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Ruth chapter one we continue our series on the characters of the book of Ruth It's gonna be a five-part series and last week. We looked at the limelike and we're going to look at four quick here today We just announced a few things quickly also as we have some visitors here today Usually what we do after a church one. We're gonna have baptisms available at 1 p.m. Right after this service if you came here to get baptized today And we do have towels available for you you can start getting changed right as the prayers being done right after preaching Baptism whenever you're ready we have the pool over there, but also you know most of us fellowship here after the service You're welcome to eat fellowship with us We have you know people bring their food and we have tables here And then we have so many where we meet back here to for you Someone's gonna come up here to preach if you're here you want to do that. That would be great I just want to announce that real quickly and we'll be going through our series on the characters of the book of Ruth Ruth we're looking at more big here today now turn to Ruth for And remember what is the daughter-in-law of So notice what it says in Ruth 4 verses 9 and 10 It says in verse 9 and Bo has set up the elders and on to all the people Here witnesses this day that I bought all that was limlex and all that was Kylian's and Mala's of the hand of Naomi Moreover Ruth the Moabite is the wife of Mala and have a purchase to be my wife So it says that Ruth is the wife of mama Okay, so go back to Ruth 1 and what that tells us is that war but we're talking about here today was the wife of Kylian, okay, so she was the wife of Kylian and knows what it says in Ruth 1 verse 3 and Eliminate Naomi's husband died and she was left in her two sons And so as we talked about last week a limelike dies And so now Naomi's left without a husband and she has her two sons who are married to or above and roof But eventually we see that her sons also died as well in verse number four and so or was married to Kylian and I Presume that or but is probably mentioned first in verse four because she was older It doesn't say that that would probably be my opinion because my mom has mentioned before Kylian Even though my mom wasn't married to or so I think it was probably done because the fact she was a little bit older the Bible doesn't specifically say But I want you to notice in verse number five or first point Where I want you to understand time and chance happens to all of us in verse five in Marlon and Kylian and died also both of them and the woman was left at her two sons and her husband and So Naomi's left in a situation where her husband's dead and her sons also end up dying as well But I want you to also notice that Orpah is married to a man and her husband dies The Bible never says that Orpah committed some wicked sin It doesn't say that her husband committed some wicked sin, but what we do know is that a young lady Has her husband died and she's left without a husband Okay, and I want you to understand that sometimes things bad happen to us in life It doesn't necessarily mean you committed some terrible sin It doesn't necessarily mean that you're under the judgment of God We have to understand that time and chance happens to all of us now turn to Ecclesiastes 9 And The reason why this is important is that when you go to a church like this that takes a really strong stand on doctrine And we obviously are a unique church in terms of what we believe about salvation and soul winning and things like that Oftentimes people come to a church like this and when things don't go well in their life They kind of blame the church They just kind of say well Before I was at this church Before I was at such a radical church that just preached a whole sermon against the Pentecostals Before I was at such a radical church that preached a whole sermon against the Catholics on Wednesday night Before I was here everything in life was great Man, I had money. I was blessed and things were going great and I go to this church and everything falls apart Look, that doesn't mean it's the church's fault If you have problems in your life say what because time and chance happens to all of us Did not commit some wicked sin that left her without a husband it's just what happened in life Okay, sometimes in life things go well for us and sometimes they don't go well for us That's the way it works. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter how much money you have It doesn't matter anything You're gonna have good things and bad things happen to you at life and it doesn't necessarily mean God's judging you Sometimes as it says in Ecclesiastes 9-11 time and chance happens to all of us I returned and saw under the Sun that the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong Neither yet bred to the wise nor yet riches to men of understanding Nor yet favored a minute of skill but time and chance happen it to them all now Let me ask you a question when it comes to a race Is it usually the fast person or the slow person that wins? It's usually the fast person Usually the winner of the race is the Swift Okay, the Bible is not saying that a race is just random usually the Swift person wins the race Okay, usually when it comes to a battle the strong person wins the battle Okay, usually when it comes to someone who has wisdom They'll be able to provide financially and have bread usually when it comes to men of understanding Those are people that can get riches usually when it comes to men of skill They can get favor as a result of their skill But even if you have all of those things you can still lose the race you can still lose the battle Okay, look, it doesn't matter how good of a fighter you are Someone could land that one lucky shot and it knocks you out That's the way it works. It doesn't matter how good of a fighter you are What do they say that the other person has a puncher's chance? What does that mean? It means they're not a better fighter They're not a better boxer. They're not as fast. They're not as strong. They're not as good They're not as experienced but one good shot of the chin and boy you can tumble Yeah, this time and chance happens to all of us and in our lives. It doesn't matter how godly you are It doesn't matter how much you go soul-willing. It doesn't matter how hard you work at your job None of that matters because still things can go bad And we need to remember that because of the fact when you're at a church like this or any church Things will go bad for your life sometimes Sometimes you'll struggle financially that doesn't mean if you leave a good church and go to a