Love at Work – Choosing Love

Good morning. Today we're starting a series

out of the book of Ruth in the Bible.

And I want to start just by telling you I there was a man

and his wife and they had this great opportunity to go to the

Holy Land. And so they took the guy's

mother-in-law with them. They went to the Holy Land, just

the guy, his wife and his mother-in-law went to the Holy

Land. It was the trip of a lifetime.

They get to got to go see everything.

And so they went over there and everything was going good.

They're, they're seeing the Holy Land and all this stuff from the

Bible. But then a tragedy struck and

the mother-in-law passed away on the trip to the Holy Land.

And so the people met with officials there.

And the official said, well, you have a couple options.

The first option is you can pay $15,000 and we will ship the

mother in law's body back to the States where you can bury the

mother-in-law in the States, or you can just spend $500 and your

mother-in-law can be buried right here in the Holy Land.

It's a special place and, and the man didn't even take a

second to think. He said, listen, we will pay the

$15,000 to take her back to the States.

And the the official said, what, like I can't, why wouldn't you

want to pay less money and have your mother-in-law buried here

in the Holy Land? And the man said, well, about

2000 years ago a guy died and was buried here in the Holy Land

and three days later he came back to life.

And I can't take that chance. I told him in first service is

going to be much more awkward telling this in second service

with my mother-in-law in the room.

All joking aside, you know, Ruth is the story of of Naomi, the

mother-in-law of Ruth. And by the way, I want to say

I've got a great mother-in-law. If I'm going to tell a joke like

that, I should go ahead and say I am blessed.

I don't feel that way, but the, the story that we're going to

look at is, is the book of Ruth. So today we're going to be in

Ruth chapter 1. And Ruth is the story of Naomi

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

and Ruth and Boaz. And it's this incredible story

in the Old Testament that we're going to look at.

And I'll just tell you, the more I've studied it, the better it's

gotten. And, and can I just encourage

you with this, that the more you study God's word, the deeper you

get into it, the better it is. If you read it, it's good, but

I'm telling you, the more you get into it, the deeper it gets

and the more the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you and work.

And so today's message in in Ruth chapter 1 is called Choose

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

Love. And we're going to look at the

choice that we can choose love. Would you stand with me and

honour God's word? And just a warning, I don't

usually read full chapters, but this is a story and I want you

to hear the full part of it. So we're going to read all of

Ruth chapter 1. It's a little bit long, but we

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

stand because we believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak.

And my prayer is and I feel like the Spirit is already moving and

speaking today. So my prayer is that the Spirit

will speak to you and and that God will be very real to you.

His word Ruth, chapter one verse one says in the days when the

judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.

So a man from Bethlehem and Judah, together with his wife

and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.

The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name was Naomi, and

the names of his two sons were Maylon and Killian.

They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah, and they went

to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelech Naomi's husband

died and she was left with her two sons.

They married Moabite women, one named Orpa and the other named

Ruth, and after they had lived there about 10 years, both

Maelon and Killian also died, and Naomi was left without her

two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that

the Lord had come to the aid of His people by providing food for

them, she and her daughters in law prepared to return home.

From there. With her two daughters in law,

she left the place where she had been living and set out on the

road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters in law, Go back, each

of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show you kindness,

as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.

May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home

of another husband. Then she kissed them goodbye and

they wept aloud and said to her, We will go back with you, to

your people. But Naomi said, return home, my

daughters. Why would you come with me?

Am I going to have more sons who could become your husbands?

Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another

husband. And even if I thought there was

still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and then gave

birth to sons, would you wait until they grew up?

Would you remain unmarried for them?

No, my daughters, it's more bitter for me than for you,

because the Lord's hand has turned against me.

At this they wept aloud again, and then Orpa kissed her

mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung to her.

Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to

her people, and her gods go back with her.

But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back

from you. Where you go I will go.

Where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people,

and your God, my God. Where you die I will die, and

there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it

ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.

