Introduction:
Providence: God's purposeful direction of Human history, every single human life, and every single thing that He has created .
The Hand of God... (Ruth 1):
- Draws back His Wandering People . (Ruth 1:1-7)
Judges 21:25 - In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Revelation 2:4-5 - "But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first."
- Reaches out to grab Hold of the Lost . (Ruth 1:8-18)
Romans 10:9 - If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
- Directs the bitterest of paths towards His Sweetest Blessings . (Ruth 1:19-22)
Romans 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:54-00:58
Well, as you turn to the Book of Ruth, I want you to turn to someone around you and share two things.
00:59-01:04
I want you to share your favorite movie and your favorite type of movie.
01:04-01:08
And know this isn't a pastoral trap to sniff out who's watching non-Christian movies.
01:09-01:15
You don't have to say the Ten Commandments of Charlton Heston, God's Not Dead 17, or Filer Proof.
01:15-01:17
Just be open and honest with your sharing, okay?
01:17-01:19
Take 15 seconds to share that with someone.
01:21-01:22
All right, all right.
01:23-01:24
All right, movie fans, let's calm down.
01:25-01:26
Let's calm down, okay?
01:29-01:32
Maybe you learned something very surprising about someone next to you.
01:33-01:36
You know, I'm a huge fan of mystery, crime, and action movies.
01:36-01:41
I like other types of movies as well, but these are the types of movies that I'm drawn to.
01:41-01:48
I like highly choreographed fight scenes, fast-paced car chases, and plot twists that I didn't see coming.
01:48-01:52
My favorite movie hasn't changed in over 25 years.
01:52-01:55
I actually have a poster of this movie in my office at home.
01:55-01:57
I actually have it on the screen behind me as well.
01:57-02:00
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
02:00-02:01
Who else shares this favorite with me?
02:03-02:03
Wow.
02:05-02:05
(congregation laughing)
02:05-02:09
I might need to end this sermon a bit early or preach even longer, I'm not really sure.
02:10-02:19
You know, my wife Kate and I are very similar in a lot of key ways, but we are very dissimilar in one way in particular, and that's our entertainment taste.
02:20-02:22
Kate tunes out during action scenes.
02:22-02:23
I think they're so exciting.
02:24-02:26
I look over to her and she's just texting on her phone.
02:27-02:29
She thinks they're incredibly boring.
02:30-02:35
Her favorite movie is "PS, I Love You," which is very different than my favorite movie.
02:35-02:36
Wouldn't you say?
02:36-02:45
It is a challenging game of relational Tetris to find a movie that crosses over on the Venn diagram of our shared tastes.
02:46-02:53
You know, on particular date nights, we'll let the other person pick a movie that they wanna watch, even if it's not something that lines up something we both like.
02:54-02:58
But sometimes she'll just be like, you know what, just watch whatever you wanna watch, and she'll fall asleep on the couch.
02:59-03:09
And sometimes I'll just say, you know what, why don't you watch what you wanna watch, and I'll put headphones in and read a book on the couch while she watches a chick flick romantic comedy that I'm not really interested in.
03:10-03:18
You know, I was thinking this past week that many people often view the books of Ruth and Esther as the chick flicks of the Bible.
03:19-03:23
Very popular for a women's study, but not exactly the first choice for a men's group.
03:24-03:31
You know, sadly, many pass over Ruth in their Bibles because at a first glance, it just seems like a straightforward love story.
03:32-03:35
But it is so much more than that.
03:35-03:39
First and foremost, the book of Ruth is the word of God.
03:40-03:43
And that should be more than enough justification to study it, right?
03:44-03:48
This book is for every single believer, whether you are a woman or a man.
03:49-03:57
And over the past month as I've been studying Ruth, it's quickly become one of my favorite books in the entire Old Testament.
03:57-04:01
So guys in the room, tune in instead of tuning out.
04:01-04:09
Ruth is not something to be skipped over, because if you do, you will miss out on so much blessing, knowledge, and insight.
