Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, all right. Well, it is time for our summer Bible study. I'm so excited for this. This is our second year doing this. Last year, we did a series on the Beatitudes. You can go on our website, our podcast, and listen to that. We did eight weeks of the Beatitudes. It was really powerful.

Speaker 1: 0:17

This year, we have chosen an Old Testament book of the Bible, a book of the Bible that I would say does not get enough airplay. It does not get the time it deserves. It is full of power. It's an incredible story. You know, we love Moses. Here you go. We love Moses parting the seas. We love to hear about King David and all of his victories and even some of his downfalls, because it makes him relatable. We love stories about Jesus and the miraculous signs and wonders he did and how he loved those who other cast aside.

Speaker 1: 0:50

But what about these 85 verses in this little book known as Ruth? What about this? It's a story that I believe that is filled with power and love, and there's no way to express what God is going to do in your hearts during this summer Bible study. Okay, in this story there's tragedy. Like many of us, we face tragedy in our own personal lives. You know what we see. Sadly, we see in this story two women who lost everything. And even though they lost everything, god is very, very present in ways that you might not expect in this story. This is perhaps one of three books in the Bible where we don't see any physical miracles from God. There's no pardon of the seas, there's no raising the dead, there's no healing of the sick, nothing like that. But on every page and on every verse we see the power, the presence and, here you go, the providence of a very good, good God, and it's a wonderful story. Okay, so maybe today, maybe today, you're losing hope. Maybe today you come in here and you're searching for something more. Maybe today you feel discouraged, you feel stuck in a place that you don't want to be in, and I know the story of Ruth will be what God can use to get you from being unstuck, to get you to find hope, to help you find hope.

Speaker 1: 2:18

Okay, so today we start the book of Ruth and I call it part one of this series when it's time to walk away. When it's time to walk away Now. Before I jump into the content of this message, at the beginning of this year I got a brand new niece, and my brand new niece's name is Ruth. Yeah, so here's a couple pictures, is Ruth? Yeah, so here's a couple pictures. Oh, isn't she beautiful. I got one more, I believe that's coming up. Oh, that's us. There you go. I just wanted to make your heart fill with joy seeing her. It has nothing to do with my message, but there's Ruth.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Now we are going to study Ruth, we're going to talk about this biblical character and we're going to jump right into chapter 1, verse 1. Let me stop there, okay. In other words, when there was no kings, when there wasn't a kingdom in Israel, yet, the judges ruled. Now the book of Ruth comes directly after the book of Judges, and one of the verses you see over and over and over again in Judges, and the verse that it ends with, goes like this it says in the days when the judges ruled again, no kings everyone did I want you to get this everyone did what was right in their eyes. Everyone did what was right in their eyes. Everyone did what felt right in their eyes. Everyone lived their own truth. Everyone lived the way they felt they should live. They made decisions based on how they feel in the moment. It sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? It sounds a little bit like today. Now, in Ruth, chapter 1, dude, I'm going old school today. I got my Bible, all right, I can read, I promise. Check this out.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Ruth, chapter 1, verse 1, it says this In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. Now there's a famine in the land and we're about to discover a family that we're going to follow throughout this story, and this family hears about this famine and they make a decision they probably shouldn't make. Here you go. It continues. 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 Malon and Kilion. They were from Bethlehem and Judah and they went to Moab and lived there, and they left Bethlehem and lived in Moab.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Now let's break down these characters for a second. Okay, so first of all, we have Elimelech. That is a hard name to say. He is the husband and father, and his name I want you to hear this is what his name means. His name means my God is my king. That's a good name. My God is my king. Then we have his wife, the mom, naomi, and her name means sweet or pleasant. There you go, I like it, I like it, I like it. Then you have the two children.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Okay, in that culture they named their kids for a lot of different reasons than how we do it today. Okay, so they would name their kids either prophetically, like what they hoped their kid would be. So they may name their kids something that means the Lord's strength or God's purity or something like that. Like, for example, are they named their kids based on what they saw when they were first born? Within the first eight days to two weeks they were born. Like, for example, if my parents would have waited to name me after that, they would have named me Big Head Because the size of my head. I got a peanut-shaped head now, but the size of my head now was the same size my head was when I was first a little baby. I just grew into it, you know. So that's good, that's good, you know, but that's what they did.

