1 CORINTHIANS 13: 11-13 “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.¹³ and now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

The greatest is love, meaning that faith is great. Hope is great, but Love is the greatest. So why should we not look at something great. Hope is a great matter to consider. Hope is a great topic. Hope is a great influence in the life of anyone. So we're looking at hope, why is it important that these three must abide. So it's not just love that must abide even though these three abide, it said the greatest is love. Meaning is not that the three are not important. But of all the three the greatest is love. It's just like you have three people lined up. You say one is tall, right, one is taller then another one is the tallest. Does it mean the others are not tall? They are. But it’s just that one’s height is greater than the others, but they are all tall. So the same way faith, hope, loves these three but the greatest is love. Now let's go back to the book of Ruth. And we're just going to flip through some particular verses. We can't read all of it. So we'll flip through some particular verses.

Ruth 1:6-11, Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread. ⁷ Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. ⁸ And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, and return each to her mother’s house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. ⁹ The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. ¹⁰ And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” ¹¹ 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,

This was the question Naomi was posing to them, when their husbands died and the husband of Naomi. Naomi heard that where she left the land of Judah, the land of praise, God had visited the people; she left with her husband and her family because there was a famine in the land. And she said in search of greener pastures let us go away from here in to the land of Moab. But when they got to the land of Moab something happened to Naomi; first her husband died, after her husband died, Naomi became a widow but she was still consoled by her two sons, then her two sons died. When her two sons died, Naomi heard that God had visited Judah that the presence of the Lord, the hand of the Lord had located Judah and she said the people I came with to Moab, they are no more let me go back to where I am coming from. If you don’t see a road going forward at least you can turn back, that was the case with Naomi, and when Naomi realized that she needed to hold her daughters in law she said I’m going back, and the first statement they made was that which we read in verse 10. Surely we will return with you to your people. Maybe there was something they both saw in Naomi.

They said it’s not that we will just return with you just like that she said, we will return with you to your people, the people of God. Having stayed with you, there's an experience we have seen in your life. There's a presence of God that we have felt, being your daughters, daughters in law, there are something we are seeing we have seen God in your life Naomi, surely without any doubt we will follow you. That's what he said.

But Naomi turned back, she persuaded them to come back. Don't follow me, even if there is hope for me to even give birth to a child, can you wait for them to grow?  This is a scenario we're looking at. And we're going to be drawing lessons from this story. I want you to follow me and we read it up to verse 13. Verse 13 Will you wait for them till they are grown? Will you restrain yourself from having husbands? No. My daughters, for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the end of the Lord has gone out against me. Verse 14 then they lifted up their voices and wept again, they had cried before they cried again. This time surely had changed for Orpah. The Bible says Orpah kissed her mother in law. But Ruth clung to her. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, after all, I really wanted to follow you. But since you have persuaded me to turn away, I will turn away and the she kissed her goodbye. But Ruth clung to her.

Verse 15 and she said, look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people. I want us to note the words here. Your sister-in-law, as gone back to her people and to her gods return after your sister-in-law; so, it’s not just that Orpah return after your sister in law, not just that she returned back to her people, she also returned back to her gods. Is not just that Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye, Orpah also departed from the presence of the Lord that she had encountered in the house of Naomi. We're looking at hope; we are drawing lessons from Ruth. At this time when Ruth was clinging to Naomi, Naomi did not have sons; there was no hope as it were for Ruth to be redeemed through Naomi. Ruth was not seeing anything, but there was the presence of God that she felt. There was a God that she encountered with Naomi and she was not willing to let go.

¹⁶ But Ruth said: “Entreat 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 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 was determined to go with her,  Naomi was not just been carried away by emotions, she was looking out for determination. See, you cannot be hopeful without a determination. You can’t say you have hope. When you are not determined to cling to hold on to something, you have hope because you are holding on to something, you lose hope when you kiss something goodbye. When you see a hopeless person, you see a person that have given up. The person that has said you know what? Bye bye part ways. When you see people that are hopeless they are people that want to kiss this world goodbye. What am I even leaving for? What's left in this world for me?

But when you see hopeful people, you see people that will hold on to something, there is something they are holding on to. See the life of Ruth in this Ruth chapter one and verse 16, and 17 we were reading, it says, entreats me not to leave you. Naomi I have seen God in your life, though you lost your husband and your sons, I can still see the aura of God in your life. I was born in Moab as a Moabite. But there is a distinction between light and darkness. I have seen the light. And I'm not turning back. Verse 18 and when saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking with her. When she saw her determination and hope that this woman has made up her mind. She's not going to let go. This woman has made up her mind that my God will be her God and my people will be her people. She's not going to let go. Number one lesson from the life of Ruth.

Wherever you see God, wherever you see God, I want to repeat it again because I think this is the point that the Holy Spirit would want us to communicate this evening. Wherever you see God hold on to him. Wherever you see God, if you see God in a little child don’t depart. If you see God in your home, don't depart. Wherever you see God, don't depart from it. Orpah saw God in Naomi but she decided to turn back. Ruth saw God in Naomi and she clung to her. Verse 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 barley harvest.

Ruth 2:1-10, Verse 1 There was a relative of Naomi’s husband; a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech, his name was Boas. So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi Please let me go to the field and glean herds of grain after him in whose sight I might find favor. And she said to her, go my daughter. Now I'm going to paraphrase. I'm going to just like summarize the story for us. Now when Ruth decided to follow Naomi the favor of God followed Ruth. See, wherever you see God, wherever you sense, and that's why you need discernment, just don't have false hope. Your hope must be in God is the one that can never fail, and He is the one that can never faint.  

