Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Here you'll find practical, relevant, biblical information.
The Bible will be broken down verse by verse so that you get the full context of the scripture to better grow in your relationship with Jesus.
This stuff out of the way. Can everybody hear me okay? Alright. I wasn't sure because I'm not used to this mic. I usually have the one that Brian was using today. This one feels a little funny.
Today we're actually going to start looking at a little bit about character and staying loyal, especially during those hard times. Remaining loyal to each other, remaining loyal to God.
Alright. When we look around today, people are really sarcastic. They're really bitter. Very facetious. They're willing to pick fights.
There's plenty of people who are willing to bait people in fights just for the sake of argument. Look at social media or school.
We see a lot of that. Just the other day one of my friends posted something. Somebody put just a small comment and the next person that came on, oh I can't wait to hear this argument.
It's right there in front of us all the time. Things go even deeper than that.
Today the more inflamed people get, the more enraged they get, the more wrapped up in the things they get. They take those jabs looking to hurt each other.
But there's another way. We've seen that all throughout the Bible. We're actually going to start looking at some of that today.
Those hard times. We start having to look through and just start marching forward again.
We're actually going to be starting in the book of Ruth.
I'm kind of taking this one from a slightly different approach to the title. You kind of see it up there at the top. It's called The Outsiders.
A little bit of information on the book of Ruth before we dive into it. Ruth was written right around 1375 to 1050 BC. Remember BC the numbers get smaller. It's 80 that they get higher.
It's possibly written by Samuel. We're not entirely sure about that. However, this was written there about the end of the time of judges somewhere in that little area.
This was a time that was really dark. There really wasn't a king leading Israel or anything like that.
This was a time when God was raising up periodic leaders or judges like Gideon or Samson. Those types.
People were very much living in anarchy. They're doing as they saw fit. As very much if it feels good do it style of living.
We're going to be looking at the first chapter of Ruth today which is more focused on Naomi.
Ruth is in here quite a bit but it's more focused on her mother-in-law.
We're going to see some really good examples of what it is to remain loyal to God as we go through.
Some of this stuff I'm going to break it down because it's very easy to read over. You see it at that face value.
Some of these things we get wrong a little bit. Right before we dive in here though, I have a note here.
That's why I kind of keep looking down. There's two things to take note of here.
One, Ruth is one of only two women to have a book named after her in the Bible. The other one being Esther.
The other thing, especially since we're looking at the Old Testament, we're so early on, Ruth is the only, excuse me, the words left me here,
the only Gentile to have a book named after them in the Old Testament as well which really speaks to the times.
All right. So if you would, let's go ahead. Let's open up our books or your Bible apps, whatever you have to Ruth chapter one.
We're going to look at the verses one through five. All right.
And the word says, In the days when judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
So a man from Bethlehem and Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
The man's name was Elimelech. His wife's name was Naomi and the names of his two sons were Malon and Kilion.
They were Ephratites from Bethlehem, Judah, and they went to Moab and lived there.
Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. She was left with her two sons.
They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth.
After they lived there about 10 years, both Malon and Kilion had died, also died.
And Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
All right. So these were tough days. Food was getting very scarce. Right.
So to provide for his family, Elimelech decided to uproot everybody and take them to Moab until things got better.
Depending on which version of the Bible you're reading, you might see the word sojourn, right, which means to go and then to come back.
Right. It's just a temporary move. All right.
But what's of note here, however, is that he's taking them down the same route to the same place that God had just freed the Israelites from just a couple hundred years prior.
So he's backstepping. He's backsliding. Right. He's not trusting in what's going on and that things are going to prevail.
He's going back to the evil that they know of. Right.
We're supposed to learn from our past and move forward, not go back and live in it. And that's what's happening here.
All right. Now Moab is one of it was one of Israel's oppressing nations. All right.
And we can learn a lot more of that actually in Judges Chapter three. We're not going to for time's sake.
But as such, hostilities, they were really high between these two nations.
In fact, if we turn to Deuteronomy Chapter twenty three verses three through six, the word says,
No Ammonite or Moabite or any other descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, not even in the tenth generation, for they did not come to meet you with bread and water on your way when you came out of Egypt.
And they hired Balaam son of Bior from Pethor and Aram Naharim to pronounce a curse on you.
However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but turn the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you.
