SPEAKER_00: Over the past several weeks, we've talked about God's family and how God's design for all families is to follow instruction, to find their purpose under his covering, and to accomplish their assignment together.
SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful that in God's family, he has allowed others outside of just the Israelites to come in and be a part of his family.
SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about that.
SPEAKER_00: We see, and we said about last week, as the Israelites are walking through the wilderness into the promised land, and although these people were recognized as God's chosen people, we see at this moment in history, and then obviously fulfilled through Christ, there are people joining in on the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: They were not in the bloodline of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't in the bloodline of the 12 tribes of each of Israel, but through their obedience to God, through their consecration to God, through their being set apart, through them recognizing that God is who he is and he provides everything, he creates everything, he takes care of his sons and daughters, they were adopted into God's family.
SPEAKER_00: You and I today were adopted into God's family through Christ's bloodline.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And whether it was the mixed multitude that walked out of Egypt with the Israelites or Rahab that was saved from destruction of Jericho or the Gibeonites who deceived their way into protection and provision, there was also a woman by the name of Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: And Ruth also found her way through her mother-in-law, that they decided Ruth wanted to follow her mother-in-law and abide under the covering of Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: These types of people, these outsiders, became adopted sons and daughters grafted into God's family and becoming recipients of God's blessing and favor.
SPEAKER_00: Today, I want to just pause as it is Mother's Day, and I want to spoke, I want to focus in on a certain woman.
SPEAKER_00: A certain woman who reflected such a great role model to all of our moms and not just moms, but to all of the dads and the men and the women today.
SPEAKER_00: You and I were once outsiders, but through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are now born again in our spiritual birthright as sons and daughters of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: See, moms can take on a lot of jobs when given the opportunity to be a mom.
SPEAKER_00: But whether you're a mom or a dad or neither of these, you have the opportunity to accomplish the greatest task that you can accomplish during your term here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what that task is?
SPEAKER_00: To stir a desire in the hearts of people.
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest accomplishments that you can accomplish during your term here on earth is to stir a desire in the hearts of people.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth, who we mentioned earlier, although an outsider would find her way into the family of God, not just the family of God, but into the lineage of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There's a woman, her mother-in-law, by the name of Naomi.
SPEAKER_00: Can you say Naomi?
SPEAKER_00: And this woman, Naomi, would have been a prime example to Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: She would have been an example to Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: And what it would do, it would cause Ruth to leave her homeland, leave everything that she was familiar with, and follow Naomi to a whole new purposeful life.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever read the story of Ruth and Naomi, it's a beautiful one.
SPEAKER_00: But you're going to see it's got a really sad, depressing opening.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi loses her husband and her two sons, both died.
SPEAKER_00: And it leaves behind two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi, in her grief, decides to leave the land of Moab where she's living and go back to Judah with her two daughters-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: And on the way to Judah, and if you read this story, it's a powerful moment because Naomi realizes that these two daughters, they still have a life ahead of them.
SPEAKER_00: Why would they follow their poor old mother-in-law away from their homeland?
SPEAKER_00: So she says to Ruth and Orpah, and I know many of you know the story, but it says in Ruth chapter 1, verse 8 and 9, but Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go and return, each of you, to your mother's house.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord grant that you may find a place of rest, each one in the house of her husband.
SPEAKER_00: Then she kissed them and they raised their voices and wept.
SPEAKER_00: She said, You guys are welcome to go back home.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to follow me to my homeland.
SPEAKER_00: But these daughter-in-laws weep.
SPEAKER_00: Why would they weep?
SPEAKER_00: Because they couldn't imagine leaving their mother-in-law in her sadness and in her grief.
SPEAKER_00: But Naomi says, No, you guys have lives ahead of you.
SPEAKER_00: You're still young.
SPEAKER_00: Go on, go back home, move on with your lives.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read, one daughter-in-law Orpa says, All right, I'll go.
SPEAKER_00: And the other one, Ruth, says this in verse 16 of the same chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth said, Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you.
SPEAKER_00: For where I where you go, I will go.
SPEAKER_00: And where you sleep, I will sleep, and your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
SPEAKER_00: Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates me from you.
SPEAKER_00: Powerful words that Ruth says.
SPEAKER_00: Powerful words she says to her mother-in-law that listen, let my people, let your people be my people, let your God be my God.
SPEAKER_00: I am going with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a surrender.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about that.
SPEAKER_00: It's a giving.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I want to answer the question: what is it about Naomi that would make somebody want to follow her?
SPEAKER_00: What is it about Naomi that would make somebody want to follow her?
SPEAKER_00: Would want somebody like Ruth to lay her whole life and her whole future on the line for Naomi.
SPEAKER_00: Both daughters were willing to leave their homeland behind to follow her, but one clung to Naomi and followed her into a whole new family line.
