Great Texts of The Bible: God's Will | Ruth 1 | Pastor William Hixson

Luke. We spent five years in Luke.

That's over. Book of Ruth. Book of Ruth,

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1.

I'm going to read I I'm assuming a

familiarity with this wonderful book.

It's one of my favorite books in the

Bible. I love teaching it verse by

verse. But this morning,

this morning, we're just going to camp

out here for a little bit. uh and I and

use it for our purposes today not as a

book study but focusing on one point

but let's remind oursel of it Ruth

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 verse one now can came to pass

in the days when the judges rule that

there was a famine in the land and a

certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to

sojourn in the country of Moab he and

his wife and his two sons

Now, Bethlehem is northeast of the Red

Sea, and Moab is, no, excuse me.

Bethlehem is northwest of the Red Sea.

And Moab is southeast of the

>> Dead Sea. See, I'm still doing it. Okay,

I better go home and go to bed and then

come back.

Okay. Bethlehem is northwest of the Dead

Sea or the Salt Sea and Moab is

southeast of the Dead Sea or the Salt

Sea. It's kind of an important

geographical thing. Probably this trip

from Moab, I'm guessing it uh is

probably about 60 miles.

Like to walk to Columbus.

Just think about that.

Been to Columbus a lot of times. I've

never walked, nor do I ever expect it.

But now it came to pass in the days when

the judges ruled, there was a famine in

the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem

Judah went to sojourn in the country of

Moab. He and his wife and his two sons.

Sojourn is the key word. They didn't

plan to stay there forever. They just

planned to be there for a while. Like

some of you snowbirds go to Florida for

a win. They just plan to stay there for

a while because of the famine that was

in the land. And then they plan to come

back.

And notice

this starts in Bethlehem,

the city that's going to later become

the birthplace of Jesus

and the birthplace before Jesus of

David.

This is very important.

David was born in Bethlehem. Uh, and

Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And there's

Bible things that are connecting here.

Wonderfully connecting.

And so

anyway, the name of the man was IMC and

the name of his wife was Na Naomi and

the name of his two sons, Mahalan and

Chilion, Ephrothites of Bethlehem,

Judah. And they came into the country of

Moab and continued there. And Alimc, and

I'll give you his name. Even if you

don't know Hebrew, you got ought to be

able to get a little this. Melik is

king. Elim is my my king. The Lord is my

king.

So the Lord is my king. God is my king

is his name.

Limchc and Naomi's husband died and she

was left and her two sons.

Nobody expected that.

Things happen that you don't expect.

You didn't plan on that.

They planned to sojourn in Moab, not die

in Moab.

So all three men died,

father

and the two sons.

And the sons, they actually stayed

longer than they expected. The sons grew

up and got married, but then they died

before they could have offspring.

And so it says in verse four, they took

unto themselves wives of the women of

Moab. The name of the one was Orpa and

the name of the other Ruth. And they

dwelt there 10 years. So the serjourn

last about 10 years. In those 10 years,

Imc died and both his sons died. You got

three women, three widows left. The

son's widow and Imc's wid.

And Milan and Chelon died also. Both of

them. And the women were bereft of her.

The woman was bereft of her two sons and

her husband.

And she arose

with her daughtersin-law that she might

return from the country of Moab,

for she heard in the country of Moab how

the Lord visited his people in giving

them food.

Famine was over.

Remember, it's an agricultural economy.

Wherefore she went forth out of the

place where she was, and her two

daughters-in-law with her, and they went

on the way to return unto the land of

Judah. Three women started the trip

back. All widows.

And Naomi said to her two

daughters-in-law, "Go return each to her

mother's house. The Lord deal kindly

with you as you've dealt with the dead

and with me. The Lord grant that you may

find rest. That means you might get

married. Each of you in the house of her

husband. Then she kissed them and they

lifted up their voice and wept. And

they, that's both of them, said to her,

"Surely we'll return with thee unto your

people." What an impression Naomi must

have made

to these daughters.

They're ready. These girls are talking

about leaving their country. to go with

her to Bethlehem, leaving their family

and spending time the rest of their

lives with her. And Naomi said, "Turn

again, my daughters. Will you go with

me? Are there yet any more sons in my

womb that they may be your husbands?"

Naomi been thinking about that as they

started as they're on their journey.

Wait a minute.

