August 7, 2025 • 42 mins
Your family is a mess. My family is a mess. We're all a mess in some way. The restaurant disaster with my kids running wild? Just the latest evidence that family life rarely goes according to plan. But what if these messy moments aren't just obstacles to overcome—what if they're precisely where God wants to show up?
In this kickoff to our "Bless This Mess" series, we dive into the book of Ruth—the soap opera of the Bible—where family dysfunction meets divine redemption. Ruth's story unfolds during Israel's darkest period, when "everyone did what was right in their own eyes." Elimelech, whose name ironically means "my God is king," makes the catastrophic decision to move his family from Bethlehem to Moab during a famine. Rather than trusting God, he seeks provision in a pagan land where people worship through child sacrifice. Sound familiar? It's like saying, "God's not providing, so I'll handle this myself."
The consequences are devastating. Death, grief, and bitterness follow. Yet in this mess emerges Ruth's beautiful declaration of faith: "Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God." Her loyalty to Naomi mirrors how we should cling to Jesus, who never stops clinging to us even in our worst moments.
When facing family crises—whether marriage conflicts, parenting struggles, addiction, betrayal, or loss—we have a choice between bitterness or belief. Bitterness says, "This happened; life will never be good again." Belief says, "This happened, and it was terrible, but I believe God still has something for me." The story culminates with their arrival in Bethlehem at harvest time, signaling new beginnings that eventually lead to the birth of King David's grandfather and ultimately, Jesus himself.
Whatever mess you're facing today, remember: Jesus doesn't step around your mess—He steps right into the middle of it. Cast your anxieties on Him, for He cares for you. Subscribe to join us as we discover how God blesses our messes for the story of Jesus's glory in our lives.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
series this morning that we are calling Bless this
Mess.
Everybody look at somebody andsay Bless this Mess.
This is actually a series onfamily, on family.
Your family is a mess, like myfamily is a mess.
We're all a mess in some way.
Look at somebody and say youare a mess, you are a mess and
we are all a mess.
(00:20):
We are all in a mess and that'swhy we need Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
We tried, michelle a mess, andthat's why we need Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
We tried, michelle and I.
We just thought it was such abrilliant idea to try and take
our three little rugrats out toeat About a week ago Brooklyn 6,
cruise 2, ileana 1, and wethought, man, let's just take
them out, let's try it all inthe restaurant one more time.
(00:41):
What's the worst that couldhappen?
Right, and of course it was adumpster fire, train wreck,
disaster all at once.
I'll probably never forget it.
Cruz, he's two-year-old, youknow he cannot sit.
Still.
He's running up and down thebench in the booth and he's
trying to get out.
And he's going out and tryingto talk to other people and just
making a havoc wherever he is.
(01:02):
And Brooklyn, she got herfavorite meal that we always do,
the little kid's steak bites,which are actually really good,
and some corn Food comes out andshe just starts crying.
For some reason she changed hermind.
She doesn't want it.
And Eliana now one year old,and now she's taking everything
off the table and she thinksthat everything on the table
should be under the table right,and so ketchup's flying and
(01:26):
sweet and low and all that kindof stuff.
And we're just amazed they evenlet us back in.
To be honest with you, Iremember about a year ago when
we were there and Cruz, he usedto love to just literally walk
the whole restaurant, probablybecause we went so much he
thought it was home, and hewould walk the entire restaurant
and he would just give peoplehigh fives, just giving people
high fives.
He's giving high fives left andright.
He turns around and there's awaitress right there.
(01:47):
He gives her a high five.
The only problem is she'sbending over right, gives her a
high five right on her bottom.
I'm trying to stop him.
I pull him back.
She looks up and it's me rightthere.
I'm like no, ma'am, watch thetape, watch the cameras.
It was not me, it was my son.
We are all a mess.
Can I get an amen?
We're gonna look at the book ofRuth.
Open up with me to the book ofRuth.
(02:08):
The book of Ruth is anincredible book of the Bible and
it talks about marriage, talksabout parenting, talks about
family, talks about singleness,talks about dating, talks about
death and loss, and hope andblessing.
It is the soap opera of theBible and it is always good to
just dive deep in God's word.
(02:28):
This is a real life story andthe reason that God recorded it,
the reason that Godorchestrated it, was to connect
with your real life story.
In fact, the more your life isa mess, the more the Bible makes
sense to you, because the Bibleis all about people who are all
(02:49):
caught up in messes.
We thought this was a greatopportunity.
It's actually the next bookthat we're studying.
We started in Genesis, the verybeginning of the Bible, back in
January of 2024,.
We've worked our way up all theway to Ruth now and it's just
perfect the way that God worksit out.
Talking about family, as we'reback to school Some of y'all may
have started this past Friday,some of y'all are starting
(03:11):
tomorrow Our little girl,brooklyn's starting the first
grade and I can't think about itor I'll cry.
So let's just continue here.
I wanna talk about the 10 mostcommon family messes that maybe
your family is found in rightnow.
Could be a marriage conflict orcrisis, could be parenting
struggles, could be financialstrain, could be addiction or
(03:33):
substance abuse.
Could be mental healthchallenges.
Could be a spiritualdisconnection from God, could be
busyness or you're just burnedout.
Maybe you've gone throughinfidelity or you have been
betrayed.
Maybe you've gone throughinfidelity or you have been
betrayed.
Maybe you have a blended familytension that's brewing in your
family.
Or maybe you have gone throughgrief, loss or chronic illness.
(03:57):
Or maybe you're going throughall 10 and we just need to pray
for you right now.
And you know we come to churchand we just got to remember that
it's not time to put on yourchurch face.
Right, it's okay to not be okayand the whole purpose is we
come here so that Jesus can do awork in your life, so that he
can bless you, so that you canleave better than the time, than
the way that you walked in.
(04:18):
Can I get an amen?
And so we're going to look atRuth one, and I want to remind
you as we look at Ruth 1together.
If you got your Bible or yourfake Bible on your phone, or
we'll see it on the screen Ijust want you to know that
there's four parts typically toevery story.
Whether you watch a movie, youread a book or a TV show or a
comic book, whatever it might be, there's always the background
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how did the mess come to be?
There's the problem whatproblems is the mess creating?
There's the decision, thedecision that you've got to make
while you're in the middle ofthe mess, and then there's the
hope that God is going to bringyou out of the mess All four.
So here we go.
Let's look at the first one yourbackground.
Everyone say background.
You have a background to yourstory.
(05:02):
Your family has a background.
The way that your family istoday, it's because of
everything and everyone's lifeleading up to the way that it is
, and that's the same here inthe book of Ruth.
Here's what we see.
It says in the days of thejudges, when they ruled, there
was a famine.
When the judges ruled there,there was a famine in the land.
(05:24):
So actually, ruth is not somebeautiful love story.
It is actually a love storythat is found in the middle of a
huge national spiritual mess.
The book of Judges we wentthrough Judges throughout the
month of July you can check itout about Gideon and Othniel and
Deborah and about Samson.
The pastor Christian Henrypreached last week, did such a
great job.
July you can check it out aboutGideon and Othniel and Deborah
(05:44):
and about Samson.
The pastor Christian Henrypreached last week, did such a
great job.
And this is the setting thatRuth is in.
It's actually in one of thegreatest national spiritual
crises throughout all of theBible.
And here we find this story ofRuth and how God is focusing on
(06:04):
one family at this time, to showus that God is focusing on your
family too.
You can write down won't be onthe screen.
Judges 21, 25 says in thosedays there was no king in Israel
.
Everyone just did what wasright in their own eyes, first
and foremost, just talking aboutfamily.
If you really want God to blessyour family, you gotta make
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sure, first and foremost, thatJesus is your king and the king
of your family and you don't dowhat's right in your eyes, you
do what's right in his eyes.
That's found in his word.
Can I get an amen?
It says there was a famine goingon, a famine of food.
And so what's happening here,in this context of Judges if you
remember this book, it isprobably because of all of the
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people's disobedience.
And God is not causing a familybecause he doesn't love them,
he's not causing a famine justto punish them.
As you see throughout the bookof Judges, god may be causing
this famine just to get theirattention, saying you're not
just starving physically, you'restarving spiritually because
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you're feasting on sin.
And that's what God loves to do, is he loves to get our
attention.
If you could imagine no breadin the land, no food in the land
, not knowing where your nextmeal is going to come from, not
knowing how you're going to feedyour kids, could you imagine,
(07:29):
right, no bread in the land,walking into the Mexican
restaurant and they ran out ofchips?
Can you imagine Going toCracker Barrel there's no
biscuits, going to Jim andNick's and there's no little
cheese muffins.
