And so the first people we looked at in this series were Alimelech and also Orpah. Now
they're kind of interesting because they're really only chapter one characters. Because
of choices they made, they're gone. They're not in chapter two, they're not in chapter three,
they're not in chapter four. Naomi's different though. She's there at the beginning and she's
there at the end. So honestly you have to kind of pick and choose what you're going to preach
because of the fact she's around for a long time. So I have four points here today and I actually
think that it's more interesting preaching kind of the beginning of this book than the end in
terms of learning from these characters. So we're going to see the first point about Naomi is this.
The first thing is that she is out of the will of God. In Ruth 1 verse 2 the Bible reads,
And the name of the man was Alimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two
sons Malan and Kileon, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and
continued there. And so Alimelech, if you remember from the first sermon, he takes his family and he
moves them to Moab from Bethlehem Judah. So they leave an area of God's people where they're
worshiping the true God and they go to Moab, which is always a wicked area in the Bible. Obviously
this is not where God wants them. And Naomi is here in Moab. Now I don't think it's necessarily
her fault that she's out of the will of God. It just is what it is. She's just in Moab. And
sometimes in life we can be in situations and it's not necessarily our fault, but you wake up one day
and you're out of the will of God for whatever reason. Let me give you an example. Let's say
that for whatever reason this church closed tomorrow, okay? And you're a member of this
church. And then you say, well, you know, I don't know where to go to church now. You're not in the
situation God would want you in. It's not necessarily your fault, but, you know, however I would word
this, it's not where God wants you at because he wants you in a good church where you're serving
the Lord, obviously. And so I don't think this is really her fault, but she just is where she is.
She's in Moab and her husband dies, and now she's got to recover from them. She's got to get her
life back on track. It's not going to be easy. Now in verses four and five the Bible reads,
And they took them wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the
other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. And Malan and Kylian died also both of them. And
the woman was left for two sons and her husband. So they're there for ten years. This is a really
long time. That's a lot of your life to lose in Moab, in an area you don't want to live. She's
there for ten years. And one thing we can learn from the book of Ruth is that God will go to
great extremes to get you back into the will of God. We see that her husband dies, her kids die,
and now all of a sudden that kind of helps motivate her to move back to Bethlehem, Judah. That's
pretty extreme. That's what we see in the Bible. Notice verse number six, 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 how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. So she hears how God has
visited his people in giving them bread. They moved to Moab because of the fact there was a
famine, and she's heard that there's actually bread in Bethlehem, Judah. Basically that they're
more prosperous now. Now look, this was the days before social media, okay. It's not like she got
a text and said, guess what, there's a lot of money now in Bethlehem, Judah. It could have
been years earlier where God had started to visit them and giving them bread. She finds out about
it. She hears about it. It could have been like four or five years earlier where all of a sudden
the country's more prosperous. We don't really know. What we do know is 10 years were lost in
Moab. That's a really, really long time. Now turn to Jonah 1. Jonah 1. And it's your turn to Jonah 1.
Let me just read in Hebrews 10 where the Bible reads, for we know him that hath said,
vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge
his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Look, you know,
God will judge his people. Us as saved people, you say, can I just go out and do whatever I want and
expect God's going to bless me? No, you're not necessarily going before the Lord as we talked
about in the first sermon. If you make certain choices in life, God's not necessarily going to
bless them for you. In fact, you might pay for those sins. And so, look, it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. The story of Naomi is pretty similar to Jonah in a
lot of ways. Notice Jonah 1 verse 1. Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai,
saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up
before me. So Jonah is told very clearly, go preach to Nineveh. Go preach to the Assyrian
Empire. The Assyrian Empire was the most powerful country in the world. They were the United States
of their time. They're the most powerful country. Throughout the Bible, there are wicked people.
They're killing God's people. They're taking over. And he's told to preach to them. He's told to
preach about the judgment that's going to come. And naturally, he doesn't want to do that. Just
imagine if there was a country that oppressed us here in the Philippines, that was just destroying
our lives. And then God's message to you was, go preach to them and fix their country. You'd be
maybe kind of mad, like Jonah is. He doesn't want to preach to the Assyrian Empire. Notice verse 3.
But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa.
