1 00:00:03,000 --> 00:00:03,700 Well, welcome. 2 00:00:03,700 --> 00:00:05,500 I appreciate you being here. 3 00:00:05,500 --> 00:00:07,200 It's going to be a good Sunday. 4 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:08,233 It already has, Minister. 5 00:00:08,233 --> 00:00:11,700 It's going to get better because we're going to open up the Word of God together. 6 00:00:12,066 --> 00:00:16,000 And, consider a little book in the Old Testament called The Book of Ruth. 7 00:00:16,633 --> 00:00:18,633 And so I'll give you a little bit of time to get there. 8 00:00:18,633 --> 00:00:20,433 If you brought a Bible with you. 9 00:00:20,433 --> 00:00:25,533 Turn to the book of Ruth that we're in this short for a four week series. 10 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:27,300 There's four chapters in Luke. 11 00:00:27,300 --> 00:00:30,300 We're going to go through a chapter a week starting today with chapter one. 12 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:33,600 But before we get into it, let me just ask this question. 13 00:00:34,266 --> 00:00:36,566 Have you ever had those moments 14 00:00:36,566 --> 00:00:41,100 or events or seasons in life that made you ask the question, 15 00:00:42,166 --> 00:00:45,166 God, where are you now? 16 00:00:45,333 --> 00:00:46,800 Nobody. Okay. 17 00:00:46,800 --> 00:00:48,733 Pretty spiritual group we got here. 18 00:00:48,733 --> 00:00:50,900 Okay. 19 00:00:50,900 --> 00:00:53,900 It's likely that some people 20 00:00:54,500 --> 00:00:57,500 have had those moments and seasons and events in life 21 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:00,700 where they just could not see the quote 22 00:01:00,700 --> 00:01:03,700 unquote, hand of God doing something. 23 00:01:03,766 --> 00:01:06,766 Would you agree that some people have experienced times like that? 24 00:01:07,333 --> 00:01:08,233 Okay. 25 00:01:08,233 --> 00:01:11,333 Would you agree that maybe you have had times like that? 26 00:01:12,066 --> 00:01:15,900 Yes. And so what we're going to look at in the book of Ruth 27 00:01:16,166 --> 00:01:20,133 is what I've titled this series, Seeing the Unseen 28 00:01:20,466 --> 00:01:23,366 Hand of God. 29 00:01:23,366 --> 00:01:25,100 We don't often see God's 30 00:01:25,100 --> 00:01:28,100 hand through the front windshield. 31 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,733 We often see it through the rearview mirror. 32 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:35,033 It's easier to see it looking backwards 33 00:01:35,033 --> 00:01:38,033 than it is looking forward. 34 00:01:38,500 --> 00:01:41,500 And the reason for that 35 00:01:42,566 --> 00:01:44,400 is this word called providence. 36 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:45,766 Everybody say providence. 37 00:01:46,833 --> 00:01:48,233 Okay. 38 00:01:48,233 --> 00:01:51,000 This is one of the biggest themes in the book of Ruth. 39 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,033 And the word isn't used in the book at all. 40 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:57,900 But Providence is seen from start 41 00:01:57,900 --> 00:02:00,900 to finish, and all four chapters. 42 00:02:01,700 --> 00:02:04,800 And I want to help us understand what providence is. 43 00:02:05,933 --> 00:02:08,933 And I want to help us see it in the book of Ruth. 44 00:02:08,966 --> 00:02:13,500 And the goal is that Will will be able 45 00:02:13,500 --> 00:02:16,500 to move through life. 46 00:02:18,933 --> 00:02:21,533 With an eye towards 47 00:02:21,533 --> 00:02:24,533 the good and providential hand of God. 48 00:02:24,566 --> 00:02:25,933 Now that's going to come with an asterisk. 49 00:02:25,933 --> 00:02:27,633 So I'm going to get to in a minute. 50 00:02:27,633 --> 00:02:30,766 But let me just help us understand this idea of providence. 51 00:02:31,666 --> 00:02:34,666 God normally works in one of two ways. 52 00:02:35,266 --> 00:02:37,600 He works miraculously, 53 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:40,266 and he works providentially. 54 00:02:40,266 --> 00:02:43,100 We all know what miracles are, right? 55 00:02:43,100 --> 00:02:44,166 Yeah, they are 56 00:02:45,166 --> 00:02:45,966 miracles. 57 00:02:45,966 --> 00:02:49,366 When God overrides or suspends 58 00:02:49,366 --> 00:02:52,366 the natural laws that he has established. 59 00:02:52,500 --> 00:02:57,033 And there are times when God chooses us in his sovereignty 60 00:02:57,533 --> 00:03:00,966 to override and overrule the natural laws 61 00:03:00,966 --> 00:03:03,966 that he's put in place miraculously. 62 00:03:05,133 --> 00:03:08,333 And most people would love 63 00:03:08,833 --> 00:03:13,033 and desire the miraculous hand of God to move on our lives, right? 64 00:03:13,066 --> 00:03:16,066 Man, we pray for it. 65 00:03:16,433 --> 00:03:19,400 It would seem as though in the Bible 66 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:22,500 God was just doing miracle after miracle after miracle. 67 00:03:22,500 --> 00:03:25,233 But let me just help you understand the miraculous hand of God. 68 00:03:25,233 --> 00:03:28,233 Before I talk about the providential hand of God, 69 00:03:28,500 --> 00:03:33,733 though it may seem as though in the Scripture record God was doing miracle 70 00:03:33,733 --> 00:03:37,166 after miracle after miracle, just take the Book of acts as an example. 71 00:03:37,700 --> 00:03:40,466 It covers about 30 years 72 00:03:40,466 --> 00:03:43,533 and in the book of acts, if you don't understand that time frame, 73 00:03:43,533 --> 00:03:46,966 it feels as though on every page there's a miracle. 74 00:03:46,966 --> 00:03:49,966 Because that's just what God was doing over and over and over. 75 00:03:50,066 --> 00:03:55,266 But over a 30 year span in the book of acts, there's about 30 miracles. 76 00:03:56,533 --> 00:03:56,900 And for 77 00:03:56,900 --> 00:04:00,966 those of you who are great mathematicians, that equals 78 00:04:00,966 --> 00:04:03,966 to about one miracle a year. 79 00:04:05,200 --> 00:04:07,033 It's not much. 80 00:04:07,033 --> 00:04:10,333 But when you read the book of acts, it just feels like you get a miracle 81 00:04:10,333 --> 00:04:13,333 and you get a miracle and you get a miracle. 82 00:04:14,433 --> 00:04:18,200 God still moves in this world miraculously, 83 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:22,600 as he did in biblical times. 84 00:04:22,633 --> 00:04:26,366 But that's not his normal method. 85 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,433 You follow me? 86 00:04:28,433 --> 00:04:29,200 Yeah. 87 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:32,200 Does anybody else hear that little, buzz or something? 88 00:04:32,466 --> 00:04:35,366 Can one of you investigators figure out what that is 89 00:04:35,366 --> 00:04:38,366 and put an end to it? 90 00:04:38,500 --> 00:04:40,700 So that's the miraculous hand of God. 91 00:04:40,700 --> 00:04:44,633 The other way God moves is the providential hand of God 92 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,000 and the providential hand of God is this. 93 00:04:48,466 --> 00:04:50,600 When God works 94 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,600 supernaturally, naturally, when he works. 95 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:56,766 I think I got a slide for that fall along with those slides. 96 00:04:56,766 --> 00:05:01,500 When God, it works through natural means supernaturally, 97 00:05:02,533 --> 00:05:03,866 and God takes 98 00:05:03,866 --> 00:05:08,300 the the, our lives, our decisions, our choices, the events 99 00:05:08,300 --> 00:05:13,833 that happen in the natural world and supernaturally works them together. 100 00:05:14,966 --> 00:05:17,966 It's what we read about in acts 828. 101 00:05:19,133 --> 00:05:22,133 The Bible says this, for we know 102 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,600 that God works all things together. 103 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:27,266 I think I have this slide to Romans 828. Pull it up. 104 00:05:27,266 --> 00:05:30,266 We know that for those who what 105 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:35,233 love God, all things work together for good, 106 00:05:36,266 --> 00:05:37,833 for those who are called according to his purpose. 107 00:05:37,833 --> 00:05:40,833 This is the providential hand of God, 108 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,766 that through the natural world God works supernaturally, 109 00:05:44,766 --> 00:05:47,766 orchestrating all things. 110 00:05:48,066 --> 00:05:51,233 The caveat to God's providential hand of God 111 00:05:51,466 --> 00:05:56,900 orchestrating all things for the good of those who love him. 112 00:05:57,100 --> 00:05:59,666 Is that they 113 00:05:59,666 --> 00:06:02,300 love him. 114 00:06:02,300 --> 00:06:03,666 This doesn't say that God, 115 00:06:03,666 --> 00:06:06,866 God's providential hand, works all things together for good, for everybody. 116 00:06:06,900 --> 00:06:07,766 It doesn't say that. 117 00:06:09,033 --> 00:06:10,133 It doesn't say that. 118 00:06:10,133 --> 00:06:13,966 Everybody just gets to enjoy the providential 119 00:06:14,233 --> 00:06:17,366 hand of God, working all things together in their lives for good. 120 00:06:17,400 --> 00:06:18,900 It doesn't say that. 121 00:06:18,900 --> 00:06:23,800 Instead, God does that, but he does that for a specific group of people. 122 00:06:23,833 --> 00:06:26,033 Who are they? Those who? What? 123 00:06:26,033 --> 00:06:27,966 Those who love him. 124 00:06:27,966 --> 00:06:30,033 For those who love God 125 00:06:30,033 --> 00:06:33,033 and are called according to his purpose. 