The following is a lightly edited transcript and may contain errors.
Contents
What This Book Is Not
Blessings of the Footstool and the Throne
Duty over Feelings
The Family
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray. Lord, we do thank you for the new members. We thank you for the work that you’re doing here. We thank you for their testimony, their encouragement. We pray we’d be a blessing to them and their families, and they likewise would be a blessing to us and the members here, God, and that they would serve you, glorify you, love you, that they would flourish here in their faith, Lord. Father, we want to remember and come before you and ask for your mercy and grace on Pastor Smith’s wife Glenda, as well as Pastor Smith’s kids, as they continue to mourn the loss of their husband, of their father. So be with them. I know Glenda is up here in the States, taking care of things. And so let her be able to get all the nuts and bolts taken care of. Pray that you would give them a time to mourn, and a time to grieve. Work out the details as she heads back to Belize as well. I know there’ll be a funeral there too, so help all that to come together as well. I pray that the church in Belize would be the church to Glenda and would minister to her and love her. I know they will, but let them love well. And Lord, we thank you that we can even form international relationships and that we can have a commonality that far exceeds skin color or nationality or ethnicity, God. We have a commonality in the union of Christ. And so we thank you for that. Those that know you, Lord, have the hope of the gospel. We have the hope of the resurrection, and that we will be united with you one day, and that those that have gone before us we will see again, Lord. Thanks for Pastor Ed and Dinah being able to finally come to the US. I pray that their [audio unclear] to bless that and continue to have it grow, God, and that whatever role, Lord, we play with their church, with their ministry, with their family, God, let it continue to be blessed by you. We thank you for all the years of ministry we’ve had alongside them indirectly, but also just getting to know them and build friendships and relationships. We pray, God, that now as we continue to look to your word, that we would be students of your word, that if we call ourselves disciples, then may we act like disciples and be learners. So help us to learn today, Lord, from your word, help us to receive from your word, help us to seek you, God, fully, completely, entirely. We thank you that by your Spirit that’s possible. So fill us now with your Spirit to hear from you from your word, we pray in [audio unclear]
What This Book Is Not
Let’s start with a couple, well, with at least one question. Who is the main character, the main human character in the book of Ruth? Naomi. It’s not Ruth, it’s not Boaz, it’s Naomi. Look how the book begins. Look in Ruth chapter 1.
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. (Ruth 1:1–5)
So it starts out with the family. It narrows down rather quickly to Naomi and the two daughters-in-law. And then look how it ends in chapter 4. It ends again with Naomi. Verse 14:
Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. (Ruth 4:14–17)
So this is Naomi’s story from beginning to end. But let’s talk for a moment what this book isn’t about. And I’ve mentioned it probably towards the very beginning. But let’s talk about it. One, it’s not the singles’ guide to living. All right. That can be the motif around which we read the book, but that would be mistaken. It’s not the singles’ guide to living. There might be things we can glean here about living the single life, but that is clearly not the main emphasis of the book. It’s actually not a love story between two people. That’s not the emphasis. There’s devotionals, there’s Bible studies out there for single women and it tells them go find your Boaz. Well, it’s really not a love story between two people. It’s also not a teaching that if we follow the Lord, he’ll bless us. Now, does he bless us at times? Yes. But that’s not what this book is trying to teach, that if we’re faithful to the Lord and follow him, look at how he’ll bless us. No, that’s not what the story is trying to communicate. So this really points us to some specific things the book of Ruth additionally does not teach. It does not teach that if we’re childless, God will give us a child. And that’s important. Not every barren lady ends up getting pregnant. And the ones that we read about in Scripture, the reason they stick out is because there are a handful of stories like that. We think of Rachel with Benjamin and Joseph. We think of Hannah with Samuel. We think of Elizabeth with John the Baptist. But why do those stories stick out? Because it is clear that God intervenes into the situation to remove the woman’s barrenness and he removes it and it’s a big deal. But it doesn’t teach us here that if we’re childless God will give us a child. It also doesn’t teach us if we’re unmarried that God will give us a godly spouse. It doesn’t teach us that. That if we just are faithful, then he’s going to bless us with a spouse, and it’s going to be amazing. Now there’s many single people who would like to be married. Many single people would like to be married, and they’re not. There’s many married people. I don’t even know what’s funny about that. There’s many married people who might not be married to a godly spouse, right? Oh, you thought I was going to say there’s many married people that don’t want to be married? I got you. I wasn’t going there. No, there’s many married people, they might not be married to a godly spouse, but they’re married and they need to be faithful to their vows, yes? They need to be faithful. We also don’t see that if we are sullen or downcast, that God will come along and make us cheerful. Now, does he make us cheerful? Can he? Yes? Yes. Does he give us joy? Yes. If you have the Spirit, you should have joy. But sometimes we think, well, God’s just going to come along and take care of everything and it’s all going to be peachy. No, some people go through some pretty tragic things and some people their lives are filled with a lot of sorrow and a lot of sadness.
