Ruth: Our Redeemer (2- He Redeems Our Sorrow)

things.

God uses the faithfulness of ordinary people to redeem people like you and I in extraordinary ways, and the entire book of Ruth is only about 85 verses.

It's five chapters and it's this beautiful love story that we see.

But even more than that, it's a great love story.

But even more than a love story, it's a redemption story.

And it's this amazing account in the Bible.

It's this amazing account of what the true love and mercy of God really looks like.

But it also points to and it highlights how important it is for God to be in the everyday workings of our lives.

He cares about our struggles, he cares about our suffering, our hurt.

Do you believe that he cares about us?

Do you believe that he cares about us and he's sovereign over all things?

And he is intimately concerned with those things that we face in this world?

And what we see in the book of Ruth is, though he doesn't always release us from those struggles, he does redeem us from them.

He is the redemption story.

If you've got your Bibles with you this morning, you can open those up to the book of Ruth.

I think I'm not using the TV this morning.

I think sometimes there's just some power in opening the word together and reading the story together.

So I'm going to read it to you.

But I would love for you to follow along and if you need a Bible and you don't have one, we have one for you at the Welcome Center.

Grab it this week, so next week when you come back for the second part of the series, you can have that with you.

And if you've got your electronic Bible, go ahead and open that up, pull it up on your phone.

I want you to follow along in that.

We're all about that.

We're looking at the book of Ruth, r-u-t-h.

Ruth.

I'm good at spelling it.

It's my wife's middle name.

I've gotten good at it.

It's the book of Ruth, but it's only five chapters and it's tucked in between the book of Judges and the book of 1 Samuel, so you can miss it.

And it's a small book right there in between.

Let's see.

So in the book of Ruth, let's just recap from last week what Pastor Brandon introduced us to.

As I said, ruth is tucked in to, right after the book of Judges.

Now don't forget the book of Ruth.

Is this light?

Ok, it is the gleam of hope in this darkness that is going on in the world that we read about in the book of Judges.

Last week, when we talked about the book of Judges, we said what was going on was that Israel, the Israelites, were caught up in this cycle of sin when they were turning away from God when things were good and then running back to Him when things got bad.

And it was just this, over and over this cycle that they got caught up in.

And the book of Judges is filled with just depravity and wars and murder and immorality and the worship of these false idols that the Israelites got caught up into.

And, as a matter of fact, the very last verse of the book of Judges Judges 21-25, it ends like this.

It says in those days, israel had no king, no king, and all of the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

That's how the book of Judges ends.

They're just running rampantant, they're doing whatever they feel like, living for the world.

The world has become their idol over obedience to god, and that's the world that they're living in.

And it created this time where the Israelites were basically living with one foot in with God and one foot in with the world, and they never chose a side.

And here's the problem with riding the fence like that.

You never get even any momentary happiness anywhere, because you've got one foot in with the world, but you're constantly covered with this conviction and this guilt because of this sin that is overwhelming you and you can't get any peace and you can't get any happiness and your soul is just unsettled in that.

And the truth is is the world doesn't have anything to offer for an unsettled soul.

It can't give you anything for that.

Your soul is not of the world, doesn't have anything to offer for an unsettled soul.

It can't give you anything for that.

Your soul is not of the world.

And so when it's unsettled you won't find that in the world.

But then also they had only one foot in with God.

They weren't completely surrendering to God, so they were eating all the fruit of the world.

And the problem with stuffing yourself with the fruit of the world is then you don't have any room for the fruit of the world.

And the problem with stuffing yourself with the fruit of the world is then you don't have any room for the fruit of the Spirit.

And when you don't have any room for the fruit of the Spirit, then you can't really experience peace, then you don't really know the peace of God.

So there's this constant pull in both directions and then their souls become unsettled.

Sounds a little bit like life to me.

Sounds a little bit, honestly, like modern Christianity, myself included Riding that fence, never really choosing the direction that we should go, just kind of staying in the middle.

The Bible calls it lukewarm, and that's what we live in sometimes.

Sometimes you're with it, sometimes you're on it, sometimes you are absolutely nailing it, but then sometimes we just aren't even in the game, right.

Sometimes you're reading your Bible, sometimes you're praying, and then we stop when it's not convenient.

You open up the Bible app and you're hitting all your Bible reading streaks, but then life happens and we turn away from it and it's just, it's not convenient to do anymore, it's not a priority anymore.

So, judges, is this story of God trying to pour into His people?

