Ruth - The Road

This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

And uh while you're having a seat, let me just remind you that today we're going to start a series out of the book of Ruth.

And uh the book of Ruth is the only book in the entire Old and New Testament that is written from the perspective of a woman.

And so what we wanted to do to kind of give a contemporary context for this was we asked some of the ladies in our church to sit down and we just interviewed them and just kind of asked them, hey, talk a little bit about what it's like being a woman in the church today.

And if you would just kind of give your attention to the video behind me.

Well, when I think about being a woman, I think my thoughts immediately go to where I am right now and being a mom at home with a three-year-old and a four-month-old and taking care of my family.

But I don't think that that's all I was made to do.

And I think that God's given us, um, given women a priesthood to use in church and at home.

I want to be a woman in the church that is a reflection of Christ, and that I'm showing that to my daughter and my son.

Um so my daughter sees a woman that looks like Jesus, and um she's a strong woman.

I think that we as women are so strong that we don't always know that about ourselves, but God's made us that way, and I want her to see that.

That's that's all people think women are.

They're you know, they're nurturing, they're sweet, you know, they and and I don't I think that kind of paints us into a corner too, because I I think God did give us those qualities and make us that way.

But at the same time, you know, I think we can do so much, so much more.

I think you need men and women to make it uh to make it work.

I think God created created men and women to be a part of his church, to be a part of the body of Christ and and not just men, I think, but I do think that there is still that stigma that that women can't do as much as men.

And um as far as how that feels as a woman, that that's that's frustrating sometimes, you know.

Um in our church, I you know, I feel very welcome and able, you know, to you know, to do the things that I want to do that I feel like to do.

But I know that there is still out there in some churches and in the minds of some believers that women shouldn't do as much as men, that they can't do as much as men.

Not only do we believe uh what Sally said that God uses both men and women, we believe that the Bible tells the story of God uh through the lives of men and women.

And today I'm gonna start preaching to the book of Ruth.

Uh, it's in the Old Testament.

So if you got your Bible, open it up.

If you don't have a Bible, I'm on page 222.

There should be one uh uh on your on your row there.

I almost slipped and called it a pew.

That'd be old school, wouldn't it?

What would you do if one Sunday you showed up and all these chairs were gone?

I had wooden pews in here with kneelers.

There's somebody that grew up Catholic with kneelers, oh boy.

Uh Ruth, Ruth chapter one.

I just want to read the first five verses.

It says this this is the story of God as told through the life of these two ladies.

It says, In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi.

And the names of his two sons were Malon and Killion.

They were Aphrodite, excuse me, Ephraithes from Bethlehem in Judah.

They went into the country of Moab and they remained there.

But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.

These took Moabite wives.

The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other, Ruth.

They lived there about ten years, and both Malon and Kileon died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

The book of Ruth opens in a very harsh uh context, but to understand the context, you have to understand what we just read.

And so I want to give you uh it's kind of like all great books, a great novel.

It begins, like if you've ever read the great book of Tell Two Cities, it opens up first sentence.

It was the best of times.

It was the and you kind of see that.

Most good novels, they kind of hook you from the first sentence or two.

That's what keeps you reading.

And a good book, about three sentences in, about two paragraphs in, it should have the momentum kind of going.

Somebody uh passed by my office this morning and said, Oh, you got a nice book, you got a new bookshelf.

Well, that's great.

Well, when you read all these books, no, they're hollow, I hide my liquor behind them.

Uh but I actually I don't read books, I try to read pages.

And what I try to do is read 30 pages a day.

And so I don't think about reading a book.

I just think I'm gonna read 30 pages.

And so sometimes that means I get to the end of a chapter, sometimes I get halfway through the other chapter, I think, I'll just go ahead and finish it.

But if you read 30 pages a day, do you realize that you would if you just that's all you wanted to do?

Takes less than an hour, by the way.

You would read on average a book a week.

Some of you this summer, you need to make this.

I know some of you students are like, we just got done with this.

Why do you hate us?

If you wanted to make a resolution for this summer, resolve to read just a certain amount of pages every day.

Don't try to read a book.

Don't go get war and peace and get in the clause with a flashlight.

Just, I'm gonna read 20 pages or 30 pages or whatever, and you'll be surprised how far you'll get going, especially if the story's good.

