men so we're starting a new book tonight the book of Ruth now just to give you a
little bit of an overview of the book and to place it within its context in
the Bible the Bible starts out in verse number one here by saying it came
to pass in the days when the judges rule so this book comes after
the book of Judges but it's taking place during the time period of the
judges and then as far as when it was written if you go to the very
end of the book go to the very end of Ruth chapter 4 it gives this genealogy
that ends with in verse 22 Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David so spoiler
alert you know this is eventually giving us the lineage of David and so
obviously this is written sometime after King David or during King David's
reign but it's writing about events much earlier during the period of the
judges we don't know exactly you know which part of the book of Judges this
would be concurrent with but it's from that era okay and it starts out in
verse number one here now came to pass in the days when the judges ruled
that there was a famine in the land and a famine is referring to the
fact that food is scarce this could be due to drought or pestilence or just
other problems that would cause a scarcity of food but it's usually due
to natural factors like drought or something with the environment and so it
says there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went
to sojourn in the country of Moab he and his wife and his two sons now the
word sojourn implies a temporary stay somewhere he's not moving there
permanently he's not relocating he's just sojourning meaning he's gonna stay
there temporarily because the economy is bad there's a famine in his land so he
takes his wife and his two sons and they go to sojourn in the land of Moab and
the name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi and the
name of his two sons Malon and Kylian Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah and
they came into the country of Moab and continued there and Elimelech
Naomi's husband died and she was left in her two sons so when they go over
there things obviously don't go the way that they planned because the
breadwinner the head of the household the patriarch he dies while
they're there because they end up continuing there you know they were
just gonna sojourn but they end up continuing there staying there for a
really long time in the process of time Elimelech dies she's left with
her two sons so after dad dies then it says they took them wives of the women
of Moab because you know here they are they're in Moab they've continued
there for a long time so they end up just marrying two of the local girls
and the name of the one was Orpah not Oprah okay it's Orpah and the
name of the other Ruth and they dwelled there about ten years so they end up
staying quite a long time and Mahlon and Kylian also died both of them and
the woman was left of her two sons and I mean what a disaster this family
goes over there mother father two sons all of the men and family die and
the only one left is just the woman just Naomi and now she has these two
daughters-in-law Orpah and Ruth now one moral of the story that we can
learn right away is that you need to seek first the kingdom of God and not
seek finances first okay and that's really what we're gonna see in this
whole passage with the decisions that Ruth makes going forward in the book of
Ruth but this guy leaves the promised land he leaves God's people he leaves
the nation of Israel where God is worshipped and where God is present and
he goes into a heathen land where they're worshipping false gods and he
goes there for economic opportunity you know there's a famine in the land
and you say well he had to leave because there was a famine but what
about all the people that didn't leave not everyone left lots of people
stayed behind and they hung in there and they got through the famine you
know the Bible tells us I've been young and now I'm old but I've never
seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread and sometimes God
will bring us right up to the brink financially or right up to the brink
when it comes to our daily bread but God will provide our needs and if we
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness all the things like
food and clothing will be added unto us and there were people who stayed
behind and I guarantee you that they fared better than Naomi and Elimelech
and Calon and Milyon because it's pretty hard to do worse than that you know
75% of you dying and Naomi's left she doesn't have the earning power that
Elimelech or Malon or Calon would have as men she's a widow woman she
doesn't have anything going for her now and so this move to Moab ended up
being disastrous okay and one of the things that we could do to apply this
today in 2023 would be that you shouldn't move somewhere for financial
reasons where there's no good church and there's no good church in Moab okay
the good churches are in Israel and so there's nothing wrong with moving for a
financial opportunity I don't think there's anything wrong with that at
all you know if you have an economic opportunity a financial opportunity where
if you move to some city you get a raise or you get a promotion or so
there's nothing wrong with that but you should first make sure that there is
going to be a good church for you to go to when you get there now thankfully
in the United States of America pretty much every large city is going to have
lots of options as far as good Bible believing independent Baptist churches
but a lot of times people will move to very rural areas or or very remote
areas and then be shocked that they can't find a good church well guess what
you know when you're out in the middle of nowhere there are obviously going to
be a lot of options a lot less options and you know maybe there's a
great option but that's the type of thing that should actually go into the
decision what kind of a church are we going to you know now if the church
is an upgrade great if if the church is equivalent great if there's a good
church amen but don't just move somewhere where it's some lame church it's some
church using the wrong Bible version it's some church that's dead as a
