You Matter To God (Ruth) Series

Ruth

You Do Matter to God!

Introduction

A. No one can say that life is easy

B. Every honest person would admit it is a challenge

C. We often get so discouraged that we want to quit

D. We do not know how to handle everything, the trials the tribulation

E. Ruth had every reason imaginable to give up, to quit.

F. However, she did not she made more then the most of the situation

G. My hope is that we will realize how important we are to God

H. We are going to look at Ruth’s life and see how we can apply her life to ours. WE are going to look at Ruth

a. Living a Faithful life

b. Living a Constant life

c. Living a Risky life

d. Living a valuable life

I. Living a Faithful Life

A. Explanation

1. When we begin reading Ruth we get some background that is very helpful

2. Naomi (Ruth’s mother in law) moved with her husband because of a famine

3. The settled in the country of Moab

4. Naomi had two sons, both were married

5. By some misfortune both sons and Naomi’s husband died

6. She was left all alone with her two daughters in law, Orpah and Ruth

7. Having no reason to stay the three started back to Naomi’s homeland.

8. Naomi then tried to reason with her daughters in law to go back with their parents

9. Orpah decided to leave, you can’t really blame her, there was no reason for her to stay

10. Naomi begged and pleaded with Ruth to do the same

11. Ruth would not. Ruth saw the faith in God that Naomi had and wanted the same. Ruth made one of the classic statements in the bible

12. Read 1:16-18

B. Application

1. How can we apply this to our lives?

2. Ruth choose to stay with Naomi because of her faith

3. It would have been a lot easier to leave Naomi

4. Ruth was not interested in Personal gain

5. She knew that Naomi had nothing materially to offer

6. Ruth showed commitment, sacrifice, love… all this known as faithfulness

7. There are a lot of times we can give up on situations, some times it seems just not worth it

C. Illustration

1. Kid’s Klub can fall into this category. We have talked before about giving it up. There were many times that it seemed to be completely worthless. I can not tell you how many times I have gone home thinking why do we bother, what are we teaching this kids. You know what? There is a difference in their lives

2. God’s rewarding our faithfulness

3. Is there a situation in your life that you feel like quitting or even have?

4. Is God calling you to stay with the situation? To work through the potential problems? To continue to work on a relationship that you feel is going nowhere but you committed to God?

5. Hang in there, it is not easy, look what Ruth went through, but God will reward your faithfulness!

II. Living a Constant Life

A. Explanation

1. Ruth and Naomi arrived back at Naomi’s homeland

2. Naomi is exhausted, tired, depressed, warn out, done in, ect.

3. She is so upset with God and everything else that she tells everyone to call her Mara. Why?

4. Naomi means Pleasant, Mara means Bitter (which side do you think she was leaning toward?

5. Ruth however remained strong, (Read 2:2) she went out and got a job so to speak

6. Understand what Ruth did was the equivalent of pan handling

7. This was not a glamorous job by any stretch of the imagination

8. She walked behind the servants (hence making her lower the servants) and picked up what they dropped. Basically dumpster diving

9. Now she did this without grumbling, complaining, making a big scene. She did this quietly and with constancy. She worked with constancy

10. She hardly took a break

11. Boaz noticed her, notice her constancy

12. Boaz certainly rewards her. He let her do this, made sure no one would make fun of her, gave her extras, and even invited her to lunch, a poor dumpster diving pan handler got to eat with everyone else.

B. Application

1. Let see if this will work today

2. Constancy: To continue, to not quit, to keep on keeping on…

3. Constancy is not easy

4. To continue to do something over and over and over and over

5. But that is what we need to model in our Christian lives

6. We need that constancy while we are at work. Knowing that someone is watching us who does not know Christ. The testimony of constancy can go a long way there