Do not seek a treaty of friendship with them as long as you live. So we can see here relations.
They're not just strained. They're discouraged. Right.
I said, and if it wasn't bleak enough, the Moabites, they lived outside of the promised land. So much like Canaanites and other tribes that were out there, marriage was forbidden.
You know, they weren't supposed to be married. You can look at Deuteronomy seven.
The first four verses actually talk about that.
Naomi's sons, they really shouldn't have married these women. It was against God's word. Right.
So not only had they turned their back and left and gone back, but they're also going against the word that's been given to them that they've been trained in, that they've been taught growing up.
Right. Very rebellious.
But in the words of Billy Mays, wait, there's more.
It gets worse because Moabites, they refused to let the Israelites even pass through the land on their exodus from Egypt. Right.
They're just like, Nope, go around. We don't want you here.
So because of this, they weren't even allowed to go into the tabernacles, which is big. Right.
Especially comes to worship. So, you know, to say the seeds of division were planted is putting it mildly.
It's more like the weeds had grown up and taken over. Right. We have a forest to just yuck right here.
Kind of like what we're talking about during announcements with picking weeds. Right.
We're going to get rid of them. But, you know, it's the same today. It's very much an us versus them mentality.
And it doesn't matter where you look. You look at politics. You look at the news, social media. You can go to work and find division.
For some of us, it's in our own house. You know, and for all that's going on here, Naomi, she lost her husband. She lost her sons.
Ruth and Orpah had lost their husbands. And take into account that these are mixed relations at that.
We see a lot of issues with some people with mixed relations today, don't we?
A lot of bias, a lot of racism, things like that. So, it just shows things haven't really changed that much.
You know, but God, she was about to, God was about to use, he was about to use the relationship of Naomi and Ruth as an example of character.
And the fact that he's using a person who's so far removed from Israel already and a Gentile speaks to just how dark those times were.
Picking back up in Ruth 1 verses 6 through 9, the word says, When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them,
she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother's home.
May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.
May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.
So in these days, being a widow was one of the toughest spots to be in.
It was one of the lowest classes about the only thing lower than this was to not, was to be a widow and to not have children.
Right? Because you weren't blessed with children. So you were, you were even lower than the low.
And these widows that were out there, even if they did have children, were often abused, taken advantage of, or just outright neglected.
Right? Ignored. Very much like our homeless population is today.
So the law had actually made an attempt to take care of these women and it stated that the nearest relatives would need to take care of that widow.
Right? Typically, that would be the brother-in-law.
The problem is, all the men in her family that were right here had just died.
It was just her and her daughter's law.
And she couldn't very well go to her in-laws and expect to be taken care of.
All right. Now, on top of that, Naomi didn't even know if she had relatives that were still alive in Israel.
So she's trying to figure things out. She doesn't know where she's going to go.
She's trying to piece things back and is trying to figure out what direction she needs to go in.
If you notice, this chapter, like I said earlier, it focuses a lot more on Naomi.
So this is a dire situation. She's reflecting, she's reflecting God's love for her daughter's law.
She left home for another. She was married. She had children.
She had what appeared to be a bright and secure future.
And then it all came crumbling in and now she has nothing. She's basically destitute. Right? She's broke.
So she felt that call to go back to Israel. Right?
She had heard that the Lord was blessing others. People were eating again.
Having this calling coming back, whether she realized it or not, this is God calling her back in.
Hey, it's okay. I know things are low. Things are hard right now. I'm here for you. Turn around. Come back.
It doesn't matter how low or how far you've fallen. You can always come back.
You don't have to right yourself. You just have to go.
She's hearing how other people were blessed. She's like, me too, Lord, me. Me too. I want this as well.
You know, a lot of people have that mentality, but they just sit around and they wait for things to come to them.
They don't actually take that step in faith. Right? We've all heard of that stepping out in faith, taking a leap of faith.
That's what she's doing. She's turning around and she's going back to where she knows she's supposed to be.
She's putting in the work so that God can bless that work.
You can't do nothing and expect God to bless nothing.
We all have a calling. We all have something we're supposed to do.
It is when we do these things that Lord blesses us and we find our happiness and our joy in life. Right?
So she's already looking her hard path back. She's looking to do something. She's looking to make change in her life.
And in doing so, she also recognized her daughters-in-law. She wasn't selfish. It wasn't all about her.