Speaker 1: 6:18

Okay, and so the names of Malon and Kilion Malon means sick and Kilion means tired, sick and tired. So you can probably assume they both struggle with their health as babies. But imagine me and Naomi going to the park for a play date and all the moms and their kids they say, oh, look at your babies, they're so beautiful. What's their names? Oh, sick and tired. Is that how you feel? Or is that what they are? You know, but that was their names. Okay, now some of you are like man, I didn't know that was an option. Can I change the name of my kids Because I got some different names with them? Here you go. But we got sweet and pleasant, we got sick and tired and we have. My God is my king Now?

Speaker 1: 7:05

Elimelech worried about his family because of the famine, so he moves his family from Bethlehem to Moab. Okay, to give an example of what this looks like, what kind of move this is, bethlehem is around the Dead Sea. Okay, it's around the Dead Sea to Moab. They get to Moab. It's about a 50-mile journey. So if you walk three miles, you know three miles an hour. It's about what? A 16 to 17-hour trip. So maybe it's one super long day trip. Most likely they would do this trip in one to two to three days, something like that to break it up. But needless to say, it's not that far away. That's the point I want to make. It's not that far away from Bethlehem to Moab, okay.

Speaker 1: 7:46

So he leaves Bethlehem, he takes his family to Moab, which ended up being a horrible mistake. He moves his family to Moab, where God has strictly forbidden his people to live. Now you may wonder like well, why? Why would God not want his people to live in Moab? Well, the Moabites were the descendants of Moab. You can read that in Genesis 19. And where did they start from? Lot's daughters got him, their dad, drunk, they slept with him and conceived a son named Moab. So already the birth of that country is not in a good place, you know. It doesn't have a good legacy to it. And then they also, the Moabites, worship the false god which would regularly accept child sacrifice. So not a good place you want to be. Okay, not the spot you want to end up. But Elimelech took his family from Bethlehem which means house of the bread that sounds good. Sourdough maybe Sounds good To Moab, to a place that God had forbidden them.

Speaker 1: 8:45

Now, what's interesting? This is what I want you to get Elimelech, his name means my God is my king, but he wasn't living as if his God was his king. In fact, I think it's safe to say he was doing what was right in his own eyes. He was doing what was right in his own eyes, just like so many of us today. Now I don't want to be too hard on him because there was a famine and he was probably thinking well, if I go to Moab there's going to be a better economy, I can get a better job, I can provide better for my family, my kids won't starve in a famine. You know things get crazy, so you can understand that. We can understand probably where his thought process was.

Speaker 1: 9:35

But can I just for a second issue, a gentle, just a gentle gentle spiritual warning to everyone listening today? That may be for some of you, and here's what I've noticed when it comes to our families, we are often tempted to prioritize economic provision over spiritual protection. We're often tempted to do that. In other words, if someone has a job offer somewhere else and the job offer pays a little bit more, there's kind of this assumption that, oh, god must be in, that God must be where the more money is because he wants to provide more for me right Now. Chances are it could be, it might be, but sometimes it's not, it's not Now. I can only share this from a personal story, my personal journey, aaron and I's personal journey.

