A Picture of Prayer - Pastor Jeff Schreve

today on from his heart pastor Jeff Shrieve continues his inspiring series beauty for Ashes the story of Ruth do you long for closeness and depth in your relationship with the Lord well that starts with prayer and today you'll discover the blessings that are possible when you like Ruth become a picture of prayer [Music] [Music] [Music] if you have your Bible please turn to Ruth chapter 3 Ruth in the Old Testament Joshua judges Ruth just a little book for chapters right before 1st Samuel which is a much bigger book we've been going through the Book of Ruth and we're in chapter 3 today we're calling this series beauty for Ashes Ruth is a beautiful story about love and redemption but it starts out sad and it ends on a note of praise it starts out with ashes but God is the God who gives beauty for Ashes today we want to look at Ruth chapter 3 a picture of prayer I believe probably most people in this room are familiar with the name James C Dobson James Dobson was the founder of focus on the family he has been powerful voice for the church and for Christianity for many many decades what most people don't know is James Dobson was greatly influenced for Christ by his father James C Dobson senior James Dobson's dad was born in 1911 he died in 1977 and James Dobson jr. credits so much of the power in his life to his father's example and to his father's prayers when his father died they put on his tombstone we have a picture of it just two words under his name James C senior he prayed he prayed and James C Dobson senior did pray and that was the source of the power of his life because his prayer life revealed his relationship the depth of his relationship with the Lord now did you know that you will never grow deep in the Lord if you don't learn how to pray and if you don't regularly pray and bring your heart before him and spend time with God in prayer that's how we grow you know there are two key key elements of the Christian life prayer and the Ministry of the word prayer and the Word of God those two things are kind of like eating and drinking they're like breathing in oxygen and exhaling the the carbon dioxide it that that's that's prayer and the Word of God so we're gonna talk about prayer today now I believe that Ruth chapter three gives us a picture of prayer a picture of drawing near to the Lord in prayer you know the Bible says jesus said himself when he rose from the dead and he was talking to those two guys on the road to emmaus the scripture says he showed them himself in all the scripture the things concerning himself in all the scriptures every part of the Old Testament scripture has to do with Jesus it's all about Jesus and in the Book of Ruth we have some main characters we have Ruth she is the Moabite Widow who leaves Moab to go back to Bethlehem or to go back to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi and they go back to Bethlehem and Naomi is so bitter because in Moab she lost her husband Elimelech and she lost her son male-on-male on was Ruth's husband and she lost her other son Killian and so she comes back empty all she has with her as this Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth but but Ruth was a special lady and so they come back she says don't call me Naomi that name means pleasantness call me Mara because my life is bitter because the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me so we're introduced to these two characters and then in chapter 2 were introduced to another character his name is Boaz the named Boaz means strengths he's a man of great wealth a man of great virtue and excellence he's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and we find out that Boaz is a kinsman of a limb alack he is a kinsman redeemer he is one who can marry Ruth and purchased the land of a lemon a limb elect and carry on the name of a limb elect because the name of a limb elect and his descendants they were all gonna be gone his two sons had died and there were no other sons or no grandsons and so Boaz could be that special kinsman redeemer the Bible talks about that in Deuteronomy chapter 25 about a kinsman redeemer well that's the picture of Jesus Boaz is a picture of Jesus who redeems us Ruth is a picture of you and me you and me who are cut off from God you and you and I who are born in Moab so to speak and we worship a false God and the scripture says concerning the Moabites and the ammonites they were both descendants of lot and his incest with his daughter's God says no ammonite or Moabite shall enter the Assembly of the Lord or their descendants even to the tenth generation shall they ever enter the Assembly of the Lord well you're kind of ripp potato chip if you're an MRI or a Moabite that's where we are we're we're separated from God we're without hope and without God in the world but the story doesn't end there the story ends with Boaz redeeming Ruth and when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ he redeems us well chapter three is a pivotal chapter in Chapter two Ruth meets Boaz and she tells Naomi hey I've met this guy Boaz he was very kind to me and Naomi says Boaz beau has this a close relative he's the kinsman he is Elimelech younger brother he can redeem you Ruth she's thinking all this in her head and she gets excited and the one who was so bitter don't call me Naomi call me Mara cuz my life is so bitter now all of a sudden she starts to have hope hey maybe something could happen here and when we hit chapter 3 Naomi is in full gear playing matchmaker and she says perhaps the Lord is in this and we're gonna see in this chapter a picture of drawing near to the Lord of prayer and how were to come before the Lord and what the Lord wants to do in our lives so the scripture says in proverbs 15 verse 8 the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight you you want to delight the Lord learn how to pray and practice prayer and learn what Ruth did in her relationship with Boaz because that's what we can do in our relationship with our Redeemer Ruth