Sermon Cloud

Text: Ruth 1.1-6
Theme:
Aim:

INTRO:
My birthday – never thought I would be here at 30.
    The book of RUTH: about the life that we all live, and it is messy: are you where you thought?
    If we could control everything, we would not have done it this way (Brittan’s birth!)
    How much control do we really have? (Theme of “No Country…”)
First: about these characters – specific story of a certain family out of thousands: average, ordinary
    Nothing overtly miraculous: in fact, tragic things happen, opportunity is missed, everyday stuff
    You will see yourself in them, both good and bad: MIRROR
Second: about the invisible hand of God in everyday events;
    Most of us won’t have burning bush experiences, flashy; even if we do, they are the exception!
PROVIDENCE: God reigns, and he is GOOD
By seeing how God worked in their lives, we can learn for our own lives (often, don’t see!)
Third: this is a story about Jesus – though he comes more than 1000 years later
    Jesus claimed that all the Scripture pointed to HIM: Ruth is no exception – Ruth is in his line!
    MORE: a SLICE of God’s Redemptive Story, restoring what was lost in Eden & effects in us
    And that finds its fulfillment and completion in the work of JESUS: God’s healing all!

Put the 3 together: “redeeming the mess”

CONTEXT: V.1
1.    The days of the Judges: the BIBLE is a STORY, and this tells us where we are at…
a.    After Joshua & conquest, and before the coming of a King: a leadership VACUUM: “phrase”
b.    A time of “worldliness” where Israel was more like pagan nations than like God’s special people
c.    Cycle of Sin & Salvation in Judges: sin & forgetting, oppression & war, crying & deliverance, SIN
2.    The Promises of God – blessing! Obedience as a RESULT of his SAVING WORK
a.    The blessing of God: shalom returned to the world!
b.    A people who created an alternative community, a city on a hill, all would know GOD & blessing
c.    I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD! Maker, creator, redeemer – above all, keep me FIRST!
d.    RATHER: captivated by the gods of the pagan nations: fertility cults, ritual prostitution, stubborn
3.    Result: God brought judgment and curse upon them, repeatedly: we start in one of those cycles!
a.    Famine: a result of failure to OBEY: he “shut up the heavens” in order to discipline, like Father!
i.    My midget demons: correct, train, instruct them, often painful – for both of us!
ii.    His judgment was intended to lead to repentance: RETURN to the LORD!
b.    Wide ANGLE LENS: throughout Israel, people don’t worship GOD, no spiritual leadership, dark
4.    Spokane 2008: lack of courageous LEADERSHIP; spiritual apathy, XIANS “do what is right in own eyes”

