Well, let's welcome John as he comes to
share the word.
He's going to start a series today on
Ruth, and we'll pray with him.
Thank you, Lord, for your word, Lord, and
your Holy Spirit that helps us to understand
everything that you have for us.
And as John is your vessel this morning,
Lord, we ask that you would speak through
him, that his mouth would be your mouth,
his mind would be your mind, and Lord,
maybe more importantly, our ears would be your
ears, and that we would hear what we
need to hear.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you, Pastor Brad.
It's good to see you up and going.
He was lying low the other day.
We had to cut the legs off the
bed.
Sick this week, huh?
I'm better.
Yeah, he's better.
He's doing good.
And last Sunday I was down in Ontario,
so I missed you.
And I find myself sitting down there in
another church saying, I wonder what's going on
with things at Glencairn and how things are
coming along and coming together.
And so it's a joy to be back
and to be home and to report that
God did lots of good things because you
prayed.
We had probably forty or forty-five minutes
worth of testimony last Sunday night from what
the Lord was saying to people through the
weekend in the five services that we got
to participate in.
And it's always great to have a testimony,
and I hear you had some great testimonies
last Sunday.
That's marvelous.
Good to welcome Jim and Ruth home.
Ruth, you're here on the day when we
start to look at Ruth, so I figured
I'd better talk about Jim as well as
you.
But wonderful to have you home.
We were this morning wanting to show you
a little DVD about the new Alliance Church
in Montreal Lake, Saskatchewan, which is north of
PA there.
But we are technically challenged this morning, so
we're going to show it to you next
week instead.
Roberta and I had the privilege last night
with some of the other area pastors of
meeting the pastor and his wife from Montreal
Lake.
And they are seeing some wonderful things happen.
And they're already talking about planting more churches
in the Northland through some of the communities
and reserves.
And I would just encourage you, be in
prayer for Montreal Lake and for Clifford and
Lisa Bird.
About 15 months ago they lost their 16
-year-old son.
He died in his sleep.
They've encountered many things along the way, but
the Lord has wonderfully used them and blessed
them.
Someday we'll no doubt get to have them
here at Glencairn, but we'll show you that
little video next week, God willing.
Carla Johnson is away with quizzing this weekend,
but she has a friend going to Malawi
in a few days.
And so if you would like to reconnect
or send something to Kingston Fury and the
orphanage there, please feel free to get in
touch with Carla.
I'm going to read some scripture and pray
in just a moment, but I want to
just say something before that.
If Sunday morning is good, and it is,
but there's nothing in between Sunday mornings, then
we tend to get hungry.
I go to the table quite a bit
through the week, in case you hadn't noticed.
It's a staff thing, right?
But Judy's helping us with it, so we're
glad.
And one of the things, I'm not proposing
to do anything right away, and I don't
really think we want to do something super
organized, but I want you just to pray
and think about the benefit of being involved
in a small group through the week where
the Word of God can come to your
heart and you can grow in Him and
be blessed.
And some of us are already connected that
way, and there are all kinds of ways
we can look at doing that.
But I just thought this morning might be
kind of interesting just before preaching to say
something about that, because I think the Lord
is stirring hearts in our leadership as well.
And good to just think on and to
pray about it.
So let me be an evangelist for a
moment or two and ask you, if there
was a small group probably built around a
theme rather than a program, how many of
you would think about going to something like
that through the week?
I just wanted to say I see those
hands.
That's brilliant.
That's good to see so many hands, because
that helps us as we go and as
we grow.
And I for one certainly need that to
be able to encourage me along the way
too in the Word of God.
So we'll pray together about it, we'll think
about it, and we'll see what God will
bring along.
Ruth chapter 1 and the first seven verses
this week is what we're going to look
at for a few moments before we come
together around the Lord's table.
And it simply says, And
they went to the country of Moab and
remained there.
Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died.
And she was left with her two sons.
And they took wives of the women of
Moab.
The name of the one was Orpah and
the name of the other Ruth.