126 00:06:33,266 --> 00:06:37,600 God providentially works things together for good. 127 00:06:37,633 --> 00:06:39,900 Do you follow that? Yes. And so? 128 00:06:39,900 --> 00:06:43,966 So the caveat to God's providence working all these things together 129 00:06:43,966 --> 00:06:45,166 for our good is that we love God. 130 00:06:45,166 --> 00:06:50,000 Now, the question then is, how do I know that I love God? 131 00:06:50,900 --> 00:06:53,366 It doesn't have to do with feeling. 132 00:06:53,366 --> 00:06:55,900 It doesn't even have to do with confession, necessarily. 133 00:06:55,900 --> 00:07:01,066 Jesus will tell us, do you want to know how you know you love God? Yes. 134 00:07:02,833 --> 00:07:05,833 For the two of you who said yes, I want you to pay attention. 135 00:07:05,900 --> 00:07:07,166 John 1415. 136 00:07:07,166 --> 00:07:09,066 Look at Jesus's words. 137 00:07:09,066 --> 00:07:10,466 If you love me, you will. 138 00:07:10,466 --> 00:07:11,866 What do you like? 139 00:07:11,866 --> 00:07:14,866 Conversions. 140 00:07:15,900 --> 00:07:18,900 So it becomes very easy right up front 141 00:07:19,966 --> 00:07:22,766 to discern for ourselves. 142 00:07:22,766 --> 00:07:26,066 Am I living a life of love towards God? 143 00:07:28,900 --> 00:07:31,633 If I keep his commandments, I know that I am. 144 00:07:31,633 --> 00:07:33,666 It doesn't mean perfection. 145 00:07:33,666 --> 00:07:37,200 It means a lifestyle of obedience with quick repentance. 146 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:39,233 When I'm not. 147 00:07:39,233 --> 00:07:41,833 That's love for God. 148 00:07:41,833 --> 00:07:45,200 And if I love God and I'm walking in obedience, 149 00:07:46,400 --> 00:07:48,266 God providentially works 150 00:07:48,266 --> 00:07:51,500 all things together for my good. 151 00:07:52,333 --> 00:07:55,500 And what that means for me as a Christ follower, 152 00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:59,000 living in repentance and obedience, 153 00:07:59,900 --> 00:08:02,900 that means for me that I know 154 00:08:03,300 --> 00:08:05,966 that life is always working in my favor. 155 00:08:09,833 --> 00:08:12,333 That's what it means. 156 00:08:12,333 --> 00:08:15,333 Do you know what type of peace 157 00:08:15,500 --> 00:08:17,800 and security 158 00:08:17,800 --> 00:08:20,166 and purpose and power it gives me? 159 00:08:20,166 --> 00:08:24,900 When I realize that life is working in my favor? 160 00:08:26,366 --> 00:08:28,733 That's what the God promises us. 161 00:08:28,733 --> 00:08:31,666 Positive momentum. 162 00:08:31,666 --> 00:08:34,366 He promises us positive momentum 163 00:08:34,366 --> 00:08:37,433 in this very passage and this very idea. 164 00:08:37,800 --> 00:08:41,833 His providence is working all things together for my good 165 00:08:42,233 --> 00:08:46,166 because I love him and I'm living in repentance and obedience. 166 00:08:46,166 --> 00:08:51,000 And I know that even though I don't see it through the front windshield, 167 00:08:51,933 --> 00:08:54,266 I know because of second 168 00:08:54,266 --> 00:08:58,166 Corinthians five seven, I walk by faith, not by sight. 169 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:01,233 And so I know 170 00:09:01,233 --> 00:09:04,533 that in obedience and repentance, God is working this together for him. 171 00:09:04,533 --> 00:09:07,533 I get it's life is always in my favor, 172 00:09:07,866 --> 00:09:09,633 even when it doesn't seem like it is. 173 00:09:11,633 --> 00:09:12,966 You follow so far? 174 00:09:12,966 --> 00:09:14,100 Yeah. Listen. 175 00:09:14,100 --> 00:09:17,100 That's providence 176 00:09:17,366 --> 00:09:20,000 and God yields it and levels 177 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,700 it and blesses those who walk in obedience, who love him. 178 00:09:29,166 --> 00:09:29,866 It's. 179 00:09:29,866 --> 00:09:33,566 It's been said that the hand of God is most powerful 180 00:09:33,633 --> 00:09:36,633 when it seems most hidden. 181 00:09:38,666 --> 00:09:40,233 The hand of God is most powerful 182 00:09:40,233 --> 00:09:43,233 when it seems most hidden. 183 00:09:43,833 --> 00:09:47,633 And when you understand the providence of God and walk in repentance 184 00:09:47,633 --> 00:09:52,266 and obedience, you know that his hand is in your favor and. 185 00:09:53,933 --> 00:09:56,933 And it's powerful to know that 186 00:09:57,300 --> 00:10:00,300 when you can't see that. 187 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:04,200 Then I'm not shaken. 188 00:10:06,900 --> 00:10:08,166 The Book of Ruth 189 00:10:08,166 --> 00:10:11,833 is a beautiful picture of the providence of God. 190 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:17,000 It's also a beautiful foreshadowing of Jesus and what he will 191 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:20,866 accomplish on the earth in his life, his death, and his resurrection. 192 00:10:21,533 --> 00:10:23,066 Understand the book of Ruth 193 00:10:24,133 --> 00:10:27,133 is about a man from Bethlehem. 194 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:32,200 If you ever heard a story about a baby from Bethlehem. Yes. 195 00:10:32,400 --> 00:10:34,400 Okay. The book of Ruth is the story. 196 00:10:34,400 --> 00:10:37,400 It's the historical account about a man from Bethlehem 197 00:10:38,166 --> 00:10:40,466 who pays the dowry price. 198 00:10:40,466 --> 00:10:44,466 The redemption price for a Gentile bride. 199 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,333 Ruth is not a Jew. 200 00:10:48,333 --> 00:10:51,100 She's a Jewish from the land of Moab. 201 00:10:51,100 --> 00:10:55,800 And so this man from Bethlehem pays the price for a Gentile bride. 202 00:10:55,900 --> 00:10:59,233 It's the story of Christ paying the price 203 00:10:59,333 --> 00:11:02,333 for the church. 204 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:03,900 It's all through Scripture. 205 00:11:03,900 --> 00:11:06,900 It's all through the book of Ruth. 206 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,200 The book of Ruth opens with choices. 207 00:11:10,500 --> 00:11:13,633 And choices are both precious and precarious. 208 00:11:14,900 --> 00:11:17,900 It is a precious, 209 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:20,033 blessing to 210 00:11:20,033 --> 00:11:23,033 to have the opportunity to make choices. 211 00:11:24,033 --> 00:11:29,233 It's also a precarious thing because fill in the blank. 212 00:11:29,233 --> 00:11:30,600 What happens if I make the 213 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:33,900 wrong choice? 214 00:11:33,900 --> 00:11:36,133 Some people get paralyzed 215 00:11:36,133 --> 00:11:39,866 with the freedom of choices because they're paralyzed. 216 00:11:39,900 --> 00:11:41,866 What if I made the wrong choice? 217 00:11:41,866 --> 00:11:43,133 Like I'm at this crossroads. 218 00:11:43,133 --> 00:11:45,966 I could go, like, how do I know what's right? What do I do? 219 00:11:45,966 --> 00:11:47,166 Someone please tell me. 220 00:11:47,166 --> 00:11:50,100 And that's one reason we love people in our lives. 221 00:11:50,100 --> 00:11:51,800 To tell us what to do. 222 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:55,466 Because it absolves us of responsibility for our decisions. 223 00:11:55,566 --> 00:11:58,566 We can always blame them, 224 00:11:58,700 --> 00:11:59,933 right? 225 00:11:59,933 --> 00:12:00,966 Yeah. 226 00:12:00,966 --> 00:12:03,933 And so this whole idea of choices is both. 227 00:12:03,933 --> 00:12:07,166 It is a precious thing to have the liberty and the freedom 228 00:12:07,166 --> 00:12:10,166 and the authority to make choices. 229 00:12:10,666 --> 00:12:13,500 It's also precarious 230 00:12:13,500 --> 00:12:15,766 because what happens 231 00:12:15,766 --> 00:12:18,766 if it's the wrong choice? 232 00:12:18,766 --> 00:12:20,266 Have you ever been there? 233 00:12:20,266 --> 00:12:23,466 And if you had a choice to make and just been paralyzed, I don't know what to do. 234 00:12:23,500 --> 00:12:25,066 Like, well, what if it's the wrong one? 235 00:12:25,066 --> 00:12:27,100 I don't want to be the wrong one. Right? Anybody? 236 00:12:28,066 --> 00:12:29,300 Okay. 237 00:12:29,300 --> 00:12:32,300 Here's the great thing about God's providence. 238 00:12:32,733 --> 00:12:35,733 If I'm walking in obedience and repentant. 239 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:39,466 I know that God is working 240 00:12:39,466 --> 00:12:42,466 all my life for good. 241 00:12:43,066 --> 00:12:46,233 So even a wrong choice is a good choice. 242 00:12:47,166 --> 00:12:49,766 Not because it's the right choice, 243 00:12:49,766 --> 00:12:52,766 but because of God's providence in the choice. 244 00:12:53,033 --> 00:12:54,900 Do you follow that? Yes. 245 00:12:54,900 --> 00:12:58,200 I can't say it again, so I don't know exactly what I said, but it felt right. 246 00:12:58,900 --> 00:12:59,633 It sounded right. 247 00:12:59,633 --> 00:13:00,466 It sounded right. 248 00:13:00,466 --> 00:13:03,466 It was a belief track and. 249 00:13:04,466 --> 00:13:07,266 And so there's so much freedom 250 00:13:07,266 --> 00:13:10,266 and security in the providential hand of God 251 00:13:11,266 --> 00:13:13,700 the Father. Thank you. 252 00:13:13,700 --> 00:13:15,433 I'm asking for wisdom. 253 00:13:15,433 --> 00:13:18,300 I'm making the wisest choice I know how to make. 254 00:13:18,300 --> 00:13:20,666 And I'm confident 255 00:13:20,666 --> 00:13:23,666 I'm going to stay in repentance and obedience, 256 00:13:24,033 --> 00:13:26,200 that you're going to work this together 257 00:13:27,900 --> 00:13:30,900 for good. 258 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:34,200 I'm stressed. 259 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:37,500 Right, right 260 00:13:37,500 --> 00:13:37,766 here. 261 00:13:37,766 --> 00:13:40,766 I could whatever. 