doornail or has no soul winning or whatever you know why would you make
that the priority in your life when you were already somewhere with a good
church hey if the finances are bad grind it out seek first the kingdom of
God and trust that he's gonna bless your faithfulness to his work putting
his work first then to just sacrifice a good church to go somewhere far away
for some pot of gold at the end of that rainbow you might end up like a Naomi
where you get there and it doesn't work out the way that you think it was
gonna work out we should always make sure that the things of God are
the focus of our lives and that those are preeminent in our decisions
that we make and that's the mistake that this family made and that's part
of what God's trying to teach us and the reason I know that that's part of
what God's trying to teach us is because now we're gonna see the other side
of the coin as we move forward in the book of birth we're gonna see Ruth
making the exact opposite kind of decisions that a limelike and Naomi
made and then she ends up being blessed as a result of seeking first
the kingdom of God so ten years later everybody's dead it's just the
widow Naomi with her two daughters-in-law and it's it's been ten
years it says in verse 6 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 see you
leave when it's a famine but then guess what God ended up blessing while
they were gone and if they would have stayed if they would have hung in
there it would have ultimately been good for them and so now they're
gonna go back and it says in verse 7 wherefore she went forth out of the
place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her and they went
on the way to return in the land of Judah and Naomi said unto her two
daughters-in-law go return each to her mother's house the Lord deal kindly
with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me so she says look
you've been good wives unto my sons before they died you've been good
daughters-in-law I love you guys it's been great nothing against you but you
know I want God to bless you but go home to your mother's houses like I
can't do anything for you like you know following me makes no sense I am an
old lady I am a widow I don't have any resources why would you follow me
into a foreign country where you don't have anything going for you and
she says in verse number 11 or I'm sorry let me back up a little bit
verse number 8 it says go return each to her mother's house the Lord deal
kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me the Lord
grant you that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband
then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and wept so she's
saying look I want you guys to go home get married live a happy life
it's gonna be great and they're crying they're weeping and so you can see
that there's a lot of love in this family there's a lot of love between
Naomi and these two daughters-in-law because everybody's sad to part ways
and there's a lot of crying and so forth it says in verse 10 and they
said unto her notice this isn't just Ruth but both Orpah and Ruth they're
both saying surely we will return with the end of that people they're both
saying no no we're coming with you we don't want to leave you we want to
keep this family together and Naomi said turn again my daughters why will you
go with me are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your
husband's turn again my daughters go your way for I'm too old to have a
husband if I should say I have hope if I should have a husband also tonight
and should also bear sons would you tarry tarry means to wait around would
you tarry for them till they were grown would you stay for them from
having husbands nay my daughters for agree with me much for your sakes that the
hand of the Lord has gone out against me saying look even if I get pregnant
tonight first of all I don't have a husband I'm too old to have a husband
if I had one tonight and got pregnant tonight are you gonna sit there and
wait for that dude to grow up and then he's gonna marry you this is
totally unrealistic she's saying look it's impossible for me to be able to
give you what you need how am I gonna provide husbands for you I can't
provide anything for you and it says agree with me much for your sakes that
the hand of the Lord has gone out against me she's like look God's not
blessing me okay and so I feel bad for you because you kind of hitched on
your cart to my wagon and the hand of the Lord has gone out against me
and I feel bad for you about that and they lifted up their voice and
wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth clave Hunter
meaning Ruth held onto her Ruth's not letting go of her and she said behold
thy sister-in-law has gone back under her people and under her gods
return thou after thy sister-in-law saying look Orpah has left and she
went back to her people and under her gods and you know this part always
has stood out to me because it seems like Naomi is really sincere in
everything that she says but I kind of sense in this statement she went back
to her gods almost a little bit of disappointment in Orpah even though
she told her it makes no sense to stay don't do it you're crazy go home
and then she's kind of like oh you left huh which is kind of funny
because she seemed kind of sincere up to this point but I think there's a
little bit of disgust there I don't think she's disgusted at Orpah because
she gets it I mean she gets the fact that Orpah has no reason to go with her
but I think that the disgust is not so much for Orpah personally as the fact
that Naomi just hates false religion you know it'd be kind of like
if the situation let's just instead of Moab let's say it's Mesa okay but
let's say that it's the Mormons okay no I'm just kidding I know a lot of
people in our church live in Mesa and there are a lot of saved wonderful
Christians in Mesa let's say Salt Lake City okay you know it's Salt Lake City
it's like oh you know she's going back to her stinking Mormon family or
whatever you know I don't think that she's upset at Orpah for going back
but I think that she's more just sad about the fact that Orpah is going
back to a place where everybody's Mormon you know or where everybody's
worshiping Satan the same thing you know that that's basically what's
