August 11, 2025 • 53 mins
In this compelling sermon, Pastor Karl kicks off a four-week series on the Book of Ruth, diving into Chapter 1 with a powerful message titled "Seeing the Unseen Hand of God." Exploring the theme of God's providence, Pastor Karl unpacks how God works supernaturally through natural circumstances to orchestrate all things for the good of those who love Him. Through the story of Naomi, Elimelech, and Ruth, he illustrates the consequences of disobedience, the freedom and peril of choices, and the transformative power of repentance. Pastor Karl highlights how affliction can capture our attention and redirect our path back to God, using Naomi’s return to Bethlehem as a vivid example. The sermon emphasizes Ruth’s conversion and commitment to Naomi’s God, foreshadowing Christ’s redemptive work and underscoring that God’s providential hand is most powerful when it seems hidden. Join us for an inspiring look at how repentance unlocks God’s promise to work all things together for good, reminding us that our story is never over—it’s just unfolding.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Well, welcome.
I appreciate you being here.
It's going to be a good Sunday.
It already has, Minister.
It's going to get better because we'regoing to open up the Word of God together.
And, consider a little book inthe Old Testament called The Book of Ruth.
And so I'll give you a little bit of timeto get there.
If you brought a Bible with you.
Turn to the book of Ruth that we'rein this short for a four week series.
(00:26):
There's four chapters in Luke.
We're going to go through a chapter a weekstarting today with chapter one.
But before we get into it,let me just ask this question.
Have you ever had those moments
or events or seasons in lifethat made you ask the question,
God, where are you now?
Nobody. Okay.
(00:46):
Pretty spiritual group we got here.
Okay.
It's likely that some people
have had those moments and seasonsand events in life
where they just could not see the quote
unquote, hand of God doing something.
Would you agree that some peoplehave experienced times like that?
(01:07):
Okay.
Would you agreethat maybe you have had times like that?
Yes. And so what we're going to look at inthe book of Ruth
is what I've titled this series,Seeing the Unseen
Hand of God.
We don't often see God's
hand through the front windshield.
(01:28):
We often see it through the rearviewmirror.
It's easier to see it looking backwards
than it is looking forward.
And the reason for that
is this word called providence.
Everybody say providence.
Okay.
(01:48):
This is one of the biggest themesin the book of Ruth.
And the wordisn't used in the book at all.
But Providence is seen from start
to finish, and all four chapters.
And I want to help us understandwhat providence is.
And I want to help ussee it in the book of Ruth.
(02:08):
And the goal is that Will will be able
to move through life.
With an eye towards
the good and providential hand of God.
Now that's going to come with an asterisk.
So I'm going to get to in a minute.
But let me just help us understandthis idea of providence.
(02:31):
God normally works in one of two ways.
He works miraculously,
and he works providentially.
We all know what miracles are, right?
Yeah, they are
miracles.
When God overrides or suspends
the natural laws that he has established.
(02:52):
And there are timeswhen God chooses us in his sovereignty
to override and overrule the natural laws
that he's put in place miraculously.
And most people would love
and desire the miraculous hand of Godto move on our lives, right?
(03:13):
Man, we pray for it.
It would seem as though in the Bible
God was just doing miracleafter miracle after miracle.
But let me just helpyou understand the miraculous hand of God.
Before I talk aboutthe providential hand of God,
though it may seem as though inthe Scripture record God was doing miracle
(03:33):
after miracle after miracle,just take the Book of acts as an example.
It covers about 30 years
and in the book of acts,if you don't understand that time frame,
it feels as though on every pagethere's a miracle.
Because that's justwhat God was doing over and over and over.
But over a 30 year span in the book ofacts, there's about 30 miracles.
(03:56):
And for
those of you who are great mathematicians,that equals
to about one miracle a year.
It's not much.
But when you read the book of acts,it just feels like you get a miracle
and you get a miracleand you get a miracle.
God still moves in this worldmiraculously,
(04:19):
as he did in biblical times.
But that's not his normal method.
You follow me?
Yeah.
Does anybody elsehear that little, buzz or something?
Can one of you investigatorsfigure out what that is
and put an end to it?
So that's the miraculous hand of God.
(04:40):
The other wayGod moves is the providential hand of God
and the providential hand of God is this.
When God works
supernaturally, naturally, when he works.
I think I got a slide for that fallalong with those slides.
When God, it worksthrough natural means supernaturally,
(05:02):
and God takes
the the, our lives, our decisions,our choices, the events
that happen in the natural worldand supernaturally works them together.
It's what we read about in acts 828.
The Bible says this, for we know
that God works all things together.
(05:24):
I think I have this slide to Romans 828.Pull it up.
We know that for those who what
love God,all things work together for good,
for those who are calledaccording to his purpose.
This is the providential hand of God,
that through the natural worldGod works supernaturally,
(05:44):
orchestrating all things.
The caveatto God's providential hand of God
orchestrating all thingsfor the good of those who love him.
Is that they
love him.
This doesn't say that God,
God's providential hand, works all thingstogether for good, for everybody.
(06:06):
It doesn't say that.
It doesn't say that.
Everybody just gets to enjoythe providential
hand of God, working all things togetherin their lives for good.
It doesn't say that.
Instead, God does that, but he does thatfor a specific group of people.
Who are they? Those who? What?
Those who love him.
(06:27):
For those who love God
and are called according to his purpose.
God providentially works things togetherfor good.
Do you follow that? Yes. And so?
So the caveat to God's providenceworking all these things together
for our good is that we love God.
Now, the question then is,how do I know that I love God?
(06:50):
It doesn't have to do with feeling.
It doesn't even have to dowith confession, necessarily.
Jesus will tell us, do you want to knowhow you know you love God? Yes.
For the two of you who said yes,I want you to pay attention.
John 1415.
Look at Jesus's words.
If you love me, you will.
What do you like?
(07:11):
Conversions.
So it becomes very easy right up front
to discern for ourselves.
Am I living a life of love towards God?
If I keep his commandments,I know that I am.
It doesn't mean perfection.
(07:33):
It means a lifestyle of obediencewith quick repentance.
When I'm not.
That's love for God.
And if I love Godand I'm walking in obedience,
God providentially works
all things together for my good.
And what that means for meas a Christ follower,
(07:55):
living in repentance and obedience,
that means for me that I know
that life is always working in my favor.
That's what it means.
Do you know what type of peace
and security
(08:17):
and purpose and power it gives me?
When I realize that life is workingin my favor?
That's what the God promises us.
Positive momentum.
He promises us positive momentum
in this very passage and this very idea.
His providence is workingall things together for my good
(08:42):
because I love him and I'mliving in repentance and obedience.
And I know that even though I don't see itthrough the front windshield,
I know because of second
Corinthians five seven,I walk by faith, not by sight.
And so I know
that in obedience and repentance,God is working this together for him.
(09:04):
I get it's life is always in my favor,
even when it doesn't seem like it is.
You follow so far?
Yeah. Listen.
That's providence
and God yields it and levels
it and blessesthose who walk in obedience, who love him.
(09:29):
It's.
It's been said thatthe hand of God is most powerful
when it seems most hidden.
The hand of God is most powerful
when it seems most hidden.
And when you understand the providenceof God and walk in repentance
and obedience, you know thathis hand is in your favor and.
(09:53):
And it's powerful to know that
when you can't see that.
Then I'm not shaken.
The Book of Ruth
is a beautiful pictureof the providence of God.
It's also a beautifulforeshadowing of Jesus and what he will
(10:17):
accomplish on the earth in his life,his death, and his resurrection.
Understand the book of Ruth
is about a man from Bethlehem.
If you ever heard a story about a babyfrom Bethlehem. Yes.
Okay. The book of Ruth is the story.
It's the historical accountabout a man from Bethlehem
(10:38):
who pays the dowry price.
The redemption price for a Gentile bride.
Ruth is not a Jew.
She's a Jewish from the land of Moab.
And so this man from Bethlehem paysthe price for a Gentile bride.
It's the story of Christ paying the price
(10:59):
for the church.
It's all through Scripture.
It's all through the book of Ruth.
The book of Ruth opens with choices.
And choices are both preciousand precarious.
It is a precious,
blessing to
(11:20):
to have the opportunity to make choices.
It's also a precarious thingbecause fill in the blank.
What happens if I make the
wrong choice?
Some people get paralyzed
with the freedom of choicesbecause they're paralyzed.
What if I made the wrong choice?
(11:41):
Like I'm at this crossroads.
I could go, like,how do I know what's right? What do I do?
Someone please tell me.
And that's one reasonwe love people in our lives.
To tell us what to do.
Because it absolves us of responsibilityfor our decisions.
We can always blame them,
right?
Yeah.
And so this whole idea of choices is both.
(12:03):
It is a precious thing to have the libertyand the freedom
and the authority to make choices.
It's also precarious
because what happens
if it's the wrong choice?
Have you ever been there?
And if you had a choice to make and justbeen paralyzed, I don't know what to do.
Like, well, what if it's the wrong one?
(12:25):
I don't want to be thewrong one. Right? Anybody?
Okay.
