Camp 45 Sunday Night

Intro

Who can tell me something they learned this morning?

How was Naomi’s life going?

Who here has ever had a miserable day?

Because we are all guilty, we are all subject to misery

Why was Naomi miserable?

her husband made a bad decision (leaving the promised land)

her sons made bad decisions (marrying Moabite women)

she followed her family’s bad decisions (she needed to speak up)

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul had this to say about sin:

Romans 3:9–12 ESV

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Now something you need to understand is that at the time the Apostle Paul wrote this letter, the culture was split up between two kinds of people: Jews, who were historically God’s people, and everyone else, who are lumped together under the term “Greeks.” The Jews were the first ones to get God’s Word, they were the ones that had God’s prophets, they had God’s temple, they worshipped God, and they were the ones God was making promises to. So you can see why the Jews began to think that they were better than the Greeks, especially in the eyes of God.

But the Apostle Paul corrected that understanding, and he showed that no matter how religious you are, no matter how good of a person you think you are, you’re no better off than anyone else.

APPLY: Some of you have probably experienced some miserable days already in your young lives. If you haven’t, don’t worry, they’re coming. Whether you have already experienced miserable days or that day is still coming, we can learn from the book of Ruth that this will happen for lots of reasons.

Sometimes you are going to experience miserable days because of your family. I am sure most of you come from homes with moms or dads or grandmas or grandpas or brothers or sisters that love you very much, but even the best parents, grandparents and siblings have flaws. And those flaws will lead to sin, and that sin is going to effect you.

I have two little girls and a wife at home, and while I like to think that I am a good husband to my wife and dad to my daughters, I know that there are days where I fail them. I know there are days where I get angry when I shouldn’t, I know there are days when I’ve been selfish with my time and energy. As much as I don’t want those days to make my wife and kids have miserable days, I still find myself sinning, and that sin still affects the people around me.

Sometimes you are going to experience miserable days because of other people outside your family who are also living in sin.

But you know, you can’t just blame your miserable days on other people. Sometimes you are going to experience miserable days because you have sinned yourself. The truth is that we are all going to experience misery because we are all going to sin and be sinned against. There will be days when you get really angry at someone and say something nasty to them; that will lead to misery. There will be times that you might steal from someone, or lie to someone, or getting really jealous and nasty about someone else’s stuff. All of that is sin, and it will all bring misery to you.

And I have to go a little further, because the truth is even darker than all that.

When we keep reading in Romans, we read

Romans 3:19–20 ESV

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

The truth about sin is that it brings more than just some miserable days, it brings an eternity of infinite misery. Because when we sin, we don’t just sin against other people, we mostly sin against God. And when we sin against an infinite and perfect God, we get an infinite punishment, misery forever.

Because everyone sins, we can all ultimately expect to experience deep misery forever and ever, and death will only make it worse.

You can start to see why Naomi called herself Mara right? This is rough news- and hopefully it can help us feel a bit more what Naomi was feeling when she came back home to Israel empty.

But Naomi is going to get some good news by the time we are done with the book, and I have good news for all of you right now.

Because Christ offers us all salvation, we can all experience true joy

Romans 3:21–24 ESV

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Paul uses words here like Righteousness and Justified: but let me break that down for you in case you aren’t familiar with those kinds of words. When Paul talks about righteousness, he’s essentially talking about being a good person that deserves God’s gifts. Now up until this point we have learned that by ourselves, none of us are righteous. Our actions don’t bring us blessings, they bring us cursings.

But here, Romans is saying that we can still have hope for Righteousness when we are Justified by Jesus. Te be justified means to be made right or innocent, and that is exactly what Jesus does for us when we have faith in him.

Although we have sinned and deserve eternal misery, Jesus makes us right and makes it so that we actually get eternal blessings from God. He reverses the bad news we should have gotten and gives us good news! When we have faith in Jesus, our future goes from one that looks really dark and miserable to one that looks very bright and hopeful.

But what does it mean to have faith in Jesus? Having faith in Jesus means this:

you have admitted that you are no good by yourself and don’t have anything to look forward to after death except for darkness and misery

you have admitted that Jesus is your only hope to be saved from that dark future

You have committed to living your life for him instead of for your own selfish desires.

We call that process repentance, and it means that you have completely changed your mind about who you are and who Jesus is. Rather than believing in yourself for goodness, you believe in Jesus and the goodness he brings to you.