upsetting her so I don't think she's necessarily being down on Orpah maybe a
little bit but I think it's more just the sad reality of she has to go
back she's probably gonna marry some Mormon dude and then you know it is
what it is right and so she says you know behold thy sister-in-law has gone
back unto her people and under her gods return now after thy sister-in-law
and Ruth said entreat me not to leave like stop asking me to leave is
basically what she's saying and treat me not to leave thee or to return
from following after thee for whither thou goest I will go and with thou
lodgest I will lodge thy people shall be my people and thy God my God
where thou diest will I die and there will I be buried the Lord do so
to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me and so here we see a
lot of profound things in this beautiful statement that's made by Ruth
first of all she says that she's willing to share whatever fate Naomi
has no matter how bad it is she loves Naomi and she's gonna follow
Naomi to the bitter end and she's also going to continue worshiping the
Lord the Lord is gonna be her God and she's gonna go with her and stay with
her etc and then she swears by the Lord the Lord do so to me and more
also if ought but death part thee like she's swearing an oath only death
will separate us I will follow you to the bitter end now what's
interesting about this is that yes Ruth is choosing the Lord that's clear
because she brings up the fact that your God is gonna be my God and this is
kind of in response to what Naomi said about Orpah going back to the land of
false gods and obviously she does swear by the Lord and so forth but I think
that it's a little bit overly simplistic to say well the only reason
that she's going with Naomi is just because of the Lord it's just because
she wants to follow the true God and doesn't want to go back to the false
gods because that's not what the Bible says I mean the Bible mentions
that but the Bible is also mentioning her devotion to Naomi as a
person so she's not just only going there because of the Lord but it's
clearly because of Naomi and because of the Lord she loves Naomi she wants
to follow Naomi she's not even just saying you know I want to go back
with you here's what the text could say hey I want to go back with you
because I know that the gods of Moab are false gods and I want to go
worship the Lord so I'm gonna go with you the land of Israel so I can
worship the Lord I mean what she actually says is only death is gonna
separate me and you I'm gonna follow you wherever you go wherever you lodge
wherever you go nothing but death will separate the two of us that she
didn't necessarily have to say that in order to just say I want to go back to
Israel and worship the true God now you say well why why point that out
pastor Anderson why make a big deal about that you know are you taking
away from Ruth's devotion to the Lord not at all because Ruth's devotion to
the Lord is steadfast and she's gonna be rewarded for her steadfast devotion
to the Lord but where is her devotion to the Lord coming from I would say
that a big part of where her devotion to the Lord is coming from is
her love and loyalty to Naomi and there's nothing wrong with that because
I guarantee you that there are a lot of people over the years who have
become a Christian because of the influence of a Christian in their life
and because they loved and admired that Christian they said hey your God is
gonna be my God I want to be like you I want to follow you and people could
become a Christian because of the testimony of a godly Christian not
necessarily just because they are just on a quest for truth and they're
seeking the Lord and they just want to know Christ but the reason they want
to know Christ is because they knew a Christian and that's what even gave
them that desire to follow the Lord and I think that that's what we see here
in Ruth chapter 1 clearly because it's not just all about worshipping the Lord
it's also about being loyal to Naomi loving Naomi admiring Naomi and being
willing to follow the person Naomi and there's nothing wrong with that you
know I don't really care why people get saved so long as they get saved
right because here's the thing you know some people would say well I got
saved just because I was scared to death of going to hell I wanted to
escape hell so I got saved right I mean that's that's a big reason why a
lot of people of course get saved but there could be other reasons to get
saved like well I you know I admired this person so much that was a Christian
and I saw the light of Christ shine through this person's life and I
wanted to be like them I wanted to fall I saw that their religion was
genuine and so I ended up you know believing on Christ as a result of
their testimony you know does it really matter which way someone gets to Christ
as long as they get there right I mean some people might just believe in
Christ because they hear the gospel and they just immediately believe it and
get saved other people it might be through the influence of someone else
you know and look let's just be honest a lot of people are Christians
because they grew up in a Christian home it's not necessarily that they went
out and sought out the truth or that someone brought them the gospel and
rescued them from a heathen circumstance some people are just born
and raised in the Christian faith and that's great that's the best way to do
it there's nothing wrong with that you know I'm thankful to God that I
was born and raised a Christian and that obviously I didn't get saved until I
was old enough to understand that I wasn't just you know saved from birth
or saved as a baby but I was raised as a Christian I got saved when I was
six years old and I'm very thankful for that and I don't wish that I had some
other testimony and you know sometimes the the scoffers and the atheists and
agnostics of this world are kind of like you know well why are you a
Christian you know is because you were brought up that way and then
they'll just say oh well the only reason that you believe in Christ is
just because you were raised with that just because you were brought up
that way and if you would have been raised Muslim you'd be Muslim if you've
