WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.400 It's my honor, my privilege this morning to stand in this pulpit. 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:06.719 I don't take it for granted. 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:10.720 And I love Pastor Danny, our pastor. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:12.000 I love Miss Susan. 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.320 And it's exciting for me. 00:00:14.960 --> 00:00:19.920 My family's away, so I've had a fun week with our pastor. 00:00:20.879 --> 00:00:22.559 That's what that means. 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:35.200 I've been visiting, I've learned the great sport of pickleball, and I have sore hamstrings, so I'll do my best this morning, but uh it is exciting. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:40.719 And uh it's you know, it's hard to preach after an announcement chant like No More Debt. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:43.600 That that almost needed an altar call. 00:00:43.759 --> 00:00:46.399 That was a good announcement chant. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:50.000 No More Debt. 00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:56.479 But this morning I want you to open your Bibles to the book of Ruth, Ruth chapter 1. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:05.680 And uh I am excited to be having the opportunity to speak through a sermon series through this month called Redeeming Relationships. 00:01:05.840 --> 00:01:16.400 And the book of Ruth is a great, small little book in the Bible, four chapters, and what we see in it is a beautiful story. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:22.560 He needs his glasses that's okay. 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:36.159 The book of Ruth has everything: it has tragedy, it has triumph, it has romance, it has redemption, and there's only two books in the Bible named for women. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:37.760 Ruth is one of them. 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:39.439 There's Esther and there's Ruth. 00:01:39.599 --> 00:01:46.000 And in contrast, in the book of Esther, we find a Jewish woman who would marry a Gentile man. 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:52.480 And in the book of Ruth, we find a Gentile, a Moabitist woman, who would marry a Jewish man. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:02:02.719 It was written in the middle time period of the book of Judges around 1400 BC, and it was set in Bethlehem, the place of God's bread. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:09.039 And I want to unpack for you this morning in one chapter three truths about time. 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:18.080 There's a time of desperate circumstances, there's a time for deliberate changes, and a time with devoted companionship. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:22.719 Let's read Ruth chapter 1, verses 1 through 5 together. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:23.599 It says this. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:38.319 The name of the man was Elimelech. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:43.759 The name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Malon and Kileon. 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:47.680 And they went to the country of Moab and remained there. 00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:54.240 Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left, and her two sons. 00:02:54.479 --> 00:02:56.879 Now they took wives of the women of Moab. 00:02:56.960 --> 00:03:02.639 The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth, and they dwelt there about ten years. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:06.719 Then both Malon and Killian also died. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:11.039 So the woman survived her two sons and her husband. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:12.240 Let's pray together. 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.919 Father, I pray that you would bless these scriptures, hide me behind them. 00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:19.680 Lord, I pray that your word would speak to hearts, do its work. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:24.319 God, and let your Holy Spirit move us by your word in Jesus' name. 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:25.039 Amen. 00:03:25.199 --> 00:03:32.080 So what we see here this morning, the first thing that I want you to see is that this is a time of desperate circumstances. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:36.639 This in five verses is a ten-year nightmare. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:44.000 We see in the writing here this beautiful literary device that is used by the author. 00:03:44.080 --> 00:03:45.520 It's kind of choppy. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:54.479 It's called like a staccato, it's unfeeling, it's unemotional, it's cold, hard facts in five verses. 00:03:54.639 --> 00:04:00.479 We see ten years of tragedy in five verses, a tragedy after a tragedy after a tragedy. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:06.560 No details, no story, just one thing after another, and it says, and Elimelech died. 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:24.319 And his sons married Moabite women, and Malon and Killian died, which is really interesting in the writing because later on it goes from five or these tragedies and five verses to a conversation piece in the next section of verses. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:28.319 It goes from these great tragedies to just a conversation. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:35.040 And so we see a beautiful writing in the book of Esther, and it's a time of desperation that we start with. 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:45.360 And I want you to go back, if you're in your Bible, if you just go back to Judges, the very last chapter and the very last verse of Judges, we see letter A under that. 00:04:45.439 --> 00:04:47.040 It's a frantic time. 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:49.199 Look at what it says in Judges. 