SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends.
SPEAKER_01: Glad y'all are here.
SPEAKER_01: And man, it is good to see these seats filling up.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you a commercial with this praise.
SPEAKER_01: A couple of ladies and a couple of pastors.
SPEAKER_01: This week we started back our prayer time.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Wednesday night, we prayed through this building.
SPEAKER_01: So wherever you're seated, somebody prayed over that area.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe even touched the seat that you're sitting in and indirectly prayed for you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but it was interesting.
SPEAKER_01: We prayed during that time, and uh God would fill this place.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, He's answering those prayers, and you're a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you for being here today.
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting, you've already been prayed for.
SPEAKER_01: My commercial is 6 to 6:30 on Wednesdays.
SPEAKER_01: You can join us for prayer, and uh, we would love to have you be a part of that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you one more.
SPEAKER_01: This something that I get excited about this next week.
SPEAKER_01: I think Pastor Dave will share at the end.
SPEAKER_01: But uh we have our next step.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've been considering joining the church at Chelsea Westover, we will meet Wednesday.
SPEAKER_01: We'll have a meal at 6:30.
SPEAKER_01: And uh it's two classes on how to join this church.
SPEAKER_01: It tells you everything sort of about CCWR vision, where we're headed, and how to serve.
SPEAKER_01: So if you'd like to do that, there'll be an opportunity at the end uh on how to register.
SPEAKER_01: But now turn your Bible, if you would, to the book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: As you turn to the book of Ruth, uh, we have been on biblical, contend for biblical marriage, contend for biblical sex, and now we're taking sort of a drastic turn.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but the Bible tells us that we need to contend for widows and orphans.
SPEAKER_01: There's a man or woman tonight who's gonna go to bed after decades of having an identity and a relationship, and they're gonna go to bed with the deepest grief that they've ever felt, trying to figure out what this new life looks like, and they're gonna go to bed overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01: At the Church of Chelsea Westover, there's approximately 20 widows or widowers.
SPEAKER_01: There's 15.2 million in the United States.
SPEAKER_01: In Alabama tonight, a child will go to bed in a room that's not their own.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna cry for a mother who's not there and wish for the embrace of a father that maybe they've never known.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be wanting for safety.
SPEAKER_01: In Alabama, there's 5,700 kids in foster care.
SPEAKER_01: There's 1.9 million families represented in the state of Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: If 3% of all families would foster a child, every child would have a home and a pillow and a bed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so thankful for our church and the way that this has already struck some hearts.
SPEAKER_01: There's some people that you need to be praying for, the greater family, the Randolph family.
SPEAKER_01: There's others who are seeking and praying over adoption, the Blagoviches and more, where God has begun to penetrate seed in their heart.
SPEAKER_01: And as a church, we want to do all that we can to help anybody in that place.
SPEAKER_01: And so be in prayer over those.
SPEAKER_01: But yes, Pastor, tell me scripturally, where can we find this?
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you from the law to the poetic books to the prophets to the gospels to Paul's letters are the words widows and orphans.
SPEAKER_01: And I just picked a few of them to start this morning so that you could hear them.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy, the law, chapter 10, it says, The Lord is God, God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality.
SPEAKER_01: He administers justice for the fatherless and the widows, and loves the stranger.
SPEAKER_01: In the poetic books, in the Psalms 68, 5, and 6, it says he's a father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, and sets the solitary in families.
SPEAKER_01: In Isaiah, it says in the prophets, do good, seek justice, justice for the fatherless, and plead for the widows.
SPEAKER_01: In James 1, 27, he said, religion, pure and undefiled, is that we care for the widows and orphans in distress.
SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_01: Father, we love you.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your word and this challenge.
SPEAKER_01: And it may be that some in here this morning, Lord, this is uh a first thought, or God, it's uh something that God seems brand new, but in your word, it seems evident from beginning to end that it is your plan that not only the church, but the body of the church would be concerned and not just concerned, but contend to stand for and help in any way that we can.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, I pray that you would pierce our hearts, speak to our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for the person today who's been thinking and considering adoption or foster care.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray for the person who's been sitting and thinking, I need to invest and listen to that person who lost a loved one.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray for the person who's sitting here thinking, today, there are needy people, and I want to help.
SPEAKER_01: God, pierce our hearts for the things that matter to your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Bless the reading of your word today in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to take you to the book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: We could dissect these verses and several others, but the book of Ruth has what I think is a practical example of two widows that will find them in their widowhood or what starts their widowhood.
SPEAKER_01: But also I want you to see a possible parallel.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little stretched, but Ruth is orphan-like as she comes into Naomi's care as she's left her home and is not with her father and mother and has taken on.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you just to keep an open mind to the application.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but in Ruth chapter one, as we start, number one this morning, it's a time of desperate circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: As you finish up the book of Judges right before Ruth, the rebellion of judges is like this: there's rebellion, then there's judgment from God, then there's repentance, then there's mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Then there's rebellion, and then there's judgment, and then there's repentance, and then there's mercy, and then there's, are you catching the drift?