They dwelt there about ten years.
Then both Marlon and Chilion also died.
So the woman survived her two sons and
her husband.
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law
that she might return from the country of
Moab.
For she had heard in the country of
Moab that the Lord had visited his people
by giving them bread.
Therefore she went out from the place where
she was and her two daughters-in-law
with her.
And they went on the way to return
to the land of Judah.
Let's just unite our hearts in prayer.
Father, as we open your word this morning,
we do so with a sense of expectancy.
And we come, Lord, before you asking that
you would feed our hearts and feed our
souls.
We live, Father, in a world that is
full of many things.
But to know the fullness of your Spirit
and the fullness of your word and the
fullness of your victory and to be able
to walk with you is such a privilege.
Father, as your people, we have many needs.
We want to ask this morning that you,
Lord, in the power of your Spirit, would
minister to us through the word and by
your Spirit.
We want to pray for our sister Tina
as she goes for surgery this coming Friday.
And, Lord, we just join our hearts as
a congregation this morning and ask you to
protect her, to give her your peace through
the days of this week, to give the
surgeon skill to prevent infection, to lift her
and to bring healing to her.
And for her dear husband Brent, we pray
you will bless them both through these days
as they wait before you.
Father, we have needs.
We have broken relationships.
We lift our hearts to you, and we
need that healing touch that only comes from
the power of the living God.
This morning as a congregation, we just reach
out our hearts to you, Father.
You know the things that we have each
come through this week, the busyness, the challenges,
sometimes the struggles.
But, Father, we're so grateful that you are
here.
And you are here to touch us with
fresh courage, fresh hope, fresh strength, a fresh
word from your word.
So, Lord, be pleased and exalted in our
midst this morning, and touch us, we ask,
with your encouragement.
In Jesus' name, amen.
You might wonder why would the pastor choose
to do a series on the book of
Ruth, and not being on the road so
much is kind of nice because I am
actually in church eight out of the next
nine Sundays.
Woo-hoo!
And it is just a privilege, you know,
that we have as the people of God
to know the working of the Spirit of
God and the love of God in our
midst time by time.
And I chose Ruth prayerfully because we're next
Sunday Mother's Day, guys, don't forget.
And remind the pastor also.
And Mother's Day runs on through to Father's
Day in June, and it's a good time
to think about family and some of the
things that happen to families.
And Ruth is a family story.
It is a beautiful love story.
It works through a time, you know, it
begins here by telling us when the judges
ruled.
And as the judges rule, that's a very
dark time in the history of God's people.
It's a time when there's lots of sin
and lots of struggle and great darkness.
But in the midst of that, it's when
the judges ruled that there's this beautiful love
story, this story of Ruth.
It's like a bright ray in the midst
of the darkness, if you will.
And it's such a tremendous encouragement to see
how God works.
And, you know, my first job when I
was 15 years old was to work in
a newspaper.
And I worked in the printing part of
it, but I really wanted to become a
reporter, as I was pretty sure there's nothing
that could be more exciting than being a
reporter.
And so the reporter on the newspaper used
to sit with me, and he'd try to
coach me how to write some things.
And alas, in the years that I worked
there, I had nothing published.
But enough about that.
One of the things that he taught me
was that it's so important to get as
much detail into the first paragraph of the
story or the article as you can.
So all the what, when, where, and all
that stuff needs to get in there right
at the beginning.
And it's interesting, isn't it, the Holy Spirit
did exactly that in the writing of the
book of Ruth, because it tells us so
much here in the opening couple of verses.
And as we just ponder on it, you
would think that when God's people are set
free, they've been delivered from Egypt, they've been
given the land, things should be going good,
everything should be on the up and up,
and they should be growing in the things
of God, and closer, ever closer to the
Lord.
But when you come to the book of
Judges, what is it that we find?
We find instead that the people of God
are sort of on a roller coaster time,
and they are experiencing times of great oppression
and distress and struggle and difficulty.
