INTRO: We are MOVING FORWARD!!!

Moving Forward in MATURITY
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil 3:14

Moving Forward on MISSION
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.Matthew 9:37-38

Moving Forward in Personal WORSHIP
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. John 4:23

Moving ForwardTOGETHER, Loving One Another
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another.John 13:34


But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters, go—for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, 13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!” Ruth 1:11-13


WORD POWER: Ministry (diakonia)- service

ANALYSIS/APPLICATION: How do we Minister on our Journey?

1. We Minister by Receiving Others along our Journey.
Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother- in-law, but Ruth clung to her.15 And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said: “Entreat[e] me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will l lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me.”18 When she saw that she [f]was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her……… 22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.Ruth 1:14-18, 22

One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). John 1:40-41

2. We Minister by Resourcing Others along our Journey.
There was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth, of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. 2 So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor. ”And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”…….15 And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”17 So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18 Then she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied.Ruth 2:1-2, 15-18

‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the Lord your God.Leviticus 19:9-10


3. We Minister by Restoring Others along our Journey.
Therefore the close relative said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” So he took off his sandal. 9 And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. 10 Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.” Ruth 4:8-10

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.Romans 5:8