That's what happens with the book of Ruth.

The story's good, but it's only four chapters.

You get going, it's real compressed, and if you don't know what you're reading, you miss what's happening.

So let me give you six things that kind of set the context for the book of Ruth, and I'll tell the story.

Uh, I'll read the first five verses again, and then I'll look at four things we take away from this today, okay?

Six things that set the context.

We just read.

Number one is the opening phrase that says, it says, it was a time in the days when judges ruled the earth.

When number the first phrase that sets the backdrop, when judges ruled the earth.

This was one of the darkest periods in the time in the life of the people of God, the children of Israel, because you say, What do you mean?

If you turn back one page to the last sentence of the book of Judges, it would tell you this characterized the time when the judges ruled the earth.

It's one phrase you hear over and over in the book of Judges, and it's this it's Judges 21, verse 25.

Judges 21:25

And and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

You turn back, turn back in your Bibles.

If you're in Ruth, just turn one page.

Look at the last verse of the book of Judges.

It says, In those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And so the first thing the Bible tells us is that the context of the book of Ruth, it was a pretty, pretty wild, almost like the wild west.

Everyone just did whatever they thought was right.

If there's no king in your life, if there's no one ruling authority over your life, you will be the same way.

You will do whatever's right in your own eyes.

That's the first thing the Bible tells us.

And by the way, there's a pattern that develops in how God deals with his people during this time.

And the pattern is simply this: disobedience, judgment, repentance, return, and then grace.

God didn't set it up this way.

The people's behavior did.

Disobedience.

They disobeyed God.

God brought judgment on them, not to punish them as much as to turn their heart back towards Him.

By the way, people say, Well, I'm a free person.

I can do what I want.

Absolutely.

We have the freedom of choice, but God has the power of consequence.

Let me say it again.

We have the freedom of choice.

You could walk out of here right now and go do something that's horrible beyond belief.

You could do that.

And God wouldn't stop you.

Your will is free in the exercise of it.

However, God has the power of consequence.

And you'll see that in the book of Ruth in just a minute.

Repentance, return, and then grace.

There's this pattern that's kind of set up, and you'll kind of see it unfold in the book of Ruth when judges rule the earth.

The second uh phrase that gives us our context, it says there was a famine in the land.

There was a famine in the land.

To get our spiritual attention, God alters our physical world.

To get our physical attention, God also, now to better understand this, you need to talk to a farmer who's lived through a drought.

Because I think farmers have more faith than ten preachers put together.

Because their livelihood depends on God sending rain.

The Bible says there was a famine in the land.

Third thing we need to understand is it says of Elimelech, he was a man of Bethlehem.

A man of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is basically the town, Bethlehem, the word Bethlehem, it's a town, is basically two Hebrew words.

Beth, which means house, and Lahem, which is bread.

Bethlehem is literally the house of bread.

Now your wheels should start turning, you should start thinking there was a famine in a city called the house of bread.

Something's jacked up here.

That's like there being a drought in a town called Dripping Springs, Texas.

Somebody should call 911, something's off the rails.

Then the house of bread, there is no bread.

Okay?

Very simple.

Fourth thing that you need to understand is Moab.

The Bible says, now it says that they sojourned in Moab.

What is Moab?

Moab is a country, it's a place, but there's three things you need to know about Moab.

Number one, the people, the Moabites, they came from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter.

Not a very good beginning.

Secondly, they've always been the enemies of God.

They've always been the enemies of God.

When God's people, the children of Israel, were coming into the promised land, their king Balak, he hired Balaam, this prophet, to speak curses over them.

He took them up on a high mountain.

It's like if he was standing up way up on a mountain, looking down on the center aisle, and the children of Israel coming into the promised land.

Now remember God told them in Deuteronomy chapter 6, I'm sending you to a land that's flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

And so that's why Bethlehem is called the house of bread, so people could realize, you know what?

We're in a good place.

The people are coming into the promised land.

And Balaam has looked down on them, and the king Balak of the Moabites is going, curse those people, curse these people for they come into my land.

And Balaam looked down and he said, I can't, because their God has blessed them.

Fifth thing you have to understand is the name Elimelech.

Elimelech.

You didn't go to school with anybody with that name, did you?

Now stick with me.

If you're visiting today, we don't do this every Sunday.