262 00:13:42,133 --> 00:13:44,133 And so 263 00:13:44,133 --> 00:13:46,800 if he got something so far that you can take with you this week. 264 00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:47,866 Yes, yes. 265 00:13:47,866 --> 00:13:49,633 Okay. So we haven't even gotten to verse one yet. 266 00:13:49,633 --> 00:13:51,700 So let's get into verse one. 267 00:13:51,700 --> 00:13:54,700 So let's go that we got 22 verses to get through. 268 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,800 That was just the Welcome to Church part. 269 00:13:58,600 --> 00:13:59,600 Verse one. 270 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:02,900 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, 271 00:14:02,900 --> 00:14:07,266 and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn to the country of Moab, 272 00:14:07,500 --> 00:14:10,500 he and his wife and his two sons. 273 00:14:10,933 --> 00:14:11,266 Listen. 274 00:14:11,266 --> 00:14:14,000 And this is just I'm going to push pause on a message from. 275 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:17,000 And I'm just going to I need to say this. 276 00:14:17,666 --> 00:14:19,966 I see a lot of you here without one of these. 277 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:21,233 Okay. 278 00:14:21,233 --> 00:14:23,500 So this is your fair warning. 279 00:14:23,500 --> 00:14:25,900 Like, bring one of these with you. 280 00:14:25,900 --> 00:14:28,200 Okay, so here's my concern. 281 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:30,100 You're going to listen really, really, really well. 282 00:14:30,100 --> 00:14:31,933 And I appreciate that. 283 00:14:31,933 --> 00:14:37,000 But we know that within 72 hours you're going to forget 90% of what I say. 284 00:14:37,166 --> 00:14:38,833 That's just how it's going to go. 285 00:14:38,833 --> 00:14:42,466 And so you get one of these with you and you start taking notes in it 286 00:14:42,466 --> 00:14:44,900 and writing stuff down, so you remember it. 287 00:14:44,900 --> 00:14:46,033 You got it. 288 00:14:46,033 --> 00:14:47,366 This is good. 289 00:14:47,366 --> 00:14:50,500 And so, so this is this is this is what we're in. 290 00:14:50,533 --> 00:14:52,933 So let's bring them let's let's take some notes. 291 00:14:52,933 --> 00:14:54,333 That's right in the margins. 292 00:14:54,333 --> 00:14:59,300 That first verse is is pregnant with meaning and implication. 293 00:14:59,900 --> 00:15:02,166 In the days when the judges ruled. 294 00:15:02,166 --> 00:15:04,700 If any of you were here during our judges studies, 295 00:15:04,700 --> 00:15:07,666 went through the whole book of judges. You remember that study? 296 00:15:07,666 --> 00:15:08,733 If you weren't here for that. 297 00:15:08,733 --> 00:15:10,900 Go back to our website. Our app. 298 00:15:10,900 --> 00:15:12,766 Go through that judges series. 299 00:15:12,766 --> 00:15:17,400 It's a profoundly dark time in ancient Israel's history, 300 00:15:17,533 --> 00:15:20,733 one of the darkest moments in ancient Israel's history. 301 00:15:20,800 --> 00:15:21,733 It was horrible. 302 00:15:21,733 --> 00:15:25,500 Matter of fact, at the end of, of the book of judges, in chapter 303 00:15:25,500 --> 00:15:28,533 21, verse 25, it says, in those days 304 00:15:29,500 --> 00:15:31,800 there was no king in Israel. 305 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,566 Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 306 00:15:34,566 --> 00:15:39,633 That is a horrible place for any person in any society to be. 307 00:15:39,833 --> 00:15:42,966 Because what it means is complete relative. 308 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:45,966 Moral relativism, where personal 309 00:15:45,966 --> 00:15:48,966 freedom overrides moral good. 310 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:52,200 This sounds like our culture today. 311 00:15:52,266 --> 00:15:56,033 The prevalence and predominance of moral relativism, 312 00:15:56,766 --> 00:16:01,266 where my personal freedom overrides what is morally good. 313 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:03,333 That was the time of judges. 314 00:16:03,333 --> 00:16:06,900 It feels like it's our day to where there's no restraint. 315 00:16:07,700 --> 00:16:10,700 There's a rejection of civil authority. 316 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:16,800 Abject relativism. 317 00:16:17,100 --> 00:16:18,866 And it's as if the more 318 00:16:18,866 --> 00:16:21,866 the people did what they pleased, the less pleased. 319 00:16:22,200 --> 00:16:24,766 They were with what they did. 320 00:16:24,766 --> 00:16:27,300 And that, my dear friends, 321 00:16:27,300 --> 00:16:30,633 is the results and ramifications of relativism. 322 00:16:30,733 --> 00:16:35,233 The more I do what I pleased, the less pleased I am with what I do. 323 00:16:35,366 --> 00:16:37,066 That's the danger of freedom. 324 00:16:38,033 --> 00:16:39,233 Oftentimes, the more 325 00:16:39,233 --> 00:16:42,233 freedom I have, the more constraint I'm under 326 00:16:42,566 --> 00:16:46,333 because I become a slave to my own debauchery. 327 00:16:46,333 --> 00:16:49,733 Because I'm free to make every bad decision I want. 328 00:16:51,100 --> 00:16:52,466 And that was the time of the judges. 329 00:16:52,466 --> 00:16:55,466 It's a time where in. 330 00:16:55,966 --> 00:16:58,966 And the time of judges. 331 00:16:59,333 --> 00:17:02,333 There was a famine in the land. 332 00:17:04,766 --> 00:17:06,133 There's a lot of reasons why 333 00:17:06,133 --> 00:17:09,133 famine hit the ancient world. 334 00:17:09,500 --> 00:17:13,466 Sometimes it was just a matter of weather, and there would be these huge 335 00:17:13,733 --> 00:17:16,733 hot winds that would blow through and just scorched the crops. 336 00:17:17,733 --> 00:17:21,300 Sometimes it was the result of, of, of just no rainfall. 337 00:17:21,300 --> 00:17:23,466 And we did go through those seasonal dry spells. 338 00:17:23,466 --> 00:17:25,933 Just as a natural, 339 00:17:25,933 --> 00:17:28,933 the natural stream of things, sometimes it was a result of war. 340 00:17:29,500 --> 00:17:32,500 An invading armies would come in and cut off water supplies. 341 00:17:33,166 --> 00:17:36,100 Sometimes they would just burn fields and produce. 342 00:17:36,100 --> 00:17:40,366 And there were there's a lot of reasons for famine, but this famine was unique. 343 00:17:41,166 --> 00:17:42,166 This famine 344 00:17:43,166 --> 00:17:46,166 was because of the judgment of God, 345 00:17:46,533 --> 00:17:49,533 because of his people's disobedience. 346 00:17:50,633 --> 00:17:53,633 I think I can prove it to you. 347 00:17:53,700 --> 00:17:56,333 This famine 348 00:17:56,333 --> 00:18:00,966 I'm going to read for you Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses ten through 15. 349 00:18:01,133 --> 00:18:03,333 This is God talking to his people. 350 00:18:03,333 --> 00:18:04,433 They've just left 351 00:18:04,433 --> 00:18:07,933 Egypt under the leadership of Moses, and they're going into the Promised Land. 352 00:18:08,266 --> 00:18:10,033 And this is God's word to them. 353 00:18:10,033 --> 00:18:12,600 Look at what God said for the land that you are entering. 354 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:13,966 The Promised Land you take possession 355 00:18:13,966 --> 00:18:17,000 of is not like the land of Egypt from which you've come, 356 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,400 where you sold your seed and irrigated it like a garden of vegetables. 357 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:20,666 You're saying, 358 00:18:20,666 --> 00:18:24,400 listen, you're going into a land that's not like where you came from. 359 00:18:24,400 --> 00:18:27,066 Egypt was super fertile. 360 00:18:27,066 --> 00:18:29,700 Had the Nile River, they divert water from the Nile River. 361 00:18:29,700 --> 00:18:31,700 The Nile River never ran out of water. 362 00:18:31,700 --> 00:18:34,800 They drew all kinds of stuff like it was easy gardening. 363 00:18:35,333 --> 00:18:37,633 He said the land you're going into is not like that. 364 00:18:39,966 --> 00:18:41,900 The land you're going into, 365 00:18:41,900 --> 00:18:45,600 over to possess is a land of hills, and valleys, 366 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:48,866 which drains water by the rain from heaven. 367 00:18:49,300 --> 00:18:52,300 A land that the Lord your God cares for. 368 00:18:52,366 --> 00:18:58,600 He said the land you're going into is not is not served by rivers and streams. 369 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:00,966 It's served by the hand of God. 370 00:19:00,966 --> 00:19:05,966 And it drinks up water as God opens the heavens and sends rain. 371 00:19:06,766 --> 00:19:07,666 So, so, so. 372 00:19:07,666 --> 00:19:11,066 And he did that so that his people would forever 373 00:19:11,066 --> 00:19:14,400 be reliant upon the hand of God 374 00:19:15,633 --> 00:19:18,233 and realize where their sustenance 375 00:19:18,233 --> 00:19:21,233 came from. 376 00:19:21,633 --> 00:19:25,233 For the eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it. 377 00:19:25,233 --> 00:19:28,566 From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, God's watching. 378 00:19:29,233 --> 00:19:30,000 Verse 13. 379 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:33,800 And if you will indeed obey my commands, that I command you today 380 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:36,800 to love the Lord your God, and serve him with all your heart and your soul. 381 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:38,300 If you if you agree 382 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:41,400 to love me and obey 383 00:19:41,400 --> 00:19:44,766 me, just what we talked about in Providence, right? 