She was looking about them, their age, where they're at. They have family here locally that can help them get back on track.
They have the right to go out and to remarry and to start anew. Right?
And even though she knew it was going to be harder on her to go alone, she knew that the best thing for her to do was to tell her daughters,
Hey, you still have a chance. Go and start over. She's considering their needs and placing them before her own.
She's willing to sacrifice for their sake, not her own. Right?
She's being a good mother. She's being a good friend. She's being a good what we are today, a good Christian.
She is demonstrating God's love by being an example of what is right and doing the right thing.
It's not always easy. When we're already in pain and we're suffering, when we have anguish, it's especially hard. Right?
And here's a woman who's in mourning. And those of us who have lost somebody know that doesn't just go away overnight.
It takes time, if ever. Right? It's a hole.
Watch what happens here, though. We're going to go to Ruth 1 verses 9 through 15.
Watch what her example encourages Ruth to do here. The word says,
Then she kissed them goodbye, and they wept aloud and said to her, We will go back with you to your people.
But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me?
Am I going to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another husband.
Even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and gave birth to sons,
would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters.
It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has turned against me.
At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye.
But Ruth clung to her. Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods.
Go back with her. In this, Naomi, she was repenting. She was returning to Israel.
She was returning to where she was supposed to be, right? The promised land. It's one of the chosen.
She wasn't making an accusation against God here. What she was doing was she was acknowledging his control
in all situations and her trust in him. It's like, go ahead and go. It's going to be all right.
And saying that God's hand had turned against her, what she was saying was that he had taken his hand away from her
while she walked away from him. Right? She knew good and well that all she had to do was return to him
and he'd reach back out for her. Right? It's very much, you know, they're like, people say,
how can you love a God who would condemn you to hell? We don't have a God who condemns us to hell.
We have a God who loves us. We condemn ourselves. He loves us enough that when we make a decision,
he honors that decision. And when we decide to walk away from him, as much as it hurts him,
as much as it breaks his heart, it's like, okay, as you wish. Right?
You've seen the Princess Bride every time Wesley was asked to do something, as you wish.
He's always saying, I love you.
And they always comment here about having more sons who would become their husbands.
It's a direct reference to the liver at marriage, which takes us back to a little bit of what we were looking at
a little bit ago. So turn with me to Deuteronomy 25 verses 5 through 10.
The word states, If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son,
his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her
and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name
of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However,
if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate
and say, My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel.
He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me. Then the elders of the town shall summon him
and talk to him. If he persists in saying, I do not want to marry her, his brother's widow
shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,
spit in his face and say, This is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line.
The man's line shall be known in Israel as the family of the unsandaled.
All right, if you remember a while back, I want to say it was President Bush.
I can't remember. One of our, he was overseas, he was in the Middle East.
He was at a conference and somebody threw a shoe at him. It's very much the same thing.
To take someone's sandal off or shoe, even to this day in that culture, is a great insult.
This is worse than someone giving the finger or using derogatory names.
This is one of the worst insults in that culture, in that society. It hasn't really changed very much.
The chancla, that's right. That's right. The chancla. Whose mom beat him with the chancla?
I know my mom would beat us with whatever was nearby. If it wasn't nearby, then it probably came off of her foot.
So yes, she liked wooden clogs. They hurt.
But this law, it did two things here. It made provision, one, to take care of the widow, right?
So things wouldn't be as hard for her. And then second, it was a means for which the dead man's name
and inheritance would continue on. And the emphasis here is on family, the importance of family,
and being remembered through your descendants.
Here's the thing. If the widow had gone and married somebody outside of the family,
then basically saying, okay, this guy's family line is done. It's ended.
Not only that, but keeping a track of the lineage was very important, which we saw or we see later on in the Bible,
especially when it talks about building up that lineage and tracking it all the way to Jesus and knowing where Jesus came from, right?
Not only that, but looking at Ruth, we're looking at a direct descendant.
And this is a hard thing. And that's why they talk about, even if their brother-in-law said no, I don't want to do this.
It might not necessarily be out of spite. But come on, we've got people in here who would look forward to marrying one of their in-laws.
I don't think I'm going to see really many hands come up in here in sincerity.
Some of us look at our in-laws as more as outlaws than in-laws.
Some of us are blessed. Some of us have really good in-laws. I'm definitely blessed.