chapter 3 I'll begin reading in verse 1 it says then they owe me Ruth's mother-in-law said to her my daughter shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you it was it was hard in that world to be a widow you needed to have a husband who would protect you and provide for you and so Naomi wants to seek security for her daughter-in-law Ruth verse 2 and now is not Boaz our kinsman with whose maids you were in chapter 2 behold he widows barley at the threshing floor tonight wash yourself therefore and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor but do not make yourself known to the man until he is finished eating and drinking and it shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down then he will tell you what you shall do and Ruth said to her all that you say I will do so she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law had commanded her hey do you want to grow deeper in your relationship with the Lord you grow deeper through prayer and the Ministry of the word and so we're gonna look at prayer today and how to grow deeper there are three things that you can do starting today that you can do to grow deeper in your relationship with the Lord number one you can get clean and presentable before him you say I want to grow closer to the Lord I want to grow deeper in the Lord I want to learn about this thing called prayer cuz I don't think I'd do it very well and so yeah I want to do this well what's the first step first step you have to make yourself clean and presentable before him and that is available to you now she says in verse 3 Ruth or Naomi - Ruth wash yourself literally bathed yourself and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor well we understand what that means we understand about taking a shower we understand about it getting out the soap and cleaning up and then coming out of the shower and putting on some cologne or some perfume and then putting on our Sunday best so to speak we know about that but how how do you do that in the spiritual realm because this is a physical story but we're looking at spiritual truths from the physical story how do you do that how do you wash yourselves and make yourself clean well you first of all you need to confess your sins that's how you get clean you confess your sins to the Lord early in my Christian life I was introduced to the scripture verse first John 1:9 friend of mine called it the Christians bar of soap if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all ALL from all unrighteousness if we confess our sins that's the the clause there if we confess our sins if you don't confess your sins you're not going to be cleansed from all unrighteousness but if you do you will be now the key word in 1st John 1:9 is the word confess what does that mean it's a compound greek word homo legaia it literally means to say the same thing say the same thing as God says about your sins if we say the same thing confess our sins then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so we we come before the Lord with our sins and we say God this is what I did and we name it and we nail it to the cross Lord this is what I did we don't try and sugarcoat it we don't try and dress it up we don't put lipstick on a pig we just say God this is what I did it was horrible it was awful and I say the same thing is you about that sin not only did I break your law but I broke your heart and god I'm so sorry that's a confession of sin and God says if you confess your sin I'll forgive your sin but not only do you need to confess your sins and I need to confess my sins to get myself presentable before the Lord but then you and I we need to cleanse our lives before the Lord this is something that a lot of us don't do and we wonder why we just keep going around in circles almost like a rat a hamster in a wheel we just keep going around and round and round we're not getting anywhere it's because so many of us we don't cleanse our own lives look what it says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1 Paul says this therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God God cleanse you when you confess but then we need to cleanse ourselves we need literally that word means purge yourselves get the things out of your life that are defiling your flesh and your spirit it's not enough just to confess your sins you got to forsake your sins you got to turn from your sins you got to say God I did this and it was wrong I broke your law and I broke your heart and I don't want to do that anymore and so I'm getting this out of my life so many people today they they just think it's okay to well I can have a relationship with God and live with my boyfriend live with my girlfriend I can have a relationship with the God and sleep around I can have a relationship with God and commit adultery I can have a relationship with God and and be involved in a homosexual interaction and they no big deal it's a big deal Hebrews 13:4 let the marriage bed be undefiled for fornicators and adulterers God will judge well I can have a relationship with God and have an x-rated mouth and talk so crassly and so vulgar Lee at school on the team at work whatever it's that's no big deal it's a big deal you're not cleansing yourself in purging yourself of all defilements of flesh and spirit the goal of the Christian life is not to see how close you can get to the edge before you fall off the scripture says in James it's to keep oneself unstained by the world some say why can you know I can have a relationship with God and have bitterness in my heart toward my ex-wife or toward my ex-husband or toward my mother-in-law toward this person that coach this teacher that pastor whoever it might be this best friend who stabbed me in the back and I'm just got something against them no you can't because the Lord says if you don't forgive men their transgressions I won't forgive you very interesting you know Jesus said in the Beatitudes Matthew chapter 5 he said if you go to present your offering and there you remember that your neighbor has