Look, whenever you flee from the presence of the Lord, you're going down to Joppa. That's the
terminology in the Bible. When you're going away from God's will, you're going down. You're not
going up. And he found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it
to go with among the Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. Look, Jonah is literally paying money
to run away from God. He paid the fare thereof. That shows you that when you choose to live a life
of sin, it actually costs you. Not just your judgment, but you're going to pay for it, literally.
Look, living a sinful life is actually expensive. Drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, that's not
cheap. You're actually going to pay for that. Living a life of sin, you're going to actually pay for
that. It's an expensive life. And Jonah chooses to rebel against God, he runs from the presence of
God, and he goes a complete other direction. Notice verse number 15. So they took up Jonah
and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea seized from a raging. Then the men feared the
Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a
great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Now
look, all of us have back slid at times, everybody in this room, but thankfully I don't think anyone's
been swallowed by a whale. That's pretty bad. That's called hitting rock bottom. I don't know
what it's like to be inside a whale's belly for three days, but considering it's used as a
symbolism of hell, out of the belly of hell pride eye, I'd imagine the stomach acids probably were
eating away at Jonah. I mean, it probably wasn't very nice for three days in a whale's belly. Okay,
somebody back slides and gets right with God, you can let me know. Maybe take a video of it in our
modern day, take a video and show us all. But that's what happens to Jonah. He flees from God,
he runs away from God, he ends up in a whale's belly. Jonah chapter 2 verse 1. Then Jonah prayed
unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried by reason of my affliction unto the
Lord and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I and thou hurt'st my voice. For thou hadst
cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas and the floods compass me about, all thy billows
and thy waves pass over me. So Jonah, once he hits rock bottom, praise to God, unfortunately in life
oftentimes we have to hit rock bottom before we just smarten up. Sometimes, you know, we just
rebel against God, we rebel, we rebel, we hit rock bottom. You're inside a whale's belly and then
you realize, man I better turn to the Lord now. There's no other hope. You know, obviously the
goal is that all of us would get right with God before that time comes. Because everybody in this
room is going to backslide at times. That's the way it is. I'm going to backslide at times. But
you don't want to reach the point where you've hit rock bottom and you've really caused problems
in your life. And that's what we see here in the book of Jonah. And so one thing you can notice is
this, that oftentimes when you're out of God's will, you usually have to hit rock bottom before
it straightens you up. That's what we see with Jonah. Now let's look at Jonah chapter 2 verse 4.
And I want you to understand, you know, not only was Naomi out of the will of God, we're staying
in Jonah 2, but I want you to see what needs to take place if you come back to the will of God.
Okay. Notice Jonah 2 verse 4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward
thy holy temple. And so Jonah has confidence that he will look again toward the holy temple of God.
That's what he says. Now the truth is that no matter what we do in life, we do have the opportunity
to return back to God. Now look, people can really screw up their lives. You know, people could
commit terrible sins like, you know, adultery or they could spend 20 years in jail for murder as
a believer. But look, you can get right with God and do something in your life no matter how bad
you screw it up. But here's the thing, if you get right with God, there's certain requirements that
you must do if you want God's mercy. Now Jonah 2 verse 7, the Bible reads, when my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in on to thee into thine holy temple. So
Jonah's going to pray to God and notice what he says in verse 8. They that observe lying
vanities forsake their own mercy. Okay, what does it mean when it says mercy? Basically what he's
saying is that, you know, people that would get mercy from God get forgiveness from God, that God
would be longsuffering to them. That's basically being merciful. And the Bible says that you can
forsake your own mercy. Basically you can throw away your mercy. You can get rid of your mercy.
Look, God wants to be merciful to us when we screw up. He doesn't want to really lay down the hammer
on us. He wants to be merciful. Obviously we're his children. He loves us. Just think about your
children. Look, you love your children. You don't want to have to spank them. You don't want to have
to punish them. But unfortunately there's times where you have to do that. But God wants to be
merciful to us. You know, the Bible says that you can actually forsake your own mercy. And the way
we forsake or get rid of or throw away our mercy is if we observe lying vanities. You say, what
exactly is that talking about? Let me just give you some examples. Let's say, for example, somebody
gets kicked out of church for rail. Okay. Look, you can get right with God and come back to the church.
But the way you do that is if you don't observe lying vanity. What would be a lying vanity?
Basically saying, well, you know what, I didn't do anything wrong. Well, no, obviously you did do something wrong.