My goodness, jesus, come onback, all right.
So roll with Ruth 1-2.
It says the name of the man.
So this story.
The dad's name was Elimelech,by the way, elimelech meant my
(07:50):
God is king, and the name of hiswife was Naomi.
Naomi's wife meant sweet orpleasant.
The names of the two sons wereMalon and Kilion.
Malon meant sickly and Kilionmeant dying.
Truly, that's actually whatthey meant.
So there you are, my God isking, sweet and pleasant, and
(08:11):
they're parenting sick and dying.
Can't make it up, y'all.
They were Ephrathites fromBethlehem.
Bethlehem should jog yourmemory.
A light bulb should go off.
Oh little town of Bethlehem,right where Jesus was born.
This family was in Bethlehemhundreds of years before Jesus,
bethlehem and Judah, and theywent into the country of Moab
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and they remained there.
Now here's the problem thatyou've got to read into the
passage so you can see what'sgoing on.
Elimelech is the dad, he's thepatriarch, he's the spiritual
leader.
His name means my God is king.
The only problem is he's notliving up to his name.
The only problem is, this isnot the way that his life is
(08:53):
going.
See here in the famine in theland, because of their spiritual
disobedience, what Elimelechdecides to do out of all of
these people, he may be theworst dad around.
Elimelech decides to go andmove his family to Moab.
Moab was a pagan land.
Moab worshiped the god Chemosh.
(09:15):
Chemosh was a real god, falsegod idol.
He was a god that he wasworshiped through violent acts
and even physical childsacrifice.
It would be like you movingyour family to the Las Vegas
Strip.
It would be like saying, hey,god's not being good to us in
our church.
We are going to Vegas and we'regoing to provide for ourselves.
(09:36):
In other words, what's yourMoab?
Moab is the area of your lifethat you're saying God, you're
not providing for me, so I amgoing to provide for me.
Naomi, sweet and pleasant, shewas probably just going along
with it, malon and Kilion justgoing along with it.
(09:58):
What a reminder that dads herein this room, dads in this room,
we are called to be thespiritual leaders in our family.
Moms in this room, dads in thisroom, we are called to be the
spiritual leaders in our family.
Moms in this room, you are aspiritual leader as well, as you
are following your husband.
The Bible says submitting toyour husband, but also maybe
you're in here and you are asingle mom and you're called to
(10:18):
be that spiritual leader,whoever you are.
As a parent, we are called toprioritize our children's
spiritual life over every otherpart of their life.
Can I get an amen?
It is our job to make sure thatwe are keeping them as close to
God as possible that we arekeeping them in the church.
There is no more importantplace in your child's life than
(10:41):
the church of Jesus Christ.
I wanna encourage you get themin our kids' ministry.
Get them in there on Sundaymornings, get them in there on
Wednesday nights.
Get your students in ourstudent ministries on Sundays
and Wednesdays and get your kidsin all the activities and you
get to be every parent'sfavorite.
Two words hands free.
Can I get an amen?
And you get to come to worshipand you get to go to group and
(11:05):
God gets to do a work in yourlife.
See, you can't provide for youand you can't provide for your
family what only God can provide.
That's why we see in scripturewhen, if grandpa says church is
essential, my family's going tochurch.
But the very next generationdad says you know what I'm gonna
make it optional for my family.
Then the next generation, the,says you know what I'm gonna
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make it optional for my family.
Then the next generation, theson, might say well then, church
is unnecessary for my family.
Then the grandson would saywho's Jesus?
Who are you talking about?
The most important part of achild's life is their spiritual
life and it is our job to makesure that we are constantly,
continually exposing them to thegospel, to get them saved and
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to continue to disciple them inorder to live saved.
Look at verse 3.
But Elimelech, the husband ofNaomi, died.
She was left with her two sons,malon and Kilion.
And you would think, naomi,okay, this is her chance, she's
going to take them back to thepeople of God, she's going to
take them back to Bethlehem,she's going to get them out of
Moab, this pagan land.
(12:07):
No, they stayed there, theystayed in Moab.
And these, the two sons, malonand Kilion, they took Moabite
wives.
When we put our kids in thewrong places, it leads them to
make the wrong decisions.
And the name of the one wifewas Orpah and the name of the
(12:27):
other wife was Ruth.
We see here what is happeningis you look at verse four.
They live there, malon andKilion and Orpah and Ruth and
Naomi.
They all live there, continueto live in Moab, for about 10
years, a whole decade.
It's tragic, it's heartbreaking.
Both Malon and Kilion, sick anddead, died.
(12:50):
So the woman Naomi, here she is.
She's left without her two sonsand without her husband.
What we see here is a real messthat only God can bless.
I don't know what's happeningin your family, but I know
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what's happening in my family, Iknow what's happening in our
extended family and we've gotmesses that are going on in our
families and you've got messesthat are going on in your
families and we have to rememberwe're not just called to live
in the mess and we're not calledto take care of our own mess.
We're called to give our messto Jesus because only he can
bless it.
Can I get an amen?
Tamara Estes.
(13:33):
I love her testimony, her story.
If you know, tamara and Trinityand the other daughters and
just the whole family.
On February 26th in 1998, tamarasaid I became mom to a sweet
boy, trevor.
From birth, doctors knewsomething was wrong.
He required constanttransfusions and by nine months
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our church prayed over him andmiraculously, his bone marrow
started working.
We celebrated, thinking theworst was behind us.
But soon after, trevordeveloped a rare condition and
was later diagnosed with Pearsonsyndrome and at just 22 months
he went home to be with the Lord.
We prayed for healing and Godanswered.
(14:18):
But he answered with eternalhealing in heaven.
Years later, tragedy struckagain.
On September 4th 2014, tamarasaid my husband, buddy passed
away unexpectedly, and the nextday my father-in-law.
18 months later, my brotherpassed away.
My daughters lost their brotherand three of the most important
(14:44):
men in their lives.
Those men in just less than twoyears.
And here's what Tamara says.
And yet God never left us.
God has been our provider, godhas been our peace, god has been
our strength.
We have been our peace, god hasbeen our strength.
We have lived through grief,we've seen miracles and we have
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found joy again.
She says we're not strong onour own, we're strong through
Christ, who gives us strength.
It is a reminder that Jesusdoesn't just step around your
mess.
Jesus loves to step right intothe middle of it.
It's like a little kid, youknow, whenever we get up to rain
(15:26):
puddles, we walk around it.
We don't want anything to dowith it, but what's the little
kid do?
The little kid just runs andjumps and splashes and the mess
gets all over him.
And that's what Jesus does,because that's what Jesus did.
And that's what Jesus does,because that's what Jesus did.
Jesus came to earth when earthwas an absolute mess, during 400
years of silence of God.
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Why?
Because nobody was listeninganyways.
And Jesus comes and steps intothe mess so that he can bless us
with his life.
And in the same way, hear me,whatever mess that is happening
in your life and in your family,jesus wants to step into the
middle of it to bless your lifeand to bless your family.
That's why it says in Jeremiah29, 11, write this down Jeremiah
(16:09):
29, 11,.
God says I know the plans Ihave for you.
They are plans.
God says my plans for you aregood.
He says my plans for you arenot for disaster, they're not to
be a dumpster fire.
He says they're to give you afuture and a hope.
So my question for you thismorning is what's your mess that
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God wants to bless?
Because only he can.
So, as we think about ourbackground, let's go to number
two and let's talk about ourproblem, your problem.
Look at somebody and sayproblem your problem.
What is your problem in yourlife that your background has
led up to?
Well, here's what we see inverse six Ruth one.
Then she, naomi, arose with herdaughters-in-law.
(16:55):
Now Elimelech is dead, malon isdead, kilion is dead.
Now here Naomi is, she's fromBethlehem, she's from the people
of God.
Now she has twodaughters-in-law that are
Moabite women, that are Chimashworshipers, and she says that
they got up and they went toreturn from the country of Moab,
for she had heard in the fieldsof Moab that the Lord had
(17:18):
visited his people and giventhem food.
Now let me just stop for onesecond and just make one
incredibly important point thatyou have to hear for your life
God is visiting his people inthe middle of their sin and
disobedience.
Listen, god does not blessdisobedience.
It's not that he won't, it'sthat he can't.
(17:39):
God cannot bless thedisobedience in your life.
There are times praise the Lordthat he blesses our obedience,
but what God loves to do whenhe's in our disobedience is he
loves to bless us, to show ushis goodness and his kindness,
so that we can follow him out ofour disobedience and into our
obedience as we follow him.
(17:59):
That's exactly what he's doinghere in this passage.
God loves to bless the mess.
So check this out in verseeight.
