Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning!

My name is John Lee and I serve Mission Church as the Lead pastor.

I’m honored and humbled to be with you this morning… especially as we continue our Advent series through the book of Ruth.

Advent means “coming” or “arrival” and this season has been an important liturgical rhythm within the Church for hundreds of years.

Historically…these weeks leading up to Christmas are a time for Christians to slow down…it’s a time for us to look back to the long-foretold first coming of the Messiah, and as we do.....we learn to look forward to his return.

You see.....Advent is a season of preparation and anticipation.

Let’s be honest...We all feel the effects of living in a broken world.....and if we slow down long enough we can sense a cosmic ache…we can feel a deep desire for things to be made right…and so....rather than ignoring the brokenness around us and the depravity within us …Advent is an opportunity for us to face up to the darkness in order to appreciate the light.

Last Sunday we began our Advent journey in a surprising portion of Scripture.

Tucked away in the Old Testament...during a time of chaos…before Israel had a king...hundreds of years before Mary, Joseph, and the birth of Jesus…during a time when everyone did what was right in their own eyes…we stumble upon a story of a girl called Ruth.

And Ruth’s story doesn’t hold back from the reality of suffering and despair.....in fact it’s a story full of sadness, tears…and even death... but it's also a story where hope is found in the darkest of places....ultimately....the story of Ruth will liberate us from the exhausting deception that we should ignore the ever present brokenness and it gives us permission to hope as we anticipate Jesus’s return.

So....If you would......Please grab a Bible and open it to Ruth1.

I will give you a moment to turn there and when you have it…and if you are able…please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Ruth 1 (CSB)

1 During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land.

A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi.

The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion.

They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.

They entered the fields of Moab and settled there.

3 Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons.

4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth.

After they lived in Moab about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.

6 She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the territory of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food.

7 She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

8 Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home.

May the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.”

She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

10 They said to her, “We insist on returning with you to your people.”

11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters.

Why do you want to go with me?

Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands?

12 Return home, my daughters.

Go on, for I am too old to have another husband.

Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, 13 would you be willing to wait for them to grow up?