7-16-23 PM Service: Ruth's Life-Changing Declaration

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us,

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Thank you. And if you would turn in your

Bibles, please back to Ruth A, Chapter #1 this evening, the

Book of Ruth and Chapter #1 as we continue our series Ruth,

God's Love Story. And tonight marks an important

shift in the book of Ruth for us, because up to this point and

again, we haven't been in the book of Ruth very long.

But up to this point, the story has really been about Naomi.

And really more specifically it's been about Naomi and Alem,

Elek and Maylon and Chilean. That was the family that had

moved from Bethlehem, Judah and had gone to Moab.

Of course we know Ruth and Orpa were added to the group along

the way, and then a Limalek, May Lawn and Chilean all passed

away. But what we see tonight

represents a shift. In the book of Ruth, because it

truly at this point becomes. The Book of Ruth, where the

narrative has now switched, it is no longer about this family.

They are going to go into the background.

And Ruth, who for these few verses has been in the

background, is now going to come to the forefront.

And she is who we're going to see for the remainder of the

book. And I will say that she comes to

the forefront in a very major way this evening with some

verses that I would say rival some of the greatest verses of

the Bible for their beauty. And for just their clarity that

is given to us through this great confession that she gives

here, where she renounces her old life, Ruth renounces her old

way of living, of course, is a woman who lived in Moab, a Pagan

land, a woman who would have served Pagan gods before.

And she says this. I'm no longer going to serve

these false gods. I'm no longer going to have this

way of living. I am going to go, Naomi, where

you go and your gods are going to be my God, or rather your God

will be my God. And instead of me telling you

what Ruth said, I think we ought to read what Ruth said tonight,

because I think that will give us the greatest clarity of all.

So if you're able, if you'd stand for the reading of God's

word, Ruth, chapter one, we're just going to read a few verses

beginning in verse #15, Ruth chapter #1, verse #15.

And of course we saw before that Orpa is now walking away.

Ruth is going to cleave unto Naomi, meaning literally she's

going to grab her. She's going to forcibly hold her

and tell her that. Even though Naomi is trying to

dismiss her, and even though Naomi was trying to tell her to

go back to her home, she has different plans.

So picking up in verse 15, we see this.

And she being Ruth said, Behold, thy sisterinlaw is gone, or I'm

sorry to help me rather. And she said, behold, thy

sisterinlaw has gone back unto her people and unto her gods

returned out after thy sisterinlaw.

And again, Naomi makes very clear you're not just she's not

just going back home to go home. She's going back to the old way

of living with the old gods as well.

And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee don't.

Don't beg me to leave or to return from following after

thee. For whither thou goes I will go,

and where their lodges I will lodge.

Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

Where thou dieest will I die, and there will I be buried.

The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part

thee and me. And when she saw that she was

steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left, speaking

unto her. Naomi saw something in Ruth's

eyes. Naomi saw something in Ruth's

tone of voice. To be able to say I'm not

changing her mind, she's coming with me and we're going to look

at Ruth's life changing declaration this evening.

You may be seated. Heavenly Father, be with us

tonight as we get into your word.

I pray that we be encouraged by the decision that Ruth made as

we go on the road as well, may we be able to make good

decisions for you. And we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. There's some big things that

happen to people in the word of God as they're traveling from

place to place, as they're on the road, if you will.

In fact, I was just thinking this afternoon about the

occurrences that took place on the road to Damascus.

Well, we know on the road to Damascus it was when the apostle

Paul, who then was called Saul, met with none other than Jesus

Christ. Saul, Saul, why persecute us

thou me? He was blinded, but spiritually

he saw in a way that he never saw before, and three days later

he regained his sight. He called upon Christ to save

him, was baptized, and his life was forever changed on the road

to Damascus. How about those two who are on

the road to Emmaus? Remember after Jesus was put on

the cross and they were walking and they were talking about the

events that had happened over the past few hours.

And then Jesus comes along, this stranger on the road to Emmaus

and they talked to him as if he's just, well, another person.

Their eyes do not see in spiritually in the sense.

And so here they are, they're talking with him.

They're explaining what's going on.

And well, they go to the house, they get to a meal and Jesus

gives thanks for the meal. And just like that, he

disappears and their eyes are now open spiritually.

And they say, did not our heart burn within us while he was

talking with us? Their lives were forever changed

where they were on this road to Emmaus, and I don't know that we

often call this the road to Bethlehem, Judah.

But I think we could say rightly that Ruth's life was forever

changed on the road to Bethlehem.

Judah, where she makes the great declaration when she makes in

verse #16 and verse #17 when Naomi says you need to go.

And she says I'm not going because I'm not even necessarily

going for you, although I am going with you and for you I'm

really going because it's your God that beckons me to go.

And when I see this, in the beauty of what she says, there's

several things that I want us to look at here tonight.

And the first is this. We see that of all the things of

Naomi's that she wants to make her own, first of all, she says,

I want to make your land my own, Ruth says to Naomi.

I want to make your land my own. She says that right at the

beginning. When she says in verse #16, she

says when Ruth said. And treat me not to leave thee

or to return from following after thee, for whither thou

goest I will go. That's a powerful statement.

Wherever you go, I'm going to go.

And the reason that's powerful is because she knew she was

going to Bethlehem, Judah. She knew she was going to her

old home place, the place where Ruth could not call home.

But she says I am going to go to the place where you're going to

go. What that meant was this.

She was willing to leave her past behind.

She was willing to leave the old way of life behind her, where

Orpa was unwilling to leave her gods and leave her people and

leave her old way of living. Ruth looked not behind, but Ruth

looked ahead. I feel like often times, if

we're not careful in our Christian life, that it's very

common for us not to look ahead at what God has for us, but

sometimes to look behind at the things that Jesus Christ saved

us from. Listen, when we get saved,

everything's new and everything's exciting, and we're

willing to forsake all for the cause of Christ.

But then after a while, we start to think about some of those

things that we gave up. And if we're not careful, we

start to think maybe those things weren't so bad.

Maybe that music wasn't so bad. Maybe those friends weren't so

bad. Maybe that way of living wasn't

so bad. Maybe that entertainment that I

used to ingest, it wasn't so bad.

And and we start to maybe think, well, maybe I was getting a

little too zealous, maybe I kind of went a little bit overboard

with this religion thing and we start to kind of maybe dial it

back a little bit. But what Ruth said was this, No,

no, When I go with you, I'm not looking back anymore.

There's nothing that Moab has to offer me.

What I'm going to do is look forward to what God has for me,

my life. And there's nothing in your old

life. There is nothing that Jesus

Christ saved you from that should hold any allure or any

appeal or that has anything that's going to serve you moving

ahead. No, no.

What we have is, is, is the the cause of Christ that is ahead of

us. And that's why he tells us to

look forward, to run the race with patients.

And when you run the race, guess what?

You don't go backwards, you go forwards.

And so often in our Christian life, if we're not careful, that

old flesh starts to talk about those good old days to you and

your ears. But can I tell you those good

old days weren't so good. That's why you realize you need

to get saved. They weren't so good.

The the the the scene wasn't so good.

The friends weren't so good. The things that you thought

would give you comfort and peace, they weren't so good.

Jesus Christ saved you from those things.

Don't look back. See, Orpa had a chance to change

your life forever. But she couldn't let go of those

things. But for us, I feel like when we

get saved, we do let those things.

That's what Confessing Christ is.

I I confess, I don't want the old way of living anymore.

I turn to you. But if we're not careful, like

Lott's wife, we start to look back longingly behind us at

those things that we left behind.

What that pillar assault that she became through that episode,

but she was looking back at things that caused the entire

city state to go up in flames. Literally.

She was looking at things longingly that ruined her

family. She was looking at things that

cause great destruction. And So what I love is that she

right out the bat, says when I go to your land, it's going to

become my land. I believe she saw that God had

visited Israel and that she yearned to see the blessings of

God for herself. She's listening to Naomi talk

about how great it is in Bethlehem, Judah, now that the

Lord has visited the land again, talking about how great the Lord

is and what he had done. I don't think she felt.

I think she was still very conflicted in her own spirit at

Naomi because of the decisions that she made.

But no doubt there was something that drew Naomi back, and she

portrayed that to Ruth. Enough that Ruth said, you know

what? That's what I need in my own

life. The false gods had only brought

her loss, never brought her peace of the false gods of this

world do the same. I was listening to Brother Sam

Davis and preaching just a few weeks ago, and he was talking

about a story when this was several years ago when he was

still the pastor at Bible Baptist Church in Stillwater.

OK Stillwater is the town where Oklahoma State University is

located. It's a very strange town because

it's a farm town. I mean a big farm town, but it's

also a college town at the same time, like 2 cultures coming

together, you say how do they mix?