You can come back. But the key to coming back to the will of God is you come back the full way. Okay.
What would be a lying vanity? Let's say somebody commits adultery to their spouse. And then they say,
well, you know what, I know I cheated on my spouse, but my spouse never had time for me. And, you know,
I was in an unfortunate situation. It's not my fault. You're forsaking your mercy then. Right.
God will be... Look at David. David came back to the will of God and God was merciful to him. But
David said, you know what, I have sinned. Okay. If you want to come back to the will of God,
you have to come back and not observe a lying vanity. Okay. And, look, the way the preaching
of the word of God is, we get our toes stepped on all the time, every one of us in this room,
including myself. I write sermons and I'm like, I really don't want to have to preach that because
I'm going to step on my own toe. But, look, the word of God steps on our toes and the way we get
mercy from God is if we just admit I screwed up. I'm wrong. Forgive me, God. And God will be
merciful to us. He wants to be merciful to us. We must make sure we don't observe a lying vanity.
For Jonah, what would that have meant? For Jonah, he could have said, you know what, it's not my
fault. Any other prophet could have preached to Nineveh. I've done so much for you, God. You're
making me preach against the enemy, people that I hate. I would preach to anybody except the Assyrian
empire. And you're making me preach to them. That's not my fault. That's what he could have done. And
guess what would have happened if he had done that? He would have died in that Will's belt. He
would not have gotten mercy from God. See, if you're going to come back to God, you must admit
your failures, okay? You must not observe a lying vanity. Jonah did not observe a lying vanity. Jonah
actually gets right with God. Now, I think sometimes people might be confused because at
the end of the book, Jonah goes back to his old ways. He does get right with God in Jonah chapter
2, though. How do you know that? Because if he had observed a lying vanity, he would have never
gotten mercy to begin with, okay? He got mercy from God because he did fully come back to God.
Now, notice Jonah chapter 2, verse 9. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.
I will pay that that I have out. Salvation is of the Lord. He says, I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. What is Jonah saying? He says, you know what, I'll be thankful for
anything I get to do with my life. I'll be thankful just to serve you, okay? See, remember, he was not
happy to preach to the Assyrian Empire. He would have preached anywhere else. But he says, you know
what, I was wrong. I messed up. And he says, I'll sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving.
Whatever you have for me in life, God, I'll be happy to. I'll be thankful for any opportunities
you give me. That's the sort of attitude we all need. You come to a church and, you know, oftentimes,
people are not satisfied unless they get to be the top doc. You know, earlier in this week,
Pastor Anderson posted a couple video clips. I listened to them. And I agreed with everything he
said. He was talking about people that can't be happy unless they're running a church. You can't
be happy if you're a pastor. Why wouldn't you be happy if you're just serving at the church? You
don't have to be the pastor. We need lots of people at church. I mean, we don't need everybody as the
pastor. Obviously, you know, we need more churches started. But it's like, look, I went to churches,
and I was pretty low on the totem pole. I went to churches, and I was the backup, you know,
assistant person that helped out on the bus route at church that picked up kids. I was just the
assistant. I still had to get there hours early. I still didn't get much sleep. I was still exhausted
and everything. And I wasn't even the lead person. I was just the backup. But, you know, I just told
the church, hey, whatever you want me to do, I'll help out. That's the sort of attitude we need.
Was I thankful? Yes, I was. Because I'm just serving God. And look, you know, you could be in
this room, you could get more rewards than me in heaven. It's not like I guarantee you get more
rewards than any of you because I'm the one preaching. That's not the way it works. You get
rewarded for the work you do. And you say, well, Brother Stuckey, but what if you do more soul winning
than me? Well, look, my boss is the Lord, but who's your boss? Your boss is the Lord. Why? Promotion
cometh from the Lord. Say, I want to be in full-time Christian service. You're in full-time
Christian service. God's your boss. It doesn't matter what your job is, you are a full-time
Christian worker. You're in full-time Christian service. And so if you work hard at the job God's
given you, you could get more rewards from him. Now, the Bible isn't super clear about how you
get rewards in heaven. You get rewarded for the work you do, and it needs to be work that's, you
know, has profit in it. But if you have a secular job and that's the job God's given you, he expects
you to work hard at that job. And you could end up getting more rewards than me because you work
harder than me, where you're more dedicated. And so, look, we're all in full-time Christian service
in this room. Every single person. Every single person. Why? Because every single person, your boss
is the Lord. That's my boss, that's your boss, that's everyone. Promotion cometh from the Lord.