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:57.680 It says, In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 00:04:58.399 --> 00:04:59.920 I want you to see the picture here. 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.199 Our human flesh thinks that it can self-govern. 00:05:03.839 --> 00:05:05.839 We do not like authority. 00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:08.079 We don't like speed limits. 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:13.040 We don't like to leave the fire lane open when it's raining and you're at Walmart. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:16.959 We don't like having to return library books on a due date. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:21.120 We don't like to return DVDs to Red Box on a due date. 00:05:21.519 --> 00:05:25.199 The human flesh thinks it can self-govern. 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:35.920 If you want to see anarchy, you need to come to 362 Lake Chelsea Court on a given afternoon and watch the kids in the circle playing kickball without an adult. 00:05:36.079 --> 00:05:40.000 Okay, if you just want to see a little bit of our human flesh, what happens? 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:43.920 You'll see little heathen cheaters all fill in that circle. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:45.360 Every one of them cheats. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:50.720 Wyatt cheats, the little neighbor, Gavin cheats, the little neighbor, Aiden cheats, they all cheat. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.319 And Weston, he goes off running the wrong direction, doesn't care. 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:58.000 And they all cheat until Dad can't take it anymore. 00:05:58.160 --> 00:06:01.680 Finally, I come out because I'm watching this, I'm hearing fussing and crying. 00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:05.360 And you'll watch, a kid will get hit by a ball and say, It never hit me. 00:06:05.519 --> 00:06:06.480 I'm like, what? 00:06:06.879 --> 00:06:10.959 It just bounced off of you and went the other direction, you little liar. 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:14.879 But then I can't take it anymore. 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.439 I gotta come out and I gotta assert authority. 00:06:17.519 --> 00:06:19.199 And a lot of times they don't like that. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:21.439 The game doesn't go the same. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:25.279 And I want you to understand Israel in this picture. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:26.079 Okay? 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:32.319 They think that in their flesh that they can self-govern, but it's not happening that way. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:39.120 It's a time of rebellion and then misfortune and then repentance and then mercy. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:41.279 And Israel repeats this: rebellion. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:42.959 God sends misfortune. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:51.279 They repent and God sends mercy and then they rebel, and then there's misfortune, and then they repent, and then God gives mercy. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:54.160 And so this is happening over and over in the time of judges. 00:06:54.240 --> 00:06:57.120 And I wanted you to see the franticness of this time. 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:04.639 But it says something else in verse 1 that led a big change in the direction of what was happening in this family. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:11.199 It says it was a time when the days and the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:14.240 Letter B is a time of famine, a famine time. 00:07:14.399 --> 00:07:21.600 Now the people here, Elimelech and his family, were fearful of real starvation. 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.639 I don't know if we truly understand that. 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:34.240 I can't picture a day in my life where I have actually been afraid if there was going to be food in the cover, but these people were afraid of starvation. 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:42.399 They were planting and they were watering, but there was famine, and there's only one person that controls the famine, and that's God Himself. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:46.720 You see, Scripture says, Whom God loves, he will chasten. 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:48.879 And so they're going through this time of famine. 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:50.800 I've got a picture that's back here. 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:55.360 I want you to show up here of a little something that I've been working on. 00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:56.160 My garden. 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:56.560 Okay. 00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:59.360 This is right family farms here. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:07:59.920 Okay. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.959 You can see the miles of acreage and all the bountiful supply. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:10.319 Well, this summer, Heather, she has been wanting a raised garden. 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:11.759 She's talked about gardens. 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:12.879 I come from Delaware. 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:14.560 I gotta just be real flat honest. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:16.639 I know nothing about gardening. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:18.800 I know nothing about farming. 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:21.199 And so I'm having to look it up. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:25.680 And so for Mother's Day, I bought this raised bed and I put it together and I put soil in it. 00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:30.000 And we went out and we got the plants and began to plant it. 00:08:30.160 --> 00:08:31.680 And it's been exciting. 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:32.720 I'm just gonna be honest. 