The Fork in the Road
Notes
Transcript
What do I want them to know? God’s is true, He is providential
Why? It gives us hope and belief
What do I want them do? Trust and follow the Lord
Why? It leads to life
Feel? Challenged and encouraged
ME/WE
In this world we are faced with numerous forks in the roads decisions, 1000 of them in our life.
Sometimes they are big forks in the road decisions, defining moments decisions.
Such as God has brought to a fork in the road of God is calling us to leave our job, our good job, a job we love, we have been at for 20 years to go to a new job where we do not what the future holds, BUT WE KNOW, WE KNOW, and confirmed by other believers that God is in this.
We face a FORK in the ROAD DECISION with our Faith in Jesus will we believe in a Jesus or not....and it doesn’t just stop there with our face, many of have a Joshua 24:15 decision....this happens after we believed in Jesus, for me it happened at 18, a time where I had one foot trying to follow Jesus and the other foot following my flesh....God came to me and said I calling you to a youth pastor....or you going to chose that path.
Many of us had this decision to make, many times more than once
Why? Because we are prone to wander
And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Here’s also the interesting thing about fork in the road moments....not every time that we come to a fork in the road moment is it this BIG DEFINING MOMENT....we might think it might be but it’s not
But the inverse is true…We think it is a nothing decision, no big deal, and it turns out the thing we thought was not big deal…was a DEFINING MOMEMENT in YOUR LIFE....
and we see it play out in the negative way too.
it doesn’t have to be sinful, there are sinful decisions lie, cheat, rebel
it can sinful to us
Lead us down this path of destruction
1. What we DISCOVER is when we come to the fork in the road decisions we have
Limited sight, , we do not have future vision, (let me put my future vision glasses on), WE HAVE 20/20 VISION
we do not truly know all that hangs in the balance
WE DO NOT KNOW ALL THAT HANGS IN THE BALANCE DEPENDING ON WHAT PATH WE TAKE
Not only that, not only do we have limited vision...
2. OUR EYES and FEELINGS (heart) CAN DECEIVE US
Our eyes and feelings can say go down this path here, look what’s there…that other path looks hard.
We’ve been here eyes or feelings trick us....we thought this was a great decision, great path but it was the wrong decision.
OR WE SEE ONLY WHAT WE WANT TO SEE
WE SEE THIS TAKE PLACE IN RUTH 1
Ruth 1 (the first half)
Elimelech and Naomi come to a FORK in the ROAD decision when a famine hits Bethlehem “the house of bread”
One option is they can repent and turn to God and the promise God makes in scripture is that he will heal their land. We see this in Deut 28 2 Chron 7:14
if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2nd option, they can trust their eyes and go to Moab,the place that is famine proof,....in doing so they are disobeying God leave their homeland We are going to continue to reject God.
What ROAD do they chose? #2 Go to MOAB and reject God.
Why? Because the road to MOAB looks more promising and clearer
Here is the thing that is good for us to know; when we walk with God many times when we come to the fork in the road decision the wrong option is OFTEN the clearer OPTION IN THE NATURAL than the right option.
Why?
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Fathers of the faith
Abram let everything he every knew because of what he saw, he knew where God was going to take him? No, because of faith he trusted God
“I want to encourage you (believers) not to have too much of a plan for your life because God’s got a big one and you might really mess it up if you plan your life....My life has simply not been planned by me. I look at it and I say, “Don’t get too hung up on this plan thing. Just do the next thing God calls you to do.” - John Piper
Noah when he built the ark was it rainning? No the flood did not come for another 75 years.
But he believed God by faith
I can see no flood or rain
Our eyes and feelings can deceive us
Our natural eyes and feelings say do ___ but God says no
WHAT ARE WE TO DO?
What are we to do at FORK in the road moments if our eyes and feelings are not always reliable, they deceive us and our limited
We are to do what Naomi does in Ruth 1:6-7 (when she comes to her second FORK in the road in the book of RUTH) and as Prov 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
(your vision, your eyes)
God sees the beginning and the end
TRUST ME not your eyes or feelings…they are limited and deceptive at times.
THIS IS EASY ALL THE TIME RIGHT? TRUST WHAT YOU CANNOT SEE vs WHAT YOU CAN SEE
I also know one more thing because we see this in Naomi’s life and in our life....many times, not all the times, the right decision is the hardest decision....the easy decision is the wrong decision...
Naomi we will see in a moment doesn’t want to do in the flesh what she does.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
God is saying to us in our FORK in the ROAD DECISIONS....TRUST ME, not your eyes or feelings
GOD
THIS WHERE WE PICK UP THE STORY IN RUTH TODAY
Naomi is at her second FORK in the road moment.
The goodness of God…he doesn’t say (you had one shot or two shots) he comes to us multiple times... is that God gives us second, third, and 100th chances..
Is that not our story too.
Naomi is having her second FORK in the road decision.
What path is she going to take this time?
The first one she and her family trusted their eyes and not God’s ways and went to Moab, a place that is famine proof, INSTEAD OF TRUSTING GOD.
After she went down the path of not trusting God and trusting her eyes and as a result while she was in Moab her husband Elimeleck dies, her two sons die.
What does Ruth 1:6-7
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
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.
Naomi at her second FORK in the road decision, she decides to trust God
I am going to go back and trust God.
