Latest / Enjoying the Journey / All We Have In God and All He Wants From Us

Transcript

All We Have In God and All He Wants From Us · Enjoying the Journey

• 0:08
  The Book of Ruth begins in dark days, but even
• 0:12
  in the darkness, God was at work. Through loss,
• 0:15
  uncertainty, and unexpected turns, we discover a beautiful
• 0:19
  story of grace, redemption, and hope.
• 0:23
  Join Scott Pauley for this new study, The Gospel According
• 0:27
  to Ruth. Light for Dark Days.
• 0:37
  Do you ever just ponder everything that you have
• 0:41
  in Jesus Christ? It is— it's mind-boggling,
• 0:45
  it's heart-thrilling. I'm telling you, the writer of Hebrews talked about
• 0:49
  the things that accompany salvation. I want to return
• 0:53
  today to Ruth chapter 3 before we any
• 0:56
  further in the story. We've been walking through this passage where Ruth
• 1:00
  comes and she lays down at the feet of
• 1:03
  Boaz in the middle of the night, and they have this conversation
• 1:07
  about the future. It's interesting, this Eastern culture
• 1:12
  and Jewish custom. Basically, she's proposing. That's essentially
• 1:16
  what's going on. There's nothing immoral there, nothing inappropriate there.
• 1:20
  She's making a humble request. And, uh, when she
• 1:23
  proposes, he says, I do. I like that, don't you?
• 1:27
  Uh, the truth of the matter is that's a little foreign to our way of
• 1:31
  thinking today in our Western mindset, but I think there's a
• 1:34
  beautiful picture that when we come to the Lord and we say yes
• 1:38
  to him, he is ready. He's waiting on us.
• 1:41
  That's the picture that is found in Ruth chapter number 3.
• 1:45
  There's a little word though that I want to draw to your attention that is
• 1:48
  used repeatedly In Ruth chapter 3 and verse number 5,
• 1:52
  she says to Naomi, all that thou sayest unto
• 1:55
  me I will do. Verse 6, and she went down unto the floor and
• 1:59
  did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her.
• 2:03
  Verse number 11, and now my daughter, Boaz says
• 2:07
  to her, fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requirest.
• 2:12
  Again, verse number 16, when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, who art thou,
• 2:16
  my daughter? And she told her all that the man
• 2:19
  had done unto her. All, all,
• 2:22
  all, all. Somebody said all means all,
• 2:26
  and that's all all means. All is an amazing word,
• 2:30
  an all-encompassing word. It really is a
• 2:33
  revelation here of all we have in God and all he
• 2:38
  wants from us. In verse 5
• 2:41
  and 6, the all is the all of obedience. That's Ruth's part, a reminder
• 2:45
  that we must do all that God tells us to do. The all of verse
• 2:49
  11 and verse 16 is the all of abundance. That's Boaz's part— a reminder
• 2:53
  and revelation that God has more than enough,
• 2:57
  a picture of the divine sufficiency.
• 3:00
  When you make inquiry, you find sufficiency. When you
• 3:05
  come to the Lord and say, Lord, I need you, the Lord says,
• 3:08
  I'll take care of this. And friend, I want to tell you, when you
• 3:12
  get Jesus, you get it all. I remember Frank Sells
• 3:16
  a little object lesson years and years ago. He had a beautiful
• 3:20
  box, a beautiful decorate— decorative box,
• 3:23
  and he would talk as he started pulling things out of this box.
• 3:27
  Uh, little, little cards with signs on them on strings.
• 3:32
  One would say peace and another joy and blessings.
• 3:35
  And, and he just kept pulling them out, talking about all these good things,
• 3:39
  good things. Would you like this? Would you like this? Would you like this?
• 3:42
  And of course, he had all of us just watching and saying,
• 3:46
  yes, I want peace, and yes, I want joy, yes, I want blessings.
• 3:49
  And then he stopped and said, sorry, you can't have them, can't have them.
• 3:52
  He starts putting them back in the box. What a, what a big
• 3:55
  buildup for a big letdown. What a disappointment. Once he had them
• 3:58
  all back in the box, he closed the box, turned the box around. On the
• 4:01
  other side, it said Jesus Christ. I'll never forget it.
• 4:05
  He said to our, our group of students, You,
• 4:09
  you don't get grace and peace and joy and blessings
• 4:13
  individually disconnected from the person of Jesus,
• 4:16
  but when you get Jesus Christ, you get
• 4:20
  it all. Ruth, when you get Boaz,
• 4:24
  you get it all. And dear sinner, when you get Christ
• 4:28
  as your Savior, you get all that comes with Christ.
• 4:32
  And dear believer, when you get the presence of God, you get all that
• 4:35
  you think you need and much more than than that.
• 4:39
  It's powerful. So we pick up the story again in verse number
• 4:43
  13. He says to her, middle of the night, tarry this night,
• 4:47
  and it shall be in the morning that if he will perform unto thee the
• 4:50
  part of a kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if he will
• 4:53
  not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part