Lane Church an ungodly church that you'll become rich Okay, that doesn't mean because of the fact you don't have a lot of money that you're at the wrong church You know if you start having health problems Hey, that doesn't mean you've committed a big sin That doesn't mean you're under God's judgment But it also doesn't mean that being a part of this church is the reason why you have health problems You just have health problems That's the way it works we're gonna have problems that take place in our lives You know if you get sick that doesn't mean this the church is called you got sick. You just got sick Look since I've been here in the Philippines. I've been sick my son's been sick my wife's been sick It doesn't mean cuz oh wow we started this church. We're under God's judgment. No sometimes you just get sick Yeah, sometimes things just happen and look you know with Orpah she had something major happen to her. Her husband died I'm Sure, there was really ungodly people whose husbands didn't die in fact when you look at Orpah in the Bible It doesn't say a whole lot about her It says enough that we can preach a sermon about her and see about her life, but Orpah is not a wicked person Okay, she is not some evil wicked Reprobate that hates God she's not some evil person in fact. She's very kind to her mother-in-law She's not some wicked rude person And I'm sure there were a lot of women who were all of those things I'm sure there's a lot of women who were wicked that were rude that hated God But their husbands didn't die. It doesn't mean that Orpah was more wicked than those women because her husband died It's just the fact that time and chance happens to all of us. Now turn back to Ruth 1 See sometimes we have a tendency to blame God when things are not going well in our lives But but look I hate to break it to you Pentecostals are wrong their health and wealth gospel that if you're right with God you'll be rich and you'll be blessed with great health The Bible doesn't teach that But you can be really godly and have health problems I mean really right with God and still have everything go wrong in your life That's the way it works And it doesn't matter whether you're at this church or not at this church if you leave this church You're gonna have problems too. Yeah, but the unbelieving world out there. They have problems They can put a smile on their face during the day They can talk about how great their life is boy They got to go and get drunk last night and how much fun that was look You know what? I promise you that person at night when you can't see they realize their life is miserable and not having That's the truth. You know why because people weep during the night They don't weep during the day as the Bible says. They weep during the night. They have their sad face at night when nobody sees Yeah, but in a church people walk into this room all the time in every single person has a smile Does that mean that everybody's just so happy today? No, it's because of the fact even if you're miserable, you don't want me to know it Yeah, right. You're gonna have a smile on your face no matter what? Yes You know what? I've been to church before and there were times I did not feel like being at church things were going wrong or whatever and guess what? I had a smile on my face And say hey, how are things going brother? Hey, they're going great Awesome right now. It's so good Right. That's what everybody does But I want you to just understand that you know what? There are problems whether or not at this church or whether or not you're unsaved or whether or not you're living godly or ungodly Time and chance happens to all of us now. I want you to understand also the opportunity to return that warp ahead notice what it says in verse 8 and Naomi said on her two daughters-in-law go return each to her mother's house the Lord deal kindly with you as he had dealt with the dead and with me and so it's interesting in verse eight where she Where she says go return? Okay, the implication seems to be that before or was marriage with her parents because she's saying Returnings to her mother's house kind of saying now that you're not married go back to where you were before you're married and before You were married you live with your parents and now that you know, your husband's died. You should live with your parents as well That's what Naomi's saying now There's definitely a shred of truth to that thing You know what the Bible teaches that when you're not married you should live with your parents in the ideal circumstances Let me give you some major exceptions to that rule. How about John the Baptist? How about Jesus Look just because and now I agree with that rule in general if you have godly parents, you know, yes You know what if your parents are not godly parents and they don't love the Lord they don't worship the same goddess unit They don't care about I don't think it's wrong for you not to live. Okay, that's my opinion You can decide for yourself But what I want you to understand is that in an ideal situation you would return to your mother's house Okay, obviously, you know before you're married in general Especially during this time period people did live with their parents before they were married But that doesn't mean that every situation that you should do that Look at your parents are these wicked people people that don't believe in God It's probably best to you know Not live with them and to get a job and just live on your own rather than having them all the time make fun Of God, okay So obviously the situation can vary there's definitely a circumstance for the Bible says you leave father and mother to keep on your life So basically when you get married you stop living with them and you live on your own and you get married That's the ideal situation and it's definitely a good situation if possible At the same time it's not necessarily wrong to not live with your parents before you're married Because there are exceptions in the Bible There's actually a lot of great men throughout the Old Testament that were prophets that were out on their own They weren't living with their parents. They lived on their own. So that's the circumstance basis But let me say that I believe Orkle was living with her parents before she got married Because what Naomi's saying is return each to her mother's house now that she's no longer married You go back to how you were before you got married. That's what Naomi's saying here now It's not really good advice Now Naomi's trying to do what's right because she doesn't want to ruin Orpah's life, but it's not really good advice She's giving you look sometimes good people give you bad advice Naomi's a good person. She's