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:34.799 I love to watch something grow. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:38.320 I never knew I would love gardening, but I'm out there in the morning. 00:08:38.399 --> 00:08:40.559 I'm checking the tomato, the first one born. 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:42.320 I even took a picture over to Susan Danny. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:44.159 I said, I we have something to tell you. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:46.559 Um we're pregnant. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:50.639 And I showed them a picture of our first little baby tomato. 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:51.759 Listen to this. 00:08:51.919 --> 00:08:54.320 I have 20 this morning I checked, okay, no lie. 00:08:54.480 --> 00:08:56.159 Twenty-five tomatoes. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:08:57.919 I am a gardener. 00:08:58.159 --> 00:08:58.480 Okay. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:02.720 But here, it's exciting. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.240 I like when the sun shines for a little while, I gotta go out and check. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:10.960 And then after it rains or I water, I want to check, and I just want to see the progress and the growth. 00:09:11.120 --> 00:09:24.399 But if you can picture here this time for these people, and they go out and they've done what they've normally done, and they go out and they've watered and they've seen the sunshine, but no growth. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:31.440 There's no food to be had, there's not another tomato, there's not anything for them to eat, and so they're scared, they're fearful. 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:36.320 And so Elimelech pulls his family up because of the famine. 00:09:36.480 --> 00:09:38.320 And I want you to understand something, church. 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:43.519 Sometimes it said, Whom God loves he chastened. 00:09:43.759 --> 00:09:47.440 Sometimes there's a lesson for us in lean times. 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:58.799 There's a lesson to be had for us in lean times, but Elimelech, it leads us to let her see, Elimelech takes his family and they go on a foreign transplant. 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:01.279 He uproots his family. 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:07.200 They're relocated, and I want you to see what happens because of this relocation. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:11.600 It says that a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, he went to dwell in the country of Moab. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:17.039 Relocation meant abandoning Bethlehem, God's house. 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:22.480 Because there was no prosperity where he was, he left God's house. 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:30.480 He took his family and uprooted them from the promises and the hand and the provision of God to move them to a foreign place. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:34.240 And you hear this quote, and I want to spend a second on it. 00:10:34.320 --> 00:10:38.879 You hear this quote all the time the grass is greener on the other side. 00:10:39.039 --> 00:10:40.320 I want to tell you something, church. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:42.240 The grass isn't greener on the other side. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:44.720 The grass is greener where it gets watered. 00:10:45.360 --> 00:10:46.399 Y'all hearing me? 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:50.320 And we heard at camp this year, Pastor Stephen Yoes said this. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.720 He said, The grass is greener where there's manure. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:10:59.919 Now I want you to hear something about that. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:01.360 Why would that be so? 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:05.039 Because where there's manure, there's stuff that's happened. 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:05.519 Okay? 00:11:05.840 --> 00:11:09.600 The grass is greener where you get planted, and when you go through things. 00:11:09.679 --> 00:11:18.480 So as a church, when stuff happens, if we can go through stuff together, trial and tragedy and struggle, the grass will be greener. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:23.519 Listen, you don't go to a new place with your old set of problems and the grass is greener. 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:27.519 The grass is greener where it's watered, and when you go through stuff. 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:30.480 That's why Matthew 18 is so important, church. 00:11:30.639 --> 00:11:35.200 When we have a disagreement, when we have a problem, the Bible says, if we have all, go to one another. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:36.559 Get it settled. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:40.000 Because after it is, then the grass will be greener. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:45.919 He said this also better the dysfunction that you know than the dysfunction that you don't know. 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:49.120 Because you got dysfunction anywhere you go. 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:52.720 Better the family that you've already invested in. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:56.159 Go through, fertilize it. 00:11:56.320 --> 00:11:58.080 The grass isn't always greener. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:12:08.159 And so he takes his family, and that meant abandoning Bethlehem, but he also took his family, and that relocation meant accepting paganism. 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:11.360 I want you to see a little verse in Psalms chapter 60. 00:12:11.519 --> 00:12:14.000 I want you to turn over there, accepting paganism. 00:12:14.159 --> 00:12:18.480 Psalm 60, verse 8. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:23.759 Look at what David says about Moab, where Elimelech took his family. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:27.279 It says this, Moab is my washpot. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.879 Over Edom I will cast my shoe. 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:42.879 At the front of every home in those days, when you would come and visit, there was a little basin that would be filled with water, and you would take your dirty, filthy shoes. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:45.200 They weren't traveling in cars, they were walking. 00:12:45.279 --> 00:12:52.320 They would take the dirt and the filth of your shoe and they would put it into a washpot so that they could be clean as you traveled home. 00:12:52.480 --> 00:12:54.080 He said, This is what Moab is. 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:56.799 This relocation meant accepting this paganism. 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:59.759 The washpot, the dirt and the filth. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:03.600 Moab was known as a place filled with idolatry. 00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:07.039 It was a place known with sexual immorality. 00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:12.080 This race of people were born from the incest of Lot and his daughters. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:14.480 Moab was the washpot. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:18.639 And Elimelech says, There's no food on the table. 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:19.600 We're moving. 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:24.320 And he takes his family from the promises of God to a pagan land. 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:28.159 Well, this relocation means that Elimelech has failed. 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:29.759 He's failed his wife. 00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:32.159 All of God's people were in Israel. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:35.840 The temple and the synagogues and the worship of God was in Israel. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:37.440 Moab had none of that. 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:39.679 Elimelech provides food, man. 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:40.320 Listen to me. 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:45.120 He provides food, but being a provider is more than putting food on the table. 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:50.559 He didn't think about his wife's friends and their community and their worship. 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:53.039 Elimelech fails as a husband. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:14:00.799 Man, listen, it's our responsibility to provide for our families and our wives more than just food on the table. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:02.720 We need to provide socially. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:04.720 We need to provide intellectually. 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:06.879 We need to provide spiritually. 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:09.360 We need to provide more than just finances. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.559 Being a provider is more than just that food on the table. 00:14:12.639 --> 00:14:21.440 And listen, man, if you look at your wives and you're frustrated with them, you're the gardener and she's the garden. 00:14:22.399 --> 00:14:22.639 Man. 00:14:23.039 --> 00:14:25.679 Relocation meant Elimelech failed his wife. 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:30.960 It also meant relocation caused Elimelech to fail his sons. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:40.639 My daughter, about uh six months ago, she's 11 now, she received a present that I wasn't ready for. 00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:44.240 She received a phone from her gram. 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:48.639 And now it's not an iPhone, it doesn't have internet, it's a little flip phone. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:53.200 And so, but she got this phone, and I wasn't prepared for what was to follow. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.000 I said, Oh, I wasn't, I didn't have a problem with her getting it. 00:14:56.080 --> 00:14:58.240 I didn't know it was happening until it kind of happened. 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:06.720 But she got the phone, and about two days after she had the phone, she was talking, and she said she had got a text. 00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:08.240 And I was like, Who'd you get a text from? 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:09.039 And it was a boy. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:11.360 And I said, Oh, hold up. 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:14.240 A what? 00:15:15.039 --> 00:15:22.000 A boy texted you, my 11-year-old princess, the girl who still watches animated cartoons. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:26.720 She got a text from a boy, and I I just wasn't prepared for that happening. 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:36.000 And and so I said, I took a step back and I said, We we've got to lay down some ground rules. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:46.879 I said, if you're gonna have a phone, and I really wasn't trying to be mean, I was trying to come from a soft place, but I said, Callie, if a boy wants your phone number, this is what has to happen. 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:51.200 I said, a boy has to come and ask me for permission to have your phone number. 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:52.960 I know what you're saying. 00:15:53.120 --> 00:15:54.720 Well, that means no boy's gonna have her phone number. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:55.919 Well, that's part of it, okay? 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:57.200 I'm just kidding. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:06.799 My real intent in my heart was this there are things that can come across this screen that my 11-year-old, my sweet daughter, she's never gonna see. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:08.080 She never needs to see. 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:10.399 And once you see something, you can't unsee something. 