SPEAKER_00: Now we know Naomi, imagine the death of her husband and her two sons probably experienced a lot of emotions.
SPEAKER_00: And I know many of you have experienced emotions.
SPEAKER_00: She had a husband, she would have raised two sons.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the deep grief that she probably would have experienced.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the loneliness that she would have felt.
SPEAKER_00: She probably would have felt lost.
SPEAKER_00: Where's my future?
SPEAKER_00: What am I doing with my life?
SPEAKER_00: But through all of this, could you imagine through the sadness, through the grief, there was something that was able to shine even brighter.
SPEAKER_00: Something that was either that was able to stand amongst all the sadness and all the grief.
SPEAKER_00: And what was that that shone brighter?
SPEAKER_00: Naomi was a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: Can you say that with me?
SPEAKER_00: Naomi was a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you this, it doesn't matter what circumstances you walk through.
SPEAKER_00: And I know many of you have walked through them.
SPEAKER_00: But what can shine brighter through any of your circumstances is that you are a part of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: It's a realization that God is still in control, that God is still sovereign, that God is still looking out for me.
SPEAKER_00: When Ruth refused to turn back, she said this.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth would have seen God's favor upon Naomi despite the devastating loss.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth would have seen her mother-in-law's confidence and assurance that her future was not lost, but she was part of an inheritance, an inheritance that belonged to the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've read the story of Ruth, but you're gonna find through Naomi's wisdom, both Naomi and Ruth are redeemed and their futures are secured as Ruth marries Boaz.
SPEAKER_00: And I won't go into the whole story.
SPEAKER_00: But imagine Naomi loses her husband and her two sons.
SPEAKER_00: Then her daughter-in-law Ruth marries Boaz.
SPEAKER_00: And you can you imagine when they give birth to their son, now Naomi gets to take care of her grandson.
SPEAKER_00: When once was all lost, God is able to redeem, God is able to restore.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to even take an outsider and graft them in under the blessing and protection of his people.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi, already an Israelite, grafted into the future kingly line where she would become the spiritual great-grandmother of King David.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what happens there?
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't through her own bloodline that she was able to hold a grandbaby, but through her obedience to God.
SPEAKER_00: That she was a woman of influence, not just upon her immediate family, but even as a great-great-grandmother to King David.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to realize something, and please receive this.
SPEAKER_00: It's Naomi's character that drives the whole story from sadness to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Realize this, moms and dads, uncles, aunties.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what you might be going through, no matter what situation you might be facing, it could just be a night where you're up all hours of the night because a baby's screaming.
SPEAKER_00: It could be a night that you've been working all day and your mind just can't go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: It could be maybe you got a report from the doctors and you just don't know how to wrestle with it.
SPEAKER_00: Realize this, and we see this in Naomi.
SPEAKER_00: You have the opportunity to take sadness and turn it into salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You have the power to take sadness and turn it into what?
SPEAKER_00: Victory.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi sets an example as a daughter of God's family who perseveres through trial, stays faithful to who she was created to be.
SPEAKER_00: She even stirs up a desire in the people around her to say, I want what she's got.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that last week.
SPEAKER_00: Moms, dads, aunties, uncles, children of God.
SPEAKER_00: I ask you this question Do you stir such a desire in the people around you to follow your example as you operate in God's family?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask it again.
SPEAKER_00: Do we stir such a desire in the people around us to follow our example as we operate in God's family?
SPEAKER_00: You might say, Pastor Stephen, it's just been too hard.
SPEAKER_00: You don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: It's been too difficult.
SPEAKER_00: But yet you see people, even in Scripture, going through the worst of circumstances, but still staying a lighthouse and saying, I want what she's got.
SPEAKER_00: I want what he's got.
SPEAKER_00: Do people around you say, I want what he has or what she has, or watch this, do they run as far away from you as possible?
SPEAKER_00: Do they run away as far as possible from you?
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the thing: there are some people who don't follow you because they would rather chase the things of the flesh, and that's between them and God.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say that again.
SPEAKER_00: There are some people who you try to be an influence to, but they would rather the desires of the flesh are just so strong, and so they chase those instead.
SPEAKER_00: Or they don't follow you because they are confused or they are misled or they might even be hurt.
SPEAKER_00: You know what they need from you?
SPEAKER_00: They just need love.
SPEAKER_00: They need love, they need encouragement, they need an example.
SPEAKER_00: But but there are others who want to follow you.
SPEAKER_00: They want to follow you where you lead, but they think he's mad all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I want what he's got?
SPEAKER_00: She's angry all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I want what she's got?
SPEAKER_00: He is a miserable human being.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I want what he's got?
SPEAKER_00: They are not loving at all.
SPEAKER_00: They might be uh followers of God, but they show no characteristics of love through their actions.
SPEAKER_00: People might look at you and say, There's just no hope.
SPEAKER_00: Where are they going?
