Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Oct 08, 2023

The Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness

The Fruit of the Spirit is Faithfulness

Passage: Ruth 1:15-2:20

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

Keywords: faithfulness

If we reflect even a little, whatever strength, skill, fortitude, or goodness we might possess is owed to the faithful care and concern of others. If we consider longstanding ideas, or enduring works of art and architecture, there is no accounting for their perseverance apart from the perseverance–the faithfulness–of those who birthed and nurtured them into being. Any goodness we might manifest (see last week) depends on our faithful attention to what is needed. Let’s track the faithfulness of an unexpected example of faithfulness and learn about its nature and its fuel.

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Psalm 91:1-4
LEADER: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

ALL: I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.

LEADER: For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.

ALL: He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler

CENTRAL TEXT: Ruth 1:15-2:20
Ruth 1:15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where 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. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

Ruth 1:19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth 2:1 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she set out 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 clan of Elimelech. 4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.” 5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”

Ruth 2:8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing 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?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

Ruth 2:14 And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. 15 When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. 16 And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”

Ruth 2:17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18 And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. 19 And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

BENEDICTION: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
LEADER: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful;

ALL: he will surely do it.

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Matthew 24:45-51
  • 1 Corinthians 1:20
  • Colossians 3:16-18
  • Hebrews 3:2

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

  1. What’s been the greatest challenge someone has faced to stick by you, faithfully, the longest?
  2. No right answer to this–just simmer and brainstorm: while both Ruth and Jesus offer profound examples of faithfulness, 
  3. Maybe you share this, maybe you share it later: with what or with whom do you have a commitment that the Spirit might be saying it’s time to refresh those commitments in some concrete way(s)?

ILLUSTRATIONS:

InView Media Album

QUOTES: 

 

  • The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. . . .A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. Henry David Thoreau
  • [Apathy is] the sin which believes in nothing, cares for nothing, enjoys nothing, loves nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing and only remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die. . . .[It is] the sin of the empty soul. Dorothy Sayers
  • Faithfulness is just saying an ongoing amen to the commitments that we’ve made.. . Faithfulness is being consistent, being reliable, being able to be trusted, being dependable. Sinclair Ferguson
  • I said God, will you bless this decision?
    I'm scared, Is my life at stake?
    But I see if you gave me a vision
    Would I never have reason to use my faith?
    I was dead with deciding - afraid to choose
    I was mourning the loss of the choices I'd lose
    But there's no choice at all if I don't make my move
    And trust that the timing is right
    Yes and hold it up hold it up to the light
    Hold it up to the light, hold it up to the light “Hold it up to the light,” David Wilcox
  • Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. Soren Kierkegaard
  • Every relationship is going to end in either death or divorce so why not just go all in. James Sexton
  • Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because He said, Do it, or once abstained because He said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe, in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you. George MacDonald
  • A vibrant, life-giving church requires more, not less, time and energy from its members. It asks people to prioritize one another over our career, to prioritize prayer and time reading scripture over accomplishment … Churches could model better, truer sorts of communities, ones in which the hungry are fed, the weak are lifted up, and the proud are cast down. Jake Meador
  • He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how. Friederich Nietzsche

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS