Ruth Chapter 1 2026 - Caleb Richardson

I'm going to read Ruth chapter 1. During the

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

time of the judges, there was a famine in the

land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his

wife and two sons to stay in the territory of

Moab for a while. The man's name was Elimelech,

and his wife's name was Naomi. The names of his

two sons were Malin and Kilian. They were Ephrathites

from Bethlehem and Judah. They entered the fields

of Moab and settled there. Naomi's husband, Elimelech,

died, and she was left with her two sons. Her

sons took Moabite women as their wives. One was

named Orpah, and the second was named Ruth. After

they lived in Moab about ten years, both Malin

and Kilian also died, and the woman was left

without her two children. and without her husband.

She and her daughters -in -law set out to return

from the territory of Moab because she had heard

in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his

people's need by providing them food. She left

the place where she had been living, accompanied

by her two daughters -in -law, and traveled along

the road leading back to the land of Judah. Naomi

said to them, each of you go back to your mother's

home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you

have shown to the dead and to me. May the Lord

grant each of you rest in the house of a new

husband. She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

They said to her, We insist on returning with

you to your people. But Naomi replied, Return

home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with

me? Am I able to have any more sons who could

become your husbands? Return home, my daughters.

Go on, for I am too old to have another husband.

Even if I thought there was still hope for me

to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would

you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would

you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No,

my daughters. My life is much too bitter for

you to share, because the Lord's hand has turned

against me. Again, they wept loudly, and Orpah

kissed her mother -in -law, but Ruth clung to

her. Naomi said, Look, your sister -in -law has

gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow

your sister -in -law. But Ruth replied, don't

plead with me to abandon you or to return and

not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go.

And wherever you live, I will live. Your people

will be my people and your God will be my God.

Where you die, I will die. And there I will be

buried. May the Lord punish me and do so severely

if anything but death separates you and me. When

Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with

her, She stopped talking to her. The two of them

traveled until they came to Bethlehem. And when

they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited

about their arrival. And the local woman exclaimed,

Can this be Naomi? Don't call me Naomi. Call

me Mara, she answered. For the Almighty has made

me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord

has brought me back empty. Why do you call me

Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the

Almighty has afflicted me? So Naomi came back

from the territory of Moab with her daughter

-in -law Ruth, the Moabitess. They arrived in

Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Let's pray together. Lord, you say in your word

that all of your word is valuable and important.

All of it is useful for teaching us and equipping

us, calling us out, rebuking us, and leading

us, God. And so as we examine the book of Ruth

today, Lord, we want to start with this posture

of just saying, God, we submit to you. All of

us for all of you. Help us to see. your truths

in this incredible little story. Help us to see

the gospel in this story. Help us to see you,

Jesus. Lord, help us to understand your character.

Lord, I pray that we will have soft hearts before

you and pray and ask that the Holy Spirit will

speak and move in our church and move in our

lives as we unpack this amazing book. In your

name we pray. Amen. Well, if you don't have a

Bible and you notice that we did not put them

up on the screen, we will as we work our way

through it. But there's a couple of Bibles in

the back there. Take one of those. If you don't

have one, it's yours. Take it home with you.

But take it and turn to the book of Ruth. Today

we're going to begin a four -week series in the

book of Ruth. And somebody said to me when we

were getting ready for this, I don't get this

book. I get it. It's just a short little story.

It seems nice. It seems good. It's really meant

to be read all in one swoop, so I encourage you

to do that this week. Read the whole thing. But

it is packed with meaning. So as we look at the

story of Ruth, we're going to start with chapter

1 today. And I want to invite you to do something.

It's a narrative. It's a different kind of writing

in Scripture. It's a narrative and it's meant

for us to enter into the story. We love stories.

We have stories all the time. And we love movies.

And we can kind of feel ourselves get into a

story. Well, this story is no different. And

so I want to invite you to enter into the story.

Imagine what it would be like to stand in the

different characters' shoes as we unpack this.

And how does that translate into your life? The

story of Ruth is a story of loss. which you'll

see today. It's a story of love. It's a story

of redemption. And it's a story of belonging.

So as we step into the opening scenes of this

story, I want to ask you to picture something

in your brain. I want you to picture with me,

there are three women walking down a dusty road.

Dirt road. And they have lost everything. Everything

but each other. As we zoom in closer, we can

see and we can hear their pain and their weeping

together. Can you picture that in your brain?