Here'sthe great thing about God's providence.
If I'm walking in obedience and repentant.
I know that God is working
all my life for good.
So even a wrong choice is a good choice.
(12:47):
Not because it's the right choice,
but because of God'sprovidence in the choice.
Do you follow that? Yes.
I can't say it again, so I don't knowexactly what I said, but it felt right.
It sounded right.
It sounded right.
It was a belief track and.
And so there's so much freedom
(13:07):
and securityin the providential hand of God
the Father. Thank you.
I'm asking for wisdom.
I'm making the wisest choiceI know how to make.
And I'm confident
I'm going to stay in repentanceand obedience,
that you're going to work this together
(13:27):
for good.
I'm stressed.
Right, right
here.
I could whatever.
And so
if he got something so farthat you can take with you this week.
Yes, yes.
Okay. Sowe haven't even gotten to verse one yet.
(13:49):
So let's get into verse one.
So let's gothat we got 22 verses to get through.
That was just the Welcome to Church part.
Verse one.
In the days when the judges ruledthere was a famine in the land,
and a man of Bethlehem in Judahwent to sojourn to the country of Moab,
he and his wife and his two sons.
(14:10):
Listen.
And this is just I'm going to push pauseon a message from.
And I'm just going to I need to say this.
I see a lot of youhere without one of these.
Okay.
So this is your fair warning.
Like, bring one of these with you.
Okay, so here's my concern.
You're going to listen really, really,really well.
And I appreciate that.
(14:31):
But we know that within 72 hoursyou're going to forget 90% of what I say.
That's just how it's going to go.
And so you get one of these with youand you start taking notes in it
and writing stuff down,so you remember it.
You got it.
This is good.
And so, so this is this isthis is what we're in.
So let's bring themlet's let's take some notes.
(14:52):
That's right in the margins.
That first verse is is pregnantwith meaning and implication.
In the days when the judges ruled.
If any of you were here during our judgesstudies,
went through the whole book of judges.You remember that study?
If you weren't here for that.
Go back to our website. Our app.
Go through that judges series.
It's a profoundly dark timein ancient Israel's history,
(15:17):
one of the darkest momentsin ancient Israel's history.
It was horrible.
Matter of fact, at the endof, of the book of judges, in chapter
21, verse 25, it says, in those days
there was no king in Israel.
Everyone didwhat was right in his own eyes.
That is a horrible placefor any person in any society to be.
(15:39):
Because what it means is completerelative.
Moral relativism, where personal
freedom overrides moral good.
This sounds like our culture today.
The prevalenceand predominance of moral relativism,
where my personal freedom overrideswhat is morally good.
(16:01):
That was the time of judges.
It feels like it's our dayto where there's no restraint.
There's a rejection of civil authority.
Abject relativism.
And it's as if the more
the people didwhat they pleased, the less pleased.
(16:22):
They were with what they did.
And that, my dear friends,
is the resultsand ramifications of relativism.
The more I do what I pleased,the less pleased I am with what I do.
That's the danger of freedom.
Oftentimes, the more
freedom I have,the more constraint I'm under
(16:42):
because I become a slaveto my own debauchery.
Because I'm free to makeevery bad decision I want.
And that was the time of the judges.
It's a time where in.
And the time of judges.
There was a famine in the land.
(17:04):
There's a lot of reasons why
famine hit the ancient world.
Sometimes it was just a matter of weather,and there would be these huge
hot winds that would blow throughand just scorched the crops.
Sometimes it was the result of, of,of just no rainfall.
And we did go through those seasonal dryspells.
Just as a natural,
(17:25):
the natural stream of things,sometimes it was a result of war.
An invading armieswould come in and cut off water supplies.
Sometimes they would just burnfields and produce.
And there were there's a lot of reasonsfor famine, but this famine was unique.
This famine
was because of the judgment of God,
(17:46):
because of his people's disobedience.
I think I can prove it to you.
This famine
I'm going to read for you Deuteronomychapter 11, verses ten through 15.
This is God talking to his people.
They've just left
Egypt under the leadership of Moses,and they're going into the Promised Land.
(18:08):
And this is God's word to them.
Look at what God said for the landthat you are entering.
The Promised Land you take possession
of is not like the land of Egyptfrom which you've come,
where you sold your seed and irrigated itlike a garden of vegetables.
You're saying,
listen, you're going into a landthat's not like where you came from.
Egypt was super fertile.
Had the Nile River,they divert water from the Nile River.
(18:29):
The Nile River never ran out of water.
They drew all kinds of stufflike it was easy gardening.
He said the land you'regoing into is not like that.
The land you're going into,
over to possessis a land of hills, and valleys,
which drains water by the rainfrom heaven.
A land that the Lord your God cares for.
(18:52):
He said the land you're going into is notis not served by rivers and streams.
It's served by the hand of God.
And it drinks up wateras God opens the heavens and sends rain.
So, so, so.
And he did thatso that his people would forever
be reliant upon the hand of God
(19:15):
and realize where their sustenance
came from.
For the eyes of the Lordyour God are always upon it.
From the beginning of the yearto the end of the year, God's watching.
Verse 13.
And if you will indeed obey my commands,that I command you today
to love the Lord your God, and serve himwith all your heart and your soul.
(19:36):
If you if you agree
to love me and obey
me, justwhat we talked about in Providence, right?
If you could love and serve me,that's what God says.
He will give the rain for your landin its season, the early rain
and the latter rain that you may gatherin your grain and your wine and your oil.
And he will give grass in your fieldsfor your livestock,
(19:59):
and you shall eat and be full.
He's saying, listen, here'smy covenant with you.
This is my covenant,a promise that I will never break.
That if you love me and obey me,
I will send rain on your land,and you will have abundance.
We know there in a time of famine, andwe know it's during the time of judges.
This famine is a result of the judgmentof God, because the time of the judges
(20:22):
was complete rebellionagainst God by his people.
Do you follow?
And so God says,
I know you want my providential handto work this together for your good.
You're in disobedience right now.
There's another law at work.
So there's a famine in this land.
(20:44):
And the man from Bethlehem
in Judahwent to sojourn in the country of Moab.
He and his wife and his two sons,
he went to sojourn.
That tells ushe wasn't planning on staying in Moab.
He was going in his mind.
He was going for a short timebecause things are bad.
I got to solve this myself.
So I'm going to
(21:04):
look at some greener pastures andI'm going to go to the greener pastures.
And that was this ideathat he was just going there
for a shorttime to sojourn for a little while.
So he goes to the land of Moab.
What's significant about Moab?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
The land of Moab is downand kind of present day Jordan.
(21:25):
It's outside of the Promised Land.
And the land of Moab was a result of this.
This sexual relationshipbetween lot and yet this his daughter.
Yeah.
Read the book of Genesis.
There's this time when Abraham rescueshis nephew lot from Sodom and Gomorrah,
(21:48):
and God destroys those cities.
Lot's wife is turned to a pillar.
It's all in the Bible. It's.It's weird story.
But then lot's daughters,his two daughters are sitting there
with their dad in his cave.
Like we got no mento perpetuate our family.
And so,
they get their dad drunk
(22:10):
on two subsequent nights,and they each sleep with him.
And the one daughter sonfrom this incestuous
encounter is a boy named.
She names Moab.
And that's where the Moabites came from.
The other one's named Ammon,which is the ammonites.
And both these groups were detestable.
(22:32):
And God said, cut yourself off from them.
Don't mix with them.
Don't intermarrywith them. Don't live near them.
Cut yourself offfrom the Moabites in Moab.
So, so strong
was a statement against themby God in Psalm
60, verse eight and Psalm 108
nine it says of Moab, Moab is God's washbasin.
(22:58):
It's just dirty pot.
And so this man of God
leaves Bethlehem,which is the house of bread,
looking for greener pastures,
and goes to a place of cursingand a place of sin.
He didn't plan to be there long.
He stayed there.
Well over a decade and it cost himhis life.
(23:19):
Here's what sin does.
Sin takes us placeswe don't want to go, keeps us longer.
We don't want to stay and cost usmore than we want to pay.
It's the land of Moab,and when we look for greener pastures,
and it takes us from whereGod has placed us
to the land of Moab,it will be costly, not just on us,
(23:41):
but on those who are coming after us,our families and our children.
He didn't want to stay there long.
He stayed there for the rest of hislife, and so did his sons.
The land of Moab.
He and his wife, she says in
verse two, that's one verse.
(24:02):
You ready?
Verse two.
The name of the man was Elimelech,and the name of his wife Naomi.
And the names of his two sonswere Mahlon and children.
They were Ephrathah from Bethlehemin Judah.
They went into the country of Moaband remained there.
Let me just stop at verse two.
His name is Elimelech.
(24:22):
That literally means God is my king.
Though he claim the name of God,he didn't live like it.
Because if God is your king,you're going to trust him
even in the difficulty and remainfaithful to your king even when it's hard.
He says, yes,
I will say that God is my King, butI will not trust him in the difficulty.
(24:42):
I'm going to solve it myself.
I'm going to go to greener pastures.
He looked at Moab.
He saw where he was, and he thought, Lord,this is not where I want to be.