been raised Hindu you'd be Hindu and they just act like your testimony is
meaningless because you were raised in a Christian home okay fine then you
know what take my testimony and just forget all about it then it's fine
with me but you know what I thank God that I was raised in a Christian
home and I wouldn't have it any other way and I don't want some
radical testimony I love the fact that I grew up with this faith from day one
why would I want to spend any time in heathen darkness right why would I want
to spend any time not knowing who Christ is or not knowing the truth about
the gospel of Christ I'm so thankful for that but you know the truth of the
matter is that that's not true that oh I would just be a Muslim if I were
raised well guess what Muslims convert to Christianity Hindus convert to
Christianity atheists and agnostics become Christians and so no that doesn't
mean that it would automatically be the case but obviously being born in a
Christian home makes you much more likely to be saved and you know what
that's a good thing there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a
Christian because you were raised as a Christian or being or you know
sometimes people end up becoming a Christian because maybe they admire
you know maybe some young man is interested in a young lady and she's a
Christian he converts to Christianity so that he could you know date her or
marry her hey there's nothing wrong with that as long as the conversion is
genuine as long as the belief in Christ is genuine there's nothing wrong
with admiring someone else and getting saved because you want to be
with that person I mean Naomi is the person that Ruth wants to be with and
she gets saved and she wants to be with Naomi nothing wrong with that and
here's the the the caution that I want to give though is that we don't want
to fall into this trap of thinking that lifestyle evangelism is our primary
mode of evangelism right because this is like lifestyle evangelism where I
set a godly example I show people the love of Christ and then they want to
be saved as a result of my influence right we would call that lifestyle
evangelism now there's nothing wrong with that in fact it's great
right it's great that Naomi had a good testimony to where Ruth wants to give
up everything and follow her if Naomi would have been kind of a jerk kind of a
pain in the rear end then Ruth would be like all right see you sucka and
she would have gone back to Moab so obviously we want to let our light
shine and we want to let men see our good works and glorify our Father
which is in heaven and occasionally if we're living the godly Christian life
that we should be living people are gonna walk up to us and just say what
must I do to be saved it's going to happen I've had it happen in my life
but let me tell you something it doesn't happen every day it doesn't
happen every week it doesn't happen every month in fact it doesn't
even happen every year it happens once in a blue moon and I could think of
examples I mean I had a neighbor literally walk up to me and just ask me
how to be saved because he just admired my family and he just said I want to be
saved because I want to have this family life that you have and so what do
I need to do to get saved now but how often does that happen it's very rare
look you're gonna have co-workers neighbors maybe people at school or
whatever that are going to admire you and see the love of God in you and
see the light of Christ in you and they're going to want to be saved and
they're gonna approach you and ask you but the problem with that is that God
expects us to do more evangelism than that once a year or once in a blue moon
or whatever that that happens it's not enough okay you see at our church we
believe in actually going out and evangelizing the lost on a weekly
basis right getting out there and even knocking doors and just preaching the
gospel to every creature just up in the highways and hedges and I mean
getting on airplanes and flying to Mexico and countries in the Caribbean
and other parts of the country and getting in the church van and driving
hours away to knock every door on an Indian reservation hey we're giving
the gospel to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people thousands and
thousands and thousands of people or we could just embrace this idea of
lifestyle evangelism and get somebody saved every few years if we're doing a
good job of letting the light shine every once in a while we'll have those
opportunities to get people safe it's just not enough it's a supplement I'm
for it let's do it but how about this what about all the people that we
interact with in our daily lives that we do have a godly influence on
that do admire us are all of them going to come up to us and ask us how
to be saved though a lot of people are probably in their heart thinking you
know I really like so-and-so I really like her I really like him you know
they're such a great person and they'd be willing to listen to you because
they admire you but you have to still open your mouth and bring up the
subject of the gospel because they may never bring it up they may just be
thinking in their heart that they admire you but they may not say you
know I admire you you are such an awesome person but they might just
think of you as a godly person so that if you did give them the gospel boom
they're gonna get saved I mean they they're ready to get saved because
they want to hear what you have to say because they believe that you have
the answer so lifestyle evangelism okay on the one hand is gonna be just
rarely waiting for that person to approach you and ask you about it
that's gonna take way too long and you're gonna get way too few people
saved in your life okay then there's one step further from that which is
saying not only am I gonna wait for them to ask me but I'm gonna let my
light shine and then I'm gonna bring it up and I'm gonna bring up the gospel
and I'm gonna tell the people around me how to get saved and I'm gonna start
the conversation right but even that's not enough I mean that's that's way
better than just lifestyle evangelism at least where you're starting
conversations with relatives friends co-workers neighbors but then let's