How did we get to that point? How did we get

to a place where we see three women in suffering

and pain along this road with nothing? How did

we get to this point? Where are they going? So

let's enter into the story together and just

at first look at some of the context of this

story. And verse 1 really helps us in it. So

we're just going to slowly work our way through

this, okay? Verse 1. During the time of the judges,

there was a famine in the land. And a man left

Bethlehem in Judea. with his wife and his two

sons to stay in the territory of moab for a while

so simple enough right just kind of gets the

setting well there's a lot going on and one of

the things about ruth you'll understand is that

it's so deep with meaning so let's just start

off with one our story takes place during the

time of the judges now it was a four judges if

you look at your bible it goes joshua judges

ruth right Not Joshua, Judges, Ruth, which is

the way we remember that, but that's where it

falls. And the book of Judges is a 400 -year

period of Israel, and Israel had entered into

the promised land, and not too long before it,

they had said to God, coming out of the Exodus,

they had said to God, like, hey, man, we're going

to follow you forever. We're going to be committed

to you. Man, it's a beautiful covenant they make

with God. Like, we're in. And if you know the

story, they don't do a very good job, do they?

They enter into this promised land. And this

is a time before, from the time of Joshua, before

there was any kings of Israel. But it's one of

the darkest, it is the most dark and most wicked

and rebellious period of Israel's history. In

fact, if you read all of Judges, it's quite depressing.

I did it this last week again. Read the whole

thing in pretty much one setting. And it's ugly.

Joshua 21 verse 25 is the very last verse basically

Joshua 21:25

in the book of Judges before you open the page

of Ruth and it says this, in those days there

were no king of Israel and every man did what

is right in his own eyes. It gives you a sense

of what was going on. Every man, every person

was doing whatever they wanted, whatever was

right in their own eyes and we know where that

leads, right? Destruction. Kind of like today.

And the Israelites were surrounded by people

who had no time for the one true God, much like

you and I live in a world today. But in a world

where disgusting, horrific, immoral things were

happening all around them, and as time went on,

they gave in to those things, and as they gave

in to those things, destruction came. And they

were just surrounded by temptation. Surrounded

and giving into those temptations instead of

being surrendered to God. That was the process.

And they would get to this point in their life

where things would just fall apart. And then

they'd finally cry out to God and God would come

and rescue them. And then everything would be

good. In one generation, everything would fall

apart again. And it's this pattern over and over

and over. And you see it really. This incredibly

disgusting and dark picture in the book of Judges.

So the result was God's people from one generation

to the next would increase in their wickedness

and rebellion. Now, what the book of Ruth does

though, is it's set literally in the middle of

the book of Judges. Some people think it's right

around chapter 10 or 11, somewhere in there.

I don't know exactly, but we know that it's pretty

close. It fits right in there. And my wife used

this statement the other day, and I thought it

was so good. She says, you know, Ruth is like

a whisper of hope during the dark period of wickedness

and rebellion. It's a whisper of hope. And so

you've got to understand, like, when in this

opening scene, We're seeing, we understand the

context of what's going on with the book of Ruth.

It's dark. It's an evil time. So on top of Ruth

being set in this period of the judges, now we

see in verse 1 that there's also a famine in

the land. We don't know if this is because part

of God's judgment or what's going on. All we

know is that things were going really bad for

the children of Israel, those that lived in Bethlehem.

And so there's this family. We see this family,

this Jewish family that goes, okay, that live

in Bethlehem. And by the way, Bethlehem means

house of bread. That's what it means. And so

it's interesting to me that in the house of bread,

God's people are starving to death. So there's

a decision to take the family and move to Moab.

Look at verse 2. Man's name was Elimelech and

his wife's name was Naomi. And their names of

their two sons was Milion and I like Chilin,

but it's Chilin. Chilin just sounds better. They

were Ephraites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they

entered the fields of Moab and settled there.

Okay, so what's significant about this? So Elimelech

takes his family 50 miles away. Now, 50 miles

is nothing for us, but if you're walking, that's

a long ways. 50 miles, and he moves his family

50 miles away to Moab, where everything seemed

to be fine. There was no famine there, right?

Seems like a good choice. Seems like a wise choice.

If you're a husband, you're like, man, I gotta

take care of my family. They're starving to death.

