Your God, My God

Announcements

Business meeting 8/24 6:30 PM

Billy Graham Prayer and worship night sept, 23 6:30 PM Church of Hope

Sabbath Feast 28th

Men’s bowling night

Christmas Cantata meeting Tuesdays 4 PM

Call to Worship

Say: Let us now begin to worship the Father the Son, the Holy Spirit, Our Call to worship Comes to us from

Psalm 125 NKJV

A Song of Ascents. 1 Those who trust in the Lord Are like Mount Zion, Which cannot be moved, but abides forever. 2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, So the Lord surrounds His people From this time forth and forever. 3 For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest On the land allotted to the righteous, Lest the righteous reach out their hands to iniquity. 4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, And to those who are upright in their hearts. 5 As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways, The Lord shall lead them away With the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!

Introduction

Text

Ruth 1:6–19 NKJV

6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread. 7 Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, 13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!” 14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.” 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her. 19 Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

Illustration

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XLVI Ruth Deciding for God (No. 2,680)

I know a minister, who took out of his pocket an old letter that was nearly worn to pieces; he made a journey from the country to bring it up for me to see. It was not really old, it was worn out because he had so constantly taken it out to read. It was somewhat to this effect. His son had been such a scapegrace, and such a disgrace to his family, that he was helped to go abroad, and he came to London to join the ship. As he had heard his father speak of me, he thought that he would spend his last Thursday night, before starting on the Friday morning, in hearing me in this Tabernacle; and here God met with him, for I was moved by the Holy Spirit to say, “Here you are, Jack; going away from home, from your father’s house. Oh, that the great Father in heaven would take you to himself!” It happened that his name was Jack, so it was the very word for him, and the Lord blessed it to him there and then. He went to America. He did not write to his father to tell him about his conversion till he had had time to prove the reality of it; but when he had been baptized, and had joined the church, and walked consistently for six months, he sent the good news home. The old man said, “I thought he might have been lost at sea, but the Lord had saved him through your preaching. God bless you, sir!” I had a thousand blessings heaped upon my head by that grateful father. It was only a simple sermon that I had preached on a Thursday night, but it was the means of that son’s conversion, and it was the source of great joy to that father. He did not mind about his son being in America, or what he was doing, so long as he had become a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a mercy it would be if this sermon should be blessed as that one was!

Background

Why Did Ruth Say

Ruth 1:16–17 ESV

16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Big Idea

Be the Christian that people cling to

Three ways to do so,

Be a Christian Friend

Be a Christian every day

Be a Christian in Mind

Be a Christian friend, confidant, spouse, parent

Ruth 1:8–9 NKJV

8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

I heard a story at the Billy Graham meeting last week about a man whose brother had walked away from the faith, but had recently started going to him mother’s church. A few weeks later he called in ‘my church.’ It’s a beautiful thing to hear and read.

Tips for Parents and Grandparents

One of the most heart breaking stories I hear is a parent is children who don’t follow their parents in the Lord.

I was a youth pastor and I saw this all the time.

I knew a family that was more committed to baseball then church and when their son graduated he neither went to church nor was good enough the MLB.

Let me encourage you

This is the verse I live by for my parenting

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV

7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

The context here is that this is the generation after the left Egypt. This generation had never known slavery, they’d only known the wilderness, the traveling

Moses is giving them his last address before they were to enter into the promised land.

This now adults had walked with their parents as they taught them the word of God.

When I was a youth pastor I had a student 1 maybe 2 hours a week. I couldn’t work against hours of school or tv or phones. I trusted the Lord, did my job, and trusted God.

I’m here to help you be successful, but you must do the work of the Christian, just like I must in my circles.

Grandparents, you can use this time in your life to go hard for the generations after you. Don’t you want a testimony that says ‘my grandpa served Jesus, my grandma prayed every day for me.’

What a testimony, what a crown of honor.

Husband and wife

Maybe it’s not your children, but your wife, your husband.