Okay, so Jonah, he's thankful. You know, he didn't want to preach to the Assyrian Empire, but in Jonah
chapter 2 verse 9, he actually is thankful. He says, all sacrifice unto thee with a voice of
thanksgiving. Okay, he's not lying because if he was observing a lying vanity he wouldn't have
gotten any mercy from God. He gets right with God. And that only lasts a couple chapters because
after it preaches to them, all of a sudden he's out of the will of God again. And sadly, that's the way
our life works. You know, the Lord's mercies are new every morning. There's the same sins we
struggle with, we get right with God, and then we screw them up like a week later. Right? That's the
way it works, unfortunately. But God will be merciful to us each and every time if we fully
get right with God. If we don't observe any lying vanity and we just admit, I screwed up God. Okay?
Now notice what it says in verse 10, and the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah
upon the dry land. Now turn back to Ruth 1. Back to Ruth 1. And so the key to getting mercy from God
is the fact that we admit our fault in the matter. Okay? Now look, I would say that each and every
one of us could go to bed at night and say, you know what, God forgive me for something you did
during the day. The thought of foolishness is sin. Now, maybe I'm a lot more foolish than other
people, but I think a lot of foolish thoughts. Okay? I can't really look at any day that I've
ever had and say, man, I just was perfect that day. I don't think anyone can. And so every single day,
every single morning, we can say, God forgive me, help me to do better today. Okay? All of us every
single day, we need that mercy from God. Now notice Ruth 1, verse 13. This is what Naomi says
to both Orp and Ruth. Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye stay for them
from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for grieveth me much for your sakes, that the hand
of the Lord is gone out against me. Notice how she says in verse 13, the hand of the Lord is gone
out against me. Now, if you were to look at that statement by itself, it might sound like she's
blaming God. She's not blaming God. Okay? Notice what it says in verse 19. So they too went until
they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city
was moved about them. And they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Now remember,
she's been gone for 10 years. So they're kind of wondering, I mean, after 10 years, people do
change what they look like in 10 years. Now, obviously, she was still recognizable, but she
looked a little bit different than she did 10 years ago. And they said, Is this Naomi? And they're
shocked. They didn't get that Facebook message that she was coming into town. Okay? They didn't
realize. They didn't see, you know, the pictures and the videos on Facebook. They had no idea that
she was showing up. And then all of a sudden they said, Is this Naomi? I mean, they're shocked. It's
been 10 years, and after 10 years, you probably don't think they're ever coming back. And she
said unto them, Call me not Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Now, once again, you could look at the end of verse 20, and it almost sounds like she's blaming
God. She says, The Lord's dealt bitterly with me. But notice verse 21. Okay? What does she say in
verse 21? I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call you
me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. So at the
end of the verse, she says, The Lord's testified against me and afflicted me. But notice the
beginning of the verse. I went out full. I went out full. She takes responsibility. I went out
full, and the Lord hath brought me home again. She actually credits God for bringing her home. See,
when you're saying, Hey, I'm home, you're saying something that's good, right? You're saying,
Hey, you know, I'm home. She's saying, The Lord hath brought me home. Basically, she's saying,
I went out, and I went out and destroyed my life, and now God's brought me back. Now, it's
interesting for a few reasons. First off, when she says, I went out, that's not fully true. Okay?
It is true. She's not lying, but here's the thing. Why is the main reason why she went to Moab?
Because of the limelike. Okay? Now, show me a verse in the Bible where she never blames her husband
for anything. You're not going to find them. She never blames her husband. Look, you know,
wives get mad at their husbands for, like, the smallest things. They blame them for all these
little things. Look, Naomi's husband brought him to a foreign land, and he died, and her sons died,
and show me where she blames him. Say, why didn't she ever blame him? She was a virtuous woman. She
was a godly woman. Okay? She never blames her husband. Look, if you're married for any length
of time, both husband and wife are going to make a lot of foolish decisions, make a lot of mistakes,
and you can just go back and forth every single day and just blame each other whenever something
goes wrong. Go ahead and do that. Let's see how happy your life is if you do that. Okay?