You're not doing things like,I want you to do it.
He looks over Moab, which was at 3500ft,
and got 16in of raina year, truly greener pastures.
And he thought, God,
if you're not going to do that for mehere, I'm going to move myself there.
(25:06):
Though I claim God is my king,I'm not going to live like it
because I'm going to do it.
What I want to do, the wayI want to do it,
when I want to do itwhere I want to do it.
Do you understand? Yes.
When his sons were Mahlon
and chillingnames in the Bible were important,
Mahlon literally means sickly kid
(25:29):
and chill out means crybaby.
It's just what he named his kids.
I don't know why.
And so you got this family
that's just in shambles right now.
They were ephrathah.
It's from Bethlehem in Judea.That's why this is important.
If you were to read, Micah five two.
(25:50):
Micah five two is a great prophecy
of Scripture,and Micah five two says this.
But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah
they were from
they were Ephrathah from Bethlehem,they were from Bethlehem.
The fact that here's why that's important.
But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah,who are too little to
(26:10):
to be among the clans of Judah, from youshall come forth for me, one who is to be
the ruler in Israel, whose coming forthis of old, of ancient days.
It's a prophecy that
Jesus is going to comefrom the people from Bethlehem.
Ephrathah, which was a tiny little,wasn't even dot on the map
(26:31):
hundreds of yearsbefore Jesus was ever born,
Micah and Micah five two prophesiesthat out of a group of people
from Bethlehem,Ephrathah will come the Messiah.
Fast forward to Ruth.
This family is from Bethlehem, Ephrathah
living in disobedience and sin in Moab.
But God's providential hand is never
(26:53):
without action.
They went to the country of Moaband remained there.
Verse three.
But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,and she was left with her two sons.
These took Moabite wives.
The name of the one was Orpah,the name of the others, Ruth.
They lived there about ten years,and both Mahlon
(27:16):
and children died, so that the womanwas left without her two sons
and her husband.
The compromise of Elimelechcost him his life.
The compromise of Elimelech cost
his sons their lives, their own sin.
Being responsible for their own sinand marrying Moabite women
(27:38):
cost them their lives.
Unrepentant sin will cost us everything.
This is what sin does.
The devil comes to steal,kill, and destroy.
But I've come thatyou might have life in its fullness,
in repentance
and obedience.
(27:59):
God's providential hand working for
not against.
You got enough there.
That's the first five verses
where in the first five verses is God
ever mentioned?
(28:21):
He's not.
Just pay attention to this.
I claim the name of God.
I'm supposed to be his.
I don't like what he's doing.
I leave him
(28:42):
and go to a place I'm not supposed to be.
A place of sin
without one thought of God.
Tragedy hits
difficulty and pain.
Verse six.
(29:02):
Then she, Naomi, arose with her
daughtersin law to return from the country of Moab.
For she had heard that the fields of Moab,in the fields above,
that the Lord had visited his peopleand given them food.
In the first five verses decades,no mention of God,
no spiritual awareness,
(29:23):
no spiritual sensitivity.
And now Naomi's heart starts
to turn back to the God she left.
And it wasn't through blessing,
and it wasn't through prosperity.
It was through affliction.
Because affliction does two things.
One of the things affliction does isaffliction gets our attention.
(29:44):
That's the beauty of affliction.
And that's oftentimesthe purpose of it is to get our attention.
And doesn't this happen
when everything is up and to the rightand we don't have to live,
look for greener pasturesbecause we're living in greener pastures
and we go on with our spiritualsensitivity is dulled
(30:05):
because God's been so goodand I'm just living in this.
He's been, you know,and I start to neglect him and deny him.
And I use the blessingshe's given me to allow me reasons to not
sacrifice and give and worship and repent.
And we live in that blessing so longwe find ourselves all somewhere in Moab.
(30:27):
And so he says, look,
if you're not going to give meyour attention
because of my blessingand my favor on life,
then I will send afflictionto get your attention.
And some of you in this place,some of us in this place,
are going through times of affliction,and our cry is God moved miraculously?
And God says,that's not how I normally do things.
(30:48):
And if I move miraculously, you would notgive me your prolonged attention.
And because I want your prolongedattention,
I will allow great afflictionto get your attention.
Amen.
You understand what's.
And so now, through affliction,
he has got her attention.
(31:12):
She hears of what God has done.
Oftentimes when we look
and seek, the bigger and the better.
We don't seek God first and
yeah, yeah.
And in verse six
she hears thatthe Lord had visited his people.
(31:34):
That's capital L already all capitals.
That's the covenant name of God.
God made a covenant with his people
that when you love me and obey me,I will take care of you.
So now this covenant name is used again,because it's assigned to us
that the people God's peopleare turning back to him,
and he's faithful to his promises,faithful to his covenant.
(31:54):
You come back to me,
am I providential hand will returnfor you, not against you. No.
Verse seven.
So she set out from the placewhere she was with her two
daughters in law, and they went on the way
to return to the land of Judah.
(32:15):
I said, affliction does two things.
Here's what they do.
Affliction gets our attention,and affliction changes our direction.
Yeah,
it gets our attention,but it doesn't do any good thing
for God to get our attention,to change our direction.
So that's the second stepof what affliction does.
It gets our attention.
So a change our direction. Noticewhat the Bible says.
(32:35):
They went on the wayto return to the land of Judah.
They had to turn their back on God'spromise and walk away
and then in repentance,they turn back and walk back.
Repentance is returning. That's all it is.
No matter how far you and Ihave walked away
from God,repentance is a one step process.
(32:57):
Just turn back.
You understand?
It's not about proximity,it's about direction.
So return to this covenantGod who has made promises,
who will fulfill his promises.
And if you have walked away, repentand turn back.
(33:17):
Because then you know that all things,even your sin of your past
and repentance,God works now together for your good.
Isn't that amazing?
It's amazing.
But the sin of my past,without repentance, it's all to my demise
(33:38):
and destruction.
But the moment I return,I just turn to one step.
Now God's providence.
Your hand says, Oh God, now
for your favor.
Why would anybody choose
to not give themselves to Christ?
(34:00):
Do they return?
Oh, you know, I'm going to share
this verse with the Psalm one 1916I think I have this one.
So pull up some one.
1867 look, look, look at this, thislate, this again before I was afflicted,
I went astray.
(34:20):
But now I keep your word.
How many of us could claim that
for ourselves, for
God, before you allow
such great affliction and pain?
I walked away from you.
But now.
I get it,
(34:42):
yeah.
The pain
that you've allowed in my lifebecause of the precious
and precarious choices I've made.
Like I walked away from you
in my freedom.
And so you've allowed affliction.
Before I was afflicted I went astray.
(35:03):
But now
you've got my yellow.
You I'm changing my direction.
And yeah, look at verse eight.
But Naomi said to hertwo daughters in law,
go returneach of you in her mother's house.
May the Lord be with you, as you havedealt with the dead and with me.
The Lord grant you.
(35:24):
Grant that you may find rest.
This is verse nine.
Find rest,each of you in the house of her husband.
Then she kissed them,and they lifted up their voices and wept.
And they said to her, no,we will return with you to your people.
But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters.
Why will you go with me?
Have I yet sons in my womb,that they may become your husbands?
(35:46):
Turn back, my daughters.
Go your way, for I'm too old to havea husband, if I should say I have hope.
Even if I should have a husband this nightand should bear sons,
would you thereforewait till their were grown?
Would youtherefore restrain from marriage?
No, my daughters,for is exceedingly bitter to me.
(36:07):
For your sake, that the hand of theLord has gone out against me.
It lifted up their voices and wept again.
And Aubert kissed hermother in law, and Ruth clung to her.
I want you to notice a couple of things.
Verse nine, she said, I want you to goback to your people, your Moabite women.
We're in the land of Moab.
I'm going to go back to my God.I ran away from him.
(36:28):
I'm going to return.
You stay here with your people,
she says, and I want you to find restin the house of your husband.
Let me just make this statementabout marriage.
The purpose of marriage.
Is to find rest
and comfort and ease in each other.
All right.
(36:50):
And that's only possible if that marriage
with the two people,man and woman, are in Christ together.
Apart from Christ, marriage
is anything other than rest and comfortand ease.
It's difficult and destructiveand hurtful.
Once you understand that about marriage,
(37:12):
it's it's designed by Godbetween a man and a woman to put you
to be a place of peaceand comfort and ease and strength
in Christ.
She says, even if I had a husband nowneed a British summer.
You're going to wait 18, 20 years toget married, because that was the custom.
(37:32):
If a woman was married to and her husbanddied, then the next up in line, brother
would, would, help fulfill the family lineand give her a baby.
And all this stuff have is a crazy custom.
If you got, you know, siblings,make sure they marry well.
That's.
And she's like.
(37:52):
Like, this isn't going to play out for us.
Go back home and notice what she says.
The hand of the Lordhas gone out against me.
This is indicationthat she felt incredible
responsibilityfor the course of her family's life.
She she was buried and we don't know.
But it's likely, given the text,it's likely that she was one of those
(38:17):
who nagged and coerced
and convinced her husbandto move out of the place.