take it a step further not only you're gonna do lifestyle evangelism not only
are you gonna you know broach the subject with the people in your life
and you bring it up but how about just going out and finding people that
you have no rapport with that are not impressed by you personally at all
because they don't even know you from out of how about just walking up to a
stranger and giving them the gospel okay well guess what all three of these
are good ideally we should have all three of these in our life but guess
where the lion's share of your soul winning is gonna happen with
complete strangers the lion's share look I've been soul winning now for 20
some years and trust me the lion's share has been strangers now it's
awesome when you can win somebody that you know to the Lord especially
because that often provides a lot of opportunities for a follow-up and
discipleship and for you to be a continued influence on that person but
let's face it you're gonna get way more people saved that you don't know
not only that but there's this idea that a prophet is not without honor
save in his own country and in his own house sometimes people that know you can
be very receptive to the gospel because they admire your Christianity
other times it can actually be a hindrance that they know you not
because you're a bad Christian necessarily now obviously yeah if you're
a if you're a rotten worker on the job if you're a jerk to everyone
around you then yeah that's really gonna hinder them from listening to you
when you talk about the gospel but how about if you're doing everything
perfectly and you're doing a great job as a Christian does that automatically
mean that they're gonna be more likely to listen to you well what does
the Bible say about Jesus's own family I mean Jesus we know he did
everything perfectly and yet Jesus is the one who said a prophet is not
without honor save in his own country and in his own house when Jesus went to
his own hometown they wanted to throw him off a cliff they tried to throw
him off a cliff and he narrowly escaped being shoved off of a cliff to
his death now how did lifestyle evangelism work out for Jesus so it's
easy to talk this big talk about lifestyle evangelism and act like hey
if this isn't working for you you're doing it wrong blah blah blah well
tell that to Jesus in his hometown well what about his siblings right
because after Mary gave birth to Jesus well guess what her and Joseph had
children biologically with each other obviously she was only a virgin until
after Jesus was born and sorry Roman Catholics but Mary's not a virgin
anymore because Mary had at least seven other children after Jesus with
Joseph so those would be Jesus half brothers and sisters right and so when
it comes to Jesus half siblings we know the names of four of them and
the Bible teaches that in Jesus lifetime meaning before he died on the
cross before his resurrection his brethren did not believe on him they
did not follow him they did not believe that he is the Messiah and in
fact in John chapter 7 we even find Jesus brothers mocking him and
ridiculing him and not believing that he is who he says he is so don't
necessarily be shocked if you have our time getting your brother saved if
you have a hard time getting your sister saved or especially if you have
our time getting your parents saved you know especially when you're trying to
witness to somebody who is of a higher status than you in your family or in
your job this might be a stumbling block for them because they see
themselves as a higher status so it may be hard for them to listen to their
child tell them how to be saved or their little brother or their little
sister tell them how to be saved so it's a mixed bag right Naomi provides a
great example of being able to lead people to the Lord with your godly
life but a this isn't always gonna work because like I said a prophets not
without honor saving his own country in his own house and B it should only
be a supplement to the big-time evangelism which is going out into
the highways and hedges and preaching the gospel to every creature I mean
look if our church just only did lifestyle evangelism or just witness
to our friends family and loved ones we'd basically be like all the Baptist
churches that don't have soul-willing that's what they are that's what they
do and I you know I went to churches like this when I was a teenager I went
to a church for like two years and it was a Baptist Church and as Baptist
churches go it was on the conservative end of things but you know compared to
us it would it would be a pretty liberal church okay but the world
would look at it as leaning conservative and we went to this
church for years the church had over 200 people in it and the whole time we
were there one person got baptized the whole time we were there we never heard
about anyone getting saved except this one person that got saved and
baptized and that they just made a huge deal about it and they couldn't
stop talking about it which hey it's exciting when somebody gets saved but I
mean it was because this was like the only time that it happened right so
obviously this lifestyle evangelism program and that's what they believed in
that's what they talked about obviously it wasn't working because
nobody was getting saved nobody was being added to the church and and it
wasn't like they were getting people saved and they just were going
to church somewhere else there was never talk about anyone getting saved I
remember the pastor getting up and saying how he'd been playing golf with
his neighbor every Saturday just him and his neighbor going out and playing
golf every Saturday and he said I'm still waiting for an opportunity to
give him the gospel it's like well how about this hey what do you do for a
living I'm a pastor you know are you a Christian do you know for sure
that you're on your way to heaven something like it probably wouldn't be
that hard you know he's going golfing with the guy every weekend
obviously he's just he's just waiting for the guy to fall on his knees and
say what must I do to be saved because he's just letting his golfing light so
shine or whatever and so you know I went to that church for years and then