She says, I went out full. She doesn't blame a limelike. She doesn't blame anybody. It's also
interesting because of the fact she says, I went out full. Okay? Now, look, they left because they
didn't really have much money, but she looked at her life and realized, you know what? The money's
not that important because of the fact I had a husband and I had sons that I loved, and in her
mind now she's saying, what really mattered was my family, and now my family's dead. I went out
full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. When you really think about people in the
Bible, you can't really think of much worse than a grieving mom who's lost her husband and her kids.
You know, I've heard this said before. My dad actually heard this said at work one time. He
worked at Social Security in the government in the US, and there was a woman who moved to West
Virginia from Georgia. Look, West Virginia is one of those states where if you don't grow up in West
Virginia, you're probably not going to move there. There's no big cities. I love West Virginia
because I'm from West Virginia. I know the area. I love West Virginia. It's just not a place that
people are going to move there. There's not tons of jobs or whatever, and so it's kind of weird
for somebody to move from another state to West Virginia. This lady moved, and my dad asked her
what made her move, and she had a third cousin or something in West Virginia. My dad asked her,
I mean, are you really close to them, and she said she hadn't talked to them for years. He said,
why would she move? Because of the fact she had outlived all the kids, several kids, and her
husband was dead. She made the statement to my dad. She said, there's nothing sadder than to outlive
your kids. I had a good friend of mine who died in college, and I saw the grieving parents. I was sad,
but just imagine being that parent if your kids died. Obviously, that's going to be tough,
and this is a situation Naomi's in. Naomi could have very easily just given up on life and said,
you know what? I don't really care, but you know what? She gets her life right with God. Now,
she lost 10 years in Moab, and I don't even really think it's her fault. It just is what it is. Look,
there's people that live in countries, and they don't even have a church that's even close to
the gospel. They literally have nowhere to go. They can still serve God, but obviously,
that's not really where God wants them. Probably, he'd like them to have a good church,
but they couldn't in that area. Naomi's in that situation for 10 years. She doesn't have a church.
She doesn't have godly people around her. She spends 10 years in Moab. She could have
easily just given up on life, but you know what? She says, I want our hope. She takes the blame.
She never blames the limelight. She never blames God. Why was God so merciful to Naomi? Because of
that, Naomi just took all the blame. One thing we need to realize in life is that whenever there's
any situation, there's two sides. Both sides are always wrong. That's the way it works. If there's
an argument, both sides are wrong. That's the way it works. I remember when I was a kid, and you
get in a fight with your sister or your brother. I get in a fight with my sister, and then you're
both pleading your side to your parents. You both know you messed up. You both yelled. You both did
stuff wrong. In my mind, I'm thinking, hey, I'm 40% to blame you. My sister's 60% to blame me. Of
course, what she's thinking, she's thinking, hey, I'm 40% to blame, and he's 60%. Look, if in your
own mind you're 10% to blame, you're 50%. That's the way it works because everybody just thinks
they're innocent. That's the way it works. Look, if you're only 0.001% to blame, you're still to
blame. Naomi was not the main person to blame in this situation. Elimelech was clearly the main
person, but she says, I'll take responsibility for what I did. Maybe she could have talked to her
husband and told him why she thought it was an unwise decision. Maybe she supported it. We don't
really know, but she's willing to take the blame for her partner. She says, I went out full. Now,
I want you to notice also here, she says, I went out full, but notice this, and the Lord hath brought
me home again empty. The third point we have is this, that when you get back into the will of God,
you start at the same point that you left off. Remember, they left Bethlehem Judah because they
didn't have much money. You say, well, she gets right with God, then she's immediately rich. No,
actually, they start off empty. It goes back to the same situation. For 10 years, she's out of
the will of God, and once she gets back into the will of God, she's at the same point she left off,
empty. She's not rich. In fact, she's in a much worse position because of the fact she doesn't
have a husband to provide. She doesn't have sons to provide. Look, this was in a day where most
jobs were manual labor jobs. This is a woman that's at least in her 40s to have two sons that have
died that got married. She's probably at least in her 40s, maybe older. It's not going to be easy
for her to do a manual labor job and to support a family. That's not going to be easy for her.