He knew he should have been,
and he gave in
rather than standing strong and say,no, this is the call of God.
This is what obedience is giving intothis wife that night
and coerced him to move somewherethey shouldn't be.
(38:41):
And she's looking back over that decision,
and she realized it is the Lord's handwho has turned against me.
And now my husbandand my two sons are dead.
She overrode, and she subverted
the God ordained authorityin the marriage and the home,
and he let her do it.
(39:04):
And now there's
I mean, you understand, right?
Just remorse.
They lift up their voice and they wept.
Verse 15
and she said, see,your sister in law has gone back.
Orphan went back to herpeople under her God's return.
After your sister in law.
But Ruth said,this is one of the most beautiful things
(39:25):
that have ever been pennedin the history of the world.
Do not urge me to leave youor to return from following you.
For where you go I will goand where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my peopleand your God, my God,
where you die,I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord do so to me, and more also,if anything but death parts me from you.
(39:49):
And when Naomi saw
that she was determined to go with her,she said no more.
One of the most beautiful passages
ever been penned by humanand where you go, I will go.
Where you lodge. I will lodge.
Your people will be my people.
And here it is.
Your God will be my God.
Conversion.
(40:11):
She is making her conversionfrom the God of the Moabites.
She Moche who part of the gods
she masters worship was child sacrifice.
It was horrific, completely pagan culture.
And now there's a conversionto the God of Israel, the one true God.
Your God will be my God.
(40:32):
I'm converting
where you die,I will die, and there I'll be buried.
And I'm committing.
I'm converting and I'm committing.
I want you to notice something
that it wasn't until Naomi's repentance
and return
(40:54):
that Ruth was converted.
Ruth met Naomi and the joy of marriage
in the greener pastures,in prosperity and goodness.
None of the greener pasturesand prosperity converted.
Ruth.
It was Naomi's repentance
(41:15):
in the midst of tragedythat she chose to trust God
as a person of God in difficulty.
That caused her daughter in law'sconversion.
Listen, listen.
It is not likely that God's
(41:35):
blessing on your lifewill cause your huddle to turn to Christ.
It's your repentancethat will get dinner, stand.
And we have to consider carefully.
We have to consider carefully
that if people follow me,will they find Jesus?
(41:56):
I was thinking about this this week,
and I thought,
do the trappings of this worldthat God has blessed us
with make people want our lives,or make people want Jesus?
His life?
Let me, let me let me put it
in this terms for you.
Does all the stuff I post
(42:18):
make people desire my life,
or make people desire the life of Christ?
Just think about it for a minute.
This has become such an idol,
an addiction in our lifethat when we use it
to say, hey, look at thisgreat thing that I get to do right now.
(42:39):
Look at this great experience that I have.
Look at this vacation. Look at this.
Look how great my kids are. Don'tyou wish your kids are like my kids?
Like allthat is designed to make you want my life.
Not to make you want the life of Christ.
You can argue with me about it.
(43:00):
So it wasn't all the stuff that makes
you want my lifethat will lead people to Christ.
It was her repentance
and her return to obedienceand love of the father that converted
those in her huddle.
(43:22):
Do you hear what I'm saying?
Church?
Yes. You're.
Okay, I I'm almost done.
I'm a I'm. Verse 19.
So the two of them went onuntil they came to Bethlehem.
When they came to Bethlehem, the wholetown was stirred because of them.
And the woman said, is this Naomi?
That word stirred is important.
(43:44):
It means excited.
This little town ofBethlehem was a little tiny.
It wasn't even really a dot on the map.
There was nothing, had no commerce,had no Starbucks.
They talked about putting one in, butit wasn't done yet like it was nothing.
They had no businesses like everybody from
the ranchos knew who was in the ranchos.
They were getting a little bit of pressurefrom Riverstone,
(44:05):
maybe like, here's some outsiders,but we know who's who, right?
I and that was the feelingof this little Bethlehem.
And they knew that this woman, Naomi left.
They knew she left with her husband.
They knew she left with their two sons.
They knew she left what was the obedientplace for her to be for disobedience.
And they knew it.And they knew that her husband died.
They knew her sons had died.
(44:28):
And she comes back.
Listen,they were excited when she came back.
They didn't treat her with contempt.
They didn't treat her with shame.
They didn't treat her with judgment.
They weren't the ones like, ha,you got what you deserve.
You should have never left.
Like they weren't church people, but
they were excited.
(44:48):
We got to be here.
Here's here's what I'm saying.
I want you to see that it's important
how people who never left welcome back.
Those who have.
To understand.
Yeah, it's really important
(45:09):
for all you good, righteous church people.
How you welcome back
all you good, righteous churchpeople who never left.
It's real important how you welcome back.
Those of us who have.
They're excited.
She said to them, don't call me name.
(45:30):
It means pleasant. Call me Mara.
For the Lord has dealt bittervery bitterly with me.
I went awayfull and Lord has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi pleasant,when the Lord has testified
against me, and the Almightyhas brought calamity on me?
I'm so amazed by this woman, Naomi,because she sees the hand of God
has gone out against her in tragedyand difficulty and loss and pain.
(45:55):
And rather than runningfurther away from him, she turns around
and runs towardshim, towards the hand that hurt her.
Wow. Towards the hand that have afflicted
because she knew his heart.
That if she would just return, that handthat had gone out
(46:17):
against would become the handthat turned for
beautiful,
beautiful.
Listen.
There's a bigger story behind your pain.
Yes. She didn't know it at the time.
You don't realize it at this time.
(46:39):
But there's a bigger storybehind your pain.
And when we turn back and repent,
God in his providence, miraculously,
in his providence, workseven that together
for good.
Yeah.
And so we walk by faith,
(47:03):
not by what we see.
And from verse 22 of chapter one on,
we see at play the unseen hand of God.
Let me just wrap up with verse 22.
So, Naomi, return, and Ruth the Moabite,the outsider,
the daughter in law with herwho returned from the country of Moab.
(47:24):
And they came to Bethlehem. And here it is
at the
beginning of the barley harvest,the providential hand of God.
Now in repentance they've repented.
And in that repentance
they arriveat the exact time of the barnea,
the providence of God,to get them there at the barley harvest,
to lead them to a barley field,
(47:46):
to lead them tothe owner of a barley field named Boaz,
to lead her to the owner of the barley
field named Boaz to become his wife,
to lead her to the owner of the barleyfield,
named Boaz, to become his wifeand be her redeemer.
That put a broken foreigner
in the lineage of Jesus the Christ.
(48:10):
Providence.
And at this moment her life
completely changed.
It is Romans 828 forwe know we don't have to hope.
We know that for those who what
love God, repent,
walk in obedience,all God works all things together for good
(48:35):
for those who are calledaccording to his purpose.
One last thing.
The providence of God.
I want this to ring in your ears,in your mind.
It means that your story isn't over.
It's just unfolding that.
But it begins with repentance.
(48:55):
Yeah.
Without repentance,your story might be over.
But then repentance is just unfolding.
Amen.
(49:16):
And God's beautiful hand of providence
works even the manure of your past
to be the fertilizer for your future.
And it is wonderful
to fall into the handsof a providential God.
And repent.
(49:38):
And so, dear friends,I invite you to pray.
Father.
Thank you.
Thank you are a good God. Good God,
I thank you for your miracle, certainly.
But I thank you even moreso for your providence,
because your providence is without fail,and it is constant,
(50:02):
and you are so good
and so loving that you've promised us
that you will work all things,even the difficult,
the even the pain, even through our sin,even the tragedy.
All things together.
For the good of us who love you,
who are called according to your purpose.
(50:24):
And so, father, in this moment
hear our hearts
and respond
to our repentance and commitment.
Friends, I invite you in this moment.
If you knowand are realizing in this moment
that there are surely some things
(50:46):
that you have walked awayfrom the love of the father
and the way of thefather into Moab, as it were,
you're in a place you shouldn't be.
You're in a place you shouldn't be.
You're doing things you shouldn't.
You have walked away.
Repent.
Repent. And I invite you in this moment.
(51:07):
Just say, father,I confess that I have walked away from.
I am in a place I shouldn't be.
I am in Moab.
And I realize as much as I want you
to turn things around,they won't until I turn around.
And so today
I turn around
(51:29):
and I repent.
I agree with you about sin and my sin,
and I'm choosing to leave it behind.
I'm choosing to go a different way.
I'm choosing to go the opposite wayof my sin, of my addiction,
of my habit, of my pain.
I'm choosing to go a different way.
(51:51):
And in my repentance.
Oh providential God, give me all that
your grace allows.
That in my repentance
my hurdle will see how good you areand trust you with their lives.
As I'm trusting you with mine.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
(52:11):
Oh, God.
Make it so.
Father,
I thank you for the promises of your word.
You are so good. So.
We love you.
Help us to love you more.
Jesus.
In your name I pray these things.
Amen. Amen, Amen.
(52:33):
Listen. Yeah. You okay?
Yeah.
Ruth is a form book.
Here's my desire for you.
Let's this week, let's together let's readchapter one again with new eyes.