It's not like we're having an Old Testament pop quiz.

But the book of Ruth is a narrative, it tells a story.

And in the course of telling the story, it teaches you something.

And by understanding what is being said, you can understand what's being taught.

The name Elimelech means my God is king.

My God is king.

I don't know what your name means, but like my name Neil means champion.

All you that laughed, I'll see you after the service right down here.

Start with you, Christian Snyder.

I'll punch you in the throat first.

Anyway, uh it's just a joke.

Anyway, Elimelech, my God is king.

By the way, if your God is king, you should probably act like it.

Sixthly and finally, the thing you don't understand, the name Naomi means pleasant.

The name Naomi means pleasant.

Now, knowing what we know, let's read the first five verses again.

You're halfway through the sermon.

He says, In the days, verse one, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi.

And the name of his two sons were Malon and Kileon, and they were Ephraith from Bethlehem in Judah.

They went into the country of Moab and they remained there.

But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.

These took Moabite wives.

The name of the one was Orpa, and the name of the other Ruth.

They lived there about ten years, and both Malon and Kileon died.

So that the woman was left without her sons and her husband.

Ruth is in a foreign country.

She has no family, no means of support.

She's kind of at the crossroads.

As a matter of fact, today I want to talk to you.

If there was a title for the sermon today, it would be entitled The Road.

The road.

This road that Elimelech and Naomi took out of Bethlehem, the house of bread, the place of God's provision to this distant country of Moab is the same road that leads from Moab back to where God called them to be.

Just think about the road.

We'll get back to that in just a minute.

There's four lessons we learn from the opening scene from the book of Ruth.

The first lesson we learn is this prioritizing physical need over spiritual conviction has consequences.

Prioritizing physical need over spiritual conviction has consequences.

You say, What do you mean?

Alimelech and his family, he had a wife, he had two sons.

We all know what that's like.

Most of the time when we justify the ungodly choices we make, men, we justify it in the name of being a provider.

Okay?

Well, I got a family to provide for.

I have a family to provide for.

My eighth grader came to me last night, like at 10 o'clock, Dad.

I'm going to Austin for four days.

I need some spending money.

I said, what are you spending money for?

Well, we got four meals and then spending money.

You ever quiz your kids?

It's like during the election, somebody will stick a microphone in a president's face and ask them, how much is a gallon of milk?

And they'll sell crazy things like, nine dollars?

I don't know.

And you're like, how can you be president?

You don't know how much things cost.

My kids could be president.

Because they don't know how much things cost.

So my eighth grader popped, oh, excuse me, excuse me.

We just finished.

My ninth grader, uh, uh, as of three days ago, uh, I need four meals.

We're gonna go here, we're gonna eat at Bucky's.

That's not fifteen dollars.

I'm like, what are you feeding people's dogs or whatever?

And so, and then that's gonna be in fifteen dollars, and then I need it, and then I gotta go to the game.

I don't know, I mean 60, 80, 100 bucks.

How much crack did you smoke this morning?

What?

I understand what it's like being a provider.

I got two kids.

I got a friend of mine that's got two little kids, and he's like, Man, these kids, these diapers, these things will break you.

I said, Hey, your kids are as cheap now as they're ever gonna be.

All right, my eight-year-old turns nine this week, rolled up on me.

I said, Sweetie, what do you want for you?

Remember you could get your kids nothing for their birthday and they loved it.

Like I got my kids an empty box for their birthday one year, and they were just like, This is awesome.

My eight-year-old goes, Yeah, dad, I might want to go to a skeeter's game and I want a pair of toms.

Have you priced toms lately?

They look all austere, like you know, just like tent uh fabric wrapped around your foot.

No.

That's what it is, you know, but they don't they're made by some 10-year-old kid in China who doesn't get a bathroom break, but they don't give them things away.

My kids don't have a frame of reference.

Here's all they know.

My dad and my mom, they provide for us.

So we just come to them, tell them what we need, quote unquote.

That's such a big word these days, isn't it?

Need.

But anyway, so Elimelech, he's got a wife, he's got kids, and they're in a time of famine.

And he looks around, they live in a house of bread, and instead of saying, wait a minute, why is there a famine?

What is going on here?

Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you the third thing about the Moabites.

I only gave you two.