And then there are times as God brings
forth a leader that things come back up,
and the people are back close to the
Lord.
And so that's the setting in which we
find this little book.
These times are up and down.
Does that sound familiar?
We live in times, don't we, that sometimes
people will say to me, well, I don't
know where this is going, but I'm sure
it's going down.
You know, it's kind of times like that
when you wonder, and to find God in
it is a wonderful thing.
So quickly this morning, let me just walk
us through these first seven verses, and let's
ask just five questions as we go.
First, what created the problem?
And as we open the book of Ruth,
we see it says there is a famine
in the land.
And that's the problem.
It's a national problem, and not just a
localized one, but there is a famine in
the land.
Scripture gives us at least thirteen situations where
famine comes along.
And in those that I was able to
research through this week, it seemed as if
it was a time of God's displeasure, and
famine comes along.
And we see it quite a bit in
the Old Testament there especially.
So there's no bread.
That's the problem.
And Bethlehem means house of bread.
So there's no bread in the house of
bread.
Interesting.
And as you just continue to think with
me, there's a verse in Amos chapter 8
and verse 11 that says there will come
a time of famine, not for bread but
for the Word of God.
And I think these are days like that,
where there's famine, there's hunger in hearts for
the Word of God.
Lord, I long for a word from you.
And so, these times are not all that
foreign to us, although they happened centuries ago.
And it's listed as Bethlehem, Judah, so it's
house of bread, and Judah means praise, so
house of bread, praise, and there's not a
lot of that going on.
And again, it's good as we have worshiped
this morning just to lift praise to Him,
and to know the joy of the Lord
that is our strength.
But in these days, there's no bread in
the house of bread, and there's no praise,
there's no joy.
All the joy has kind of been squeezed
out of the people of God.
Why?
Just go back to the last verse of
the book of Judges for a second with
me, and we find the reason.
What is it that created the problem?
In Judges 21 and verse 25, it says
this, In those days there was no king
in Israel, everyone did what was right in
his own eyes.
There's the problem.
In those days there was no king in
Israel, everyone did what was right in his
own eyes.
People did not believe that God would help
them through the situation, so they did what
was right in their own eyes.
And here is the problem, and it's not,
again, foreign to us in our times and
society either, because we are so accustomed to
having to step up and fix things and
do things.
And yet, when you look at this, when
everybody does what's right in their own eyes,
what do you end up with?
Well, we would pronounce it chaos.
The Irish can't read so well, so they
always say choss.
That's what happens when everybody does what's right
in their own eyes.
What happens in a relationship when everybody does
what's right in their own eyes?
It doesn't flow.
There's no togetherness.
There's no sense of forward movement in it.
It is blocked and stuck and so on.
And so, these are the things that we
see, realizing that when the people of God
stop believing that he will take care of
them, then they are trying to take care
of themselves, and to push things and force
things through, and the human will gets in
the way.
Oh, so easily.
Second question I'd like to ask as we
think about these seven verses is, what do
we know about this family that is mentioned
here?
And so, let's just look at their names.
Names, you know, in days gone by were
given because they meant something, and the name
had an application into that life all through
life.
So, when you look at the names that
are mentioned here, you find Elimelech means, my
God is king.
So, you're working on the factory floor, and
somebody says, who works beside you?
My God is king.
Oh, Elimelech.
What a name.
My God is king.
And everywhere that he went, that's what he's
saying.
When somebody says, what's your name?
My God is king.
I kind of like that.
He is proclaiming a theological truth, even by
his name and by his presence.
That's what Elimelech means.
Naomi.
What does Naomi mean?
Well, some people say it means blessed.
Some people say it means pleasant.
In the research I was able to do
through the week, I came to the understanding
that really Naomi was a person that you
might just call Mary Sunshine.
And so you could go to her and
say, what a diner, snowing out there.
And she would look with a smile, and
she'd say, praise the Lord, all that moisture
will be so good for things to grow.
And she would be like Bev Shea's grandmother.