And the answer is, well, they don't really.

It's just kind of this odd combination of cultures that are

all at work at the same time. But he told a story about he

went back several years ago while he was the pastor that

church and brought a young man with him on visitation.

And he was going to witness to the OSU men's track coach that

he was the track coach and this is sometime in the 80s and he

was the men's track coach. He visited the church and they

went by to be able to visit him, but it also to compel him to

believe the gospel. And so Brother Sam brought this

young man with him. This young man had got saved out

of a life of drugs and got saved out of a culture that was really

not good. In fact, I know this young man's

family just from getting to meet them over the years.

And so I can tell you that the story is true.

It's not just. It's not just preaching.

It's true. So I let me get that later.

Anyway, so. He tells a story about how the

Lord saved him and the peace that he has and all these

things. And that OSU track coach looks

at him and he says to Brother Sam and he says this other this

to this young man, David. He said I would give my right

arm to have peace like that in my life.

I would give my right arm to have peace like that in my life.

You know the amazing thing was he didn't have to have give his

right arm to have peace like that in his life.

Jesus Christ gave his life, shed his blood.

So he could have peace like that in his life.

And what do we have to do in our lives?

We just need to remember that peace came through salvation.

And don't go back to those things that didn't cause us

peace but gave us agitation. And So what did she do?

She says, Naomi, I want your land.

But she also said this. Naomi, I want your lodging.

Naomi, I want your lodging. Go back to verse #16, where it

says for whither thou goest I will go and where thou lodgest I

will lodge. She said That Naomi is a lodging

place, would be her own as well. And this declaration here tells

us this. She wasn't just as going there,

she was there to stay. Look, there's a difference

between traveling through town. And staying a little while isn't

there. I've traveled enough through

this country to tell you that there were towns that I've been

through, that I went through them, in them, out them, and

said this. I'm never going back.

Just kind of keep right on going.

Kind of one of those towns that I had a friend of mine, his

father, brother Muriel, growing up.

He says it's the kind of town that, you know, if your your

tire goes flat, you go out on rims, you know, because you just

got to keep going, man. You don't want to stop, you

know, it's that kind of place. And so there are places that, Oh

yeah, that's the location, that's the land.

But I'm not going to stop there. But I tell you, not only when we

get to this place in our Christian life where we allow

Jesus Christ to save us, we we allow him to do that work in his

life that he desires. But listen, can I put it this

way? Take off your shoes and stay a

while. Well, actually, keep your shoes

on, all right, because we don't want you taking your shoes off.

But I think you understand what I'm saying.

The idea is, is that when it comes to the fullness of the

Christian life, it's not a just about that saving experience,

being saved, knowing that you have a home in heaven.

And then, well, I'll just keep on going along with my daily

activities. No, it's it's about no, I'm

going to lodge here in this place.

And I'm not just talking about lodging here in church, although

certainly I believe every Christian needs to be plugged

into a good church that teaches the Bible, that loves the Lord,

loves souls. I believe that's important for

the health and growth of every believer but it.

But even more than that, listen, when it comes to the life that

God wants us to have, the walk that God wants us to have,

listen, it's not just about saying, Yep, that's where I'm

going to go, but then I'm going to keep on going my own way.

You say you're splitting hairs here, Pastor.

Well, I don't think so because this is her declaration right

here. I'm going to go to your land.

I'm going to stay to your land. It wasn't just this.

I'm going to go to Bethlehem, Judah.

And as long as the bread stays, I'll stay there.

I've told you before, I've seen the slogan back when I was in

Tampa. It was written on the side of a

wall, right? Actually, on Sheldon Rd.

I don't know if it's still there or not.

Where it said this, Try Jesus. Try Jesus.

I think I understand what they are trying to portray with that.

But trying Jesus is not like trying on a new pair of jeans or

trying a car to see if it's what you like.

Well, you know, if I like it, if it fits right, if it feels good,

I'll hold on to it. But otherwise, you know, I'll

find something else. No, we don't just try Jesus

Christ. No, it's it's it.

This is who I trust my my, my faith and my life in.

And no, I'm going to make a commitment to Him.

And if I fall away, I haven't lost my salvation.

I still belong to him. But if I fall away, if I get

away like the prodigal did, I'm going to run back into his

loving arms and go right back to him, because I belong to him

now. That was her land, but that was

also her lodging. There are many people who are

willing to go, but not as willing many who are willing to

stay. When you get to the House of

bread in your spiritual life, lodge there.

When you get to your Bethlehem due to the House of bread, the

place where God is providing you stay there.

Don't wander away from that. We saw what happened when Naomi

and Alemalek and Melon and Chile and wandered away from the place

that God was going to provide for them, even though it looked

like it was going to be difficult.

Some 37 versus 3 and four. Trust the Lord and do good.

So shout, thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be

fed. Do you think that applies to

Bethlehem, Jude, to the House of bread?

Delight thyself also into the Lord, and He shall give thee the

desires of thine heart. I think sometimes we get that

idea of what the Lord will give you, the desires of your heart.

And we take that little slice of one verse and just say, well,

it's fine. The Lord will give you the

desires of your heart. We know there's a lot of desires

I've had in my heart. Not all of them were righteous.

There's desires I've had in my heart, and not all of them were

good. You know, I've desired many

things, and not all of them were things that would have honored

God. So what does that verse say?

Delight thyself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of

your heart. You know what I found is that

when you live the life that God wants you to live, you realize

this, that he will change your heart to match those things so

that you are delighted. In those things, we were just

talking before church. You know, I won't say who

questioning my, my, my decision of of drink right before church.

But you know, I've I've, I had a Diet Doctor pepper.

But anyway it's from my time in the South.

But I'm going to pardon my sin. All right.

So that's my excuse, but the the idea is this.

There are times where I've had. I've seen people that have not

drank a soda or a diet soda for some time.

They've just eaten fruits and vegetables and those kind of

things, and then they taste something like that and they go,

this is disgusting. You know why Their tastes have

changed. Your tastes have changed over

time. What we need to do in our lives,

understand that when we belong to Christ, our tastes have

changed and we belong to him and know this is where we're going

to stay. And this is what satisfies in

our life. So even if it gets a little

barren when we're in Bethlehem, Judah, even if it seems a little

barren while in the House of bread, we understand that this

is the place that God will provide.

So I'm going to stay there. Listen, there are people who who

who give up on their Christian walk, they get out of church.

And the reason why is because it sounds exciting as it used to

be. Well, listen, there are times it

may not be as thrilling as it was before, but even if it's not

the thrill, the feeling, the emotion, there's some depth that

God is doing in your life. And he's digging deeper and

going more and more. No lodge, there you'll find the

deeper you get and the more that God does these things in your

life. Listen, you may not have that

where you're doing cartwheels in the in the aisles, although if

we ever had someone do know anyway.

But but I'll tell you this, they'll be that bedrock joy.

They'll be that that that that wonderful.

That wonderful. Knowledge and understand that

God's doing something in your life.

Listen, don't just come to the land of Je Bethlehem, Judah,

that land of provision. Lodge there for a while.

Stay there. See what God is doing.

But it wasn't just she wanted her land and she wanted her

lodging, but she also wanted her lineage.

Your lineage. Look again at verse 16.

It says, For wither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest,

I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,

thy people shall be my people. Her lineage.

What was she saying? I am no longer going to be

Immobitus, she said. I'm going to believe in the God

of the household of the Jews. And we could look at it and

understand that she was grafted in to the people of the Jews.

And the reason we know that is because she was literally

grafted in to the tribe of Judah.

She was grafted into the lineage of Christ himself.

We covered that last week, she says.

Your people will be my people. Now, that may seem like no big

deal to us, but to her that would have been a big deal.

Remember the natural prejudices that there would have been

between the people of Moab and the Jews?

It's not like these people loved each other.

It's not like there was a great camaraderie between the people

of Moab and the Jews. Just read the Old Testament for

a while and you're going to find that they're going to skirmish

with one another. Remember, they go all the way

back to Abraham and the offshoot between Lot and his incestuous

relationship with his daughters and that offshoot from that

point. And So what do we see?

We see that there would have been some natural prejudice,

some skirmishes that would have taken place.

I would even put it this way. She didn't know how the Jews

would feel about her in Bethlehem.

Judah, when she arrived. She had no assurance that they

would have even been happy to see a Moabitis that would come

to live with them there in Bethlehem.

Judah. But you know what?

To her, it didn't matter because she knew it was right.

To hurry didn't matter. Well, I'll go and see.

You know, if they like me and if the people like me there or not.

No, no, listen, it's not about that.

It's it's this is where God wants me to go.

Your people will become my people.

She wasn't just saying she wanted to live with them.