When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her,

she stopped urging her. So the two women went on until

they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem,

the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women

exclaimed, Can this be Naomi? Don't call me Naomi, she told

them. Call me Mara because the

Almighty has made my life very bitter.

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

Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me.

The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.

So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth the Moabite,

her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest

was beginning. You can have a seat now.

Listen, there's four chapters. We're going to do a chapter a

week. This is an incredible,

incredible story. And, and this is a story of

God's faithfulness and it's a story of the way that God works

through ordinary people who choose love.

The, the time frame of this is the time of the judges.

Most people believe that this is the early time of the judge.

So the period of the judges was about 400 years after God had

delivered his people into the promised land.

There was a time of about 400 years where they didn't have a

king or a leader and the people would go through this cycle,

it's called the cycle of retribution.

And and this cycle was that the people would get comfortable or

would forget about God and they would mess up and then they

would get cast into a bad spot. So they would mess up, they

would get in a tough spot, they would cry out to God.

God would save them. Everything was good.

They would get comfortable, they would forget about God.

They would do their own thing. They would get cast into

difficulty. They would call out to God.

God would save them. Are you getting the point?

It was a cycle over and over for 400 years.

This is so this happens at the beginning of this, this time of

the Judges. And this story focuses on a

family. And, and I think if you really

dig deep, you would find that this family is right in the

middle of this cycle. They're right in the middle of

this cycle of choosing their own path, finding themselves in

trouble, calling out to God, being saved.

And, and so the more you study this, I'm telling you, the

better it is. Before we jump into it, we're

going to be looking at a lot of names today because the names

here are very significant. They tell us a lot about this

story. So first I want to start with

Naomi and Elimelech. The name Naomi, it means

pleasant pleasant. The name Elimelech means God is

king. So what does this tell us?

This tells us that they were God's people that that their

their parents named them because they were God's people and they

were obviously, I mean God is king, pleasant.

They they had good names. What we find pretty quickly in

the book of Ruth is that they're not living up to their names.

Do you know what your name means?

Anyone. They weren't living up to their

names. Naomi's name was pleasant.

Chapter 1 didn't seem so pleasant for Naomi, did it?

Elimelech's name is God is King. But what we see early on, and

there's three things we're going to talk about and then and the

first thing is this. Elimelech and Naomi were not

faithful to God. God was good.

They were God's people. They were from so, so I told you

this is right after God's delivered the people into the

promised land, and that's who they come from.

So these are God's people named Pleasant and God is my king.

But Elimelech and Naomi, we're not faithful to God.

As we look through the story, we see clues that tell us this.

Quick, five things. Five things we see in the text.

First, let's keep on this name trend.

They had two sons. So remember pleasant God is

king. Now let's look at their sons

names, Maelon and Killian. Maelon means sick or sickness.

Killian means death or destruction.

Thanks, mom, appreciate it. So, so we go from from pleasant

and God is king to sickness and death.

Does this not tell us something about where they were when they

had their children? It tells us that the the land

was in a famine. And so obviously it was a tough

time. And this tells us just from the

names of their sons that they were in a place of despair and

they weren't in a place of hope and and, and, and faith.

They were in a place of darkness, so they named their

sons. I thought I'd have some fun.

I'd never looked up my name. You know what Alex means?

Defender of mankind. We are doomed.

It means helper. I thought I would dig a little

bit deeper, so I looked up Dale. Pastor Dale.

Dale means valley. I don't know what to do with

that. Dale means Valley.

Brad. Pastor Brad.

Brad means wide. Sorry, buddy, I didn't come up

with it Wide. Pastor Shane, you know what

Shane means? Gift from God.

There we go, Shane. You might have won that one.

There's a lot in the name. And, and I just think, man,

they, they, they pleasant and God is king, but they name their

kids sickness and death. Something's obviously off here.

That's number one. Number two, they left God's

people. They didn't trust that God would

provide for them in this time of famine.