not a bad person, but she's giving bad advice And so look just because somebody's in church. They might be trying to help you They might be trying to give you good advice You have to go back to the Bible to make sure that what they're saying is correct because it might seem like good advice But it doesn't necessarily mean it is good advice and what Naomi's telling her is not good advice Okay, now notice what it says in verse six Then she arose with her daughters-in-law That she might return from the country of Moab for she had heard the country of Moab how the Lord had visited his people and giving them bread Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was in her two daughters-in-law with her and they went on the way to Return on the land of Judah and so Orpah's on her way to return to the land of Judah now You have to put yourself in her position Okay Sometimes when we read the Bible we need to just stop and think about this because in the Bible characters make terrible decisions There's reasons why they're doing that put yourself in their shoes. Orpah is a woman of Moab Okay, God's people aren't supposed to marry women of Moab in the ideal situation and she's also a young widow Look, you know most men probably would rather not marry someone who's widowed They probably marry someone who's never married Okay, and so this is a woman being from Moab. It's gonna be hard for her to get married. Anyway, she's going to a foreign land she's leaving her family and everybody she knows and From a logical perspective. It's gonna be hard to find a husband Because she's a young widow woman from Moab Hey, that's not usually at the top of people's list of people to marry okay, and so we can understand why it's a hard decision for her but Understand that she is on her way to return with Naomi. That was what her original plan was Okay, she's planning to return now in verse 8 You know She said return to your mother's house And I want you to understand this from verse 8 that when life hits you down and things are not going well That is usually the opportunity where the devil wants you to return to something that's on God Life is not going well for you now turn to first Peter five Boys the devil just such a great tempter. He makes us feel like the life of sin is gonna be great I mean if you see commercials on TV boy, man, just going out and drinking. It's so much fun Just going out and you know being afforded here. It's so much fun. I mean life is so great You'll be so happy What if he actually went down there? You're gonna end up miserable It's gonna ruin your life The devil makes us think that we will be happy He makes you think that living for God is such a burden. It's so hard You gotta come to church every week read the Bible and go soloing if you just quit that just calm down a little Your life will be so great, but it wouldn't be why because the Bible says if you know these things The truth is and what you're supposed to do if you choose not to do it Truth now first Peter 5 verses 7 and 8 it says Casting all your care upon him for a careth for you be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil has a roaring lion Walking about seeking whom he may devour see the Bible says the devil says a boring line He walks about and he looks at the people that he can destroy he looks at the people that he can to devour What that tells us is there are some people he cannot devour It also tells us there's something we can't devour and here's what you have to understand All of us can be at either one of these stages in our lives It's not just like they're magically some person that man the devil could never destroy Pretty good people that commit terrible sins, okay, but it doesn't matter who you are You're gonna have time period room on different sides because there's sometimes you get backslidden You get tired and get exhausted When is the devil gonna try to destroy you it's gonna try to destroy you when your back slip Yeah, when things aren't going great see when you're going to church, and you've got you got lots of money in the bank Account your health is great. You're a happy everything's going so well the devil realizes. He can't destroy them So guess what? All In fact, he wants you to make he wants to make you feel like man life's always gonna be so great I can't be destroyed. Everything's just so great. That's why once you go to the other side all of a sudden You're not ready Devil walks about seeking who we may devour and all of us You stay at this church for the next five years. You will have time periods where you get frustrated You get upset. You don't want to be here anymore. You get mad for something I say you get mad at a sermon things aren't going well in life and at those moments the Stupid foolish thought of maybe I should leave this place will cross your mind Those thoughts will cross your mind at times and sometimes we go so winning and it's exciting We get so many people saying but when you do it all the time, you know, it's like you lose the value of how? Because when it comes commonplace you start thinking yeah, I mean no big deal It's all What's gonna end up happening is you're at this place for a while there will be times That's just reality look it doesn't matter what church you're at you're gonna have times where you're not happy But we don't serve God whether or not what happy we serve God Now turn back to actually the first night the first night Whom resist steadfast the faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world Bible says what we're supposed to do is resist the devil Okay, see you have to understand your life is not always gonna be miserable if you're going through a tough time right now It's not always gonna be like that Eventually, it's gonna get better You go through the tough times you go through the times you still serve God when you don't feel like it And guess what? There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, it's not a permanent tunnel until you die No, you're inside that tunnel for a little while and guess what you get out of that tunnel and then things are going well And then guess what? There's time for you to go back into that time You have someone you love you have a friend who dies and guess what you start getting upset All of a sudden you're in the middle of that tunnel again Hey, just wait it out resist the devil don't do something foolish and make emotional decisions when things aren't going well I shouldn't make more decisions based on emotion. That's a foolish reason to make decisions If you make your decisions completely based on emotion, then you'll be a Pentecostal Which we just talked about this morning, right? We don't make our decisions based on