But Naomi said to her twodaughters-in-law go return each
of you to her mother's house.
May the Lord deal kindly withyou as you have dealt with the
dead and with me.
Naomi was homesick.
It doesn't look like that.
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She's just homesick for herfamily.
I think she's homesick becauseshe's been living in a pagan
land.
She's been living around peoplewho don't know God, who don't
worship God, who don't sacrificeto God, who don't serve God.
She wants to go home to bearound the people of God again.
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Have you ever been out ofchurch?
And you just miss church?
I remember, as a pastor, I wasout of church for about three
months.
It was called COVID, and sowere you.
We were all at home, right, andwe were watching worship and I
just remember if this is allI've got, if this is all I can
do, then this is what I'm goingto do.
But I could not wait to getback to church and be with the
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people of God.
It's not about being in theroom, it's about being with the
assembly, about being with thepeople of God that God loves to
bless.
And we see that Naomi ishomesick to bless.
And we see that Naomi ishomesick and I'll be honest with
you, she said so.
Ruth and Orpah, why don't you goback to your homes, go back to
your mom, go back to your dad,go back to your family, get
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married, have a family, havechildren again?
And I've never noticed thisbefore.
Everyone was doing what wasright in their own eyes.
Instead, naomi should have saidRuth Orpah, you come with me.
I want you to come with me, tocome, and I want you to know God
.
I want you to worship God.
I want you to be around thepeople of God.
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I wanna get you out of theworld.
I wanna get you out of thispagan culture.
I wanna get you out of thispagan society and I want you to
get among and around in themiddle of the people of God so
that you can understand thegoodness of God.
He's being kind, he's visitinghis people.
I want you to come back with meto be done with Chemosh and I
want you to go and I want you tocome and I want you to worship
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Yahweh with me.
And it says may the Lord Goddeal kindly with you.
She is saying God is a good God, he's a kind God.
Romans 2, 4 says it is thekindness of the Lord in your
life that leads you torepentance.
Because of the kindness of theLord.
God says that we need toconstantly extend kindness to
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one another.
Do you know?
Probably the number one placein your life where you might be
the least kind is in your home.
It's true of you, it's true ofme, it's true of all of us.
We are often our worst at homebecause we know our family is
supposed to love us anyways.
But Ephesians 4.32 says be kindto one another, tenderhearted,
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forgiving one another, as God inChrist's sake has forgiven you.
She said, the Lord, grant thatyou may find.
Rest each of you, in the houseof her husband.
And then she kissed them andthey lifted up their voices and
they wept.
Can you imagine the depth ofsorrow that they were
experiencing together?
(21:18):
As they're hugging and they'vebeen together for now a decade,
and these are herdaughters-in-law she loves them
and she's saying I want you togo and do what the culture is
telling you to do.
I want you to go back to yourfamily and get married and have
children.
She's not telling them to dowhat the word of God tells them
to do.
And so we see this sorrowfulmoment in what happens.
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Orpah kissed her mother-in-lawand she goes back to Moab.
But Ruth, but Ruth clung toNaomi.
We see here, from Ruth, we seewhat it looks like to be loyal
to our family, to say, no matterwhat we're going through, no
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matter how hard the mess is, nomatter how difficult.
Our trial is.
No matter how messed up we are,no matter how all the arguments
or the disagreements that wehave, we are still going to be
loyal to one another, becauseJesus himself is loyal to us.
I think that Ruth is showing us, as she is clinging to Naomi,
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that we need to be clinging toJesus, because there's never a
time that Jesus isn't clingingto you.
Can I get an amen?
All throughout Jesus's life man, he had messes.
All throughout his life, hisown people, the Jews, hated him.
The culture, the politicalsociety, the Romans hated him.
People misunderstood him,people didn't believe him,
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people didn't know who he trulywas.
But yet what did Jesus do?
He stepped into the mess and hetook our mess upon him and he
died for our mess.
Can I get an amen?
He died for our mess and herose from the dead, and what
does God call us to do?
1 Peter 5, 7, you can write itdown, not on the screen.
1 Peter 5, 7 says cast all ofyour anxieties, all of your
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worries, all of your problems onJesus, because he cares for you
.
In other words, give your messto Jesus.
I mean every day.
I mean have an honestconversation with Jesus every
day.
Yes, he knows.
But there's something differentthat he does in your life when
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you deal with it, when you prayabout it to him, when you give
it to him every day.
God, this is killing me.
God, this hurts me so deeply.
God, this is difficult.
God, this causes doubt in mylife.
God, I don't know what to do.
And he says I want you tocontinue to cast that upon me,
and cast that upon me.
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And cast that upon me why?
Because it says that he caresfor you.
So every story, your mess, hasa background and has a problem
in your life.
Number three and then whathappens is because of your mess,
you have a decision to make.
Everyone say decision, decision, check this out.
Ruth 1.16.
But Ruth said, talking to Naomifor where you go, I will go.
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Where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my peopleand your God will be my God.
I believe what we see here isthis is actually Ruth's moment
of conversion.
This is when Ruth is giving herlife to Jesus.
Ruth is saying I don't want togo back to Moab, I don't want to
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go back to the world, I don'twant to worship Chemosh or any
other false God.
Naomi, I want to come with you.
You've told me for the past 10years about the people of God.
You've told me about your land.
I understand they may not beliving for God, but God is still
good to your people.
What a loving God.
My God is violent.
Your God is loving.
(25:06):
My God requires child sacrifice.
Your God is building up thenext generation.
I want to be a part of your God, not a fake, false, phony God,
but the one, true, living God.
Can I get an amen?
God saved the life of anatheistic Moabite woman who
lived and worshiped a false God.
(25:29):
I love a story here in ourcommunity they may be in here
today Nicole and Scott man.
I've met them.
Scott's one of the he's themanager over at Huey Louie's,
which I love to go to.
And Nicole her story.
She comes on Wednesday morningshere in our women's Bible study
.
She was an atheist for 33 years, had nothing to do with God.
Every time that God came up ina conversation she'd always get
(25:50):
irritated.
She'd even find herself liketalking people out of God, right
, and so there was one day shetells me.
She tells us that she wasdriving from Chattanooga to
Atlanta for a bachelorette partyand something happened and God
spoke to her in the car on theride and God calls her name and
(26:14):
says Nicole, I love you and Iwant you.
Nicole screams out, and it'sjust her in the car, she's all
alone.
Nicole screams out and it'sjust her in the car, she's all
alone.
She screams out no.
And she said, the more shescreamed out no, the more the
love of God intensified in herheart, to where she felt like
she had no choice.
And so she said the clunkiestsalvation prayer ever.
(26:36):
God, I don't really know you,but, god, I believe in you.
God, I believe that your sonJesus is God and he died for my
sin and he rose from the dead.
And so, god, I don't know whyyou're choosing me, but I give
my life to you.
She gets saved.
She calls her fiance, scott, atthe time, and she gets on the
(26:59):
phone and she says Scott, I justgave my life to God.
And he said you're just beingemotional, hangs up the phone,
right, like that's impossible.
She calls her brother, who's abeliever, maybe a pastor?
And she calls her brother andhe says what are you talking
about?
You're telling me you've gonefrom like zero to 100
spiritually.
How do you explain that shesaid the only word I can think
(27:21):
of is love, that I feel the loveof God.
She said I want you to baptizeme in two weeks, when we're
going to be there for somewedding, be with her brother.
She goes and she gets baptized.
She tries to talk to her fiance, then becoming her husband,
scott, about the Lord and he'snot real responsive.
So I love what she does.
I've never heard of this before.
She went and bought a Bible andput it underneath his bed so he
(27:43):
was sleeping on the word of Godevery night.
He didn't even know about it.
I love that man.
I love that.
Sneak in the Bible under yourhusband's pillow.
That's so good and some of yourhusbands can be taking your
pillows tonight.
That's awesome.
Puts the Bible underneath thebed and you won't believe how he
got saved.
They went to a big old secularmusic concert, the Riverbend in
(28:05):
Chattanooga Maybe some of y'allhave been there before all these
awesome bands and he loved togo there and just kind of chill
out to the music.
But he said this time hewatched her and he watched her
friends and the church peopleand the Christian people in this
concert as they would engagepeople and talk to people and
share the gospel with them andhug them and cry with them and
(28:26):
pray with them.
And Scott said it was at thatsecular music festival that he
said that is real Christianity,that's what I want.
And then Scott gives his lifeto Jesus.
Put your hands together for theway that God works, for the way
that God works, for the waythat God works.
What is the decision that youneed to make?
We need to remember with Ruth,check this out.
