The Widow's Might

Lead Vocalist (Kelly)

Welcome & Announcements (Mike L)

Good morning family!

Ask guests to fill out connect card

3 announcements:

1) Members’ Meeting Tonight

Potluck at 5 (we’ll eat what you bring)

Meeting at 6 (packets are available at the exits when you leave)

2) SS Kickoff, next Sunday

This is a great week to get back in SS—we have classes for all ages!

Depending on ages, many of our kids will be moving up to their new classes

3) Gray Matters Bible study

Returning to our study in the book of Revelation

Wednesdays at 10AM in the fellowship hall, beginning September 4

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Isaiah 1:18)

Prayer of Praise (Tasha Tollison)

He Calls Me Friend

I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous)

Prayer of Confession (Adam Hess), Bitterness

Assurance of Pardon (Hebrews 2:17-18)

All I Have is Christ

Christ Our Wisdom

Scripture Reading (Ruth 1:7-22)

You can find it on page 262 in the black Bibles

Pastoral Prayer (Mike L)

Prayer for PBC—Members Meeting tonight

Prayer for kingdom partner—CareNet

Prayer for US—First responders

Prayer for the world—South Korea

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Do you know the exact moment you became a Christian?

For me it’s a little blurry.

I was raised in a Christian home and made a profession of faith at age six.

I have vivid memories of God dealing with me in those first few years.

I remember my baptism getting delayed because I was sick with a fever, and how excited I was to finally make my faith public.

I remember weeping as a young boy when I read my Bible, as I thought about all the men and women who never heard the Good News about Jesus.

I remember attentively listening to sermons in my home church, where my parents were faithful to bring me every week.

I remember one particular Sunday at age 12 when I felt an overwhelming sense of conviction to devote my life to the ministry.

But as I entered my teen years, I began living a double life.

On the outside, everyone thought I was the ideal teenage boy.

I preached sermons at my church on special occasions.

I helped teach Sunday School.

I preached in the nursing homes with my pastor every single week.

And yet behind the scenes I was fighting a losing battle against the demons of lust.

I told you last week about how radically my life changed after my baby brother died when I was 17-years-old.

I had tried to bargain with God, but in my mind God ignored me.

So I decided to stop living a double life. I was going to run headlong into my sin and stop pretending to follow Jesus.

But no matter how fast we run from God, God runs faster.

In 2004, God was slowly drawing me back to Himself. Some day I’ll tell you the story of what God did in my life during one chapel service at my Christian college.

In 2006, I began serving in student ministry. But I still was regularly losing battles against sin.

In 2007, the Word of God hit me like a freight train and I surrendered myself once again to the Lord.

In 2010, I was baptized again, convinced I wasn’t truly born again as a young boy.

As I reflect on the Lord’s dealing in my life through the years, I often have a hard time pinpointing the exact moment I truly became a follower of Jesus.

Was it in 1990 when I first made a profession of faith?

Was it in 1996 when I felt the Lord calling me into ministry?

Was it in 2004, when God clearly got my attention in chapel?

Was it in 2007, when I again surrendered myself to the Lord?

Was it some other time?

I think it’s so hard to tell—especially for someone who grew up in a Christian home—because whether you’re turning to God for the first time or returning to Him after a season of wandering you’re always met with the same welcoming grace from a loving God.

That’s a lesson we see clearly taught in our text today in Ruth 1:7-22.

Last week we were introduced to a woman named Naomi who lost everything.

When a famine struck her hometown, her husband packed the family up and moved to Moab.

But in the span of ten years, Naomi lost her homeland, her husband, and her two sons.

Our story ended last week with Naomi hearing the good news that God had provided food in Bethlehem once again.

So she packed up her things and began the long journey home.

Today we’ll walk with her as she heads home.

The Big Idea I hope we’ll see along the way is that God is eager to welcome whoever turns or returns to Him.

We’ll see this as we study Three Scenes:

First, we’ll look at Orpah’s reasonable decision,…

… then Ruth’s radical commitment,…

… and finally, Naomi’s resentful homecoming.

1) A Reasonable DECISION

Ruth 1:7—So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

After hearing there’s bread in Bethlehem, Naomi packs up her things and begins the long journey home.

SHOW RUTH MAP

At least initially, it appears both Orpah and Ruth—Naomi’s two daughters-in-law—are going to make the journey with her.