Speaker 1: 10:28

When we got the thumbs up to leave Virginia Beach to move to Richmond, to start the church, to move to Richmond, I knew it would be the first time in my life, since I was 16, 17 years old, that I would not be getting the salary to do work. Okay, I knew I was going to be working for free to do church. I knew I was going to have to put in 40, 50 hours a week to start the church, but I knew I wasn't going to get paid for it. I didn't, you know, I wasn't and I didn't have, I couldn't get a bivocational job. I didn't, you know, I had to put all my effort into it, so getting ready to move then. So here we get the thumbs up to move and then, out of nowhere, out of nowhere, after we get the thumbs up to move I already had two families move up to this area I get a job offer out of nowhere to take over a thriving, growing, financially wealthy church in beautiful Myrtle Beach. Come on, retirement in place, you know. And so when I meet with the pastors who are retiring, they basically they, you know, I tell them kind of what, aaron, I tell them what we're kind of looking for in the church and they're basically like move up here in the spring, we'll transition you to lead the church. In the fall Both of you will be on staff as co-lead pastors.

Speaker 1: 11:44

Oh, and, by the way, this was the best part he said. Oh, by the way, I know in Virginia Beach you guys work like 50, 60 hours a week. Here in Myrtle Beach, 20, maybe 30. It sounded too good to be true, right, it sounded too good. Now, here you go. This is what I'm going to say.

Speaker 1: 12:00

I'm not saying if Aaron and I would have took that job, that God would not have blessed that. I think he probably would have. He would have blessed that. But for us and maybe this can be for you, but for us we had to get to a point to where we can say would we say no to a good thing to do God's thing? And I just want to ask you today would you say no to a good thing, because it's easy to leave bad things. Oh, I don't want that relationship. Oh, I don't want that problem. I don't want that work environment. I got to get out of there. Yeah, we get that. Yeah, leave a bad thing, but would you leave a good thing to do the thing that God has called you to do? Am I preaching to anyone today? So here you go. So, and because of us moving to Richmond and the church planting process and the people we met along the way I mean Aaron and I we're more spiritually thriving than ever before in our lives, like because a lot of the stuff that came through with the church plant.

Speaker 1: 13:00

Now I want to say, be very careful not to always prioritize economics over the presence of God. Be very careful not to always do that. So things are a little tough in Bethlehem. Things are tough in Bethlehem. There's news of a famine coming. There's news that things aren't going the way they want. Things are a little tough. So he leaves and goes to Moab, the sinful land of Moab. Because things got tough in Bethlehem, because things weren't going the way that he hoped in Bethlehem. He decides to go to Moab and the question I want to ask you today where do you go when times get tough? When times get tough, where do you want to go? What's the place that you want to go?

Speaker 1: 13:41

Because most of you would say well, I'm a Christian, I'm a Jesus follower and my God is my king. My God's my king. He is. I'm going to trust and obey his word. And maybe you're trying not to be so angry. You even learned some breathing exercises, you download an app that can help you stay calm and you're praying for daily peace. But then someone says something, someone says that one thing, and you can feel that anger stirring up inside of you and you're breathing. What are you going to do? Are you going to trust and obey God and stay in Bethlehem, or are you going to go back to the anger of Moab? Are you going to run there? My God is my king of my life. Therefore, I will honor him with what I have and I will give him 10% of what he blesses me with in a form of a tithe, because it's not mine anyways, it belongs to him.

Speaker 1: 14:41

But then money gets tight. Then an unexpected emergency happens. Do you trust and obey God or do you move to Moab? My God is my king in my life and I'm a Christian, so I'm going to stop overly drinking. I'm going to stop spending too much time on my screen on social media. I'm going to be present with my family and loved ones. But then I have a really bad day and a lot of stress comes up and that dopamine hit from checking my social media just feels a little good right now. Do we trust God and obey or do we move to Moab? Because I'll shoot it straight to you guys today, I'll shoot it straight For me when times get tough, moab does look tempting. Moab can look tempting and you know tough Moab does look tempting. Moab can look tempting and you know what your Moab is. You know your Moab.

