subject: Creative Ministry [print this page] Then it began to rainThen it began to rain. It rained and rained and rained" Noah was in that ark for a year and ten days. Do you need some patience right now? Do you need some patience in a particular area in your life? Do you need some patience that"s purposeful? Listen and respond to the voice of God?
Noah tells us something else about listening to God. Listening to God will also give us a heart that"s grateful. After this flood deal was over, after the waters had subsided, the boat rested on Ararat. Noah did not move. He didn"t leave the boat until God said, "Move." Wow, many times in my life I"ve felt like I should move, should get into this, or do that. But I"ve tried not to move until I hear the voice of God.
As senior pastor people have presented me with a lot of creative ministry ideas over the years. Many times, though, I"ve said, "That"s great, but NO, because in our church we don"t move until God tells us to move." When Noah walked out of the ark, what did he do? I"ll tell you what I would have done. I would have gone, "All right, ground. Yeah, a tree. Woooo!" Don"t laugh. You"d do the same thing. I just acted out what you were thinking. Do you know what Noah did? He built an altar. He worshipped God. It"s the first time we have of anyone building an altar. He worshipped.
It"s so easy to worship God when we"re in the flood. It"s so easy to worship God when the animals are making their annoying animal noises. It"s so easy to do it when we"re in a difficult situation. But, when we"ve been blessed, do we still worship Him? I love being a senior pastor. I"m called to do it. I love stories like this; there"s nothing like them. On the other hand, I see some sad stories. Some of the saddest stories I"ve seen over the years go like this. Ed Young Jr says here"s a couple or a single adult, and they"re barely getting along. They"re faithful during the rocky times, during the storms of life. But suddenly, God blesses them in some way: relationally or financially or through their career. All of a sudden, now that they"re "in the money," or "in the know," or they have this power or this position, they put God to the bottom of the deck. They don"t worship Him anymore.