It could have been this was the custom farewell greeting that ladies sometimes do.

If you ever visit my house, I’ll say goodbye to you when you leave. I might get up from the couch, I might not. But Holly is different. She’ll walk with you into the foyer and talk, then walk onto the front porch and talk some more, then walk with you to your car and talk some more. Sometimes she may even be talking as you’re driving away! It’s a beautiful picture of hospitality.

That could be what these women were doing. They’ve been close to Naomi for some time, since marrying her sons. Despite the cultural difference, there is real love between these women. And for awhile at least the three widows are walking together, savoring every last moment.

But at some point, Naomi has had enough...

Ruth 1:8-9—But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

At some point on the journey, perhaps before they left the land of Moab, Naomi turns to her daughters-in-law and says...

“Alright girls, this is enough. You two have been wonderfully kind to me, and to my boys. It’s time for you to go home. May Yahweh bless you and give each of you rest, and a new husband.”

Then she kissed the women goodbye, and it was just what you would expect with three women. They all started crying like crazy!

I really can’t talk because I cry during cartoons.

There’s tears here because these young women truly love Naomi!

They are determined to stay with Naomi, so she gives them one final speech...

Ruth 1:11-13a—… 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? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters,…”

To understand what Naomi is saying here, you need to understand one of the ways God cared for widows under the Old Covenant.

It was a practice called Levirate Marriage.

SHOW LEVIRATE MARRIAGE SLIDE

In those days, women had very few civil rights. They often couldn’t own property or find work to provide for themselves. Their was no WIC, or food stamps, or Medicaid, or social programs to care for women. They were often incredibly vulnerable, and subject to all manner of mistreatment without a husband to care for them.

If a woman’s husband died, she was even more vulnerable since many men wouldn’t want to marry a woman that wasn’t a virgin.

And she was especially vulnerable if she hadn’t given birth to a son who could eventually help protect and provide for her.

So God’s law in Deuteronomy 25 created a way to provide for a widow in this situation. The widow’s husband’s brother, if he was unmarried, would marry the widow and provide and protect her.

I realize this is a strange practice for us in the 21st century, but we need to remember in those days most people didn’t have the romantic ideas about marriage we have today.

Holly and I have the incredible privilege of sitting down with many young couples preparing for marriage, and I’ll typically ask the couple to tell us why they want to get married.

Inevitably every couple says something about falling in love with one another.

That’s a beautiful thing!

But it’s relatively NEW!

For thousands and thousands of years, most couples got married because their parents arranged it, or because they wanted offspring, or because they needed to in order to survive. The love came later.

And In a world like that, Levirate marriage made much more sense.

So with that as cultural background, you can begin to understand what Naomi is saying here.

"Girls, stop following me. Look at me, I’m obviously not pregnant. And EVEN IF I WERE, or if I could meet a man and miraculously get married and get pregnant in short order, would you really wait until my son was old enough to marry you? Don’t do that girls. Go home. Find your own husbands.”

And then Naomi clinches her argument in the final line of...

Ruth 1:13b—“… for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

“Even Yahweh, the God of my people, has turned His hand against me. You don’t want to come with me, girls. I’m cursed.”

Eventually we’ll see that Naomi is wrong. The Lord’s hand ISN’T against her. She only THINKS that because she FEELS that way.

Wouldn’t you, if you lost everything Naomi lost?

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s see how Orpah and Ruth respond to Naomi’s final argument...

Ruth 1:14—Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Ruth remains, but Orpah kisses Naomi goodbye and leaves.

And so Orpah forever leaves the pages of Scripture.

She makes a sensible choice.

Naomi was right, she couldn’t provide a husband for her!

And it certainly looked like God was against Naomi.

So Orpah did the only reasonable thing. She turned around and went home.

We don’t know what happened to Orpah after that final kiss in verse 14. She might have returned home, met Mr. Right, had a pack of children and lived happily ever after in Moab.

That’s the way life often goes for people who choose the reasonable path in life, humanly speaking.

But as Iain Duguid says, "In the process of pursuing the Moabite option, Orpah missed out on the one thing of true value in life: a living relationship with the Lord, the one true God.” [1]

What about you, friend?

Before you leave here today, you too will have a choice before you, just like Orpah.

But if anything, the choice in front of you is even more significant.

Will you turn in faith to the God who invites you into relationship with Him? Will you trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross in your place, and His resurrection from the dead?