How does she go back?
Super Happy about…praise God I am going back?
Remorseful, no
In her going back going on God’s path she’s bitter
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?”
She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, 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?”
Buzz
Naomi!?! we haven’t seen her in over 10 years!
I AM BITTER AT GOD! I CAMING BACK BITTER, THOUGH TRUSTING GOD..
-Bitter at God
Worry is believing God will not get it right, bitterness is believing God got it wrong.
Naomi is believing God got it wrong! This is not how it was supposed to go
BUT NAOMI IS REPENTANT
REPENTANT MEANS TO TURN IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION.
I was going here, but now I am going here and she not happy about it.
Here’s something for us to know, we are not always going FEEL like going to down God’s path...
Have our feelings sync up with our obedience
ANYBODY WHO HAS WALKED WITH GOD KNOWS THIS TO BE TRUE
I DON’T FEEL LIKE FOLLOWING GOD, GOING TO CHURCH, SMALL GROUP, READING MY BIBLE, SERVING
We do it because we know it is best
What happens when Naomi follows God’s path? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SHE TRUSTS GOD?
First thing we see God does is provides her with a companion in her daughter-in-law Ruth, who forms a covenantal relationship with her....God said in His actions you are not going back alone.
I am going to stick with you and walk with you through this
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
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.”
And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
Then what happens when they go back, they trust YHWH?
then we start to see God unravel more GOODNESS and providence in their lives (both Naomi and Ruth)
is this not how God is in our lives?
He unravels more and more of His GOODNESS and PROVIDENCE
Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
Scripture reminds us Ruth is a Moabite (an enemy of Israel)
This word in Hebrew for let me go is more of “I am asking you politely but I am really telling you I am going to go”
You see how God has blessed Naomi with this determined woman of Ruth…Ruth see they need provision, and Ruth knows that God’s law has for Israel to to take care of the poor.
They have there own welfare system, it is different than our because in Israel’s welfare system of sorts people still had to work.
“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
God tells His people, He tells them in Lev 19 and 23 the same thing....you shall go threw your crops once and whatever is not harvest the first time is the for the poor and widow and orphan.
That’s there’s
But here’s the thing…did God’s people always obey this law? No, and many times God’s people would assault those who try to practice this law of God’s
And with Ruth being a MOABITE it is even more likely that she will be assaulted.
RUTH is doing something dangerous.
But she knows she has to go to feed her and Naomi…and she knows God has called her to help RUTH.
What happens next?
So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.
Who is Boaz? What kind of man is he?
New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek Dictionaries: Updated Edition 1368 גִּבּוֹר (gibbor)
גִּבּוֹר gibbor
VERSE 1 A man of valor, a mighty man, a man of God…single ladies this is the man you want...
A man of valor, mighty man, champion, and man of God.
We even see how GODLY this man is with his employees
And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!” And they answered, “The Lord bless you.”
I don’t how many labor crews where you hear this language being spoken…we usually hear language that cannot be repeated…THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT BOAZ
Let’s read what happen next
Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”
And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.”
talking of Ruth
She’s the Moabite (being a smaller time in that day word traveled fast that a Moabite woman was there)
She said please let me glean here....in the providence of God, she lands at Boaz’s field, full of Boaz’s men who follow the ways of God.
She could have landed in another person’s field and received drastically different results, she could have been assaulted, badly hurt,
We also God has providentialy provide Naomi with a daugther-in-law that is determined....She is a working
WHAT DOES BOAZ, A MAN OF GIBBOR SAY TO HER?
Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women.
Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.”
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”
BOAZ this man of GIBBOR says,
Listen daughter, not foreigner, not enemy, daughter
You stay her, glean her
When you are thirsty, drink from my water
Ruth is a response we all would give “Why are you doing this to me?”
But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.
The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”
Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
I know what you’re about
Gives blessings and prayers over her
No one could imagine the blessings coming Ruth and Naomi’s way…just a little while ago they were lower than rock bottom, husband’s died, and no hope of a future.
All sudden in God’s providence and Naomi’s obedience the blessing has come
And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.
When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.
And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.”
So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”
And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”
And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.”
So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
glean in the good part
pull some and drop them
Ephah....30lbs of barely, enough for 2 weeks for Ruth and Naomi
Overabudance
What a story of God’s providence and what happens in our obedience to God.
US
What God is saying to us in this room when you are FORK in the road decisions, do not trust your eyes or feelings but TRUST GOD.
You have no idea what God is up too…Yes it is hard, yes it is not always clear....but God is good.....where ever He takes you is good.
Some of you are at this moment now and God is saying trust me, follow me, obey me, even if you don’t feel like. God is faithful, God is true, God is GREAT, and GOOD.
some of us God is saying GET off the road your on
But I am so far down this road already....what am I to do?
God says trust me, He will work in all out
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
no turning back, no turning back.
2 Though none go with me, I still will follow;
though none go with me, I still will follow;
though none go with me, I still will follow;
no turning back, no turning back.
3 The world behind me, the cross before me;
the world behind me, the cross before me,
the world behind me, the cross before me;
no turning back, no turning back.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
You have no idea what hangs in the balance, you have not idea what is at stake, you have not idea what God wants to do.
I know it seems foggy, it seems unclear, but TRUST me and my ways
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.