384 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:48,000 If you could love and serve me, that's what God says. 385 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:51,566 He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain 386 00:19:51,566 --> 00:19:55,566 and the latter rain that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 387 00:19:55,900 --> 00:19:59,333 And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, 388 00:19:59,533 --> 00:20:01,433 and you shall eat and be full. 389 00:20:01,433 --> 00:20:04,166 He's saying, listen, here's my covenant with you. 390 00:20:04,166 --> 00:20:07,166 This is my covenant, a promise that I will never break. 391 00:20:07,533 --> 00:20:09,600 That if you love me and obey me, 392 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:13,466 I will send rain on your land, and you will have abundance. 393 00:20:14,033 --> 00:20:17,633 We know there in a time of famine, and we know it's during the time of judges. 394 00:20:17,633 --> 00:20:22,966 This famine is a result of the judgment of God, because the time of the judges 395 00:20:22,966 --> 00:20:25,500 was complete rebellion against God by his people. 396 00:20:25,500 --> 00:20:26,133 Do you follow? 397 00:20:29,900 --> 00:20:30,666 And so God says, 398 00:20:30,666 --> 00:20:33,733 I know you want my providential hand to work this together for your good. 399 00:20:33,733 --> 00:20:36,666 You're in disobedience right now. 400 00:20:36,666 --> 00:20:39,666 There's another law at work. 401 00:20:40,500 --> 00:20:43,500 So there's a famine in this land. 402 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:45,866 And the man from Bethlehem 403 00:20:45,866 --> 00:20:49,033 in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab. 404 00:20:49,200 --> 00:20:52,200 He and his wife and his two sons, 405 00:20:52,633 --> 00:20:53,866 he went to sojourn. 406 00:20:53,866 --> 00:20:56,866 That tells us he wasn't planning on staying in Moab. 407 00:20:57,433 --> 00:20:58,800 He was going in his mind. 408 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:01,966 He was going for a short time because things are bad. 409 00:21:02,266 --> 00:21:04,200 I got to solve this myself. 410 00:21:04,200 --> 00:21:04,633 So I'm going to 411 00:21:04,633 --> 00:21:08,166 look at some greener pastures and I'm going to go to the greener pastures. 412 00:21:09,133 --> 00:21:11,600 And that was this idea that he was just going there 413 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:15,000 for a short time to sojourn for a little while. 414 00:21:15,900 --> 00:21:17,266 So he goes to the land of Moab. 415 00:21:17,266 --> 00:21:19,466 What's significant about Moab? 416 00:21:19,466 --> 00:21:22,400 Well, I'm glad you asked. 417 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,666 The land of Moab is down and kind of present day Jordan. 418 00:21:25,900 --> 00:21:28,133 It's outside of the Promised Land. 419 00:21:28,133 --> 00:21:31,133 And the land of Moab was a result of this. 420 00:21:31,233 --> 00:21:36,566 This sexual relationship between lot and yet this his daughter. 421 00:21:38,166 --> 00:21:40,166 Yeah. 422 00:21:40,166 --> 00:21:42,366 Read the book of Genesis. 423 00:21:42,366 --> 00:21:47,700 There's this time when Abraham rescues his nephew lot from Sodom and Gomorrah, 424 00:21:48,500 --> 00:21:51,500 and God destroys those cities. 425 00:21:52,266 --> 00:21:54,333 Lot's wife is turned to a pillar. 426 00:21:54,333 --> 00:21:57,033 It's all in the Bible. It's. It's weird story. 427 00:21:57,033 --> 00:22:00,033 But then lot's daughters, his two daughters are sitting there 428 00:22:00,033 --> 00:22:01,566 with their dad in his cave. 429 00:22:01,566 --> 00:22:04,566 Like we got no men to perpetuate our family. 430 00:22:05,266 --> 00:22:07,500 And so, 431 00:22:07,500 --> 00:22:10,233 they get their dad drunk 432 00:22:10,233 --> 00:22:13,233 on two subsequent nights, and they each sleep with him. 433 00:22:14,500 --> 00:22:17,700 And the one daughter son from this incestuous 434 00:22:17,700 --> 00:22:20,833 encounter is a boy named. 435 00:22:20,833 --> 00:22:23,100 She names Moab. 436 00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:26,100 And that's where the Moabites came from. 437 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:29,400 The other one's named Ammon, which is the ammonites. 438 00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:32,400 And both these groups were detestable. 439 00:22:32,766 --> 00:22:35,766 And God said, cut yourself off from them. 440 00:22:35,966 --> 00:22:37,300 Don't mix with them. 441 00:22:37,300 --> 00:22:39,633 Don't intermarry with them. Don't live near them. 442 00:22:39,633 --> 00:22:43,433 Cut yourself off from the Moabites in Moab. 443 00:22:44,400 --> 00:22:46,400 So, so strong 444 00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,500 was a statement against them by God in Psalm 445 00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:52,500 60, verse eight and Psalm 108 446 00:22:52,566 --> 00:22:57,166 nine it says of Moab, Moab is God's wash basin. 447 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,033 It's just dirty pot. 448 00:23:01,033 --> 00:23:03,666 And so this man of God 449 00:23:03,666 --> 00:23:07,633 leaves Bethlehem, which is the house of bread, 450 00:23:08,533 --> 00:23:10,800 looking for greener pastures, 451 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:14,300 and goes to a place of cursing and a place of sin. 452 00:23:14,633 --> 00:23:16,600 He didn't plan to be there long. 453 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:17,433 He stayed there. 454 00:23:17,433 --> 00:23:19,533 Well over a decade and it cost him his life. 455 00:23:19,533 --> 00:23:21,533 Here's what sin does. 456 00:23:21,533 --> 00:23:25,033 Sin takes us places we don't want to go, keeps us longer. 457 00:23:25,033 --> 00:23:28,033 We don't want to stay and cost us more than we want to pay. 458 00:23:28,500 --> 00:23:32,933 It's the land of Moab, and when we look for greener pastures, 459 00:23:33,266 --> 00:23:36,266 and it takes us from where God has placed us 460 00:23:36,633 --> 00:23:41,333 to the land of Moab, it will be costly, not just on us, 461 00:23:41,333 --> 00:23:46,033 but on those who are coming after us, our families and our children. 462 00:23:46,833 --> 00:23:48,600 He didn't want to stay there long. 463 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:52,066 He stayed there for the rest of his life, and so did his sons. 464 00:23:53,033 --> 00:23:56,033 The land of Moab. 465 00:23:56,933 --> 00:23:57,766 He and his wife, she says in 466 00:23:57,766 --> 00:24:00,766 verse two, that's one verse. 467 00:24:02,100 --> 00:24:04,233 You ready? 468 00:24:04,233 --> 00:24:04,833 Verse two. 469 00:24:04,833 --> 00:24:09,200 The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi. 470 00:24:09,433 --> 00:24:12,366 And the names of his two sons were Mahlon and children. 471 00:24:12,366 --> 00:24:15,800 They were Ephrathah from Bethlehem in Judah. 472 00:24:16,233 --> 00:24:19,233 They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 473 00:24:19,233 --> 00:24:20,866 Let me just stop at verse two. 474 00:24:20,866 --> 00:24:22,200 His name is Elimelech. 475 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,200 That literally means God is my king. 476 00:24:25,500 --> 00:24:28,633 Though he claim the name of God, he didn't live like it. 477 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,866 Because if God is your king, you're going to trust him 478 00:24:31,866 --> 00:24:36,933 even in the difficulty and remain faithful to your king even when it's hard. 479 00:24:37,633 --> 00:24:38,466 He says, yes, 480 00:24:38,466 --> 00:24:42,900 I will say that God is my King, but I will not trust him in the difficulty. 481 00:24:42,966 --> 00:24:44,700 I'm going to solve it myself. 482 00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:47,066 I'm going to go to greener pastures. 483 00:24:47,066 --> 00:24:48,300 He looked at Moab. 484 00:24:48,300 --> 00:24:51,200 He saw where he was, and he thought, Lord, this is not where I want to be. 485 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:53,233 You're not doing things like, I want you to do it. 486 00:24:53,233 --> 00:24:56,366 He looks over Moab, which was at 3500ft, 487 00:24:56,533 --> 00:25:01,300 and got 16in of rain a year, truly greener pastures. 488 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:02,800 And he thought, God, 489 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:06,133 if you're not going to do that for me here, I'm going to move myself there. 490 00:25:06,633 --> 00:25:10,266 Though I claim God is my king, I'm not going to live like it 491 00:25:10,266 --> 00:25:11,433 because I'm going to do it. 492 00:25:11,433 --> 00:25:13,500 What I want to do, the way I want to do it, 493 00:25:13,500 --> 00:25:15,233 when I want to do it where I want to do it. 494 00:25:15,233 --> 00:25:16,800 Do you understand? Yes. 495 00:25:21,500 --> 00:25:22,400 When his sons were Mahlon 496 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:25,400 and chilling names in the Bible were important, 497 00:25:26,133 --> 00:25:29,133 Mahlon literally means sickly kid 498 00:25:29,866 --> 00:25:32,866 and chill out means crybaby. 499 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:34,500 It's just what he named his kids. 500 00:25:34,500 --> 00:25:37,233 I don't know why. 501 00:25:37,233 --> 00:25:38,700 And so you got this family 502 00:25:38,700 --> 00:25:41,700 that's just in shambles right now. 503 00:25:42,633 --> 00:25:43,666 They were ephrathah. 504 00:25:43,666 --> 00:25:46,433 It's from Bethlehem in Judea. That's why this is important. 505 00:25:46,433 --> 00:25:49,700 If you were to read, Micah five two. 506 00:25:50,233 --> 00:25:53,033 Micah five two is a great prophecy 507 00:25:53,033 --> 00:25:55,933 of Scripture, and Micah five two says this. 508 00:25:55,933 --> 00:25:58,933 But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah 509 00:25:59,433 --> 00:26:02,066 they were from 510 00:26:02,066 --> 00:26:05,333 they were Ephrathah from Bethlehem, they were from Bethlehem. 