Or will you do what seems most reasonable? Will you continue down the path you’ve always walked, living for yourself and the things you can see?

By the way, I don’t mean to suggest following Jesus is unreasonable. It’s not at all!

But it often doesn’t appear to be the most reasonable option in front of you, if you only look with the naked eye.

After all, you can reject Jesus and go on to live a satisfactory life, relatively speaking. You can have a nice car and a nice house and a fat bank account, and all the things the world says matter most.

But, like Orpah, you won’t even realize what you’re missing, until it’s eternally too late.

So we invite you, friend, to consider turning your life to God this morning.

God is eager to welcome you, whether you’re returning to Him after a season of wandering or turning to Him for the first time.

We get an example of what the looks like in the next scene...

2) A Radical COMMITMENT

Ruth 1:14b—… Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

That word “clung” in our English translations is a powerful word.

It’s the same word used in Genesis 2:24 when a man leaves his father and mother and CLINGS to his wife. [2]

It’s the same word used repeatedly in the Old Testament to describe how God’s people must HOLD FAST to Him. [3]

But as determined as Ruth is to remain with Naomi, Naomi seems equally determined to send her home...

Ruth 1:15—And [Naomi] said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

Notice carefully what Naomi is saying:

“Orpah has returned to her people and her gods. Ruth, you should do the same thing. You should return to your people and your gods too.”

Barry Webb rightly points out, “In her present state of mind Naomi thinks Ruth can expect more from the gods of Moab than from the God of Israel!” [4]

But once again, Ruth refuses. And she responds to Naomi with some of the most beautiful words in the entire Old Testament...

Ruth 1:16–17—But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Perhaps you’ve heard those verses recited in a wedding ceremony or something like that, but as you can see the context isn’t about marriage at all.

If anything, it would be much more appropriate to recite this passage at a baptism service because there is such a beautiful picture here of what it looks like for a person to enter into a real relationship with the living God.

I want you to notice two main ingredients to Ruth’s radical commitment:

Ingredient #1: TURN

Up to this point, Ruth is a Moabite girl living a Moabite life.

Her plans have always been to live and die in Moab. Her children would be Moabite children, her people would be Moabite people.

But notice, Ruth is turning away from her old life.

She says, “I’m not going to live in Moab anymore. I’m living with Naomi!”

“I’m not dying in Moab anymore.” Typically that would’ve included a host of religious practices where the body would be burned in honor of the Moabite gods. Instead Ruth says, “I’m getting buried with Naomi.”

“My people aren’t the Moabite people anymore. My people are the people of God!”

And most importantly, she says “Naomi, I’m not going back to those gods I used to worship. Your God will be my God.”

Dear friend, if you want a relationship with the true God, you too have to turn.

In the book of Acts, Peter preaches a sermon to a massive crowd in Jerusalem. He preaches about Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the crowd asks Peter how they’re supposed to respond. Peter replies...

Acts 3:19—“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”

You need to turn from the life you’ve been living.

You need to recognize your sin has separated you from God, and that if you keep walking down that path it will destroy you in the end.

You need to confess that sin to Almighty God who created you, and turn your life over to His control.

Now to do any of that, you also need the second ingredient Ruth shows us...

Ingredient #2: TRUST

Sometimes we use the word “faith,” and that’s a good, biblical word. But the word faith is so misunderstood in the culture I think the word “trust” may be more helpful.

When people talk about faith, they often mean blind faith, or taking a leap of faith—it’s convincing yourself to believe something with absolutely no evidence.

But that’s not at all what the Bible means when it uses the word “faith.”

Biblical faith is much more like our word “trust.” It’s an active decision to confidently rely upon the words of another.

That’s what Ruth is doing as she commits her life to follow Naomi.

She’s trusting that, despite what Naomi says, the God of Israel is worth following.

I agree with one commentator who says, “While it cannot be denied that Ruth cared for her mother-in-law, Ruth clung to Naomi because of her devotion to the God of Naomi’s people.” [5]

—Dean Ulrich

If you think about it, Ruth’s ability to trust God here is absolutely stunning!

She has every reason NOT to trust God. Her husband has died. She is apparently unable to conceive any children. Her own mother-in-law, who’s supposed to be a follower of the true God, just told her she would be better off with the gods of Moab than the true God.

But Ruth doesn’t care about any of that. She truly believe this God is worth trusting!