emotion You know, we do it because it's the right thing to do. Turn back to Ruth one one So we need to understand is that we must be ready for the devil's devices especially at our weakest moments And see unfortunately when we're at our weakest moments, that's what we're not ready for Obviously when things are going well, you feel confident man. I would never deny Jesus like Things are going so great in life. Then once you go through those moments, it's a little bit tough We need to be ready for his devices when things are not going well This is a very weak moment for Orpah. Her husband is dead Okay, I'm sure she didn't imagine being a young widow She's literally at the worst stage of her life I mean, can you imagine it being more she's so happy she got married. I'm sure she loved her husband She's excited to marry him and she's thinking we're gonna have a family and things are great She's gonna be pretty miserable though, that's the moment when the devil gave you the opportunity to return And it says one verse 15 and she said behold thy sister-in-law's gone back under her people and under her gods Returned now after thy sister-in-law. So what Naomi said was to Ruth She says go back and return on to your people and on to your gods now My opinion is that this verse is kind of misunderstood a little bit because I personally think Orpah is in heaven Okay, she seems like she's a pretty godly lady. He said but wait a minute. It says return back to your gods But let's say we get a Catholic saved out solar Okay, and they come here for a month and things are going well, but their entire family is Catholic Everyone they know is Catholic and so being here is pretty much They're no longer friends with their family. Their family's gonna reject them There's probably a lot of people that will go back to their gods I'm not saying they're changing their belief, but they'll just say no, it's not worth it to serve God Okay, so I don't think that it's one statement alone where it says go back on to her gods I don't think that necessarily means that she's worshipping another God I think it just basically means she's returning to an ungodly area where they are worshipping other gods Because look there's believers that sit through churches that are preaching a false message of salvation every single week Why do they do that? Their family goes to that church. Their friends go to that church. Their husband goes to that church. Their wife goes to that church All their friends go to that church. So, you know, they say well, you know, I know it's bad But it's that bad But where's people we get saved out still wanting that are going to go to church that are preaching the wrong message of salvation until the day they die? That's the truth. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're unsaved You can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and decide to sit through an ungodly church and go through the motions now It's different if they say yes Yes, I believe that I have to go to the priest to have my sins absolved Yes, I believe the Pope is basically God on her. That's a little bit different But you know We do get people saved That will still keep going to Catholic Church because that's where their friends and family go and they're going to decide it's not worth it Okay, you go to a country like this where almost everybody's Catholic a lot of people say, you know It's too big of a burden to leave the Catholic Church No, they probably more likely just not to go to church at all So I don't think she's necessarily unsafe but doesn't really tell us I think she probably is but maybe she isn't Turn to Hebrews 11 When it comes to characters in the Old Testament, especially, it doesn't really tell us if they're saved or not. We can obviously get a pretty good idea about some of them. It didn't say whether or not a Limelike was saved. I assume he was. It doesn't say that with a lot of the characters. I assume her son, his sons are probably saved The sons of a Limelike and Naomi. So I'm assuming she heard the gospel and got saved as well. Okay, that's my opinion It says in Hebrews 11 verse 15 And truly if they had been mindful of that country from once they came out, they might have had Opportunity to have returned. See the Bible says if we're mindful of a country that we came out with, we have the opportunity to return Basically if it's still in the back of our minds, if we haven't just totally gotten it out of our lives Once things are going bad, we might return Examples of this are when somebody hears a sermon against the music they listen to and they say, man, that was such a great sermon I shouldn't listen to that music, but they don't throw out the music. They just put it in their closets Why would they put it in their closet? Well because the fact that the music was expensive. I mean if I backslide again I cannot afford to re-buy that music I'll just put it in my closet. You know what? I'm not going to listen to it. And so what ends up happening? Well, you're still mindful of that country you left So guess what? The opportunity is going to return and it's probably going to come back to your lives. Say well, you know I know some of those movies I watched, man, they're bad. I shouldn't have watched them. I'll just hide them in the closet You know, I'm going to go watch them. You're probably going to go back to those movies one of these days So when we have things in our life that we believe for godly reasons, we get sin out of our lives We must remove all of that sin. We don't want to give ourselves an opportunity to return to that lifestyle We want to try to get rid of that opportunity Why? Because when you're at a weak moment, you might make the wrong choice When things are going well for you, and you're really godly you're going to make the right choices But when things are going bad and you're mindful of that country, you might just return to that country Now turn back to what you want And so we talk about how time and chance happens to all of us and we talk about the opportunity to return And I want you to realize something that we need to choose God over family, that's the third point. And in Ruth 1 verse 8 What Naomi says to her daughters-in-law is this Return each to her mother's house. Okay now She tells her to return to her mother's house. This is not really very good advice though. Because of the fact, you know, her mom is probably an unbeliever. She's from Moab. She's probably not a believer. Now turn to Matthew 10. Now obviously What the Bible's trying to show us is that it's better to live in Bethlehem, Judah than Moab. Obviously Ruth is the one who's blessed. Obviously the name of this book is Ruth. It's not Orpah