What’s important to remember for those people and for all of us is really this. It’s we’re actually living, if we wanted to put ourselves in this story in a loose sense. We’re actually living at the end of chapter 3. Like we’re kind of like, oh, like what is going to happen now? We know what’s going to happen, but we’re right at the precipice before the real climax of the story occurs. Because for us, we’re like, we’re living in the end times, but we’re waiting for Christ to return. We’re waiting for our Redeemer to come and intercede and give us the full redemption that we’re longing for. So we’re kind of like chapter 3 there, which means what? Well, at that point, there was a lot of things that were unresolved. There was still sullenness or downcastness. But for us, and for everyone who believes, the story is not complete. I mean, we’re just like Ruth waiting to see what happens. We actually know what happens. The groom has yet to appear, but what? He promises to come. Right? The groom has not yet come for his bride. The wedding feast of the Lamb has not yet occurred, but it will occur. So we’re kind of in that chapter, end of chapter 3, going into chapter 4. We’re waiting for our own chapter 4, but we know, unlike Ruth and Naomi, we know it’s going to occur. We know the end. So if we’re so downcast, if we’re living more like the beginning of Job than the end of Job, we can still take great comfort and hope because we have a Redeemer who does promise to come and redeem us for his own. If you have Christ, you have everything you need, everything you need for the eschaton, for the end of this age, right? When Christ comes and judges the living and the dead, you’re going to receive the crown of life. So as we see and know, God has many stories in his word. Some have happy endings, and some don’t. But the ultimate ending for all who believe in Christ is always happy and joyous.
Blessings of the Footstool and the Throne
And the other thing is this, God gives many material and physical blessings in this age to many people, but not to everyone. I mean, if we only took maybe the US as a snapshot, we might not necessarily think that. But if we take the world as a whole and we look at believers, many of them live in abject poverty. I’m not talking American poverty, I’m talking third-world poverty. And you see that and it strikes you in the heart pretty bad. Abject poverty. There is no guarantee of any material or physical blessings in this age. Now we are guaranteed spiritual riches in Christ and we received the first fruits of that now, yes? And even any of the physical blessings that you have, the material possessions, that’s the first fruits of what’s to come and what is to come. We’re not just going to be living like little angels on clouds, right? That’s kind of weird. No, we’re going to have a glorified body. Christ’s physical body was raised from the dead, yes? Physically raised. But guess what? Our body will be too. You know, say we’re laying people into their grave. That body, there’s a one-to-one correspondence. That body will one day rise. It will rise in fullness of life. Well, guess what? We will one day have that glorified body and we’re going to be living, the Bible says, Revelation, a new heavens and a new earth. A new heavens and a new earth. So we’re not going to be floating on clouds. We’re going to be living in a new heavens with a glorified body, doing glorified things. So God gives many material and physical blessings to some now, but the blessings will overflow and overflow and overflow. And this is just, it’s just a little drop of water in the ocean of eternity. So I would much rather have what God has for us in store and be less here than to have it all now and be found wanting on the last day when I appear before Christ for judgment. True? The best of the best of the best of the best of the best days for an unbeliever here won’t even come close to the worst of the worst of the worst days, if there even is such a thing as a worst day for a believer in heaven. It won’t even come close. What they will experience? No. It will be joyful bliss. It will be forevermore bliss. It will be forevermore in Christ’s presence. We’re going to be worshiping him for all eternity in all sorts of different ways, with voices, with serving one another. It’s going to be a beautiful, beautiful thing, but we have to make it to the end, don’t we? We have to persevere. We have to cross the finish line. And does everyone faithfully cross? Do they? They don’t. But make sure you’re one of the ones that finishes. You know Pastor Smith, he was faithful to the end. Our dear sister Kim Ward was faithful to the end. All right, she handed off the baton, she ran the race, she fought the fight. What about you? But we won’t know fully until each one of us breathe our last. But commit to yourself. Commit to the Lord that you will finish and finish well. Don’t be one of those ones that stumbles. Some of you guys are in your later years. Maybe you see the finish line in sight. I mean, you see those races sometimes. The guy is in literally, I’ve seen those videos where the runner’s in first place. And he can see the finish line. It’s probably just less than 100 meters away. And what happens, he stumbles. He stumbles. And sometimes, he faints. He doesn’t finish. No, finish. It’s been a long race for some of you. I can tell. No, it’s been a long race. And you’ve been faithful thus far. So finish well. It’s a marathon. It’s not a sprint, so pace, but finish. Make sure you finish. What God has in store is amazing.