In that respect, I still wouldn't want to marry one of them, that's for sure.
But Naomi, she was making it crystal clear here. She didn't have an heir.
Not only that, she wasn't going to prostitute herself out to produce an heir.
The best thing, especially at her age, was for these girls to go and restart.
And Orpa, she did exactly that. She exercised her right to leave.
She said, I love you. Peace out.
Naomi, on the other hand, she gives up security.
I'm sorry, not Ruth. Yeah, Ruth, sorry. Yeah. Thank you.
Ruth, she gives up security, the possibility of really having a future, so she can go and take care of her mother-in-law.
This is something a lot of other cultures still do right.
You get multiple generations in an area, if not within the same household, taking care of each other as they get older.
Some of us in here take care of loved ones or have taken care of loved ones before they passed.
Most of the time these days, they're like, nope, you got a home right down here I'm going to put you in.
You better save up your money because we're going to need it to pay for it.
We're going to sell your house and your car to pay for it.
Or they hire people to come in to do the work that they don't want to do.
Having someone to come in to help for something that you can't do, that's one thing.
But these days, most people just don't want to do it.
Like, oh, I love you, but I'm not going to be there for you.
And Ruth was making sure that didn't happen here.
When it comes to our in-laws, there's just as much chance for tenderness as there is for tension.
But with all that aside, Ruth loved and looked up to her mother-in-law.
She wasn't going to let her be alone. She wasn't going to let her suffer on her own.
She was family.
She was remaining loyal.
And this is the path back.
So we're going to go back to Ruth 1, verses 16 through 18.
So Ruth 1, 16 through 18, the word says,
But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or turn back from you.
Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.
Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.
When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
So Ruth, when it came to Israel, things were kind of switching.
Because here initially, Naomi was the outsider.
Going back to Israel now, Ruth is the outsider.
She was born to Gentiles. She was born to people who worshiped idols and gods.
False gods at that.
But this is how much she admired her mother-in-law.
She was willing to forsake all that to learn.
Learn of her people, learn of the culture, learn of the one true God.
Which is saying a lot.
And most of us, when it's something that we've been taught growing up,
we reject just the possibility that it might be wrong.
And here she's saying, you know what?
Blank slate. Fill me up. Teach me.
I love you. I trust you.
What's the way?
Lead on, right?
So, you know, even on this path, going back to Israel,
it's not really much in here.
But it's safe to probably assume that Ruth was asking questions along the way.
Naomi was teaching her, preparing her for what to expect.
She already, you know, being married and living together for all those years,
probably already had a little bit of an idea of who God is,
what He could provide, what He would do for her.
But you talk about loyalty.
Most of us in that case, back, hey, love you.
I'll miss you. Don't forget to write.
You know, none of this stuff stopped her.
She wasn't an Israelite. She was an outsider.
She was shunned and looked down upon.
She knew things were going to be tough.
She was going to be a foreigner in a foreign land.
I saw a lot of people dealing with that today,
regardless of what way they come into this country.
If you've ever been in another country, heck, you don't even have to go out of the country.
You're not native and you spend any time on native soil, on tribal land,
you'll see some of the same treatment, depending on the color of your skin.
You go to places in the rural south. Same thing.
One of my good friends I went to boot camp with,
she was in Mississippi.
If you weren't white, you'd best keep driving through.
There are still places like that to this day.
And that's what she was about to go and witness firsthand.
You know, at that time, Israel, it's still, even for being around for as long as it was,
it's still a relatively young country.
There's a very young population in the relationship with the Lord and understanding things.
They still had a lot to learn.
And this is building up, this is still Old Testament times.
This is still building up to the time of Jesus.
So there's a lot to learn.
When people think of Israel, we throw out words like,
this is the chosen land, this is the promised land, these are the chosen people.
And the way it's thrown out there and the way it's talked about
is that these are the only people that God cares about.
But it's not. God loves everybody.
He wants everyone to be saved.
Right? That's why he sent his only son.
You know, God loves and continues to love the world.
Turn with me, Acts 10, verses 34 through 35.
So Acts 10, 34 through 35, Peter says, I now realized how true it is that God does not show favoritism,
but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
I said it's also important to know one's lineage and why it's so important.
So we have so many things online today, even trying to help people track their lineage
and where they come from to know a little bit more about what's in their past.