Problem is, is God's people were not to dwell

there. It was direct, like, this is not where

you go. See, the Moabites, they were wicked people,

descendants from Lot. And the story of Lot, and

I won't go into a lot of detail, but the story

of Lot and how the Moabites came about is a dark

story. It's a story of a daughter having intercourse

with Lot and then bearing a child, and that child

is named Moab. And the Moabites were known as

a wicked people who worshiped false gods, multiple

gods. One of them was Baal. And one of the things

they know about it is they were perverted in

their worship and they were also sacrificing

people. This was a dark and ugly. We don't even

have a category for the kind of wickedness that

Moab, well, we do. We have categories, similar.

But in that time, this was, God had clearly said,

no, I don't dwell there. And so what you have

is so Elimelech takes matters into his own hands,

and he justifies his actions, and he takes this

tragic decision to move his family to another

land. You think, well, that's stupid. Well, think

about it for a second. No food versus food. Starving

children versus there's food over there. Now,

you may think we can easily quickly judge Elimelech

and say, Elimelech, you're... What were you thinking?

Well, he was thinking with his belly. And he

justified his decisions, but very clearly was

God saying, no, you're not to go. But he justifies

it. So now, as we go through the story, it's

important for us to understand what these names

mean. The reason they're in there. So Elimelech,

check this out, means God is my king. That's

what his name means. And for these people, their

name meant something. And we'll see that at the

end of this chapter. God is my king. And the

sad part is that he doesn't act like it. He doesn't

cry out to his God as king. He goes against his

God and he acts like he is king and makes a tragic

decision. Then Naomi, her name means pleasant

or sweet. But her life is anything but. Very

pleasant and sweet. Milion, her son, means sickness.

Chilion means wasting. You get this idea like,

this is a mess. Who names their kids sickness?

Unless you're in a place of pain. So the first

two verses that you look at, start out, you get

this idea that it's not going the way it should.

It gets worse though. Let's look at verse 3.

Naomi's husband, Elimelech, died. And she was

left with her two sons. You know, sickness and

wasting. Her sons took Moabite women as their

wives. One whose name was Orba, and the second

named Ruth. And after living in Moab for about

ten years, both... Melian and Chilin, I can never

say it right, also died. And the women were left

without two children and without her husband.

Okay. You're welcome to dyslexia. I don't know

why I'm right there, jumping all over the place.

But here's the thing. This story goes from sad

to hopeless in a matter of just a couple verses.

I want you just to imagine what it would be like

to be Naomi in this situation. Think about her

pain. Like I asked you to enter into the story.

Enter into Naomi's story for a minute. First,

you're starving to death because there's no food.

And so you move to a new land where you don't

know people. You have no friends, no family.

Isolated. You submit to your husband. whatever

happened in that dynamic, but they're there together.

And then as you're there, your husband dies,

leaving you with two boys who are not very good

off. And then these two boys do what they shouldn't

do, and that's marry Moabite wives. That's like

a bad day. They're not supposed to do that. It's

very clear. And then... On top of that, now both

of her sons die. Blow after blow, tragedy upon

tragedy, a 10 -year nightmare summed up in three

verses. Starts off really depressing. 10 years,

and now here's Naomi with nothing. Look at verse

6. She and her daughters... daughter -in -law

set off out to return from the territory of Moab

because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had

paid attention to his people's needs by providing

them food. She left the place where she had been

living accompanied by her two daughter -in -laws

and they traveled along the road leading back

to the land of Judah. So now we see these three

women in this dusty road. In all of their pain,

in all their despair, Naomi is moving toward

the only hope imaginable. She's going home. Now,

before you think that's just normal, I want you

to think about the prodigal son returning home.

The story in the New Testament of the prodigal

son returning home with emptiness and disgrace.

Nothing about Naomi's life had honor. She was

all disgrace. culturally in a place of disgrace.

Here she is moving home and her pain and her

suffering, she turns though in the midst of all

of that struggle, listen to me church, she turns

back to God. This is the picture. In verse 6,

God is mentioned for the first time by the author.

In verse 6 and in chapter 4, we see that this

theme about God that God gives. God gives. He

gives food and he gives a child. We'll see that

later. And what I wanted to point out here is

this is the first glimpse of one of the characters

of God in this story. That God gives. In midst

of the pain and the suffering, God gives. So

let me just stop at this point. in the story

and explain a couple of the theological themes.