SPEAKER_01: That's the book of Judges through and through, and that is the time frame that we catch up to Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And the thing that I consider about that is humanly, right?
SPEAKER_01: We identify with judges, do we not?
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you a roller coaster?
SPEAKER_01: Is anyone here always the same?
SPEAKER_01: Just man, you never veer the path.
SPEAKER_01: You might, there might be a few people here that just never really struggle, just always like this.
SPEAKER_01: But for most of us, Christianity's like, and for some, oh, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the book of Judges.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about our humanity, that's why.
SPEAKER_01: We struggle, our human flesh thinks it can self-govern, right?
SPEAKER_01: Until some of you come across the highway and see a speed limit sign.
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone here go 55 in a 55?
SPEAKER_01: Joe does.
SPEAKER_01: That's a lie.
SPEAKER_01: He lied in church.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We think we can self-govern, but we struggle with authority.
SPEAKER_01: Don't look at me.
SPEAKER_02: This is you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Heather had some late books, I'm telling my wife, but uh, she had some late books to the library at Tennessee Temple University one time, and uh she accumulated, I can't remember the number, I'm gonna make it up,$14.
SPEAKER_01: Am I close?
SPEAKER_01: What was it?
SPEAKER_01: How much?
SPEAKER_01: $96?
SPEAKER_01: Holy cow! And I was thinking good on her.
SPEAKER_01: Anyhow, the librarian was sort of like a, I don't know how to explain him, but he seemed like the type of guy that you would enjoy to kind of anger.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_01: He was uptight, he wasn't real personal, and uh anyway, there's anyhow, I better just Lord help me.
SPEAKER_01: So Heather came, she had her late fees, and she had a great big, this is self-government, right?
SPEAKER_01: She brought the biggest barrel of change full of pennies and dumped it on the counter.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I'm sure it's all there.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just looking at her.
SPEAKER_01: Count them up, sir.
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is how we are.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever watched children try to begin a game on their own without an adult?
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking, chill, y'all seen this?
SPEAKER_01: Just a simple game of kickball.
SPEAKER_01: You see the most, I mean, depravity in its best.
SPEAKER_01: They are little heathen cheaters.
SPEAKER_01: They'll try to run to first base, the ball clearly hit them in the back and say, it didn't touch me.
SPEAKER_02: You're such a liar in your own element.
SPEAKER_02: You can't self-govern a game of kickball.
SPEAKER_02: We're liars, we're cheats, we want what's best for us.
SPEAKER_01: Well, this is the book of judges.
SPEAKER_01: And this is people, and God would allow them repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Then they get to this time when we meet up with Ruth, and it's a time of famine.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want to read to you Ruth chapter 1, verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A is this, it's a frantic time.
SPEAKER_01: And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
SPEAKER_01: The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malan and Chilean, the Paphrates of Bethlehem, Judah.
SPEAKER_01: And they went to the country of Moab and remained there.
SPEAKER_01: Then Elimanech, Naomi's husband, died.
SPEAKER_01: And she was left and her two sons.
SPEAKER_01: Now they took wives of the women of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And they dwelt there about ten years.
SPEAKER_01: Then both Malan and Chilean also died.
SPEAKER_01: So the woman survived her two sons and her husband.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a frantic time.
SPEAKER_01: It's a ten-year nightmare in five verses.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a literary style, the way that it's written, it's called like a staccato.
SPEAKER_01: It's choppy, it's unemotional, it's unfeeling, it's cold hard fact after cold hard fact after cold hard fact.
SPEAKER_01: There's no details, no story, just tragedy and tragedy and tragedy.
SPEAKER_01: And Elimelech died, and his sons married Moabite women, and Malin and Chilean died.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole reason I want to propose to you this morning that we need to contend is because things get frantic.
SPEAKER_01: And things get desperate.
SPEAKER_01: And in desperation, people need reminded of hope.
SPEAKER_01: And we're living, church, in a frantic time.
SPEAKER_01: And man, is there a need of a church right now?
SPEAKER_01: So I want to take you to letter B.
SPEAKER_01: Where does that lead them?
SPEAKER_01: It leads them to a foreign transplant.
SPEAKER_01: They moved, if you didn't check that, they moved.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech decides to take the family because of famine and move them to Moab.
SPEAKER_01: Relocation meant abandoning Bethlehem, which is known as the house of bread, God's house.
SPEAKER_01: They left God's house because there was famine because of hunger in the land.
SPEAKER_01: You've heard this quote.