Right? Because we learn so much from history who we are
and why we do things the way we do, because even though we're so far removed,
that influence still follows us right on down the line.
And by knowing those lineage, by these people knowing that they're God's people and tracking it,
I said earlier, it makes it so easy to track all the way down to Jesus
and knowing who he is and being able to verify because of where he came from and his lineage.
God accepts all who worship him, who accept him in their heart, who love him.
He accepts everyone. It's on us to accept him though.
It's when we turn away that we run into trouble.
So even though Ruth was an outsider who belonged to people who were absolutely despised,
it was because of her love and her faithfulness and her loyalty that God is going to bless her later on.
Now again, the spoiler alert here, by knowing that lineage, we can see how God blesses her
because she would go on to become the great grandmother of King David.
And again, a direct ancestor of Jesus.
So this book, not just this chapter, but this entire book,
it's a great example of God's impartiality and love and grace when we turn back to him.
That nobody should feel unworthy or cast out, that they don't matter
because of what they've done or where they've fallen.
We could all always just come back to him and God can use any and every circumstance in our life,
no matter how bad, to build into his kingdom.
You know, so many people, they fall away from the church and they hear the lies of the enemy,
you know, you're not good enough, you're unlovable, you need to fix things before you go back.
He's not going to accept you.
It's not the way it is.
You know, God will use you no matter what.
Even when you say no, he can still use you.
I'm going to have a couple of examples here.
I'm going to tell you about Easy Eddie.
So Easy Eddie, he came from humble beginnings in Missouri.
He and his family, they lived in his father, right above his father-in-law's store in an apartment.
So while he was there with his wife and his kids, he put himself through school, went and took the bar, became a lawyer.
He did okay.
He didn't really hit it hot right off the press.
It took him a while.
And he kept working and he was diligent, trying to provide for his family and do the best that he could.
Finally, one day, a guy comes up and hires him to work on a patent for an invention.
It's a mechanical rabbit.
Mechanical rabbit is that tool that they use at dog racetracks to get the dogs running around and they chase it, right?
So he goes to work to build this patent.
During this time, his employer, I'm sorry, not so much his employer, I guess technically his employer, but his client passes away.
And he sees the potential for this device.
So he goes to the guy's widow, buys the rights and everything from her, finishes the patent, puts it out, sells it.
Now he's starting to make some decent money.
So at this point, he uproots his family.
He moves them all to Chicago.
Starts doing the same kind of business.
It didn't take long and he catches the eye of Al Capone.
Al Capone comes to talk to him and they end up in business together.
So he's doing nefarious things.
He's taking care of books, helping to hide money, stash things, that kind of stuff.
And this goes on for years and years and years.
He's a made man at this point.
He's got the connections.
He knows nobody's going to touch him.
He has money.
He has power.
His son is getting older now.
His son has his eyes set on going to the Naval Academy.
So during one of his times, he's talking with his son.
His heart finally softens.
He realizes, hey, what I'm doing is wrong.
I'm setting a bad example.
People are getting hurt and I'm directly involved.
I need to make a change.
So he started making some serious life changes.
He's trying to get back on the path.
He's trying to make things right.
He's trying to set his kids up for a good future.
And it was during this time, through a reporter friend of his, he was able to go and meet with the IRS.
He met with the IRS.
He takes all these books that he had doctored, all these documents showing Al Capone's finances and what they really were, all the people that they were connected to, gambling, all that kind of stuff.
And this is how Al Capone was finally taken down because this guy had it on his heart that he needed to turn back and he needed to do what was right.
And this didn't just impact him and his family.
This impacted hundreds, if not thousands, to this day.
It set legal precedent on how IRS standards and IRS laws could be used to go after corrupt people.
Even though it's hard to see, we don't see it a lot today.
They didn't see any lot back then either, but it showed that even those people that were up here and were untouchable could still be touched and brought to justice.
It helped bolster people's view of law enforcement.
And with Al Capone being locked up, violence and local corruption went way down.
They weren't obliterated, but they went way down because that's how plugged in the mob was.
That's how much control they had.
That's how much control this one mobster had.
Now, ultimately, his son was able to go to the Naval Academy, had a bright future ahead of him.
He was never able to see that himself, though, because in retaliation, he was gunned down in his car just a short time later.