511 00:26:05,333 --> 00:26:06,600 The fact that here's why that's important. 512 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:10,700 But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to 513 00:26:10,700 --> 00:26:15,500 to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me, one who is to be 514 00:26:15,500 --> 00:26:20,066 the ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is of old, of ancient days. 515 00:26:21,266 --> 00:26:22,400 It's a prophecy that 516 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:26,133 Jesus is going to come from the people from Bethlehem. 517 00:26:26,133 --> 00:26:29,900 Ephrathah, which was a tiny little, wasn't even dot on the map 518 00:26:31,766 --> 00:26:33,700 hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born, 519 00:26:33,700 --> 00:26:37,200 Micah and Micah five two prophesies that out of a group of people 520 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:40,433 from Bethlehem, Ephrathah will come the Messiah. 521 00:26:41,366 --> 00:26:43,266 Fast forward to Ruth. 522 00:26:43,266 --> 00:26:46,266 This family is from Bethlehem, Ephrathah 523 00:26:46,566 --> 00:26:50,066 living in disobedience and sin in Moab. 524 00:26:50,166 --> 00:26:53,300 But God's providential hand is never 525 00:26:53,333 --> 00:26:56,333 without action. 526 00:26:58,900 --> 00:27:00,466 They went to the country of Moab and remained there. 527 00:27:00,466 --> 00:27:01,600 Verse three. 528 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:06,133 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 529 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,300 These took Moabite wives. 530 00:27:09,300 --> 00:27:12,433 The name of the one was Orpah, the name of the others, Ruth. 531 00:27:12,833 --> 00:27:16,333 They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon 532 00:27:16,333 --> 00:27:20,300 and children died, so that the woman was left without her two sons 533 00:27:21,366 --> 00:27:24,366 and her husband. 534 00:27:24,633 --> 00:27:27,900 The compromise of Elimelech cost him his life. 535 00:27:29,233 --> 00:27:31,666 The compromise of Elimelech cost 536 00:27:31,666 --> 00:27:35,466 his sons their lives, their own sin. 537 00:27:35,466 --> 00:27:38,700 Being responsible for their own sin and marrying Moabite women 538 00:27:38,700 --> 00:27:41,700 cost them their lives. 539 00:27:42,133 --> 00:27:46,500 Unrepentant sin will cost us everything. 540 00:27:47,766 --> 00:27:48,966 This is what sin does. 541 00:27:48,966 --> 00:27:51,333 The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. 542 00:27:51,333 --> 00:27:54,333 But I've come that you might have life in its fullness, 543 00:27:55,433 --> 00:27:57,600 in repentance 544 00:27:57,600 --> 00:27:59,333 and obedience. 545 00:27:59,333 --> 00:28:02,266 God's providential hand working for 546 00:28:02,266 --> 00:28:05,266 not against. 547 00:28:08,833 --> 00:28:11,833 You got enough there. 548 00:28:12,100 --> 00:28:14,733 That's the first five verses 549 00:28:14,733 --> 00:28:18,033 where in the first five verses is God 550 00:28:18,033 --> 00:28:21,033 ever mentioned? 551 00:28:21,266 --> 00:28:24,266 He's not. 552 00:28:25,966 --> 00:28:28,966 Just pay attention to this. 553 00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:32,400 I claim the name of God. 554 00:28:33,066 --> 00:28:36,066 I'm supposed to be his. 555 00:28:36,666 --> 00:28:39,666 I don't like what he's doing. 556 00:28:40,133 --> 00:28:42,033 I leave him 557 00:28:42,033 --> 00:28:45,033 and go to a place I'm not supposed to be. 558 00:28:45,433 --> 00:28:46,800 A place of sin 559 00:28:48,066 --> 00:28:51,066 without one thought of God. 560 00:28:54,100 --> 00:28:57,100 Tragedy hits 561 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:00,200 difficulty and pain. 562 00:29:00,266 --> 00:29:02,100 Verse six. 563 00:29:02,100 --> 00:29:04,233 Then she, Naomi, arose with her 564 00:29:04,233 --> 00:29:07,266 daughters in law to return from the country of Moab. 565 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:10,500 For she had heard that the fields of Moab, in the fields above, 566 00:29:10,566 --> 00:29:14,733 that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. 567 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:19,633 In the first five verses decades, no mention of God, 568 00:29:20,266 --> 00:29:23,266 no spiritual awareness, 569 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,400 no spiritual sensitivity. 570 00:29:26,500 --> 00:29:28,700 And now Naomi's heart starts 571 00:29:28,700 --> 00:29:31,700 to turn back to the God she left. 572 00:29:33,033 --> 00:29:35,300 And it wasn't through blessing, 573 00:29:35,300 --> 00:29:37,500 and it wasn't through prosperity. 574 00:29:37,500 --> 00:29:38,433 It was through affliction. 575 00:29:38,433 --> 00:29:39,866 Because affliction does two things. 576 00:29:39,866 --> 00:29:43,266 One of the things affliction does is affliction gets our attention. 577 00:29:44,933 --> 00:29:47,133 That's the beauty of affliction. 578 00:29:47,133 --> 00:29:49,633 And that's oftentimes the purpose of it is to get our attention. 579 00:29:49,633 --> 00:29:50,833 And doesn't this happen 580 00:29:52,100 --> 00:29:55,600 when everything is up and to the right and we don't have to live, 581 00:29:55,766 --> 00:29:58,766 look for greener pastures because we're living in greener pastures 582 00:29:59,833 --> 00:30:04,266 and we go on with our spiritual sensitivity is dulled 583 00:30:05,233 --> 00:30:09,666 because God's been so good and I'm just living in this. 584 00:30:09,666 --> 00:30:13,366 He's been, you know, and I start to neglect him and deny him. 585 00:30:13,366 --> 00:30:17,100 And I use the blessings he's given me to allow me reasons to not 586 00:30:18,600 --> 00:30:21,833 sacrifice and give and worship and repent. 587 00:30:23,066 --> 00:30:27,100 And we live in that blessing so long we find ourselves all somewhere in Moab. 588 00:30:27,100 --> 00:30:27,900 And so he says, look, 589 00:30:27,900 --> 00:30:29,766 if you're not going to give me your attention 590 00:30:29,766 --> 00:30:31,866 because of my blessing and my favor on life, 591 00:30:31,866 --> 00:30:35,133 then I will send affliction to get your attention. 592 00:30:37,033 --> 00:30:40,200 And some of you in this place, some of us in this place, 593 00:30:40,366 --> 00:30:45,833 are going through times of affliction, and our cry is God moved miraculously? 594 00:30:45,933 --> 00:30:48,900 And God says, that's not how I normally do things. 595 00:30:48,900 --> 00:30:53,300 And if I move miraculously, you would not give me your prolonged attention. 596 00:30:53,500 --> 00:30:55,800 And because I want your prolonged attention, 597 00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:58,966 I will allow great affliction to get your attention. 598 00:30:59,533 --> 00:31:00,000 Amen. 599 00:31:02,700 --> 00:31:05,700 You understand what's. 600 00:31:05,833 --> 00:31:08,400 And so now, through affliction, 601 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:11,400 he has got her attention. 602 00:31:12,666 --> 00:31:15,666 She hears of what God has done. 603 00:31:18,433 --> 00:31:20,633 Oftentimes when we look 604 00:31:20,633 --> 00:31:23,066 and seek, the bigger and the better. 605 00:31:23,066 --> 00:31:26,066 We don't seek God first and 606 00:31:26,833 --> 00:31:29,700 yeah, yeah. 607 00:31:29,700 --> 00:31:31,933 And in verse six 608 00:31:31,933 --> 00:31:34,233 she hears that the Lord had visited his people. 609 00:31:34,233 --> 00:31:36,533 That's capital L already all capitals. 610 00:31:36,533 --> 00:31:38,100 That's the covenant name of God. 611 00:31:38,100 --> 00:31:40,733 God made a covenant with his people 612 00:31:40,733 --> 00:31:43,733 that when you love me and obey me, I will take care of you. 613 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:48,333 So now this covenant name is used again, because it's assigned to us 614 00:31:48,333 --> 00:31:51,500 that the people God's people are turning back to him, 615 00:31:51,500 --> 00:31:54,500 and he's faithful to his promises, faithful to his covenant. 616 00:31:54,566 --> 00:31:57,166 You come back to me, 617 00:31:57,166 --> 00:32:01,400 am I providential hand will return for you, not against you. No. 618 00:32:04,233 --> 00:32:06,433 Verse seven. 619 00:32:06,433 --> 00:32:09,300 So she set out from the place where she was with her two 620 00:32:09,300 --> 00:32:12,400 daughters in law, and they went on the way 621 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:15,400 to return to the land of Judah. 622 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:17,233 I said, affliction does two things. 623 00:32:17,233 --> 00:32:17,966 Here's what they do. 624 00:32:17,966 --> 00:32:23,033 Affliction gets our attention, and affliction changes our direction. 625 00:32:23,266 --> 00:32:24,633 Yeah, 626 00:32:24,633 --> 00:32:27,433 it gets our attention, but it doesn't do any good thing 627 00:32:27,433 --> 00:32:30,000 for God to get our attention, to change our direction. 628 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,466 So that's the second step of what affliction does. 629 00:32:32,466 --> 00:32:33,500 It gets our attention. 630 00:32:33,500 --> 00:32:35,566 So a change our direction. Notice what the Bible says. 631 00:32:35,566 --> 00:32:38,466 They went on the way to return to the land of Judah. 632 00:32:38,466 --> 00:32:42,733 They had to turn their back on God's promise and walk away 633 00:32:43,066 --> 00:32:47,600 and then in repentance, they turn back and walk back. 634 00:32:47,933 --> 00:32:50,933 Repentance is returning. That's all it is. 635 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,600 No matter how far you and I have walked away 636 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:57,200 from God, repentance is a one step process. 