So, all you people that love Bible knowledge, the Moabite women were always a stumbling block to the men of Israel.

To quote that great theologian Cheryl Crow, they were my favorite mistake.

It's that boyfriend you can't stop talking to that you break off that late-night drunk dial to every once in a while.

How many of y'all know what I'm talking about?

Put your hand up.

Don't have religious up in here.

Put your hands up.

Y'all are like, I ain't raising my hand.

Yeah, some of you are kind of like, well, maybe a time or two in college.

Go ahead, wait, call you.

Put your hand up.

The kids can't see you.

Shall it's me.

I'm sorry.

That's what the Moabite women were like.

God specifically told God specifically told them, hey, do not hang out with those Moabite women.

Here's why.

Because they will turn your heart from me.

You will sleep with them, and then they'll have you worshiping their gods.

If we looked at Numbers chapter 25, the Bible tells us that a plague had broken out on God's people.

Numbers 25 · chapter mention

See, because you can disobey.

You have the freedom to choose, but God has the power of consequence.

They chose to disobey God and intermarry and intermingle with these foreign women, and they were in heinous immorality, and God sent a plague and started killing people.

And so they didn't go, oh, well, we better get out of here.

They said, God, what's going on?

And they were standing there at the entrance of their tent crying out to God, saying, God, have mercy.

And some cat came walking in with this Moabite woman, and they were going to go do their little business.

And Phineas, if you have a son named him Phineas.

Phineas, the Bible says in Numbers 25, God says of Phineas that he was as zealous for my name and my honor as I am.

Phineas took a spear.

He was so sick of this plague being on his people.

This man went in a tent.

He wasn't repentant or remorseful at all.

He went in a tent and do his business, and Phineas followed him in and did his business.

The Bible says he took a spear and he rammed it through the body of the man and the woman and pinned them to the earth.

Now, if he's going to run a spear through both of them and shishkab them down into Mother Earth, they have to be in certain proximity to each other.

Are you with me, adults?

See, I'm I'm like a wind, I'm like a Navajo wind talker up in here.

Your kids are confused.

They're like, what's he talking about?

They were a couple skating at the skating rink.

Threw the man, threw the woman down into the ground, and the plague was lifted.

You say, What do you mean?

They prioritized physical need over spiritual conviction.

When famine broke out, Elimelech, the man, looked around and instead of saying, God, what's going on?

Why is there no bread in the house of bread?

Something's wrong here.

He wanted relief, not the truth.

And so he just looked over and said, Hey, this greener grass over there.

Let's go over there.

Where's over there?

What's the place of green grass?

No, it's Moab.

It's a place God told you not to go.

Remember, those people will turn your heart from me.

I don't care.

I got to provide for my family.

Man's got to do what a man's got to do.

You know, I got to get mine.

And so what'd they do?

They moved to Moab because their priority was spiritual, uh, excuse me, was physical need over spiritual uh conviction.

Let me just take a minute to speak this into us.

Beloved, one of the things that's going to distinguish Christianity from all the other religions in the world is our capacity to suffer.

And my concern is that other false religions are making inroads in the world because they are willing to suffer more than we are.

Matter of fact, their religion gives them a context for suffering.

But in America, Christianity seems to be for us, if you believe what you hear on TV or they sell at the bookstore, that you become a Christian to get out of suffering.

That's not what the Bible teaches.

It's not at all.

Matter of fact, if you've got your Bibles, turn to the New Testament.

I want to say something crazy to our students this morning.

So get ready, students, to get on the van and roll your eyes and go, oh, our pastor is such a loser.

I wish somebody else would get up there and talk.

1 Peter chapter 4, verse 1.

1 Peter 4:1

The Bible says this.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God.

The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.

Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

There goes your summer plans right there, kids.

Whoopsie.

Look at what the Bible says.

With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

But they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

For this is why the gospel was preached, even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

Now, why did I read all that?

Go back and see the first two verses.

Again.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

Think the way how did Jesus think about suffering?

Jesus believed that suffering served the greater purposes of God.

That's why he could go to the cross.

That's why he could stay in the garden.

If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

When suffering is brought to bear on your life, don't demand your will.

Just kind of say, you know what?

Arm yourselves with the same way of thinking.

And then look at the next part.

For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.

Can you imagine what how much free time you would have if you stopped sinning right now?