But still, one big act, one big change, and a leap of faith, and remaining loyal to that and doing what you're feeling led to be done.
Because when the Holy Spirit puts something on you, he's putting it there for a reason.
And you look at all the good that came with just that act.
Later on, a few years later, there's another guy. His name is Butch.
He'd gone on. He became a World War II fighter pilot.
They were out in the Pacific.
A Japanese scout had gotten a view eye on his fleet. They knew exactly where they were.
They'd gone back and they'd reported it. His fleet didn't know that yet.
They were actually sailing all their cruisers and everything right into a trap.
And all their fighters and all their bombers were away on a mission.
The Japanese had been watching them for a while, except for Butch and his wingman.
They went up with limited ammunition by themselves.
Ultimately, his wingman, Lowenfuehl, had to turn back, so Butch went on by himself.
He engaged nine bombers. Using only 60 rounds per bomber,
he took out five of the nine and bought enough time for reinforcements to come.
He was awarded the Medal of Honor and credited with saving hundreds of lives in that fleet.
Later on, he became a teacher during the war and was ultimately teaching pilots how to do these kinds of things,
how to survive gunfights, dogfights, how to engage different types of aircraft.
So he saved hundreds of lives as generations went on thousands,
because these are things that are still taught today and have been built upon.
Later on, he too would go on and lose his life in action in the Pacific.
He's someone you've probably heard of because he was the son of Easy Eddie O'Hare.
There's Butch. Edward J. O'Hare was Easy Eddie and his son, Butch O'Hare,
who had the Orchard Depot Airport in Chicago renamed, we know it today, as the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.
One family who felt led in their heart and followed where they were led to, and a tremendous result came of it.
Much as Ruth followed her heart and because of her, millions have been impacted,
the same can be said for these two men, setting forth from a rough start to a good path.
The point is you don't need to clean up to Jesus, you need to turn to him and he'll take care of the rest.
That's why we have his grace, right?
Go back to the reading in Ruth 1, verses 19 through 22.
The word says, So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.
When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.
The women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi?
Don't call me Naomi, she told them, call me Amara, because the Almighty made my life very bitter.
I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me.
The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.
So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
So this is a, even though it was a big population for the time, it was still small enough that people knew everybody.
They knew each other, so when they came back, people recognized her.
They were excited, Hey, welcome back, welcome home.
This is a big thing, right? They're thinking, Okay, this is something to cheer about.
This is good stuff, this is good news.
Naomi at the other point though, she wasn't being two-faced.
She'd been through a lot of hardship.
She was feeling it in her heart.
She felt drugged down. She felt, you know, like she was at the bottom.
She's feeling very bitter, which is why she changed her name.
Naomi means pleasant.
So saying, Why are you going to call me pleasant?
I'm not pleasant. I'm not in a good place right now.
I'm hurting.
I don't even know where I'm going to live.
There's nothing pleasant right now.
Call me Mara.
Mara means bitter.
She was expressing her emotion and what she was feeling, what she was going through, right?
And she wasn't turning on God.
She was expressing her emotions.
Maybe not in the best way, but she's putting it out there for everyone to know.
Because you know what's going to happen?
Someone's going to be here and they're like, Oh, she doesn't want to be called pleasant anymore.
She wants to be called bitter.
And they're going to come back and they're going to talk to their friends over here or their family.
And they're going to tell them the same thing.
And then they're going to go out.
So everybody's going to know, Hey, she's here, but she's hurt.
She needs help.
She's distraught.
So many of us go through that.
We see people today even changing their names, right?
My younger brother, he and my father.
I've talked to some of you all about my father before.
He had some struggles.
He went through drug addiction.
And because that during that time when he was addicted, he was a very violent man.
And he and my brother were so estranged that for a while my brother even considered changing his name and dropping the family name.
It's how hurt he felt.
That's no different here.
Just a different type of hurt.
But hurt is hurt and it drives us to do things.
You know, she said she was she's experienced she's voicing her pain, her anguish, her hurt.
She wasn't going to try to act like everything was all right when clearly it wasn't.
A lot of us, we get out in front of people.
Hey, how are you doing?
It could be a close friend.
How are you doing?
How are you feeling?
Oh, I'm doing all right.
Doing OK.
But they're really not.