637 00:32:57,200 --> 00:32:58,533 Just turn back. 638 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:00,466 You understand? 639 00:33:00,466 --> 00:33:03,466 It's not about proximity, it's about direction. 640 00:33:04,866 --> 00:33:10,300 So return to this covenant God who has made promises, 641 00:33:10,733 --> 00:33:13,733 who will fulfill his promises. 642 00:33:14,133 --> 00:33:17,600 And if you have walked away, repent and turn back. 643 00:33:17,733 --> 00:33:23,466 Because then you know that all things, even your sin of your past 644 00:33:23,700 --> 00:33:27,800 and repentance, God works now together for your good. 645 00:33:28,933 --> 00:33:30,933 Isn't that amazing? 646 00:33:30,933 --> 00:33:33,933 It's amazing. 647 00:33:34,500 --> 00:33:38,400 But the sin of my past, without repentance, it's all to my demise 648 00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:39,300 and destruction. 649 00:33:39,300 --> 00:33:42,933 But the moment I return, I just turn to one step. 650 00:33:43,233 --> 00:33:44,700 Now God's providence. 651 00:33:44,700 --> 00:33:47,400 Your hand says, Oh God, now 652 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:49,800 for your favor. 653 00:33:49,800 --> 00:33:52,800 Why would anybody choose 654 00:33:53,500 --> 00:33:56,500 to not give themselves to Christ? 655 00:34:00,133 --> 00:34:03,133 Do they return? 656 00:34:06,533 --> 00:34:07,400 Oh, you know, I'm going to share 657 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:10,466 this verse with the Psalm one 1916 I think I have this one. 658 00:34:10,466 --> 00:34:11,433 So pull up some one. 659 00:34:11,433 --> 00:34:17,400 1867 look, look, look at this, this late, this again before I was afflicted, 660 00:34:18,566 --> 00:34:20,666 I went astray. 661 00:34:20,666 --> 00:34:23,666 But now I keep your word. 662 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:25,800 How many of us could claim that 663 00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,800 for ourselves, for 664 00:34:29,066 --> 00:34:30,900 God, before you allow 665 00:34:30,900 --> 00:34:33,900 such great affliction and pain? 666 00:34:34,900 --> 00:34:37,433 I walked away from you. 667 00:34:37,433 --> 00:34:40,400 But now. 668 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:42,266 I get it, 669 00:34:42,266 --> 00:34:42,766 yeah. 670 00:34:42,766 --> 00:34:45,166 The pain 671 00:34:45,166 --> 00:34:47,766 that you've allowed in my life because of the precious 672 00:34:47,766 --> 00:34:50,766 and precarious choices I've made. 673 00:34:52,933 --> 00:34:55,933 Like I walked away from you 674 00:34:56,733 --> 00:34:59,733 in my freedom. 675 00:34:59,933 --> 00:35:00,966 And so you've allowed affliction. 676 00:35:00,966 --> 00:35:03,966 Before I was afflicted I went astray. 677 00:35:03,966 --> 00:35:05,666 But now 678 00:35:05,666 --> 00:35:07,366 you've got my yellow. 679 00:35:07,366 --> 00:35:10,366 You I'm changing my direction. 680 00:35:13,500 --> 00:35:15,600 And yeah, look at verse eight. 681 00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:17,733 But Naomi said to her two daughters in law, 682 00:35:17,733 --> 00:35:19,633 go return each of you in her mother's house. 683 00:35:19,633 --> 00:35:22,633 May the Lord be with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 684 00:35:22,733 --> 00:35:24,166 The Lord grant you. 685 00:35:24,166 --> 00:35:25,966 Grant that you may find rest. 686 00:35:25,966 --> 00:35:26,800 This is verse nine. 687 00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,733 Find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. 688 00:35:29,733 --> 00:35:32,733 Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 689 00:35:32,833 --> 00:35:36,733 And they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people. 690 00:35:36,733 --> 00:35:39,566 But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. 691 00:35:39,566 --> 00:35:42,300 Why will you go with me? 692 00:35:42,300 --> 00:35:46,166 Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husbands? 693 00:35:46,166 --> 00:35:48,166 Turn back, my daughters. 694 00:35:48,166 --> 00:35:53,733 Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband, if I should say I have hope. 695 00:35:53,733 --> 00:35:57,333 Even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, 696 00:35:57,633 --> 00:36:00,700 would you therefore wait till their were grown? 697 00:36:01,100 --> 00:36:03,000 Would you therefore restrain from marriage? 698 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:07,100 No, my daughters, for is exceedingly bitter to me. 699 00:36:07,100 --> 00:36:11,600 For your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. 700 00:36:12,633 --> 00:36:14,533 It lifted up their voices and wept again. 701 00:36:14,533 --> 00:36:17,533 And Aubert kissed her mother in law, and Ruth clung to her. 702 00:36:18,533 --> 00:36:19,833 I want you to notice a couple of things. 703 00:36:19,833 --> 00:36:24,500 Verse nine, she said, I want you to go back to your people, your Moabite women. 704 00:36:24,500 --> 00:36:25,566 We're in the land of Moab. 705 00:36:25,566 --> 00:36:28,433 I'm going to go back to my God. I ran away from him. 706 00:36:28,433 --> 00:36:29,366 I'm going to return. 707 00:36:29,366 --> 00:36:31,166 You stay here with your people, 708 00:36:31,166 --> 00:36:34,300 she says, and I want you to find rest in the house of your husband. 709 00:36:34,566 --> 00:36:37,566 Let me just make this statement about marriage. 710 00:36:37,866 --> 00:36:40,866 The purpose of marriage. 711 00:36:42,033 --> 00:36:44,100 Is to find rest 712 00:36:44,100 --> 00:36:47,700 and comfort and ease in each other. 713 00:36:48,133 --> 00:36:50,100 All right. 714 00:36:50,100 --> 00:36:53,100 And that's only possible if that marriage 715 00:36:53,300 --> 00:36:58,033 with the two people, man and woman, are in Christ together. 716 00:36:59,833 --> 00:37:01,266 Apart from Christ, marriage 717 00:37:01,266 --> 00:37:04,266 is anything other than rest and comfort and ease. 718 00:37:05,766 --> 00:37:08,766 It's difficult and destructive and hurtful. 719 00:37:09,866 --> 00:37:12,000 Once you understand that about marriage, 720 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,000 it's it's designed by God between a man and a woman to put you 721 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,266 to be a place of peace and comfort and ease and strength 722 00:37:20,933 --> 00:37:23,933 in Christ. 723 00:37:25,366 --> 00:37:28,133 She says, even if I had a husband now need a British summer. 724 00:37:28,133 --> 00:37:31,700 You're going to wait 18, 20 years to get married, because that was the custom. 725 00:37:32,100 --> 00:37:37,200 If a woman was married to and her husband died, then the next up in line, brother 726 00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:40,500 would, would, help fulfill the family line and give her a baby. 727 00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:43,500 And all this stuff have is a crazy custom. 728 00:37:44,133 --> 00:37:46,933 If you got, you know, siblings, make sure they marry well. 729 00:37:49,133 --> 00:37:51,733 That's. 730 00:37:51,733 --> 00:37:52,400 And she's like. 731 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:55,266 Like, this isn't going to play out for us. 732 00:37:55,266 --> 00:37:58,266 Go back home and notice what she says. 733 00:37:58,300 --> 00:38:00,833 The hand of the Lord has gone out against me. 734 00:38:00,833 --> 00:38:04,866 This is indication that she felt incredible 735 00:38:04,866 --> 00:38:08,066 responsibility for the course of her family's life. 736 00:38:09,500 --> 00:38:12,300 She she was buried and we don't know. 737 00:38:12,300 --> 00:38:17,133 But it's likely, given the text, it's likely that she was one of those 738 00:38:17,766 --> 00:38:20,433 who nagged and coerced 739 00:38:20,433 --> 00:38:23,633 and convinced her husband to move out of the place. 740 00:38:23,633 --> 00:38:26,200 He knew he should have been, 741 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,533 and he gave in 742 00:38:28,533 --> 00:38:32,100 rather than standing strong and say, no, this is the call of God. 743 00:38:32,100 --> 00:38:36,800 This is what obedience is giving into this wife that night 744 00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,800 and coerced him to move somewhere they shouldn't be. 745 00:38:41,100 --> 00:38:43,400 And she's looking back over that decision, 746 00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:46,800 and she realized it is the Lord's hand who has turned against me. 747 00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:48,766 And now my husband and my two sons are dead. 748 00:38:50,666 --> 00:38:54,666 She overrode, and she subverted 749 00:38:55,966 --> 00:38:59,066 the God ordained authority in the marriage and the home, 750 00:38:59,066 --> 00:39:02,066 and he let her do it. 751 00:39:04,766 --> 00:39:05,433 And now there's 752 00:39:05,433 --> 00:39:08,433 I mean, you understand, right? 753 00:39:09,233 --> 00:39:10,966 Just remorse. 754 00:39:10,966 --> 00:39:13,266 They lift up their voice and they wept. 755 00:39:13,266 --> 00:39:15,966 Verse 15 756 00:39:15,966 --> 00:39:17,933 and she said, see, your sister in law has gone back. 757 00:39:17,933 --> 00:39:20,933 Orphan went back to her people under her God's return. 758 00:39:21,033 --> 00:39:22,233 After your sister in law. 759 00:39:22,233 --> 00:39:25,500 But Ruth said, this is one of the most beautiful things 760 00:39:25,500 --> 00:39:28,500 that have ever been penned in the history of the world. 761 00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:34,500 Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. 762 00:39:34,700 --> 00:39:37,666 For where you go I will go and where you lodge, I will lodge. 763 00:39:37,666 --> 00:39:40,666 Your people shall be my people and your God, my God, 764 00:39:40,700 --> 00:39:43,733 where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. 