Okay.
And then let's readchapter two and get ready for next week.
Can we do that? We agree. Let's do that.
And now listen, if you knowsomebody doesn't have a church home,
(52:56):
they're in your huddle,
your people close to you invite them.
This is a great bookto to be invited into.
So you invite them next week.
You got it.
Yeah. Okay.
Hey, I love you.
This would be good for us to gothrough together.
God is doing good things.
Don't doubt that.
(53:16):
Or God's doing good things right.
Let's sing together.
Well, welcome.
I appreciate you being here.
It's going to be a good Sunday.
It already has, Minister.
It's going to get better because we'regoing to open up the Word of God together.
And, consider a little book inthe Old Testament called The Book of Ruth.
And so I'll give you a little bit of timeto get there.
If you brought a Bible with you.
Turn to the book of Ruth that we'rein this short for a four week series.
(00:26):
There's four chapters in Luke.
We're going to go through a chapter a weekstarting today with chapter one.
But before we get into it,let me just ask this question.
Have you ever had those moments
or events or seasons in lifethat made you ask the question,
God, where are you now?
Nobody. Okay.
(00:46):
Pretty spiritual group we got here.
Okay.
It's likely that some people
have had those moments and seasonsand events in life
where they just could not see the quote
unquote, hand of God doing something.
Would you agree that some peoplehave experienced times like that?
(01:07):
Okay.
Would you agreethat maybe you have had times like that?
Yes. And so what we're going to look at inthe book of Ruth
is what I've titled this series,Seeing the Unseen
Hand of God.
We don't often see God's
hand through the front windshield.
(01:28):
We often see it through the rearviewmirror.
It's easier to see it looking backwards
than it is looking forward.
And the reason for that
is this word called providence.
Everybody say providence.
Okay.
(01:48):
This is one of the biggest themesin the book of Ruth.
And the wordisn't used in the book at all.
But Providence is seen from start
to finish, and all four chapters.
And I want to help us understandwhat providence is.
And I want to help ussee it in the book of Ruth.
(02:08):
And the goal is that Will will be able
to move through life.
With an eye towards
the good and providential hand of God.
Now that's going to come with an asterisk.
So I'm going to get to in a minute.
But let me just help us understandthis idea of providence.
(02:31):
God normally works in one of two ways.
He works miraculously,
and he works providentially.
We all know what miracles are, right?
Yeah, they are
miracles.
When God overrides or suspends
the natural laws that he has established.
(02:52):
And there are timeswhen God chooses us in his sovereignty
to override and overrule the natural laws
that he's put in place miraculously.
And most people would love
and desire the miraculous hand of Godto move on our lives, right?
(03:13):
Man, we pray for it.
It would seem as though in the Bible
God was just doing miracleafter miracle after miracle.
But let me just helpyou understand the miraculous hand of God.
Before I talk aboutthe providential hand of God,
though it may seem as though inthe Scripture record God was doing miracle
(03:33):
after miracle after miracle,just take the Book of acts as an example.
It covers about 30 years
and in the book of acts,if you don't understand that time frame,
it feels as though on every pagethere's a miracle.
Because that's justwhat God was doing over and over and over.
But over a 30 year span in the book ofacts, there's about 30 miracles.
(03:56):
And for
those of you who are great mathematicians,that equals
to about one miracle a year.
It's not much.
But when you read the book of acts,it just feels like you get a miracle
and you get a miracleand you get a miracle.
God still moves in this worldmiraculously,
(04:19):
as he did in biblical times.
But that's not his normal method.
You follow me?
Yeah.
Does anybody elsehear that little, buzz or something?
Can one of you investigatorsfigure out what that is
and put an end to it?
So that's the miraculous hand of God.
(04:40):
The other wayGod moves is the providential hand of God
and the providential hand of God is this.
When God works
supernaturally, naturally, when he works.
I think I got a slide for that fallalong with those slides.
When God, it worksthrough natural means supernaturally,
(05:02):
and God takes
the the, our lives, our decisions,our choices, the events
that happen in the natural worldand supernaturally works them together.
It's what we read about in acts 828.
The Bible says this, for we know
that God works all things together.
(05:24):
I think I have this slide to Romans 828.Pull it up.
We know that for those who what
love God,all things work together for good,
for those who are calledaccording to his purpose.
This is the providential hand of God,
that through the natural worldGod works supernaturally,
(05:44):
orchestrating all things.
The caveatto God's providential hand of God
orchestrating all thingsfor the good of those who love him.
Is that they
love him.
This doesn't say that God,
God's providential hand, works all thingstogether for good, for everybody.
(06:06):
It doesn't say that.
It doesn't say that.
Everybody just gets to enjoythe providential
hand of God, working all things togetherin their lives for good.
It doesn't say that.
Instead, God does that, but he does thatfor a specific group of people.
Who are they? Those who? What?
Those who love him.
(06:27):
For those who love God
and are called according to his purpose.
God providentially works things togetherfor good.
Do you follow that? Yes. And so?
So the caveat to God's providenceworking all these things together
for our good is that we love God.
Now, the question then is,how do I know that I love God?
(06:50):
It doesn't have to do with feeling.
It doesn't even have to dowith confession, necessarily.
Jesus will tell us, do you want to knowhow you know you love God? Yes.
For the two of you who said yes,I want you to pay attention.
John 1415.
Look at Jesus's words.
If you love me, you will.
What do you like?
(07:11):
Conversions.
So it becomes very easy right up front
to discern for ourselves.
Am I living a life of love towards God?
If I keep his commandments,I know that I am.
It doesn't mean perfection.
(07:33):
It means a lifestyle of obediencewith quick repentance.
When I'm not.
That's love for God.
And if I love Godand I'm walking in obedience,
God providentially works
all things together for my good.
And what that means for meas a Christ follower,
(07:55):
living in repentance and obedience,
that means for me that I know
that life is always working in my favor.
That's what it means.
Do you know what type of peace
and security
(08:17):
and purpose and power it gives me?
When I realize that life is workingin my favor?
That's what the God promises us.
Positive momentum.
He promises us positive momentum
in this very passage and this very idea.
His providence is workingall things together for my good
(08:42):
because I love him and I'mliving in repentance and obedience.
And I know that even though I don't see itthrough the front windshield,
I know because of second
Corinthians five seven,I walk by faith, not by sight.
And so I know
that in obedience and repentance,God is working this together for him.
(09:04):
I get it's life is always in my favor,
even when it doesn't seem like it is.
You follow so far?
Yeah. Listen.
That's providence
and God yields it and levels
it and blessesthose who walk in obedience, who love him.
(09:29):
It's.
It's been said thatthe hand of God is most powerful
when it seems most hidden.
The hand of God is most powerful
when it seems most hidden.
And when you understand the providenceof God and walk in repentance
and obedience, you know thathis hand is in your favor and.
(09:53):
And it's powerful to know that
when you can't see that.
Then I'm not shaken.
The Book of Ruth
is a beautiful pictureof the providence of God.
It's also a beautifulforeshadowing of Jesus and what he will
(10:17):
accomplish on the earth in his life,his death, and his resurrection.
Understand the book of Ruth
is about a man from Bethlehem.
If you ever heard a story about a babyfrom Bethlehem. Yes.
Okay. The book of Ruth is the story.
It's the historical accountabout a man from Bethlehem
(10:38):
who pays the dowry price.
The redemption price for a Gentile bride.
Ruth is not a Jew.
She's a Jewish from the land of Moab.
And so this man from Bethlehem paysthe price for a Gentile bride.
It's the story of Christ paying the price
(10:59):
for the church.
It's all through Scripture.
It's all through the book of Ruth.
The book of Ruth opens with choices.
And choices are both preciousand precarious.
It is a precious,
blessing to
(11:20):
to have the opportunity to make choices.
It's also a precarious thingbecause fill in the blank.
What happens if I make the
wrong choice?
Some people get paralyzed
with the freedom of choicesbecause they're paralyzed.
What if I made the wrong choice?
(11:41):
Like I'm at this crossroads.
I could go, like,how do I know what's right? What do I do?
Someone please tell me.
And that's one reasonwe love people in our lives.
To tell us what to do.
Because it absolves us of responsibilityfor our decisions.
We can always blame them,
right?
Yeah.
And so this whole idea of choices is both.
(12:03):
It is a precious thing to have the libertyand the freedom
and the authority to make choices.
It's also precarious
because what happens
if it's the wrong choice?
Have you ever been there?
And if you had a choice to make and justbeen paralyzed, I don't know what to do.
Like, well, what if it's the wrong one?
(12:25):
I don't want to be thewrong one. Right? Anybody?
Okay.
Here'sthe great thing about God's providence.
If I'm walking in obedience and repentant.
I know that God is working
all my life for good.
So even a wrong choice is a good choice.
(12:47):
Not because it's the right choice,
but because of God'sprovidence in the choice.
Do you follow that? Yes.
I can't say it again, so I don't knowexactly what I said, but it felt right.
It sounded right.
It sounded right.
It was a belief track and.
And so there's so much freedom
(13:07):
and securityin the providential hand of God
the Father. Thank you.