Remember, they're in the covenant land that God had given to them and he's trying to pour into them, but they just keep spiraling further and further down until they pretty much hit rock bottom, because a relationship doesn't grow unless both parties are willing to put in effort.

That's how it works.

So we know the events in the book of Ruth that we're about to look at.

They take place at some point during this time of Judges.

The book of Ruth is after the after the book of Judges in the Bible, but the story of Ruth takes place during the same time that we looked at in the book of Judges.

The very first verse tells us that.

So the whole point of me telling you this backstory is even when Israel is at its worst, even when the Israelites seem completely lost, god is working.

That's what the book of Ruth tells us.

God is planning redemption.

He's weaving all of these horrible messes together to work for good and he's doing it all to get them on this new path to start turning Israel's dark ages into a time of redemption.

So today we're going to cover a lot of verses.

We're going to cover the whole first chapter of Ruth.

It's 22 verses, and that's part of the reason why I didn't use the TV.

It'd be a whole lot of slides.

So I'd love for you to follow along as we read it together, and I also want to point out to you some of the similarities that we can see in the book of Ruth with us in modern day.

I'm going to be honest with you.

A great redemption story is a great redemption story because it starts with hurt.

It starts with pain and suffering.

There's no need for redemption if you're not hurting, if you're not in pain, if you're obedient.

The first chapter of Ruth is all about hurt, it's all about suffering and it's all about sorrow.

It's 22 verses of that.

So if I could give you a title or a main idea of what today's lesson is about, I tell you it's.

God's providence is evident even in our sorrows.

That's what chapter 1 of Ruth is about.

So chapter 1 of Ruth, it starts out and it says In those days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land.

So let's stop right there for a moment.

It says a severe famine, a severe hunger, came across the land.

Now, famine wasn't anything that in biblical times, was, I won't say, an unusual situation, but it happened a lot.

Sometimes rain came and sometimes the crops were good, and sometimes there were periods of time where the rain didn't come and the crops weren't good, but this was a severe famine.

And if you can imagine what famine is like, I mean we were just talking before the service.

We don't know that here in America, talking before the service, we don't know that here in America we don't know famine.

There are people that go hungry.

I understand that, but there is a lot of help here.

Famine is widespread hunger.

There is no help.

People are not eating and there's not enough food to go around.

Not eating and there's not enough food to go around, it's severe, and the next verse tells us exactly how severe it is.

It says so a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him.

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

Okay, we were introduced to these characters in the story last week.

His wife's name was Naomi.

Their two sons were Malon and Kilion, and they were Ephratites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah, and when they reached Moab they settled there.

So the famine was so severe.

Think about this.

This is important.

The famine was so severe that a man was willing to take his wife and his two sons, his whole family, and pick them up and leave everything they've ever known behind, leave the covenant land, the promised land that God had given them.

He was willing to pick it up and move to a completely different, unknown land.

That's how severe things have gotten.

That's how severe the famine is.

That's pretty severe.

I'd say that's considered survival mode.

Right there we're in a crisis situation.

But there's actually another part of this.

It says they settled in Moab.

Now, traditionally, the relationship between the Israelites and the Moabites was always on shaky ground.

They didn't like each other, and the reasons that the Israelites didn't get along with the Moabites is because the Moabites were descendants of Lot, and if you know anything about the story of Lot, the descendants from Lot are descendants from an incestuous relationship that he was tricked into with his daughter, which is just as uncomfortable for me to say to you as it is for you to hear.

I mean, I remember thinking the first time I read that story.

That's in the Bible.

That's in the Bible.

But that also shows you how far of depravity that God's pulled us out of.

But that's what the Moabites are descendants of.

So they didn't get along with the Israelites.

They were enemies.

And it says that this Israelite, elimelech, settles in Moab.

So things are so severe that he sees it better to take his entire family into a foreign enemy land and to settle there instead of the land, the promised land, the land that God had given him.

And that's how bad things had truly gotten.

Conditions of famine were so severe that he picked up and left everything he'd ever known and left.

That's human nature, isn't it?

Things get hard.

We have this natural bent to look for immediate security at all costs.

That's what survival mode is.

That's what happens in crisis mode.

Fight or flight, those are your two options.

When you get to that point and the truth is is that I don't even blame him for it I don't think that I would have done anything different Look for better conditions for my family when they're not eating.

Of course, wouldn't every single one of us do that?