You look at people, you look at the literature talking about people dealing with PTSD, veterans, law enforcement, firefighters, EMS, security guards, you know, and even outside of that, people are hurting.
You're asking, hey, how are you doing?
They say, I'm OK.
No, they're not.
You hear I'm OK.
They're not OK.
They're hurting.
They need love.
They need to see hope.
They need to see light.
And when we come across that, it's on us to reflect that love from the Lord that he's put in us to them.
We can't use things like reaching out love as a catchphrase.
We have to show it because love is an action, not hollow words.
We have to take care of one another.
So even though to a point she's hurting, she'd lost a little bit of sight of what the good God had done for her because God is always with us.
He never leaves us.
Right.
But she wasn't seeing him.
She wasn't feeling him at the moment.
Not only that, God knew that she was going to be feeling alone.
He knew she was going to be going through and dealing with these emotions, this pain, this hardship.
So he put it on Ruth to accompany her.
She didn't recognize this right away.
Even in her loneliness, he made sure that Ruth was with her.
So Naomi was not alone.
And he never leaves us alone.
He's always there with us.
We just have to talk to him.
We have to pray.
It's easy for us to pray when times are good, when times are easy.
Right.
Something good happens.
A blessing comes.
Oh, praise the Lord.
But when things are hard, we need to be more like Habakkuk.
Habakkuk, chapter one, verses two through four.
This is where the prophet says, How long, Lord, must I call for help?
But you do not listen or cry out to you.
Violence!
But you do not save.
Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me.
There is strife and conflict abounds.
Therefore, the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails.
The wicked him and the righteous.
So that justice is perverted.
Habakkuk knew war was coming.
And a whole lot of people were going to die because they had fallen.
They had fallen and turned away.
And a reckoning was on the horizon.
He didn't take a woe with me.
He was angry.
When we get angry, we lash out at everybody.
But it's very rare that in that hurt, because anger always comes from pain.
It's very rare that we ever actually go to God with that pain.
We're looking to lash out. We're looking to get even.
One up.
We take on that mentality, do unto others before they do unto you.
But that's not what the word tells us, is it?
That's not showing love.
We're not in the traps and doing what the enemy wants us to do.
One last story here.
We're almost done, I promise.
Horatio Spafford.
This is another lawyer.
He made it successful. He was also in the Chicago area.
He made quite a bit of money, but he took his money and he invested it into property.
He did pretty well there.
All the way up until 1871.
Anybody know what happened in Chicago in 1871?
The Great Chicago Fire, that's right.
Most of his properties were burned down, and if they weren't burned down,
they were severely damaged to the point that they couldn't be used.
This left him financially ruined.
He was having to start over from scratch, having to pay for things he had,
no money to pay for because he didn't have the income from them anymore.
Just two years later in 1873, it got worse.
There's an economic downturn at that point here in the U.S.
What's that? Yes, that's right.
1873, not only had he lost his income, the economics were going down.
This prompted him, he's like, you know what? I need to reset.
I need to spend some time with the Lord. I'm going to take my family.
We're going to go to England.
He arranged for his family to get on a boat to go to England,
take a little vacation with what money they had.
He was going to go out there and start working with an evangelist.
Unfortunately, he didn't get to get on this ship.
He sent his wife and his four children ahead of him because he had to stay
because he got caught by business at the last minute,
still dealing with zoning issues left over from the fires.
So that ship set sail going across the Atlantic, and they collided with another ship and sunk.
Out of the hundreds of people on that ship, less than 50 survived.
Try as she might, his wife was not able to hold on to their daughters.
All four of their children perished.
Horatio waited 10 days after he found out about the ship going down to get word about his family.
Finally, a telegram from his wife arrived, and it had two words, saved alone.
Saved alone. She was the only survivor. Their kids had perished.
So as soon as he got a chance, he got on a ship, and he sailed off to England to meet her.
He sailed past the same place where that ship with his wife and daughters had gone down.
And it prompted him to write a hymn, a hymn that we've sung right here on multiple occasions.
It is Well With My Soul.
So while we think of it as a very uplifting song, and it is,
he took his pain from all these things that had happened, and he wrote it into a song,
saying basically no matter what's going on, no matter what hurt falls,
no matter what calamity is in front of me, I know the Lord is still with me.
Like Habakkuk, he took his hurt, and he used it to point to the Lord.