How much money you would have?

That's what the Bible says.

It's just crazy talk.

He says, for whoever has suffered in the flesh is ceased from sin.

Why?

Look at verse 2.

So as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for the human passions, but for the will of God.

The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do.

Translation, the person who has suffered in the flesh looks around and says, Oh my gosh, I give my life to this?

This is what my friends think really matters?

Doing this?

Are you kidding me?

One of the reasons, if you're here in this room and you have habitual, besetting sin in your life, the same sin that over and over and over comes back.

You sin, you tell God you're sorry, you confess, you get forgiveness, you try hard, you go right back to that sin.

You confess, you tell God you're sorry, you try hard, you go right back to that sin.

One of the reasons that we have this kind of sin in our life is simple.

He hadn't suffered enough.

The Bible says those who have suffered in the flesh, they're done with sin.

Why?

Because they look around and go, that's enough time wasted on that.

And it's not, I don't want to do that anymore.

That's guilt and determination.

It's understanding.

Hey, hey, the time in the past suffices.

I've wasted enough of my life being physical in every relationship I've ever had.

I'm done with that.

Not that I'm better than you or anything like that.

It's just I'm done.

No, no more.

Why?

Because suffering has taught me to say no to sin.

So if you have besetting sin and you can't just kill it, John Owen says, kill sin, or it's gonna be killing you.

Here's how you kill it.

You pray to God to bring suffering into your life.

That's user-friendly, isn't it?

Don't you want to come back next week and hear more kids and bring friends?

See, that's what the Bible says.

Just because you suffer and you go, oh, this is this is what sin gets me.

No, thank you.

I'm gonna arm myself and I'm gonna think the same way that Jesus thought that this serves the greater purposes of God.

Sin doesn't serve anything but me, and I'm done serving me.

Say, why do you say that?

Because the next time there's a famine in your life, you won't prioritize physical need over spiritual convention, conviction.

And men, you'll you you you you you you don't just look around and kind of say, hey, well, that over there looks greener.

Every promotion is not a promotion.

Every job that comes along and they say, Hey, would you do this?

Just because somebody offers you more money, that's not God.

Just because somebody comes along and says, hey, you know what?

We'll give you this and this, and you have a company credit card and a company car, and then here's the little thing.

And just a little bit of travel.

There's no such thing as a little bit of travel in a job that involves traveling.

There's just not.

Let me tell you something, men, look at me.

Your kids are gonna have one childhood.

And if you miss it, you'll never get it back.

One of the greatest temptations that we face is men.

And I'm talking to you because I'm a man, I'm the provider for my family.

If I got fired tomorrow, I go dig ditches, I go work at Walmart, ain't nothing beneath you when you're broke.

Because you gotta provide.

Why?

Because the Bible says if we don't provide for our families, we are worse than unbelievers.

But what you do not have to do in the name of providing is to compromise your spiritual convictions just to meet a physical need.

That's the first takeaway.

The second takeaway from the first part of Ruth is simply this a need-driven life has you following resources, but not God.

I'm back in Ruth chapter one.

A need-driven life has you following resources, not God.

Look at verse one.

You still with me?

Did I lose you back there on suffering?

Half of y'all were like, whoa! Let's build a bonfire.

The other half of y'all were like, easy now.

Easy.

Don't get crazy.

Look at chapter 1.

In the day, in verse 1.

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.

And a man of Bethlehem in Judea went to sojourn in the country of Moab.

Sojourn.

That's an interesting word, isn't it?

Sojourn means you go there for just a little bit.

Like when I go see my in-laws at the holidays, I sojourn.

When I pull in the driveway, the counter starts clicking.

I got three days.

Love my in-laws, they're great people, but family is like fish.

They start to stink after three days.

I'm the world's greatest son-in-law for three days.

I fix stuff.

I keep my mouth shut, believe it or not.

I do what I'm told to do.

I show up at dinner time.

I stay out of the way.

I go play golf all by myself all day.

Please, Burr Rabbit, don't throw me that briar patch.

My mother-in-law, why don't you go play golf and let us have Marcia and the girls?

Really?

What time's supper?

I'll be back at dark 30.

Let's eat then.

What time's dark 30?

30 minutes after dark.

Bye-bye.

I'm there for three days.