But the truth is is, if you're not careful, you can seek security over God's will, and if you seek security before you seek God's will, and if you seek security before you seek God's will, it can get you into some pretty questionable places.

It can get you into some unsteady ground.

It can get you into enemy territory.

But that's a chance that we all take sometimes when we're in crisis mode.

It can be difficult to wait for God when you're hurting, even though we know he's sovereign over all things, even though we know he has providence.

It can be difficult when you get to that situation.

Now this journey to Moab, we know, is about 50 miles from Bethlehem, which doesn't seem like a long way from us, but for them it would have taken them about 70 days, according to biblical historians, seven days across some pretty rugged terrain to get from Bethlehem to Moab.

And because it's only 50 miles, some people say that possibly the idea wasn't to always stay there for Elimelech, maybe it wasn't going to be a long stay, Maybe they were just going to go for a little bit and they were going to come back.

So it says they reach Moab with her two sons and, as I said, maybe they weren't planning to stay there for a long time.

So now Naomi is widowed.

She's widowed, which is a bad situation to be in for a female.

In the Bible it just did.

Times were different then.

I mean it's hard now too, but back then a woman relied on a man for soul security.

The man provided security, provided wealth, he provided the land, shelter, protection, all of those things.

Life was hard in the Bible if you were a widow.

So then Naomi is left widowed with her sons in a foreign land, with the enemy.

And then it goes on to say the two sons married Moabite women.

Kilion married a woman named Orpah, and Malon married a woman named Ruth.

So the two pieces of information that we don't find in Scripture about this is how long the family was living in Moab before Elimelech died, and then how much time passes where it's just Naomi and her two sons before the sons are married to Ruth and Orpah.

So we don't know exactly how long we've been there, but the next verse tells us the time period that the five of them spent together.

It says, but about 10 years later.

Okay, so 10 years after the sons are married to Orpah and Ruth, 10 years after being married, malon and Kilion die, cut and dry, they die, and this left Naomi alone without her two sons and her husband.

I think it's safe to say that in the story, things are looking pretty dark for Naomi.

Not only was she a widow, but now her two sons have died and her immediate family, her blood family, has dwindled down to where it's just her now.

So, naomi and her family, they leave everything they've ever known.

They leave everything to search for a better future, to find a better life.

So they leave the promised land of God and they move to Moab in search of security.

But now things don't get easier.

As a matter of fact, they've gotten much, much harder.

But now things don't get easier.

As a matter of fact, they've gotten much, much harder.

So you have to know, at this point Naomi must be feeling the full gravity of her situation.

She's in trouble, she's basically on her own at this point and her future, probably as a widowed woman without male sons, looking pretty bleak.

Okay, so she too goes into crisis mode and she has a decision to make, and at this point she can either return home to the promised land or she can stay in a foreign land as a widow and try her best to make it.

So I want you to listen to what comes next.

So I want you to listen to what comes next.

Remember, god is sovereign over all things.

He's got providence even in our sorrows.

So verse 6 says Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed His people with good crops.

Again, heard how?

That's what, I wonder.

Heard how they're 50 miles away in an enemy land.

No, israelite just is like.

I'm just gonna stop by moab today.

Seems like a great place.

I'm just gonna drop, drop some newspapers there with some news.

How in the world would she have heard that?

Nobody knows where they went.

How would she have gotten that news To me?

That says the providence of God, the sovereignty of God over all things, has broader the news.

So Naomi and her family leave everything they've ever known, and then things become much harder.

It goes on to say so Naomi and her two daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab and return to her homeland.

Okay, so at this point she's made the decision now to go back to Judah, to go back to Bethlehem.

So there's no security in Judah, they head to Moab.

And now there's no security in Moab, so they decide to head back home.

And it says With her two daughters-in-law, she set out from the place where she had been living and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah.

So what that tells me is that they took the same road.

They got there in reverse to get back to Judah.

So, continuing on to verse 8, it says but on the way, naomi said to her two daughters-in-law by the way, let me just stop real quick.

Did you know I can't be the only one that's messed this up?

Did you know the plural of daughter-in-law is daughters-in-law, not daughter-in-laws, which is what I thought?

But I kept typing that in my computer and it kept highlighting it red and I'd right click to be and it's like what?

That can't be right.

So, of course, if you don't know if you're right or wrong, I look to the Bible and, sure enough, daughters-in-law.

So I'll probably say it wrong a couple times during this, but it's daughters-in-law, just so you know.