(28:46):
When Ruth says that your Godwill be my God when God became
her God, then her people changed.
When God became her God, herpeople changed.
She's saying I wanna be a partof the people of God.
She wants to get in the worshipof God.
She wants to get into groups.
She wants to get into community.
She wants to get around thepeople.
Notice, she says that where yougo, I'll go, where you lodge,
(29:09):
I'll.
Her salvation changed where shewent.
Her salvation changed what shedid.
She wanted to go and serveNaomi in the same way that when
we get saved, that we just wantto serve Jesus and others.
That when she gave her life toGod and her whole life and her
mission changed.
That's what happens to you andthat's what happens to me.
(29:29):
So I want to encourage you,even in your mess, decide today
to follow Jesus in your mess.
I think there are so manypeople today, hear me, that
would be willing to follow Jesusout of their mess.
But what if his plan is not totake you out?
What if his plan is to blessyou right in the middle of it,
(29:50):
so you can be a blessing toothers even in the midst of your
mess?
I wanna encourage you decidetoday to follow Jesus in your
mess, no matter what the resultis, because he is worthy of your
worship and he is worthy ofyour obedience and he is worthy
of your surrender.
If you believe that, say amen,number four, and we're done.
Number four, there's abackground to every story.
(30:12):
There's a problem, there's adecision and then there is hope.
Everybody say hope.
Let me share hope in your mess,verse 19.
It says and when they came toBethlehem, the whole town was
stirred.
Naomi's back home.
It's been at least 10 years andthe women said is this Naomi,
(30:33):
meaning, pleasant and sweet?
Her face had changed, herposture had changed.
She's no longer smiling likeshe once did.
Naomi said to them don't callme Naomi sweet, pleasant, call
me Mara.
Mara meant bitter, she said,for the Lord Almighty has dealt
(30:54):
very bitterly with me.
I went away full and the Lordhas brought me back empty.
Naomi had experienced realgrief and her grief, hear me,
led her to bitterness.
Sometimes the mess in our familyis because of something.
(31:15):
Maybe an unmet expectation,maybe there was hurt, maybe
there was abuse, maybe there wasloss.
Maybe there was hurt, maybethere was abuse, maybe there was
loss, maybe there's regret,maybe there's disappointment.
Whatever it is that may havehappened in your family, hear me
, grief can easily lead tobitterness.
Can I share with you what theBible says about bitterness?
(31:36):
The Bible says, and you canwrite it down Hebrews 12, 15,.
It says don't let bitternesstake root in you.
Acts 8, 23,.
Bitterness brings bondage inyour life.
Romans 3, 14,.
Bitterness corrupts your words.
Ephesians 4, 31,.
So put away all bitterness.
It sounds so easy.
(31:57):
I can't put it away.
Maybe you're thinking I've beenstruggling with this for years.
What do I do about mybitterness?
Because my bitterness isruining me.
The Bible says to do what Naomidid to confess it.
Be transparent.
(32:18):
Don't just put on a face, don'tjust hide it, but lament over
it.
Be transparent, don't just puton a face, don't just hide it,
but lament over it.
But don't stay there.
Get godly people around you wholove you and who will pray for
you and have the goal in yourlife to get out of the
bitterness so it doesn't takeroot and so that you can put it
(32:38):
away.
Believe the gospel.
What is the gospel?
That Jesus steps into your messto bless you and trust God that
he is going to work in yourlife.
In other words, when you gothrough grief like Naomi, you
have two options.
Option one you have bitterness,but the second option is belief
(33:00):
.
Bitterness is this happened.
Life will never be good again.
Belief is this happened and itwas terrible and it was awful
and I'll never be the same.
But I believe that God hassomething for me, that he is
(33:20):
still working in my life, thathe still wants to bless me, that
he is my hope and he is myfuture and he wants to bring me
joy and God is going to bring meinto a new beginning again,
that God has belief for us all.
And so you might be wonderinghow is this about hope when it
sounds so depressing?
I'm depressed, aren't you?
So Naomi returned and Ruth theMoabite, her daughter-in-law
(33:46):
with her, who returned from thecountry of Moab, and they came
to Bethlehem at the beginning ofthe barley harvest.
You see here a new harvesttaking place, not just
physically, but spiritually.
In other words, if you feellike a part of you is lost, a
(34:07):
part of you is gone, we have aGod who raises dead things in
our life to come back to life,like your hope, like your faith,
like your joy.
If I could just share with youa little bit of that, without
spoiling the whole story,because we're just gonna go
through it in the month ofAugust, just four quick weeks,
(34:28):
but let me tell you the very end, without spoiling all the
details.
You ready, here we go.
God blesses Naomi and Godblesses Ruth, in a miraculous
kind of a way, in ways that canalso happen, similarly to you.
(34:50):
And every step along the waythey keep their eyes on God and
God blesses them, step afterstep after step, and the end of
their story concludes with alittle baby boy being born,
(35:11):
who's the grandfather of KingDavid and David, who is in the
lineage of Jesus.
Had God not orchestrated thestory of Ruth, jesus would not
have been born.
In other words, I want you tosee.
God blesses your messes for thestory of Jesus's glory in your
(35:36):
life.
I went to lunch with a churchmember, went to breakfast with a
church member this past week,just this past week.
He was in the 930 service andhere's what he told me.
He said when I was one year old, my biological dad walked out
on me and my mom Three years old, my mom started dating another
man.
They got married.
(35:57):
He said he was nice to me, hewas good to me, he loved me, but
he had no drive, he had noambition, he was very lazy.
He said so we never went tochurch.
He said I didn't know much aboutit.
He said when I was 18 years oldthis was like back in the 1940s
(36:18):
.
When I was 18 years old.
It was in South Florida.
It was a time of segregation.
He said typically you wouldn'tdo this.
But he said I had a job backthen you wouldn't do it.
But he said I had a job backthen you wouldn't do it.
But he said I had a job backthen with four.
He's a white guy.
He said I have a job with fourAfrican-American men working in
the sod fields.
He said an African-American man.
He didn't tell me his name.
He said he was in his 30s andhe could not read or write.
(36:41):
He said that African-Americanman would go home every night
and his wife would read him theBible and he would come back to
work the next day and he wouldtell the men, including this man
that I'm sitting with the Biblestories and the gospel of Jesus
Christ at work on a daily basis.
(37:01):
This man that I'm sitting withtold me he said so I went to
this man's church allAfrican-American church.
He said I, I went to this man'schurch, all African American
church.
He said I think I was the onlywhite person in four miles.
He said and I heard the gospeland I saw their worship and I
saw their love and I wantednothing to do with the life that
(37:26):
I grew up in.
I wanted the life that they had.
He said I placed my faith inJesus Christ and he said then
they took me out back and theybaptized me in a steel tank.
And he said God's hand has beenon my life ever since.
I want you to know that Godblessed his mess for the story
(37:48):
of Jesus's glory and whatever itis that you're going through
the hurt in your life, the painin your life, the situation that
just feels insurmountable.
I want you to know that Jesusdoesn't walk around your mess.
He steps right in the middle ofit.
He's with you, he'sstrengthening you, he's
(38:09):
encouraging you, he's blessingyou and he is going to bring
about his glory through it.
Keep following him.
Every head bowed, every eyeclosed, no one looking around.
(38:34):
Maybe you're here this morningand you just need to be real,
honest and transparent with God.
Maybe you feel like you've toldhim a thousand times, but it's
been a while and you just needto cast all your anxieties upon
him again.
Maybe you just need to tell himGod, I'm struggling, I'm in a
(38:56):
mess, don't know what to do.
But, god, I believe you.
I'm not gonna let bitternessset in.
I'm gonna choose belief so Ican have hope and I can have joy
.
God, would you bless me, evenif you never get me out of it.
(39:16):
God would you just bless me inthe middle of it so I can live
my life for you.
Maybe you're here this morningand you can't pray that.
You can't say that because youhaven't given your life to him,
I can help you get saved righthere, right now.
Give your life to God forever.
It's not from the words of yourprayers, from the faith of your
(39:37):
heart, but you can saysomething like this to God in
your own words.
You can say God, I believe inyou, I believe in Jesus, your
son.
You can tell him, I believethat Jesus died on the cross for
my sin and, god, I'm asking youto forgive me of all of my sin
because of Jesus' death.
And you can tell him, god, Ibelieve that Jesus rose from the
(39:57):
dead.
He's alive.
I want to follow him with mylife.
I want to call on him to be theLord of my life.
The Bible says that if youconfess Jesus as your Lord and
believe with your heart that Godraised him from the dead, you
will be saved.
So, god, we thank you for that.
We pray this morning.
Anyone not saved that.