So I told you, this is probably, I don't, we don't know the exact

date, but it's probably the beginning of the period of the

judges. And the reason that we conclude

that is because Boaz, who will come into the story in chapter

2, is the son of Rahab who helped the spies come into the

land. So we're a generation removed

from there. And so it's at the beginning of

this period. But but think about that.

What that means is that God has been faithful and LED his people

all the way to the promised land not long before this.

God has done awesome things and provided and we get into Ruth

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 and there's a famine and what do they do?

They take off. Hey, thanks for leading me to

the promised land. You did some great things.

But I think we're going to go somewhere else because I think

we can fend better for ourselves elsewhere.

So #1 we see the names of their sons #2 we see that they, they

left God's people in God's place.

But #3 they didn't just leave. They went to an enemy land,

Moab. Moab was not a friendly place to

God's people. These were enemies.

This, this is like transferring from the Ohio State to Michigan.

That's what we're talking about here.

It's not just that they left, it's that they went to the enemy

territory. They took off and they went to

mob the Moab. The Moabites were long time

enemies of God's people. They were known for being

incestuous people and they worshipped a different God,

Kimosh. So these were not godly people

and they left. Things were rough.

They didn't trust God to provide and so they left God's place and

went to Moab #4. When they got there the the sons

were married to Moabite women Orpa and Ruth.

Now if you study Scripture a little bit deeper, you would

know that around this time God had been very clear that the

people of God were not to marry people from these other nations

because it opened the door to idolatry and trouble in

Deuteronomy Chapter 7 that that said do not marry people from

Deuteronomy 7 · chapter mention

other nations. So not only do they name their

sons sickness and death, not only do they leave God's

promised land and lack trust, not only do they go to the

enemy, but then they marry their sons to women from the Moabites.

Then the last thing we see and we're going to Fast forward for

this number 5. This is after Naomi goes back to

to God's place, to Bethlehem, says when she got back there,

they said, oh, this is Naomi. This is pleasant.

Listen to what she says. Don't call me Naomi pleasant,

call me Mara because the Lord has made my life very bitter.

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

Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me and

the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.

And so Naomi says don't call me pleasant, call me Mara.

Which means bitter. Sounds like a lovely person to

be around, doesn't it? You know, some people like that.

So don't call me pleasant, don't call me by my name, my good

name, call me better. But there's so much more in

this. I mean, they're in this cycle.

And this is something that in all honesty, I think we're good

at as as God's people, we tend to be in this cycle as well.

We choose our own way. We don't trust God to take care

of something. We go our own way.

We sin, we fall short, and then we find ourselves in trouble.

And and, and what does Naomi say?

She says God did this to me. Call me Mara because God has

made me bitter. He's afflicted me.

She says I went away full. No, she didn't.

She named her sons sickness and death.

She says I went away full, but God has brought me back empty.

Mara, bitter guys, when we choose our own way and we find

ourselves in trouble, we're pretty good at thinking God's

turned on us. I got good news for you.

God has not turned on us. God is faithful.

God is good. And so that brings us to the

second thing, the second point, and that's the first good thing

that Naomi does in this story. That's that she turns back to

God and her time of need. I told you there's a cycle.

We choose, we mess up, we get in trouble, we call on God.

That's where we are here. Naomi chooses.

She says I'm going to go back. I'm going to go back to the

promised land. I'm going to go back.

Now. Let's not give her too much

credit here because it says here she went back because she knew

what was happening there. She knew that God was taking

care of people was providing. In fact, look, verse 6 when

Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his

people by providing food for them, she and her daughters in

law prepared to return home from there with them.

She went left the place where she'd been living and set back

on the road to the land of Judah.

And so this isn't just oh, I was wrong.

I got to come back. This is, oh, God's taking care

of people. Now I'm back in.

Listen, can I, can I say something real quick?

As much as that seems wrong, I want to tell you that that God

welcomes us. See, Naomi felt that God had

turned his back on her. She says God's afflicted me.

God's turned on me. God has made me empty, guys.

The truth couldn't be further from that.