04:10-04:15
And secondly, I wanna make it abundantly clear that the main character of Ruth is not Ruth.
04:16-04:18
It's not even Naomi, who we'll meet in a few minutes.
04:18-04:21
It's not Boaz who we'll discover next week.
04:21-04:24
The main character of Ruth is God.
04:25-04:27
He is the central figure.
04:27-04:30
God is the major point of Ruth.
04:32-04:37
I really don't want you to walk away from this series thinking, wow, what a nice and interesting story.
04:38-04:40
What a major fail that would be.
04:41-04:47
Instead, I want you to walk away thinking, wow, what a great and awesome God that I serve.
04:48-04:56
In Ruth, we see the divine hand of God at work in the smallest and most mundane details of life.
04:56-05:08
We see God furthering his plan of redemption by securing the family line that his son, Jesus Christ, would come out of at the perfectly planned time in history.
05:09-05:13
In Ruth, God's providence is on display.
05:15-05:18
Now you may be wondering what exactly is providence?
05:19-05:22
Well I'm so glad you asked, I have a definition for you.
05:22-05:31
Providence is God's purposeful direction of human history, every single human life, and every single thing that he has created.
05:32-05:41
Providence is God's purposeful direction of human history, every single human life, and every single thing that he has created.
05:43-05:50
God's providence is very similar to a father directing his young son through a bustling crowd at a sporting event.
05:51-05:53
The boy is walking with his own two feet.
05:53-06:03
He's making choices as he goes along, but with a firm and guiding hand on his shoulder, this boy will only go where his father ultimately directs him.
06:05-06:15
The book of Ruth gives us a snapshot of this sovereign God who is in complete control of this world and even our own individual lives.
06:16-06:35
So as we dive into chapter one this morning, I want us to spot three things that the providential hand of God accomplished in the lives of two women over 3,000 years ago, because this God is still at work today, and he is accomplishing these three important things right now.
06:36-06:40
So before we continue any further, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.
06:42-06:52
Father, we thank you once again for this opportunity we have to gather as your people to open the word, to sing your praises.
06:54-07:05
Lord, in a fellowship together, Lord, I pray that we never take this time for granted, and I pray that we would be ready to receive and submit to what you had to teach us this morning.
07:06-07:08
In Jesus' name, amen.
07:10-07:12
So outline for this morning is the hand of God.
07:12-07:16
Number one, the hand of God draws back his wandering people.
07:17-07:21
The hand of God draws back his wandering people.
07:23-07:26
The author of Ruth sets the stage at the start of verse one.
07:27-07:36
In the days when the judges ruled, the entire account that we are going to read and study this month takes place during the period of the judges.
07:37-07:49
And Pastor Jeff preached on the book of judges a few years ago, but let me give you a quick refresher on what it's all about, because it's essential for understanding the message and ultimately the ending of Ruth.
07:50-08:01
So throughout the time of the judges, the Israelites constantly choose to slide down the slippery slope of sin by turning their backs on the Lord and worshiping false gods.
08:02-08:14
The Lord then brings a foreign invader upon Israel, puts them into slavery, And then Israel cries out for mercy, and God raises up a deliverer, a judge, to rescue them.
08:15-08:23
But sadly, this doesn't last very long, and Israel once again gets stuck on that cycle of idolatry and destruction.
08:25-08:35
And to save you any further explanation, let's read the final verse of Judges, which provides a really clear summary of what Israel was like at this point in their history.
08:36-08:39
"In those days, there was no king in Israel.
08:39-08:45
"Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Does that sound familiar to you at all?
08:45-08:47
Does that sound like what we're going through today?
08:49-08:51
"Wickedness and backsliding reigned supreme.
08:52-09:05
"My ways were viewed as way more important than God's ways." So now that we understand the backdrop of Ruth, let's move forward with the beginning of the story in verses one through five.
09:06-09:09
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
09:09-09:15
And a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
09:16-09:19
The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi.