(40:17):
They would have prayed and theywould have got saved today or
one day very soon.
God, we love you and we prayall these things in Jesus' name.
And all God's people said putyour hands together right now
for anybody that gave their lifeto Jesus.
We just want to say welcome tothe family, welcome to the
kingdom, man, as God loves tobless us together.
God is so good, and I just wantto encourage everyone at this
(40:40):
time that God is continuing towork in your life and he wants
to do great things even in thehardest of your times, and so I
want to ask us all just to, touh, to stand up right now, and
I'm gonna ask Pastor James tocome on out and he's gonna share
a couple of announcements withus and then we'll sing to Jesus
one more time.
series this morning that we are calling Bless this
Mess.
Everybody look at somebody andsay Bless this Mess.
This is actually a series onfamily, on family.
Your family is a mess, like myfamily is a mess.
We're all a mess in some way.
Look at somebody and say youare a mess, you are a mess and
we are all a mess.
(00:20):
We are all in a mess and that'swhy we need Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
We tried, michelle a mess, andthat's why we need Jesus.
Can I get an amen?
We tried, michelle and I.
We just thought it was such abrilliant idea to try and take
our three little rugrats out toeat About a week ago Brooklyn 6,
cruise 2, ileana 1, and wethought, man, let's just take
them out, let's try it all inthe restaurant one more time.
(00:41):
What's the worst that couldhappen?
Right, and of course it was adumpster fire, train wreck,
disaster all at once.
I'll probably never forget it.
Cruz, he's two-year-old, youknow he cannot sit.
Still.
He's running up and down thebench in the booth and he's
trying to get out.
And he's going out and tryingto talk to other people and just
making a havoc wherever he is.
(01:02):
And Brooklyn, she got herfavorite meal that we always do,
the little kid's steak bites,which are actually really good,
and some corn Food comes out andshe just starts crying.
For some reason she changed hermind.
She doesn't want it.
And Eliana now one year old,and now she's taking everything
off the table and she thinksthat everything on the table
should be under the table right,and so ketchup's flying and
(01:26):
sweet and low and all that kindof stuff.
And we're just amazed they evenlet us back in.
To be honest with you, Iremember about a year ago when
we were there and Cruz, he usedto love to just literally walk
the whole restaurant, probablybecause we went so much he
thought it was home, and hewould walk the entire restaurant
and he would just give peoplehigh fives, just giving people
high fives.
He's giving high fives left andright.
He turns around and there's awaitress right there.
(01:47):
He gives her a high five.
The only problem is she'sbending over right, gives her a
high five right on her bottom.
I'm trying to stop him.
I pull him back.
She looks up and it's me rightthere.
I'm like no, ma'am, watch thetape, watch the cameras.
It was not me, it was my son.
We are all a mess.
Can I get an amen?
We're gonna look at the book ofRuth.
Open up with me to the book ofRuth.
(02:08):
The book of Ruth is anincredible book of the Bible and
it talks about marriage, talksabout parenting, talks about
family, talks about singleness,talks about dating, talks about
death and loss, and hope andblessing.
It is the soap opera of theBible and it is always good to
just dive deep in God's word.
(02:28):
This is a real life story andthe reason that God recorded it,
the reason that Godorchestrated it, was to connect
with your real life story.
In fact, the more your life isa mess, the more the Bible makes
sense to you, because the Bibleis all about people who are all
(02:49):
caught up in messes.
We thought this was a greatopportunity.
It's actually the next bookthat we're studying.
We started in Genesis, the verybeginning of the Bible, back in
January of 2024,.
We've worked our way up all theway to Ruth now and it's just
perfect the way that God worksit out.
Talking about family, as we'reback to school Some of y'all may
have started this past Friday,some of y'all are starting
(03:11):
tomorrow Our little girl,brooklyn's starting the first
grade and I can't think about itor I'll cry.
So let's just continue here.
I wanna talk about the 10 mostcommon family messes that maybe
your family is found in rightnow.
Could be a marriage conflict orcrisis, could be parenting
struggles, could be financialstrain, could be addiction or
(03:33):
substance abuse.
Could be mental healthchallenges.
Could be a spiritualdisconnection from God, could be
busyness or you're just burnedout.
Maybe you've gone throughinfidelity or you have been
betrayed.
Maybe you've gone throughinfidelity or you have been
betrayed.
Maybe you have a blended familytension that's brewing in your
family.
Or maybe you have gone throughgrief, loss or chronic illness.
(03:57):
Or maybe you're going throughall 10 and we just need to pray
for you right now.
And you know we come to churchand we just got to remember that
it's not time to put on yourchurch face.
Right, it's okay to not be okayand the whole purpose is we
come here so that Jesus can do awork in your life, so that he
can bless you, so that you canleave better than the time, than
the way that you walked in.
(04:18):
Can I get an amen?
And so we're going to look atRuth one, and I want to remind
you as we look at Ruth 1together.
If you got your Bible or yourfake Bible on your phone, or
we'll see it on the screen Ijust want you to know that
there's four parts typically toevery story.
Whether you watch a movie, youread a book or a TV show or a
comic book, whatever it might be, there's always the background
(04:39):
how did the mess come to be?
There's the problem whatproblems is the mess creating?
There's the decision, thedecision that you've got to make
while you're in the middle ofthe mess, and then there's the
hope that God is going to bringyou out of the mess All four.
So here we go.
Let's look at the first one yourbackground.
Everyone say background.
You have a background to yourstory.
(05:02):
Your family has a background.
The way that your family istoday, it's because of
everything and everyone's lifeleading up to the way that it is
, and that's the same here inthe book of Ruth.
Here's what we see.
It says in the days of thejudges, when they ruled, there
was a famine.
When the judges ruled there,there was a famine in the land.
(05:24):
So actually, ruth is not somebeautiful love story.
It is actually a love storythat is found in the middle of a
huge national spiritual mess.
The book of Judges we wentthrough Judges throughout the
month of July you can check itout about Gideon and Othniel and
Deborah and about Samson.
The pastor Christian Henrypreached last week, did such a
great job.
July you can check it out aboutGideon and Othniel and Deborah
(05:44):
and about Samson.
The pastor Christian Henrypreached last week, did such a
great job.
And this is the setting thatRuth is in.
It's actually in one of thegreatest national spiritual
crises throughout all of theBible.
And here we find this story ofRuth and how God is focusing on
(06:04):
one family at this time, to showus that God is focusing on your
family too.
You can write down won't be onthe screen.
Judges 21, 25 says in thosedays there was no king in Israel
.
Everyone just did what wasright in their own eyes, first
and foremost, just talking aboutfamily.
If you really want God to blessyour family, you gotta make
(06:26):
sure, first and foremost, thatJesus is your king and the king
of your family and you don't dowhat's right in your eyes, you
do what's right in his eyes.
That's found in his word.
Can I get an amen?
It says there was a famine goingon, a famine of food.
And so what's happening here,in this context of Judges if you
remember this book, it isprobably because of all of the
(06:47):
people's disobedience.
And God is not causing a familybecause he doesn't love them,
he's not causing a famine justto punish them.
As you see throughout the bookof Judges, god may be causing
this famine just to get theirattention, saying you're not
just starving physically, you'restarving spiritually because
(07:09):
you're feasting on sin.
And that's what God loves to do, is he loves to get our
attention.
If you could imagine no breadin the land, no food in the land
, not knowing where your nextmeal is going to come from, not
knowing how you're going to feedyour kids, could you imagine,
(07:29):
right, no bread in the land,walking into the Mexican
restaurant and they ran out ofchips?
Can you imagine Going toCracker Barrel there's no
biscuits, going to Jim andNick's and there's no little
cheese muffins.
My goodness, jesus, come onback, all right.
So roll with Ruth 1-2.
It says the name of the man.
So this story.
The dad's name was Elimelech,by the way, elimelech meant my
(07:50):
God is king, and the name of hiswife was Naomi.
Naomi's wife meant sweet orpleasant.
The names of the two sons wereMalon and Kilion.
Malon meant sickly and Kilionmeant dying.
Truly, that's actually whatthey meant.
So there you are, my God isking, sweet and pleasant, and
(08:11):
they're parenting sick and dying.
Can't make it up, y'all.
They were Ephrathites fromBethlehem.
Bethlehem should jog yourmemory.
A light bulb should go off.
Oh little town of Bethlehem,right where Jesus was born.
This family was in Bethlehemhundreds of years before Jesus,
bethlehem and Judah, and theywent into the country of Moab
(08:32):
and they remained there.
Now here's the problem thatyou've got to read into the
passage so you can see what'sgoing on.