So listen, our disappointment at times, and this is very important, so hear me. Our disappointment at times with our heavenly Father comes because we confuse the ages. We confuse this present age with the age to come. And so we start to think that the things that we expect in this current age, they’re actually reserved for the future age. And so we want to live now like it’s heaven on earth. That’s not what God says. In this life, there will be tribulation. That’s what he says. Jesus himself to his disciples, in John, there will be tribulation, there will be affliction, there’s going to be heartache, there’s going to be sorrow. It does have shortcomings. It does have sin, but not the next age. Make sure you’re in that next age. The Puritan John Flavel, he writes, I’m quoting an author here, of the blessings of the footstool and the blessings of the throne. By the blessings of the throne, the forgiveness of sins, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, boldness to call God Father, the joy of a cleansed conscience, the sure and certain hope of a resurrection body and the new creation. By the blessings of the footstool, Flavel means blessings of this world, food, drink, happiness, intimacy, parenthood, riches, success, and so on. We can claim and rejoice in the fullness of the blessings of the throne, but we must not deceive ourselves that we shall have the blessings of the footstool in their fullness now. All right, we’re like, we’re at the footstool, right? The blessings of the footstool, but the blessings of the throne await, and we don’t even have the fullness of the blessings of the footstool even now.
Duty over Feelings
I want to look at two prominent themes to look at in the book of Ruth today. First is the theme of duty. Think about duty for a moment when you think of the book of Ruth. Naomi recognizes a duty to her daughters-in-law. Actually, she recognizes her duty is to really release them. If you think about it, go back to your home, right? She’s like, you really don’t owe me anything. And that’s actually true. But she also recognizes once Ruth sticks to her that she has a duty to help Ruth out. And Ruth recognizes a duty to her mother-in-law. Now, maybe she didn’t have a duty once her husband passed away. But once she comes back and once she commits to Naomi, she is committed and she feels a duty to help Naomi. And Boaz recognizes a duty as well, both as the goel and just as an Israelite at the time. He wants to follow God’s law, but he wants to do more than that. He wants to surpass it. But think about it, this duty comes at great cost to each of them. Ruth forsakes everything and travels to a foreign land. Isn’t it a great picture though, of what is required of us to come to know the Lord? What’s required? Forsake it all. You have to forsake it all. What does Paul say? I consider it all rubbish. I mean, he had, you know, if they handed out degrees back then, he would have had like three or four, super smart. He had all the pedigrees, born in the right lineage, trained by the best. And what does he say? It’s rubbish compared to knowing Christ. So if you want to know Christ, if you want to walk with him, guess what? Yeah, you had to come before him and forsake it all. Forsake it all. For who? For Jesus. So Ruth forsakes everything. She probably didn’t feel like forsaking everything, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Boaz intercedes as the redeemer. He takes on the role. He wasn’t the primary one, but the primary one fails. So what does he do? He steps in and he intercedes. Each one of these people, they’re always, always, always focused on the other. So that you have this idea of duty over feelings. Duty over feelings. How they feel is not as important as how they act. And what God requires is more important than what they feel or desire. And that’s true of us too. What God requires of us is more important than what we feel or what we desire. It’s not popular today to say that, but it’s true. Emotions don’t rule Ruth. Emotions don’t rule Naomi. Emotions don’t rule Boaz. Now, at one time, it did kind of get ahold of Naomi. We see it in Ruth 1, right? She’s like, don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara, for I’m bitter. The emotions take over at times. But what does she do? Get them back under control. You got to look at your emotions like a horse. And you’re the rider. You’re the rider. So you’re going to have emotions. All right. You each own a horse. You didn’t know that. Put you on a horse. And you’re the rider and you hold the emotions, but guess what? You must direct them. You must direct the emotions. Nothing wrong with the emotions, but you must learn to guide and tame them. Ride your horse well. Tame it. Guide it. You’re in control of it. And how about each of us? Each one of us has duties. Micah 6:8:
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)
The Lord requires certain things of each one of us, yes? And you have a duty to family. And you have a duty to state. And you have a duty to church. These are requirements from God regarding each of these. We’ve looked at some of them in the past. But duties are spelled out. Regardless of your role in the family, you have a role in the family, and you have duties to the family. Regardless of your role in the state, you’re a citizen of the state, you have responsibilities to the state. And the same with the church. You’re in the church, you’re a member of the church, you have duties, you have responsibilities to the church. These requirements are from God. And what do you do when your feelings start to override the expectations regarding your duties? You ride the horse. You ride the horse and you tame it and you direct it and you guide it. And some of you I understand, you got some wild stallions, okay? I know you all. Some of you. You got to tame that wild stallion. You got to tame it. Otherwise what happens? The horse gets the better of you. You get knocked off your horse.