Bev Shea and his cohorts always tried to
catch his grandmother up in saying something bad
about somebody.
And they could never get her to do
it.
And they got so frustrated.
And so they came up with the idea
one day, and they said, well, let's ask
her what she thinks of the devil.
And so they went and said, Grandma, what
do you think of the devil?
And they were waiting for this long negative
disposition coming out, you know.
And after thinking for a moment, she said,
he certainly works hard.
Naomi was a person like that, a sort
of Mary Sunshine person, the kind of person
that you like to be around, because it's
not all done.
There are good things to draw out of
any situation.
Now, when it comes to the names of
their children, Myron means unhealthy.
What does Ander mean?
Say it louder into the microphone.
Lion Man.
It's a good name, huh?
Strong one.
Did you ever contemplate calling the little boy
unhealthy?
Never.
So here's a dad whose name says, My
God is King, and Myron, the oldest of
the boys, is named Unhealthy.
Where were you last night?
How was night with the guys?
Unhealthy was there, and you know.
And you start to build up a picture
of this family.
And then you look at the name Chilion,
and his name means puny.
Ever thought about calling them puny?
No, it wasn't in the list, huh?
No.
Interesting, isn't it?
So when you look at this mom and
dad and the children, this family had its
own struggles, didn't it?
Do you know any family that doesn't?
Every single family does.
And, you know, we go a little bit
further, just thinking about the family.
Orpa means fawn or deer.
So you get the idea.
That's a pretty athletic young lady.
Why would you marry one of these unhealthy
puny kids?
But who knows?
Love is blind.
My wife says love is blind, but marriage
is an eye-opener.
You see, this is a family, and there
are inexplainable things in families, aren't there?
And Ruth.
Well, some people would say it means beautiful
and so on.
And again, trying to research it out of
original language and so on, maybe we would
say she was glamorous, but beautiful in every
aspect.
And here she is, married to one of
these kids.
Back to love is blind again.
So these are some of the things that
we know about this family.
A third question we might ask, then, as
we look through Scriptures here.
You know, these place names.
I'll just mention before we move into the
third question.
We talked about Bethlehem, Judah.
But Moab.
There's a house of bread and praise, but
Moab.
God says of Moab, Moab is my wash
basin.
Not very exciting, is it?
I mean, they're going from Bethlehem, house of
bread and Judah praise, basically to the garbage
can.
Well, that's quite a thing when you think
about it.
No longer looking for God to care and
keep, and moving away from the place of
bread and praise to the wash basin.
Interesting.
What caused them to leave?
That's my third question.
And we would say, obviously, if there's a
famine, hunger.
And hard times.
And so, they're moving on out.
Because things look much better in Moab.
And you know, the days of Moab have
not ceased.
Things always seem to look better somewhere else.
Sometimes when, in days past, I have talked
with people, and there have been marriage problems
or family problems, the answer is, I'm out
of here.
The grass is greener over there.
But you know, I find the problem because
wherever I go, regardless of how green the
grass is, I seem to bring myself.
And I bring all the stuff that I
am.
And unless the Lord changes what I am,
it doesn't matter how green the grass is.
But things look better in Moab.
It's hard to stay sometimes with the people
of God, isn't it?
You think about in the book of Hebrews,
and I'll just flip over to chapter 11
and read verses 24 and 25 for a
second.
Hebrews 11, 24, and 25.
It's that passage that we call the faith
chapter.
By faith, Moses, when he became of age,
refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the passing
pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ
greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.
For he looked to the reward.
He looked to the Lord.
Interesting, isn't it?
So easy to say, well, I'm not going
to go with the people of God.
I'll just step on out.
And these first verses are really about this
thing of backsliding.
And when we think about backsliding, we always
think about some gross, gross sin.
But you know, that isn't always the whole
thing, is it?
It doesn't tell us that they were living
immorally in Moab.
It doesn't tell us that they were cursing
people out or whatever.
It just tells us they moved away from
the house of bread to the wash basin.
The circumstances of life were tough.