Elimelech is the dad, he's thepatriarch, he's the spiritual
leader.
His name means my God is king.
The only problem is he's notliving up to his name.
The only problem is, this isnot the way that his life is
(08:53):
going.
See here in the famine in theland, because of their spiritual
disobedience, what Elimelechdecides to do out of all of
these people, he may be theworst dad around.
Elimelech decides to go andmove his family to Moab.
Moab was a pagan land.
Moab worshiped the god Chemosh.
(09:15):
Chemosh was a real god, falsegod idol.
He was a god that he wasworshiped through violent acts
and even physical childsacrifice.
It would be like you movingyour family to the Las Vegas
Strip.
It would be like saying, hey,god's not being good to us in
our church.
We are going to Vegas and we'regoing to provide for ourselves.
(09:36):
In other words, what's yourMoab?
Moab is the area of your lifethat you're saying God, you're
not providing for me, so I amgoing to provide for me.
Naomi, sweet and pleasant, shewas probably just going along
with it, malon and Kilion justgoing along with it.
(09:58):
What a reminder that dads herein this room, dads in this room,
we are called to be thespiritual leaders in our family.
Moms in this room, dads in thisroom, we are called to be the
spiritual leaders in our family.
Moms in this room, you are aspiritual leader as well, as you
are following your husband.
The Bible says submitting toyour husband, but also maybe
you're in here and you are asingle mom and you're called to
(10:18):
be that spiritual leader,whoever you are.
As a parent, we are called toprioritize our children's
spiritual life over every otherpart of their life.
Can I get an amen?
It is our job to make sure thatwe are keeping them as close to
God as possible that we arekeeping them in the church.
There is no more importantplace in your child's life than
(10:41):
the church of Jesus Christ.
I wanna encourage you get themin our kids' ministry.
Get them in there on Sundaymornings, get them in there on
Wednesday nights.
Get your students in ourstudent ministries on Sundays
and Wednesdays and get your kidsin all the activities and you
get to be every parent'sfavorite.
Two words hands free.
Can I get an amen?
And you get to come to worshipand you get to go to group and
(11:05):
God gets to do a work in yourlife.
See, you can't provide for youand you can't provide for your
family what only God can provide.
That's why we see in scripturewhen, if grandpa says church is
essential, my family's going tochurch.
But the very next generationdad says you know what I'm gonna
make it optional for my family.
Then the next generation, the,says you know what I'm gonna
(11:26):
make it optional for my family.
Then the next generation, theson, might say well then, church
is unnecessary for my family.
Then the grandson would saywho's Jesus?
Who are you talking about?
The most important part of achild's life is their spiritual
life and it is our job to makesure that we are constantly,
continually exposing them to thegospel, to get them saved and
(11:46):
to continue to disciple them inorder to live saved.
Look at verse 3.
But Elimelech, the husband ofNaomi, died.
She was left with her two sons,malon and Kilion.
And you would think, naomi,okay, this is her chance, she's
going to take them back to thepeople of God, she's going to
take them back to Bethlehem,she's going to get them out of
Moab, this pagan land.
(12:07):
No, they stayed there, theystayed in Moab.
And these, the two sons, malonand Kilion, they took Moabite
wives.
When we put our kids in thewrong places, it leads them to
make the wrong decisions.
And the name of the one wifewas Orpah and the name of the
(12:27):
other wife was Ruth.
We see here what is happeningis you look at verse four.
They live there, malon andKilion and Orpah and Ruth and
Naomi.
They all live there, continueto live in Moab, for about 10
years, a whole decade.
It's tragic, it's heartbreaking.
Both Malon and Kilion, sick anddead, died.
(12:50):
So the woman Naomi, here she is.
She's left without her two sonsand without her husband.
What we see here is a real messthat only God can bless.
I don't know what's happeningin your family, but I know
(13:12):
what's happening in my family, Iknow what's happening in our
extended family and we've gotmesses that are going on in our
families and you've got messesthat are going on in your
families and we have to rememberwe're not just called to live
in the mess and we're not calledto take care of our own mess.
We're called to give our messto Jesus because only he can
bless it.
Can I get an amen?
Tamara Estes.
(13:33):
I love her testimony, her story.
If you know, tamara and Trinityand the other daughters and
just the whole family.
On February 26th in 1998, tamarasaid I became mom to a sweet
boy, trevor.
From birth, doctors knewsomething was wrong.
He required constanttransfusions and by nine months
(13:54):
our church prayed over him andmiraculously, his bone marrow
started working.
We celebrated, thinking theworst was behind us.
But soon after, trevordeveloped a rare condition and
was later diagnosed with Pearsonsyndrome and at just 22 months
he went home to be with the Lord.
We prayed for healing and Godanswered.
(14:18):
But he answered with eternalhealing in heaven.
Years later, tragedy struckagain.
On September 4th 2014, tamarasaid my husband, buddy passed
away unexpectedly, and the nextday my father-in-law.
18 months later, my brotherpassed away.
My daughters lost their brotherand three of the most important
(14:44):
men in their lives.
Those men in just less than twoyears.
And here's what Tamara says.
And yet God never left us.
God has been our provider, godhas been our peace, god has been
our strength.
We have been our peace, god hasbeen our strength.
We have lived through grief,we've seen miracles and we have
(15:05):
found joy again.
She says we're not strong onour own, we're strong through
Christ, who gives us strength.
It is a reminder that Jesusdoesn't just step around your
mess.
Jesus loves to step right intothe middle of it.
It's like a little kid, youknow, whenever we get up to rain
(15:26):
puddles, we walk around it.
We don't want anything to dowith it, but what's the little
kid do?
The little kid just runs andjumps and splashes and the mess
gets all over him.
And that's what Jesus does,because that's what Jesus did.
And that's what Jesus does,because that's what Jesus did.
Jesus came to earth when earthwas an absolute mess, during 400
years of silence of God.
(15:47):
Why?
Because nobody was listeninganyways.
And Jesus comes and steps intothe mess so that he can bless us
with his life.
And in the same way, hear me,whatever mess that is happening
in your life and in your family,jesus wants to step into the
middle of it to bless your lifeand to bless your family.
That's why it says in Jeremiah29, 11, write this down Jeremiah
(16:09):
29, 11,.
God says I know the plans Ihave for you.
They are plans.
God says my plans for you aregood.
He says my plans for you arenot for disaster, they're not to
be a dumpster fire.
He says they're to give you afuture and a hope.
So my question for you thismorning is what's your mess that
(16:32):
God wants to bless?
Because only he can.
So, as we think about ourbackground, let's go to number
two and let's talk about ourproblem, your problem.
Look at somebody and sayproblem your problem.
What is your problem in yourlife that your background has
led up to?
Well, here's what we see inverse six Ruth one.
Then she, naomi, arose with herdaughters-in-law.
(16:55):
Now Elimelech is dead, malon isdead, kilion is dead.
Now here Naomi is, she's fromBethlehem, she's from the people
of God.
Now she has twodaughters-in-law that are
Moabite women, that are Chimashworshipers, and she says that
they got up and they went toreturn from the country of Moab,
for she had heard in the fieldsof Moab that the Lord had
(17:18):
visited his people and giventhem food.
Now let me just stop for onesecond and just make one
incredibly important point thatyou have to hear for your life
God is visiting his people inthe middle of their sin and
disobedience.
Listen, god does not blessdisobedience.
It's not that he won't, it'sthat he can't.
(17:39):
God cannot bless thedisobedience in your life.
There are times praise the Lordthat he blesses our obedience,
but what God loves to do whenhe's in our disobedience is he
loves to bless us, to show ushis goodness and his kindness,
so that we can follow him out ofour disobedience and into our
obedience as we follow him.
(17:59):
That's exactly what he's doinghere in this passage.
God loves to bless the mess.
So check this out in verseeight.
But Naomi said to her twodaughters-in-law go return each
of you to her mother's house.
May the Lord deal kindly withyou as you have dealt with the
dead and with me.
Naomi was homesick.
It doesn't look like that.
(18:21):
She's just homesick for herfamily.
I think she's homesick becauseshe's been living in a pagan
land.
She's been living around peoplewho don't know God, who don't
worship God, who don't sacrificeto God, who don't serve God.
She wants to go home to bearound the people of God again.
(18:42):
Have you ever been out ofchurch?
And you just miss church?
I remember, as a pastor, I wasout of church for about three
months.
It was called COVID, and sowere you.
We were all at home, right, andwe were watching worship and I
just remember if this is allI've got, if this is all I can
do, then this is what I'm goingto do.
But I could not wait to getback to church and be with the
(19:06):
people of God.
