even we don’t know why.  We don’t know what the next will be but God knows the whole picture.  Our human part is to believe in God and take courage in faith to depend on Him to follow His command.  The rest leaves in His hand.  It is God’s business.

What next we learn from Noah how to serve is his persistence.  Noah never gave up.  He insisted, persisted and refused to throw out white towel.  The Bible says Noah took 120 years to build The Ark.  Can we imagine how we can maintain passion for such a long project or ministry that take us 120 years?  Moreover, in the building period, Noah was under unfavourable pressure tempted him to give up.  No one supported his building project.  No church, no fellowships, no friends to give helping hands or cheer him up.  Instead, you can imagine his neighbours teased him, laughed at him that oh Noah, you don’t enjoy life?  Come on.  Go and take a pretty girl or running around beautiful women.  But Noah didn’t.  He knew God’s judgement would certainly come.  He wasted no time and took the opportunity doing God’s work.  May be sometimes he felt lonely.  He’s fatigue.  He’s ridiculed continuously.  Even he hadn’t seen any result, he demonstrated a model of persistence and faith and determination.  God loves this kind of people to serve.  And why Noah has such extraordinary persistence?  The key is “Noah walked faithfully with God.” (Genesis 6:9).  Noah and God were close friends.  It was not one time shot.  The Bible tells us it was a continuing daily practice of Noah walked genuinely, closely connected with God.  Even though there was no sign of flood at time of building period.  Noah believed God.  He built The Ark and saved his family.  His belief in God was in direct contrast to the disbelief of the world in his time.  Noah’s belief condemned disbelief of his generation.

Noah served God in difficult moments.  Anyways, any time we serve God is difficult.  Noah demonstrated two significant serving qualities – faith to depend on God and persistence to refuse give up.  Why God still put you here on earth?  Your greatest task is to share Good News of Jesus Christ to your family, friends and neighbours.  Invite them in Jesus Christ, just as Noah on one hand built The Ark, the other hand preached to invite people join The Ark to enjoy God’s saving grace.  A car bumper reminds us, “Don’t leave the earth without Jesus.”