09:20-09:22
And the names of his two sons were Malon and Kilion.
09:23-09:25
They were Aphrothites from Bethlehem and Judah.
09:26-09:28
They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
09:29-09:33
But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, she was left with her two sons.
09:34-09:35
These took Moabite wives.
09:36-09:39
The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth.
09:40-09:41
They lived there about 10 years.
09:42-09:48
And both Malon and Kilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
09:50-09:53
There's a horrible famine that strikes Israel.
09:53-10:06
We aren't told explicitly in the text that this famine is a act of divine judgment against Israel for their rampant wickedness, but looking at their behavior at the time, it's a pretty safe guess.
10:07-10:15
And the author zooms in on a particular family in Bethlehem, Elimelech, Naomi, and their two sons, Malon and Kilion.
10:15-10:18
And their names mean sickness and wasting away.
10:18-10:21
In case you wanna name your kids that, I wouldn't advise you to do that.
10:22-10:26
But it certainly describes what Israel was like during this famine.
10:27-10:29
Sick and wasting away.
10:29-10:41
And Elimelech makes the hard choice to not hunker down in Bethlehem to wait out the famine, and instead, they move elsewhere to avoid starvation.
10:43-10:50
And we should be really careful of harshly judging Elimelech for moving his family away from Israel so they could escape the famine.
10:50-10:55
It's a scriptural reality that Godly men and women fled for food in times of need.
10:55-11:01
Abraham and Sarah did this in Genesis chapter 12, Jacob and his family did it later on in that same book.
11:01-11:07
The prophet Elisha in 2 Kings tells a family to get out of Israel to avoid a seven-year famine.
11:09-11:10
The problem isn't that they left.
11:11-11:17
The troubling aspects is where they chose to move and who Elimelech's sons chose to marry.
11:18-11:25
This small family fled the kingdom of Moab, which had an extremely dark history with the nation of Israel.
11:25-11:32
This nation started out of an incestuous relationship between Abraham's nephew Lot and his own daughter.
11:33-11:44
The king of Moab once hired a man named Balaam to curse Israel, and they carried out vile practices such as child sacrifice before the false god Chemosh.
11:45-11:57
This would be like, in modern day terms, moving your family into a casino hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, or setting up shop in the red light district of a major city across the globe.
11:57-12:02
not exactly the wisest of choices if you're trying to protect your family's purity.
12:03-12:09
And we are told that Elimelech and his family worshiped false gods while they were in Moab.
12:10-12:18
But we do know that once Elimelech died, his sons married Moabite wives who did worship these pagan gods.
12:20-12:24
An Israelite marrying a Moabite was highly frowned upon in Old Testament law.
12:24-12:31
And children of this kind of relationship were forbidden from the assembly of God's people for 10 generations.
12:31-12:34
That's 400 years.
12:36-12:48
So obviously God didn't take this kind of intermarrying lightly because by intermarrying with the Moabites, this could lead to ethical decay and religious drift.
12:49-13:03
But thankfully, the Lord uses the unwise choices of his people to advance his perfect plans, which we'll discuss in greater detail in a few minutes when we focus on Ruth and where God ultimately directs her life.
13:04-13:11
So not only does Naomi lose her husband, but her two sons eventually die as well.
13:12-13:15
Naomi's boys never had children with their Moabite wives.
13:15-13:18
This family seems to be dead in the water.
13:19-13:21
There seems to be no hope at all.
13:22-13:25
All of the men in her life are gone.
13:26-13:30
And this was a devastating place to be in over 3,000 years ago for a woman.
13:31-13:44
Naomi had no means of financial support, and she would have to rely upon the generosity of others to survive, but again, she has no community, she has no family in Moab to take care of her.
13:46-13:49
I just imagine her sitting there weeping, thinking, what am I going to do?
13:51-14:00
but the loving intervention of God's providence shows up in a great and mighty way to take care of Naomi in verses six through seven.
14:00-14:00
Read that with me.
