Sermon Central
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I Will Go
Contributed by John Baggett on Jul 2, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: This sermon springs forward out of the text of Ruth and encourages believers to go forward in their faith and relationship with Christ.
Sermon: I Will Go
We have often sang a familiar invitation hymn.
entitled
"Wherever He Leads I’ll Go"
We sang it as part of the worship this morning.
I wonder how much truth there really is in that statement. Would we follow Jesus anywhere and everywhere that he would lead us.
If you go into work tomorrow and the boss sort of waves you on and says follow me, the boss either leads you through the office or through the factory through a field or your place of business....
I would say your going to follow.
I heard about a preacher who was praying early one morning knelt down at the foot of his bed.
As he prayed... head bowed.... and eyes closed his wife walked of the kitchen and down the hall and happened to peer in the bedroom unbeknownst to her husband and she heard him praying this prayer.
He prayed
"Father, I just want to be so perfectly in your will. I’ll do anything you ask of me Lord, I will go anywhere you would lead to go be it even in to the heart of some deep thick jungle or a barren faraway country."
At this point the wife could not keep her presence a secret any longer she knelt down beside him placed her hand on his back and said and Lord if to one of these places you lead him...please Lord be certain you give him a buddy, a pal, some good friend that will go with him.
Now that wife wasn’t necessarily convinced. Sometimes I wonder how well convinced we are about following God.
As we look at this phrase "I will go" in the scripture tonight we can learn many things about these 3 simple words I will Go.
To say...I WILL GO....
I. It is a DECISION of FAITH
It is a believer’s faith that often enables him or her to say I will go.
Turn to your neighbor on your right or your left and say "I will go"
But Ruth said, «Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go,(...I WILL WHAT?) I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
Here is a woman named Naomi ....she had two sons who took two Moabite women for wives.
Those two women were Ruth and Orpah (Not Oprah)
The two sons died... Naomi’s husband had died... and now all that was left was Naomi and her two daughter in laws Orpah and Ruth.
These daughter in laws were originally Moabites and Moabite belief was not of Jehovah God but the belief of Pagan gods.
Yet it seems that the relationship that brought them all together impacted the life of Ruth in a spectacular way.
When Naomi told Orpah and Ruth they were free to depart again to their own land and own lives.
Orpah did so but Ruth the Scripture says clung to Naomi.
Her faith is evident in her decision to stay with Naomi as she stresses in
V 16 .....Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
Ruth realized not only had she grown to love and respect Naomi but she had fallen in love... with Jehovah God.
Ruth knew that back in Moab the land where she had come from ....Jehovah God was renounced... and she would be rebuked for this belief in the one TRUE GOD.
So we see .....that to say I WILL GO ......involves our faith.
How far will you go with Jesus?
Well that depends on what?
IT DEPENDS ON YOUR FAITH
Sure you say "I will go ." But how far will you go in faith following Jesus.
II. What about the I WILL GO of a victor
Who are victors?
They are the ones who find victory.
We took to the book of Judges and a period of decline in the spiritual temperature of Israel Judges 4:9
We talk of putting on the full armor of God unto victory
We sing victory in Jesus
We sing onward Christian Soldiers Marching as to war
The little ones sing a song it says I’m in the Lord’s Army
I may never march in the Infantry
Ride in the Calvary
Shoot the Artillery
I may never fly over the enemy but I’m in the Lords Army
So we have a lot to say about being victorious as Christians BUT WE WILL NOT BE VICTORIOUS IF WE CANNOT SAY I WILL GO.
HOW .....are we going to win any battles if we stay ducked down in the bomb shelter... with the hatch battened down and NEVER EVER go to the front lines.???
The only way will Be real VICTORS in CHRIST is when we say