And it's really important that you understand

what is at the thread that's going on theologically.

It's our understanding of who God is and what

he does and how that works, right? It'll help

us if we understand these as we go forward in

the book, as you read the book, to understand,

to have a lens to see it through. So think about

an eyeball lens. I don't understand eyeball.

I'm not Raul, but there's an eye doctor in the

house. But just think about your lens where you

have a kind of an arc, a top of the lens and

the bottom of the lens, okay? I didn't do any

drawing for you. Use your imagination. On the

top of the lens, we have this thing called the

providence of God. And in there is that God is

sovereign and that is good. That God is good.

Those are two doctrines that fall in that. But

on the bottom of the lens, we have this idea

of redemption. That God is our redeemer. As the

story unfolds, you'll see the theme of redemption

and belonging begin to happen. When we talk about

the providence of God, we're talking about how

God is at work. His hand in scripture, his hand

in history, and his hand in our lives. God's

hand of providence is the belief that God is

at work, not just in history, but in everyday

details of normal peoples like Naomi and like

Ruth and like you and I. God's providential hand.

So when we speak of the providence of God, we

have to think about two doctrines that fall in

the providence of God. One is that God is sovereign

and that God is good. That God is sovereign.

He possesses supreme authority, absolute power,

and total control in all of creation. God the

Almighty. We sang about this, right? That last

song, that God Almighty, like He is sovereign.

God Almighty reigns in all affairs of man. And

He is the highest authority. That's the one side

of it. But there's the second part that God in

all of that, but God is good. He is loving and

patient. He is merciful and he's kind and he's

compassionate and he's slow to anger and he's

abounding in steadfast love. This is who God

is. And it's wrapped up in the providence of

God. And you'll see in this story how some of

that begins to be unfolded for us. Both of these

threads are throughout all of Scripture. These

theological themes are at work in the book of

Ruth, and they're really important to keep in

that back mind as we go through the story. So

let's go back to the story. These three women

back on the road again. They're started off to

Bethlehem, but somewhere along the way, Naomi

with her two daughter -in -laws stops and has

this to say. Look at verse 8. Naomi said to them,

each of you go back to your mother's home. May

the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown

to the dead and to me. May the Lord grant each

of you rest in the house of a new husband. And

she kissed them and they wept loudly. So she

turns to the girls and she says, I have nothing

to give you, obviously. She says, but my God

is chesed. That's a little word that we can't,

we don't have a definition for, and so it doesn't

even show up in your English translation, but

it's this word chesed, H -E -S -E -D. And it

means, it's the summation of the wonderful attributes

of God. The loving and the gracious and the merciful

and the patient and the kind and the overflowing

love and blessing of God. And she wants this.

She says, she tells the girls, I have nothing

but I am going to pray to God that because God

is chesed, because God is this kind of God. See?

This view of God that Naomi has is really important

for us to see right now. It's really important

for us to see because we need to see it all the

way through. But chesed is this idea that God,

so Naomi's looking and goes, I believe that this

God is like this, but is she able to embrace

that herself? Look at what happens in verse 10.

They said to her, we insist on returning with

you to your people. But Naomi replied, return

home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with

me? Am I able to have any more sons who could

become your husbands? Return home, my daughters.

Go on. For I am too old to have another husband.

Even if I thought there was still hope for me

to have a husband tonight and bear sons, would

you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would

you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No.

My daughters, my life is much too bitter for

you to share because the Lord's hand has turned

against me. So, have you ever felt that kind

of pain that Naomi has right now? Just think

about Naomi's pain. She has nothing. She's got

her daughter -in -laws, which is evident that

she loves them. She wants what's best for them.

But she's in such pain. Have you ever felt that?

Have you ever been in a place where you just

go, gosh, I feel so hopeless? See, Naomi believes

that God is responsible for her tragedy. She

believes that God is the one responsible for

the tragedy she's experiencing. She knows that

God is sovereign in her life. It's obvious it

comes right out of there. But she is bitter.