But on the way, naomi said to her daughters-in-law go back to your mother's homes and may the Lord reward you for the kindness to your husbands and to me.

May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.

Then she kissed them goodbye and they all wept.

They all wept.

So we know at this point all three of these women are really hurting.

They don't have anywhere to turn to, they don't know what to do.

But they've also been in this relationship with each other.

They've been living together for the last 10 years at least, and so also Orpah and Ruth probably are thinking and are worried about what happens to Naomi if we leave, what happens to her in the future.

So they said no.

They said we want to go with you to your people.

Now consider this the Moabites were not followers of the Lord.

Okay, they worshiped a false God and I don't really know much about that, other than what I know is that worshiping of this false god often involved human sacrifices during the worship ceremonies.

So everything that these two Moabite women know they've probably learned from their husbands and from living with Naomi for the last 10 years.

They've learned about the one true God of Israel.

And so it says but why should you go with me?

This is Naomi.

At this point, why should you go with me?

Can I still give birth to other sons who would grow up to be your husbands?

No, my daughters return to your mother's homes, for I am too old to marry again.

And even if it were possible, even if I were to get married tonight and to bear sons, then what Then?

Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry somebody else?

Of course not.

Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord has raised his fist against me.

Because the Lord has raised his fist against me, this is some serious suffering that Naomi is going through.

I mean, you can hear the pain in her words as they're on their way out.

She doesn't see a future for herself.

And even though the passage seems a bit weird and a little bit sarcastic, what you have to know is during that time it plays an important role, because during the Bible, when a tragedy would occur like that, it was cultural tradition that the closest eligible male of a widow would then marry that widow for a couple reasons.

It was sort of a biblical life insurance policy, if you will.

And what would happen is the closest eligible male in the family would marry the widow for a few reasons.

One, it would carry on the family name, which was very important, and also the widow would be taken care of.

And then, as well as that, the land would stay in the family.

The land and the wealth that they had accumulated through generations would then stay in the family, and that particular eligible bachelor would be considered the family redeemer.

That's what they called him, the family redeemer.

However, at this point, without intervention from God, naomi is at the age where she can't bear sons anymore, so that would disqualify her in the tradition from being redeemed.

And also she's with two Moabite women, two women from an enemy land, and so the potential for an Israelite to want to marry a Moabite daughter, to continue the name, is probably pretty small.

So she considers herself at this point unqualified.

It's not possible for the family to be redeemed, and that's what she's telling her daughters-in-law.

She's speaking out in desperation to them that there's no way out for me at this point, there's no way for the family to be redeemed.

And so a lot of widows her age would end up on the streets and they would be relying on the charity of family and friends to live and to make it by.

It was important, if you remember, jesus' earthly father, joseph died, and in the Gospel of John, chapter 19, verses 26 through 27, it says when Jesus saw his mother Okay, so this is Jesus hanging on the cross.

John 19:26–27

This is one of his last commands, one of his last instructions to his disciples.

That's how important it is.

And he says when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loves standing nearby, he said to her woman behold, this is now your son.

And he said to the disciple that he loved behold, this is now your mother.

And from that hour forward, the disciple John took her into his own home.

One of Jesus's very last earthly instructions before dying on the cross was for his mother to treat John like a son and in return, for John to treat his mother like his mother.

So then Jesus knew she'd be taken care of, because he knew how hard it would be for her otherwise.

And so Naomi begins to plead with Ruth and Orpah to return to their original families, because the weight of how hard things have become is really setting in and she's lonely and she's heartbroken and she's suffering, and she knows how hard things are going to be.

And in her sadness, in her bitterness, she makes a mistake.

She makes a mistake in thinking that God isn't working, that God has condemned her at this point, that he's angry and he's just completely washed his hands of her and hung her out to dry.

That's to the point she's at, and you can sense there that there's likely some anger and there's some confusion toward God.

And I can understand that.

I'm sure any of us in that situation would be thinking the same things.

God, I'm hurting, where are you right now?

I'm going through some stuff.

Why aren't you stepping in for me?

Why aren't you taking care of this?

And here's what I know about that.

One thing that is evident that you don't hear in this story, in the scripture, is there is no audible voice from God.

They don't hear anything.

There's no angel that appears to Naomi, nothing like that.

There's no prophet giving words of advice to Naomi?

Nothing like that.

There's no prophet giving words of advice to Naomi.

She doesn't know what to do, but God is still working.