Remember 1 Cor. 7:13-16

1 Corinthians 7:13–16 ESV

13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

1 Corinthians 7:13–16 ESV

16 For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?

Quickly, this isn’t justification to be in a relationship with an unbeliever, but If god in his mercy saves you, and your spouse still doesn’t believe you are to stay and know that your presence is an act of blessing in your family

Salt acts salty, light exposes and removes darkness. Your actions, your faith, maybe the vehicle that God uses to save them.

Christian Friend

I know a pastor who is an older man who lives and breaths the mission. He joined a sailing club for his own enjoyment. He while their meet a man who swore and lived like a sailor. He would mention the Lord when he hit his hand, and so on, but the pastor was a straight shooter knew how to be a man. Through their friendship he was able to speak truth into this sailors life after disaster happened by being their.

Hobbies are a great way to get to know those that don’t believe, and a great way to share the faith.

The best friend you could have is one that loves the Lord, people need dependable friends. You Christian can be that.

What if I’m barely making it

if something is worth your time you find it. Let me ask you something is it more costly to fix something already built wrong, or to build it right the first time?

It’s a lot easier to make sure a sampling grows straight and a lot harder to fix a grown tree. By the power of the Holy Spirit you can see things done, but seek to do these relationships improvements today.

Wrapping up

Naomi was salt and light to her pagan daughter's n’laws.

Be a Christian day to day

Ruth 1:8–9 NKJV

8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

Notice two things here:

Mother’s house - This was permission for them to remarry from her, this is a very intimate saying here.

This is a reference to when Isaac took Rebekah into his mother’s tent on the wedding night

Genesis 24:67 NKJV

67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her.

Her Husband - her desire for their safety, security, and provision that a husband could provide.

She was a Christian, she lived in out.

Spurgeon said this:

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XLVI Ruth Deciding for God (No. 2,680)

When a Christian man so lives that others see something about him which they do not perceive in themselves, that is one way in which they are often attracted towards the Christian life. When the sick Christian is patient, when the poor Christian is cheerful, when the believer in Christ is forgiving, generous, tenderhearted, sympathetic, honest, upright, then it is that observers say, “Here is something worth looking at; whence came all this excellence?” And they take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus, and that they have learnt these things of him; and in that way they are themselves inclined to become his followers.

Be a Christian in thought and word

Ruth 1:16–18 ESV

16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

You can see in Ruth’s dialogue is that she learned about the Lord from Naomi.

Her life was one in which that Ruth came to faith because of it.

So how you can do that is to know your word. You learn that by beiging in the Bible, by listening to good sermons, by Sunday school and Wednesday night here. You must be in your word.

You will be asked questions you must know your faith, Paul says this:

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Break this down

How to share the faith

Gentleness -

This word is often parred with self-control, respect, and so on. When someone is wrong some people get pleasure in letting them know, some are quick to correct, some correct without love. Seek when sharing the faith to do so respectfully.

Respect-

deferential, loving, good conduct to another. Have you ever talked down to someone? I’ve been told sometimes I talk way above people’s head. I can tell you I genuinely think people understand what I am saying, so I have learned to make things more accessible, children really help with this.

These attitudes are needed for you to share.

Honor the Lord as Holy -

does the way you share the faith demonstrate Jesus is Holy to you?

Hope

Does this show you actually have hope in Jesus? People want hope, people need hope, does your faith look like hope to others?

Can someone detect you love God? Can someone see it in you word and deed. Do you know the joy of Jesus, the warmth of the Holy Spirit, the weight of our Heavenly father. BTW this will be different for everyone. Some will know God by the work of their hands, some by their feelings, some in their mind.

Defense

Do you know what you believe? is their a reason for your hope, can you articulate the gosepl simply and quickly?

If not please come to Wednesday nights Starting in October, I’ll be teaching how to defend the faith until the new year. You need to know.

Anyone

This one is the hardest point, you need to be able to share with anyone at any level.

Ruth Spoke to Naomi and it connected with her, she saw her need and believed, believed do deeply she would go to the end of the earth with Naomi, that she gave up everything for this God of hers.

Give the Gospel

Benediction

Say: As we close our service of worship dear brother and sister please stand for our benediction and receive by faith this blessing from God

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

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