Dear friend, if you want a relationship with the true God, you too have to trust.

John 3:16—For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

You need to trust His Word that says you cannot EARN a relationship with Him by your works.

You need to trust that Jesus lived a sinless life and died a sinner’s death then rose from the dead so that whoever believes in Him can have everlasting life.

You need to trust that, no matter what you may lose in this life, it is worth it if you will only gain a relationship with the God of the universe.

If Ruth was able to turn and trust, even though she understood far less than we can today, you can turn and trust Him too. Will you do that today, friend?

If you do, or you want to ask more questions about what that means, please talk to me or the person who invited you after the service.

It’s so important because part of what it means to truly trust God is to commit yourself to His people.

Notice, Ruth says “Your people shall be my people.”

That’s what a new Christian says whenever they follow Jesus in believer’s baptism. They’re not just getting wet, they’re identifying themselves with a people.

You can’t enter into a relationship with God without entering into a relationship with His people!

That’s one of the reasons why we want every believer to not just attend a church, but belong to a church. Again, we’d love to talk to you more about that after the service if you’re interested.

Before we move on, I want you to think for a moment about how God responds to Ruth’s commitment.

We know what God’s Word said about the Moabite people.

They had sinned repeatedly against God’s people, so they were banned from entering the temple for ten generations.

You would think God wouldn’t want anything to do with this Moabite woman!

But Ruth is one of only a handful of Old Testament women mentioned in the New Testament.

And she’s mentioned in one of the most surprising of places!

In Matthew 1:5 she is listed in the family tree of Jesus, the Messiah!

This Moabite woman receives the greatest honor imaginable! Through her line the Messiah Himself would come!

God is eager to welcome WHOEVER turns and trusts in Him like Ruth did.

Unfortunately, not everybody is as eager to welcome Ruth as God was.

Ruth 1:18—And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

As someone who grew up in Israel, you would think Naomi would be overjoyed.

Just think of the celebrations we have here when someone gets baptized. We’re celebrating that someone is committing to the family of God!!!

But Naomi isn’t celebrating. In fact, she doesn’t say a word. She just picks up her suitcases, and continues the long walk home.

What’s wrong with Naomi? We’ll find the answer in our final scene...

3) A Resentful HOMECOMING

Ruth 1:19—So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

After ten years away, Naomi walks back into her hometown.

A crowd has gathered, and there’s whispered questions about these strange women entering the village.

“Is THAT Naomi?” Someone asks.

We learned last week that the name Naomi means “pleasant” or “sweet.”

But Naomi isn’t feeling very sweet...

Ruth 1:20–21—She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, [that word “Mara” means “bitter”] for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

Put yourself in Naomi’s shoes for just a moment.

As she entered the little town of Bethlehem, certainly a rush of memories flooded her mind. There was the place she and her husband had courted. There’s the spot where they were married. And there’s their old house. There’s the yard where her little boys used to play.

When Naomi left Bethlehem, her heart was full. She had a loving husband and two sons she adored. Now she’s back and she’s lost everything.

And as Naomi surveys her life and everything she’s lost, she concludes there is one Person to blame.

Naomi is so sure that she blames this person FIVE TIMES...

Ruth 1:13b—“… the hand of the Lord has gone out against me”

Ruth 1:20b—“… the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me”

Ruth 1:21—“… the Lord has brought me back empty . . . the Lord has testified against me… the Almighty has brought calamity upon me.”

I think Naomi gives us a living picture of why many people wander from their faith in Jesus.

Many people wander away from God when suffering hits.

They prayed for God to take away some desire—like same-sex attraction or an addiction—but the unwelcome feelings remained.

They experienced incredible pain—maybe even some form of horrific abuse—at the hands of people who claimed to be Christians.

For me it was a prayer that God would heal my baby brother. A prayer God didn’t answer the way I wanted, that led me to wander away from God for years.

When bad things happen to God’s people, we struggle believing one of two things...

Some struggle believing God is in control.

“God wanted to help me but He couldn’t because He’s not sovereign.”

Others struggle believing God is good.

“God is able to help me but He didn’t because He’s not good.”

It’s the age old argument against the existence of God: If God is all-powerful, He cannot be all good. If God is all good, then He cannot be all-powerful.

It’s obvious which way Naomi is struggling here.

She believes in a God who is completely sovereign. A God who is in control over all things, good and bad.

And on that score, Naomi is right.