Obviously, it's easier. Even as a man, when you start getting older, you get to your 40s,
you get to your 50s, you lose abilities that you had. Look, we're going to play basketball
later today, and look, I was better at basketball 10 years ago. You say, why? Because I was faster,
I was stronger, I was quicker. Once you start to get older, you start to lose the abilities
that you had. You hit an athletic peak, and when you come to people laboring and working manual
labor jobs, it's going to get tougher when you get older. It's easier when you're young. You can do
it for a lot longer, you have more energy. It's not going to be easy for this lady, Naomi, to
provide for her own needs. She went out full, she says, and she's brought home empty. Not only does
she lose her family, not only does she have no money, it's also going to be very hard for her
to provide. Now look at Ruth 1 verse 6. So in Ruth 1 verse 6 it says, 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 how that the Lord had visited his people and giving them bread. Now she hears that God's
visiting them and giving them bread, but that doesn't mean that the government just stopped
at every single house and said, here's a hundred thousand pesos. That's not what took place. What
it basically means is business is booming and people are starting to be successful. It doesn't
mean though that every single person got money. So when she moves back, yes, God's visited his
people and giving them bread and God's provided. It doesn't mean that when she goes back though
she's got money waiting for me. She actually gets back and she's empty, she says. She doesn't have
this great wealth when she comes back. Notice verse number 22. So Naomi returned and Ruth to
Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out of the country of Moab and they
came to Bethlehem in the beginning of garlic harvest. So they come at the very beginning and
they get to hit the ground running in terms of working and providing, but they're coming back
empty. Now turn back to Jonah 3. Jonah 3. Look, God doesn't promise us we'll be rich, but he does
promise to provide our needs. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy in life. I'm sure it wasn't easy
for Naomi, it wasn't easy for Ruth, but they were able to provide their needs. Now let's look back
at Jonah and we're going to see the same thing of starting where you left off. Jonah 3 verse 1,
And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh,
that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. Notice the message is the exact
same to Jonah. Jonah was told, Hey, preach unto Nineveh. He said, I don't want to. He ran away
from God. He actually paid the fare thereof to run away from God. He spends money to run away from
the will of God, gets swallowed by a whale. He gets right with God. And now God says, Hey, I
understand you don't have to preach to Nineveh. I'll give you something else to do. You know,
it's okay. Is that what God said? No. What did he say? Hey, go preach to Nineveh. Why? That's what
he wanted you to do. And see, this is what we need to understand that when we get back in the will
of God, we still have to start at the point that we left off. Now this is tough because of the fact
in life, there's a lot of bumps and curves. You know, when you first start living for God, you
don't realize how difficult it's going to be. It's not easy to live for God. Salvation is as easy
as eating bread. Living for God is not so easy. You're going to come to certain hurdles in life
and you have got to walk over that hurdle. You've got to crawl over. You've got to climb over. But
if you get to this hurdle and then you say, you know what? I don't want to do that. And you go
the other direction, guess what? The next time you go back, you still got to get over that hurdle.
Now if you want to just keep going back and forth your whole life, then go ahead. But you're never
going to progress past that point unless you choose to say, I'm going to make a change. Okay?
And see, that's what's taking place with Jonah. Jonah gets back to that hurdle of preaching to
Nineveh and he says, you know what? I'll do it this time. He decides to preach to Nineveh. If he had chosen
not to, if he said, I'm not going to do it, guess what? He's swallowed by a whale again. You know,
that same thing would have taken place. You have certain hurdles in life and you've got to choose
to walk over them. And here's the thing. When you first get saved, there are so many things that you
need to change in your life and you don't realize it yet. And every single one of us runs to certain
things and all of a sudden you realize, man, God doesn't want me to watch that movie, does he? I
remember, you know, after I got saved, my favorite movie before I was saved was Pulp Fiction. That is
a terrible blast from this movie. It's an awful movie. And all of a sudden when I got saved, those
jokes didn't seem so funny anymore. But I remember I watched it one time after I got saved, I felt so
guilty. I was like, man, this is terrible. Just like mocking God. The director of that movie,
Quentin Tarantino, is a famous atheist, mocks God. He actually takes scripture in the Bible and he
changes it. And he quotes it. It's a verse in Ezekiel, but he changes the verse. And the person
who's a gangster or kills someone, before he quotes it, he misquotes the verse completely. It's like
ten times as long and he just adds all this. He's literally adding to the Word of God in the movie.