so we went there for a couple years toward the end of us going there they
had a missions trip to Oaxaca Mexico they're gonna go to Oaxaca Mexico
and none of them speak Spanish but they're gonna do a mission strip to
Oaxaca they go there and they they built they they worked on building a
house for a poor person so they go there and they build a house for a
poor person but then they're like what else we did while we were down there
they're like we went door-to-door giving the gospel to people whoa whoa
and it was like wow you guys are like you guys are like the spiritual
Green Berets you're like that special forces black ops like wow talk
about the tip of the spear like you guys went door-to-door evangelizing you
know and they did it through a translator but the big question is why
do you travel thousands of miles and hire a translator to knock on a few
doors given the gospel when you could literally walk across the street in
your own hometown and walk up and down the streets of your town right here in
America in English and give people the gospel but that thought never even
crossed their mind in fact I said to the youth pastor at this exact church
after he got back from Oaxaca I said to him I want you to take me this is a
teenager I think I was about 15 16 I guess 16 I was yeah I was 16 I was
like 16 I said to him I want you to take me out door-to-door here in
America and why don't we give people the gospel here in America let's do that
and he's like oh well you know and this is this guy's the youth pastor
who's a full-time staff member at the church he's a youth pastor and you
think that this is like a youth pastor's dream come true because you
know how hard it is sometimes to get teenagers excited about anything but
especially you know sometimes it's hard to get teenagers excited about the
things of God here's a teenager coming to him saying hey I want to
evangelize and here's what he said he said well you know no I don't think he
said why don't we do this why don't we why don't we go and visit people who
are already like church members who just haven't come to church in a while
let's just go visit them and see if we can get them back and I'm like well
that's not really what I was talking about you know it's not really what I
had in mind because I was trying to you know that's not really what I read
in the book of Acts you know cuz I'm reading the book of Acts I want to get
out and do the real stuff and you know these guys are coming back from Oaxaca
and talking about how we went door-to-door it's like well let's go
man let's do it no no you got to travel thousands of miles away you got
you got to build a few houses first you got to use the transit there's a
lot of steps before you're allowed to present the gospel to a stranger but
this is the state of Christianity today my friend I'm telling you you know I
saw somebody posted on Facebook the other day one of our friends I don't
remember who or what the context was but somebody posted on Facebook and they
said you know 99% of Christians don't do any evangelizing like we're talking
about actual saved born-again Christians don't do any evangelizing and it's
like 1% of Christians are doing all the evangelizing and somebody
responded to this person like I don't think that's true where are you getting
this information blah blah blah and I'm like you know what that is I believe
that is 100% true like I do not I don't need a fact check on that I
don't need a citation on that statistic because I've been a Christian
for the last several decades and I'm telling you that that is the truth
I've been in the evangelical world I've been at lots of Baptist churches I've
had my finger on the pulse of Christianity in this country I've
traveled I've talked to people this is what I do this is what I've done
and I will tell you something that that is it's I would say it's very
conservative to say all of the evangelism is being done by 1% of
born-again Christians because it's probably more like a half a percent or
a tenth of a percent that's doing all the evangelism it's probably like one in
a thousand Christians that are doing all the evangelism and probably 999 that are
typically sitting on their butts doing nothing I believe that 100% that's what
I've observed now I don't have the mathematical data or statistics and no
one does because it would be impossible to test that theory because
are we gonna have Pew research decide who's saved and who's not because
remember what's the thesis here that 99% of actually saved Christians are not
evangelizing how do we don't really know for a fact how many people
in America are actually saved so it'd be hard to compare that with how many
people but I'll say this you know out of all the Baptist churches in Phoenix
how many of them are aggressively evangelizing is it one out of a hundred
you know probably less than that if anything okay plus our independent
Baptist the only the only people that are saved no I mean there are a lot
of saved people in the non-denom churches and in some other
denominations of course all the Catholics are going straight to hell the
Mormons are going to hell the Jehovah's Witnesses are going to hell but I'm
saying you know amongst other denominations there are saved Christians
even in other denominations Calvary Chapel Presbyterians whatever you know
so-and-so Bible Church non-denom churches I mean you know there are a
lot of people that are saved that go to these churches that aren't Baptist
or that aren't independent there are a lot of people go to Southern Baptist
churches that are saved North American Baptist you know there are all kinds
of saved people but even if we just talked about independent Baptists I
mean there are a lot of them that don't go soul winning and then within
those churches there are a lot of people who are doing very little
evangelism and you know what I know this to be the case which is why
when I was a child I used to I should say when I was a teenager I prayed
every night for years that I would win one person the Lord before I die
I pray that every night for years and that might sound a little silly to you
today sitting in faith forward Baptist Church because you're thinking like
pastor Anderson one person winning one person Lord you were thinking small