14:02-14:12
Then she arose their daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
14:13-14:21
So she set out from the place where she was their two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return the land of Judah.
14:23-14:34
The Hebrew word shub, which means return, go back or brought back is used twice in the verses we just read and 11 times throughout chapter one.
14:36-14:41
Now, when you see repetition in the Bible, it's never accidental or meaningless.
14:42-14:45
It is always purposeful and packed with meaning.
14:45-14:55
When you see a word or phrase repeated over and over and over again, sit up and pay attention to what God is clearly and simply communicating.
14:56-15:00
If you have checked out this point in the sermon, please check back in for a few minutes.
15:00-15:01
This is really important.
15:01-15:08
In the Old Testament, Shub is the main word for repenting and turning back to God.
15:09-15:14
This means that Naomi isn't simply traveling home after a 10-year long vacation.
15:14-15:24
She is turning away from her life in Moab and turning back to the grace and provision of Yahweh in the land that he promised his people.
15:24-15:30
This isn't just a change of location, this is an act of repentance.
15:33-15:40
As Pastor Jeff talked about last week, repentance isn't just an acknowledgement of wrongdoing, even though it does include that.
15:41-15:48
Repentance is a change of heart and a change of mind that leads to a change of direction.
15:50-16:07
You know, as a father of a four-year-old and a two-year-old, I often call them to repentance daily, especially my son, whether it's saying something rude, bullying his little sister, or incessantly jumping on my stomach after dinner, which is his new favorite pastime, apparently, I don't know why.
16:08-16:16
I daily call Sam to turn away from doing something that is wrong and to turn towards doing something that is right.
16:17-16:21
Stop going in that direction, start going in this direction.
16:25-16:29
To turn from something, you also have to turn to something else.
16:30-16:36
You can't just stop doing something that is sinful, you have to replace it with something that is godly.
16:37-16:50
You can't just turn away from pornography without also turning towards a life of purity where you do everything you can to guard your eyes and view women as precious souls and not sexual objects.
16:51-17:00
You cannot turn away from laziness without also turning towards a life of selfless service that honors the Lord and blesses others.
17:01-17:11
You cannot just turn away from being harsh with your wife without also turning towards being understanding with her and dying to yourself.
17:12-17:22
You cannot turn away from being disrespectful to your husband without also turning towards a continual pattern of submission and encouragement.
17:24-17:33
For the Christian, repentance isn't just a one-time deal at your conversion, but it is the daily posture and position of your life.
17:35-17:37
Over 500 years ago, Martin Luther put it this way.
17:38-17:47
When our Lord and master Jesus Christ said, "Repent," he intended that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance.
17:49-18:05
The New Testament constantly reminds us of the necessity of repentance, but there are no more sobering words about repentance than in Revelation chapter two, verses four through five, which Mike Wolski did a fantastic job preaching on at our last prayer service.
18:06-18:08
Jesus says this to the Ephesian church.
18:09-18:12
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
18:13-18:19
Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first.
18:20-18:27
These verses powerfully demonstrate that repentance involves your head, your heart, and your hands.
18:27-18:38
Repentance is a total change of your thinking, is a total change of what you love, value and prioritize, and finally, it's a total change of how you behave and how you act.
18:40-18:54
Last week, Pastor Jeff talked about our responsibility as believers to call those who are wandering away from the faith, those who are wandering away from the truth of God's word, to salvation in Jesus Christ.
18:55-19:04
If we know and love someone in this church who has walked away and bailed on Jesus, We need to do whatever we can to call them back to the Lord.
19:06-19:11
But this morning, I wanna hit even closer to home and talk about you.
19:11-19:15
I wanna talk about your personal walk with the Lord.
19:16-19:24
If you are a true born again believer, you too can easily wander away from the Lord.
19:26-19:35
You too can easily get off track and do things that you know you shouldn't do and fail to do things that you know that you should do.
19:37-19:43
Who among us cannot say that we have wandered away and gone down sinful paths that we have no business exploring?