The Family
Second prominent theme we’ll look at is the family. I mean really it’s all about two families in the book of Ruth. One, we just get a few sentences and that family sort of comes to an end. But then it primarily becomes about another family and how it comes about and how it’s formed. So it’s about a family ending and it’s about a family beginning. So you have Elimelech, right, his family kind of comes to an end. Then you have Naomi and she’s concerned for Ruth and then Boaz comes on the scene, but this whole story is being woven together to show a family coming together. And with Boaz we see biblical masculinity on display. Think about him. I mean he’s industrious. He owns lands, right? He’s got people working under him. God’s blessed him. And what does he do with the blessing? Is he like, ha ha, mine? No. He blesses others, right? That’s the type of boss you’d want. So he’s hardworking. He’s also sacrificial and he’s duty-bound. He’s faithful to family. He’s faithful to God. He’s generous. These are all the traits that Boaz displays. Listen, when we talk about biblical masculinity, biblical masculinity isn’t retreat. It’s sacrificial. And one author said, Adam stayed silent. Jesus spoke truth. Adam hid. Jesus stepped in. Real men don’t run. They lead, protect, and lay down their lives. And that’s what we see from Boaz. That’s what we see from Jesus. Now in modern America, parents obey their children more than children obey their parents. Think about it. Parents obey their children more than children obey their parents. Now parents don’t always obey their children right away. And parents don’t always obey their children cheerfully. Sometimes the parents talk back to the children. And sometimes they complain. But in most American homes, it’s true, children are the real authority and parents dutifully obey them. The children control what the family does, where the family goes, how the family spends its time. Brothers and sisters, this is not God’s plan for the family. It’s not. Amen? Children, obey your parents. It’s that simple. Obey your parents. Parents, if you have it backwards, you need to repent and you need to fix it. When we think about biblical roles in family, the parents have a role and the children have a role. The husband has a role and the wife has a role. Listen, the biblical command for a wife to submit to her husband is not so much a test of her trust in her husband, but her trust in the divine design for marriage. When wives submit to their husbands, they are actually submitting to God. And God only has one design for marriage. But think about that. Do you think God would create the family? He would take so much precision and care. We get a nice description, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. He’s creating the family. He’s putting this institution in place. Do you think he would take that much care and time and then be like, oh, just kind of run and roll however you want. No, that wouldn’t make sense. All that intentionality, care, yeah he’s going to have rules in order for that institution. And the same is true for the state and the same is true for the church. We see the rules laid out. We see the roles laid out. So the husband has a role and the wife has a role and the children have a role. But God only has one design for marriage. So if someone doesn’t believe a wife is called to submit, then you have to put forward an argument for what God’s design is. If you don’t think the husband is the head, you have to put forward an argument from the Scriptures of what God’s design is. But the only design we see is one design. It’s one design, and it’s all the way from Genesis all the way through. Through Revelation it’s there. One design. He has the design for the family. He created the family, but then he has the design for the family. He has a way in which it works, in which it functions, in which the rules are taken and carried out and put into place. And some of you might say, I don’t like that, or I don’t want to. Listen, God’s way is perfect. And your heart is not going to like certain things about God’s word. So we have to decide, is your heart going to be the arbiter of truth, or is God’s word? Now, we’ll all say God’s word, right? But how will we carry that out? How will we act that out? Well, sometimes we let our heart play the little trump card. We let it have the last say. That should not be. It needs to be his word. His way is perfect. So we have to bend our heart to his. Whenever we’re talking about God’s word, brothers and sisters, we’re just talking about God’s heart for his creation and for his people. You ever think about that? Like he loves you so much. He left detailed instructions in all walks of life for you. That should mean we want to be in this because we see his heart revealed over and over and over again. So yeah, there might be parts you don’t like, there might be parts you don’t want to do. God’s way is