we're going out every week knocking doors we're getting people saved all the
time but I'm telling you I had not really been exposed to that and I was
surrounded by hundreds of Christians that were actually saved and they were
getting no one saved and I remember just praying every night God please help
me to get one person saved in my entire life and I prayed that every night and
and you know what God answered my prayer I got one I got one person saved
I think God in fact answered I think every time I prayed that I probably got
one person saved for every time I prayed that you know so God really
took me literally you know every time I said help me get one person saved
he's like okay okay okay all right yeah and so the thing is you know I
prayed that every night and I was serious I was just I was like man I just
hope I just hope I don't die without winning anybody the Lord I had
to get one person and like every once a year I would like witness to
someone and my heart's pounding like I was so nervous like I could feel my
heart like beating out of my chest I'm like sweating I'm like nervous and I
just like bear and I didn't even do a good job I didn't even give the
whole plan of salvation I just like quoted a verse said a few things and then I
remember I remember one time I witnessed this one friend of mine I
went over my house I was literally running around the house like screaming
and cheering like whoa yeah I did it the person didn't even get saved I was just so happy that I had
actually witnessed to someone I was I was literally just jumping around and
yelling and hooping and hollering about the fact that I gave some lame
two-minute halfway gospel presentation to someone but let me tell you
something everyone around me all of the hundreds of people around me yay
thousands of people around me you know what they were pretty much just like me
at the school that I went to the Christian school church you see what
I'm saying that's pretty much what it means to be an American Christian for
most people that you rarely give the gospel you know but is that really
gonna get the job done of evangelizing this world millions and millions of
people in darkness millions and millions of people on their way to hell
in America folks we need to step it up and get serious right and our church is
serious about this but I mean as Christians in general in this world we
need to step it up our church is obviously doing fine we just need to
keep doing what we're doing and if other churches were doing what we were
doing this world would be a very different place because everybody'd hear
the gospel so many times they'd be sick of hearing it okay all right that
was quite a long digression that I don't regret at all so let's just come
back here to the passage and we see that yes Ruth is deciding to follow
the Lord but she's also deciding to follow Naomi isn't she so there's a
little bit of lifestyle evangelism going on here which isn't a bad thing
unless it replaces actual aggressive evangelism of strangers so then the
Bible says in verse 18 when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go
with her then she left speaking under her 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 so it's kind
of a small town everybody's excited somebody who moved away ten years ago
came it'd be like if someone who left our church ten years ago all of a
sudden showed up it's like whoa hey remember him hey you know it's cool so
everybody's excited and she said unto them call me not Naomi call me Mara for
the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with me right so obviously these these
names mean something in Hebrew right so instead of being pleasant or like like
for example in modern Hebrew you would say na'im o'd like nice to meet you
pleasant to meet you or something like that so Naomi is like something like
that pleasant pleasing and then Mara remember how the the waters wasn't there
a time in the book of Numbers or sorry Exodus in Exodus they the waters
are called Mara because they're bitter am I right and so Mara is bit
so you know the Lord's dealt very bitterly with me so don't even call me
Naomi call me Mara and I went out full and the Lord had brought me home
again empty why then call you mean Naomi seeing the Lord had testified
against me and the Almighty had afflicted me so Naomi returned and
root the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her which returned out of the
country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley
harvest and so here Naomi acknowledges the fact that look I went out full and
I came home empty the Lord has dealt bitterly with me things went bad now I
was thinking a lot today about this phrase I went out full but I came
back empty because you could interpret this in a couple different ways because
in one sense you could say she went out full in the sense that she had
her husband and her two sons and now she's coming back empty because all of
the men in her life have died and now it's just her and her daughter-in-law
so that's one way to look at this but another way to think about this is
that you know why did you leave you left because it was a famine in the
land basically you weren't satisfied with what you had you left because you
weren't satisfied with what you had but now you look back at what you had when
you left because it wasn't enough now you're looking back at it and calling
it fullness so sometimes you don't really realize what you had until you
lose it but also when she says I went out full it kind of makes you wonder
if she was really even totally out of money when she left you know it's
quite possible that Naomi and Elimelech had savings and that they had substance
and that they really did have some fullness in their bank account but yet
because there's a famine oh we can make more money over here you know
maybe it's not that oh we haven't eaten in three days let's go to Moab
maybe it was more like you know economic opportunities drying up here
because of this famine I'm not gonna have a good farming season because of
the famine so let's go to Moab where we can do better so I think that when I
you know when I read this I don't think there's any indication that they
were just destitute of man we really don't want to leave Israel but we just