I believe she was saying she wanted to become a proselytite,

A proselyte. She said I want to become like

you all. And it's my prayer that when an

unsaved person walks into this building that they just see us

fellowshipping with one another, loving on one another, caring

for one another, that they say this.

I want this to be my people. You know, I'm not just talking

about people joining this church by membership or anything like

that, although certainly it's a blessing anytime someone joins

this Church of membership. And we're always clear about, we

have folks joining next week, praise the Lord, some by

baptism, some by statement of faith.

I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be a wonderful

thing. But can I tell you what what the

real joy is? I mean, the real blessing is

when someone who doesn't know anything about the Lord, someone

who is just far out from where God has them to be, someone

who's outside of the household of faith.

Can we put it this way? Someone who lives in Moab and

they come into this building because God has worked in their

heart or because someone's invited them or because they're

searching for something they don't even know and can't even

articulate. But they come in here and they

don't know why. But they come in here and they

see a group of people who love one another and they say this.

I want this people to be my people.

I'll tell you this, I've walked into some churches where I've

said this. I don't know if I want to walk

in here again. Anybody want to have any

personal testimonies? Yeah.

So I see that hand. All right.

But we've been on vacation just a few years ago.

I've told you the story before where we were on vacation in in

Tennessee and they were just so used to having people come from

out of town that it was kind of like, oh, it's great.

There's visitors. Hey, and listen, we understand.

Listen, we understand Someone comes in this building, you

know, dressed up with their Sunday best and all this stuff.

We think, oh, here. Not that we want to treat them

any different, but we think, oh, here's someone that's maybe been

to church before, maybe they understand.

Again, James, Chapter 2 makes it very clear you better not treat

James 2 · chapter mention

the person who's dressed better than the one who is not.

Because, hey, you, you come up here in the front, you're

dressed up nice. Oh, you get under my foot stool.

You're not dressed up nice. We better never get to that

point. But you understand.

You know, someone shows up on a Sunday night and they're dressed

up, they've got their Bible under their arm and you think,

yeah, then you find out they're from out of town.

Like, oh, never mind, I got things to do.

So no, we we don't want to be like that.

But that's the way it was at this church.

And I remember A J was really acting up at that time.

And so I had to take him out and I was in the lobby and he was

really kind of going at it and the the usher was just standing

there kind of like this looking at us.

And and I wanted to say, would you like to take a turn and try,

you know, But there was nothing there.

No. Hey, would you like we got a

nursery over here. Is there something we can help

you with it. And maybe he look, maybe he felt

awkward maybe, I don't know. It could be any number of

things. I don't want to say that he had

ill intent by age, but I know this.

When we left, I'd said this, if I lived in Gatlinburg, this

wouldn't be my people. In fact, we went back the next

year and went to another church this little.

I mean, you want to talk about the church in the Wildwood

goodness. I mean, we had to go down by the

holler and go around the corner and go past, over the Creek,

over, go over to grandma's house, just about.

And we got there and it was just, it was just this old

country church where they sang. And I mean, they sang, you know

what I mean? And they just love the Lord.

And. And we just had a wonderful

time. We came back on Sunday night.

They wanted us to sing a special.

And that's not why I enjoyed it. In fact, quite the opposite.

We didn't want to do that. But that's we talked to us and

we were there for, you know what?

So these are my people now. I'm saved.

And so that's talking about joining as a church.

But I'm just saying this, when someone comes in here unsaved,

do they see us and say this needs to be my people?

I'm not saying about joining the church.

I'm saying about this. I want to be part of the people

of God. They have a peace, they have a

joy. Well, there's a there's a cancer

patient over there, but she's singing the praises of God.

There's some people over there. A couple years ago, their life

was a mess. But here they are with their

Bibles open, listening to the message there.

There's some young people over there that in a culture where

young people have very little to do with the things of God, but

there's young people that are singing songs and they're

praising God and they're getting involved.

I mean, I want some of this. I want this to be my people.

Do people see that in us, the natural saltiness of us, to be

able to make a thirst occur in someone else?

Remember Jesus said we're to be salt and light, but that we're

so salty when we're here. And now somebody say, well, I'm

salty. I'm not talking about that kind

of salt. I'm talking about we're so salty

as believers that create a thirst in someone to be able to

say that's what I need in my life and draw them to the

ministry of Jesus Christ. That's what she says.

This is my people, my lineage, she says.

Your land, your lodging, your lineage, your Lord.

I mean, now we're really getting down to it, aren't we?