She says it straight up. I know God's real. I

know he's in charge. I'm bitter. She sees the

sovereign hand of God, but she is not seeing

the good, the goodness of God. She wants a said

for her daughters -in -laws, but she's struggling

to believe a said for herself. Look at verse

14. Again, they wept loudly. and Orpah kissed

her mother -in -law, but Ruth clung to her. Underline

that. Ruth clung to her. See, Orpah ultimately

chooses to go back home to her people, and we'll

see in the next verse, to her gods. She returns

to her old ways. But what does Ruth do? Ruth

in this situation clings to Naomi. I just love

that picture. Is there any hope in Naomi? She

just clings to her and says, I'm committed to

you. Look at verse 15. Ruth begins to talk. Naomi

said, look, your sister -in -law, now she's talking

to Ruth. Look, your sister -in -law has gone

back to her people and to her gods. Follow your

sister -in -law. But Ruth replied, don't plead

with me to abandon you and return and not to

follow you. For wherever you go, I will go. And

wherever you live, I will live. And your people

will be my people. And your God will be my God.

And where you die, I will die. And when you are

buried, may the Lord punish me and do so severely

if anything but death separates you and me. And

Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with

her, and she stopped talking to her, meaning

she stopped begging her to stay. So we see Ruth,

beautiful Ruth, with a different posture. in

this painful situation. Ruth is trusting God.

She is all in, right? Humanly speaking, this

makes absolutely no sense. There's no hope for

her. If she goes back, there's no real hope for

her. She's a Moabite. What does she do? And I

love this picture. She puts her faith in God

alone. She's going to a foreign land where she

is most likely going to be despised and looked

down on because she is a Moabite. She has no

food, no husband, no job, no home. It's crazy.

This is the opposite of Elimelech. For Ruth,

her God, the one true God, is truly king. Unlike

Elimelech who was acting whose name meant, my

God is my king, Ruth is acting like her God is

her king. My question to us this morning, is

that true for you? Is that true for me? Is God

really your king? See, I think this is a picture

of what it means to become a Christian. When

you put your hope in Jesus, you step out in faith

in Jesus. We put our trust in a good and sovereign

God, even though it doesn't always make sense.

Look at verse 19. The two of them traveled until

they came to Bethlehem. 50 miles, right? When

they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited

about their arrival, and the local women explained,

can this be Naomi? Can you picture that scene

just for a minute? Here's raggedy old Naomi after

10 years of being away, coming back with nothing.

They look and all of her old friends see her.

Can this be her? Can this be Naomi? Verse 20,

don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara. She answered,

for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went

away full. The Lord has brought me back empty.

Why do you call me Naomi since the Lord has opposed

me and the Almighty has afflicted me? I wrestled

with this section a lot because it almost feels

like the Lord would do that to her. How did she

leave? She left the presence of God. She left.

Full. But she comes back empty. The attention

in this section goes back to Naomi where she,

here she returns and calls herself Mara, which

means bitter. Naomi is struggling with bitterness.

Maybe, and just real, and being real, maybe that

is one of your struggles. Bitterness is a real

thing, and it gets inside of us. And so it's

inside of Naomi right now. She just straight

up says, I'm bitter. I love that. I love Naomi's

honesty. I love that she's just real with her

people, open and honest, like don't call me sweetness.

Call me bitter. I believe she's telling these

other women. She's sharing her heart with these

women, but I believe in this situation, she's

also saying, I need help. It's kind of like I

said, the prodigal son who goes home and he's

coming back knowing he's got nothing to offer.

And he's honest and real. I have done this. And

I need help. I think that's the first part. of

our relationship with God, that we look at God

and say, God, I need help. In verse 22, though,

it begins that we get a glimpse of hope. So in

this darkness of this first chapter, by the way,

the rest of it is not so dark. The darkness of

this first chapter, at the very end, it leads

us to this place of hope. Look at verse 22. So

Naomi came back to the territory. from the territory

of Moab, with her daughter -in -law, Ruth, the

Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the

beginning of the barley harvest. Hey, what in

the world does that mean? It's hope. Bethlehem,

where Jesus was born, means a house of bread.

It's a picture of hope. The barley harvest is

in the same window as the... Passover feast where

they would look back at the redeeming work of

God and redeeming the people out of slavery into

a place of belonging as his people the barley

harvest happens right there among the Passover

the Passover is also the time where Jesus the

Lamb of God was crucified in our place same time

where he took He gave us hope. Why? How did he

do that? He took all of our disobedience, all

of our brokenness upon himself. And he stood

in our place. And it was at Passover that this

happened. And it's all back from the very original

Passover in the Exodus pointing all the way toward

Christ. What Christ does is comes in and stands

in our place. He does what the sacrificial lamb

in the Passover does. He sacrifices himself.