765 00:39:44,100 --> 00:39:48,900 May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you. 766 00:39:49,933 --> 00:39:51,133 And when Naomi saw 767 00:39:51,133 --> 00:39:54,600 that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. 768 00:39:54,633 --> 00:39:56,366 One of the most beautiful passages 769 00:39:56,366 --> 00:40:00,200 ever been penned by human and where you go, I will go. 770 00:40:01,266 --> 00:40:03,666 Where you lodge. I will lodge. 771 00:40:03,666 --> 00:40:06,666 Your people will be my people. 772 00:40:06,866 --> 00:40:07,700 And here it is. 773 00:40:07,700 --> 00:40:09,366 Your God will be my God. 774 00:40:09,366 --> 00:40:11,666 Conversion. 775 00:40:11,666 --> 00:40:15,300 She is making her conversion from the God of the Moabites. 776 00:40:15,833 --> 00:40:18,533 She Moche who part of the gods 777 00:40:18,533 --> 00:40:21,566 she masters worship was child sacrifice. 778 00:40:21,566 --> 00:40:25,200 It was horrific, completely pagan culture. 779 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:30,500 And now there's a conversion to the God of Israel, the one true God. 780 00:40:31,166 --> 00:40:32,566 Your God will be my God. 781 00:40:32,566 --> 00:40:34,733 I'm converting 782 00:40:34,733 --> 00:40:37,300 where you die, I will die, and there I'll be buried. 783 00:40:37,300 --> 00:40:40,300 And I'm committing. 784 00:40:40,333 --> 00:40:42,166 I'm converting and I'm committing. 785 00:40:45,900 --> 00:40:48,300 I want you to notice something 786 00:40:48,300 --> 00:40:51,400 that it wasn't until Naomi's repentance 787 00:40:52,300 --> 00:40:54,533 and return 788 00:40:54,533 --> 00:40:57,533 that Ruth was converted. 789 00:40:58,166 --> 00:41:01,200 Ruth met Naomi and the joy of marriage 790 00:41:01,633 --> 00:41:05,566 in the greener pastures, in prosperity and goodness. 791 00:41:06,633 --> 00:41:09,700 None of the greener pastures and prosperity converted. 792 00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:11,966 Ruth. 793 00:41:11,966 --> 00:41:14,966 It was Naomi's repentance 794 00:41:15,300 --> 00:41:19,100 in the midst of tragedy that she chose to trust God 795 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:23,133 as a person of God in difficulty. 796 00:41:23,133 --> 00:41:25,900 That caused her daughter in law's conversion. 797 00:41:25,900 --> 00:41:28,900 Listen, listen. 798 00:41:33,700 --> 00:41:35,466 It is not likely that God's 799 00:41:35,466 --> 00:41:38,866 blessing on your life will cause your huddle to turn to Christ. 800 00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:43,466 It's your repentance that will get dinner, stand. 801 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:48,000 And we have to consider carefully. 802 00:41:48,866 --> 00:41:51,866 We have to consider carefully 803 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,000 that if people follow me, will they find Jesus? 804 00:41:56,133 --> 00:41:59,133 I was thinking about this this week, 805 00:41:59,233 --> 00:42:00,266 and I thought, 806 00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:03,966 do the trappings of this world that God has blessed us 807 00:42:03,966 --> 00:42:07,800 with make people want our lives, or make people want Jesus? 808 00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,533 His life? 809 00:42:10,533 --> 00:42:11,566 Let me, let me let me put it 810 00:42:11,566 --> 00:42:14,566 in this terms for you. 811 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,000 Does all the stuff I post 812 00:42:18,300 --> 00:42:21,300 make people desire my life, 813 00:42:21,500 --> 00:42:24,500 or make people desire the life of Christ? 814 00:42:27,100 --> 00:42:30,100 Just think about it for a minute. 815 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,000 This has become such an idol, 816 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,100 an addiction in our life that when we use it 817 00:42:36,100 --> 00:42:39,300 to say, hey, look at this great thing that I get to do right now. 818 00:42:39,400 --> 00:42:41,200 Look at this great experience that I have. 819 00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:43,133 Look at this vacation. Look at this. 820 00:42:43,133 --> 00:42:45,633 Look how great my kids are. Don't you wish your kids are like my kids? 821 00:42:45,633 --> 00:42:49,200 Like all that is designed to make you want my life. 822 00:42:50,566 --> 00:42:53,566 Not to make you want the life of Christ. 823 00:42:57,900 --> 00:43:00,133 You can argue with me about it. 824 00:43:00,133 --> 00:43:04,633 So it wasn't all the stuff that makes 825 00:43:04,633 --> 00:43:07,633 you want my life that will lead people to Christ. 826 00:43:10,733 --> 00:43:12,000 It was her repentance 827 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,733 and her return to obedience and love of the father that converted 828 00:43:17,633 --> 00:43:20,633 those in her huddle. 829 00:43:22,833 --> 00:43:23,633 Do you hear what I'm saying? 830 00:43:23,633 --> 00:43:24,566 Church? 831 00:43:24,566 --> 00:43:27,566 Yes. You're. 832 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,800 Okay, I I'm almost done. 833 00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:32,800 I'm a I'm. Verse 19. 834 00:43:33,033 --> 00:43:36,133 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. 835 00:43:36,133 --> 00:43:39,333 When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. 836 00:43:39,466 --> 00:43:42,233 And the woman said, is this Naomi? 837 00:43:42,233 --> 00:43:44,000 That word stirred is important. 838 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:45,900 It means excited. 839 00:43:45,900 --> 00:43:48,900 This little town of Bethlehem was a little tiny. 840 00:43:49,066 --> 00:43:50,833 It wasn't even really a dot on the map. 841 00:43:50,833 --> 00:43:54,300 There was nothing, had no commerce, had no Starbucks. 842 00:43:54,300 --> 00:43:57,766 They talked about putting one in, but it wasn't done yet like it was nothing. 843 00:43:57,833 --> 00:44:01,033 They had no businesses like everybody from 844 00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:03,966 the ranchos knew who was in the ranchos. 845 00:44:03,966 --> 00:44:05,933 They were getting a little bit of pressure from Riverstone, 846 00:44:05,933 --> 00:44:09,233 maybe like, here's some outsiders, but we know who's who, right? 847 00:44:09,233 --> 00:44:11,800 I and that was the feeling of this little Bethlehem. 848 00:44:11,800 --> 00:44:14,766 And they knew that this woman, Naomi left. 849 00:44:14,766 --> 00:44:16,333 They knew she left with her husband. 850 00:44:16,333 --> 00:44:18,000 They knew she left with their two sons. 851 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:22,866 They knew she left what was the obedient place for her to be for disobedience. 852 00:44:22,866 --> 00:44:25,833 And they knew it. And they knew that her husband died. 853 00:44:25,833 --> 00:44:28,500 They knew her sons had died. 854 00:44:28,500 --> 00:44:30,933 And she comes back. 855 00:44:30,933 --> 00:44:34,133 Listen, they were excited when she came back. 856 00:44:34,266 --> 00:44:36,100 They didn't treat her with contempt. 857 00:44:36,100 --> 00:44:37,766 They didn't treat her with shame. 858 00:44:37,766 --> 00:44:39,566 They didn't treat her with judgment. 859 00:44:39,566 --> 00:44:42,600 They weren't the ones like, ha, you got what you deserve. 860 00:44:42,700 --> 00:44:43,933 You should have never left. 861 00:44:43,933 --> 00:44:46,800 Like they weren't church people, but 862 00:44:47,866 --> 00:44:48,866 they were excited. 863 00:44:48,866 --> 00:44:49,933 We got to be here. 864 00:44:49,933 --> 00:44:52,933 Here's here's what I'm saying. 865 00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:56,000 I want you to see that it's important 866 00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:59,133 how people who never left welcome back. 867 00:44:59,133 --> 00:45:02,133 Those who have. 868 00:45:03,733 --> 00:45:05,400 To understand. 869 00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:08,400 Yeah, it's really important 870 00:45:09,700 --> 00:45:12,700 for all you good, righteous church people. 871 00:45:13,433 --> 00:45:16,000 How you welcome back 872 00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:18,533 all you good, righteous church people who never left. 873 00:45:18,533 --> 00:45:20,566 It's real important how you welcome back. 874 00:45:20,566 --> 00:45:23,566 Those of us who have. 875 00:45:27,566 --> 00:45:29,166 They're excited. 876 00:45:29,166 --> 00:45:30,600 She said to them, don't call me name. 877 00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:32,566 It means pleasant. Call me Mara. 878 00:45:32,566 --> 00:45:35,400 For the Lord has dealt bitter very bitterly with me. 879 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:38,266 I went away full and Lord has brought me back empty. 880 00:45:38,266 --> 00:45:42,566 Why call me Naomi pleasant, when the Lord has testified 881 00:45:42,566 --> 00:45:45,566 against me, and the Almighty has brought calamity on me? 882 00:45:45,800 --> 00:45:50,433 I'm so amazed by this woman, Naomi, because she sees the hand of God 883 00:45:50,466 --> 00:45:54,966 has gone out against her in tragedy and difficulty and loss and pain. 884 00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:58,000 And rather than running further away from him, she turns around 885 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,766 and runs towards him, towards the hand that hurt her. 886 00:46:02,866 --> 00:46:08,566 Wow. Towards the hand that have afflicted 887 00:46:09,866 --> 00:46:12,866 because she knew his heart. 888 00:46:13,300 --> 00:46:17,366 That if she would just return, that hand that had gone out 889 00:46:17,366 --> 00:46:20,366 against would become the hand that turned for 890 00:46:21,300 --> 00:46:24,166 beautiful, 891 00:46:24,166 --> 00:46:26,400 beautiful. 