19:44-19:45
I know I can't.
19:46-19:50
So let me ask you, have you been wandering away from the Lord recently?
19:51-19:54
Have you been heading in the wrong direction?
19:55-19:58
What is the Lord calling you to repent of?
19:58-20:04
What is he commanding you to turn from and what is he pointing you to turn towards?
20:06-20:11
Maybe for you it's a pattern of selfish thinking that has led to a pattern of selfish living.
20:12-20:18
Maybe it's a secret and hidden addiction that no one else knows about besides you and the Lord.
20:18-20:24
Maybe it's how you speak to your family, your friends, and your coworkers when you're angry and you're frustrated.
20:26-20:29
Maybe it's a lack of passion for the Lord.
20:30-20:38
Maybe the sense of apathy towards the Bible, towards prayer, and community with God's people.
20:38-20:42
You used to have a fire for it, and now you're kind of like, eh, whatever.
20:44-20:56
Whatever it is, whatever the Lord's calling you to repent of, choose to let go of it today, choose to turn from it and change your direction before you hurt anyone else.
20:58-21:02
You know, I often hear at churches, sit back, relax, and be comfortable.
21:03-21:07
And I always think that's the last thing I want for anybody in my church.
21:07-21:11
I want you to sit forward and be challenged and be convicted.
21:13-21:18
The Lord is not remotely interested in you or me being comfortable this morning.
21:19-21:26
He is, however, extremely dedicated to us We're growing in our maturity and holiness and this will not happen apart from our repentance.
21:29-21:44
In this moment, the hand of the Lord is lovingly yet firmly drawing many of us away from our foolish wandering so that we can return back home, so that we can walk in faithfulness and obedience.
21:46-21:49
Secondly, the hand of God reaches out to grab ahold of the lost.
21:51-21:55
The hand of God reaches out to grab a hold of the lost.
21:57-22:04
So let's circle back to joining Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah on their journey to Bethlehem in verses eight through 14.
22:05-22:10
"But Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, "'Go, return each of you to her mother's house.
22:10-22:15
"'May the Lord deal kindly with you "'as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
22:15-22:24
"'The Lord grant that you may find rest, "'each of you in the house of her husband.' She kissed them and they lift up their voices and wept.
22:24-22:31
And they said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people." But Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters.
22:32-22:33
"Why will you go with me?
22:34-22:37
"Have I yet sons in my womb "that they may become your husbands?
22:37-22:42
"Turn back, my daughters, go your way, "for I am too old to have a husband.
22:42-22:47
"If I should say I have hope, "even if I should have a husband, "this night it should bear sons.
22:48-22:50
Would you therefore wait till they were grown?
22:50-22:52
Would you therefore refrain from marrying?
22:52-23:00
No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me, for your sake, the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.
23:01-23:08
Then they lift up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
23:10-23:16
At some point between Moab and Bethlehem, Naomi stops dead in her tracks and thinks, what am I doing?
23:17-23:21
and she lays out the harsh reality of life to her daughters-in-law.
23:22-23:23
Listen, go back to your old lives.
23:25-23:28
That way you have a better chance of finding a husband and getting married.
23:29-23:32
You are better off without me.
23:33-23:37
And Naomi gives us a glimpse of her inner struggle with the Lord in verse 13.
23:37-23:52
"It is exceedingly bitter for me for your sake "that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me." Even though Naomi has chosen to return back to Israel, she is doing so with very low expectations.
23:53-23:58
She is obviously wrestling with all the horrible things that have happened to her.
23:58-24:03
I just imagine her, I picture her in my mind, crying out to the Lord, "Why has this happened to me?
24:04-24:25
"What did I do to deserve this?" You know, we're not explicitly told in this passage as to why these tragedies fell upon Naomi and her family, it would be unwise for you or me to say that we definitively know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these tragedies were a result of their sin and their choice to go to Moab.