There's nobody. No one's going to marry

Moabitete. Remember,

there's a history between the Moabites

and the Jewish people.

Movites didn't have a very good

reputation.

Turn again, my daughters, go your way,

for I'm too old to have a husband. And

if I should say I have hope, if I should

have a husband and also tonight and

would bear sons, that's a hypothetical.

Would you tar for them till they're

grown? Would you refrain from marrying?

Nay, my daughters, for it grieves me

much for your sakes that the hand of the

Lord is gone out against me. I I applaud

her honesty. Don't you?

She didn't want to manipulate these

people for her sake to have them with

her and getting these younger people

into a situation maybe they hadn't

thought through. Plot or honesty. May

God give us that kind of honesty.

And they lifted up their voice and wept

again. And Orpa kissed her

mother-in-law. She kissed her goodbye.

She did what she told her to do.

Or kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth

clung to her.

Now Paul's action and Ruth's action are

contrasted just like later Boaz's action

and such a one's action are contrasted.

Such a one and Orpa weren't going to pay

the price.

Boaz and Ruth did.

They became the ancestors of David

and the ancestors of Jesus.

What an amazing story this is. Whole

Bible's about Jesus. Remember that.

We're talking about events that happened

3,000 years ago

in the Bible. Thousand years before

Jesus was born in 2,000 more years per

month.

Regular people

making hard decisions.

History has changed.

None of us know how much our decisions

are going to affect later people.

We don't. We have no way of knowing. We

make our decisions. Life doesn't tell us

the future.

But those decisions affect not just us,

not just the people around us,

people later than us.

And so here's what happened

in verse 15. And she said, "Behold, thy

sister-in-law is gone back to her people

and unto her gods."

Naomi knew what was, excuse me, uh Naomi

knew what was behind these decisions.

You go back to Moab, you're going to go

back to Moabitete gods, gods, and

Moabitete idolatry and Moabitete

immorality.

return after your sister-in-law.

Now, she was testing her.

She was laying out all the facts.

Ruth said,

"Entreat me not to leave you or turn

away from following after you. For where

you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I

will lodge. Your people will be my

people, and your God,

my God.

Where you die, I'll die.

I'm not even going back after you die.

I'm burning the bridges.

Where you die, I'll die. And there will

I be buried. The Lord do so to me. and

also if anything but death part thee and

me.

When she saw that she steadfastly

determined to go with her, then she

ceased speaking to her and will stop it.

Father, help me to speak each of us to

hear your word today in Jesus name.

Amen.

There was a Baptist pastor on our board

at GMSA. I told you about him. He's a

friend of mine. He's with the Lord now.

But he used to carry around little cards

and he would pass them out to people. I

told you about it a couple of weeks ago.

And on that card it said, "Life is

choices. Make good choices." That's all

it said.

Life is choices. Make good choices.

I've never forgotten that.

And it's always been something that I've

carried with me since he taught us on

that particular subject. And so I'm

going to not teach his message. I can't

remember his message. I got my own now.

But life is choices. What life is

choices. Your life, my life, choices. We

can't avoid choices.

Make good choices.

And all of us here, every one of us here

have made some bad choices. Anybody here

not made bad choices?

And all of us here probably made some

good choices.

And if I said to you, give me five of

your worst choices. Give me five of your

best choices.

Write them on a paper and hand them in.

I'm not going to do that. I'm just

saying. I'm sure you could reflect and

you'd be painful

for the bad choices and you'd be very

thankful for the good choices realizing

a secret hand was guiding you and not

just yourself.

Uh, now life is not a poker game

where you can throw away the bad cards

and ask for a couple more.

I'll take three.

Life is not a poker game where you can

choose how many cards you can keep or

discard. life is is um

um

is different than that. We make our

choices and then our choices make us

and we can't decide what hand we're hand

we're dealt.

And knife isn't an ice cream store.

One of the things I've enjoyed about

going to Tim's church in Guachu,

Argentina, they got the best ice cream.

Just the very best ice cream. And every

time I do that, I tell them, I really

want to be generous to you while I'm

here. You and your kids. I want to take

you all to the ice cream store. And I

say that because I want to

one of those things, 30 choices,

but they're all good. They don't have

any bad choices.

They're bad choices in the ice, but

there's bad choices in life

and some of them are disguised as good

choices.

That's what makes choice choosing so

such a so much of a a struggle.

And so may God help us to grasp this

very very thing.