Speaker 1: 15:31

I understand this guy's dilemma. He's worried about his family and so he does what feels right in his own eyes and, honestly, most of us in here have gone to Moab for far less than what he has. My God is my king, but sometimes we do what's right in our own eyes. So what happens? They left Bethlehem, they went to Moab and everything worked out right. Everything was fine for them. They did what they wanted, they did what they felt, they lived their truth and it all worked out, didn't it? Well, ruth 1 says this.

Speaker 1: 16:03

Now Naomi's husband died and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Oprah what that was funny. Like Oprah, okay, and the other, ruth, after they lived there about 10 years. Both Malon and Killian also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. Moab was supposed to be a place that kept them out of danger. That's why they left, but now Naomi is left alone by herself in a more dangerous situation than a famine, dangerous situation than a famine, heartbreak, heartbreak.

Speaker 1: 16:48

First, her husband dies, and we don't know what happened. Maybe he had a stroke, maybe he got hit by a camel, we don't know. We don't know, but we know that she's in a really bad place. And what's fascinating to me is this who remembers how far Bethlehem and Moab are? Only 50 minutes, right, it's only 50 miles. I'm going to say only 50 miles about a day, maybe two days walk. If you stop at Waffle House, you know, but it's not that far. Yet she stayed there after her husband died for 10 years. She stayed there, and some of us, we will stay in a bad situation, even though we know we need to get back home, even though we know we can't keep doing the thing we're doing. And she's stuck in this spot, and it's only 50 miles to get back home. It's not that hard, it's not that long. Check this out, though, let's continue. Let's continue.

Speaker 1: 17:44

And because she was away from God's people, her sons married women that were not God's people. They married Moabite women. Now I want to give the boys the benefit of the doubt, because maybe the girls are probably really cute, they probably had great personalities and they probably thought to themselves I can flirt till I convert. That's maybe what they were thinking. I don't know. Why did they leave Bethlehem, though? They left so they wouldn't die, and what happened when they did what was right in their own eyes? Three of them died. Three of them died. Now we have three widows with no homes, no money, no hope, and remember, we got to remember in that culture women dependent on their husbands. So their next steps I'm going to be honest with you guys, their next steps, without having a head of house, was either homelessness or prostitution. That's what life is looking like for them. Okay, so this is not looking good for them. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 18:46

Naomi, the mother, decides to return to Bethlehem. Along the way she has this conversation with her daughters-in-laws, naomi tells the daughters-in-laws go back to your home, marry your own people, have babies. Oprah does that, and then she starts this TV show that blows up. Ruth decides to stay. Ruth decides to stay. Ruth decides to stay and check this out. This is the first time we hear Ruth speak in the story. She says this Don't urge me to leave or to turn back from you, man. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay, and your people will be my people and your God my God. She declares this fierce loyalty to her mother-in-law that's a good mother-in-law and she declares I'll no longer worship the false gods, I will worship the God of Israel. She makes this dedication. This is her salvation moments. What did she do? What happened? Ruth and Naomi essentially do this. They left Moab and returned to Bethlehem, and this is a picture of what the Bible calls, what the New Testament calls repentance. It's this beautiful picture of repentance.

Speaker 1: 20:18

And what is repentance? Repentance is a two-step. Don't get me dancing, you won't find me in the club. I'm sorry. It's a two-step. When you repent, it's a two-step when you repent. It's a two-step because you repent from one thing, you leave one thing and you just don't say, oh, I'm going this way. You repent from one thing and you walk towards God and because the problem that can happen with repentance, you say I repent from this addiction and I find this one. I repent from this bad relationship just to get in five more bad ones. I repent from this kind of destructive mindset just to adopt this one. So repentance, true repentance, the kind of repentance that Jesus says the time has come, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the good news that repentance is. I repent from what I was doing and I turn to you, god, and I'm going to walk back to you. And this is what we see them doing they're repenting from Moab.