I'm asking for wisdom.
I'm making the wisest choiceI know how to make.
And I'm confident
I'm going to stay in repentanceand obedience,
that you're going to work this together
(13:27):
for good.
I'm stressed.
Right, right
here.
I could whatever.
And so
if he got something so farthat you can take with you this week.
Yes, yes.
Okay. Sowe haven't even gotten to verse one yet.
(13:49):
So let's get into verse one.
So let's gothat we got 22 verses to get through.
That was just the Welcome to Church part.
Verse one.
In the days when the judges ruledthere was a famine in the land,
and a man of Bethlehem in Judahwent to sojourn to the country of Moab,
he and his wife and his two sons.
(14:10):
Listen.
And this is just I'm going to push pauseon a message from.
And I'm just going to I need to say this.
I see a lot of youhere without one of these.
Okay.
So this is your fair warning.
Like, bring one of these with you.
Okay, so here's my concern.
You're going to listen really, really,really well.
And I appreciate that.
(14:31):
But we know that within 72 hoursyou're going to forget 90% of what I say.
That's just how it's going to go.
And so you get one of these with youand you start taking notes in it
and writing stuff down,so you remember it.
You got it.
This is good.
And so, so this is this isthis is what we're in.
So let's bring themlet's let's take some notes.
(14:52):
That's right in the margins.
That first verse is is pregnantwith meaning and implication.
In the days when the judges ruled.
If any of you were here during our judgesstudies,
went through the whole book of judges.You remember that study?
If you weren't here for that.
Go back to our website. Our app.
Go through that judges series.
It's a profoundly dark timein ancient Israel's history,
(15:17):
one of the darkest momentsin ancient Israel's history.
It was horrible.
Matter of fact, at the endof, of the book of judges, in chapter
21, verse 25, it says, in those days
there was no king in Israel.
Everyone didwhat was right in his own eyes.
That is a horrible placefor any person in any society to be.
(15:39):
Because what it means is completerelative.
Moral relativism, where personal
freedom overrides moral good.
This sounds like our culture today.
The prevalenceand predominance of moral relativism,
where my personal freedom overrideswhat is morally good.
(16:01):
That was the time of judges.
It feels like it's our dayto where there's no restraint.
There's a rejection of civil authority.
Abject relativism.
And it's as if the more
the people didwhat they pleased, the less pleased.
(16:22):
They were with what they did.
And that, my dear friends,
is the resultsand ramifications of relativism.
The more I do what I pleased,the less pleased I am with what I do.
That's the danger of freedom.
Oftentimes, the more
freedom I have,the more constraint I'm under
(16:42):
because I become a slaveto my own debauchery.
Because I'm free to makeevery bad decision I want.
And that was the time of the judges.
It's a time where in.
And the time of judges.
There was a famine in the land.
(17:04):
There's a lot of reasons why
famine hit the ancient world.
Sometimes it was just a matter of weather,and there would be these huge
hot winds that would blow throughand just scorched the crops.
Sometimes it was the result of, of,of just no rainfall.
And we did go through those seasonal dryspells.
Just as a natural,
(17:25):
the natural stream of things,sometimes it was a result of war.
An invading armieswould come in and cut off water supplies.
Sometimes they would just burnfields and produce.
And there were there's a lot of reasonsfor famine, but this famine was unique.
This famine
was because of the judgment of God,
(17:46):
because of his people's disobedience.
I think I can prove it to you.
This famine
I'm going to read for you Deuteronomychapter 11, verses ten through 15.
This is God talking to his people.
They've just left
Egypt under the leadership of Moses,and they're going into the Promised Land.
(18:08):
And this is God's word to them.
Look at what God said for the landthat you are entering.
The Promised Land you take possession
of is not like the land of Egyptfrom which you've come,
where you sold your seed and irrigated itlike a garden of vegetables.
You're saying,
listen, you're going into a landthat's not like where you came from.
Egypt was super fertile.
Had the Nile River,they divert water from the Nile River.
(18:29):
The Nile River never ran out of water.
They drew all kinds of stufflike it was easy gardening.
He said the land you'regoing into is not like that.
The land you're going into,
over to possessis a land of hills, and valleys,
which drains water by the rainfrom heaven.
A land that the Lord your God cares for.
(18:52):
He said the land you're going into is notis not served by rivers and streams.
It's served by the hand of God.
And it drinks up wateras God opens the heavens and sends rain.
So, so, so.
And he did thatso that his people would forever
be reliant upon the hand of God
(19:15):
and realize where their sustenance
came from.
For the eyes of the Lordyour God are always upon it.
From the beginning of the yearto the end of the year, God's watching.
Verse 13.
And if you will indeed obey my commands,that I command you today
to love the Lord your God, and serve himwith all your heart and your soul.
(19:36):
If you if you agree
to love me and obey
me, justwhat we talked about in Providence, right?
If you could love and serve me,that's what God says.
He will give the rain for your landin its season, the early rain
and the latter rain that you may gatherin your grain and your wine and your oil.
And he will give grass in your fieldsfor your livestock,
(19:59):
and you shall eat and be full.
He's saying, listen, here'smy covenant with you.
This is my covenant,a promise that I will never break.
That if you love me and obey me,
I will send rain on your land,and you will have abundance.
We know there in a time of famine, andwe know it's during the time of judges.
This famine is a result of the judgmentof God, because the time of the judges
(20:22):
was complete rebellionagainst God by his people.
Do you follow?
And so God says,
I know you want my providential handto work this together for your good.
You're in disobedience right now.
There's another law at work.
So there's a famine in this land.
(20:44):
And the man from Bethlehem
in Judahwent to sojourn in the country of Moab.
He and his wife and his two sons,
he went to sojourn.
That tells ushe wasn't planning on staying in Moab.
He was going in his mind.
He was going for a short timebecause things are bad.
I got to solve this myself.
So I'm going to
(21:04):
look at some greener pastures andI'm going to go to the greener pastures.
And that was this ideathat he was just going there
for a shorttime to sojourn for a little while.
So he goes to the land of Moab.
What's significant about Moab?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
The land of Moab is downand kind of present day Jordan.
(21:25):
It's outside of the Promised Land.
And the land of Moab was a result of this.
This sexual relationshipbetween lot and yet this his daughter.
Yeah.
Read the book of Genesis.
There's this time when Abraham rescueshis nephew lot from Sodom and Gomorrah,
(21:48):
and God destroys those cities.
Lot's wife is turned to a pillar.
It's all in the Bible. It's.It's weird story.
But then lot's daughters,his two daughters are sitting there
with their dad in his cave.
Like we got no mento perpetuate our family.
And so,
they get their dad drunk
(22:10):
on two subsequent nights,and they each sleep with him.
And the one daughter sonfrom this incestuous
encounter is a boy named.
She names Moab.
And that's where the Moabites came from.
The other one's named Ammon,which is the ammonites.
And both these groups were detestable.
(22:32):
And God said, cut yourself off from them.
Don't mix with them.
Don't intermarrywith them. Don't live near them.
Cut yourself offfrom the Moabites in Moab.
So, so strong
was a statement against themby God in Psalm
60, verse eight and Psalm 108
nine it says of Moab, Moab is God's washbasin.
(22:58):
It's just dirty pot.
And so this man of God
leaves Bethlehem,which is the house of bread,
looking for greener pastures,
and goes to a place of cursingand a place of sin.
He didn't plan to be there long.
He stayed there.
Well over a decade and it cost himhis life.
(23:19):
Here's what sin does.
Sin takes us placeswe don't want to go, keeps us longer.
We don't want to stay and cost usmore than we want to pay.
It's the land of Moab,and when we look for greener pastures,
and it takes us from whereGod has placed us
to the land of Moab,it will be costly, not just on us,
(23:41):
but on those who are coming after us,our families and our children.
He didn't want to stay there long.
He stayed there for the rest of hislife, and so did his sons.
The land of Moab.
He and his wife, she says in
verse two, that's one verse.
(24:02):
You ready?
Verse two.
The name of the man was Elimelech,and the name of his wife Naomi.
And the names of his two sonswere Mahlon and children.
They were Ephrathah from Bethlehemin Judah.
They went into the country of Moaband remained there.
Let me just stop at verse two.
His name is Elimelech.
(24:22):
That literally means God is my king.
Though he claim the name of God,he didn't live like it.
Because if God is your king,you're going to trust him
even in the difficulty and remainfaithful to your king even when it's hard.
He says, yes,
I will say that God is my King, butI will not trust him in the difficulty.
(24:42):
I'm going to solve it myself.
I'm going to go to greener pastures.
He looked at Moab.
He saw where he was, and he thought, Lord,this is not where I want to be.
You're not doing things like,I want you to do it.
He looks over Moab, which was at 3500ft,
and got 16in of raina year, truly greener pastures.
And he thought, God,
if you're not going to do that for mehere, I'm going to move myself there.
(25:06):
Though I claim God is my king,I'm not going to live like it
because I'm going to do it.
What I want to do, the wayI want to do it,
when I want to do itwhere I want to do it.
Do you understand? Yes.