Now, thankful we don't make our choices

in a vacuum.

Thankful that God is over everything,

our good choices AND BAD CHOICES. ALL

THINGS work together for good to those

that love God and are called according

to his purpose, even the bad choices.

That's not an excuse for making bad

choices,

but it is relief, isn't it?

So very important to grasp

that very thing.

Life is choices.

Make good choices

because bad choices always have

consequences

that we don't

we don't like.

John Swain is talks about eating at the

table of consequences. Well, we've all

had that meal.

It's not pleasant

when we made bad choices.

But choices must be made. Every one of

you have choices you can't avoid.

Some of them you can put off. Sooner or

later, can't put this off anymore.

And so choices must must be made.

Back in the 1960s when I was in college,

there was a very popular liberal guy.

I'm I'm not I have no sympathy for some

of his positions at all. His name was

Harvey Cox,

very popular. And he had a poster and

people put it up. I even put it up when

I was in my insanity years.

Not to decide is to decide.

But that's true. Even though, you know,

his particular view of life is

completely different to mine. Even not

to decide is to decide.

If we decide to put decisions off,

that's a decision.

So,

wow.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, "He who's

Matthew 12:30

not with me is against me."

What?

When did I make a decision to be against

you? When you made your decision not to

be with me.

These are awesome thoughts.

In the book of Hebrews 11 verse 25, it

Hebrews 11:25

talks about Moses. He refused to be

called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

choosing

rather to share affliction with the

people of God than enjoy the pleasures

of sin for a season. What a choice that

was.

turned his back on the pleasures and the

position and the power of being

Pharaoh's adopted son

to affiliate himself with two million

slaves.

How about this? And Joshua in the book

of Joshua 24:15,

Joshua 24:15

Joshua said at the end of his life, "And

if you be unwilling to serve the Lord,

choose you this day whom you'll serve.

Choose you this day whom you I'm not

going to be here. You got to make a

choice from after I'm gone." Don't our

kids need to do that after they're out

of the home?

Don't people have to do that after

they're under our care? Maybe in the

church, they're moved somewhere else,

went along while they were here, but

then they decide, "No, I'm going the

other way." Choose you this day whom you

will serve,

whether the gods your father served in

the regions beyond the river, or the

gods of the Amorites in whom the land

you dwell. But as for me in my house,

we'll serve the Lord.

So

they Moses laid it out. He had two

choices.

Be an Egyptian,

adopt an Egyptian, be wealthy and famous

and pleasure and have all the pleasures

or be with the slaves. The Jewish nation

with Joshua had three choices which

really come down to two. You can do the

idolatry in the land or the idolatry

around the land. Those are two different

choices, but they're really one. You're

going to be an idoltor.

Or you can serve the Lord. And you know,

life is down to two choices on that.

Your religion is either the religion of

Cain or Abel. It's just that simple.

Your your religion is either the re

religion of revelation or redemption.

That's the religion of Abel. a religion

of rebellion and recklessness. That's

the religion of Cain.

Every religion goes under one box or the

other.

All its variations.

Everyone has choices.

I I love the book of Proverbs. I love

teaching the book of Proverbs.

Um,

if you're new to Christianity and you've

never really studied Proverbs, you you

and you do it for the first time, you'll

notice the first eight chapters are the

introduction. They're different. And

then all of a sudden, you get into the

individual proverb.

But in the introduction, a father is

teaching his son and warning him and

exhorting him. There's two choices in

life. Lady folly, lady wisdom.

There's two parties. You can go to the

party of Lady Folly

the prostitute or you can go to Lady

Wisdom who is Jesus Christ

because Lady Wisdom is Christ. He's the

wisdom of God.

And they come and before he gets around

the individual decisions and individual

observations about life with the

different proverbs, he gets to this big

thing right here. The big thing behind

all the other things,

either Lady Father or Lady Christ or

Lady Wisdom,

that those two decisions, one or the

other, makes the difference between

everything else in your whole life.

And uh may God help us as we think about

Ruth and her decision.

Naomi and her decision.

We think about that whole book of Ruth,

but maybe we think about all the other

decisions made book in the Bible. You

can go through the Bible. People come to

the decision

come to the fork in the road.

Um,

Genesis 13

Genesis 13:9–11

verse 9 to 11.

I'd like you to turn there with me,

please.