SPEAKER_01: The grass is greener where you water it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Stephen Yoes said this: the grass is greener where there's manure.
SPEAKER_01: Say, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Hardship is okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'm learning that difficulty makes a person better.
SPEAKER_01: Running to a pagan land instead of walking through a lean season of famine at home was the wrong answer.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to look at Psalm 60, verse 8, what it says about Moab.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: He took his family, picked them up.
SPEAKER_01: There's no food, there's no bread in the house of bread, and we're leaving.
SPEAKER_01: We're moving.
SPEAKER_01: He makes what I would say is a rash choice.
SPEAKER_01: In Psalms it says, Psalm 60, verse 8, Moab is my wash pot, and over Edom I will cast my shoe.
SPEAKER_01: Moab was a place full of immorality.
SPEAKER_01: It was a place of idolatry.
SPEAKER_01: It was a place of sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_01: And Elimelech gives his family this as the next picture of a future.
SPEAKER_01: He brings them to a house of paganism.
SPEAKER_01: From the house of God to a house of paganism.
SPEAKER_01: This is what relocation means.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech fails his wife.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech fails his family.
SPEAKER_01: All of God's people were in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: There was the temple in Israel, synagogue in Israel, and in Moab, there's nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech believes I've got to provide for my family.
SPEAKER_01: And he provides, yes, food.
SPEAKER_01: But being a provider is more than food on the table.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't think about friendships.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't think about community.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't think about worship.
SPEAKER_01: He fails as a husband.
SPEAKER_01: He fails his sons.
SPEAKER_01: His sons, this is important that you know this because we're going to look in Deuteronomy.
SPEAKER_01: His sons marry Moabite women.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Deuteronomy chapter 7 to the Israelite people, verse 3 says, You shall not intermarry with them.
SPEAKER_01: They'll turn your hearts away from me unto other gods.
SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 23, 3 says, No Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord unto ten generations.
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: Ten generations not allowed in church.
SPEAKER_01: These sons needed the instruction of a father.
SPEAKER_01: They needed to be taught the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: They needed a daddy, not just bread.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech dies.
SPEAKER_01: And for Naomi, number one on the home stress scale is the death of a spouse.
SPEAKER_01: She loses her husband.
SPEAKER_01: Already had some stress because of relocation.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you know moving is a stress?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so she's been moved, relocated, taken away from everything.
SPEAKER_01: Elimelech dies.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you saw them verses that unfeeling, unemotion, then Malin and Chilean, her sons, okay.
SPEAKER_01: My husband died, but I've got my boys here to take care of me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, no.
SPEAKER_01: Malin and Chilean die.
SPEAKER_01: No mother wants her children to precede them in death.
SPEAKER_01: So her sons are dead.
SPEAKER_01: Her husband is dead.
SPEAKER_01: There's no hope for grandsons.
SPEAKER_01: Her dreams are dead.
SPEAKER_01: Her family name is dead.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi is a widow in a frantic time, and her world has fallen apart.
SPEAKER_01: I um met Pam Minch because my pastor was out of town and her daughter, Beth, had been murdered.
SPEAKER_01: And I got the call as a 20-something-year-old pastor, and she had lost her life to murder, but that's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: Her children seen it, and it was their father.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying to give comfort and work with this family, and we had the funeral, and everything passed, and some time passed by, and I would check on Pam.
SPEAKER_01: And the next time that I came across Pam in a spiritual needing kind of way, um, Pam's father had gotten sick.
SPEAKER_01: A little bit of time had passed, and just before we left to come to Alabama, um Pam had called and she said, My husband Wayne has gotten sick with cancer.
SPEAKER_01: Wayne had passed.
SPEAKER_01: And then just a little while after we've been here, she lost her sweet mother.
SPEAKER_01: I've got a painting that sits in my office that she gave me.
SPEAKER_01: She gave her mother, gave Heather and I some money before we left to come to Alabama after ministering to this family.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought about you, church.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you this year have lost a loved one?
SPEAKER_01: It's all over.
SPEAKER_01: I've had a lot of calls in this year, and I want to tell you that I am I'm sorry for the loss.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry for what you're feeling.
SPEAKER_01: I thought about Pam, though, lost her daughter, lost her husband, lost her parents.
SPEAKER_01: And I opened Facebook just to look Pam up and see how she's doing.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you what Pam had first post on her Facebook page.
SPEAKER_01: It said, Faith is when you praise God in the storm, trust him in the valley, and follow him in the dark.
SPEAKER_01: If God is the only reason why you are still breathing, then praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that motivating?
SPEAKER_01: Pam is still living a life honoring God and motivating people, even though she has been through it.
SPEAKER_01: This was a frantic time for Naomi and Ruth both.
SPEAKER_01: I want to take you to the second point this morning is this a time for deliberate changes.