something against you why because you did something to wrong your neighbor he said leave your offering go and reconcile yourself with your neighbor and then come and present your offering get things right horizontally so things can be right vertically it's very important to make restitution when we wronged someone that's how that's how you cleanse yourself from every defilement of flesh and spirit did you know that the IRS has a special fund set up it's called the conscience fund it's for people who cheated on their income tax and their conscience bothers them and they send in money anonymously of course they send in money because you don't want to say hey you know you might want to do an audit on me I cheated they don't do that so their conscience bothers them it just a little and soon they send in money they actually it started in 1811 can you believe it they actually had someone send a letter to the IRS and he said I cheated on my taxes sent in a check for $1,000 he said this is to to go to my taxes to make things right I cheated on my taxes and I'm not able to sleep and he said and if I still can't sleep I'll send in the rest you know he took a little step toward purging himself of defiling a flesh and spirit but hey that's important to do and so I confess my sin yeah and then I cleanse myself I change my ways I had a friend of mine and when he came to Christ he used to drink now he probably wouldn't say was an alcoholic but he liked to drink and then he got convicted convicted about drinking even social drinking because he said that's a bad witness and god convicted him about that being a bad witness and he said he went home and he took all his liquor bottles out and he poured him down the drain that's a man who was serious about cleansing himself in purging himself of all defilement of flesh and of spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God so you confess you cleanse your life and then thirdly you'll need to clothe yourself with his righteousness Ruth put on our best clothes so how do we put on spiritually our best clothes Isaiah chapter 61 verse 10 is such a great verse I will rejoice greatly in the Lord my soul will exult in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation he has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness say I don't have to come before the Lord in my own righteousness good I don't have any my righteous these are a filthy rag before God so I put put away the filthy rags I confess my sins to God I repent and turn from those sins and I make whatever adjustments I need to make if I'm living with my boyfriend I get out of there I either get married or get out of there but I don't keep living in sin and I get things right with the people i wronged and I do all that I can to cleanse myself of every defilement of flesh and of spirit and then I clothe myself with the robe of righteousness with the garments of salvation because when you're clothed with the robe of righteousness and the garments of salvation then you can boldly come before God's throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need Ruth did those things in the physical we can do those things in the spiritual so you can get clean and presentable before him second step you can get honest and vulnerable with him you can get honest with the Lord and vulnerable with the Lord look what she did she goes down to the threshing floor now Boaz is a man of great wealth the scripture says and that word wealth could also be translated excellence and virtue it's the same word that's used he uses it to describe Ruth the same Hebrew word so Ruth didn't have a lot of wealth but she had wealth of character and so she goes to the threshing floor now he has it's barley harvest time and so when they take all the barley harvest they take it to this this kind of raised flat area that it was there for the whole town and they were different people would use it at different times they'd kind of schedule it so i'ma like a ball field you scheduled the threshing floor and they would go and if you've never done any farming you don't really know what this is but they put all the the stalks there and then they beat them out or they run the threshing wheel over them with a with an ox and you you separate the grain from the stalks and then you get the stalks out and then you begin to winnow that grain you stick a big fork in it like a pitchfork you throw it up in the air and the wind blows away the chaff and what falls to the ground is just the pure grain and then you have your harvest and so he was there at the threshing floor and Naomi said go he's going to be there tonight you go and so she went and verse 7 when bohat when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain they would stay there so nobody stole their grain and she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down and it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward and behold a woman was lying at his feet he didn't know what that was he ever had that happen with you some your kids come to you the middle of the night I had that happen just this morning I'm sitting working on my sermon my daughter Sarah who works nights at Saint Michael she said dad can you I'm on that it was six o'clock she said dad I'm at the garage can you let me in and I said you sure you know and I was thinking she was outside the garage door but she wasn't and so I turned off the alarm and I opened the door she's right there scared me to death I said what are you doing there she goes why I have a garage door opener goodnight nobody told me is but but so he wakes up and he sees this person there he's startled which makes sense and he said who are you he's hoping it wasn't Freddy Krueger or somebody like that you know he said I am Ruth your maid so spread your covering over your maid for you are a close relative now you might read that and you might not think much about that that was huge for her to say that she is basically saying to Boaz now she can tell a little bit you know you can kind of tell if somebody's