Sermon Info
Summary
Relationships take work! Like most good things in life, a healthy relationship does not just happen. Relationships are not just strengthened via osmosis. You have to work at them. You have to take initiative and be willing to show other people who you really are–which is risky! In every relationship you have, or will have, the more and more you can make it about the other person and less about you, the stronger the relationship will be. Finally, life comes in our relationships when we surrender them all to God and when the building blocks of the relationship are godly things opposed to worldly things. Is there a relationship right now that needs nourished with the things of God? What steps are you going to take this week?
Content
And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Ruth 3:11
Healthy relationships are marked by a high level of initiative, and are nourished with God-honoring things.
Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. Ruth 3:2-3
Character will always carry a relationship further.
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Proverbs 11:2-3
Surround yourself with people you should be listening to!
“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. Ruth 3:5-6
“It’s not about me,” is a relational key.
Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning. Ruth 3:13
Even in seasons of waiting, God does not leave you empty-handed.
When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley,” saying, “Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.” Ruth 3:16-17