Speaker 1: 21:12

To go back to God, to where God wants them to be, you have to leave where you are. And this highlights an important truth that is so basic, it's so elementary that I need to say it because we need to remember it. To get to the right place, you have to leave. You have to leave the wrong place. To get to the right place that God wants to take you, to get to the purpose and the calling that God wants to get you to, to get to the right place, you got to leave the wrong place. You got to leave, you got to get out of there. You can't stay there anymore. And haven't we all been there before where we're in a place and we can feel the Holy Spirit just like man. You shouldn't be here, you don't need this. And yet we said, well, I'm comfortable here.

Speaker 1: 22:03

10 years she stayed in Moab. 10 years she stayed where she shouldn't have been because she was comfortable. Don't be confused, because comfort does not mean it's necessary God's purpose. Oftentimes God is trying to make us uncomfortable. I actually will say this If your life is too comfortable, I question if you're really following the will of God. Stop it, because everyone we read in the Bible wasn't very comfortable. Jesus wasn't very comfortable. Jesus wasn't very comfortable. And so if I'm too comfortable, lord, make me a little uncomfortable for your kingdom. Here it goes. It continues To get to the right place. You have to leave the wrong one.

Speaker 1: 22:50

And, what's amazing, she made one decision to turn her back on Moab and to go after the God of Bethlehem. And in this one decision, this one act of repentance, this one choice, it changed her life and it changed her legacy forever. And it changed. This one choice made by Ruth changes human history as we know it. It did, it did and I don't want to give the ending away, but spoiler alert Jesus, the Son of God is a descendant from a sinful Moabite woman who made a decision to say I'm going to leave Moab and I'm going to go to Bethlehem.

Speaker 1: 23:33

And it's a credit to the people that God will use, because God is not going to use the so-called qualified people to do His kingdom bidding. He will use the available people, the people that say God, here, I am, use me, and he will qualify you for the task at hand. Come on and Ruth. Ruth leaves Moab and she goes with her mother. She repents with one decision the living water, the bread of life, the prince of peace, the good shepherd, the Lord of all lords and the king of all kings. The Prince of Peace, the Good Shepherd, the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings, the Alpha and the Omega, is born. One moment of repentance, one single decision. So what does that mean for you? What does that mean for us?

Speaker 1: 24:22

Today, I'm going to ask you to be very, very open to what the Holy Spirit might put on you, because I wonder, I wonder if there's some people in here you're still living in Moab when God wants to take you back to Bethlehem. You're still living in Moab. You're living in an anxiety of Moab, in the depression of Moab, in an addiction of Moab, in the fear of Moab. And what that person said about me when I was an adolescent is Moab and you're living in this place when God wants to take you to Bethlehem. Is there some area of your life where God is saying, where you're saying, my God is my king, yet you're doing what's right in your own eyes? Is there some area of your life where you're claiming, yes, I am a follower of Jesus, yet you're following your own truth and not his truth?

Speaker 1: 25:10

Here's the question of application. Here's the question what? Here's the question what one decision could you make, what one action can you take that would change the trajectory of your life and your legacy? What one decision, what one decision could you make? What one action can you take to leave Moab and return to Bethlehem?

Speaker 1: 25:35

And if you need some help, that's my job. That's what LVC is all about. See, at LVC we teach in local basics that our job is not to be the hero of your story. We're not the hero coming in saving the day. Our job, we're the guide, and we want to guide you to the true hero of your story, which is Jesus. So maybe for you, you're like well, where do I start? What do I do? Maybe for you it's time to cut up some credit cards and get out of that debt once and for all.

Speaker 1: 26:03

Others it may be. You may be the first one to apologize and here you go, and if that person never says I'm sorry back, that's okay, because you got that out of you and you're free. You're sorry for your part. So for some of you, you need to break up and move out. Don't settle for someone who's worshiping a false God. When you need that something, you need someone who can worship the one true God with you. Some of you, you need to block that person from your phone so they can stop following you or bringing you down. Some of you, you need to confess your addiction and ask for help. Some of you, you need to live on less and give a whole lot more. What one decision, what one action. Some of you, you need to surrender something to God, and others, you need to surrender someone to God. There are many of you who could just fall on your knees and broken repentance and surrender to Jesus and say, god, I need you. I need you right now.