interested in you when you're in the dating process hopefully but I remember a girl that I I thought liked me and then I found out she was just very sanguine she's very outgoing and then she's it's like hey hey you were really nice to me but now I see you're really nice to Frank what's the deal and then you're really nice to this guy and this guy that's just the way she was she was just very outgoing so you can't miss it sometimes but she kind of had a sense that you know Boaz might like me I know I like him and so but she goes there and this is what she asks him marry me marry me redeem me she makes herself so vulnerable to him hey guys you know how hard it is sometimes to ask a girl out you call her up your hearts beating through your chest and your I got to ask her out I'm so nervous I and so you get a friend you go go ask her and see if she was she would say cuz we try and make it work out you know so we're it just saves us embarrassment I had a girl one time asked me out thought that's too weird it's like no you know I I mean I just I didn't really ever say anything I just said I've never had that happen this was back you know years ago thirty something years ago girls didn't do that well Ruth did it Ruth asked him to redeem her be my kinsman redeemer you're a close relative you're that kinsman-redeemer guy l is the Hebrew word GA a prostrate al Dayal and so she put herself out there she made herself vulnerable you know you can't get close to the Lord unless you get honest with the Lord unless you get vulnerable with the Lord honesty requires vulnerability or produces vulnerability and that produces intimacy now what can you do that she did with your heavenly Boaz well you and I we can pour out our hearts to the Lord we can get honest with the Lord we can tell him what's in our heart she sought and Naomi wanted for Ruth security you know that's one of Oh a woman's big big big issues and needs in life is security to feel secure that's why it's so incumbent upon a husband to provide for his family so he can make his wife feel secure because she has a need for that just from God and so she had this need Naomi knew she had this need shall I not try and find security for you my daughter that's what she says to her in verse one and so she pours out her heart to Boaz we can pour out our heart to the Lord Psalm 62 verse 8 says trust in him at all times o people pour out your heart before him God is a refuge for us is a place for us in 1st Samuel chapter 1 was the woman who couldn't have any children she was married to Elkanah he had another wife pnina pnina had a bunch of kids Hanna didn't have any kids punana made fun of Hanna because she didn't have any kids and Shana went before the Lord and she was pouring out her heart to him Eli the priest saw Hanna pouring out her heart to the Lord but he just saw her lips moving and then there was no sound he thought she was drunk he said put away your wine why are you still drunk coming before the Lord drunk she said no my lord I haven't been drinking I'm a woman vexed in spirit and I have poured out my soul to the Lord you can do the same thing God is a safe place and when you pour out your heart to the Lord and when you make yourself vulnerable for the Lord appeal to God based on his word what do I pray when I pray pray God's word back to him now I want you to notice something that's really cool really blessed me when I came across this in verse 9 she says I am Ruth your maid not Ruth you're the Moabite us as she is so often referred to I am Ruth your maid I am at your feet I am your humble servant and she said so spread your covering your wings over your maid for you are close relative now that word covering is a good word it's the word that Boaz used when he blessed Ruth in chapter 2 verse 12 he said this to the - Ruth may the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord the God of Israel under whose wings who's covering same word you have come to seek refuge and so in chapter 3 she says to Boaz she says you said that I sought refuge you blessed me for seeking refuge under the covering under the wings of Almighty God under the wings of Yahweh God now I'm asking you to cover me like that to be my kinsman redeemer all God loves it when would pray his word back to him I've talked to many people and I say we not know how to pray I don't know what to pray I mean you you kind of come before the Lord in prayer and you're done in about 40 seconds you know I've been in prayer meetings before when I was a young Christian in college and we would have you know we're all gonna pray there's like six of us to pray and you're kind of you know everybody's in a circle or whatever if you're the sixth guy yeah you know I know I was nervous praying if I didn't think I prayed very well I didn't know how to do it I'm the sixth guy everything's been prayed for you know I'm thinking about has anybody prayed for Albania maybe I'll pray for the Albanians nobody saw and then the fifth guy gets the Albanians like the crud you know so you're just so nervous I remember my discipleship teacher told me he said Jeff I like the way you pray I said you do I'm not very good at it he said yeah but you pray from the heart you don't know what to say you don't have all this church churchianity so you just come before the Lord and you just share your heart he said that's good don't lose that see God likes to hear from your heart but listen as you grow in prayer spend time in God's Word go through the Psalms and you'll find prayers in the Psalms and you can pray those back to God Lord make your face shine upon a God be gracious to me and bless me and cause your face to shine upon me as the scripture says in the Psalms through Moses and David and the psalmist you can pray those back to the - to God he loves that hey you can get honest and vulnerable with him are you honest with the Lord do you really tell him what's going on do you tell him what you're struggling with do you tell him what you're afraid about where do you just tell him what he wants to hear or all your