I will lodge thy people. Shall my people.

Look at the end of the verse. Thy God, my God, if there was

any doubt. Of where she was going with

this, she has now made her declaration clear.

There are many people in the Old Testament specifically that

would talk about the God of heaven or they would talk about

the God of Israel. But there's a big difference

when they say my God. It's funny how many times Jacob

Israel would talk about the God of his father's, but there was a

change in his life after he wrestled with that same God.

That he now called him my God. There was a change that took

place in his life, that it wasn't just, oh, there's a God

and he's there. But no, there's not just a God.

And he is there, but it's my God and he is there.

And that's a difference that has to take place in salvation.

Everything changes. Listen from this very phrase.

Everything in this book changes from this phrase before.

There is nothing that is good. There is nothing that is

encouraging, there's nothing helpful that takes place.

You've got a family that's come that 3/4 of them have died.

You have now introduced Moabites into the family, which were not

supposed to take place under normal circumstances at that

time. You have women who say we're

going to follow you. And then Naomi says don't follow

me, this bitter woman, by the way, who says all of this.

And Orpa says, well, OK, and she goes home.

There's nothing really. This happened so far.

That really is encouraging in the heart.

But from this moment, everything changes.

When she says thy God, my God. And can I remind you here

tonight that when you say in your life, thy God is my God,

everything changes, your outlook changes.

Your way of living changes. Who you know will take care of

you changes. Everything changes when you

trust the gospel and know that Jesus Christ will be your

savior. Ruth's life would forever change

with that statement because she is renouncing the old way of

life. Listen, she's not trying to live

in Moab and Bethlehem, Judah. She's not trying to add the God

of Jehovah to the gods that she has in Moab.

She says this. I am taking Jehovah at the

expense of these old gods I used to serve.

And her life will change, Orpa looked and said.

I see what's over there. But I like, my God, I like my

way of living better. And she went back home, never to

be heard from again. What a blessed thing.

By the way, when God becomes yours, you know there has to be

a time for our young people that are here, that God has to become

yours, not just your parents. God has to become yours, and not

just those who go before you. That the doctrines of the word

of God have to become yours, not just because your Mama called

and Papa sent, but that because God has done something or work

in your life and you have to take it.

And by the way, it's not just your.

Families, It's yours. Well, do you know Jesus Christ,

your savior? Well, I come from a long line of

of Christians in my family. I've had people say that before.

Well, you may come from a long line of Christians in your

family, but unless you. Call upon Jesus Christ to save

you yourself. You will break that line.

You are not saved by the salvation of those other ones.

You have to make that personal decision for yourself.

Many are resting on the faith of someone else to try to be able

to get them into heaven. Or many who maybe are saved

don't really grow and don't really do the things they want

because, well, you know, this is what my pastor says, or this is

what my parent says or this is what my spouse says.

But no, you have to get to the place.

Listen, when you're at the judgment seat of Christ, you

don't get to call witness. This is to come help you.

What do you do? Well, I'll phone a friend.

That may work for Regis Philbin, but it doesn't work for us at

the judgment seat of Christ. No, we have to individually go

to him. And it's not.

Well, Lord, I didn't know because I just listened to what

my wife said. Well, that speaks volumes in a

much different way. A woman cannot say, well, I just

did what my husband I just. I followed him.

So you have to dig into your Bible for yourself to understand

the word of God for yourself, which is preaching to the young

people. Just a few weeks ago, and I

reminded those young ladies that were there.

They say, well, you know, sometimes I hear those young

ladies say, well, well, you know, I just, whatever, I just

get the right husband and and I'll just believe what he

believes. Well, how are you going to find

the right husband if you don't know what to believe?

You know what you probably get is a is a meatball that's

probably going to end up after three or four years taking you

far away from what you and you didn't know because you just

followed him and you never read the word of God for yourself.

And we can all get excited about that.

Now listen, we can talk about that for 16/17/18 year.

Or we can just remind ourselves where we're at, that whether

you've known the Lord 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years,

however long it is, there's always room for us to grow and

to learn. And even in that declaration, I,

God, my God, Well, I'm saved. I I know God well, right.

But get deeper into why do you believe who you believe?

Not trying to question your salvation or not trying to make

you do those things. But so I can.

I can make the foundation even stronger.

The foundation that that God is laid.

It's all about him. But yet I need to get in the

strong meat of the word, not just milk, so that I can

understand the things of the Lord.