perfect. His way is perfect, so trust his way. You trust him with your salvation, certainly you can trust him with the design for marriage. You trust him with your salvation, certainly you can trust him with the design for the church. You trust him with your salvation, certainly you can trust him with the design for the state. You have to trust him. A full trust. So his way is perfect. Trust his way. It’s interesting, you know, feminism teaches young girls that they’re slaves when they serve their families. Trapped. But when they serve a Fortune 500 company, they’re free. Listen, one will be bankrupt in about 25 years and the other lasts into eternity. Think about it. And the day you retire, man or woman, from your job, they’ll have you replaced by the end of the month. Regardless of how important your role is, they’ll have you replaced. But your role as mom or dad? You’re irreplaceable. Irreplaceable. So build what lasts. Build what lasts. Even this concept that we’ve seen of the levirate marriage, I mean really it had its grounding and concern for the family. But specifically care for the widowed wife. God wanted to make sure that this woman who lost her husband was provided for. So two purposes we see, yes: first, a son shall be born whose duty it is to care for the widow, his mom, to the end of her life, and second that the son will carry on the name and family line of the dead man, his dad, and his inherited farm in the Promised Land. But what do these verses show? A strong emphasis on the family. Raising up descendants, honoring the dead, and for the woman someone to take care of her, someone to be with her. Listen, you flourish best, and I’ve said this before, but you flourish best when your family flourishes, but it’s kind of like a circle. Your family flourishes and that helps you flourish, but you flourishing helps your family flourish. So the husband’s doing well, that’s going to benefit and help the wife. The wife’s doing well, that’s going to help and benefit the husband. Both are doing well, that really helps the children. So I want the families here to be strengthened, and I want us to belong, flourish, I want us to flourish as believers, but also flourish as families. We have so much individualism, it’s very sad, so much individualism in America. It’s really not how we’re supposed to do life. It’s not how we’re meant to do life, and back to God’s design, it’s not how we’re designed to do life. We’re designed to do it in the context of others, the context of the family, the context of church brothers and sisters. Well, I want to see us flourish as family. I want to see your family individually flourish. This is why you need to make truth your home. Make truth your home. Why? Because God’s design is perfect. Make truth your home. Look to his word. Ground your truths on his truth. Ground your beliefs on his beliefs. Look to him for what you should believe and what you should do. That’s easy to say, it’s hard to do. All right, children, the family’s under attack, kids are seen as a burden, kids are seen as a financial drain, kids are seen as killjoys to your life and lifestyle. Reject that teaching. You have to reject it. We’ve got the younger crowd here, it looks like they are rejecting it. Praise the Lord? I mean, seriously, right? But how do we come along and help them out with that? How do we come along and partner with them? How do we come along and help them flourish? Seriously, those are things we need to talk about. Those are things we need to think about. Some of us are past that period of life where we’re having kids, right? And we’re probably like, whew, man, I get it. But it really doesn’t stop. It really doesn’t. I mean, Lord willing, you’ll have grandchildren. They’re a blessing out here. Right? I don’t know. But it looks like it. But also, I mean, it goes back to the duty with church, right? Like when you’re serving in the catechism or you’re serving in the catechism, you’re ministering to those families. You’re helping those families. You’re letting them come in here and hear the word of God preached. And you’re giving them a small reprieve of time to just bask in God’s presence, to be here, to worship. You’re serving them. It’s a very, it’s very, it’s probably the second most important ministry we have, brothers and sisters. From the actual service, the preaching of the word and the worship, our ministry to our youth. That’s the next generation. I was talking to someone at Kim’s funeral and he was lamenting how his generation, it seemed like many that grew up in the church, had fallen away. And he was putting a percentage on it. It was a large percentage. I don’t disagree with him. It’s really sad. Do you want that to happen here? No, seriously, do you want that to happen here? I’m not just talking with your own kids, I’m talking with the other people here. We’ve had people and kids that have grown up, and then they’ve fallen away. That affects