He is sovereign, in control of every situation and he governs this world for the good of His creation, which is us, and even in our sorrows, even when he seems silent, he's working.

As a matter of fact, I would say that in God's sovereignty, his sovereignty seems most active.

Sometimes when he's silent, he's setting the stage here for something great, and that's what makes this story so beautiful.

Just because you can't see his hand working doesn't mean it isn't there.

He's always working.

That's what sovereignty is, that's what his providence is, that's what it does for us.

And sometimes you can be in a situation that is so deep to you and so dark, and you are hurting so bad and begging and pleading with God, when really there isn't any comforting answer.

Anyways, there isn't anything in those moments that can be said to you that brings some relief in that moment.

And unfortunately, in those times sometimes it just takes faith and obedience and time for God's plans to be revealed, for the redemption to happen.

And even though she doesn't know it yet, god is providing Naomi with somebody to help.

If Ruth and if Naomi could read the last chapter of the book of Ruth, would it have been so hard If they knew what was coming?

If they knew the plan?

It wouldn't have been so hard.

If they knew what was coming, if they knew the plan, it wouldn't have mattered so much.

But they don't get that.

None of us get that.

We don't get to read ahead in our book of life.

We don't get to read the next chapter about us.

We don't know what's coming.

But we do know that God is in control.

He's in control in every situation and his redemptive answer for Naomi in this story is going to eventually come through.

Ruth, going on it says and again, they wept together and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye.

But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi and I can imagine at this point they're weeping together, they're crying and Naomi maybe grabs Ruth's face and says look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods and you should do the same.

But Ruth replied don't ask me to leave and turn back.

Wherever you will go, I will go and your God will be my God.

Wherever you will die, I will die.

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

May the Lord punish me severely if I ever let anything but death separate us.

And then it says when Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

This is one of the single most moving declarations in the entire Bible.

It's a declaration of loyalty that Ruth makes to Naomi, and not only Naomi.

This is her professing God, your God will be my God.

She's making a covenant between Naomi and between God, and it's so important.

In fact, this is what we use in a lot of weddings.

Haven't you ever seen the signs?

It's wherever you will go, I will go.

Right, people hang them in their homes all the time Till death.

Do us part.

That's what that means.

It is a covenant.

She's willing to leave her whole life behind Everything that she's ever known her heritage, her land, her gods, her false idols, her family To be with Naomi and to be with the God of Israel.

That's radical loyalty, radical loyalty.

Now, looking at Orpah, orpah obviously loved Naomi.

They were all weeping together.

There's no question about that, and it's hard to blame her for her decision to turn back.

But she decided to choose the known over the unknown.

Maybe her life wasn't amazing, but it was familiar.

You ever been in that situation?

I have.

I don't know anything about that.

This isn't that great, but this is what I know and sometimes we settle for good enough.

Good enough because we don't know what's beyond that.

And I wonder if that's what orpah was thinking in that situation.

I hope not.

I hope not.

I hope, in the 10 years that she and naomi and her husband spent together, that she learned all about the god of israel and that she learned and she took those things back to her people and changed a lot of lives.

And I hope that's what happened.

But we don't know that because as soon as she leaves Naomi she's written off the pages of the Bible altogether.

We don't know what happened.

But Ruth shows a radical loyalty to Naomi and to God and she decides that a potentially hard life with Naomi and with God is better than she had anything going for her back in her homeland.

And that kind of covenant truly reflects the heart of God Himself, the covenant between God and between us, his children, because it's not based on convenience, it's based on His undying love for us.

That's what he does for us.

That's what loyalty is.

There was no requirement for Ruth to say.

There wasn't even any type of cultural obligation or need for it.

It was just that she loved Naomi and she chose faithfulness over familiarity.

She chose to sacrifice and serve Naomi over security.

So the two of them continue on their journey.

This is picking back up in the Scripture.

Is this really Naomi?

The woman asked Don't call me Naomi, she responded.

She responded Don't call me by my name.

Instead, call me Mara, because the Almighty has made life bitter for me.

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

Why call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?

So Naomi arrives back in Bethlehem and everybody's glad to see her.

Everybody is they've, they're stunned that she's returned, but she's unhappy, and they can see that she's unhappy.

She's, she's bitter.

As a matter of fact, that's what actually the name Mara means bitter.

That's why she changed her name.

She was bitter and she blamed God for her troubles.

And with inner bitterness she does something that I feel like that we do continuously.