Here's a man. The Bible says he was a

righteous man, but as a righteous man,

he had a very made a very unrighteous

decision.

In Genesis 13,

his name was Lot. His

name was Lot.

Genesis 13:9.

Genesis 13:9

Remember, he was the nephew of Abraham.

Abraham realized there was conflict

between Lot's herdsmen and his herdsmen.

And he says in verse eight, "Let there

be no strife. We got to stop this. It's

not right for our workers to fight with

each other and be squabbling with each

other." He says in verse 9, "Is not the

whole land before you? Separate

yourself, I pray you, from me. If you

will take the left hand, I'll go to the

right. And if you depart to the right

hand, I'll go to the left. Abraham,

who was the main guy, thought was the

tagalong that Abraham gave him first

choice.

Now, you know what happened in my home?

If the parents had a pie and there's

four kids and they cut the pie, I would

and they gave me first choice, I was

looking at the biggest piece.

I'll take that.

And that's exactly what Lot did. He

looked at what? He looked at the outward

geography

instead of the moral and religious and

spiritual condition of the peoples.

And it says in verse 10, Lot lifted up

his eyes and beheld all the plain of

Jordan. It was well watered everywhere

before the Lord destroyed Sodom and

Gomorrah, even as the garden of the

Lord. like the land of Egypt has to come

into.

Now listen, I've been to that place.

It's no garden now. It's a desert. It's

terrible.

It's desolate.

Boy, it was good in Lot's day.

Till God rained fire down from heaven

and brimstone and erect the

And chose him. He chose He chose him all

the plain of the Jordan. And he should

have said, "No, Abraham, you're the main

guy. You get first choice." He He jumped

the gun.

But worse than that,

thought he got the best deal and he got

the worst.

He chose him. All the plain of the

Jordan had lot journeyed east and they

separated themselves from one another.

Lost him his family.

had choice

lost him his wife.

Although his daughters survived, you

remember what happened to them

that brought about the Moabites and the

Ammonites

and caused trouble all the rest down

through history.

But Lot made his choice. It was a

selfish choice. It was a careless

choice. It was a biblically un

uh wise choice.

And Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan,

and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain

and pitched his tent towards Sodom. But

the men of Sodom were wicked sinners

before the Lord exceeded. He didn't move

to Sodom right away. That was

incremental. And that you know when we

make bad choices it always goes downhill

but not right away.

So what a bad choice he made for his

wife, for his family and in every way.

Now God was merciful to him and God

rescued him and Abraham had to go to war

to rescue him

and did

But there were consequences.

So our our choices affect others around

us and after us.

Life is choices. Make good choices. Turn

with me to Philippians real quick.

Philippians chapter

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

1.

This is a real

This is hard to preach on here. this

particular section.

Paul's in prison. He's on trial for his

life.

He doesn't know if they're going to

execute you. Execute him or let him go.

It's one or the other. They didn't put

you in prison for 30 years or 10 years

or five years. Prison meant you're going

on trial for your life in the Roman

Empire. You either get out

or you get executed.

And Paul's in Rome. He's writing the

Philippians in Greece. And he says in

chapter 1 verse um

21, "For to me to live as Christ, to die

is gain. But if I live in the flesh,

this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what

I'll choose, I don't know.

Who is he to place to choose?" He had no

choice.

God was either going to get him out,

have him executed.

What? What does that mean?

It means exactly what an old farmer

woman said to me almost 50 years ago

when she was dying of cancer.

She found out she had cancer in the

hospital. You've heard me tell about her

before.

The doctor told her she had cancer.

Never forget this. It was in Aonis

Hospital.

A godly woman.

God's will

will.

That was Paul's attitude.

I'm choosing what God chooses for me.

God's will

is my will. And Paul was at a place he

didn't know what God's will was. So, he

was weighing, is God going to get me out

of this? Is God going to not get me out

of this? Am I going to die? Am I going

to They're going to execute me and chop

my head off. They did do that, but not

this time. later on,

few years later,

but he says in verse 21, "For me to live

as Christ and to die as gain, yet if I

live in the flesh, this is the fruit of

my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I

know not." What did he mean? Whatever

God does, I'm choosing that.

Would you choose to have cancer? Would

you choose to die young?

Would you choose to go to prison?

Probably not. But if you can't stop it

and you get cancer and you know you're

going to die or you're going to get

arrested and you know you're going to

prison, you say, "Well, God, I wouldn't

have chosen this, but your will is my

will."