Everybody was suffering.
It seemed like overwhelming challenges.
But you know what?
It's always wrong to move away from the
people of God.
Ten years and three deaths go past.
Probably they maybe thought we'll just go over
there for a short time.
Ten years and three deaths.
Wow.
Out of the house of bread into the
wash basin.
First Corinthians 12, 26 says, When one part
of the body suffers, all suffer.
And it's true.
This is why we need each other so
much.
But you know, sometimes we think, I can't
really talk to people about how I'm hurting.
Who will understand?
And I don't really want to talk about
it.
But you know, your hurt and your pain
needs to be just as much a part
of the body of Christ as the blessings.
That's what it's all about, isn't it?
That's what creates that sense of family.
When we can hold one another in the
love of Christ and walk through the valleys.
Psalm 104, verse 10 says, That in the
valley he places the streams.
That's that place of refreshment when we find
the Lord even in the valley.
Backsliding shows us some things.
It shows us self-will.
There's no mention of God here being sought.
It's kind of like, this is tough, we're
out of here.
Shows us rebellion, no longer trusting him to
meet the needs.
Shows us self-gratification.
Ah, man.
Do we ever live in a day and
time where what I want for myself becomes
the biggest thing in the world?
And yet scripture is so clear that as
we set down our rights and live for
him, there comes real life.
When we move away from God, we accept
a worldly lifestyle.
Ten years in Moab.
Ten years without the place of worship.
Ten years without that sense of nearness of
the Lord.
Wow.
Wrong relationships develop.
You know, God was clear in his teaching
to his people, who to marry, who not,
how to take preference in that, and so
on.
And so this whole thing develops over this
ten year time.
It brings emptiness of life and bitter sorrow.
And no wonder at the end of the
first chapter, Naomi is saying, call me bitter.
Because that's how life was.
And that's what backsliding does.
It brings that bitterness and that emptiness.
Well, thankfully we don't have to stay there.
So let's move on to question number four.
What caused them to return?
To come back to Bethlehem.
You see, here's where we find that God
intervenes.
Naomi hears a word that God has visited
his people.
And that's all it takes, isn't it?
It's the word that says, Hey, the Lord
is there.
He has returned to bring comfort.
He has returned to bring his help.
He has come to provide bread in the
house of bread.
And when God moves, we see his initiative.
I get kind of cranked up about this,
because when I'm feeling down in the dumps
and feeling sorry for myself.
Did you ever do that, Bryce?
Oh, I'm glad I'm not alone.
He's not only a great musician, but he's
a good thinker.
You see, I get down in the dumps
and the devil comes along and he says,
God doesn't care about you.
Look at the state that you're in.
God doesn't care about you.
If God cared about you, da-da, da
-da, da-da, da-da.
But then Naomi hears this word.
God has taken the initiative.
And he has come back to his people.
And you think about his love and grace
and the outpouring and the longing and coming
out of the valley, the sense of, Whoa!
Now it's all right, because he's here.
That's what brought them back.
The presence and the comfort of God.
Why did he return?
Well, Judges helps us understand that when times
went down the tubes, the people of God
went down on their knees and they begin
to petition heaven until he came again in
the strength of his power, either with a
leader or as an answer to their need.
And she's in the land of Moab, but
it says that she rose up.
Does that sound familiar in any way?
Can you think of any other Scripture or
person in Scripture who's kind of in a
tough situation and it says that, I will
arise, I think is the word that comes
to my mind, from Luke 15.
And it's the prodigal son's story, isn't it?
I will arise and go to my father.
And that's what she's saying.
I'm going to arise.
I'm going to go back.
Because God is there.
I love it.
I have a friend who's in heaven.
His name is Ian Bowie.
He was a wonderful Baptist preacher for many
years that we got to know.
And one day he told us about how
the daycare in his church, they brought to
him a hamster.
And the lady brought it in and set
the hamster on his desk.
And he looked and the hamster wasn't moving.
And he looked at the lady and he
said, Yes?