892 00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:29,400 Listen. 893 00:46:29,900 --> 00:46:32,900 There's a bigger story behind your pain. 894 00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:36,400 Yes. She didn't know it at the time. 895 00:46:36,966 --> 00:46:39,600 You don't realize it at this time. 896 00:46:39,600 --> 00:46:42,600 But there's a bigger story behind your pain. 897 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,800 And when we turn back and repent, 898 00:46:48,066 --> 00:46:51,033 God in his providence, miraculously, 899 00:46:51,033 --> 00:46:54,966 in his providence, works even that together 900 00:46:56,466 --> 00:46:57,666 for good. 901 00:46:57,666 --> 00:46:59,366 Yeah. 902 00:46:59,366 --> 00:47:02,366 And so we walk by faith, 903 00:47:03,166 --> 00:47:06,000 not by what we see. 904 00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,700 And from verse 22 of chapter one on, 905 00:47:08,700 --> 00:47:12,700 we see at play the unseen hand of God. 906 00:47:13,633 --> 00:47:15,200 Let me just wrap up with verse 22. 907 00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:19,400 So, Naomi, return, and Ruth the Moabite, the outsider, 908 00:47:19,733 --> 00:47:23,500 the daughter in law with her who returned from the country of Moab. 909 00:47:24,200 --> 00:47:25,800 And they came to Bethlehem. And here it is 910 00:47:27,033 --> 00:47:27,400 at the 911 00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:30,600 beginning of the barley harvest, the providential hand of God. 912 00:47:30,600 --> 00:47:33,566 Now in repentance they've repented. 913 00:47:33,566 --> 00:47:35,900 And in that repentance 914 00:47:35,900 --> 00:47:38,766 they arrive at the exact time of the barnea, 915 00:47:38,766 --> 00:47:42,366 the providence of God, to get them there at the barley harvest, 916 00:47:43,200 --> 00:47:46,200 to lead them to a barley field, 917 00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:49,866 to lead them to the owner of a barley field named Boaz, 918 00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:53,200 to lead her to the owner of the barley 919 00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:56,200 field named Boaz to become his wife, 920 00:47:56,766 --> 00:47:58,566 to lead her to the owner of the barley field, 921 00:47:58,566 --> 00:48:01,566 named Boaz, to become his wife and be her redeemer. 922 00:48:02,233 --> 00:48:05,233 That put a broken foreigner 923 00:48:05,466 --> 00:48:08,466 in the lineage of Jesus the Christ. 924 00:48:10,500 --> 00:48:13,500 Providence. 925 00:48:13,500 --> 00:48:15,233 And at this moment her life 926 00:48:15,233 --> 00:48:18,233 completely changed. 927 00:48:18,733 --> 00:48:22,433 It is Romans 828 for we know we don't have to hope. 928 00:48:23,566 --> 00:48:26,433 We know that for those who what 929 00:48:26,433 --> 00:48:29,433 love God, repent, 930 00:48:29,833 --> 00:48:34,033 walk in obedience, all God works all things together for good 931 00:48:35,466 --> 00:48:38,466 for those who are called according to his purpose. 932 00:48:41,133 --> 00:48:44,133 One last thing. 933 00:48:44,133 --> 00:48:45,000 The providence of God. 934 00:48:45,000 --> 00:48:47,833 I want this to ring in your ears, in your mind. 935 00:48:47,833 --> 00:48:49,533 It means that your story isn't over. 936 00:48:49,533 --> 00:48:52,533 It's just unfolding that. 937 00:48:53,966 --> 00:48:55,566 But it begins with repentance. 938 00:48:55,566 --> 00:48:57,166 Yeah. 939 00:48:57,166 --> 00:49:00,166 Without repentance, your story might be over. 940 00:49:11,866 --> 00:49:14,866 But then repentance is just unfolding. 941 00:49:15,300 --> 00:49:16,733 Amen. 942 00:49:16,733 --> 00:49:19,733 And God's beautiful hand of providence 943 00:49:21,100 --> 00:49:23,233 works even the manure of your past 944 00:49:23,233 --> 00:49:26,233 to be the fertilizer for your future. 945 00:49:27,200 --> 00:49:30,000 And it is wonderful 946 00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:33,000 to fall into the hands of a providential God. 947 00:49:34,866 --> 00:49:37,866 And repent. 948 00:49:38,100 --> 00:49:41,100 And so, dear friends, I invite you to pray. 949 00:49:45,066 --> 00:49:45,500 Father. 950 00:49:45,500 --> 00:49:46,733 Thank you. 951 00:49:46,733 --> 00:49:49,666 Thank you are a good God. Good God, 952 00:49:51,500 --> 00:49:53,666 I thank you for your miracle, certainly. 953 00:49:53,666 --> 00:49:55,966 But I thank you even more so for your providence, 954 00:49:55,966 --> 00:50:00,266 because your providence is without fail, and it is constant, 955 00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:03,900 and you are so good 956 00:50:03,900 --> 00:50:06,900 and so loving that you've promised us 957 00:50:07,766 --> 00:50:10,733 that you will work all things, even the difficult, 958 00:50:10,733 --> 00:50:13,866 the even the pain, even through our sin, even the tragedy. 959 00:50:14,200 --> 00:50:17,200 All things together. 960 00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:20,400 For the good of us who love you, 961 00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,400 who are called according to your purpose. 962 00:50:24,366 --> 00:50:26,566 And so, father, in this moment 963 00:50:26,566 --> 00:50:29,566 hear our hearts 964 00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:31,866 and respond 965 00:50:31,866 --> 00:50:34,866 to our repentance and commitment. 966 00:50:35,666 --> 00:50:38,666 Friends, I invite you in this moment. 967 00:50:38,900 --> 00:50:41,900 If you know and are realizing in this moment 968 00:50:43,066 --> 00:50:46,066 that there are surely some things 969 00:50:46,200 --> 00:50:48,833 that you have walked away from the love of the father 970 00:50:48,833 --> 00:50:51,700 and the way of the father into Moab, as it were, 971 00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:55,800 you're in a place you shouldn't be. 972 00:50:56,633 --> 00:50:58,133 You're in a place you shouldn't be. 973 00:50:58,133 --> 00:50:59,166 You're doing things you shouldn't. 974 00:50:59,166 --> 00:51:02,166 You have walked away. 975 00:51:03,100 --> 00:51:04,200 Repent. 976 00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:07,133 Repent. And I invite you in this moment. 977 00:51:07,133 --> 00:51:11,400 Just say, father, I confess that I have walked away from. 978 00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:13,033 I am in a place I shouldn't be. 979 00:51:13,033 --> 00:51:16,033 I am in Moab. 980 00:51:17,300 --> 00:51:20,133 And I realize as much as I want you 981 00:51:20,133 --> 00:51:23,900 to turn things around, they won't until I turn around. 982 00:51:23,900 --> 00:51:26,900 And so today 983 00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,333 I turn around 984 00:51:29,333 --> 00:51:31,400 and I repent. 985 00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:34,700 I agree with you about sin and my sin, 986 00:51:35,900 --> 00:51:38,900 and I'm choosing to leave it behind. 987 00:51:40,033 --> 00:51:42,100 I'm choosing to go a different way. 988 00:51:42,100 --> 00:51:45,866 I'm choosing to go the opposite way of my sin, of my addiction, 989 00:51:45,866 --> 00:51:47,366 of my habit, of my pain. 990 00:51:47,366 --> 00:51:49,333 I'm choosing to go a different way. 991 00:51:51,866 --> 00:51:53,966 And in my repentance. 992 00:51:53,966 --> 00:51:57,966 Oh providential God, give me all that 993 00:51:57,966 --> 00:52:00,966 your grace allows. 994 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:03,566 That in my repentance 995 00:52:03,566 --> 00:52:07,933 my hurdle will see how good you are and trust you with their lives. 996 00:52:07,933 --> 00:52:09,633 As I'm trusting you with mine. 997 00:52:09,633 --> 00:52:11,966 Oh, yeah. Yeah. 998 00:52:11,966 --> 00:52:12,500 Oh, God. 999 00:52:12,500 --> 00:52:15,500 Make it so. 1000 00:52:15,900 --> 00:52:16,300 Father, 1001 00:52:16,300 --> 00:52:19,300 I thank you for the promises of your word. 1002 00:52:21,666 --> 00:52:24,666 You are so good. So. 1003 00:52:25,366 --> 00:52:26,166 We love you. 1004 00:52:26,166 --> 00:52:29,166 Help us to love you more. 1005 00:52:29,333 --> 00:52:29,833 Jesus. 1006 00:52:29,833 --> 00:52:31,366 In your name I pray these things. 1007 00:52:31,366 --> 00:52:33,733 Amen. Amen, Amen. 1008 00:52:33,733 --> 00:52:36,200 Listen. Yeah. You okay? 1009 00:52:36,200 --> 00:52:37,300 Yeah. 1010 00:52:37,300 --> 00:52:39,933 Ruth is a form book. 1011 00:52:39,933 --> 00:52:41,700 Here's my desire for you. 1012 00:52:41,700 --> 00:52:45,900 Let's this week, let's together let's read chapter one again with new eyes. 1013 00:52:46,566 --> 00:52:47,600 Okay. 1014 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,300 And then let's read chapter two and get ready for next week. 1015 00:52:50,300 --> 00:52:52,966 Can we do that? We agree. Let's do that. 1016 00:52:52,966 --> 00:52:56,100 And now listen, if you know somebody doesn't have a church home, 1017 00:52:56,900 --> 00:52:58,233 they're in your huddle, 1018 00:52:59,200 --> 00:53:01,533 your people close to you invite them. 1019 00:53:01,533 --> 00:53:04,533 This is a great book to to be invited into. 1020 00:53:04,566 --> 00:53:06,600 So you invite them next week. 1021 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:08,133 You got it. 1022 00:53:08,133 --> 00:53:10,100 Yeah. Okay. 1023 00:53:10,100 --> 00:53:11,433 Hey, I love you. 1024 00:53:11,433 --> 00:53:13,766 This would be good for us to go through together. 1025 00:53:13,766 --> 00:53:15,400 God is doing good things. 1026 00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:16,933 Don't doubt that. 1027 00:53:16,933 --> 00:53:19,666 Or God's doing good things right. 1028 00:53:19,666 --> 00:53:20,333 Let's sing together.