Okay, obviously the right place to go is to Bethlehem, Judah. Okay, but Naomi, or not Naomi, but Orpah It's a going back to Moab. She stays there. So she should have left her mother's house So you have to understand that there are some times we need to choose God over family. That's what it says in Matthew 10 verse 34 through 38 Think not that I have come to send peace on earth I came not to send peace but a sword For I have come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter Against her mother and the daughter of law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household He that loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me And so people have this idea that when Jesus came here, he just came to bring everybody world peace Just get everybody to get along and put aside all of our differences Yes, you worship Allah, you worship Buddha, you worship Shiva, but let's just put that aside It's no big deal because we all worship God, right? That's what the world likes us to think They like us to think you know what Jesus came here and he's here to bring all Christianity together No, he didn't do that. He actually came to divide. The Bible talks about being divided from your own family The truth is that at a church like this a lot of you left a different Baptist Church to come here And when you made the decision to leave your own Baptist Church, you have a lot of family that doesn't really like you very much Because of the fact you're basically saying that some of their doctrines aren't right The doctrines here are right. And so you know what? You made a decision to follow God over family And unfortunately, a lot of people hadn't made that decision. I want you to understand that, you know, you're not making this Because people think that this just happened to me. No, it happens to pretty much everybody Yeah, when you get on fire for God, you have to make some choices Even in the battle of killing Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, David's were viewed by his own brother When he decided to live for God, his brother's against him. But when you decide to live for God Usually your family doesn't go on board with this. Yeah, right. Now if you're an exception to that, praise the Lord. That's great. Most people aren't an exception. Most people That's what they have to go through. Their family wants to reject them. Now, there's a tough balance here You know when it comes to speaking to your family, you know, I do speak to my family You know, I still try to be pretty close to my family. You know, I do have a family that's saved. I also have a family that's unsafe I'm not saying you can never talk to them ever again What I'm trying to show you is what the Bible says about this and these are decisions you have to make because these decisions are not Necessarily the same for everybody. I'm not saying that if you have an unsafe parent, you can never talk to them again Because that's honestly going outside of what the Bible says Okay, I'm not saying you can never talk to them again. What I'm saying is you have to make those decisions Okay, and sometimes they're tough decisions to make where you're like, you know I don't know whether or not you're gonna be around my family's good thing for me or bad thing You've got to make those decisions. Okay, but I will let you know this that when you decide to live for God it will Put you at variance with a lot of your family and see Orpah. She should have left She should have gone to Bethlehem, Judas. She chose not to. Okay. Now go back to Genesis chapter 12, Genesis 12 I want you to realize something that this is something that godly people do struggle with leaving their family I have lots of stories of people that I know that The reason they're not living for God today is because they would not separate from their family There's I know people that they love their family. They just spent all their free time with them And you know what? It was not the right decision for them and they don't they aren't living for God today You know, you should surround yourself with godly people, but I want you to notice somebody Abraham Who, you need to read the Bible closely because people have this idea that Abraham He was told by God to depart from his family and he just immediately did that. That's not what the Bible teaches. Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3 Now the Lord has said unto Abram get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee. So Abram's told to depart from his kindred and his father's house Okay The reason why is because the fact that his father didn't worship the same god The Bible shows us that his father was not a believer like Abram So God tells him to depart from his father's house verse 2 and I will make it be a great nation and I will bless thee And make thy name great now shall be a blessing now bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Here Abram's told to depart from his country and from his kindred and his father's house Okay, Abraham is living in the land of the cowdians or her of the cowdians at this time notice verse 4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of her Okay, so it says Abram departed and it sounds like he obeyed the Lord immediately Didn't obey the Lord immediately Okay He eventually obeyed the Lord, but he did not obey this immediately notice when it says in verse 4 that he departed out of heron Okay before that he was living in the land of the cowdians We'll look at a few more scriptures to show this but what I want you to understand is he did not depart from his father's house He eventually does and we're going to see why go back to Genesis 11 Genesis 11 It says in verse 31 So remember it said in verse 4 of Genesis chapter 12 He departed out of heron now notice in Genesis 11 what it says is he's with his father Terah and then Terah dies in heron say why isn't it Abram decided to leave because his father died And then he departed when what God told him to go He didn't depart from his father his father dies Okay, his father dies in heron. Where did Abram leave from? He left from heron Okay, so basically when you bring these things two together he was in the land of the cowdians God told him to leave and he left with his father to go kind of part way and Then when his father dies, he goes to the rest of the life That's not what God told him so he eventually did obey God due to the circumstance But he didn't obey God immediately now turn to Acts 7 And we're going to see more clearly here in Acts chapter 7 And so what I'm just trying to show you here is that you know when it comes to separating from your family This is not an easy thing for most people to do Now look It obviously depends on