When his sons were Mahlon
and chillingnames in the Bible were important,
Mahlon literally means sickly kid
(25:29):
and chill out means crybaby.
It's just what he named his kids.
I don't know why.
And so you got this family
that's just in shambles right now.
They were ephrathah.
It's from Bethlehem in Judea.That's why this is important.
If you were to read, Micah five two.
(25:50):
Micah five two is a great prophecy
of Scripture,and Micah five two says this.
But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah
they were from
they were Ephrathah from Bethlehem,they were from Bethlehem.
The fact that here's why that's important.
But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah,who are too little to
(26:10):
to be among the clans of Judah, from youshall come forth for me, one who is to be
the ruler in Israel, whose coming forthis of old, of ancient days.
It's a prophecy that
Jesus is going to comefrom the people from Bethlehem.
Ephrathah, which was a tiny little,wasn't even dot on the map
(26:31):
hundreds of yearsbefore Jesus was ever born,
Micah and Micah five two prophesiesthat out of a group of people
from Bethlehem,Ephrathah will come the Messiah.
Fast forward to Ruth.
This family is from Bethlehem, Ephrathah
living in disobedience and sin in Moab.
But God's providential hand is never
(26:53):
without action.
They went to the country of Moaband remained there.
Verse three.
But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,and she was left with her two sons.
These took Moabite wives.
The name of the one was Orpah,the name of the others, Ruth.
They lived there about ten years,and both Mahlon
(27:16):
and children died, so that the womanwas left without her two sons
and her husband.
The compromise of Elimelechcost him his life.
The compromise of Elimelech cost
his sons their lives, their own sin.
Being responsible for their own sinand marrying Moabite women
(27:38):
cost them their lives.
Unrepentant sin will cost us everything.
This is what sin does.
The devil comes to steal,kill, and destroy.
But I've come thatyou might have life in its fullness,
in repentance
and obedience.
(27:59):
God's providential hand working for
not against.
You got enough there.
That's the first five verses
where in the first five verses is God
ever mentioned?
(28:21):
He's not.
Just pay attention to this.
I claim the name of God.
I'm supposed to be his.
I don't like what he's doing.
I leave him
(28:42):
and go to a place I'm not supposed to be.
A place of sin
without one thought of God.
Tragedy hits
difficulty and pain.
Verse six.
(29:02):
Then she, Naomi, arose with her
daughtersin law to return from the country of Moab.
For she had heard that the fields of Moab,in the fields above,
that the Lord had visited his peopleand given them food.
In the first five verses decades,no mention of God,
no spiritual awareness,
(29:23):
no spiritual sensitivity.
And now Naomi's heart starts
to turn back to the God she left.
And it wasn't through blessing,
and it wasn't through prosperity.
It was through affliction.
Because affliction does two things.
One of the things affliction does isaffliction gets our attention.
(29:44):
That's the beauty of affliction.
And that's oftentimesthe purpose of it is to get our attention.
And doesn't this happen
when everything is up and to the rightand we don't have to live,
look for greener pasturesbecause we're living in greener pastures
and we go on with our spiritualsensitivity is dulled
(30:05):
because God's been so goodand I'm just living in this.
He's been, you know,and I start to neglect him and deny him.
And I use the blessingshe's given me to allow me reasons to not
sacrifice and give and worship and repent.
And we live in that blessing so longwe find ourselves all somewhere in Moab.
(30:27):
And so he says, look,
if you're not going to give meyour attention
because of my blessingand my favor on life,
then I will send afflictionto get your attention.
And some of you in this place,some of us in this place,
are going through times of affliction,and our cry is God moved miraculously?
And God says,that's not how I normally do things.
(30:48):
And if I move miraculously, you would notgive me your prolonged attention.
And because I want your prolongedattention,
I will allow great afflictionto get your attention.
Amen.
You understand what's.
And so now, through affliction,
he has got her attention.
(31:12):
She hears of what God has done.
Oftentimes when we look
and seek, the bigger and the better.
We don't seek God first and
yeah, yeah.
And in verse six
she hears thatthe Lord had visited his people.
(31:34):
That's capital L already all capitals.
That's the covenant name of God.
God made a covenant with his people
that when you love me and obey me,I will take care of you.
So now this covenant name is used again,because it's assigned to us
that the people God's peopleare turning back to him,
and he's faithful to his promises,faithful to his covenant.
(31:54):
You come back to me,
am I providential hand will returnfor you, not against you. No.
Verse seven.
So she set out from the placewhere she was with her two
daughters in law, and they went on the way
to return to the land of Judah.
(32:15):
I said, affliction does two things.
Here's what they do.
Affliction gets our attention,and affliction changes our direction.
Yeah,
it gets our attention,but it doesn't do any good thing
for God to get our attention,to change our direction.
So that's the second stepof what affliction does.
It gets our attention.
So a change our direction. Noticewhat the Bible says.
(32:35):
They went on the wayto return to the land of Judah.
They had to turn their back on God'spromise and walk away
and then in repentance,they turn back and walk back.
Repentance is returning. That's all it is.
No matter how far you and Ihave walked away
from God,repentance is a one step process.
(32:57):
Just turn back.
You understand?
It's not about proximity,it's about direction.
So return to this covenantGod who has made promises,
who will fulfill his promises.
And if you have walked away, repentand turn back.
(33:17):
Because then you know that all things,even your sin of your past
and repentance,God works now together for your good.
Isn't that amazing?
It's amazing.
But the sin of my past,without repentance, it's all to my demise
(33:38):
and destruction.
But the moment I return,I just turn to one step.
Now God's providence.
Your hand says, Oh God, now
for your favor.
Why would anybody choose
to not give themselves to Christ?
(34:00):
Do they return?
Oh, you know, I'm going to share
this verse with the Psalm one 1916I think I have this one.
So pull up some one.
1867 look, look, look at this, thislate, this again before I was afflicted,
I went astray.
(34:20):
But now I keep your word.
How many of us could claim that
for ourselves, for
God, before you allow
such great affliction and pain?
I walked away from you.
But now.
I get it,
(34:42):
yeah.
The pain
that you've allowed in my lifebecause of the precious
and precarious choices I've made.
Like I walked away from you
in my freedom.
And so you've allowed affliction.
Before I was afflicted I went astray.
(35:03):
But now
you've got my yellow.
You I'm changing my direction.
And yeah, look at verse eight.
But Naomi said to hertwo daughters in law,
go returneach of you in her mother's house.
May the Lord be with you, as you havedealt with the dead and with me.
The Lord grant you.
(35:24):
Grant that you may find rest.
This is verse nine.
Find rest,each of you in the house of her husband.
Then she kissed them,and they lifted up their voices and wept.
And they said to her, no,we will return with you to your people.
But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters.
Why will you go with me?
Have I yet sons in my womb,that they may become your husbands?
(35:46):
Turn back, my daughters.
Go your way, for I'm too old to havea husband, if I should say I have hope.
Even if I should have a husband this nightand should bear sons,
would you thereforewait till their were grown?
Would youtherefore restrain from marriage?
No, my daughters,for is exceedingly bitter to me.
(36:07):
For your sake, that the hand of theLord has gone out against me.
It lifted up their voices and wept again.
And Aubert kissed hermother in law, and Ruth clung to her.
I want you to notice a couple of things.
Verse nine, she said, I want you to goback to your people, your Moabite women.
We're in the land of Moab.
I'm going to go back to my God.I ran away from him.
(36:28):
I'm going to return.
You stay here with your people,
she says, and I want you to find restin the house of your husband.
Let me just make this statementabout marriage.
The purpose of marriage.
Is to find rest
and comfort and ease in each other.
All right.
(36:50):
And that's only possible if that marriage
with the two people,man and woman, are in Christ together.
Apart from Christ, marriage
is anything other than rest and comfortand ease.
It's difficult and destructiveand hurtful.
Once you understand that about marriage,
(37:12):
it's it's designed by Godbetween a man and a woman to put you
to be a place of peaceand comfort and ease and strength
in Christ.
She says, even if I had a husband nowneed a British summer.
You're going to wait 18, 20 years toget married, because that was the custom.
(37:32):
If a woman was married to and her husbanddied, then the next up in line, brother
would, would, help fulfill the family lineand give her a baby.
And all this stuff have is a crazy custom.
If you got, you know, siblings,make sure they marry well.
That's.
And she's like.
(37:52):
Like, this isn't going to play out for us.
Go back home and notice what she says.
The hand of the Lordhas gone out against me.
This is indicationthat she felt incredible
responsibilityfor the course of her family's life.
She she was buried and we don't know.
But it's likely, given the text,it's likely that she was one of those
(38:17):
who nagged and coerced
and convinced her husbandto move out of the place.
He knew he should have been,
and he gave in
rather than standing strong and say,no, this is the call of God.
This is what obedience is giving intothis wife that night
and coerced him to move somewherethey shouldn't be.
(38:41):
And she's looking back over that decision,
and she realized it is the Lord's handwho has turned against me.
And now my husbandand my two sons are dead.
She overrode, and she subverted
the God ordained authorityin the marriage and the home,
and he let her do it.