ZOOM: v.1-2
1.    A particular family, in a particular day: specific names, occupations, relationships – this is THEIR story
a.    Bethlehem means “house of bread” – rich agricultural land, now desolate, a barren desert: curse
b.    Elimelech: “MY GOD IS KING” – a good, strong name for a worshipper
c.    Naomi: “pleasant, or sweet” – she’s a delight, a keeper
d.    2 boys: Mahlon & Chilion – “sickly & wasting away/dying” –
e.    Ephrathites – clan or family line within those living in Bethlehem, possibly means well-off
i.    Nice comfy life in a rich agricultural town: good place to raise a family
2.    First Sign something is AMISS: Sojourn in Moab – “travel through” or stay temporarily
a.    At first glance – Moab is 50 miles away, Elimelech surveys the situation, makes a good decision
b.    But MOAB is a godless, pagan nation, totally opposed to the worship of GOD, away from land
i.    Moab was one of Lot’s sons – his daughters got him drunk
ii.    They opposed Israel in desert – wouldn’t give them bread – how IRONIC is that!
iii.    WORST: Worshiped the god Chemosh: agricultural fertility cults, ritual prostitution
3.    Elimelech looks at his prospects in Beth, and moves his family away in hopes of greener grass w/MOAB
a.    FOOLISHNESS: Famine in Bethlehem is a curse for sin & idol worship in Israel; don’t love God!
b.    But rather than DEAL with SIN, GO to GOD, he RUNS from GOD: theme of BIBLE!
i.    Elimelech’s name means “My God is King”; YET doing what is right in his own eyes!
ii.    Some of you: running from his sin & problems, rather than facing: leave Spokane!
iii.    You can’t outrun them; everywhere you go, there you are: “and there they were”
iv.    Elimelech’s great plan & vision for life summed up in 2 words: “don’t die”
1.    Anything is more imp than God, sin is inevitable: flow the springs of life
2.    Comfort, control, power, approval – you will serve it!
c.    Husband is the HEAD: ultimately, he is the responsible party in the marriage & family
i.    His whole family is going to suffer b/c he won’t deal with his sin, set a godly trajectory
ii.    Like many men, he puts job & finances, and his COMFORT before God, church & mission
iii.    Elimelech is a good example of the Weak and Foolish Men spoken of in PROVERBS
1.    No Vision: most men work in their lives; you must work on your life: plan, intend
2.    Self-absorption: takes family away from community of faith
3.    Ultimately, he doesn’t FEAR GOD: God is not FIRST, God doesn’t inform it all
iv.    Godly men don’t RUN from PROBLEMS: Larry Crabb true masculinity is an “energy”
1.    Forward momentum, keeps a man plowing through CRAP as he pursues GOD.
2.    Most Xian men are just NICE; but not good, not pursuing for his GLORY!!
d.    Hypocrisy is not only sin but it is damaging and therefore STUPID…
4.    Spokane has an abundance of weak men:
a.    MOST MEN try their best to avoid hardship, don’t know how to work hard, man-up
i.    Some men start well but can’t finish: jobs, relationship, in finances, in marriage
ii.    Other men don’t even get started: wasting your lives, though you might be busy, no FRUIT.
iii.    Some men SIN by what they do: lying, cheating, swindling, women, masturbation, porn…
iv.    Some men SIN by what they don’t do: don’t pursue God, honor & protect women, work…

Look where Elimelech’s foolishness takes him and his sweet wife and sickly children…

NAOMI’S EMPTINESS: v.3-5
1.    Why did Elimelech go to MOAB? To avoid death. What happens when he gets there?  DEATH.
a.    Tragic story – from our perspective it seems like it just didn’t have to be this way!
b.    Elimelech dies, leaving his wife & sons… but they stay.
c.    The boys marry MOABITES!  Yikes. Ruth & Orpah
i.    Not worshippers of God and Scripture prohibits them from coming to worship in Temple
ii.    Offspring they have can’t be in the temple for 10 generations: 400 years (mormons)
d.    And then: the BOYS DIE (saw that coming…)
i.    Particularly tragic b/c with no children, the family’s name will go extinct:
ii.    The family’s story comes to an end, no future, no hope for the family – extinguished.
2.    What would you SAY to NAOMI about this MESS? She finishes burying her sons beside the grave of father
a.    She has lost everything – a widow without children and without heirs
b.    No life insurance, no savings plan or 401K left, no home – stranger in a foreign land: tragic
c.    How might you respond to her? Or better: how do you respond to it in your own life?
3.    FIRST, See how ORDINARY this is: we all have stories like this, more or less
a.    Lives are a mix of unwise decisions, outright sin, good intentions that go bad, result in joy & pain
b.    We have our own sin and disobedience and suffer for it… and sometimes we don’t!
c.    But we also suffer for what our parents have done or not done… and sometimes we don’t!
i.    FEW people can insulate their lives from the MESS b/c rarely is it LINEAR.
ii.    You could SHARE your MESS with US TONIGHT… we’d cry together
4.    SEE THIS: Naomi doesn’t get a WHY answer, and the narrator doesn’t offer one: temptation to formula
a.    FAITH has no formulas: hardship can be caused by sin, but it can have myriad other causes
b.    We could spend a LONG TIME talking through all the INS and OUTS of this TRAGEDY
c.    Question of the Book: If there is a GOD, what is HIS RELATION to the MESS?
i.    Up to this POINT, he is apparently ABSENT & UNCONCERNED.
ii.    Doesn’t STOP Elimelech from making stupid decisions; doesn’t keep him from death
iii.    Doesn’t tell Naomi to go home before the boys fall for pagan girls; doesn’t keep them alive