I'm holy, readily available.

I fix stuff.

I plant trees.

I put a flower bed in for my in-laws.

And on the fourth day, like Jesus, I will rise while it is yet night.

That van will be packed, backed into the garage, pointed out like a missile.

At 5:30, I just get my kids.

I show up.

We're going.

Let's go.

Fire drain.

Woo, woo, woo, woohoo.

My kids wanna get out of the pajamas.

They just walk out in the van, get in there, lay the seats back, and I got the motor going.

Why?

Because we're just sojourning.

I'm not staying here.

I love you, but I do not want to live with you.

My father-in-law can suck the paint off the wall.

I've laid in bed at the other end of the house and hear him snoring.

I beat on the wall.

Put that CPAP machine back on, Max.

In my house, I can do what I want.

Like, man.

I got the suction's pull me out of the bed a couple times.

Look at what the Bible says.

It says they stop thinking about your in-laws.

Stop staring at your husband, Teresa.

Come on.

Remind you of anybody.

It's okay, because I'm just sojourning.

It says they went to Judah.

They went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

Amen.

Be careful where you lead your family, because you might leave some of them there.

Verse 2: the name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of the two sons were Malon and Kileon.

They were Ephraithes from Bethlehem and Judah.

They went into the country of Moab and they remained there.

Now wait a minute.

I thought they were sojourning.

Look at me.

As long as they were getting their needs met, they lost track of who they were and what they're supposed to be doing.

As long as they were getting their physical needs met, they just thought, this is great.

I'm great with this.

This is wonderful.

Why?

Because a need-driven life has you following resources, not God.

Thirdly, stepping out of God's will is hard, but staying out gets easier.

Stepping out of God's will is hard.

The first time you have an affair, you are paranoid as a cat on a hot tin roof.

You're looking around, you're checking stuff, somebody honks, you're like, oh, you do it, you don't get caught.

The next time, you're just as brazen as you can be.

You are stiff-necked and hard-hearted, upright, cocky, arrogant, insolent.

You're just kind of like, hey, you know, hey, I was just a man.

But the first time you did it, you were sweating bullets.

Because stepping out of God's will is hard.

Staying out gets easier.

You say, where do you get that?

Look at verse 3.

But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.

Lady, she had a choice to make.

Right there.

She could have said, you know what?

This has not gone well for us.

We need to turn around and get back home.

Look at verse 4.

These took Moabite wives.

The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other was Ruth.

Now, let me just talk to you for a minute, parents.

I know some of you got your kids are here with you, and my kids are here with me, and we joke about our kids and not letting them get married and everything, but there will come an age where your kids don't listen to you as much anymore.

You know that, right?

Y'all are like, yeah, it's about 12.

When they move out and they think they pay their own bills, they don't got to listen to you anymore.

It gets even harder.

The hardest thing for you to do is to watch your kids marry someone that you don't approve of.

It's hard.

You can't make them, you can't make them make the right choice.

Look at me, mom and dad.

They can't tell you what not to say.

Mine are right over there.

And I pray on a consistent basis, God, let them marry godly men.

Let them marry God.

Let them see in me a godly man.

Let them see my wife and I a godly relationship.

Let them have an appetite for a godly man and not put up with a bunch of unspiritual boys.

They may go off to college and grad school or whatever and get in a relationship with some idiot.

And there'll be a point.

I can't change that.

I raised them right.

If they did wrong, that's on them.

But you can't bring an idiot back to my house and expect me not to call him an idiot.

And you can't come and sit in my house and eat my food and put your feet under my table and look at me like a 21-year-old kid, kind of like, hey, what's up, Neil?

This is cool.

I got this because I'm gonna punch you in the throat and go to jail with a smile on my face.

And I might even tell you, hey, listen, you can deceive my daughter, but I see through you.

You ain't nothing but a weasel in skinny jeans, okay?

And if it wasn't a crime, I'd kill you and bury you right here in the flower bed.

And if I wasn't married to a God-fearing woman, I'd already killed you and went to prison and been a chaplain.

And some of you think I'm kidding.

Some of you students are kind of like, oh, you've got anger issues.

You're gonna talk to Mass on the way to Austin.

Masson, your dad is really, eh, hey, there is no pain like the pain that you can't manage.

And that's the power that you have in your parents' life.