me. It affects you. We shouldn’t want that. So how can we best aim and strive to put those kids, and those parents, and those families in the best places and positions possible for them to flourish, for them to grow, for them to come to truly know Christ, for them to trust him, for them to walk in his ways and run the race all the way to the end. Well, that means we’re going to have to serve them. It means we’re going to have to be willing to get involved. It means we’re going to have to spend some time and energy. That’s what ministry is about. Yeah, it’s draining. It can take a lot from you. I mean, there’s a blessing with it, but it can take a lot from you. But it’s back to the duty, the duty over the emotions. I get it. A lot of people don’t want to serve in the catechism. I get that. [audio unclear] You want to be [audio unclear] every stage of life, that whatever stage of life you’re at right now, it always feels like, at least, for a [audio unclear] stage he has you in, and you should, and if you’re always looking for the next stage or always moaning and complaining about how hard this stage is and it’s the hardest one, no, I got news for you, especially if you’re younger, the next stage is probably even harder. Wish I would have known that 25 years ago. No, I mean there’s just different aspects that are tough and challenging. Having young kids, there’s challenges with that as opposed to having older kids, there’s challenges with having kids out of your house, there’s all sorts of different challenges. There’s all sorts of different blessings as well. Enjoy the blessings of the stage that you’re in. And it’s kind of like Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Well the Lord is sufficient and he makes us, by his power and his grace and his mercy and his Spirit, sufficient for whatever he brings. He will strengthen us for what we need at that time. He will be there. So we need the Lord every single step of the way to deal with, yeah, our feelings and emotions. To teach us and train us how to ride and tame that horse. To walk in dutiful obedience in our families, in the church, and in this day to walk as a godly man, to walk as a godly woman, to walk as a godly husband, to walk as a godly wife, to do that and to say no to the flesh, to slay our evil desires, for God to bless us with godly desires that delight his heart, for us to enjoy his presence forevermore. Psalms. And what does that take from us? Coming before him and seeking him, letting the word direct and dictate how we act. [audio unclear] What did the dutiful Son do? He obeyed the Father. And what does he do? He lays down his own life for you and me. And what does he expect in return? Actually everything. Forsake it all. Forsake it all. Come before me. Humble yourself. Repent. Turn from your wicked ways and turn to me and live. Trust in what I’ve done. And what does he grant? Everything. Eternal life. He grants himself to you, relationship with the Father and with the Son through the Spirit. You get access to the Creator of the world. Muslims, they don’t get access. Hindus, they don’t get access. Buddhists, they don’t get access. And atheists, they don’t get access. No. Who gets access to the throne? His children. His children. Those are the ones who get access. You get access to the Father. Think about that. Any time you want, any time you want, you can commune with your heavenly Father. Any time. You can commune with him. You have that fellowship. You have that. Any single moment, wherever you’re at, you can do that. That’s a privilege that’s only given to his children. You’ve been adopted into the family of God, bought by the precious blood of Jesus, the Lamb without blemish. So come before the Father, enjoy that fellowship. Come before him, learn of his ways. Come before him, seek his wisdom, and what does he do? He grants it in abundance. Humble yourself. Come to Jesus. Trust in him. Trust in the Father. Let’s pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank you that you have laid out for us in your word all sorts of different things, all sorts of different ways that you have for us to walk, to think, to see, to act. We thank you for the book of Ruth, how you work time and time again. Just in those 85 verses we can see that you are powerful, loving, gracious, and you have a plan not just for Ruth, not just for Naomi, not just for Boaz, but for your people and for the world. Thank you, Lord, that you are [audio unclear] to each one of us, that you pour out your mercy and your kindness upon your children in abundance. Let us hear from you, Father, and walk in your ways and do it for your glory, God. We ask that you would give us your Spirit more and more, Lord. Fill us more and more to have the fruit of the Spirit, to grow in wisdom, to grow in knowledge, to serve you better, to seek you more, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Do this all for your glory, Lord. Amen.