It's not about being in theroom, it's about being with the
assembly, about being with thepeople of God that God loves to
bless.
And we see that Naomi ishomesick to bless.
And we see that Naomi ishomesick and I'll be honest with
you, she said so.
Ruth and Orpah, why don't you goback to your homes, go back to
your mom, go back to your dad,go back to your family, get
(19:28):
married, have a family, havechildren again?
And I've never noticed thisbefore.
Everyone was doing what wasright in their own eyes.
Instead, naomi should have saidRuth Orpah, you come with me.
I want you to come with me, tocome, and I want you to know God
.
I want you to worship God.
I want you to be around thepeople of God.
(19:50):
I wanna get you out of theworld.
I wanna get you out of thispagan culture.
I wanna get you out of thispagan society and I want you to
get among and around in themiddle of the people of God so
that you can understand thegoodness of God.
He's being kind, he's visitinghis people.
I want you to come back with meto be done with Chemosh and I
want you to go and I want you tocome and I want you to worship
(20:11):
Yahweh with me.
And it says may the Lord Goddeal kindly with you.
She is saying God is a good God, he's a kind God.
Romans 2, 4 says it is thekindness of the Lord in your
life that leads you torepentance.
Because of the kindness of theLord.
God says that we need toconstantly extend kindness to
(20:32):
one another.
Do you know?
Probably the number one placein your life where you might be
the least kind is in your home.
It's true of you, it's true ofme, it's true of all of us.
We are often our worst at homebecause we know our family is
supposed to love us anyways.
But Ephesians 4.32 says be kindto one another, tenderhearted,
(20:57):
forgiving one another, as God inChrist's sake has forgiven you.
She said, the Lord, grant thatyou may find.
Rest each of you, in the houseof her husband.
And then she kissed them andthey lifted up their voices and
they wept.
Can you imagine the depth ofsorrow that they were
experiencing together?
(21:18):
As they're hugging and they'vebeen together for now a decade,
and these are herdaughters-in-law she loves them
and she's saying I want you togo and do what the culture is
telling you to do.
I want you to go back to yourfamily and get married and have
children.
She's not telling them to dowhat the word of God tells them
to do.
And so we see this sorrowfulmoment in what happens.
(21:41):
Orpah kissed her mother-in-lawand she goes back to Moab.
But Ruth, but Ruth clung toNaomi.
We see here, from Ruth, we seewhat it looks like to be loyal
to our family, to say, no matterwhat we're going through, no
(22:04):
matter how hard the mess is, nomatter how difficult.
Our trial is.
No matter how messed up we are,no matter how all the arguments
or the disagreements that wehave, we are still going to be
loyal to one another, becauseJesus himself is loyal to us.
I think that Ruth is showing us, as she is clinging to Naomi,
(22:25):
that we need to be clinging toJesus, because there's never a
time that Jesus isn't clingingto you.
Can I get an amen?
All throughout Jesus's life man, he had messes.
All throughout his life, hisown people, the Jews, hated him.
The culture, the politicalsociety, the Romans hated him.
People misunderstood him,people didn't believe him,
(22:48):
people didn't know who he trulywas.
But yet what did Jesus do?
He stepped into the mess and hetook our mess upon him and he
died for our mess.
Can I get an amen?
He died for our mess and herose from the dead, and what
does God call us to do?
1 Peter 5, 7, you can write itdown, not on the screen.
1 Peter 5, 7 says cast all ofyour anxieties, all of your
(23:13):
worries, all of your problems onJesus, because he cares for you
.
In other words, give your messto Jesus.
I mean every day.
I mean have an honestconversation with Jesus every
day.
Yes, he knows.
But there's something differentthat he does in your life when
(23:36):
you deal with it, when you prayabout it to him, when you give
it to him every day.
God, this is killing me.
God, this hurts me so deeply.
God, this is difficult.
God, this causes doubt in mylife.
God, I don't know what to do.
And he says I want you tocontinue to cast that upon me,
and cast that upon me.
(23:56):
And cast that upon me why?
Because it says that he caresfor you.
So every story, your mess, hasa background and has a problem
in your life.
Number three and then whathappens is because of your mess,
you have a decision to make.
Everyone say decision, decision, check this out.
Ruth 1.16.
But Ruth said, talking to Naomifor where you go, I will go.
(24:21):
Where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my peopleand your God will be my God.
I believe what we see here isthis is actually Ruth's moment
of conversion.
This is when Ruth is giving herlife to Jesus.
Ruth is saying I don't want togo back to Moab, I don't want to
(24:45):
go back to the world, I don'twant to worship Chemosh or any
other false God.
Naomi, I want to come with you.
You've told me for the past 10years about the people of God.
You've told me about your land.
I understand they may not beliving for God, but God is still
good to your people.
What a loving God.
My God is violent.
Your God is loving.
(25:06):
My God requires child sacrifice.
Your God is building up thenext generation.
I want to be a part of your God, not a fake, false, phony God,
but the one, true, living God.
Can I get an amen?
God saved the life of anatheistic Moabite woman who
lived and worshiped a false God.
(25:29):
I love a story here in ourcommunity they may be in here
today Nicole and Scott man.
I've met them.
Scott's one of the he's themanager over at Huey Louie's,
which I love to go to.
And Nicole her story.
She comes on Wednesday morningshere in our women's Bible study
.
She was an atheist for 33 years, had nothing to do with God.
Every time that God came up ina conversation she'd always get
(25:50):
irritated.
She'd even find herself liketalking people out of God, right
, and so there was one day shetells me.
She tells us that she wasdriving from Chattanooga to
Atlanta for a bachelorette partyand something happened and God
spoke to her in the car on theride and God calls her name and
(26:14):
says Nicole, I love you and Iwant you.
Nicole screams out, and it'sjust her in the car, she's all
alone.
Nicole screams out and it'sjust her in the car, she's all
alone.
She screams out no.
And she said, the more shescreamed out no, the more the
love of God intensified in herheart, to where she felt like
she had no choice.
And so she said the clunkiestsalvation prayer ever.
(26:36):
God, I don't really know you,but, god, I believe in you.
God, I believe that your sonJesus is God and he died for my
sin and he rose from the dead.
And so, god, I don't know whyyou're choosing me, but I give
my life to you.
She gets saved.
She calls her fiance, scott, atthe time, and she gets on the
(26:59):
phone and she says Scott, I justgave my life to God.
And he said you're just beingemotional, hangs up the phone,
right, like that's impossible.
She calls her brother, who's abeliever, maybe a pastor?
And she calls her brother andhe says what are you talking
about?
You're telling me you've gonefrom like zero to 100
spiritually.
How do you explain that shesaid the only word I can think
(27:21):
of is love, that I feel the loveof God.
She said I want you to baptizeme in two weeks, when we're
going to be there for somewedding, be with her brother.
She goes and she gets baptized.
She tries to talk to her fiance, then becoming her husband,
scott, about the Lord and he'snot real responsive.
So I love what she does.
I've never heard of this before.
She went and bought a Bible andput it underneath his bed so he
(27:43):
was sleeping on the word of Godevery night.
He didn't even know about it.
I love that man.
I love that.
Sneak in the Bible under yourhusband's pillow.
That's so good and some of yourhusbands can be taking your
pillows tonight.
That's awesome.
Puts the Bible underneath thebed and you won't believe how he
got saved.
They went to a big old secularmusic concert, the Riverbend in
(28:05):
Chattanooga Maybe some of y'allhave been there before all these
awesome bands and he loved togo there and just kind of chill
out to the music.
But he said this time hewatched her and he watched her
friends and the church peopleand the Christian people in this
concert as they would engagepeople and talk to people and
share the gospel with them andhug them and cry with them and
(28:26):
pray with them.
And Scott said it was at thatsecular music festival that he
said that is real Christianity,that's what I want.
And then Scott gives his lifeto Jesus.
Put your hands together for theway that God works, for the way
that God works, for the waythat God works.
What is the decision that youneed to make?
We need to remember with Ruth,check this out.
(28:46):
When Ruth says that your Godwill be my God when God became
her God, then her people changed.
When God became her God, herpeople changed.
She's saying I wanna be a partof the people of God.
She wants to get in the worshipof God.
She wants to get into groups.
She wants to get into community.
She wants to get around thepeople.
Notice, she says that where yougo, I'll go, where you lodge,
(29:09):
I'll.
Her salvation changed where shewent.
Her salvation changed what shedid.
She wanted to go and serveNaomi in the same way that when
we get saved, that we just wantto serve Jesus and others.
That when she gave her life toGod and her whole life and her
mission changed.
That's what happens to you andthat's what happens to me.