Your land, your lodging, your lineage, your Lord.

But then she says this in verse #17.

This is where we're going to get ready to close.

Where thou dieest. Will I die and there will I be

buried. Lord, do so to me more also if

ought but death part thee and me, she says this I'm not just

going to go to your land. I'm not just going to stay there

a while. I'm giving a lifelong

commitment. This is what I'm going to do.

This is where I'm going to go. This is where I'm going to stay.

This is where I'm going to die. She's saying this is my lot in

life and I'm with you until the end.

Do you know what she's doing? She's looking all the way to the

goal. She's looking all the way to the

finish line. You know, I don't want to be

morbid in my Christian life. I don't live every day just

wondering about how I'm going to die or, you know, is this my

last day? But let's be honest.

The Bible does tell us we don't have assurance of tomorrow and

that we would be wise in our Christian life to live every day

as if we don't have another Christian day to live.

No, no, that doesn't have to be a morbid thing.

No, I'm just going to live my life today.

I'm going to lay it all out so that I know that if God called

me home today. Or if Jesus Christ called us

home today in that glorious appearing called the Rapture.

I know that at the judgment seat of Christ that I have done what

God has called me to do. Certainly there's always in room

for improvement. Certainly we're going to be at

the judgment seat of Christ and we're going to look at so many

things and say why didn't I do this and said why did I

misprioritize, but why did I misprioritize these things.

But in the end that we would say no, I'm going to serve him till

the end. I went to school.

With 400 some college students, by the world standards, a pretty

small Bible college, pretty small College in general, my

graduating class was a little bit over 100.

Do you know that out of my graduating class you have those

who are no longer in the ministry who don't teach from

the word of God anymore? Divorced.

Even from not my class, but other classes who've taken their

own life out of well over 1000 graduates, I don't even know how

many. Probably much more out of 25

years at Heartland. A great many.

That's a sobering thought to go through a yearbook and say

whatever happened to him? Where did she go?

And I'm not just talking about, oh, that's the one that was the

most popular in my high school yearbook.

And look, they, you know, they went to the, you know, they went

to the reunion, and they're not very popular anymore.

I'm not talking about those kind of, like, vain things.

I'm talking about people that said they were going to serve

the Lord. And here's what's amazing that

on the very first Sunday when you get to Heartland, they call

it Welcome Heartland Sunday at Southwest.

And all the new students come across the platform and they

just introduced where they're from.

I'm Adam Rivero. I'm from Westgate Baptist Church

in Tampa, FL. My pastor is Bruce Turner.

And I was so nervous that first Sunday.

In fact, we call Brother Turner Bruce E Turner, but we I was so

nervous that I said my pastors, Brucey Turner and Brother Sam,

said Hold. On a second, hold on.

I didn't know your pastor's name was Brucey, and so for several

years they called him there. Brucey.

Whoops. I didn't know.

We all don't mess this up for me, but in a few weeks, so we no

one walked across that platform saying this, I'm going to quit.

I'm not going to make it. I'm going to, I'm going to turn

away from everything I got here. Nobody said that.

But the reality is some did. Why?

Because for some there was not that knowledge that this isn't

just a. Land, it's not just a lodging,

but it's a life. It's their lot.

It's my lot. And let's be honest, is there

any lot that's better than the lot that God has put us in, The

lot in life that we have? You understand what I mean by

lot? The lot in life that we have

that God has given us. Is there anything better?

Is there anything sweeter? Is there anything more joyous?

I mean to be able to go home today and to know, wow, a

family's life and trajectory has changed today by what's happened

here at church. To know that there was a crusade

that took place, that we had a small part of it.

By a small part, I mean a very small part because there's so

many cogs in that wheel, it was unbelievable.

I don't want to overstate what we did in that crusade, but we

did assist in several different ways, both logistically and then

also in taking place in some of the services.

But you know that 61 people got saved.

Does that not move us? That they that there would be

lives that would be changed, of lives change further?

There's one young man who was there.

He was traveling with his family to the Dominican Republic.

He was going to miss everything. But they saw him during the day.

They gave him the gospel. He got saved.

He went to the crusade that night.

He went to Dominican Republic the next day.

Would have totally missed. Everything but by the gracious

hand of God, he had the opportunity to hear the word of

God and trust Christ as a Savior.