prayers just can't blah blah blah God hates that he doesn't want to hear that he's like listen put away your script talk to me out of your heart what is really going on Ruth did that made our selves on herbal and what happens when you get yourself clean and presentable what happens when you get honest and vulnerable step number three then you can get confidence in the Lord you get confident in him so she really risked it in verse nine and the scripture says in verse ten then he said to her may you be blessed of the Lord my daughter you have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men whether poor or rich he calls her not his maid he calls her not ruth the moabite us he calls her my daughter that's a term of love it's a term of endearment and closeness Hey he accepted her did she have to wonder how's this gonna go I just kind of asked him if he would marry me I don't know it what is he gonna say cuz he could just say hey you're not supposed to be here get out of here and I'm not gonna marry you you're a Moabite woman that could have happened we find out in chapter 4 that the closer brother he doesn't want to marry ruth the moabite us you know people were talking in bethlehem about the Moabite us you marry a Moabite woman and you die that's what happened to Mei Lan and Kelly on nobody once said I don't know hook up with them I might die you're not supposed to marry them and so this she rested and he said may you be blessed of the Lord my daughter he accepted her you know when you pour out your heart to the Lord it's a scary thing it's scary to get vulnerable with anybody it's even scary to get vulnerable with God but God will accept you every single time when you come to him like that when you come to him sit at his feet when you're broken before him when you've gotten yourself clean before him and you come before him and you share your heart and your hopes and your dreams God accepts you jesus said in John 6:37 the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out seasons 1 6 says that we're accepted in the beloved the beloved is Jesus and the moment we receive Jesus the father accepts us in his son so you can be assured that he will accept you and you can be assured of his assurance and blessing see not only will he accept you but he will assure you and he will bless you he to hurt now this is dark he just saw a figure they can't see each other's faces because it's dark and you can just make out a silhouette so he knew somebody was there she had to watch and she had to get there before the Sun went down so she could find out where Boaz was so she could go there and uncover his feet in the middle of the night but he says and now my daughter verse 11 do not fear I will do for you whatever you ask for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence and now it is true I am a close relative however there is a relative closer than I probably a brother that was older than he was that Elimelech was I guess surmise he was the oldest in the family and then there were brothers and Boaz was a younger brother of Elimelech and remember Allah Mallick is Naomi's father-in-law Boaz is quite a bit older than Boaz is quite a bit older than Ruth Elimelech is roots father-in-law I got that confused and so he's older he said you didn't go after young men like you could have and you want me and so you're a woman of excellence he says but there's a relative closer there's a brother closer remain this night verse 13 and one morning comes if he will redeem you good let him redeem you but if he does not wish to redeem you then I will redeem you as the Lord lives lie down until morning so she lay at his feet until morning and rose before one could recognize another and he said let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor again he said give me the cloak that is on you and hold it so she held it and he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her then she went into the city not only does the Lord accept us but he assures us and he blesses us to hear from Boaz this mouth do not be afraid in it wonderful when your Redeemer says to you do not be afraid we tend to get so afraid that's why the Bible is so Ripley with God saying do not fear do not fear do not fear do not fear because we're just human we get afraid David the mighty warrior the guy that went up against Goliath with a sling and five stones he got afraid he said in Psalm 56 verse three when I'm afraid I will put my trust in deed not if I ever get afraid God you know cuz I got a no fear shirt on God and I don't ever get afraid he got afraid everybody gets afraid it's okay to be afraid but when I'm afraid I put my trust in you and Boaz says to her so sweetly don't be afraid my daughter I'll take care of you I will redeem you unless the closer brother redeems you but you can be assured that you will be redeemed by tomorrow to hear the Lord assure us that that is so important and see she can't see him all she's got is his word we can't see the Lord but we have his word in his word of assurance to us Paul went through two difficult times really difficult times in his ministry once in Corinth and once in Jerusalem and in both those times when it was the darkest the Lord came to him and said don't be afraid Paul don't be afraid Paul take courage Paul I'm with you but not only does he assure us through his word he blesses us he bless truth big time because they they got up early before one could recognize another he didn't want anyone spreading any gossip that said Oh Ruth was at the threshing floor last night with Boaz I think something might have gone on there nothing went on there she's a woman of excellence but he got her up early they got up so she could leave and nobody could start spreading gossip you know gossips don't need any truth they just go with whatever they they can get so he he said but don't go home to your mother-in-law empty-handed and he measured out six measures of barley grain for her that's like 60 pounds he probably put it she had an outer cloak he probably put it in the outer