God Will Always Come Through In The End

GOD WILL ALWAYS COME THROUGH IN THE END

Ruth 1:20-2:20

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A wife said, “Nobody told me that when you get a husband, that the ears are sold separately!”

2. Salesman: “This car will seat 6 people without any problems.” Buyer: “I don’t think I know 6 people without any problems!”

3. They say 40 is the new 30, and 50 is the new 40. All I know is, 9 P.M. is the new midnight.

4. I asked my Grandpa, “Paw Paw, after 60 years of marriage, why do you still call Grandma “Darling” & “Beautiful?” Paw Paw said, “To tell the truth, I forgot her name 5 years ago and I’m scared to ask her.”

5. A Preacher told his choir director, “The next time I preach on tithing, DO NOT sing, “Jesus Paid It All” as the background hymn!”

B. A REMARKABLE STORY

1. Vesna Vulovic was a flight attendant on a plane from Stockholm to Belgrade, Serbia in 1972. At 33,000 feet, a terrorist briefcase bomb exploded in the baggage compartment. The JAT plane was blown into pieces and plunged straight down, impacting on the slopes of a snow-covered mountain. Vesna was the sole survivor.

2. She still holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest fall without a parachute and is considered a national hero of the former Yugoslavia. Even more amazing, she wasn’t supposed to be on that plane – the airline got her mixed up with another attendant – also named Vesna!

3. Vesna became a devout Christian in her later years, and according to reports, testified of her miraculous survival in church. What a miracle she lived through such a fall! God is good!

C. THESIS & TITLE

1. Today we’re looking at the wonderful truth that God will always come through for us in the end. We’re looking at the difficulties of 3 Bible saints and see how God answered all their prayers in the end.

2. The title is “God Will Always Come Through In The End!” First let’s consider the life of Naomi.

I. THE BITTER LIFE OF NAOMI

A. MISFORTUNE STRIKES A FAMILY

1. There was a famine in Judah. A Jewish family decided to move to Moab; Elimelech & Naomi, and two sons, Mahlon & Kilion.

2. Both sons grew up and married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. Then, possibly because of some pandemic, Naomi’s husband and both sons died, leaving only the daughters-in-law.

3. Naomi’s loss of husband & 2 sons in Moab was a circumstance that hurt her faith in God. Naomi’s name, given her prophetically, means “pleasant.”

4. That’s what God wants for us! God says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” Jer. 29:11. God is a good God and wants the best for us.

5. But we have an enemy, Satan, who tries to get Christians disillusioned with God. And Naomi became “bitter” about her circumstances, even renaming herself Mara, or “bitter.” (Ruth 1:20)

B. HOW GOD ‘CAME THROUGH’ FOR NAOMI

1. Naomi’s daughter-in-law Ruth (“friendship”) determined not to let Naomi become “bitter,” but to help God’s prophecy about her life –“pleasant” – come true.

2. God worked it so that Ruth met Boaz, a close relative, who immediately liked Ruth. Naomi recognized the hand of God in the meeting, “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He [God] has NOT stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” (2:20) Her faith turned a corner.

3. In the end, Ruth married Boaz and bore a son that was counted as Naomi’s son, named Obed, who became the grandfather of King David! So Naomi became the ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ through the line of David! So Naomi’s life really did become much more than ‘pleasant,’ but a ‘blessed’ life!

II. WHEN GOD ‘CAME THROUGH’ FOR JOB

A. THE TROUBLES OF JOB

1. We know the story of how Job lost all his possessions (workers, flocks, herds): they were stolen or destroyed. Then a house collapsed and his 10 children were all killed! Everything he’d worked for his whole life was in ruins.

2. Next the devil attacked his health with an outbreak of painful sores on him from head to foot.

3. The emotional impact on him was devastating: His world turned dark; he lost his hope; he sank into depression; everything became confusing, disordered, and his faith in God was shaken. He wondered about God’s justice.

4. If all this weren’t bad enough, Job’s 3 best friends showed up and spent many chapters accusing and condemning him as a horrible hypocrite, when actually he was innocent and righteous before God.