What happened, Ruth? On the road, her life changed

forever, just like the road to a Mass, just like the road to

Damascus, Ruth on the road to Bethlehem, Judah, her life

changed forever. Let me make a quick application

and we'll be done. I know we've been making an

application along the way and I've got to finish before the

water all leaks into the building again, so we'll try to

be quick about that. What we see from Ruth here, I'm

not saying that she didn't have valleys in her her life, but

what we see from her from this moment is steadfastness,

faithfulness. I know it's a short snapshot of

her life. Let let's be honest.

But what we see here is a woman whose life truly changed.

Something that we need to be reminded of in our lives is to

be able to take the roller coaster.

Of the Christian life that sometimes we're on and try to

smooth out those peaks and valleys as best we can so that

we consistently in our walk on the road will be who God's

called us to be. You know that road that she

would have been on would have been pretty easy to navigate

compared to a roller coaster. I've been on roller.

I love roller coasters. I, I, I do not, I know not

everyone does. But I love going to theme parks,

big and small amusement parks. To be able to ride the roller

coasters, I like going through the loop, the loops and all of

them. I'll tell you this, I used to be

when I was younger, I would go on it and say let's go again.

And now I go on it once and I say kids, you go again.

Because like, dad needs to sit down for a while and let his

equilibrium get back to where it needs to be.

And listen, Roller coasters are fun in life, if you like that

kind of thing. But can I tell you in the

Christian life, they're not fun at all.

And there are some in the Christian life that are

constantly up. And down and up and down and all

around. Barrel rolls, loop, the loops,

whatever you want to call it, That's what they're doing all

around, all the time. Now, I understand that we do

have those peaks and valleys because of the trials and

difficulties of life that we have at times, but I'm talking

about just the we're up, we're down, we're up, we're up because

we heard a great. But we're down because it's

Monday, and then we don't read our Bible for a week.

And then I'm up because something really good happened

to me. I I end up getting on extra $100

in my paycheck. So God must be happy with me

this week. So I'm I'm good.

But then all I had to pay 200. For a bill I wasn't expecting,

well, I guess things are down again.

The Christian life was never meant to be a roller coaster.

It's a road. The God does that work on the

road, whether a Mass or Damascus or the Bethlehem.

Judah, what do we do? As we slowly plod our way every

day to where God wants us to be, we say I'm going to get where

God wants us to go. I'm not going quick, but I'm

going to get there. We're.

Driving down the road yesterday, I'll say this and we'll be done.

Kayla was in the car with me and we were watching someone walk

into a building and he was walking across the parking lot

like the cares of the world were placed upon his shoulders like

someone had taken. 8 bags of wet cement.

Put it on. His shoulders and said now walk,

son. And I mean, he was just

shoulders drooped, slow. Steps step by step to where he

wanted to go, and I told her I said he's plotting.

Said what I think she thought. Plotting.

Like you know, I'm plotting something you know, you know,

but but plotting PLOD. He was just methodically going

where you need to go. By the way, he wasn't doing it

to impress me. He wasn't walking to, you know,

make me feel good. You know what?

He kept going long enough he would have got where he was

going. I think sometimes in the

Christian life, we're so looking for that 60 mile an hour 3G

launch of the roller coaster. I'm going to go.

I want my. Face to be back.

That's what this Christian life supposed to be, you know.

And there are some pretty exciting times in the Christian

life. Don't get me wrong.

I think of the the anniversary and the the day that we were

here. I mean, one, I was dog tired

when we were done. And two, I was like, this is

great, isn't it what God did. It's amazing.

But that's not the Christian life every day.

You know what it is? It's the road walking.

This is my land. This is my lot.

This is my Lord. We just make that understanding

every single day and just go a little farther for him.

Maybe you're on that roller coaster ride.

You'll be good tonight because hey, we we had a message that

kind of stirred your heart. If that's the case for you

tonight, and that's great, I. Praise the Lord for that.

God gave us. God gave us emotions.

It's not like we shouldn't have any emotions.

If he wants to be robots, He would have made us robots.

We're just not to be governed by our emotions in our Christian

life because not all of them are trustworthy.

There's no doubt about that. So what do we do in our

Christian life? Here's Ruth.

She said, this is what I'm going to do when we get there.

I imagine she was probably slow. She was walking with her

motherinlaw, who is older than her, Who would have had to go

slower, whose body was probably, to a point, betraying her by

that point in her life. But you know what?

She just kept going. She got to Bethlehem.

Judah, you know what? You'll get to Bethlehem.

Judah eventually, too, step by step, day by day, understanding

the things that God has revealed to us.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.