If we could do something about it, we would.

But we don't have to tolerate it.

What am I saying?

Naomi, pleasant.

Naomi has her husband dies, and they are outside of God's will.

They are not in the promised land, they're in a foreign land, and they're just putting up with all the foreign gods in the foreign land, and she doesn't have anybody, and she died, her husband died, and she can say, Boys, come on, we are getting up out of here.

But she doesn't.

She lets her son marry Moabite women that God said, Do not intermarry with them.

They will turn your heart against God.

And she just lets it happen.

Because stepping out of God's will is hard, but staying out gets easier.

Yeah, go ahead, Mary.

I mean, times change.

You know, this is 2012.

I know the Bible says that, but I mean, times change.

The Bible doesn't.

It's done.

Fourthly and finally, it's never too late to do the right thing.

And say, What do you mean?

Look at verse 6.

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.

So she set out from the place where she was with her daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to your mother's house.

May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, that be my sons, and with me.

Verse 9 The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.

And then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept, and they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people.

But Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me?

Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may become your husbands?

Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.

If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown?

Would you therefore refrain from marrying?

No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hands of the Lord has gone out against me.

They lifted up their voices and they wept again.

And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law.

In other words, she is saying goodbye.

She went and started a talk show that was very successful.

And after that, she pressed her lock and started her own network and lost it all.

But Ruth clung to her.

And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.

See, when you get people, you get their gods.

But Ruth said to her, Do not urge me to leave you or return from following you.

For you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge, and your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.

May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.

And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, No more.

And so the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem, back to the house of bread.

And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.

And the woman said, Is this Naomi?

And she said to them, Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, which means bitter.

Don't call me pleasant, call me bitter.

Why?

For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

I went back, I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.

See, we tell our story as one of pain instead of failure.

I went away full.

Wait a minute, there was famine in the land, you have anything to eat.

And the Lord has brought me back empty.

Why call me Naomi?

When the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me.

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab.

And catch this last sentence.

They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

The barley has been growing for a while.

It's a good crop.

There's no longer a famine.

There's bread in the house of bread.

And here's a woman that woke up in a foreign country with no family, buried her husband and her sons, and she's going back with her daughter-in-law, who's a foreigner, doesn't know what to expect.

She has been gone so long, she's unrecognizable.

Her friends are like, Is this Naomi?

Is this really you?

And then God, by the way, the overarching theme of the entire book of Ruth is the kindness of our Redeemer.

And by the way, I saw Naomi this week.

I met her on Friday.

Y'all are like, you have read too many books, my man.

Yeah, my mom and her husband have a weird job.

They can't stay put.

I'm like, what are y'all doing now?

And so about a couple months ago, well, a while back, somebody was telling them about, well, you get these jobs because they're drilling oil wells all over South Central Texas.

And so they have an RV.

And so, well, their job is they're the gate guard at an oil site.

And they have their RV there and they check in all the trucks and everything.

My mom called me this week and said, Hey, can you come take me to the hospital?

I gotta get some blood work and I can't go by myself.

And I said, Where are you?

And she says, Well, I'm not exactly sure.

Do you know where Yorktown is?

I said, Yeah.

She goes, We're eight miles outside of Yorktown.

I'm like, Isn't that like in the in the waiting room of hell?

Where is that?

You go 59 to Goliad, you hang her right on 183, and you go north to Yorktown, you take Highway 72 west, eight miles out of town, and then there's farm to Market Road 952.

Hang her right on that if you don't get killed by the oil trucks that are flying down the road.

There's no speed limit in Yorktown, Texas, by the way.

All they sell there is beer and lottery tickets.

And then you hang her right on 952 and it turns into 2656, and you go about three more miles past the four-way stop.

By the way, forgot that.

There's a big cornfield, and then right there they are drilling for oil.

And there's my mother who talks like this with her purse in her hands.

You're ready.

Mom, no one's gonna steal your purse out here.

I can't set it down.

Hey, by the way, stop trying to fix your mom.

Your mom's gonna be that way the rest of her life.

My mom's gonna carry her purse like everyone's out to get it, like it's on the FBI 10 most wanted list.

Mom, you got any money in there?

No, but I've got my important papers.

Okay.

Let's go.

We go into town.

We had to go to Kennedy, by the way.

