Hope is a beautiful thing. It gives us a reason to get up in the morning, to press through all the anguish and the sorrow of this life to something beyond, something bright, fresh, redeeming. Hope carries us through the darkness to the dawn.

 

Our story continues with Naomi having a sightline to redemptive hope from God. But she becomes frustrated in waiting for it all to play out and tries move along God’s plan. What do we do when we have a line of sight to the redemption of God, and yet God has us waiting? It’s so easy in this moment to take matters into our own hands to to forgo God’s perfect timing.

 

In this sermon, we find three warnings against manipulating the timeline of God’s grace:

1) We can pursue the right thing at the wrong time. Takeaway: Wait upon God’s perfect timing.

2) We can pursue the right thing in the wrong way. Takeaway: Submit to God’s perfect will.

3) We can pursue the right thing with the wrong heart. Takeaway: Rest in God’s perfect sufficiency.

 

Ruth 3:1–8

 

To watch the Q&A with Pastor Philip about this sermon, click here.