In fact, we we know that God was working all along to bring her

back. Because God is not against us.

God is for us. God loves us and we had strike

one the names strike two leaving strike three going to the enemy

strike four marrying the boys off to to people from Moab.

Strike five called me bitter. I mean strike after strike after

strike. I mean she's almost to two outs

in baseball. Any of you ever feel like you're

on out 5678910112050 I got really good news for you today.

No matter where you've gone or what you've done, you can always

turn back to God. You can always turn back to God.

This this story actually reminds me of the the prodigal son where

a similar situation. He says I want to do it on my

own. He takes in his inheritance.

He squanders it. He lives in filth.

He he's at hits rock bottom and he says I got to go back because

I realized I was better off and guess what, when he comes back,

the father doesn't say shame on you go back.

He says, come on, because that's our God.

And so can I just say if there's anyone in here that feels like

they're on strike 15 or 20 or God loves you, you can always,

always turn back to him. Not only that, I believe that

God is drawing you back to him. God loves you.

He's for you. That brings us to the third

part. And this is where we get to

choose love. This is when the first hero

emerges in the story and it's not Naomi Pleasant.

It's not the good girl that grew up in God's, you know, Holy

Land. It's not the girl that grew up

in the in the promised Land that grew up knowing the stories of

God's faith. When it's not Naomi, it's Ruth,

the Moabite girl. It's not the one you think it

would be, but the first hero in the story is a girl from Moab

who grew up in the enemy land, a land that was terrible, that

they worshipped false gods, a land that was not a good place.

And she didn't grow up knowing all about God's faithfulness.

But we see that she chooses love.

And so Ruth shows love to Naomi. Are we been looking at names?

Do you know what the name Ruth means?

It means friendship. She did live up to her name,

verse 11. But Naomi said return home, my

daughters. Why would you come with me?

Am I going to have sons who could become your husband's?

Return home, my daughters. I'm too old to have another

husband. Even if I thought there was

still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and gave birth

to sons, would you wait for them to grow up?

Would you remain unmarried for them?

No, my daughters, it's more bitter for me than you, because

the Lord's hand has turned against me.

At this they wept aloud. Then Orpa kissed her

mother-in-law goodbye and but Ruth clung to her Look, said

Naomi, your sister in Where you go, I will go.

Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people

and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and

there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it

ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.

And when Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with

her, she stopped urging her. Guys, this is incredible.

It's not Naomi the the person that grew up in the Promised

Land, the one that knew the stories of God's faithfulness.

It's not Naomi that's the hero. It's Ruth, the Moabite girl who

grew up in a bad place, who didn't know who God was.

Oh, man, this is so great. I want you to hear this.

No matter if you've got 20 strikes or 30 strikes, if you

grew up a Christian and you've blown it or you've wandered,

you're never too far to turn back to God.

But here's the second truth. You can turn to God no matter

whether you've grown up Christian, whether you've heard

about whether you've gone to church for 50 years.

This could be your first time in a church.

This could be your first time hearing about God.

Here's the beautiful part. If you choose to walk with him

in obedience and love, God will bless you and give you life.

So here's the deal. Some of you may be Naomi here

and you're on strike 20 and you need to turn back today.

Some of you may be Ruth, and today might be an opportunity

for you to say I'm in. If I choose love, your people

will be my people. Your God will be my God.

There's no better choice you can make today, guys.

Whether it's turning back or whether it's committing for the

first time. There is no better choice you

can make than to choose love. This text has been used at

weddings. This saying from Ruth, I mean,

it is through the years. Become famous.

Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay.

I'm with you. Your people will be my people.

Your God. My God.

What? Why did she choose?

It doesn't tell us exactly why Ruth chooses to stay with Naomi.

Is it because she deserves it? No.

Sorry. I didn't mean to stump you there

with a 50% question. Yes or no?

No. She didn't deserve it.

Naomi didn't earn it. In fact, we've seen she's let's

just look at, let me, let me take a step back for a second.