SPEAKER_01: There's a picture I want you to see.
SPEAKER_01: If we have it of a tower, I was researching deliberate changes.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you may have seen this movie.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's called Fall, and it it has something similar to this.
SPEAKER_01: But once every six months, Kevin Schmidt climbs this 1,500-foot tower because there is a deliberate need of change.
SPEAKER_01: He's paid$20,000 twice a year to climb a 1,500-foot tall tower and change a light bulb.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you would do this?
SPEAKER_01: There's a few of you.
SPEAKER_01: That money, like, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: You ought to Google the video.
SPEAKER_01: But I thought about that need for change.
SPEAKER_01: He has to do that twice a year because airplanes that come by need to see that light bulb to coordinate where they are in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes in life, listen to me, church, there has to be a deliberate change.
SPEAKER_01: An undoing of something old and a reinitiating of something brand new.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A this morning is this a time to help return to God.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see verses six through nine.
SPEAKER_01: We read that unemotional, they died.
SPEAKER_01: This happened.
SPEAKER_01: Cold.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse six, then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi said to her daughter-in-laws, Go return each to your mother's house.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.
SPEAKER_01: She takes a trip to return.
SPEAKER_01: Zachariah 1.3, church says this return unto me that I may return unto you.
SPEAKER_01: Hosea 6, 1 says, Come, let us return to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He has torn, but he will heal.
SPEAKER_01: Over and over and over through Judges, we see a picture that we need to return.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Return to me, return to me.
SPEAKER_01: In Revelation, the last book of the Bible, it says, I have this against you that you have left your first love, but return to me.
SPEAKER_01: James 4, 8 says, draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh unto you.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Naomi had been in Moab for 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: Consider that.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years out of church.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years in a pagan land.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years out of God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: Ten years with no worship.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I've never heard?
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard someone say that they've been away from the Lord for 10 years and it's just been too short, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I need more time away.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've been out of church like the rest of the pagans, and I feel great.
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard that.
SPEAKER_01: I've never heard anyone say, I've been sinning and cheating and living a lie.
SPEAKER_01: I'm drunk.
SPEAKER_01: I am on crack right now.
SPEAKER_01: It's so good.
SPEAKER_01: Every moment away from God is misery.
SPEAKER_01: He says, return, return, return.
SPEAKER_01: And it is our job as a church to contend for widows and orphans and people that are in their destitution and in pain because they need people who will show them a road back to God.
SPEAKER_01: We need some return experts here.
SPEAKER_01: He says return.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want you to skip down.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to come back and fill in the gap, but I think it's important to get to this point.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B, to verses 19 through 21.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B is a time to help release grief.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, deliberate changes.
SPEAKER_01: I decide to return.
SPEAKER_01: There's some people today that need to return to God.
SPEAKER_01: You may be here, but you're not walking with God.
SPEAKER_01: That's just the reality.
SPEAKER_01: There's some people today, secondly, you need to release something that's had a hold on you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 19 through 21.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem, and it happened when they had come to Bethlehem that all the city was excited because of them.
SPEAKER_01: And the woman, the women, said, Is this Naomi?
SPEAKER_01: But she said to them, Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara.
SPEAKER_01: For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
SPEAKER_01: I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you call me Naomi?
SPEAKER_01: Since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.
SPEAKER_01: So you see this picture, weeping, they left for Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: They didn't want to die.
SPEAKER_01: Fear.
SPEAKER_01: Originally they left Bethlehem because of the fear that they felt in their heart because of famine.
SPEAKER_01: And now we see this heaviness of return.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss the weight that is with Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: She is destitute.
SPEAKER_01: She left filled.
SPEAKER_01: She said that, but wait.
SPEAKER_01: Remember there was famine?
SPEAKER_01: They left because of famine, but she says, I left here filled.
SPEAKER_01: Now she comes back and people are excited, and she says, No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: I am Mara, which means bitter.
SPEAKER_01: God made me bitter.
SPEAKER_01: I left this place full.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm empty with nothing.
SPEAKER_01: No husband, no sons.
SPEAKER_01: All she had was her widowed daughter-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, there's a picture there.
SPEAKER_01: A pagan girl.
SPEAKER_01: She came back with a pagan girl.
SPEAKER_01: I left full with everyone I love.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss the pivotal tension of Ruth standing by quietly.
SPEAKER_01: A picture of Naomi's distress.
SPEAKER_01: A picture of her pain.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I have come back absolutely empty.
SPEAKER_01: Except this picture of affliction that I've brought.
SPEAKER_01: We get to see the end, so we know, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: We get to see the end.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth's standing there quietly, a picture of affliction, but we get to see the end and we're holding the book of Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: You might be here today and you say, Man, I'm just a backdrop in a great loss.