24:28-24:38
But we do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Naomi's hardships led to a God-ordained and glorious outcome for one of her daughters-in-law.
24:40-24:50
chooses to listen to her mother-in-law's advice, which seems wise from a worldly point of view, she goes back to Moab to worship her old gods.
24:51-24:57
But she will not get rid of Ruth that easily, as we see in verses 15 through 18.
24:58-25:01
And Naomi said, "See, your sister-in-law "has gone back to her people and to her gods.
25:02-25:14
"Return after your sister-in-law." 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.
25:14-25:18
"Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
25:20-25:23
"Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
25:24-25:44
"May the Lord do so to me and more also, "if anything but death parts me from you." And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, "No more." You know, this is the section of Ruth that is the most famous, the most quoted, the most emblazoned on coffee mugs, inspirational posters.
25:44-25:52
And very often in studies, people will just focus on the loyalty of Ruth, who is such a faithful friend and daughter-in-law.
25:53-25:57
And yes, she is both of those things, and she should be commended for it.
25:58-26:08
But by focusing on the horizontal relationship between Naomi and Ruth, we lose sight of the vertical relationship between Ruth and God himself.
26:09-26:14
Ruth claims your people shall be my people and your God, my God.
26:15-26:20
If you know the Old Testament, those words should ring a bell in your mind.
26:20-26:29
Goes back to God's covenant promise of salvation to the Israelites, I will be your God and you shall be my people.
26:31-26:31
This is astounding.
26:32-26:40
Ruth has turned away from the fake gods of Moab to turn to the living and true God of heaven and earth.
26:41-26:45
She has repented, she has been saved, she has been converted.
26:46-26:52
She even binds herself to Naomi with an unbreakable oath in the name of Yahweh.
26:53-26:57
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
26:57-27:09
May the Lord do so to me and more also, "anything but death parts me from you." By swearing in his name, Ruth is claiming Yahweh as her one and only God.
27:12-27:24
This isn't a warm and cuddly story about a great relationship between a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, which is typically a difficult relationship for many, especially if you're watching sitcoms or reality TV.
27:25-27:34
This is about a lost sinner, an idol worshiper and grabbed up by the gracious and saving hand of God.
27:36-27:43
Naomi is too caught up in her pain and misery to see that God's hand isn't against her.
27:43-27:47
He has used her life to draw Ruth unto himself.
27:48-27:54
God's providence led to the salvation of the person that you would least expect.
27:56-27:58
And we see this trend all throughout scripture, don't we?
27:59-28:14
God chose Abraham to be the father of his chosen nation, even though Abraham was an elderly gentleman, to put it nicely, who had 0% chance of having children with his wife from a human perspective.
28:15-28:17
I mean, the Bible says he was as good as dead.
28:17-28:19
That's not as kind as I said it.
28:20-28:29
God chose Jacob to continue that family line, even though he was a sneaky and slimy liar who do not deserve this honor in the slightest.
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God called Peter, even though he constantly lost his cool and put his foot in his mouth every single chance that he got.
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God miraculously saved Saul and transformed him into Paul despite his background of persecuting the church of Christ.
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Our God delights in saving sinners.
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He delights in setting his undeserved grace upon those who seem to be the farthest away from him.
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As we've already established, nothing happens by chance or by accident.
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We are all here this morning, every single one of us, by divine appointment.
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Maybe you're at harvest this morning and the Lord drew you here so that you could be saved, as Ruth was all those years ago.
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Maybe you're not a Christian and that's on purpose.
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What do you mean to not be a Christian?
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But you suddenly feel the crushing weight of your sin and the vacuum of emptiness in your own heart.
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Or maybe you've been here for months or even years and you've done a great job of blending in and going through the motions, but you haven't placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and transformed by the Holy Spirit.
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You can walk out of this building today fully forgiven, irreversibly transformed, and heaven bound if you simply bow the knee to Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord.
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Paul gives us an awesome promise in Romans 10, 9.
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If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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You will be saved.
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No ifs, ands, or buts.