you know, what your family's like, you know, if you had good parents It's probably gonna be tough To actually If you didn't have good parents and your parents were just really terrible people or whatever might not be that hard to obey But look, you know what if you love your parents and they were good parents and you care about it It's probably gonna be harder to do Okay. Now notice what it says in Acts 7 verses 1 through 4 Then said that my priest are these things so and he said men brethren and fathers part God appeared under father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in care and wore hair Okay, so God appeared in what I can talk about in Genesis chapter 12 before he's in here Okay, remember he departs from here, but before that when he's pulled it apart. He's not in here or Karen as it says here in Acts 7 verse 2 and said unto him get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred And come with the land, which I shall show thee. So he's told it apart then came he out of the land of the Calvians okay Remember that's where he was beforehand when God appears to him and dwelt in Karen and from thence when his father was dead He removed him into this land where he now dwelt So notice he does not depart from his father. His father goes and leaves they go half way They make it to heron, but he doesn't fully obey and when his father dies, that's what he means Okay, he doesn't know maybe he eventually obeys that's why the Bible says in Genesis 12 that he obeyed doesn't mean he obeyed like that God didn't give him a rule and instruction and he said, okay I'll do actually God gave me told him what to do and he didn't do it for a very long time I turn to Hebrews 11 I Just noticed what it says in verse number 8 in Hebrews 11 verse 8 the Bible reads By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after Receive for an inheritance obey and he went out not knowing whether he went so Abraham does end up obeying Okay, when you look at the other scriptures the whole picture is the fact that he doesn't obey immediately and he does not depart from His father's house. He doesn't obey that he departs from where he is. It makes it half way He doesn't go the whole way You say why is it he didn't make the whole way because the fact sometimes your family will prevent you from making Right. Sometimes your family will stop you from receiving that blessing you could receive See if he had just obeyed Immediately think about what he could have accomplished in those extra years that extra time here We could just obeyed immediately but because of his father that prevents him received from receiving the blessing immediately Eventually, he does but look his family prevents him from fully living for God and the sad reality is When you decide to live for God Usually your number one enemies are your family. Yeah They're the ones that will prevent you from living for God They're the ones that are going to make life very tough for you. Those are decisions. You've got to make them Okay, now he was actually living with his father The father tells us that those are decisions for everyone in this room to make including myself that when you have family or old Friends, you've got to make that decision of whether or not you have to cut ties or how closely you want to be with them Obviously, you know if you're hanging out with your family as they're getting drunk and trashed, you know what that that's not appropriate There's a line you got to cut the sand and you know what there might be certain things that you know What you can't spend time with them in certain situations I'm not saying you have to fully separate from what I'm saying is you need to make those decisions based on what is the Bible say what is my specific situation when it comes to a lot of things? I don't like to be dogmatic on things The Bible isn't dogmatic on because the Bible does not tell every single person to fully depart from your father It's all Abraham to depart from his father Okay, so I can't say that for every single person in this room that you should just never talk to him again That's what you call a cult if I say You can ever talk to other people in this room. Never talk to your family your old friends You're not allowed to have cell phones. I get to read all the emails, but that's what you call it You've got to make your decision. I'll try to give you the best guidance I can but everyone's got to make their own decision That's why when you sit here and hear the sermons you judge as we talk about And you've got to make those decisions because it might not be the same for you as it is for me Now go back to Ruth one The last point I want you to look at is we need to choose God over our own personal desires Obviously, you know Orpah as a young lady. She wants to get married now That's what the Bible says God's given a desire for women to have is to get married Obviously she wants that but unfortunately No her husband's died and if she leaves To go to Judah in her mind. She's probably not going to have in fact That's what Naomi told her that convinced her to say she's like, you know I don't have any sons in my life that are gonna be your husband's and Basically, she's telling her you know what if you end up leaving to Judy, you'll never get married You'll stay a widow And I'm sure in the mind of Orpah she think that she thinks that's a very big possibility Okay. Now we know that Ruth decided to go to Bethlehem Judah. She took that chance She took that step of faith and Orpah didn't okay Now notice what it says in verse 9 the Lord granted that she 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 Naomi's telling her Or she's telling both of them. Hey, just stay back. You'll find another husband You'll find rest inside that household you I mean you've got three women There's no husband providing for them if they go back to Judah, they're going to be Working hard just to meet their make ends meet just provide their own food This was a time period where they didn't have washers and dryers and a lot of the conveniences we have today It took a lot of time just to provide a lot of work Okay, and so basically that life that she was gonna live or she was gonna be married and stay home She's basically forsaken that and she's gonna have to work really hard just to provide food each day It's a big step of faith She happened to be happy to make and so what Naomi told her was go back and you'll get married You can find rest in the house of your husband Verse 10 and they said under surely we will return with the on to die people So notice that Orpo wants to go to Bethlehem Judah I think this is pretty similar to a lot of people that listen to the sermons online Right, a lot