SPEAKER_01: And then one day God says, But you can be one of the great tools that I use.
SPEAKER_01: God is a redeemer of people, He's a redeemer of stories.
SPEAKER_01: He changes a test into a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: He makes a mess into a message.
SPEAKER_01: He can use you today.
SPEAKER_01: He's a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: You have grief, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay to have grief.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone here is going to experience grief.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's a word in Ecclesiastes that says it's better to go to a house of mourning than to a house of feasting.
SPEAKER_01: That it's actually good for you to experience grief.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing to have those emotions.
SPEAKER_01: It's a good thing to go through something so you can have perspective about what you have in life.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not good to keep it.
SPEAKER_01: It's okay to have it, but not to keep it.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't say, I feel Mara.
SPEAKER_01: She said, I am Mara.
SPEAKER_01: I am bitter.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: Find a place to weep.
SPEAKER_01: Find a pastor to talk to, a friend.
SPEAKER_01: You are not meant to bottle up grief.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you today, that's a real thing going on, and deep down in here, you've had something that you hadn't been able to let go.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you today, you need to release grief and bitterness.
SPEAKER_01: Ephesians 4.32 said, Let all bitterness and wrath and malice be put away.
SPEAKER_01: So cry and grieve and weep and yell and scream because his grace is sufficient.
SPEAKER_01: When you're weak, his power is made strong.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is we formulate a bitter brick wall that says, I will not be weak, I will not be broke, I cannot be vulnerable to pain.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you that is a lie from the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_01: No one here is inhuman.
SPEAKER_01: No one here came in with a super suit.
SPEAKER_01: No one here is in lack of needing help.
SPEAKER_01: And no one here is in lack of needing salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Don't bottle it up.
SPEAKER_01: You know what Psalmist said?
SPEAKER_01: He says, God will bind up your wounds.
SPEAKER_01: You see, 1 Timothy 1 7 tells us the problem that started with a lemon leg.
SPEAKER_01: He walked in a spirit of fear.
SPEAKER_01: So God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.
SPEAKER_01: But in a spirit of fear, he took his whole family and it drove a man to paganism and it killed him and his sons.
SPEAKER_01: So what do we do, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: We got to get out of that spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The real problem deep down with that wall is you're afraid that if you let those bricks begin to crumble, that you're going to be weak.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, we've got a God that acknowledges your weakness and he acknowledges your tears.
SPEAKER_01: He said, It is a sacrifice of a broken heart that pleases me.
SPEAKER_01: He wants you to be okay with being broken so that you can have breakthrough.
SPEAKER_01: The problem of that wall, that border is there's some people just white, knuckling in old grief, holding on to an old anger, mad at that person and that face when you see it in your mind, and holding on to a fear.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, it's time to let go of Mara.
SPEAKER_01: Release it.
SPEAKER_01: Deliberate changes.
SPEAKER_01: It takes a deliberate change.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that takes us to something more exciting, nicer.
SPEAKER_01: Point three, a time with devoted companionships.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Ruth 1, 14 through 18.
SPEAKER_01: We see the opposite side.
SPEAKER_01: She returns back and she's bitter, but look at the testimony of sweet Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14 through 18.
SPEAKER_01: Then they lifted up their voices and wept again.
SPEAKER_01: And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.
SPEAKER_01: Return after your sister-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: But Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you.
SPEAKER_01: For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge.
SPEAKER_01: And your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
SPEAKER_01: Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts, you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A is it's a time for resolution.
SPEAKER_01: Two pictures here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: One is Orpah who walks away and Ruth who walks and stays.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 13, I want you to hear this be.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to hear this part before I say the next part because I'm going to talk about Orpah walking away, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But I need you to hear this first, okay?
SPEAKER_01: John 13, 33, and 34.
SPEAKER_01: It says that the mark of a Christian is the love of the brethren.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that before I say anything about walking away, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I want you to go out, leaving today and say, Pastor Rick said, I need to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: There may be some situations where you do, but hear this first.
SPEAKER_01: The mark of a Christian is the love of a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say the mark of a Christian is the love of his best friend Christians.
SPEAKER_01: The mark of a Christian is the love of his kinetic group Christians.
SPEAKER_01: The mark of a Christian is the people that he gets along with, best Christians.
SPEAKER_01: The mark of a Christian is the love of Christians.
SPEAKER_01: You say, but Pastor, some are difficult.
SPEAKER_02: I love them.
SPEAKER_02: I just don't like them.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Rick, I love them.
SPEAKER_02: I just don't like it when they talk.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible said forbear.
SPEAKER_01: Forbear one another in love.
SPEAKER_01: You will have to forbear some people.
SPEAKER_01: 17 years in youth ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I had a lot of forbearance under my belt.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: You'll have to forbear in love.