(29:29):
So I want to encourage you,even in your mess, decide today
to follow Jesus in your mess.
I think there are so manypeople today, hear me, that
would be willing to follow Jesusout of their mess.
But what if his plan is not totake you out?
What if his plan is to blessyou right in the middle of it,
(29:50):
so you can be a blessing toothers even in the midst of your
mess?
I wanna encourage you decidetoday to follow Jesus in your
mess, no matter what the resultis, because he is worthy of your
worship and he is worthy ofyour obedience and he is worthy
of your surrender.
If you believe that, say amen,number four, and we're done.
Number four, there's abackground to every story.
(30:12):
There's a problem, there's adecision and then there is hope.
Everybody say hope.
Let me share hope in your mess,verse 19.
It says and when they came toBethlehem, the whole town was
stirred.
Naomi's back home.
It's been at least 10 years andthe women said is this Naomi,
(30:33):
meaning, pleasant and sweet?
Her face had changed, herposture had changed.
She's no longer smiling likeshe once did.
Naomi said to them don't callme Naomi sweet, pleasant, call
me Mara.
Mara meant bitter, she said,for the Lord Almighty has dealt
(30:54):
very bitterly with me.
I went away full and the Lordhas brought me back empty.
Naomi had experienced realgrief and her grief, hear me,
led her to bitterness.
Sometimes the mess in our familyis because of something.
(31:15):
Maybe an unmet expectation,maybe there was hurt, maybe
there was abuse, maybe there wasloss.
Maybe there was hurt, maybethere was abuse, maybe there was
loss, maybe there's regret,maybe there's disappointment.
Whatever it is that may havehappened in your family, hear me
, grief can easily lead tobitterness.
Can I share with you what theBible says about bitterness?
(31:36):
The Bible says, and you canwrite it down Hebrews 12, 15,.
It says don't let bitternesstake root in you.
Acts 8, 23,.
Bitterness brings bondage inyour life.
Romans 3, 14,.
Bitterness corrupts your words.
Ephesians 4, 31,.
So put away all bitterness.
It sounds so easy.
(31:57):
I can't put it away.
Maybe you're thinking I've beenstruggling with this for years.
What do I do about mybitterness?
Because my bitterness isruining me.
The Bible says to do what Naomidid to confess it.
Be transparent.
(32:18):
Don't just put on a face, don'tjust hide it, but lament over
it.
Be transparent, don't just puton a face, don't just hide it,
but lament over it.
But don't stay there.
Get godly people around you wholove you and who will pray for
you and have the goal in yourlife to get out of the
bitterness so it doesn't takeroot and so that you can put it
(32:38):
away.
Believe the gospel.
What is the gospel?
That Jesus steps into your messto bless you and trust God that
he is going to work in yourlife.
In other words, when you gothrough grief like Naomi, you
have two options.
Option one you have bitterness,but the second option is belief
(33:00):
.
Bitterness is this happened.
Life will never be good again.
Belief is this happened and itwas terrible and it was awful
and I'll never be the same.
But I believe that God hassomething for me, that he is
(33:20):
still working in my life, thathe still wants to bless me, that
he is my hope and he is myfuture and he wants to bring me
joy and God is going to bring meinto a new beginning again,
that God has belief for us all.
And so you might be wonderinghow is this about hope when it
sounds so depressing?
I'm depressed, aren't you?
So Naomi returned and Ruth theMoabite, her daughter-in-law
(33:46):
with her, who returned from thecountry of Moab, and they came
to Bethlehem at the beginning ofthe barley harvest.
You see here a new harvesttaking place, not just
physically, but spiritually.
In other words, if you feellike a part of you is lost, a
(34:07):
part of you is gone, we have aGod who raises dead things in
our life to come back to life,like your hope, like your faith,
like your joy.
If I could just share with youa little bit of that, without
spoiling the whole story,because we're just gonna go
through it in the month ofAugust, just four quick weeks,
(34:28):
but let me tell you the very end, without spoiling all the
details.
You ready, here we go.
God blesses Naomi and Godblesses Ruth, in a miraculous
kind of a way, in ways that canalso happen, similarly to you.
(34:50):
And every step along the waythey keep their eyes on God and
God blesses them, step afterstep after step, and the end of
their story concludes with alittle baby boy being born,
(35:11):
who's the grandfather of KingDavid and David, who is in the
lineage of Jesus.
Had God not orchestrated thestory of Ruth, jesus would not
have been born.
In other words, I want you tosee.
God blesses your messes for thestory of Jesus's glory in your
(35:36):
life.
I went to lunch with a churchmember, went to breakfast with a
church member this past week,just this past week.
He was in the 930 service andhere's what he told me.
He said when I was one year old, my biological dad walked out
on me and my mom Three years old, my mom started dating another
man.
They got married.
(35:57):
He said he was nice to me, hewas good to me, he loved me, but
he had no drive, he had noambition, he was very lazy.
He said so we never went tochurch.
He said I didn't know much aboutit.
He said when I was 18 years oldthis was like back in the 1940s
(36:18):
.
When I was 18 years old.
It was in South Florida.
It was a time of segregation.
He said typically you wouldn'tdo this.
But he said I had a job backthen you wouldn't do it.
But he said I had a job backthen you wouldn't do it.
But he said I had a job backthen with four.
He's a white guy.
He said I have a job with fourAfrican-American men working in
the sod fields.
He said an African-American man.
He didn't tell me his name.
He said he was in his 30s andhe could not read or write.
(36:41):
He said that African-Americanman would go home every night
and his wife would read him theBible and he would come back to
work the next day and he wouldtell the men, including this man
that I'm sitting with the Biblestories and the gospel of Jesus
Christ at work on a daily basis.
(37:01):
This man that I'm sitting withtold me he said so I went to
this man's church allAfrican-American church.
He said I, I went to this man'schurch, all African American
church.
He said I think I was the onlywhite person in four miles.
He said and I heard the gospeland I saw their worship and I
saw their love and I wantednothing to do with the life that
(37:26):
I grew up in.
I wanted the life that they had.
He said I placed my faith inJesus Christ and he said then
they took me out back and theybaptized me in a steel tank.
And he said God's hand has beenon my life ever since.
I want you to know that Godblessed his mess for the story
(37:48):
of Jesus's glory and whatever itis that you're going through
the hurt in your life, the painin your life, the situation that
just feels insurmountable.
I want you to know that Jesusdoesn't walk around your mess.
He steps right in the middle ofit.
He's with you, he'sstrengthening you, he's
(38:09):
encouraging you, he's blessingyou and he is going to bring
about his glory through it.
Keep following him.
Every head bowed, every eyeclosed, no one looking around.
(38:34):
Maybe you're here this morningand you just need to be real,
honest and transparent with God.
Maybe you feel like you've toldhim a thousand times, but it's
been a while and you just needto cast all your anxieties upon
him again.
Maybe you just need to tell himGod, I'm struggling, I'm in a
(38:56):
mess, don't know what to do.
But, god, I believe you.
I'm not gonna let bitternessset in.
I'm gonna choose belief so Ican have hope and I can have joy
.
God, would you bless me, evenif you never get me out of it.
(39:16):
God would you just bless me inthe middle of it so I can live
my life for you.
Maybe you're here this morningand you can't pray that.
You can't say that because youhaven't given your life to him,
I can help you get saved righthere, right now.
Give your life to God forever.
It's not from the words of yourprayers, from the faith of your
(39:37):
heart, but you can saysomething like this to God in
your own words.
You can say God, I believe inyou, I believe in Jesus, your
son.
You can tell him, I believethat Jesus died on the cross for
my sin and, god, I'm asking youto forgive me of all of my sin
because of Jesus' death.
And you can tell him, god, Ibelieve that Jesus rose from the
(39:57):
dead.
He's alive.
I want to follow him with mylife.
I want to call on him to be theLord of my life.
The Bible says that if youconfess Jesus as your Lord and
believe with your heart that Godraised him from the dead, you
will be saved.
So, god, we thank you for that.
We pray this morning.
Anyone not saved that.
(40:17):
They would have prayed and theywould have got saved today or
one day very soon.
God, we love you and we prayall these things in Jesus' name.
And all God's people said putyour hands together right now
for anybody that gave their lifeto Jesus.
We just want to say welcome tothe family, welcome to the
kingdom, man, as God loves tobless us together.
God is so good, and I just wantto encourage everyone at this
(40:40):
time that God is continuing towork in your life and he wants
to do great things even in thehardest of your times, and so I
want to ask us all just to, touh, to stand up right now, and
I'm gonna ask Pastor James tocome on out and he's gonna share
a couple of announcements withus and then we'll sing to Jesus
one more time.
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