of people listen to our sermons and boy they want to return boy They want to come to this church, but they choose for other reasons not to come to this church Yeah, even if their church is late Even if they know their church isn't right they decide to stay back because they will separate from their family They decide to stay More than your personal life, I hope when you go to a church that doesn't preach the gospel It doesn't motivate you to preach the gospel and doesn't preach good doctor teaching Bible. I hope you'll still live for God It's just very unlikely That's the truth. Yeah, and see a lot of people are like Orpo they go halfway They say they're gonna go but they don't end up going the full way notice what it says in verse 11 And they only said turning in my daughters Why would he go with me are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husband's Turning in my daughter's go your way I'm too old to have a husband if I should say I have hope if I should have a husband also tonight should also Their sons would you tarry for them till they were grown? When you stay for them from having husbands name my daughters for a breathing pretty much for your sakes at the hand of the Lord He's gone out against me now. Just thinking about this logically Let's say work is 20 years old We don't know how old she is, but let's say she's 20 years old if they only were to get married and have you know a son Look, she's gonna be like 40 years old by the time her son's 20 Okay, that sounds probably not gonna want to marry her at that point. I mean, it's probably not gonna work out She's so that's what she's telling. She's like, are you really gonna just wait for 20 years? Wait till I have a son obviously that's probably not gonna happen So what she's saying is look if you come with me, you're never gonna get married You're probably not going to get married So she's left with should I serve God and go to do what she originally plans to do? Which is why I think she was probably saved. She's forsaken I think she knows what the truth is, but if she decides to go fully in living for God She's probably never gonna get married never have a family Okay, that's a tough choice to make especially for a young lady that could just stay back and marry somebody else now Notice what it says in verse 14 and they lifted up their voice and left again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth played on to her So Ruth makes the decision to go to Bethlehem Judah and say, you know what? I'm gonna serve God and forsake everything and I don't care about my own personal desires I don't care if I never get married. I just want to serve God Now we have to we have to ask ourselves that if we were in a similar position Would we make that choice? Would we be willing to sacrifice everything to serve God? I mean, most people weren't willing to do that. Are you willing to sacrifice you a job that's gonna cause you not to live for God? Most people probably aren't willing to do that. Most people, you know, in the Philippines, most people live their lives for money That's the sad reality, but that's the way it is. Most people are not willing to go all out to serve God But here's what you have to understand. If you want to serve God, you do have to go all out to serve God That's the truth, you know, it doesn't mean that when you get saved all of a sudden God says, hey now that you're saved Man, I got this really nice job for you. You're gonna work, you know, 40 hours just Monday through Friday So you can just serve God as much as possible You can go to church on Wednesday night, you can go to church on Sunday, you can do the soul-winning and everything's gonna be so great No, there's no promise in the Bible like that. Yeah, honestly when it comes to deciding to live for God and to Focus on church and things like that. There's a lot of sacrifice that need to be made. That's the reality of it. You have to understand this is not just with you and it's not just people in the Philippines Right. It doesn't matter what country you live in. These are the same choices you have to make. Okay now Turn to Romans 12 I know plenty of people in the United States that They took jobs that caused them to miss church and to have to just say well, you know Hopefully one day I'll maybe come back to church, but they work every single Sunday and they can't live for God But it doesn't matter what country you live in you go through the same source of things Yes, things are common demand where you've got to make the decision Saying all the live for God. Okay, it's not always easy It's gonna be tough for all of us, but I want you to notice what it says in Romans 12 verse 1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies of living sacrifice Holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service now I haven't looked at commentary on this verse, but I'm guessing that in Hong Kong. They misunderstand what a living sacrifice is My wife knows since she's from there, but I think they're misinterpreting Apple But when you think about being a living sacrifice What it means is that while you're alive here on earth, you are making sacrifices to live for God So yeah, we don't take it literally like the Catholics do but What I'm saying is that you know what if you're gonna live for God you will have to make sacrifice And you are present yourself as a living sacrifice. You've got to make sacrifices to live for God Honestly, you know those things can be different for different people in this room But I promise you that amongst this room all of us, you know, it doesn't matter what it is Somebody has dealt with this. It's not just when it comes to having to choose God over family When it comes to having to choose God over money When it comes to these things many people deal with these things when it comes to being a living sacrifice It's not gonna be easy, but what I want you to see in the end of verse one is this Which is your reasonable service? See God has decided that what's reasonable for us is to just go all out Right now look all of us are gonna make mistakes sometimes We're gonna convince certain sins, we're gonna stumble but you know what God wants from you is to make yourself a living sacrifice That's not gonna be easy Look, I remember, you know, I got saved when I was 18 years old and I didn't necessarily go all in immediately You know took me some time, which it's like that for most people But you know, honestly, I remember you know early on when I was saved the first Baptist Church I went to probably less than a year after I got saved. I remember, you know, I Skipped church one Sunday because There's a US versus Mexico My dad asked me if I want to go us. Yeah. Well, I