SPEAKER_01: That said, hear me, there are some situations, sometimes in life, mostly with an unbeliever that I find in Scripture, in which you've been hurt, and there's some here you've been deeply wounded.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you've even done Matthew 18.
SPEAKER_01: You've gone to a person, you've done the right thing, you've you've maybe you've done that, but they, hear me, there's people here, I know this about you.
SPEAKER_01: You've gone to someone, you've owned a part, but they've never owned their part.
SPEAKER_01: If you have someone in your life who will not own their wrong, you can still forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says seven times 70.
SPEAKER_01: If all you feel from though, from them is hurt and guilt, you may have to let them walk.
SPEAKER_01: It may be just a season, could be an extended time.
SPEAKER_01: Some people here, sometimes, how many of your parents you know that sometimes you just need a breakup, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've been dating somebody, you just need a breakup.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I was with somebody two years before I met Heather.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I needed?
SPEAKER_01: I needed a breakup.
SPEAKER_01: The best breakup ever.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so glad I found her.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you need that.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you need a new job, a new direction, a new friend.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Orpah walks away.
SPEAKER_01: If someone can walk away from you, this is what I want you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Let them walk.
SPEAKER_01: Don't try to talk a person into loving you or caring for you or calling on you.
SPEAKER_01: God, hear me.
SPEAKER_01: God made you worthy of love.
SPEAKER_01: God made you worthy, and if they can walk away, then let them walk.
SPEAKER_01: Your destiny is not tied to someone that can walk away from you.
SPEAKER_01: Say, Pastor, this is church.
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe what you're saying.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: The mark of a Christian is the love of a brethren.
SPEAKER_01: You can forgive.
SPEAKER_01: But if someone has no interest in being iron that sharpens your iron, then it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Paul said, John Mark's got to get off the team.
SPEAKER_01: He is really agitating my ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He's still good for the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He just ain't good in my ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you gotta let them walk.
SPEAKER_01: People leave you because they're not joined to you.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_01: If they're not joined to you, you can get super glue and you can't keep them.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't mean Orpa was bad.
SPEAKER_01: It just means her part in Naomi story was done.
SPEAKER_01: Let them walk if they're not sharpening you.
SPEAKER_01: Let them walk if they don't want to be in your circle.
SPEAKER_01: If they don't want to be in church, hear me, there's some toxic relationships that you have.
SPEAKER_01: If they don't have a spiritual guiding in their life, you may need to let them walk.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 10, 24 and 25 says, we know this verse, forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of such is.
SPEAKER_01: That's the church verse, the pastor verse.
SPEAKER_01: He's calling you if you miss two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Forsake not this place.
SPEAKER_01: But the verse before is the one that we sometimes miss.
SPEAKER_01: It says, why?
SPEAKER_01: Because we are to consider one another, to stir each other up in good works and love and exhortation.
SPEAKER_01: If there's a friend in your life uninvolved spiritually, not trying to ignite your spirit, it may be toxic.
SPEAKER_01: Stirring, exhorting, and serving.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you need to let walk?
SPEAKER_01: Is a question for you to think on.
SPEAKER_01: That was Orpah.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't say her and Naomi, that it left bitter, it just left.
SPEAKER_01: But Ruth, let her be.
SPEAKER_01: Let her be.
SPEAKER_01: A time for relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read it again.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from you, following after you.
SPEAKER_01: For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge your people, my people, your God, my God.
SPEAKER_01: Where you die, I will die, and there I'll be buried.
SPEAKER_01: This is a momentous speech, a dialogue.
SPEAKER_01: And interestingly, the subsequent words have been used in wedding ceremonies.
SPEAKER_01: It's funny to think of these words that have been used in wedding ceremonies, but but with a back and forth of a mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: I've never been to a wedding ceremony where somebody talked to their mother-in-law that way.
SPEAKER_01: It reminded me a husband and wife had a fight.
SPEAKER_01: And the wife called her mom and she said, He's fighting with me again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to come and stay with you, mom.
SPEAKER_01: Her mom laughed and said, No, dear, he must pay for his mistake.
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming to stay with you.
SPEAKER_01: I have a great mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: She's watching.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth said, I'm leaving my people, her gods, her land.
SPEAKER_01: She's a childless widow.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm coming because I'm committed to you.
SPEAKER_01: She clung, interesting.
SPEAKER_01: The last two weeks, we can't get past this word.
SPEAKER_01: Leaving Cleve.
SPEAKER_01: Well, she clung to Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth lived 10 years, and it's interesting because we see this Mara later, but for 10 years, Ruth was taken in and loved and cared for, and she was able to see the faith and practices of a believer, even a believer who was going through her hardest difficulty.
SPEAKER_01: A broken Naomi was better than a pagan Moab.