After Orpah kissed Naomi goodbye we heard nothing of her gain. We heard nothing about Orpah again, that was the last time we heard about Orpah. But the story of Ruth continued. Her journey of progress continued. See the Bible says that don't despise the days of little beginnings. Everything about God starts like a seed is small. We won’t see it so much. It will look as if it’s not relevant. It will look as if nothing is happening there. But if you will find God there, if what you see and what you have found is God the Most- High God hold on, hold on don’t let Go. God I have found you and I will hold on. Even though what’s around me is not speaking favorably, I will hope, my hope is in you. No matter what you are going through believe God, have hope in Him, believe God.

A woman that we don’t know her origin, we don’t know where she is coming from but she found something, something that money cannot buy, something that money cannot give her, she abandoned everything and she followed. Eventually, the things that looked as if she had lost she got them back. Do you know that Ruth is the great grandmother of Jesus Christ? Wherever you find God, though the beginning may be small but the latter end will greatly increase, wherever you find God. Don’t give up, Ruth clung to her. Wherever you find God, we prefer to find God and hold on to Him. Wherever you find God, don’t give up, cling to Him. There is something you will see and you will just know that there's God in this place. There's God in this life. There are people you will meet and you will know they carry God, there are places you will go and you will know, God is in this place. Don't judge the person or the place.

They might not look like it today. If what you have truly found is God, the beginning may be small, but the latter end will greatly increase. This is a confidence in God.  God is not a man that He will lie, nor a son of man that He will repent. When God speaks to us, He is not speaking so that we can feel good, whatever; whenever God speaks to us, He is not speaking so that we can feel good. Whenever God speaks to you, He is speaking the truth to you. It’s left for you to believe it, and hold on to it so that your life can change. At the end of the day, was it Naomi that blessed Ruth? No! It was God, read the story of Ruth chapter one, chapter two and chapter three, the redemption of Ruth. Ruth was that woman that after they finished harvesting the left over, she will be picking after them. She now became the woman that became a wife to the owner of the field, God’s redemption.

It’s only God that can do these things, Only Him. The Bible says that the path of a just is as a shining light that, it shines brighter and brighter unto a perfect day. There is a perfect day of greatness. If you will hold on to God, your path will shine brighter. I’m so confident of this in God because He is not a man. Hope in the Lord. If hope is the only lesson we pick from the lesson of Ruth, It’s enough.  Hope in the Lord, hope in Him. Blessed are those whose hope is God, they are blessed. Your hope should not be men, not your Father’s house, not your mother’s house, not where you are coming from. Let God be your hope, there is no one that trusts in God and is ashamed, No! You will ask, what was Ruth thinking, when she made that decision? Because sometimes we want to play safe, am I sure I don’t want to get there and the story will change. I need assurance.

The Bible makes us to understand that you hope for what you cannot see, when you are hoping and the thing is seen it’s no longer called hope. You hope for what you cannot see. Was Ruth seeing Boaz when she was going? Was she seeing Him? That she was going to be married to that man that has such great wealth? No! But she found God and she decided to hold on to Him. Wherever you have found God, hold on to Him. Let your hope be in God. You might not see it, you might not see the wind, you might not see the rain, but there is an assurance that is in God that the valleys will be filled. They will be filled.

Nobody trusts in God and is ever ashamed, Nobody. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path. That was the testimony of Ruth.  She decided to trust the God that she saw in Naomi and she risked her life on it, and she lean not on her own understanding. She didn’t go about and say let me even dress well and look good and see if I will be able to catch one hot catch. That wasn’t on her mind. Whatever Naomi asked her to do, she did it. Naomi became a custodian. Are you been directed by the Lord, are your steps ordered, or you are just doing things the way you like? You just think up something and do it or your steps are guided. The best custodian that we can ever be in His hands and never miss it is the Holy Spirit. Is He the one guiding your steps, is He the one ordering your steps? Is He the one showing you the direction to go, or you are having your way? In all of your ways acknowledge Him, and He not you, and He will direct your path. It cost God nothing to bless you in a day, the life of Ruth was blessed in a day.

Ruth 2:3-10, ³ Then she left, and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. ⁴ Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered him, “The Lord bless you!” ⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”⁶ So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. ⁷ And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.” Then Boaz said to Ruth, “You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” ¹⁰ So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”

⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”  She happened to be in the path when the man came from Bethlehem, she was not on another path. The steps of Ruth were ordered. Why? See, one of the beautiful things about hoping the Lord is that the favor the favor of the Lord will locate you. The Bible says that Ruth happened to be in the part of the field that belong to Boaz. She happened to be. There is nothing that God cannot do. There’s no life He cannot change but you need to trust him. The way you show your trust in God is by hoping in Him. Hope in Him, let your desire be in Him. Wherever you find God, cling, hold on to him. Don't give up on God; don’t give up on God, because He will not give up on you.

If God could do this for a Moabites, a foreigner. She's not an Israelite, how much more are the things that God can do for you, you that He has washed by the blood of His child of His Son, Jesus Christ? Because we read all these things, because they are testimonies to us to the faithfulness of God. Are we ready to trust God? Like Ruth, are we ready to cling and hold unto Him? Can we go back to those we have given up on, and say God over this issue I am holding unto you, over this situation I am holding unto you. Because I know that you never fail, speak to your Father, if God can do it for Ruth, He can do it for you.  

 

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji!

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