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No scriptural loopholes or escape clauses.
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You will be saved.
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Or maybe the Lord drew you here so that you could be encouraged.
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So that you wouldn't give up hope.
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You wouldn't give up praying for the salvation of a son, a daughter, a parent, a sibling, or a friend.
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be encouraged that your God is mighty to save.
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We are told in Isaiah 59, one, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save." Do you believe that?
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Do you really believe that?
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Do not underestimate God's sovereign reach.
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Be faithful in loving, be faithful in praying, be faithful in sharing, and then leave the results in God's more than capable hands.
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Finally, the hand of God directs the bitterest of paths towards his sweetest blessings.
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The hand of God directs the bitterest of paths towards his sweetest blessings.
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Let's finish up chapter one with Naomi and Ruth's return to Bethlehem in verses 19 through 22.
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So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem.
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And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.
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And the women said, "Is this Naomi?" And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi.
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"Call me Mara, for the Almighty "has dealt very bitterly with me.
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"I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.
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"Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me, "and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?" So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.
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And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
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So this homecoming causes quite the stir and causes a lot of questions.
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Naomi seems so different to her people.
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And Naomi gives them this really straightforward instruction.
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Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara.
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Because Naomi means pleasant and sweet, and Mara means bitter.
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Naomi's like, why would you call me Naomi?
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I don't feel that way anymore.
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I feel bitter.
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Once again, we see that Naomi is in the dark pit of despair.
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She feels empty and trapped.
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Have you ever felt that way before?
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Like life is just a series of gut punches that never seem to let up.
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Like the deck is stacked against you and there is no intermission for your suffering in sight.
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Do you feel like that right now?
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Do you feel numb and trapped on a bitter path that seems to be leading nowhere good?
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You know, 12 years ago, I experienced a really discouraging setback on my ministry journey.
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I was lied about by someone I respected and suddenly pushed out of a church internship that I really cared about.
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And to be honest, for a period of time, I was kind of shell-shocked and just really jaded about ministry in general.
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I felt the calling of God upon my life to enter into pastoral ministry, but it felt like God had left me on this path and just abandoned me to figure it out on my own.
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But this bitter path led to one of the sweetest blessings of my life, Harvest Bible Chapel.
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Hopefully I can get through this without crying too much.
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The Lord used a family friend to connect me with Pastor Jeff, who encouraged me, supported me, and gave me a chance when I needed it the most.
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Being here in the early days of the church rekindled my passion for ministry and kept me from throwing in the towel.
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Because of this church, I went to seminary and I was a youth pastor for seven and a half wonderful years.
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In the Lord's gracious providence, I was brought back to Harvest as the associate pastor a year and a half ago.
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You know, I wouldn't be standing here this morning preaching this sermon to you apart from walking a painful path but it turned into inexpressible joy.
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I cannot begin to describe to you how thankful I am that the Lord led me through that dark valley 12 years ago so that I could arrive at this green pasture with all of you.
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I can look back at that season of discouragement and view it as a blessing instead of a curse, even though it wasn't very fun to go through at the time.
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pulled me closer to the Lord, carried out his perfect plans, and it got me ready for the difficulties that you'll face in ministry.
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As a pastor once famously said, "I have learned to kiss the waves "that throw me against the rock of ages." The Lord's providential plans are often mysterious and frustrating while we're in the midst of them, but our perspective can quickly change once we're on the other side of them.
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But at this point in chapter one, Naomi has not yet gotten to the point where she can have that kind of perspective.
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She still feels like God is picking on her.
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Mara may be how she feels, but it's not who she really is.
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You know, as I studied Ruth and read it many times, I just laughed out loud that nobody seems to take her name change very seriously.
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No one calls her Mara the entire book, not even the author himself.
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It's like he's saying, "No, that is not who you are." And spoiler alert, for the end of Naomi's story, it does not end in bitterness and tragedy.
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It ends in the sweet blessings of God's providence.