cloak and then she carried it on her head like you've seen many women do in other countries because you can carry a lot of weight on your head it'd be hard to carry 60 pounds like that to go back home but she probably carried it on her head and then she it was blessed now God is a God who loves to bless us and if you want to be blessed one thing is critical you got to get yourself on blessing ground she's a woman of excellence be a person of excellence and God can bless you Psalm 84 verse 11 for the Lord God is a Sun and shield the Lord gives Grace and glory no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly if you will walk with God uprightly if you'll walk in the light with him you fre got up to bless your life no good thing to see withhold from those who walk up like rightly so he will assure you and bless you and he'll work for you she goes home to her mother-in-law verse 16 and when she came to her mother-in-law she said how did it go my daughter and Ruth told her all that the man had done for her and she said these six measures of barley he gave to me for he said do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed word to all you guys getting ready to marry somebody be good to your wife's mother she likes that verse 18 then she said wait my daughter until you know how the matter turns out for the man will not rest until he has settled it today wait my daughter he's gonna work for you but you know what you have to do you have to wait you have to wait man that's the hardest thing to do in it to wait on God God doesn't seem to move as quickly as we want him to move most of the times his ways are not our ways and so what does the Lord say to us wait for the Lord be strong and let your heart take her just wait for him although God I want you to do it now presto now no wait and that was what Naomi said to Ruth wait wait my daughter maybe that's God's word for you today you're getting ready to bail on a commitment that you made to your wife to your husband to your family and maybe things aren't working out quite right at your job and you're mad and you're frustrated wait on the Lord be strong and let your heart take her just wait for the Lord on my front porch laQuita Osbourne wrote on a big piece of wood for Debbie and me an art project and it has the verse Isaiah 64 verse 4 for since the world began no ear has heard and no eye has seen a god like you who works for those who wait for him he works for those who wait for him you know what no me could what Ruth could have done she could have followed Boaz around well I'll go with you to the gate he's gonna go to the gate in chapter 4 I'll go with you I'll try and help I'll find out who this other closer relative is and tell him that unlike him I'll try and finagle and I'll try and work I'll try and grease the skids I'll try and do something no you said at home you wait we get ourselves in trouble when we try and help God out you know Abraham tried to help God out and getting a son and so he and Sarah came up with the plan will sleep with Hagar have a son that way that didn't help God out that created all kinds of problems wait on the Lord what did Ruth do to deepen her relationship to be an example for you and me how we can deepen our relationship with the Lord she got herself presentable and clean she got herself honest and vulnerable and she got and put her confidence in the Lord and in his word her Lord Boaz and in his word and she trusted him to do just like he promised and what she did you can do and it can start to day we're gonna close out today and the steps are open to pray many of you need to pray this whole message is about prayer many of you have a big burden you have a big problem you are afraid about the future and maybe your future that you're afraid about is on Monday and God invites you to come to the throne of grace to pray to receive mercy maybe you need for God to forgive you and you haven't really gotten serious about confessing your sin and cleansing that and getting that out of your life and ending relationships that are tearing you down and ruining your relationship with God today is the day to make that right today is the day to let the Lord have his way a friend I don't know what has gone on in your life I don't know what is happening right now but I do know that God loves you and God knows all about you and God wants to do a miracle in your life and it starts by opening the door to him listen if you're watching today and you're not certain that you have a personal relationship with Jesus today is the day for you just pray this simple prayer from your heart just say Lord Jesus I need you I know that I'm a sinner and I'm lost and I can't save myself but I believe Jesus that you are God in the flesh I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose again from the dead and I believe that you love me and want to save me and forgive me and right now Jesus I ask you to come into my heart forgive me of all my sins be my Lord and Savior I surrender all to you my friend if you'll pray that kind of prayer and mean it the Lord will come in and your life will never be the same I would love to hear from you to know that you're watching to know that God is using this broadcast to make a difference in your life to know that you just prayed that prayer to receive Christ as Savior and Lord please take the time to call that toll-free number on your screen write me email me let me know what's going on and how we can pray for you you really are important to God and you're important to us and we're here for you from his heart is the viewer supported broadcast ministry of dr. Jeff Shrieve who believes that no matter how badly you've messed up in life God still loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life you can find out more about that plan when you go - from his heart dot o-r-g [Music]

Channel: From His Heart Ministries

Views: 1,450

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: VB8VbXINDXY

Length: 43min 7sec (2587 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020