00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:12.879 So I said to her, Listen, they've got to ask me. 00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:14.080 And this is what I'm gonna tell them. 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:18.879 I'm gonna say, young man, listen, I understand that you want to text or talk to my daughter. 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:19.840 Here's what I want. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:22.960 I need you to understand some respect. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.120 I need you to understand some boundaries. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:28.000 My daughter, my prince, she's the only one I got. 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:31.279 And there are things that never need to be seen in her eyes. 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:36.080 If you're gonna text her, you need to understand you're texting me and you're texting her. 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:44.559 And um, so she hadn't got another boy's phone number, but I failed to be ready for that situation. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:51.600 I wasn't quite prepared, and I want you to understand, man, if you're frustrated with your kids, you're their first pastor. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:52.399 That's right. 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:57.440 You're the person that can pray with them and read scripture with them and teach them. 00:16:57.519 --> 00:16:59.279 Don't let a moment go by. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:05.440 These sons, it says, after this, went off and married Moabite wives. 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:07.519 Now I want you to understand the heaviness of this. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:14.319 Deuteronomy 7 3 says that you shall not intermarry with them, for they will turn your hearts away from God. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:22.400 Deuteronomy 23, 3, which they should have known, said no Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord even unto ten generations. 00:17:22.559 --> 00:17:23.519 This is what it meant. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:28.319 For ten generations, if they married these women, they would not be allowed to the church. 00:17:29.839 --> 00:17:35.039 Do you think, church, parents should be involved in decisions of who your child's dating? 00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:35.599 Amen. 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:36.960 Yeah, I think so. 00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:39.119 I don't think you say, Well, I got you this far. 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:40.400 Now, good luck. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:42.319 I hope you make a good choice. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:44.160 It doesn't work like that. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:46.319 But Elimelech failed. 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:48.880 He brought his children to this pagan land. 00:17:49.039 --> 00:17:52.559 And I'm sorry, but the apple didn't fall far from the tree. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:57.279 What they needed was the instruction of a wise daddy. 00:17:57.599 --> 00:18:00.799 They needed to be taught scripture by a wise daddy. 00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:06.079 They need a daddy to put more than just bread on the table. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:12.480 CCW, we have a generation of young men that need a daddy. 00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:14.480 And so did they. 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:21.119 Well, following that as you go on to verse 3 through 5, it's letter D. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:23.039 We have a trio of funerals. 00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:25.440 A funeral trio. 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:28.480 Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:30.400 And she was left with her two sons. 00:18:30.559 --> 00:18:34.160 Verse 5, then Malin and Killian also died. 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:39.920 We see these funeral, and Naomi loses her husband. 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:44.960 Now you don't get this backstory here, you just get this short, choppy, unemotioned feeling. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:48.480 But you gotta know that Naomi and Elimelech had a history. 00:18:49.599 --> 00:18:59.599 They loved each other, they'd been through things, and now the number one thing on the home stress scale in life is when a spouse dies, has happened in Naomi's life. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:01.680 Her husband Elimelech died. 00:19:01.839 --> 00:19:08.960 They left Bethlehem because they were afraid of starving to death, and now Elimelech's dead. 00:19:11.039 --> 00:19:14.240 But even more difficult, probably, for a mother. 00:19:14.559 --> 00:19:20.640 After that, sometime in that 10-year span, Malin and Kileon, her boys, died. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:27.039 It's supposed to never happen that a woman has to watch her baby's death. 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:31.039 It's supposed to never happen that a parent has to go through this pain. 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:39.759 And the number two thing that happens to stress a person on the home stress scale, the death of a child, has happened in Naomi's life. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.079 And to couple that and further it, there is no birth of grandsons. 00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:46.160 Dreams are dead. 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.079 The family's name is dead. 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:50.160 This is a season of loss. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:56.640 And I want to take you to Ecclesiastes for a second and show you that the Bible says that there are seasons. 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:59.680 I want you to look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3. 