That's what he's doing. That's part of

good choices. And that doesn't mean you

can't pray to be healed. Doesn't mean

you can't

try to get out of your situation. But it

does mean when you can't, when it's one

way or the other, you just bend to God's

will,

trusting he knows better than you know.

And if my life does if my death does

more for the Lord than my life, then I'm

ready to go today.

If I can do more for my family and my

church by being gone earlier than I

hope,

I want to hang around.

So that's what Paul's doing. Now he he

says in verse 23, I'm in a straight

between the two. I'd go either way here,

but I desire and depart with Christ as

far better. I've already been to heaven.

I was caught up to the third heaven. I

know what's coming. I I can't wait to

get there personally. He said, "But to

abide in the flesh is more needful for

you.

And so if I can stay down here a little

longer, live a little longer, and do

something good for you, then I'm willing

to.

We always talk about when people die,

they miss this and they miss that. And

we never talk about what we're missing

by not being there.

So anyway, he says, "Having this

confidence, I know I'll abide and

continue with you all in your

furtherance of faith and joy and so

forth and so on." So Paul had the

choices. He brought them before the

Lord.

Turn back to Proverbs with me. And I

this might end up being two messages.

I'm thinking I'm not going to make it

all the way where I want to be. But turn

with me to Proverbs.

You see what happens when we skip a

Sunday?

Have you noticed what happens?

I got more time to think about what I'm

going to preach and sermons get longer.

No, I'm going to try to keep on time.

But anyway, Proverbs 3:31,

Proverbs 3:31

I mean 333.

I can't tell you how

much this particular verse has meant to

me.

He use it a lot as a pastor

counseling people when they come have

choices.

We're not the only actors in our life.

Our

choices

have consequences because there's a God

in heaven

who's holy,

who knows everything.

And thank God he delivers us from the

often from the consequ all the

consequences of some of our stupid

choices. I'm thankful for that because

I've had to been delivered from a lot of

them in my life.

And notice verse 33 of chapter 3.

Father to a son, the curse of the Lord

is in the house of the weak.

But he blesses

the habitation

of the just.

That doesn't mean the wicked always have

it all bad. Doesn't mean the righteous

have it all good.

But there's no neutral.

Every home is blessed or cursed.

There's no neutral.

Every life is either under the judgment

of God, the wrath of God, the anger of

God, or the mercy of God, and the

goodness of God and the grace of God.

We've all failed. We've all been wicked.

So we deserve nothing but the curse.

But there is blessing even if we've been

in in the one. We can by God's grace be

moved to the other.

We don't have to stay on that marriage

ground.

And so what a powerful

warning. What a powerful section of holy

scripture.

Proverbs 8 verse 10.

Proverbs 8:10

Receive my instruction and not silver

knowledge rather than choice gold. For

wisdom is better than rubies.

Do we believe that

wisdom is better than spiritual wisdom

is better than rubies

and all things that may be desired are

not to be compared with it. If God gives

you wisdom on how to live for him and

how to live with others, that's better

than rubies. Now, I wouldn't mind a few

rubies.

That's not the point.

But there are many people have inverted

par uh have inverted priorities.

I've said this so many times from this

pulpit, but I'm going to say it again.

John Swain and I John's not even here

this morning. He must not be feeling

well, but u we went to South Africa on a

mission trip.

We're driving through

uh

I think Joeberg or wherever we were and

I was shocked just like in southeast

Ohio we have those piles of coal coal

dust from the mines that are piled up

sometimes you can see them. They had a

pile of that came from the gold mines

that was twice as high as this church

and just as big.

There were Europeans that came to

Africa.

Was that wrong? Maybe not. It wasn't the

best.

And some of them were professing

Christians. And I no doubt some of them

were real Christians. But the problem

was to the Africans, they were all

Christians. And

as John and I saw in a museum there in

South Africa dealing with apartheid,

this mo motto on the side before the

white man came, we had land and he had

the Bible. Now we got the Bible and he's

got the land.

All I can say is shame on people that

think gold is more important than

people.

People are precious. God himself died

for people.

People are precious.

Red and yellow, black and white, they

all precious in his sight.

Are they precious in our sight?

We want to give to missionaries. Do we

want to give our lives? We want to visit

missionaries and we want to make a we

want to focus on other people.