And she said, Pastor, the hamster hasn't moved
in three days.
Do you think for the sake of the
children you could maybe do a funeral service?
Mm-hmm.
He said, Okay, I'll come in a minute.
And just to remind him, she left the
hamster sitting on his desk.
So as he's working there and preparing for
the message, you know, all of a sudden
he sees a little twitch.
One of those little feet starts to go
and then another one.
And then all of a sudden that little
critter gets up and he goes on its
wheel.
And my friend Ian said, The first thing
I thought is, I've got the power.
And he said, No, that can't be right.
As he thought about this, he realized the
hamster had gone into hibernation in the cold
church basement.
But when he got up in the pastor's
office where all the hot air is, he
revived.
That's what's happening to Naomi.
There's a sense where sin and distance between
us and God pushes us down.
But then when the breath of God starts
to blow and the warmth of the Spirit
of God starts to come, there's nothing in
this world like that, is there?
Ah, dear ones, we'll ask one more quick
question and then we'll be done for the
time and the word this week.
What is our life lesson here?
It's simply this.
God does not leave us.
There are times when we leave Him.
And there are times when we question this,
aren't there?
Lord, are you really there?
Lord, do you really care?
But He is sovereign and He is over
all.
And despite all of these rough circumstances and
dark times, just look at what God is
preparing.
And He had to send all the way
to Moab to get a lady who's listed
in the ancestry of Jesus and to bring
her to His land and again to His
people.
You know, even in the darkness we see
He's working.
So I wonder this morning, I'm speaking to
someone and there's some darkness, there's some tough
issues, there's some hard things.
Could you just grasp this simple thought?
The Lord has not left me.
He has not forsaken me.
He will not leave me.
He is working in it all.
And as I stay surrendered to Him, He
will bring again the season of blessing.
Let's just pause to pray.
Father, as we come to You this morning,
even as we've looked in Your Word, we
see the misery that being separated from You
brings.
And regardless of what our circumstances are this
morning, there's a longing in our heart just
to be near to You, just to know
the fresh touch of our God in the
midst of all of the challenges and all
of these dark times.
Let the light of Your truth shine deeply
into our hearts.
And let us, Father, know the joy, as
Pastor Brad said at the beginning of this
service, of just being close to You.
And if I'm speaking to someone this morning
and you sense there's a distance between yourself
and the Lord, oh, just in the quietness
of these moments before we ever come to
the Lord's table, won't you just take a
moment and come in fresh surrender to Jesus
and ask Him, Lord, touch me again.
Let me set aside my agenda, my will,
and truly let the words of that song
be true of me.
This is my desire to honor You.
So, Father, continue to speak to our hearts.
Bless us through this little story of Ruth
and the way in which You work in
her life and family.
And oh, God, work in our lives and
families too.
In Jesus' name we pray.
In God's people's sin.
Amen.
Let me read to you a few verses
as we move toward the Lord's table.
And we'll ask our elders and Pastor Brad
just to get ready there.
I'm reading from Psalm 145.
And just a few verses in the middle
of the psalm.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all and His
tender mercies over all His works.
All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,
and Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your
kingdom and talk of Your power.
To make known to the sons of man
His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of
His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and Your
dominion endures throughout all generations.
Just listen to these words.
The Lord upholds all who fall and raises
up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look expectantly to You
and You give them their food in due
season.
You open Your hand and satisfy the desire
of every living thing.
Let's just focus our thoughts on the one
who lifts up all who fall.
The one who lifts up all who are
bowed down.
As we come to the table there is
nothing that we can't bring to Him.
Nothing that moves in the human heart that
we cannot confess to Him and be free
from it.
And similarly there is nothing that we need
that He cannot supply.
So for a couple of moments let us
just as individuals seek the Lord in prayer.
Scripture tells us before we partake at the
Lord's table it's good for us to examine
ourselves.
And so as we do that for a
couple of moments in prayer then Pastor Brad
will lead us on at the Lord's table.
So let's quietly seek Him.