Psalm 115:3—Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases.

The Bible clearly teaches God is sovereign over all things. Every whale, every worm, every wind, every blade of grass, every hair on every head is under the control of our sovereign God.

But believing in the sovereignty of God alone is not enough to comfort us when we suffer!

Naomi’s problem is NOT that she believes God has done all this. It is GOOD to believe God is sovereign.

Naomi’s problem is that she does NOT believe God is good. At least not yet.

Imagine for a moment how it must have been for Ruth to overhear the words that Naomi said: “I left Bethlehem full, but now I’m coming back with nothing.”

What does that make Ruth?

Less than nothing?

And yet, what Naomi doesn’t understand is that this woman by her side, the woman Naomi doesn’t really want, will eventually be worth more to her than seven sons!

Even though she couldn’t see it yet, God was working all things together for good in Naomi’s life.

So how do we respond to those who say either God is all-powerful or all-good, but He can’t be both?

We gently say, “Dear friend, you’re missing one piece of the equation. God is all-powerful AND all-good, AND all-wise.”

He is powerful enough to be able to end your suffering, good enough to want your suffering to end, but also wise enough to know how He can turn the suffering of His people into incredible good.

Romans 8:28—And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.

The song we’re going to sing in just a moment puts it like this, “the calm will be the better for the storms that we endure.”

If Naomi could have only seen all the good and beauty God would bring out of her suffering, she wouldn’t have changed a thing.

This is so hard to believe!!!

The clearest, and best place to grow in your confidence that God is all-powerful, all-good, and all-wise is to look to the cross!

There you see God’s POWER on full display. Hundreds of years after Naomi is dead and gone, her descendant is suffering on a cross! Think about every detail that had to happen to get to that moment. That is incredible POWER!

But there you also see God’s GOODNESS on full display. The very fact Jesus would willingly die on a cross He did not deserve should blow our minds. That is incredible GOODNESS!

Look again to the cross and you will see God’s incredible WISDOM, as He turns that horrible tragedy into better news than anything we could ever hope for!

Brother, sister, I don’t know how long you’ve been wandering from God, I don’t know what pain you’ve endured that led you to walk away, but I do know this: God was in control when you were suffering. And He was working good through your suffering, even if you can’t see it yet. And He loves you, and He is eagerly waiting for you to come back to Him, just like Naomi did.

One of the things I love most about Ruth 1 is that despite all Naomi’s complaining, God does not condemn her.

I believe Naomi was wrong to have the attitude she had against God.

Even Job, who arguably suffered more than Naomi, did not charge God with wrong (Job 1:22).

Naomi IS charging God with wrong. She’s ignoring the ways God is caring for her. She’s not responding well to her suffering.

Naomi came back bitter. She came back hurting. She came back angry. But she came back! And God is eager to welcome whoever returns to Him.

The Christian author David Powlison says something that’s incredibly helpful for people, like Naomi, who have wandered far from God: "What matters most is not the distance you've covered. It's not the speed you're going. It's not how long you've been a Christian. It's the direction you're headed." [6]

If you’re a Christian, and you’ve been wandering from God for whatever reason, God is EAGER to welcome you home.

You don’t need to walk an aisle or fill out a card or raise your hand at the end of a service.

You just need to tell God something like this: I’ve been running Lord, and I’m sorry. Would you forgive me and restore me to a right relationship with you?

You can come back bitter. You can come back empty. You can come back limping and hurting. Just come back!

If you’re a Christian, no matter how many steps you’ve wandered from God it’s always only one step back.

Because God is eager to welcome whoever turns or returns to Him.

As I reflect on my own story, I’m still not entirely sure when I truly became a follower of Jesus.

But in one sense, it doesn’t matter. Far more important than when I BEGAN to follow Jesus is that I’m STILL following Him today.

If you asked me to prove to you that I’m alive, I wouldn’t show you my birth certificate. I would speak or move, or do anything that demonstrates life.

In much the same way, the greatest proof you’re alive spiritually is not knowing when you became a Christian, but demonstrating TODAY proof of spiritual life.

And for some of you that’s going to be a simple decision to turn and trust.

Maybe you’re doing it for the first time, like Ruth did.

Or maybe you’re doing it for the hundredth time, like Naomi.

Whatever it is, would you be faithful to obey today?

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Christ the Sure and Steady Anchor

Benediction (Ephesians 3:20-21)