SPEAKER_01: A broken Christian was better than a succeeding pagan.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me, church?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want you to see in Matthew 25 a call from Matthew's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: How important it is that we reach out to people in their desperation.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 25, 35 through 40, it says, For I was hungry and you gave me food.
SPEAKER_01: I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
SPEAKER_01: I was a stranger and you took me in.
SPEAKER_01: I was naked and you clothed me.
SPEAKER_01: I was sick and you visited me.
SPEAKER_01: I was in prison and you came to me.
SPEAKER_01: Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?
SPEAKER_01: When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you?
SPEAKER_01: Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?
SPEAKER_01: And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly, I say to you, and as much as you did unto the least of these, that you did it for me.
SPEAKER_01: Church, you understand, God is a God without any partiality.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, When you give to people in desperation, you're doing as unto me.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to see our need for reaching those in their hour of desperation.
SPEAKER_01: That's the heart of God.
SPEAKER_01: In 2009, David Platt preached through the book of James.
SPEAKER_01: And he gave this plea to his church, let no child in Shelby County go without a home.
SPEAKER_01: And that year, Brook Hills nearly eliminated the adoption need in Shelby County.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth saw something in her destiny with Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Conversely, to Orpah, who left, Ruth said, I've got to cling.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, church, you've got to cling to the right people.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth could see the depravity of her own upbringing and opted to walk with Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Your God is my God.
SPEAKER_01: I can't go back to that way of living.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going back to those gods.
SPEAKER_01: Not taking one more step down the Moab way.
SPEAKER_01: Church, may the people that befriend you say there's something about those people.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about the way that they talk.
SPEAKER_01: There's something about their God.
SPEAKER_01: There's something just about them.
SPEAKER_01: I want to have it.
SPEAKER_01: May they look at the way that we tend to the least of these.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's trying to rise their way to fortune and popularity and power.
SPEAKER_01: And man, we sure mingle with those that we gotta rub elbows with.
SPEAKER_01: But what about the least of these?
SPEAKER_01: May people look at us and say, Man, that's how I want to be.
SPEAKER_01: Look at their hospitality, their love.
SPEAKER_01: Well, verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at what happens.
SPEAKER_01: So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite is her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of a barley harvest.
SPEAKER_01: They returned together and they got to a place of God's harvest.
SPEAKER_01: They left because there was no bread, and now they return and they're back in Bethlehem, and God is showing them a harvest.
SPEAKER_01: It's just the beginning of his providence.
SPEAKER_01: When you go through this story, I want you to know God was never off.
SPEAKER_01: He always had a plan.
SPEAKER_01: He was not surprised when a limitleck made a bad choice.
SPEAKER_01: But providentially, he was working and he was waiting for the right people to make the right choices.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi was a widow and brought in this orphan-like girl.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth clung to her and was what she needed.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a fuller picture.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go to Ruth chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: Right before Ruth chapter four, which kind of gets you to the end of the story.
SPEAKER_01: You need to read it.
SPEAKER_01: Take the afternoon and read it.
SPEAKER_01: It's a beautiful story.
SPEAKER_01: It's a love story within a love story within a love story.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're with Ruth and Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: That's one of the love stories.
SPEAKER_01: But Ruth meets Boaz, her kinsman redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: And she falls into this picture and he sweeps her right off her feet, redeems her, buys her back.
SPEAKER_01: Another man was opting to have her, he buys her back, and then we get to Ruth 4.
SPEAKER_01: And I like that today I get to give you the conclusion of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 13 through 17.
SPEAKER_01: So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.
SPEAKER_01: And when he went into her, she the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to this, don't miss any of these little points.
SPEAKER_01: Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative.
SPEAKER_01: And may his name be famous in Israel, and may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you, underline this, then seven sons has borne him.
SPEAKER_01: Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse to him.
SPEAKER_01: And also the neighbor and women gave him a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: And they called his name Obed.
SPEAKER_01: He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth, it said, the picture of calamity.
SPEAKER_01: Remember?
SPEAKER_01: Ruth holding on to a lady whose bitter, Ruth, it said, was better than seven sons.
SPEAKER_01: The number of completions she completed, Naomi's story.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to hear this morning, this church.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss while you're looking for something that you think is what you need, the thing that is in front of you that is better than what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_01: Right in front of you, she has in Ruth a friend who vowed.
SPEAKER_01: Where you go, I'll go.
SPEAKER_01: My people, your people.
SPEAKER_01: She is a friend.
SPEAKER_01: She is honest.
SPEAKER_01: She worked for her.
SPEAKER_01: She is a friend who brought her food, a friend who loves her and respects her and stuck by her through thick and thin when others walked away.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody here, you got a friend.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss looking for something, the thing that you got that's in front of you that's better.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, you got a child.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you got a husband.
SPEAKER_01: You've got a wife.
