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.
B. ILLUSTRATION
1. In the article, “178 Seconds to Live,” it tells the results of 20 pilots in a simulator. Each of the pilots were skilled aviators, but had never been trained in a simulator.
2. As long as the weather was good, they were all experts in flight. But the simulator was programmed to introduce dangerous weather patterns to enhance their training. The pilots were told to keep their planes under control.
3. All 20 pilots lost control of their planes and crashed in an average of 178 seconds. In GOOD weather they were good pilots, but they couldn’t survive 3 minutes in BAD weather!
4. That’s like many of us. We’ve got strong faith as long as our lives are running smoothly, but let disaster strike and we begin to doubt God.
5. God’s Word is our flight manual, to buoy us in storms. Stay in the Word and it will keep you on course [McHenry’s Stories, no. 89].
C. HOW GOD CAME THROUGH FOR JOB
1. The Lord appeared in a tornado. God rebuked Job’s friends and upheld Job. Job was healed of his sores. The Bible says, “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part” (Job 42:12).
2. The Lord gave him twice as many flocks as he’d lost and gave him 7 sons and 3 daughters. His daughters were said to be more beautiful than all other women in that region. And Job lived an extra 140 years. Wow! And he died old and happy.
III. THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD
A. THIS WOMAN’S CRITICAL CONDITION. Mark 5:25-34 tells the story of a pitifully sick woman.
1. HER DISEASE WAS INCURABLE. It had reached an advanced stage. She’d been very sick for 12 years; that’s a long time.
2. SHE’D HAD MANY DISAPPOINTMENTS: Mark says, “She’d suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.” (5:26).
3. SHE FACED HER PROBLEMS ALONE. No one was there to aid her. Her disease made her unclean; no one could be around her. She felt unworthy.
4. She now had NO MONEY, no gift to give doctor or prophet. She was in poverty; reduced to begging.
5. HER EXTREME SICKNESS AT THAT TIME. She reached a frightful stage of the disease; weak and faint from loss of blood. She couldn’t go much further.
B. BUT GOD CAME THROUGH FOR HER
1. Mark 5:27-29 says, “WHEN SHE HEARD ABOUT JESUS (what wonderful words! hope in the darkness), she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
2. IF YOU WANT REVIVAL, DON’T LOOK AT THE CROWDS! LOOK AT JESUS AND REACH OUT TO HIM! The Bible says that when she touched Jesus, “Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”
3. She met Jesus face to face; what a blessing! Healing automatically went out of Him when she touched Him in faith. He’ll do it for us too!
4. He verified her faith and sent her off healed and with His divine blessing. Undoubtedly, she returned to her family and work again, and her life was restored to happiness.
IV. ASSURANCE OF GOD’S FAITHFULNESS
A. GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS WORD
1. God WILL always come through! He’s never late. His help may appear to be delayed, but delay is not denial. I want to remind you today that if there’s anything that’s been delayed in your life, get ready for an answer. We serve a God Who answers prayer!
2. YOU MAY SAY, “MY SITUATION IS TOO BAD. GOD CAN’T HELP ME! David Brainard, missionary to the Susquehanna, Delaware and Stockbridge Indians once had to preach through an intoxicated interpreter who was so drunk he could barely stand. Yet so mighty is the power of God’s Word, that scores of Indians were converted through the preaching. Brainard's secret was his prayerfulness.
B. STEP OUT AND TRUST
1. It takes TRUST to surrender to God’s will and trust His timing. Sometimes God’s methods can baffle us; ‘What is God up to?’ We must choose to trust God's heart, His will, and His perfect plan for our lives.
2. Know that somehow, some way, God WILL come through for you. Be confident of this! Have faith. Rebuke limited thinking. Say ‘no’ to fear. Refuse to worry. Use the power of God's Word to silence the negative voices in your head telling you that you'll never make it, or that this won't work.
3. We must walk by faith and not by sight, being assured of this: “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose!” Rom. 8:28.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: The Miracle Bible
1. A woman & her family had financial problems and were at risk of losing everything that they owned. She prayed to the Lord for a way out of their debts.
2. As her husband was coming home from work one day, he saw an object fall off the top of the car in front of him. He stopped to get it & found it was a Bible. But the car was already gone.
3. His wife began looking for the owner, contacting people throughout that area. Finally, she got a tip that the owner attended a certain church. She drove there that night and found they were having Wednesday night Bible study.
4. She returned the Bible to its owner. Before she could leave, someone who knew her, told the group of her financial troubles. Everyone began digging in their wallets and purses and handed her enough money to pay a house payment, plus a few extra items that her family needed. God used a lost Bible to meet their needs.
5. It’s amazing the effect the Bible can have on your life!
B. THE CALL
1. Are you going through a difficult time? Can you identify with Naomi, Job, or the sick woman?
2. If you need prayer, slip up your hand to acknowledge it. The most important healing is spiritual healing – particularly salvation. How many need spiritual healing? Slip up your hands.
3. Now I want all those who’ve raised their hands to stand. Step out now and join me at the front. Let’s pray.
4. PRAYER for salvation & inner healing.