00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:04.000 And I want you to see the desperation as Naomi's world is falling apart. 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:05.359 Listen to these verses. 00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:08.559 I know that they're familiar, but I want you to hear them this morning. 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:16.319 It says, chapter 3, verse 1, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:20.400 Listen to this: a time to be born and a time to die. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:43.519 A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace, and a time to refrain, a time to gain, and listen to this, a time to lose. 00:20:43.759 --> 00:20:48.400 And so this is a season of heaviness, of desperation. 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.519 And I thought about that and tried to compare. 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:58.240 When I was about 27, as a young pastor, a lady by the name of Pam called me. 00:20:58.480 --> 00:21:07.200 And my pastor at the time was away on vacation, and Pam called me with probably the worst news I had ever heard to that point. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:09.119 And she began to explain what happened. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:18.000 Her daughter had gotten into an argument with her husband in their home, and one thing led to another. 00:21:18.480 --> 00:21:26.880 The husband grabbed a pistol, took it, aimed it, shot Pam's daughter in her head, killed her in front of their two little children. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:31.599 And then he took the pistol and shot himself and killed himself. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:37.200 And Pam's explaining to me this, and we're making funeral arrangements, and I'm just praying to God. 00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:40.480 How how God how could this happen? 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:46.880 How and how God am how do I give these people your comfort in this situation? 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:59.759 Well, so that happened, and about a year passes, and the family's getting themselves kind of back together, and Miss Pam calls me again and she says, I've gotten close to the family through all of it, and she says, Pastor Rick. 00:22:00.880 --> 00:22:04.559 My father's taken ill, and they're only giving him a short time. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:08.960 And she said, We wanted you to be involved in the funeral. 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:20.640 And so the patriarch of the family that was holding them together, the glue that was binding them, the spiritual patriarch of the family passed. 00:22:20.799 --> 00:22:25.359 And not two years ago, um, I was watching and following. 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:31.839 During this, Pam's husband, Wayne, I become close to him and her through their pain and suffering. 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:35.759 And Wayne two years ago got cancer and ate him up. 00:22:36.319 --> 00:22:37.599 Wayne died. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:45.680 I thought about the heaviness of this 10 years and how this felt and how horrible that grief was. 00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:50.960 And I thought about what my aunts and my mom went through in the last year. 00:22:51.119 --> 00:23:00.000 Um my great-grandmother, my mom and aunt's grandmother passed away last, not this year, but the last February. 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:05.039 And um then you fast forward to this February, their mother died. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:06.880 My grandmother passed away. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:15.680 And I thought as I went to the funeral this past February that it would be like other funerals in a way. 00:23:15.759 --> 00:23:20.960 I thought I'd be able to preach and that God would give me strength to share. 00:23:21.279 --> 00:23:31.519 And as I stood through the viewing and watched family member after family member come through, their grief got a hold of my heart. 00:23:31.759 --> 00:23:36.960 And as I watched each person, it was like wearing their pain one after the other. 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:42.319 And I would watch it start all over again with another aunt, and I would watch it start all over again with a cousin. 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:51.440 And it was so hard to preach, and the heaviness was so strong, it just felt like utter despair. 00:23:52.319 --> 00:23:54.160 It felt sorrowful. 00:23:54.240 --> 00:24:00.720 And I wanted to ask this morning how many people in the church this morning have lost someone they've loved in the last year? 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:02.240 Just raise your hand up. 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:05.279 CCW, I want you to look around. 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:12.799 I want you to know there is a need for you, there is a need for the people around you. 00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:15.920 We've got to lift others up. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:17.759 That is the scene here. 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:25.279 We see it short and unemotional in five versions, but that is the utter desperation that has happened here. 00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:28.319 But that's not where it ends. 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:30.960 I want to read you a quote from Warren Wearsby. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:37.119 He said this Nothing paralyzes our lives like the attitude that things can never change. 00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:40.559 We need to remind ourselves that God can change things. 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:42.720 Outlook determines outcome. 00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:46.160 If we see only the problems, we will be defeated. 00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.079 That leads us to our second point. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:50.240 It's a time for deliberate changes. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:51.599 Look down at verses 6. 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:53.599 We're going to read verse 6 through 9. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:55.039 It says this. 00:24:56.160 --> 00:25:08.960 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard, listen to this, in the country of Moab, that the Lord had visited his people by the giving them bread. 00:25:09.119 --> 00:25:16.480 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. 00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:21.839 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go return, each to her mother's house. 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.000 The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and me. 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:28.400 You see, there is a time for deliberate changes. 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:34.000 In order for that to occur, letter A, under that, is a time for evaluation, re-evaluation. 00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:36.160 And so Naomi had a choice. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:43.039 She could continue on in Moab in desperation, or she should try something else. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:45.920 You've heard the old saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:48.480 But if it is broke, fix it. 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:49.839 Take a step. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:56.160 I want you to see in James chapter 1 something that you need to see about re-evaluation. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:25:58.559 I want you to turn there this morning. 00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:03.279 It says this, James chapter 1, verses 23 through 25. 00:26:03.359 --> 00:26:12.960 It says, For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. 00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:20.240 For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:24.240 There's a time for re-evaluation, for looking at the mirror. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:26.799 And what can happen is something gets broke. 00:26:26.880 --> 00:26:28.960 We look in the mirror and we walk away from it. 00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:30.160 We decide nothing. 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:31.200 We don't change anything. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:37.279 But Naomi, it says that she arose, and she has a re-evaluation. 00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:43.599 Lamentations 3.40 says this: Let us test and examine our ways and return unto the Lord. 00:26:43.759 --> 00:26:53.119 David said it this way, as he was reflecting, he said, Search me, O God, and try me, know my thoughts, see if there be any wicked way in me. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:55.680 And listen to this, lead me. 00:26:56.720 --> 00:27:01.119 In life's devastations, there's time for changes by re-evaluating. 00:27:01.279 --> 00:27:04.480 And that can lead to letter B, a time to return. 00:27:05.119 --> 00:27:07.440 A time to return, it says there in verse 6. 00:27:07.599 --> 00:27:13.920 They rose up that they might return to the land of God's promise, to the place of God's blessing. 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:19.839 Naomi, I'm sad to say that Elimelech didn't go through this and have this re-evaluation. 00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:22.720 He was supposed to go there for a sojourn for a time. 00:27:22.880 --> 00:27:27.119 He took his family ten years away, but Naomi rises up after their death. 00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:29.119 And she says, It's time for return. 00:27:29.279 --> 00:27:32.799 When the Lord is visiting, it's a time for return. 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:37.599 Zechariah 1, 3 says, Return unto me that I may return unto you. 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:41.599 Hosea 6 says, Come, let us return to the Lord. 00:27:41.839 --> 00:27:44.319 He has torn us, but he will heal us. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:51.440 Over and over and over in the Old Testament, it says, Return to me, return to me, return to me. 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:55.519 In Revelation, he said, They have left their first love about the church. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:57.839 He says, Return unto me. 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:08.319 In James, I want to tell you a scripture, chapter 4, verse 8, it says this draw nigh unto the Lord, and he will draw nigh unto thee. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:10.720 It doesn't work if you don't draw nigh unto him. 00:28:10.960 --> 00:28:15.359 If you don't move, if you don't take a step, it says, She arose to return. 00:28:15.680 --> 00:28:23.039 Listen, in Moab, for over ten years they're out of church, ten years out of God's will. 00:28:23.279 --> 00:28:26.480 Ten years they're in a sinful pagan land. 00:28:26.799 --> 00:28:28.880 Ten years they're out of God's presence. 00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:30.799 Ten years no sermon. 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:32.799 Ten years godless. 00:28:33.039 --> 00:28:36.640 I've never heard someone pastor, I've never heard them one time say this. 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:38.400 You know what I've never heard in church? 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:42.160 I've been away from God for 10 years and it's been too short. 00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:44.240 I need more time away. 00:28:44.400 --> 00:28:46.720 I've been out of church and it feels great. 00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:48.480 I've never heard that once. 00:28:48.880 --> 00:28:50.559 I've been sending it up. 00:28:50.720 --> 00:28:51.519 It's awesome. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:55.039 I've been cheating on my wife, beating my kids, I've been drunk. 00:28:55.119 --> 00:28:56.319 I'm a crackhead. 00:28:56.400 --> 00:28:57.759 It's amazing. 00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:00.559