And you don't realize that if you've never read the Bible. You know, before I was saved, I didn't
read the Bible. But he literally is just mocking God and mocking the Bible. But look, you know,
once you get saved all of a sudden you start realizing, man, some of those movies I used to watch,
God doesn't want me to watch them anymore. Now if you say, you know what, I don't care, I'm still
going to watch them. Hey, that's a hurdle you're going to have to eventually pass if you want to
progress forward as a Christian. When it comes to your music, you got to choose to get rid of the
rock music, get rid of the country music, get rid of the pop music, get rid of all the worldly
garbage God doesn't want you to listen to. And if you choose to say, I reject that, look, you're
never going to progress past that point. And in life, we're going to run into a lot of hurdles.
You're never going to grow as a Christian unless you choose to overcome those things. So just
thinking of this logically, you know, let's say for example you're kids. You have a son that's
eight years old and you tell your son to clean his room. Now is cleaning your room the number
one most important thing in the world? It's not the most important thing. But if he chooses not
to listen to you, you're going to be mad until he does what? Until he cleans his room. Even if he
does everything else, if he refuses to clean his room, you're going to be mad because there's that
one thing he's just disobeying. It's the same thing with God's Word because as a saved person,
he's your Heavenly Father. And so look, if you find out about something you're guilty of, God
expects you to change it. And until you change it, he's not happy with you. Now the thing is,
once you get saved and you start reading the Bible and going to church, all of a sudden you
start realizing, man, I got to change this, this, this, this, and this. That's the way it works. We've just got
to make the choice to make the changes. And that's why people don't like this church. Because of the
fact, people would love it if I just didn't mention things they need to change. And see, that's why
this church will never be a mega church because oftentimes people have like nine things they come
to. They crawl over. They say, I'm willing to get rid of that. I'm willing to get rid of this and this
and this. But this one thing, I really love rock music. That's the one thing I can't get rid of.
But look, you're going to reach that point. You're going to be yo-yoing back and forth until you
decide to climb over that. God expects you to change everything that he tells you. That's the
way it works. Now we're not perfect. I'm not claiming we're perfect. I'm not claiming I'm
perfect. But here's the attitude we need to have, that even if we keep screwing up, we get right
with God. We ask God for a new chance. We ask him to help us. We might slip along the way. I'm not
saying it's just a steady climb. You'd never mess up. It's like climbing a mountain. You climb a
steep hill. You're going to slip every once in a while and fall back 20 steps. And then you've got
to keep crawling and fighting back to get close to God. But you need to be trying to make the changes.
If you're just making no effort whatsoever, then there's a problem. Even if we fail, we need to try
to make those changes. And even if we screw up from time to time, it's okay. You just get started.
God's mercies are new every morning. We have to try to make that change. And Jonah, he decided to
make the change. If he had decided I'm just not going to preach to Nineveh, goodbye mercy. Now
let's look at Jonah chapter 3 verses 3 through 5. And let's look at the end where we see that Jonah
is used by God again. And also Naomi we'll look at. But in Jonah 3 verse 3, so Jonah arose and went
on to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three
days journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city of days journey and he cried and said that
40 days in Nineveh shall be overthrown. I think a lot of people are confused in verse number 3. It's
not saying it's going to take three days to get there. I think what it's saying is from end to end
it's a three day journey. Now obviously if they had cars back then it would be a lot quicker. But
you know three days of actually going from end to end, I don't know if that's by just walking or by
horse or what. But it's saying three days from end to end. It's a pretty big city. Nineveh was a
powerful city. It was the most powerful empire in the world. And in verse number 5, so the people
of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them
even to the least of them. So Jonah preaches this message about how the people need to turn from God.