SPEAKER_00: What are they doing?
SPEAKER_00: There's no joy, there's no peace, there's no character that represents who God is and the blessed assurance that comes with being a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: See, moms and dads, you have the opportunity to turn even sadness into salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But the question is, is what are you reflecting?
SPEAKER_00: What are you representing?
SPEAKER_00: Do you influence those around you to say, I want that joy, I want that peace, I want that confidence.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth clung to Naomi, Scripture says it.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Naomi had something special.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi had something desirable.
SPEAKER_00: What was it?
SPEAKER_00: She was a part of God's family and she was operating as a daughter of God.
SPEAKER_00: I want not just the moms, but I want all of us to ask the Lord for a redefining, or I should say this, a refining of our character.
SPEAKER_00: Because whether you're a mom or dad or auntie or uncle, or maybe you're none of these, I want us to ask the Lord this morning for extra awareness, realizing that we have the opportunity to either be a reflection of Christ or a deflection of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that again.
SPEAKER_00: You have the opportunity to be either a reflection of Christ or a deflection, meaning you turn people away from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We can either stir a desire in the hearts of people to chase after God, or guess what else we can do?
SPEAKER_00: We can stir in a desire for them to run as far away from God as possible.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 10, verse 24 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Let us consider how to encourage one another in love and in good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together as in the habit of some people, but encouraging one another.
SPEAKER_00: And all the more as you see the day drawing near.
SPEAKER_00: There are moms and dads.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who need you to be an example of Christ around them.
SPEAKER_00: They need you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: They want to cling to you, they want to run to you.
SPEAKER_00: They want to chase after you just like you chase after God.
SPEAKER_00: We have such an opportunity to change the course of somebody's life for the very, very best.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, it's Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Moms, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all that you do, and not just moms, but ladies, thank you for all that you do.
SPEAKER_00: But let me just remind you of the opportunity that you have.
SPEAKER_00: Realize this whether you have little ones or you don't have any, people are looking up to you.
SPEAKER_00: People are looking.
SPEAKER_00: How is she responding this?
SPEAKER_00: How does she operate in this?
SPEAKER_00: Realize you have the opportunity to either draw somebody to Christ or to push them away.
SPEAKER_00: You have the opportunity, just like could you imagine Naomi?
SPEAKER_00: She had her daughter-in-law, she could have just said, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I'm mad at God for taking away my husband and my two sons.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never going back to that land.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be bitter and I'm gonna be angry and I'm gonna be sad.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine if she did that.
SPEAKER_00: But Naomi realized, wait a second, people are following me.
SPEAKER_00: People are looking, people are willing to even leave their homelands to follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Am I being a good steward of that?
SPEAKER_00: What I ask today is that God gives us an extra awareness of the people that we are influencers of, of the people, whether it's our own children or somebody else's children or people in your workplace, that we can have an extra awareness that we are daughters of God, that we are sons of God.
SPEAKER_00: Moms, can you just lift up your hands today?
SPEAKER_00: All the ladies, can you just lift up your hands?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I thank you for these ladies.
SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you for the opportunity that you have, I thank you for the blessing that you've given them.
SPEAKER_00: God, the role that you've given them in our world.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that every uh attack of the enemy to try to destroy, to try to confuse, to try to uh tear down, God, I pray that the Holy Spirit would be so strong in all of these women, that these would be women filled with the Holy Spirit, that these would be women who are confident and they know who they are as daughters of God.
SPEAKER_00: God, that they're fearless, that they're strong, that they stand up for what's right, and they stand up for your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, in those moments when they're tired, I pray just an overwhelming rest, an overwhelming peace, an overwhelming God, assurance that you got them.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for an extra awareness all over their minds, that they would realize the role that they play.
SPEAKER_00: In their children, in their grandchildren, in their nieces and nephews, God, even in the people that they operate around every single day, Lord, that they would have an extra awareness, God, that they have the opportunity to either draw people to Christ or to send them away.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that there would be such love that would shine forth.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that there would be such peace and such forgiveness, such wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the lives that are going to be saved, God, the salvation to come to their example, even through adversity.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Men, I want you to lift your hands too, men.
SPEAKER_00: Men, can we lift our hands, God?
SPEAKER_00: I thank you for the role that men play in our world.
SPEAKER_00: God, but we need more men to step up to the plate and realize that they are men of God, that they have a responsibility to keep the word of God as the covering of their family.
SPEAKER_00: God, that they would fill their hearts with such wisdom, fill their minds with such wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: God, realize that they have the opportunity to influence all the people around them.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for an extra awareness.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that all those distractions that would try to deter them away from being the men of God that you've created in them to be faithful and strong.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that your spirit would would fill them right now.
SPEAKER_00: Fill them with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God, that people would say, I want what He's got.
SPEAKER_00: Because He follows a living God.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the opportunity to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.