• 4:56
  of a kinsman to thee. As the Lord liveth, lie down until
• 5:01
  the morning. So this is the promise that Boaz makes
• 5:05
  to her. That if the other near kinsman will not do, uh,
• 5:09
  do his part, Boaz says, I'll take care of this.
• 5:12
  I've heard people preach this passage that what the law could not
• 5:15
  do, Christ did. Uh, I, I believe with all my
• 5:19
  heart that only Christ can save. Now that's why
• 5:23
  he came. If there'd been another way, there'd have been another way, but there's not.
• 5:25
  Christ is the way of salvation. So what
• 5:29
  is it we have in God, and what is it he wants from us?
• 5:32
  Well, in Christ you get first of all
• 5:36
  a relationship. That's what you find here, a relationship
• 5:40
  with the kinsman. You get every need met and you get the deepest need met.
• 5:44
  What is that? Love, family, safety, the security of belonging.
• 5:48
  That's what you get in our Lord. But then
• 5:52
  you not only get a relationship, you get resources.
• 5:55
  Because when the morning light comes, he loads
• 5:59
  her down. He says, bring the veil, verse 15, that thou hast upon thee and
• 6:02
  hold it. And when she held it, he measured 6 measures of barley and laid
• 6:06
  it on her, and she went into the city. I love that.
• 6:09
  Repeatedly in the story of Ruth, you've got Ruth carrying huge bushels
• 6:13
  of barley and grain and wheat. And what is this?
• 6:17
  These were valuable commodities. This was the supply.
• 6:21
  Well, I want you to know that you'll get as much as you can hold.
• 6:24
  You will, you will go, in the words of verse number 17, no more away
• 6:29
  empty. There is fullness in Jesus Christ. You get a relationship,
• 6:33
  you get resources, and then as we learned in our last study,
• 6:37
  you get rest. You get the rest you've been
• 6:40
  seeking all along, what everybody wants and only
• 6:44
  God can give. Now, if that's
• 6:48
  all you have in God, here's the question: what is the
• 6:52
  all that he wants from us? It's so simple.
• 6:55
  It's wrapped up in one little word. In verse number 13, it is the word
• 7:00
  tarry. Just wait. Can I tell you what God
• 7:03
  wants from you today? He wants you to wait on him. We don't like to
• 7:06
  wait, do we? We're impatient people. We will get a hap— get it done,
• 7:09
  make it happen, force our way through life. No, no,
• 7:13
  you'll never get God's best and God's blessing that way. He wants one thing.
• 7:17
  He wants you to wait on him. The greatest thing you can do is wait
• 7:20
  on God. Time spent waiting on God is never wasted
• 7:24
  time because in the waiting time, God is always
• 7:29
  working. It really is just another way of saying lay down,
• 7:33
  sit still, tarry this night.
• 7:36
  What is this? This is the stillness of faith.
• 7:40
  This is the rest of our confidence in God.
• 7:43
  And as we wait on him, as we tarry, we discover
• 7:46
  all that we have in him.
• 7:50
  I love it. When she gets home, her mother-in-law says in verse 16,
• 7:53
  who art thou, my daughter? It wasn't that she didn't recognize her. It was,
• 7:57
  what on earth has happened in your life? Look at
• 8:01
  all this you're carrying. Who are you now? I love this thought.
• 8:05
  Boaz asked that same question in verse number 9, who art thou?
• 8:08
  He was wanting confession. But at the end of the story, when Naomi's asking,
• 8:12
  who are you? She's saying, what do you have in possession?
• 8:17
  Think about what you possess in the Lord Jesus
• 8:21
  Christ. And then be willing to wait on him. You have a relationship,
• 8:24
  so rest in that. You have resources, so depend
• 8:28
  on that. You have rest, so be still in that.
• 8:32
  Rejoice today and reflect on all you have in God,
• 8:36
  and remember, all he wants from you is to simply wait.
• 8:41
  Lord, thank you for loving us. Thank you for loving unlovely
• 8:45
  people. Thank you for giving yourself and then giving us every good thing
• 8:48
  that comes with you. We're glad we belong to Christ and
• 8:52
  Christ belongs to us. Help us to be patient, to trust,
• 8:55
  to rest, to wait, to tarry. Help those who are
• 8:59
  listening to me right now to have the grace of God today in the waiting
• 9:02
  season of their life to believe that you are working.
• 9:06
  Thank you, Lord, for all we have in you. May we do all you want
• 9:11
  for us to do today. In Jesus' name,
• 9:14
  amen.
• 9:17
  Thank you for joining us for today's study. If you've enjoyed
• 9:21
  this journey through Ruth, visit us at etj.bible
• 9:25
  and explore our Journey Through Scripture section, where you'll find
• 9:29
  overviews, Bible teaching, and preaching for every book
• 9:33
  of the Bible. Enjoying the Journey is made possible through
• 9:37
  the generous support of listeners just like you. If God leads you to give,
• 9:42
  simply click Give at etj.bible.
• 9:45
  Until next time, keep following God's Word and
• 9:48
  finding Christ's joy.