Now what Jonah is preaching is not really a salvation message. He's preaching they need to
turn from their sins and get right with God. What's interesting is that later on in the chapter
the king gets word of this and he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the
decree of his king and his nobles. So basically the king hears this and he says let's tell every
single person in the country. So basically because a lot of people look at Jonah 3 and they use this
to justify street preaching. Because they think Jonah preached a sermon and like a million people
got saved and turned back to God. Jonah's not preaching on salvation. He's preaching a message
against sin. Now I'm not saying he didn't also preach the gospel to some people that he got an
opportunity to, but he's basically preaching against their sin. The king gets word of it and
he says let's have everybody hear this. Now what I think took place is that every single saved person
in that country once they heard that everybody's supposed to hear this message they kind of got
the green light. Let's just preach to everybody. Just think about it in the Philippines if President
Duterte just came up tomorrow and said you know what we've been rebelling against the commandments
of God. We've got to guess what God says. We need to just turn back to God. It's only by believing
in Jesus Christ. It's not repenting of sins. It's not by this or that. We need to tell everybody
about this. You know what I think would take place? I think every single Christian just about
even the lamest in the world would actually be motivated to preach the gospel because there'd
be no fear because basically the leader is forcing everybody to listen. I think that's what's taking
place. I do think a lot of people got saved in Jonah 3, but they didn't get saved because of one
sermon where a million people get saved. He preaches against their sin, but what we do see
with Jonah is that he's part of one of the most exciting events in the Bible. This is the most
powerful country in the world. This is the United States of the world. I mean just imagine if that
happened in the U.S. If Donald Trump just got up and said you know what we're going to cause
every single person in the country to hear about the message of God and he made it clear that it's
talking about the message we're preaching not just whatever Christian religion. I mean just
imagine how powerful that is and Jonah is used greatly by God. Why? Because he's willing to get
right with God and get rid of his sin. Now turn back to Ruth where we'll close up here.
And we're going to see towards the end of Naomi's life because remember Naomi lost 10 years of her
life in Moab, but the end of her life she's used greatly by God. Notice what it says in Ruth 4
starting in verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth and she was his wife and when he went in after her the
Lord gave her conception and she bare a son. The women said unto Naomi blessed be the Lord which
hath not left thee this day without a kinsman that his name may be famous in Israel and he shall be
unto thee a restorer of thy life and a nourisher of thine own age for thy daughter-in-law which
loveth thee which is better to thee than seven sons hath worn him. And so Naomi has a big
influence on Ruth and I believe she's probably the one who got Ruth saved and she was a huge
influence on Ruth deciding to live for God. She also restores the name of Elimelech. Elimelech's
name was kind of an embarrassment and she's able to restore that by getting right with God. And
notice what it says in verse 16. And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom and became
nurse unto it and the women her neighbors gave it a name saying there was a son born to Naomi
they called his name Obed he's the father of Jesse the father of David. And if you notice those names
those are pretty famous names Jesse and David and the great David the king so they're part of that
lineage that goes towards Jesus Christ. And you see that she is greatly used by God because she's
willing to get right with God. You say well what can we learn from this sermon? What can we learn
from her life? Well we can learn that you know what we're gonna have time for when we get out
with God every single person in this room. It doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter how
much you love this church right now love serving God now there's going to be days where you don't
feel like living for God. There's going to be seasons in your life where you make mistakes
and turn from God and you know whatever. But you know with Naomi we see that that season was more
than 10 years but she gets right with God and she's greatly used by God. The question we have
in this room is this like how many years do you want to spend in blowout? I mean do you want to
spend 10 plus years in blowout? You want to just throw away your life and just waste your life for
more than 10 years? I mean Naomi was willing to say you know what I'll start back at the beginning
and I'll overcome these obstacles and you know what she gets mercy because of that. But for all
of us in this room including myself you know how many years do we want to spend in blowout?
Because we can choose to rebel against God and say I'm not going to do what God says I'm not
going to obey him in this area and we can just destroy our lives. Or what we can do is say you
know what I'll decide to start living for God and I'll start new. Now here's the thing about living
for God and we're going to talk about this in the sermon on Ruth. When you decide to start living
for God you don't become rich from day one. You don't have everything perfect from day one. You
actually start and it's difficult. When I first moved to Sacramento, California guess what took
a huge hit right at the beginning? My bank account. I just went diving down. When you decide to live
for God, God doesn't say you know what here's a brand new car for you. That's not the way it works.
When you decide to live for God it's actually tough at the beginning. That's the way it works.
But you know what? You can either choose to be a mob for more than 10 years or you can just start
at the ground level. Live for God. Trust in God. Work hard and God will provide for your needs.
Let's close in word for everything. Heavenly Father thanks for allowing us to be here today
and just getting to look at the life of Naomi, a very godly lady God. And help us to all think
about this sermon. All of us can apply this. You know myself included. We have times where we
backslide. We get out of your will or there's certain things we don't want to do. We don't want
to obey God. And ask you to help us all make the tough decisions and ask you to bless all
the church members in this room. God help us to all have jobs.