He says, I'll take it all. And our response to

that is, do we hope and do we put our trust in

Jesus? Are we coming back to the place of hope?

See, hope is found in Bethlehem. This is the

picture. Your hope, just like Naomi's hope, is

found in Bethlehem. Why? Because that's where

Jesus was from. That's where Jesus was born.

Their hope is found in Jesus. So as we close

chapter one today, I want you, this is what I

want to encourage you with. I don't know your

stories. I don't know any of our stories. I mean,

I know some of your story, but I don't know the

inner workings of your story. I don't know your

heart, but I would encourage you to be honest

with God. I love this picture about Naomi. Naomi

is incredibly honest with God. And then let me

ask you this. Is there anybody, any of these

characters in the story? We haven't got, there's

more to come. Boaz is coming. He's a cool character.

But in these characters we've looked at, do you

identify with your story? Let's look at Elimelech.

Do you claim that God is your king? That you

just call on him when you need him? You're not

acting as if he's truly king of your life. You

take matters into your own hands. If I'm really

honest, this is the one I struggle with the most.

I like to just do it. And then I have to go backwards.

You only see your immediate problems in your

life. Maybe your money or your well -being matters

most to you. That's a limelight. Then there's

Ophir. I think that's how you say your name.

Orpha. There we go. You tried God, but it didn't

really work. So you're just going to go back

to your old way of life. I suspect that there's

not a whole lot of those in this room, but there's

a whole lot of people like that. Because if you

were in this room, good chance you still are

hoping on hanging on to something. But if this

is the posture you've lived in, don't run back

to the old way. Then there's Naomi. Oh, there's

Ruth. Let's go to Ruth first. There's Ruth. Ruth

says, I'm going to trust the Lord as my Savior

and my Lord. And I'm going to walk in faith.

I don't even know what this looks like. Then

there's Naomi, who's... broken who's frustrated

who's a bitter person that god deeply loves i

believe you believe maybe in the sovereign hand

of god but you are struggling to see him as a

good and loving god so wherever you are at today

i just want to encourage you right where you

sit when we're saying today just to be honest

with god he can handle it Be honest to God, but

get your eyes on Jesus. Get your eyes on Jesus.

Because that's where your hope is. Ruth is our

example where she humbly steps in faith to a

good and loving and sovereign God. Step in faith

toward him. Step toward the hope that you have

in Jesus. And the band, I want you to come up

now. And as you go back, we always do communion

every week, and the reason we do it is that our

gaze, our attention goes back to this most important

thing, and that is Jesus and what he did for

you and I. Guys, when we go to the communion

table, that is a picture of the hope that you

have in Jesus. You're not clinging to something

that's false. You're clinging. Like Ruth, you

cling to Jesus. You cling to the hope. And as

you look at the reason you can cling to that

hope is because Jesus did it for you. He stood

in your place. His body was broken. You think

he understands pain? You think he understands

hurt and suffering? Absolutely. His body was

broken for you and his blood was shed for you.

Because of that, you stand new in him. And come

back to that moment over and over. with your

eyes with hope toward the future on Jesus. So

cling to Jesus today. Let's pray. Lord, help

us to come to you like Ruth and say, your God

is my God. In the midst of whatever struggle

we're going through, God, I pray that we will

come before you and say, God, I don't understand

all the problems. I don't understand the outcome,

but I trust you. I want my life to honor you

and to be where you are first and foremost in

every detail. Help us not to take matters into

our own hands, but to humbly submit and surrender

to you. All of us, we give to you, Lord. All

of us. We know that you give all of you back

to us, and that's a pretty good trade. Thank

you for what you did on the cross. We thank you

for your surrender so that we might have a right

relationship with you. Thank you for suffering

in our place, for dying for our sins, that we

may be made new in you. Before we close this

prayer, if there's anyone in this room who has

yet to surrender, do like Ruth said, and my God

is your God. Do like Ruth and surrender your

life to Jesus. I pray that today will be the

day for you. Thank you, Lord. As we respond,

we're going to sing a song. And I just encourage

you, listen to it. If you feel like standing

and singing, you're welcome to. This is a song

that's just like pouring out.