Big booming old town itself.

Go into the hospital and sit down, and the girl restaurant does, and there's Naomi.

I'm minding my own business.

My mom's doing the talking.

Uh Judy, Judy, Judy, right.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

I'm like, Mom, stop rubbing your thighs.

Leave me alone.

And I look over on the wall, and there's a picture of two little boys.

And something just swole up in me.

You ever walk into a room with money and realize you're fixing to walk out with none?

I don't mean when you go to the boats every weekend.

Snuck that in on you, didn't I?

I looked at that woman and I said, Those are your boys?

What's your boys' names?

And she goes, Told me their names.

I said, How she goes, they're four and two.

And I said, Why do I get to feel I looked down and she had some pink fingernail polish?

You know how you leave it on so long, ladies, it's all chipped off.

You don't even care.

I said, Something tells me their dad's not in the picture.

She said, Nope.

He's a selfish man, lives for himself.

It's me and my boys.

That's all we need.

And that little voice just kind of said, not anymore.

So my mom got her paperwork, went down the lab to get some blood.

And I said, Mom, I'm going to have a sib right there.

Walked in there and I said, Hey, listen.

I said, I was raised by a single mom.

That's hard, okay?

Here.

You take your boys out for dinner tonight, tomorrow night, another night.

I don't care what you do, get some groceries, I don't care what you do.

She goes, Oh, I can't I can't take it.

It's not charity, it's obedience.

I'm gonna talk to my people about the kindness of God on Sunday.

And I I I don't want to be a hypocrite.

She goes, You want to understand?

No, I understand.

I had many a fried bologna sandwich.

My mom knew more about the goodness of God than she did the badness of my father.

Don't infect those boys with how rotten their dad is.

Infect them with how good God is.

Starting tonight, take them out on me.

Some lady, you ever work with nosy people?

There's a lady right over there, got the partition.

All of a sudden, this is what I see.

These hands come up on the edge.

Everything okay over here?

Yeah, nosy.

Nelly, we're fine.

Go back to doing nothing.

It's almost quitting time.

Well, I didn't know.

I heard crying over here.

That's what happens when the kingdom of God comes.

Apparently, no one talks like that in Candy, Texas.

Security card came down, rent a cop.

He hadn't fired that pistol since Barney Fife was there.

Everything okay here, ladies?

Are you kidding me?

Just checking.

I don't feel more secure now that you showed up, okay?

And the ladies like I said, you ain't gonna say anything.

I live what your sons are living.

I just, I'm not gonna be a hypocrite.

Talk about the kindness of God and me come across you and not do something about it.

What was I saying to her?

I was telling to her, by the way, the barley harvest is coming.

You may have been in famine.

She said, since oil came to this town, everything's gone through the roof.

My parents have rented a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house for$450 for years.

I'm like, man, I could come here and be a slum lord.

So they found oil and now it's twelve hundred dollars.

And all of a sudden I had that little compulsion in me and says, You didn't give her enough.

Well, uh, see, because uh well for until verily, verily, uh that might be all I have.

No, no, no, no.

Reach in there, there's more.

Okay.

What am I saying?

This is all I'm saying, I'm done.

Just like for Naomi, it was never too late to do the right thing.

See, I talked to you about the road.

We're all on the road, by the way.

That's not the issue.

See, this is the road that leads home, and this is the road that leads to Moab.

The question is not, are you on the road?

It's what direction are you walking?

And it's never too late.

Look at me, I'm done talking.

No more preaching today.

It's never too late to realize you know what?

This is not who I want to be.

I don't want to do this anymore.

I wasted enough of my life doing this.

I I I I heard in the fields of Moab that that God had visited his people and there was food again.

And maybe here's all you got to do today is just maybe turn around and start back.

And Naomi got back, and it was better than she could imagine because not only was there food, there was a harvest.

And the kindness of God has providentially orchestrated things to where they come back in the town, and it's a time of the barley harvest.

And we'll pick up there next week.

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

Let me speak a blessing over you.

Your kind God left a house of bread called heaven to come to earth.

A foreign land for him.

But he made it home because you were here.

And he didn't give you bread, he gave you himself.

He is the bread of life.

And in giving you himself, he has said, Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Depart now, and let his goodness lead you to demonstrate his kindness.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you, you're dismissed.