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And the author hints towards what's gonna happen with the final verse, "And they came to Bethlehem "at the beginning of barley harvest." After years of famine, there is finally hope for Israel.
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Naomi is in the midst of a spiritual famine, but there is hope and blessing is coming.
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I won't give you any more spoilers, but we're gonna study the rest of this month, but I do wanna give you one final spoiler alert for your own life.
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If you know and love Jesus, your story will not ultimately end in bitterness or tragedy either.
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God's path for you, no matter how hard hard and difficult it may be, will lead directly into his loving presence in heaven.
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Paul speaks to this in Romans 8, 18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time "are not worth comparing with the glory "that is to be revealed to us." If you are going through a difficult health issue right now that is not letting up, remember that one day you will be fully set free from any chronic pain or sickness.
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If you have lost a loved one recently and it feels like your heart has been ripped out of your chest, remember that one day your grief will give way to glory and unceasing joy.
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If you feel discouraged in this season of life, remember that there will be no room for disappointment in the presence of Almighty God.
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If you feel lonely and isolated right now, Remember that one day you will have face-to-face fellowship with Jesus Christ in perfect community with God's people that is unstained by sin or disunity.
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You will reap a harvest of eternal blessing that is beyond your wildest dreams.
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Hold on to that unswerving hope as you have to navigate the bitter twists and turns of life.
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In the first chapter of Ruth, we come face to face with a God who is more gracious, kind, and patient than we ever dared to hope for.
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We have looked upon the king of the universe whose sovereign control is far greater than we could possibly imagine.
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I hope and pray that you are comforted by his bigness in comparison to your smallness.
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We can know that we are not pawns in a game of fate.
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We are not on the ever spinning wheel of karma.
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We are needy children under the providential care of our heavenly father.
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His strong and capable hands are upon your weak and weary shoulders right now.
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Even though it may not feel like it, God is at work in your life.
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We see that God is at work in this church.
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God is at work in this city, in this country.
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God is at work in this world.
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He is not unaware of the sins of his people, but he is ever drawing us back from our backsliding so that we can truly be repentant.
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He is not indifferent to the desperate situation of the lost, but he reaches out a loving hand to snatch them out of the darkness and place them in the light of his eternal kingdom.
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He is not uncaring about the sufferings of his people, but he is using our sorrows, he is using our pain to mold us further and further into the image of Jesus Christ.
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Please know that Almighty God is not checked out.
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He is not asleep at the wheel.
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He is on the throne.
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And he is definitively directing everything according to his perfect purposes.
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Let's pray.
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Lord, we come to you.
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Lord, we're all coming from different points.
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Lord, some of us are struggling.
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Some of us are suffering.
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And Lord, it can be really easy to lose heart.
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It can be really easy to want to give up.
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Lord, I pray for every single person in this room who's experiencing that.
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Lord, I pray that you would draw near to them.
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Grant them the comfort that only you can.
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That Lord, you would help them to know that you are with them in the midst of the fire and you will not abandon them.
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That you will use the flames of trial to burn off their sinful edges and refine their faith.
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Lord, for those in this room who do not know you, I pray that you'd use the preaching of your word to soften their hearts that your Holy Spirit give them the faith to believe they could walk out of this room forgiven and changed.
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And Lord, throughout this month, I pray that we would just keep our eyes fixed on you and we would be blown away by how awesome you truly are.
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Let us sing to you with hearts that are full of love that are full of devotion.
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In the precious name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Ruth 1:1-22
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What is providence? How do you see God’s providential hand at work in the first chapter of Ruth? How do you see His providential hand at work in this world and your life?
What is repentance and why is it so essential for living the Chrisian life? Why do many churches and professing Christians ignore the biblical call to repentance?
How have you seen the Lord direct a bitter path towards His sweet blessings in your own life?
Breakout
What is the Lord calling you to repent of right now? What steps need to be taken to turn away from your sin and turn towards true change?
Pray that every member of your breakout group will humble themselves and walk in repentance.