have to leave because of this famine we have to go to Moab you know maybe
they weren't even doing that bad I mean we don't really know how bad it
was looking back though she's like I went out full whether that's just full
because of the blessings of family or whether it's full because they
actually did have a little bit of my material prosperity whereas when she's
coming back she has no material wealth okay either way she left full and
came back empty meaning that when she left looking back things weren't
that bad and she regrets leaving and she would have rather had stayed Ruth now
has made the opposite choice to go to a place where she has no prospects
nothing going for I mean she's gonna be seen as a foreigner and by the way
specifically Moabites are not a foreigner that Israelites like in fact
even the the law of God did not allow Moabites to enter the
congregation of the Lord they're not going to be able to have all of the
access to the you know the religious things and so forth and they're not
supposed to necessarily even have anything to do with the Moabites right
when we read the the book of the law so this is like like you know if you
think about it throughout the history of America different foreigners are
considered cool or not cool at different times right I mean and I'm
not condoning any kind of racism or bad attitude toward foreigners because
it's it's not it's not a righteous attitude to have it's not a Christian
attitude to have I'm just talking about the reality though that if someone
comes here from a certain country versus another they're probably gonna be
treated differently especially historically you know there have been
times when people wanted people from Mexico to come here there were other
times when people did not want people from Mexico to come here right
there there could be times when people didn't want the Irish to come
here and when they you know despise the Irish and wanted them to stay in
Ireland and not to come to the United States so there are different groups
that that come and people are like go home we don't want you here right
other times there could be people that are seen as oh you're from so-and-so the
place that's really cool you know oh you're from France that's cool or you're
you know you're from Sweden that's really cool you know or oh you're I
mean where is it cool to be from what's that somebody say everybody's
afraid to say something everybody's afraid to be labeled a racist no what's
that you just say it you get no yeah yeah like like probably yeah see okay
here's the thing like because of the way TV and politics and radio are
right now if you're Ukrainian it's probably like oh you're creating like
like people but but but like if you were Russian it's probably like you
know because okay because that's isn't that is that still going is that still
thing where people are kind of negative toward Russia and for Ukraine is that
still going on so who's winning depends on who you listen to I don't know
anything about it but Armenia is cool though I really like the writing system
it's very cool but anyway the thing is you know being a Moabitess is you're
coming from a country that's not cool okay and so you're gonna be looked down
upon and not necessarily welcomed with open arms by a lot of people this is
the reality of Israel at this time Moab is not a cool place to be from and so
you know she could say well you know I could marry Naomi's son because Naomi
knows me and loves me but Naomi's like I'm not having any more kids I'm not
getting married even if I did you'd be too old for him it's not gonna work and
so Ruth here's where we're leaving her at the end of chapter 1 she's going
into a foreign country where she's most likely gonna be despised and she
has no prospects and things are not looking good but she's choosing to
follow the Lord she's doing it because of Naomi also but she's choosing to
follow the Lord and you know what God's gonna bless that because she's seeking
first the kingdom of God she's being loyal to family but more importantly
she's following God she's seeking the Lord she's trusting the Lord and later
Boaz is gonna say to her that he knows that under the Lord's wings she
has come to trust that's the wording that he's gonna use that she trusted
in the Lord and he's like I know that you've come to trust in the Lord and
that's why she's gonna be blessed beyond her wildest imagination and so we
need to follow that same example don't be a Naomi or an Elimelech where
you're chasing the golden pot at the end of the rainbow and sacrificing
church for financial prospects now if you can have both great I'm not against
you moving if you can have both you know if you have some great financial
opportunity let's say you're in church here tonight and you have some great
financial opportunity and it's in Sacramento California or it's in Atlanta
Georgia right or it's in Dallas Texas or it's in Portland Oregon or it's in
you know what Oklahoma City Houston Boise Spokane you know if you have
opportunities you know I don't know if you know if Fairmont West Virginia is
just booming with opportunity for you hey let me tell you something I would
be a hundred percent for you moving to any of those places because I know
there's a great church there you know but moving somewhere without
knowing what's what's there without doing the research it's a jungle out
there my friend and churches are getting weirder and weirder so you
might want to figure that out before you move lest you end up like Naomi and
you're in a limelack where God's not blessing you because you didn't even
think about the things of God it was just all about money for you seek first
the kingdom of God be like Ruth and you're gonna get blessed like Ruth
it's a number word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great
book Lord and thank you for what we could pick up from chapter 1 Lord I
pray that we would not be like the majority of Christians who do little
to no evangelism Lord help us all to open our mouth boldly to make known
Lord help us to witness and preach the gospel to every creature and Lord God I
pray that we would also always put you first in our lives and seek your
kingdom first not mammon and in Jesus name we pray Amen