SPEAKER_01: You've got a blessing right in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss the good thing you got.
SPEAKER_01: Looking for something that you thought you needed.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to challenge you with a few practical things for prayer, and then we're going to wrap up with four people's story.
SPEAKER_01: It won't take very long.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, practical.
SPEAKER_01: Will you study the passages that mention widow, orphan, and the poor in Scripture?
SPEAKER_01: What can I take from this today, church?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor, will you study the passages that mention widow, orphans, and poor?
SPEAKER_01: You'll be shocked at how often, why should we bring this message out and say contend for it?
SPEAKER_01: It's just a singular.
SPEAKER_01: It's very much to the pages of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, will you consider praying about using your home or your resources to help?
SPEAKER_01: Period.
SPEAKER_01: Your home or your resources to help.
SPEAKER_01: When I came to CCW, I met some really influential people in my life.
SPEAKER_01: The Ropers and the Randolphs were missionaries to the King's home.
SPEAKER_01: And the type of love watching people week in, week out and pour their life.
SPEAKER_01: And I met the Neeleys who then had a mother-in-law and now have adopted two.
SPEAKER_01: And you see the love of God in people like this, and I want to be around godly people.
SPEAKER_01: Will you consider?
SPEAKER_01: There's some here who have.
SPEAKER_01: Will you pray for them?
SPEAKER_01: Third thing, it's just real practical.
SPEAKER_01: Will you consider listening to a widow or having lunch?
SPEAKER_01: With a widow.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, I'm talking to you, unless you're a widower and you're really on the market.
SPEAKER_01: I will say this to the man.
SPEAKER_01: Will you consider being a handyman, a mechanic for a widow?
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine what it's like?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I need a handyman or a mechanic, but a widow really does.
SPEAKER_01: Last thing I want to ask you.
SPEAKER_01: My commercial from earlier.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to pray at 6 to 6:30 on Wednesdays, and we will always make a point to pray for widows and orphans and those who are needy.
SPEAKER_01: Just some practical things.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's look at quickly four stories.
SPEAKER_01: So let's wrap up their story.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi's story.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi went from funeral in chapter one to wedding in chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: She went from bitter, she went to blessed.
SPEAKER_01: She went from no heir to now she's holding that grandbaby.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: She's holding Obed.
SPEAKER_01: She went from Mara to Nana Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Come to Nana.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Little Obed had her right under his thumb.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth was the picture of loss, and she had Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: And now she was better than seven sons.
SPEAKER_01: She loved Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Ruth's story.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth was introduced to Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: And because of her relationship with Naomi, she was introduced to God.
SPEAKER_01: And God took a willing vessel that would contend for an older widow.
SPEAKER_01: She wanted to be right there with her.
SPEAKER_01: And because of her faithfulness to something God had said in his law, Ruth finds a man in Boaz that redeems her story.
SPEAKER_01: Now she's married and she has a child and she has Naomi in her life.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me tell you about the future of their story.
SPEAKER_01: So God blessed Ruth there.
SPEAKER_01: And from Ruth came Obed.
SPEAKER_01: And from Obed came a son named Jesse.
SPEAKER_01: And from Jesse, there was a shepherd boy named David.
SPEAKER_01: And from David, the lineage of the birth of Jesus Christ, the most important person in human history, the hinge of salvation, the reason for our faith.
SPEAKER_01: The story goes from hopeless widows to eternity.
SPEAKER_02: And we're reading the book.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's one more story.
SPEAKER_01: It came out of that lineage.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the better Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he left his home country, emptied himself of everything, and followed his father's course, leading him to give up all that he had so that he could not be redeemed like Ruth, but to redeem every brokenness from every broken person and every broken sin and the weight of all of that sin.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ contended for our desperation.
SPEAKER_01: He took us from being an orphan to become citizens of heaven through his death on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And he's here, church, today, for your deepest valley.
SPEAKER_01: He will never leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: You may be sitting here and you're fatherless, it's just the truth of the matter.
SPEAKER_01: But you're not.
SPEAKER_01: He will defend the fatherless.
SPEAKER_01: He will defend the widow.
SPEAKER_01: Don't leave here today with your hurt.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody might have really hurt you.
SPEAKER_01: You might have really been harmed by family or friend, but I want to tell you, He will never.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you with a love unparalleled.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you've come in today discouraged from your week or your month.
SPEAKER_01: You have a father who's ready to defend you.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to open the altar in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to invite you, maybe you need to fall into that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some of those bricks today can come down.
SPEAKER_01: And you've got some grief, but you've had some pain.
SPEAKER_01: And it's time for a change, and you know it.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite you to a father who's got a love like no other, a compassion like no other, who will bring you warmly into his arms and never let you go.
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you've joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community to grow with one another and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment and text CCW Connect to 94,000.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.