RUT TO REVIVAL - WHAT IS A RUT? | PART 2
We trust today’s message encouraged and guided you in your journey of following Jesus. These notes are meant to help you remember and reflect on the message, help you go deeper into study on the subject, or be used for a sermon group discussion. CLICK HERE to find a discussion group. Enjoy!
If you’re going through this discussion with a community group this week consider taking the time to read the provided scripture to catch everyone up!
Sermon Title: From Rut to Revival, Part 2
Main Scripture: Exodus 23; 2 Peter 1:3-8
If you’re going through this discussion with a community group this week consider taking the time to read the provided scripture to catch everyone up!
RECAP FROM APRIL 24
Rut – Any habitual pattern, persistent mindset, emotional stalemate, or comfortable position that robs us of the ability to move forward into God’s best for victory and freedom in any area of our lives.
God delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. They did not do well.
Takeaway #1
God always brings us home.
Takeaway #2
The journey is just as important as the destination.
Israelites coming out of Egypt knew no freedom. They were influenced by generations that knew no freedom.
Application for us. The journey with God is designed to equip us, prepare us, strengthen us, and move closer with Him to trust Him for our lives and victory over our ruts.
The reality. When the Israelites experienced hardship, they wanted to sabotage their forward progress with God. God did not let them go back. Do we do that today? Our life scripts, habits, beliefs, experiences, etc. can sabotage our efforts to receive God’s best. We always seem to gravitate back to our fleshly habitual patterns.
Romans 7 Our focus on the journey must be on God so we don’t give power to the past or our habitual responses. We have to transcend what we are used to, to get what we really need from Him.
Takeaway #3
God needs us to increase on our journey so we can achieve victory and His best for us.
Look at God’s promise in Exodus 23.
Exodus 23:20-30 NIV, God’s Angel to Prepare the Way
“See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the Lord you God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and none will miscarry or be barren in you land. I will give you a full life span.
I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.”
Three things to focus on in this Scripture
1. Little by little
Not immediate
God helped them grow into the land.
He worked and delivered them the land.
He fought the battles with them.
Application for us:
God, a lot of the time, does not clear our ruts immediately.
He wants the journey to grow us, strengthen us.
He wants to get the glory on our journey.
May take a change in what we believe about God.
2. The enemies had a purpose.
God kept them there to preserve the land.
Application for us:
God will use our ruts and obstacles to cause us to trust in Him and grow through them.
Our obstacles and hardships can keep us locked into a functional dysfunction.
It may work but it is not healthy.
The bondage mentality and our helplessness may be comfortable, but it is ineffective.
But what does God want to do when we face our enemy, obstacles, ruts, hardships, etc.?
He wants to grow us through adversity.
He wants us to be dependent on Him.
He wants to get the glory for our victory.
He wants to give us the strength to face our ruts.
He wants to be our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. (Psalm 46:1)
3. The importance of increase.
In the Exodus account, “increase” means to be fruitful, flourish, multiplication.
As they grew as a nation, they could fight the enemies and take possession of the land.
Application for us:
As we increase spiritually, the enemy or obstacles in our lives lose their power.
Obstacles may always be with us, but our focus on God keeps us in God’s strength to face anything.
Genuine increase takes:
Passion (thirst and hunger)
Discipline (monitor and overcome distractions)
Intention (overcome the inertia of sin nature)
Persistence
Look also at 2 Peter 1:3-8
Confirming One’s Calling and Election
”His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
For this very reason, make every effort to add your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Increasing in verse 8 means to have or cause to have much, or more than enough
Commentaries-
“We don’t just possess the virtues mentioned, but we need to hold them in increasing measure.”
“They become your ‘inward property’ and need to be daily practiced to multiply.”
“They are on ongoing, never-finished aspect of the transformation. Spiritual growth must be a constant and on-going process.
We need to be intentional in growing.
To be stagnant is to:
Grumble at life
Be discouraged
Stay in our “Egypt”
Be overrun by our own perception and lies
Allow the enemy to have control of our lives and
minds.
Five things that we should have on our journey:
1. A proper perspective on our circumstances.
Keeping ourselves grounded in God’s plan, purpose, and presence is important.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
”Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Romans 4:18-22 (NIV)
”Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead-since he was about a hundred years old-and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
2. Develop and maintain a healthy perseverance
Our focus is to not be impatient or give up.
We need to hold tightly to the hope God gives to us.
Hebrews 1-:19-23 (NIV)
”Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
Vs. 23 Other translations on the word “unswervingly
NLT – hold tightly
New Revised Standard – hold fast
Orthodox Jewish Bible – without wavering
Wycliffe Bible – bowing to no side, unpliable
Amplified – seize and hold fast and retain without wavering
3. Maintain a Jesus focus
When we focus on Jesus who paid the price to earn the right to lead us as the Good Shepherd, we will always get to where God wants us to be.
With Him we will also not grow weary or lose heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV)
”Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
4. Take on an increasing spirituality mindset
Develop an effective strategy for spiritual growth
Always keep Jesus in the “house” (our lives)
Be intentional and persistent
Focus on our dependency on God
Practice it
Increase in the sunny days in order to be prepared for the storms of life
5. Eliminate saboteurs
Look at the things that stop our forward progress in our journey and cause us to want to go back to where we were.
Complacency
Hopelessness/Discouragement
Infectious attitudes
Poisonous associations
People, places, things
Comfort with our dysfunction
Hardship/Adversity
Unhealthy views of God
Our focus must be on God so we don’t give power to the past or on our habitual responses.
DISCUSSION:
In what ways do you need to increase in your journey with God? Make a list.
Do you believe God wants to immediately deliver you from your rut(s) or are you on a journey of growth? Explain.
How are you being patient in the process of waiting to see God move? Why is this so hard for you?
What saboteurs have you seen in your life? Explain.
The most important decision you will ever make!
Are you ready to experience salvation and be transformed we encourage you to say a simple prayer like this from your heart: Dear God, I acknowledge and admit I have sinned. I see my need for Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I believe I am forgiven and cleansed of my sin by His death. I also believe I have eternal life because of His resurrection from the dead. I repent, I turn away from my old ways and I choose to live my life to worship you and follow Jesus, amen!
We would love to know if you made the decision to accept this wonderful gift from God. Let us know here.
Pray Together
We hoped you found this AFTER THE SERMON discussion helpful for your walk with Jesus. We pray you can find ways to apply it this week!