Souls are precious. Jesus died for

souls.

What are our priorities? Our our choices

show our priorities.

Turn to Proverbs 16

about this priority. Proverbs 16:16.

Proverbs 16:16

how much better it is to get wisdom than

gold.

Do we believe that?

I'm not talking the kind of wisdom you

can get in universities necessarily or

PhDs, although that might be involved in

some of it. I'm talking about practical

wisdom knowing how to live.

And there's many people who've never

gone to university. They got more

practical wisdom than people who got a

whole bunch of alphabets after. They got

all the letters of the alphabet. They're

the alphabet people.

How much better to get wisdom than gold

and to get understanding is to be chosen

than silver.

It's it's a choice. I choose

to learn the word of God. I choose to

know more about Jesus Christ. I choose

to have biblical wisdom to be wise to

salvation is the New Testament.

I make that choice. I'm going to pay

that price.

I'm going to spend time alone learning

the Bible,

learning the truths of the Bible.

Even though I'm going to feel like a

fool when I start, I'm going to be

embarrassed at how much I don't know.

I'm going to struggle through it. I make

a choice

is to be chosen rather than silver.

And what's that mean? It means sometimes

you might take a promotion or sometime

in your job, sometimes you might refuse

the promotion that everybody else thinks

you ought to take. Oh, I'll make three

times the money. I have so much less

time.

I don't have time to read the Bible. I

won't have time to serve the Lord. I

won't time to minister to people.

But I have a lot of money.

It's not wrong to make money. It's not

wrong to make more money. Sometimes you

need to take the promotion. It's a

legitimate thing. I'm not I'm just

simply saying there's choices. Make good

choices. How much better is it to get

wisdom than gold and to get

understanding is rather to be chosen

than silver. Proverbs 22.

Proverbs 22 verse one. Remember

Pilgrim's Progress and Mr. Facing both

ways? He just couldn't. That guy

couldn't get committed, could he?

In Proverbs 22:1, a good name is rather

Proverbs 22:1

to be chosen than great riches. How many

have sacrificed the reputation

to get rich?

Now, if you can get rich without

sacrificing your reputation, I say go

for it. That's okay.

The good name is rather to be chosen

than great riches and loving favor

rather than silver and gold. Now, that

loving favor deals with God's blessing

on you.

So,

ask Adam and Eve if making choices

matters or not.

Ask Noah

if choices matter or not.

Ask the Apostle Paul in Acts 28 when

he's preaching the gospel to the Jewish

people in Rome and it says, "Some

believed and some believe not."

Some believe and some believe not.

Now, all that brings us back to Ruth.

This was a critical moment

in Naomi's life. She made a choice to

return to Bethlehem with all the

humiliation that that was going to bring

her because she had nothing to show for

10 years except loss.

And if you go to your high school

reunion, your 20th reunion, your 10th

reunion,

you kind of hope that you can't go there

and be embarrassed about your life.

And think about Naomi going home, a

little town.

Everybody knew they left. Everybody knew

why.

And when she comes back,

she has less than when she left. And

she's got the face back.

Was it was God God's providence just

squeezed her till she had nothing. It

was like the choice wasn't a choice. She

stays there. She's going to die.

Somebody people would rather die than be

embarrassed,

be humiliated.

But this was this is amazing. This the

what's going on in the book of Ruth. If

you'll come back quickly and I guess

I'll just deal with the rest of this

when we get back.

Would you come back with me in the book

of Ruth?

I'm assuming a familiarity

with this book.

my God as king made a choice and all us

husbands and fathers need to realize my

choices affect my wife and my family and

just myself.

Was it a good decision? Was it a bad

decision?

Was it a legitimate decision or a sinful

decision? Bible doesn't say

explicitly.

I think there's fair questions to be

asked right here.

Um, it was successful in that they

escaped the famine in Bethlehem.

He got his family out of the famine

situation.

Why didn't he go north in the promised

land like Joseph did when he went to

Nazareth?

Although Joseph was from Bethlehem

thousand years later

and why did he go to Moab of all places

but he did especially if you know the

history when Moses brought him out of

Egypt the Moabitete women seduced the

men got everybody in trouble a lot of

people died

didn't sound like a good place to raise

Now, when when um

we'll see this next week when we

continue this sermon, but when Naomi got

back to Bethlehem, others survived the

family in Bethlehem.