But the narrator of RUTH doesn’t go there, at least not yet, so we won’t either… BUT LOOK AT THIS, v.6
JUDGMENT, GRACE, & REPENTANCE: v.6
1.    Imagine this SCENE: she is in the fields of MOAB, desititute, perhaps now working for her own provision
a.    How much time has passed? Still deep in a season of grieving?
b.    And she hears a RUMOR: the LORD has visited his people and given them, literally, “bread”
2.    Our introduction to the WORK of GOD in NAOMI’S LIFE is GRACE and HOPE
a.    Into the tragedy of SIN and DEATH and LOSS and LONELINESS, God SHOWS UP w/bread
3.    For the FIRST TIME, the narrator introduces us to the HERO of the book of RUTH
a.    Ruth is an amazing woman, and later you’ll meet BOAZ; but the hero is GOD:
b.    LORD in caps is the Hebrew name for God, YAHWEH – the name God gave MOSES at the bush
i.    Covenantal name, a sign that he has not FORGOTTEN the people that he LOVES
ii.    Yahweh reminds us that GOD is COMMITTED to HIS PEOPLE, hasn’t forsake them
iii.    And NOW: he has come to them, bringing rain and refreshment and ending the famine

4.    This is the STORY’S ANSWER to the QUESTION: What is GOD’S relation to the MESS?
a.    God is a PROVIDER who comes with BLESSING to his PEOPLE:
b.    God’s PROVIDENCE: He is IN CONTROL; He is POWERFUL; and he is GOOD, desires to BLESS
c.    From first Interaction with Adam & Eve, to BLESS; at work in our lives for SAME END!

5.    God WORKS in his VISIBLE HAND of miracle: see this throughout the BIBLE
6.    But he also works in his INVISIBLE HAND: whether or not we see it, HE IS ALWAYS AT WORK.
a.    Though he does judge and chasten and discipline, ultimately it comes from his GRACIOUS HAND
b.    And it is FOR GOOD ENDS
7.    And do you SEE WHAT NAOMI DOES when GOD SHOWS HIS GRACE?  She RETURNS
a.    The word is translated other places as REPENT: she forsakes the land of MOAB and goes home.
b.    The kindness, grace, mercy of GOD DRAWS HER HOME.
c.    More next week as we look at how NAOMI has responded to all this… FOR NOW:

8.    The Narrator of RUTH puts the LORD in the STORY as BOOKENDS (top and tail gives you theme!)
a.    Here, he provides BREAD; In Ruth 4.13, he provides CONCEPTION.
b.    From FAMINE to FULLNESS, he is weaving something beautiful from the mess of Naomi’s life
c.    INVISIBLY!  No one is aware of how God is at work!

9.    The STORY of RUTH is GOD’S INVISIBLE HAND in the MESS of our ORDINARY LIVES
a.    REDEEMING: Weaving the tragedy and pain and sin and loss into a beautiful work of art
b.    This STORY, as we GO THROUGH IT ALL, we’ll see how GOD WORKS, he is TRUSTWORTHY
c.    AND IT IS TRUE TODAY IN YOUR LIFE.

FINDS FULFILLMENT in the LIFE, DEATH, and RESURRECTION of JESUS
PAUL: You are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus – literally, you are his MASTERPIECE
And his PROMISE to YOU THAT IT IS FOR GOOD comes at the PRICE of his own SON.
    The CROSS is the GUARANTEE that GOD is GOOD and HE IS FOR YOU
    And the EMPTY TOMB is the GUARANTEE that he is working it FOR A GOOD END
NOT THAT YOUR MESS ISN’T REAL, HARD, EVEN TRAGIC – Ruth doesn’t cover it up.

Tori’s BANNERS
    From Famine to Fullness
From barreness God brings conception
    From death he brings life
    From tragedy he expertly fashions a work of art

COMMUNION: the table of BREAD