Think about this. We've already got 5 strikes,

right? And then Naomi is here and she's

saying I'm going to turn back to God.

I'm going to go back. But even in that, she continues

to urge Orpa and Ruth to get out of there and go take care of

themselves. This has been the problem the

whole time. You're trying to do it your way.

You're not trusting God. And so even on the way back,

even in her decision to turn back, she says, I'm turning

back. I got nothing else but you guys.

You guys go back your own way. Go take care of yourselves.

Go find husbands in your own land.

It even says go back to your own gods.

She still doesn't get it. She still doesn't get it.

Does she deserve it? No.

Was Naomi just so much fun to be around?

Call me Mara bitter. I'm afflicted.

You don't want to be around me. I'm the whore.

I'm terror God has turned against you got.

You guys have been around. Some people like that, right?

It's not fun. Did she deserve it?

Was it just that, you know, she was so great that Ruth couldn't

bear to not be around? No, I, I here's what I believe.

I believe that God was working in Ruth's heart.

And Ruth chose what she believed was the right thing.

She chose love, not because it was deserved, not because it was

earned, not because it was convenient.

It could mean it could mean disaster for her.

It could mean that she would spend the rest of her life

looked at poorly and in another land, that she would be lost,

basically. But she chooses because she

believes this is what's right. Where you go, I'll go.

Where you stay, I'll stay. Your people will be my people,

and your God is my God. She chose love.

Think about it. All through the story so far,

Naomi and Elimelech have chose themselves, have chose their

path. Ruth says no, I choose love.

I choose to put others first. I choose obedience.

What a beautiful thing guys. Here's the good news.

God can work His plan through anyone that is willing to follow

Him, to be obedient and to love others.

I don't care where you've been or what you've done.

I don't care where you grew up. I don't care what your

background is. If you choose love and obedience

to God today, God can do incredible things.

We're going to go through the last three chapters in the next

few weeks. I wish I could do them all today

because you'd see all the good things that God does through the

choice of Ruth. But here's what where we want to

end today. I want to ask you to choose

love. Why don't you stand with me?

Worship team, come on up. We're going to finish out by

singing I Speak Jesus. And as we sing this, I just want

to encourage you to respond to God's word.

I really believe that God is here and that he's speaking and

maybe some of you are here and you would say, hey, I've tried

doing it my way. I've missed it.

I've gotten off the path. It's time to turn back.

If that's you, don't hesitate. Turn back.

You're never too far gone. God is here and he's drawing you

to Him. If there's anyone in here that

you've never made a commitment to God, you've never said, I'm

with you, God. I choose love.

I choose obedience. Today can be your first time and

you can sign up and get on this journey and God will give you

such great things. God will give you love in life.

I'm not saying it's going to be perfect and every day it's not

prosperity gospel. It's that God will show you the

right way to go and the right way to live and He is always

faithful. Today I want to ask you to

respond to God's word. Maybe there's some stuff in your

life that's been really difficult.

Maybe there are some people in your life that have been

difficult. Maybe people have hurt you.

Maybe people don't seem to deserve your love and your

grace. Today I want to ask you to

choose love, not, hey, you've earned it.

But listen, because I choose God, because I choose obedience.

Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay.

Your people are my people. Your God is my God.

If we can get there, guys, I promise you His spirit's going

to be poured out in incredible ways.

I want to encourage you as we sing this song, respond to God's

word. If God's speaking to you, don't

hesitate. You can come to an altar.

It's a great place to pray. There's no shame in it.

It's a place to say yes. It's a place to lay down what's

going on. Let's choose love today.

Father, if there's anyone here that needs to turn back to you,

I pray that they would be obedient and come back to you.

Now. If there's anyone here that's

hearing this for the first time or has never chosen to walk with

you, I pray today would be the day that they choose to walk

with you. If there's anything in our lives

that we need to surrender, I pray that we would surrender it

now. Put our trust in you and choose

love. We love you, Lord, we give you

everything. We speak Jesus over everything

in Jesus name, Amen.