want to go and so I skipped church to go to a US Mexico game, you know something I really enjoy it'd be like, you know, whatever you personally enjoy Let's say for example, it's just right here on Sunday, you know, LeBron James is in town And he's gonna be playing in the game at 10 in the morning And you know just right across the street and you decide man, I love LeBron James for so long You decide to skip church to watch LeBron James That's kind of the decision I mean I decided to go to a soccer game and I for some church that week and obviously, you know You've got to learn from mistakes and you got to grow and obviously I have at this point But what I want you to understand is that you know We've got to give things up for those who are God And when I first got saved you don't realize when you first get saved how much you have to give up It's a lot and really want to serve God, you know, if you want to be a pastor one day If you want to start a church one day that's a great goal, I'll try to help you out I'm not gonna lie to you though. You're gonna have to give up a lot of things along the way A lot of nights where you decide know what I'm gonna forsake an hour and a half of sleep to work on a sermon What a study of I've worked on this you're gonna have to make a lot of sacrifices to get to that level Now it's worth it serving God is always worth it, but you know what there will be sacrifices you have to make You know when it comes to serving God This is our reasonable service God expects us to go all in now turn to Ruth one You Movies start by Scott And I just I just love someone I was going so many yesterday with my wife I let someone in the board and she didn't realize when I'm near the Lord in the background There's my son on the team. I can't get away from this like fans care, but I Got asked what are you willing to serve give up to serve God? Does God really want you to watch movies and things that mock the Bible and make fun of God? Are you willing to give that up to serve God or you just say you know what? I'm kind of comfortable where I'm at, you know, I'm okay with just kind of going to happen for God We go ahead and do that. Well, you know God says you're supposed to be a living sacrifice A lot of lessons in the end. What about you know, you're free time you say brother stuff You know I just can't live without all this free time. Look before I started serving God. I had a lot more free time The truth is once you start serving God no matter how much you do. You're still an uncomfortable And I can still read the Bible It's still memorize the Bible more. You know, we're gonna have a fun time next week playing basketball and volleyball I'm not telling you that you have to just Read the Bible and pray and go solo what I am saying though is that you know You know, what are you willing to give up in order to do more and you'll honestly Most people will say they're willing to do anything to serve God. Most people aren't willing to give up Yeah, they say I'll start serving. I'll start reading the Bible an hour a day. That's great But that means you have to remove an hour from your life to do that Yeah, right. I mean are you willing to give up Facebook to read? What do you just need to spend an hour and a half on Facebook and an hour and a half on text messaging all day long And you never have time to read the Bible There's a problem if you come to the end of your days all the time and you say man I didn't have any chance to read the Bible but I talked to like 55 people on Facebook There's a problem. Most people in today's world are not willing to give up watching all of us serve God What are you willing to give up? Now I want you to notice Ruth 1 verse 4 Ruth 1 verse 4. Let's go to one last verse And they took the wives of the women of Moab The name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth and they dwell there about ten years now As I said earlier, I believe Orpah was probably more than Ruth because she's mentioned first But I'm gonna give another thought to end with Let's say for example that Orpah and Ruth both end up going to Bethlehem You know what? I believe we would have read today in our scripture read I think we would have read Orpah chapter 1. You say why? She's mentioned before See I think this book would probably have been called Orpah if she had made the decision to go back to Bethlehem, Jude Now she had to make sacrifices in her life but wouldn't that be worth it? Wouldn't she love to have a book in the Bible named after you? Not everyone could be Matthew like me that has a book in the Bible But wouldn't that have been worth it in her life? Even if life didn't go great with her For thousands of years we'd be reading the book of Orpah Now I don't know for sure the name of the book would have been Orpah But since she's mentioned first I presume it probably would I think that makes sense. Maybe you don't think so, that's fine What I'm saying is if she had decided to go all in And said it's just part way How much more could she have accomplished in her life? And so you don't have to ask yourself that question I'm sure everybody in this room There's certain things that are on your mind The things that you need to give up to serve God I know things in my life that you know what? I need to choose to give up to serve God more Things that hold me back We don't need to look at this ourselves and decide what are we willing to give up to serve God The sad reality with Orpah is I believe she's probably saved I think it makes sense because she's willing to forsake everything She's not fully willing She decides to go back Orpah was someone who kind of went half way She had Bethlehem Judah She had Moab And you know what? It was a lot easier just to go back to Moab Yeah it's a lot easier to make the decision to backslide Because it's a lot harder to climb the hill than it is to fall down It takes a lot of time and effort to climb the hill It's a lot easier just to say you know what? It's a lot faster if I just go down the hill It's a lot easier but you know what? It's worth it when you get to the top of that mountain Let's go to my prayer Dear Heavenly Father thank you for allowing me to be here today And just getting to see the life of Orpah and the lessons we can learn God I ask you to help all of us right now To make decisions in our lives Obviously we all have lots of things we can do We can change Myself included I ask you to help us look at a character like Orpah And realize how much more she could have accomplished God help us to make decisions we need to in life Those could be different decisions for different people But help us make the tough decisions So we can go all out and serve And we praise you