Sermons About Boaz
Where You Go, I Will Go Part 3
***NOTE*** Because of a digital recording glitch, the last ten minutes or so of the sermon were lost in the audio recording. I've spent the last month and half studying prayer, and it has been the most productive and effective study in my entire Christian walk. I can that without any sense of hyperbole. You might ask, "How does one study prayer?" and the answer comes in different forms depending upon whom you ask. - Some would do a concordance study of every instance of the word "pray" or "prayer" in the Bible. - Some would do a study of the Psalms. - Some would read books like "Prayer by E.M. Bounds or "Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home" by Richard Foster All of these are good plans, and I think you could learn a lot by doing them. I however followed the example of a good friend who just….prayed. Now, I've written my prayers out in journals for years because closing my eyes means going to sleep, so with a few helps, I have journaled through the various petitions of the Lord's Prayer now for about a month and a half, and I think I've learned as much about myself as I have about God. I've learned that one of two things happen when you prayer continually about a desire: you either grow comfortable with God's plan and His timing or you grow discontent and bitter with it. This contentment or bitterness of course rises out of whether or not you think God is giving you what you really think is best. I guess a good question to ask would be, "What happens to the heart when you ask God for something for 40 straight days and nothing seems to happen?" Let's be honest. Praying for 40 days in a row may seem like a pretty long time in terms of discipline and passion, but 40 days in a row ain't nothing in light of eternity and how God works His plan. Don't get me wrong. I would love to hear from any of you folks online or the folks at Sovereign King that you are experiencing the joy of a disciplined, prolonged time over prayer over the last 40 days. It is just that none of us have any right to get too proud of ourselves because we got 40 days closer to obeying I Thessalonians 5:17 that says, "Pray without ceasing." We have to remember. God is not impressed with our obedience. It is what He expects from us. Yet still, what happens to the heart if we continue to pray for something and we feel that those prayers are going either unheard or ignored? You know there is a story about how Augustine came to faith. If you read his book "Confessions" you find that Augustine's mother Monica was a godly woman who prayed for her very rebellious son. In fact, at one point, she kicked him out of the house he was so rebellious. Day and night, Monica prayed and cried that Augustine would repent of his sins and profess faith in Jesus Christ. After praying and praying and crying and crying, Monica sought the wisdom of a local bishop. His response was that she should be consoled because the son of so many tears could not be lost to Christ. Of course, years later, Augustine finally professed faith in Christ and became an incredible early church father articulating great doctrines for the church. That story ends well, but it doesn't always. I wish we could say with that Bishop that enough perseverance and enough tears could change God's mind, but the God of the universe doesn't have a beaker full of your tears where He measures your sincerity. He is not waiting for you to hit some unknown amount of sorrow before He relents. No, the promise of answered prayer comes in 1 John 5:14-15 "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." Pray the will of God and God answers our requests. But the problem is, outside of the commands of scripture, we don't know the will of God which leaves us petitioning and waiting. As we approach Ruth Chapter 3 this week, we are going to see Ruth and Naomi have high and big hopes for what God might do. They do their part by obeying and keeping to God's word, but along the way, they too have to wait and see what God will do. So as we approach the scriptures this week at Sovereign King, we hope to answer one Big Picture Question. Big Picture Question: Knowing that all of God's decrees and desires come to pass, what is the proper posture of the believer while they wait?
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God at Work
GK Chesterton once said that there are two types of people in this world: those that think the wind causes the trees to move and those that think the trees cause the wind to blow. Chesterton was criticizing people who are oblivious to forces other than themselves in this world. He was criticizing the myopic, tiny world that most people live in which reduces each person to their own god and the world to their own little playground. You know these folks and at times you may be that person yourself: - This is when you take full credit for your accomplishments. - You describe yourself as a self-made man or women - You never get around to thanking God for the way He blesses you. - You never ask God for help. - You always assume you are the smartest person in the room and try to prove it - In some ways, being a Christian makes you feel morally and intellectually superior and that gives you a thrill. Chesterton's observation is akin to the person who never makes mention or thought of God until things in this world do not go there way. Unfortunately, so much of Christianity reduces God to a self-help guru who promises take our lives free of care. Has God done that in the past? Yes, He has kept His people free of sickness at times and He has blessed His people immeasurably with wealth at times. But there are not promises in Scripture that God intends a life free of pain and sorrow for His children. You may not believe in the health and wealth theology but ask yourself what your affection for God is like in difficult times. If your affection for God rises when life is good and dims when life is bad, you have more in common with the health and wealth folks than you think. Reducing scripture to such thinking as "God always intends richness and health for His people" makes God our handmaid, and the God of the Universe is no one's Handmaid. Chesterton's observation is insightful in many ways especially if we consider what we talked about last week at Sovereign King. After examining Ruth 1, we walked away with a picture of God not merely as the reporter of stories in the Bible. Instead, we see that God presents Himself as the author of all circumstances. He guides and directs our steps, and He is the one who ordains the good and the calamity of life. He does all things for one reason: His glory. This is a hard truth to consider. But folks are either one or the other from the Chesterton's quote. People will either live their lives with such entitlement, such manifest destiny, such arrogant pride really, they think they move the trees. They feel that God has no say or play in their world so they live and die, rise and fall by their own efforts and talents. Or people can live with the reality that God has called us to live and work faithfully according to His commandments while we know that as Job 23 says, it is His decrees and desires that are accomplished and not ours. The question is, which one practically are you living as? I'm sure everyone here that professes Jesus Christ as their Savior would say, "God moves the trees. God moves my life. I'm not arrogant enough to think I'm the god of my life." But when you make life decisions without seeking God's wisdom, when you neglect Scriptural wisdom day in and day out, when you outwardly disobey commandments that you know God has given to guide and protect His children, how functionally different are you than those that think they move the trees? This week at Sovereign King, we will return to the book of Ruth, and we will ask our big picture question: Big Picture Question: God is no less active in our lives when He works behind the scenes, so what steps are necessary for you to be aware of His activity and how would that awareness change your life?
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The Story of Ruth
Part two of the series on Fellowship, involving the element of kindness through the story of Ruth & the truths about kindness revealed in the relationships she had with Naomi, Boaz, and God.
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