Speaker 1: 26:56

To get to the right place, you have to leave the wrong place, and it's all about the re. It's about that re. 1100 times in the Bible we see that this word re, this word repentance, to repent the re it's all about the re. You just have to return to God, you have to leave Moab and return to Bethlehem, and it's going to be a little bit like this. Okay, it's going to be a little bit like this when you rebuke the enemy and return to God by repenting of your sins and receiving Christ, your spirit will be reborn and your mind renewed and your life rebuilt and you'll be reconciled by Christ's redeeming work. And while you rejoice, you'll reap the rewards of relationship, cause and revival to break out in your heart and in your life and in your family.

Speaker 1: 27:44

And who in here is ready to leave Moab and get back to Bethlehem? Because what looked like a tragedy for these women, because of the goodness and the power and the providence of our loving Father, god, sets in motion the greatest miracle in human history. Don't despise one moment of repentance and confession, because that one moment can change your life and your legacy forever. So, father Jesus, holy Spirit, we come to you now and we say we need you, lord, we need you, god, maybe for some. I just actually just feel this very heavy burden. Maybe there's some people in here. You try to make some decisions that was right for your family and for you. You weren't trying to be disobedient, you weren't trying to do the wrong thing. It just wasn't what God wanted you to do and you found yourself in a spot where you don't want to be in and I feel like the love of the Father is saying he sees you, he hears you, he knows your heart's intention. Just come back to Him now. Just return back to Him now. Just return back. Maybe you're in here and Moab is fierce. It floods your mind, it floods your heart. Come, holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come, holy Spirit. You have declared out loud several times I'm never going back there. You find yourself back there.

Speaker 1: 29:47

Holy Spirit, heal people of shame right now in Jesus' name. Shame is a lie of the enemy that sometimes tries to deceive itself in conviction and say oh, yeah, yeah. You never do that. And that's not conviction, that's shame, because conviction says here, I'll pick you up, I'll walk along with you, I'll get you out of this mess with you. Conviction God's Holy Spirit never leaves you alone. Conviction the Holy Spirit speaks to who you are, not what you do. Who you are. You are a child of the Most High God. You are a child of the most high God For the joy set before him. He went to the cross for you. That's who you are. So shame, get out Right now, in Jesus' name, anyone who's struggling with overwhelming shame from their own mistakes or things that have happened to them. Shame, get out, in Jesus' name. You have no place in their hearts, in their heads, in their lives. Shame be gone. Holy Spirit, come and fill that place with love, with joy, with the Father's heart and the nurturing of the Holy Spirit and God. We reflect on.

Speaker 1: 31:18

Ruth. Yep Raised the Moabite, raised this way. Childhood wounds For some of you. You were raised in a way that left you wounded. Yet Ruth makes a declaration to follow the one true God. This is your moment. Your childhood wounds don't have to define you. There's healing in Jesus' name. There's freedom in Jesus' name. There's freedom in Jesus' name. There's freedom in Jesus' name. Receive it, receive it. Thank you, holy Spirit. Thank you, holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 32:07

Maybe you're here today and you're like Jacob. I don't know this Jesus you're talking about. I mean, I know him, but I don't know him. I mean, I know him but I don't know him. I know him in my head, but I don't know him in my heart. If you want to know him, I just want you to pray this prayer with me. I'm not going to call you out or have you come up front, nothing like that. Just right where you are. If you want to make a decision to know Jesus, to trust him with your life, just repeat this prayer with me. You can say it out loud or say it in your heart. Just say, jesus, forgive me for my sins, make me new. Today I leave Moab and I return to you. I follow you. Jesus, you're the one I need. In Jesus' name, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today.