We let the situations that we're in change our identity.

We let the stuff that comes up, the stuff that we're going through, change who we are, change us from what God has made us, and what she's doing is she's mistaking conviction for condemnation.

She thinks God is against her, but God wasn't condemning her.

He was convicting her, calling her back home for the bigger purpose.

And the very last verse in this chapter goes like this so Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by her daughter-in-law, ruth, the young Moabite woman, and they arrived in Bethlehem in late spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest, and in the Bible the harvest season was always this time of celebration of God's goodness, the crops were good.

This year.

We're gonna make it.

God's goodness, the crops were good this year.

We're gonna make it.

God's faithful.

Naomi is having trouble seeing the blessings through her bitterness.

She has come home to a land that is full again, but she's stuck in her past.

But God is working.

Even when she can't see it, god's providence directs all things towards good, even when it starts with sorrows.

And I hope you will come back for the continuation of the Redeemer series in Ruth, because it is an amazing story and it's a lot of sorrow and it's a lot of hurt in chapter one, but as we go through this together, it turns and it turns into something unbelievable.

And as the series continues.

What starts with famine, god redeems with harvest, and what started with a funeral, god redeems with a wedding.

And what looks like a redemption story for one family leads to the redemption of the entire world.

All because he's sovereign over all things, even when it doesn't seem like it.

That's the story of Ruth.

Let's pray together this morning.

Lord, you are a sovereign God.

We thank you for your providence, father.

We thank you that you are always in control.

We thank you, father, that you are always moving, always working, and you always are considering it for our good.

Lord, we're sorry for when we've turned away, when we've gone astray, when we've moved with the enemy, when we've been scared and we've been unfaithful.

Lord, we're sorry when we've gotten outside of your will and we've sought after security over what you want for us, which is peace and goodness and prosperity.

Lord, we thank you that you are always able to redeem our stories, that you are always able to bring us home and you are always chasing after us.

Lord, thank you for your goodness and your mercy and your grace.

Thank you for your sovereignty.

Lord, I ask that you make a redeemer story out of all of us.

Forgive us for the ways that we fall short of your glory.

Forgive us when we become bitter.

Forgive us when we've forgotten everything that you've done for us.

We thank you, lord, for your grace and for your mercy and for the forgiveness of our sins.

It's in your name we pray, amen.

I wanna tell you one more quick story and then we're going to close out in worship.

I was looking through Facebook this week and just by chance I happened to come across a blog post that I read and it was written by an acquaintance in high school that I didn't really know well, but I knew of her and I read it.

It's just this unbelievable story, a lot of hurt, just like the story of Ruth, and she grew up a Christian in a Southern Baptist church and somewhere along the way after high school she meets somebody and gets married and has kids and life happens and she gets in a bad relationship with an abusive husband and she's telling all this it's on the internet, so I'm gonna tell you about it and she gets an abusive relationship with this husband and she turns away from God and she starts exploring spirituality and all of these other avenues and first thinks she's a universalist.

And many years of trouble and sadness and torment lead her to finally believe that she's just atheist.

She just doesn't believe in God anymore.

But as the blog post continues, something happens.

Her husband and her part ways and he's doing his thing and she's doing hers and she's preparing to to move.

She's moved away, she's moved away from her whole family and she's moving a nightstand one day, and it was a nightstand that her brother had given her as a kid and she was moving a nightstand one day, and it was a nightstand that her brother had given her as a kid, and she was moving a nightstand one day and a little necklace, a little trinket, fell out of it and it was a verse.

I don't even remember the verse, to be honest with you, it doesn't matter.

It was a verse from Ephesians and it was a little necklace that was caught up in the drawer slide of this nightstand for 15, 20 years at this point, from when she was a kid, and she saw that verse and that little necklace caught in that nightstand led her back to church and it was a five-year journey of her turning back to Christ, turning back to Christ, and now she's happy, she's a new person, she's found God again.

You can't tell me that's not the providence of God that that little trinket would be stuck in that nightstand for 20 years, until the very moment it was needed.

That is the providence of God.

That is the small details that he cares about.

He's always calling you back.

He's got a redemption story for you, and I don't know your story.

Maybe you've been living with the enemy, maybe you've turned your back on God.

Maybe you've just been idle for a while, but then maybe it's time to come home.

Maybe he's going to start your redemptive story today.

Don't wait.

Come up during worship, lay it down at the altar, start your story today.

Let's all stand together in worship.