(39:04):
And now there's
I mean, you understand, right?
Just remorse.
They lift up their voice and they wept.
Verse 15
and she said, see,your sister in law has gone back.
Orphan went back to herpeople under her God's return.
After your sister in law.
But Ruth said,this is one of the most beautiful things
(39:25):
that have ever been pennedin the history of the world.
Do not urge me to leave youor to return from following you.
For where you go I will goand where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my peopleand your God, my God,
where you die,I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord do so to me, and more also,if anything but death parts me from you.
(39:49):
And when Naomi saw
that she was determined to go with her,she said no more.
One of the most beautiful passages
ever been penned by humanand where you go, I will go.
Where you lodge. I will lodge.
Your people will be my people.
And here it is.
Your God will be my God.
Conversion.
(40:11):
She is making her conversionfrom the God of the Moabites.
She Moche who part of the gods
she masters worship was child sacrifice.
It was horrific, completely pagan culture.
And now there's a conversionto the God of Israel, the one true God.
Your God will be my God.
(40:32):
I'm converting
where you die,I will die, and there I'll be buried.
And I'm committing.
I'm converting and I'm committing.
I want you to notice something
that it wasn't until Naomi's repentance
and return
(40:54):
that Ruth was converted.
Ruth met Naomi and the joy of marriage
in the greener pastures,in prosperity and goodness.
None of the greener pasturesand prosperity converted.
Ruth.
It was Naomi's repentance
(41:15):
in the midst of tragedythat she chose to trust God
as a person of God in difficulty.
That caused her daughter in law'sconversion.
Listen, listen.
It is not likely that God's
(41:35):
blessing on your lifewill cause your huddle to turn to Christ.
It's your repentancethat will get dinner, stand.
And we have to consider carefully.
We have to consider carefully
that if people follow me,will they find Jesus?
(41:56):
I was thinking about this this week,
and I thought,
do the trappings of this worldthat God has blessed us
with make people want our lives,or make people want Jesus?
His life?
Let me, let me let me put it
in this terms for you.
Does all the stuff I post
(42:18):
make people desire my life,
or make people desire the life of Christ?
Just think about it for a minute.
This has become such an idol,
an addiction in our lifethat when we use it
to say, hey, look at thisgreat thing that I get to do right now.
(42:39):
Look at this great experience that I have.
Look at this vacation. Look at this.
Look how great my kids are. Don'tyou wish your kids are like my kids?
Like allthat is designed to make you want my life.
Not to make you want the life of Christ.
You can argue with me about it.
(43:00):
So it wasn't all the stuff that makes
you want my lifethat will lead people to Christ.
It was her repentance
and her return to obedienceand love of the father that converted
those in her huddle.
(43:22):
Do you hear what I'm saying?
Church?
Yes. You're.
Okay, I I'm almost done.
I'm a I'm. Verse 19.
So the two of them went onuntil they came to Bethlehem.
When they came to Bethlehem, the wholetown was stirred because of them.
And the woman said, is this Naomi?
That word stirred is important.
(43:44):
It means excited.
This little town ofBethlehem was a little tiny.
It wasn't even really a dot on the map.
There was nothing, had no commerce,had no Starbucks.
They talked about putting one in, butit wasn't done yet like it was nothing.
They had no businesses like everybody from
the ranchos knew who was in the ranchos.
They were getting a little bit of pressurefrom Riverstone,
(44:05):
maybe like, here's some outsiders,but we know who's who, right?
I and that was the feelingof this little Bethlehem.
And they knew that this woman, Naomi left.
They knew she left with her husband.
They knew she left with their two sons.
They knew she left what was the obedientplace for her to be for disobedience.
And they knew it.And they knew that her husband died.
They knew her sons had died.
(44:28):
And she comes back.
Listen,they were excited when she came back.
They didn't treat her with contempt.
They didn't treat her with shame.
They didn't treat her with judgment.
They weren't the ones like, ha,you got what you deserve.
You should have never left.
Like they weren't church people, but
they were excited.
(44:48):
We got to be here.
Here's here's what I'm saying.
I want you to see that it's important
how people who never left welcome back.
Those who have.
To understand.
Yeah, it's really important
(45:09):
for all you good, righteous church people.
How you welcome back
all you good, righteous churchpeople who never left.
It's real important how you welcome back.
Those of us who have.
They're excited.
She said to them, don't call me name.
(45:30):
It means pleasant. Call me Mara.
For the Lord has dealt bittervery bitterly with me.
I went awayfull and Lord has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi pleasant,when the Lord has testified
against me, and the Almightyhas brought calamity on me?
I'm so amazed by this woman, Naomi,because she sees the hand of God
has gone out against her in tragedyand difficulty and loss and pain.
(45:55):
And rather than runningfurther away from him, she turns around
and runs towardshim, towards the hand that hurt her.
Wow. Towards the hand that have afflicted
because she knew his heart.
That if she would just return, that handthat had gone out
(46:17):
against would become the handthat turned for
beautiful,
beautiful.
Listen.
There's a bigger story behind your pain.
Yes. She didn't know it at the time.
You don't realize it at this time.
(46:39):
But there's a bigger storybehind your pain.
And when we turn back and repent,
God in his providence, miraculously,
in his providence, workseven that together
for good.
Yeah.
And so we walk by faith,
(47:03):
not by what we see.
And from verse 22 of chapter one on,
we see at play the unseen hand of God.
Let me just wrap up with verse 22.
So, Naomi, return, and Ruth the Moabite,the outsider,
the daughter in law with herwho returned from the country of Moab.
(47:24):
And they came to Bethlehem. And here it is
at the
beginning of the barley harvest,the providential hand of God.
Now in repentance they've repented.
And in that repentance
they arriveat the exact time of the barnea,
the providence of God,to get them there at the barley harvest,
to lead them to a barley field,
(47:46):
to lead them tothe owner of a barley field named Boaz,
to lead her to the owner of the barley
field named Boaz to become his wife,
to lead her to the owner of the barleyfield,
named Boaz, to become his wifeand be her redeemer.
That put a broken foreigner
in the lineage of Jesus the Christ.
(48:10):
Providence.
And at this moment her life
completely changed.
It is Romans 828 forwe know we don't have to hope.
We know that for those who what
love God, repent,
walk in obedience,all God works all things together for good
(48:35):
for those who are calledaccording to his purpose.
One last thing.
The providence of God.
I want this to ring in your ears,in your mind.
It means that your story isn't over.
It's just unfolding that.
But it begins with repentance.
(48:55):
Yeah.
Without repentance,your story might be over.
But then repentance is just unfolding.
Amen.
(49:16):
And God's beautiful hand of providence
works even the manure of your past
to be the fertilizer for your future.
And it is wonderful
to fall into the handsof a providential God.
And repent.
(49:38):
And so, dear friends,I invite you to pray.
Father.
Thank you.
Thank you are a good God. Good God,
I thank you for your miracle, certainly.
But I thank you even moreso for your providence,
because your providence is without fail,and it is constant,
(50:02):
and you are so good
and so loving that you've promised us
that you will work all things,even the difficult,
the even the pain, even through our sin,even the tragedy.
All things together.
For the good of us who love you,
who are called according to your purpose.
(50:24):
And so, father, in this moment
hear our hearts
and respond
to our repentance and commitment.
Friends, I invite you in this moment.
If you knowand are realizing in this moment
that there are surely some things
(50:46):
that you have walked awayfrom the love of the father
and the way of thefather into Moab, as it were,
you're in a place you shouldn't be.
You're in a place you shouldn't be.
You're doing things you shouldn't.
You have walked away.
Repent.
Repent. And I invite you in this moment.
(51:07):
Just say, father,I confess that I have walked away from.
I am in a place I shouldn't be.
I am in Moab.
And I realize as much as I want you
to turn things around,they won't until I turn around.
And so today
I turn around
(51:29):
and I repent.
I agree with you about sin and my sin,
and I'm choosing to leave it behind.
I'm choosing to go a different way.
I'm choosing to go the opposite wayof my sin, of my addiction,
of my habit, of my pain.
I'm choosing to go a different way.
(51:51):
And in my repentance.
Oh providential God, give me all that
your grace allows.
That in my repentance
my hurdle will see how good you areand trust you with their lives.
As I'm trusting you with mine.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
(52:11):
Oh, God.
Make it so.
Father,
I thank you for the promises of your word.
You are so good. So.
We love you.
Help us to love you more.
Jesus.
In your name I pray these things.
Amen. Amen, Amen.
(52:33):
Listen. Yeah. You okay?
Yeah.
Ruth is a form book.
Here's my desire for you.
Let's this week, let's together let's readchapter one again with new eyes.
Okay.
And then let's readchapter two and get ready for next week.
Can we do that? We agree. Let's do that.
And now listen, if you knowsomebody doesn't have a church home,
(52:56):
they're in your huddle,
your people close to you invite them.
This is a great bookto to be invited into.
So you invite them next week.
You got it.
Yeah. Okay.
Hey, I love you.
This would be good for us to gothrough together.
God is doing good things.
Don't doubt that.
(53:16):
Or God's doing good things right.
Let's sing together.
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