That makes you want to wonder why

couldn't

Boas survive? In fact, he was wealthy.

Well, it was 10 years.

But others survived.

Here's a guy whose name my God is king.

But he wasn't acting like it. He was he

was contradicting his name.

He wasn't trusting the king

in a time of trouble. But I sympathize

with him. And it's difficult for me to

say that was a sinful decision in

itself. It may have been

you weren't allowed to to uh if you

married a moabitete, the children

weren't allowed to get in the temple for

the 10th generation or something like

that. God didn't care for those people

what they were doing over there.

And so he knew all of that.

And so

Naomi made a decision. I'm sure he

didn't know how he was going to die.

You know, whenever we travel, we got to

realize I might not get back.

I'm okay with that. I don't get buried

in Athens.

Have to get buried some other country.

If I'm doing God's work, okay,

get me on the plane and send me back.

I'll just be buried there.

But he didn't know that he was going to

die there and put his family. Remember

this was an agricultural economy and the

men did the the uh their their work and

the women did theirs but the man was the

provider for the family and then his

sons married Moabitete women which

probably initially was that a bad

decision or a good decision? I don't

know if those Moabitete women got saved

or at least made a profession before

they married the sons or whether they

didn't.

But there's no indication that Ic was

apostate,

but it doesn't we're not quite sure that

was the best decision.

Um

the two sons married Moabitete women.

Was that a good decision or a bad? Well,

they didn't have too many options.

They didn't have too many options. You

know, my parents,

my parents, my dad was in World War II

in the military in the Pacific. They had

to come back for some surgery. Married

my mom and they lived at Tacoma Park,

Maryland. My mom worked at the

water reed hospital I believe I'm

remembering it correct correctly and dad

started a business in Tacoma Park

Maryland

and that they married in 45 and they

were there for a while and they made a

decision to come back to Chilikathy

where they were both raised Chilikathy

Ohio now what if they hadn't made that

decision

I was born in 49

I wouldn't have been back. I wouldn't

have known about Ohio except maybe visit

grandparents.

My whole life could have been different.

I'd have been raised in DC.

Now, they were going to Good Baptist

church there and they were hearing the

word of God. They were Christians when

they married. No doubt I'd have gone on

with the Lord if I'd have been buried

there. But their decision affected my

decision,

my options.

And Olimc's decision, whether bad or

good, affected his wife, affected his

sons. We can't control outcomes, can we?

This is the hard thing about making

decisions. We don't know what we're

going to get into.

But decisions need to be made sometime.

And it irritates me

when young people today

when young people today get upset at

their parents for making a decision that

they didn't that they thought were not

is not good.

Maybe their parents made a hundred good

decisions and one bad one. And young

people today are saying one strike and

you're out.

That's horrible.

They wouldn't want somebody doing that

to them, but they'd feel like parents

are fair game. Parents got to be 100%

right every time. Well, I'm done with

it. That's the time in which we live.

And that is a horrible apostasy

according to second Timothy. They don't

have natural affection.

Horrible.

But anyway, the decisions were made

and others were affected by the

decisions. And that's true of everyone.

All of us have made good ones and bad.

And Orpa and Ruth made decisions. They

they made professions of faith. They

changed religions, at least outwardly on

Orpa's part.

But what a shock to their lives when the

plans were in the waste basket.

Now their options are really limited.

They married Jewish boys and professed

religion in in uh Jehovah

in doing it and now they're stuck.

And

the life of all three of these women

looks pretty hard, doesn't it? Is there

somebody here in your life just seems

like one bad thing after another and you

trying to make good decisions and still

things have been turning out difficult

and you want to make good decisions and

you think about it but still it doesn't

seem like things go well.

These are horrible theologians but I'll

quote the Rolling Stones in 1969.

You can't always get what you want.

They're talking about drugs and politics

and and so-called love and the love. You

can't always get what you want. But it's

true of God's providence, too, right?

You can't always get what you want. Life

doesn't always turn out just the way you

want it to.

But thank God we have a God in control.

We have decisions to make

and sometimes they're hard.

Put your place put yourself in Esther's

position.

And her cousin said,

"There's higher purposes going on here.

Who knows whether or not you come to the

kingdom for such a time as this?

It's not always about us. It's about

others. It's about God.

And life throws us curve balls, but

God's pitching the curve balls.

There's higher and greater purposes than

we can understand or realize.