Because even in our most painful times, those are times of character development.
No matter what the enemy throws at us, no matter what we set ourselves up for,
the Lord will be able to use that if we turn to him and we talk to him.
It doesn't matter what's going on in your life. You just have to remember to talk to Jesus,
especially in those hard times.
We talk about, oh, when you're sad, even when you're angry,
which is probably one of the least spoken of times.
Here we're looking at people who lost families, lost children, lost friends.
Some of the hardest things any of us will ever go through,
and we will all deal with loss.
And unfortunately, sometimes we don't have the words.
Our actions become the words. How we treat people, how we react to people become our words.
Our kids, they're dealing with things. They don't have the words.
They don't know how to express what they're dealing with.
Some of our friends, the same thing. And so what do they do?
They lash out and they treat people like dirt.
It's not because they mean to hurt other people.
It's not because they mean to put them down.
They just don't know how to voice what's inside.
So we need to make sure our actions aren't toxic as well.
We need to make sure our actions, while they may voice what we're feeling inside
and what we're going through and what we're dealing with,
we need to make sure they still reflect the love of Jesus in our lives,
what he's done for us, the testimony that comes through us.
He's put that light in us for us to shine out for others.
But you know what, when you're hurting and you step back,
kind of like when you turn on a flashlight or the light on your cell phone, right?
What happens? That light goes out and you can see it, right?
It illuminates the darkness.
When we voice that out and we let God's light come out through us,
not only are we shining a light for others, but we're shining a light for ourselves
so that we can see the way back to God as well.
So we can know where he's pointing us.
We're using him as our navigational beacon in life, no matter where he takes us.
I said this chapter, it focused a lot more on Naomi than it did on Ruth.
But it's also setting the stage for the rest of the book and what's to come,
much like many of us.
Great things are coming, but we have to remain loyal.
We have to remain loyal to God. We have to turn to God.
We have to trust in God and not forget that he's always there.
He's always looking out for us.
No matter what hardship we go through, he will provide a way through it.
And most of the time, when we're not seeing that way through it,
it's because that way through it is through him.
We get focused on the storm and we take our lives off of Jesus.
And what happens?
We're just like the disciples, right?
Took his eyes off of Jesus and he sank in the water.
And that's us. And we start drowning and we don't know the way out.
Life is going to be tough.
This is a great example, life is going to be hard.
Jesus goes on to tell us life is going to be hard.
Life is not roses and candies and feel good.
Life is tough.
And sometimes we have to drag ourselves through it, literally by our heels.
However, in keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus and being vigilant against the traps of the enemy,
God is saving up our blessings.
And while, yes, we'll find blessings here on earth, we also need to remember
sometimes that the things he's saving for us, a lot of the times the things that he's saving for us,
our blessings are not going to be stored here, they're stored where our heart is.
And when our heart is on God, that means our blessing is going to be in heaven as well.
He will see us through here, he will work on our character here,
he will bless us there when we're with him with fraternity.
Loyalty backed by true love, as Ruth and Naomi had for each other, as we should have for God,
that is relationship.
That is what a relationship is truly built of.
It takes the selfishness out and it works for one another.
And that's what the church is supposed to be.
Relationship is family and family is not always blood.
And our true family is found with Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.
Right?
God, the Trinity, looking out for us in all steps and all parts of our lives.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank you for bringing us together today.
We thank you for this time in the Word, we thank you for time of fellowship.
We ask that you work through us, remind us even in our dark times that you're still with us,
you never left us alone.
We just have to turn around and find out where that light is
and find out where it is that you're leading us.
We know you're leading us somewhere.
And for each of us it's a different path.
And it's not always easy for us when it's easy for other people,
it's not always easy for them when it's easy for us.
We need to remember that even in our anger and our hurt, our anguish and our mourning,
that we can turn to you, that we can talk to you because you want to hear from us,
you want to hear what's going on and how we're feeling.
You don't want us just to rely on you, you want us to talk with you and have a relationship.
And to be able to show others what a relationship truly is.
So, guide us as we leave here today
and guide us to all the places that you have for us in our lives and in the world
to take your light to those who don't have it
and to recognize that the hardship that we're seeing
is just preparing the way for a better future tomorrow.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Alright, we're going to go ahead.
Thank you all for joining us here today at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
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We look forward to hearing from you all.
God bless.