I'm going to say this and I'm out for

today and I guess my message for next

week is already prepared.

Will work for in Ruth. But

these two widow, these three widows,

the enemy was too old to get married.

But the two young women were.

And the two young women that we see in

our text, one went back,

one went on.

And if you study the book of Ruth,

you'll know something. We'll see it next

time. Did you know there were two

redeemers, two qualified redeemers in

Bethlehem? Not one.

You ever thought about that in

relationship to these two

hills?

The older redeemer didn't want to do his

job because it was going to cost him.

There was that live right marriage and

all the went with that when you marry

your brother's widow and raise up

someone for your widow. We'll we'll get

to that next time. But there were two

men. You said, "Well, he would he'd want

to do it." Well, maybe he didn't want to

do it because for whatever reason he

didn't want to marry Ruth, but maybe

he'd been somebody would marry or Paul.

You You never think about that. I'd had

one over there.

God's got an answer for our troubles.

God's got an answer for our

difficulties.

There's potential provision.

And I know God's sovereign. And I'm not

taking away anything from the

sovereignty of God by the things I'm

saying this morning.

But off they go in the same direction.

or Paul made her decision and went back

to her family and to her gods and to her

idolatry.

Uh Naomi and Ruth went home.

Naomi

was a God focused woman.

Every you hear her talk, she's talking

about she's always bringing the Lord in

the Lord in the Lord in.

And Ruth became a God focused woman

before she ever got this.

Your God

will be my God.

And so we will look at that next time.

It takes Godfocused people to produce

Godfocused people.

We got to love God more than anything

else.

We have a have to have a priority of God

over everything else, even over our own

comfort and her own per everything.

And

Naomi was a Godfocused person and she

produced a God focused person. I believe

in her sons and in her husband as much

as possible

and in the daughters-in-law

as much as could be done. But we can't

always choose what other people choose.

And the test came and Orpaul went back

and

Ruth went on

and became the ancestors ancestrous

King David

Jesus.

There's a future when we make good

decisions. We may not live to see it.

I don't think Ruth ever lived to find

out

my son that was born to me through Boaz

became

the ancestor of King David. She didn't

live to see how much she contributed to

history. And we won't either.

Not till we stand before Jesus.

We might think we're the biggest failure

in our family. We might think we're the

biggest family in our church, the

biggest failure in our church, but we

might be the one God uses.

To think it's always the pastor is to

think wrongfully.

God uses every Christian. He saved you

for a purpose. He saved me for a

purpose.

And we don't get to choose who God uses.

If you don't know the Lord as your

savior this morning,

so thrilled that you're here. And I want

to tell you,

it's hard to be a Christian,

but it's harder not to be.

Choose your hard.

Choose your heart.

And will you not will you not say to the

twel apostles to the reformers to the

martyrs that died to the missionaries

and the pilgrims and the Puritans and

all the Christians down through

history's wingly moody martyrs here and

there your people are my people your god

is my god

will we not remember

in 2 Corinthians 8:9

2 Corinthians 8:9

as Paul said to You know the grace of

our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was

rich, he became poor for your sake so

that you might that through his poverty

you might be made rich. That's what such

a one would not do. He would not he

would not limit his finances

to do to help Ruth.

Now we don't know his situation.

Nobody's criticizing him. I'm just

saying Boaz did what he wouldn't do just

like Ruth did what Naomi with or

God help us as we wait for the coming of

the Lord to be about his business and to

realize the importance of our life even

if we live in a small town.

Did God do something in Athens, Ohio? He

did something in Bethlehem. Bethlehem

was a a little place. It's still a

little place.

90% Muslim right now.

It's still a little place.

I forget the population, but I've been

there. It's not much bigger than Athens.

Probably about the same.

God can work in big

with regular people.

And so all our decisions, not just the

church's decisions or the leadership's

decision, are important decisions. Next

week, we'll look at that more in more

detail and see how God fleshed that out

and we'll finish this message.

Father, we thank you for your grace and

goodness. If there's anybody here that's

been on the fence,

they've been saying, "Well, someday I'll

get saved. Someday I'll repent. Someday

I'll believe." not today.

May by your grace you draw them to

yourself.

May they have resolution in their heart.

Whatever the future begins, whatever the

trial is,

God's people are going to be my people.

And God's people, God is going to be my

God

in Jesus name. Amen.