I'm going to read Ruth chapter 1. During the
time of the judges, there was a famine in the
land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his
wife and two sons to stay in the territory of
Moab for a while. The man's name was Elimelech,
and his wife's name was Naomi. The names of his
two sons were Malin and Kilian. They were Ephrathites
from Bethlehem and Judah. They entered the fields
of Moab and settled there. Naomi's husband, Elimelech,
died, and she was left with her two sons. Her
sons took Moabite women as their wives. One was
named Orpah, and the second was named Ruth. After
they lived in Moab about ten years, both Malin
and Kilian also died, and the woman was left
without her two children. and without her husband.
She and her daughters -in -law set out to return
from the territory of Moab because she had heard
in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to his
people's need by providing them food. She left
the place where she had been living, accompanied
by her two daughters -in -law, and traveled along
the road leading back to the land of Judah. Naomi
said to them, each of you go back to your mother's
home. May the Lord show kindness to you, as you
have shown to the dead and to me. May the Lord
grant each of you rest in the house of a new
husband. She kissed them, and they wept loudly.
They said to her, We insist on returning with
you to your people. But Naomi replied, Return
home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with
me? Am I able to have any more sons who could
become your husbands? Return home, my daughters.
Go on, for I am too old to have another husband.
Even if I thought there was still hope for me
to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, would
you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would
you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No,
my daughters. My life is much too bitter for
you to share, because the Lord's hand has turned
against me. Again, they wept loudly, and Orpah
kissed her mother -in -law, but Ruth clung to
her. Naomi said, Look, your sister -in -law has
gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow
your sister -in -law. But Ruth replied, don't
plead with me to abandon you or to return and
not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go.
And wherever you live, I will live. Your people
will be my people and your God will be my God.
Where you die, I will die. And there I will be
buried. May the Lord punish me and do so severely
if anything but death separates you and me. When
Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with
her, She stopped talking to her. The two of them
traveled until they came to Bethlehem. And when
they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited
about their arrival. And the local woman exclaimed,
Can this be Naomi? Don't call me Naomi. Call
me Mara, she answered. For the Almighty has made
me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord
has brought me back empty. Why do you call me
Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the
Almighty has afflicted me? So Naomi came back
from the territory of Moab with her daughter
-in -law Ruth, the Moabitess. They arrived in
Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Let's pray together. Lord, you say in your word
that all of your word is valuable and important.
All of it is useful for teaching us and equipping
us, calling us out, rebuking us, and leading
us, God. And so as we examine the book of Ruth
today, Lord, we want to start with this posture
of just saying, God, we submit to you. All of
us for all of you. Help us to see. your truths
in this incredible little story. Help us to see
the gospel in this story. Help us to see you,
Jesus. Lord, help us to understand your character.
Lord, I pray that we will have soft hearts before
you and pray and ask that the Holy Spirit will
speak and move in our church and move in our
lives as we unpack this amazing book. In your
name we pray. Amen. Well, if you don't have a
Bible and you notice that we did not put them
up on the screen, we will as we work our way
through it. But there's a couple of Bibles in
the back there. Take one of those. If you don't
have one, it's yours. Take it home with you.
But take it and turn to the book of Ruth. Today
we're going to begin a four -week series in the
book of Ruth. And somebody said to me when we
were getting ready for this, I don't get this
book. I get it. It's just a short little story.
It seems nice. It seems good. It's really meant
to be read all in one swoop, so I encourage you
to do that this week. Read the whole thing. But
it is packed with meaning. So as we look at the
story of Ruth, we're going to start with chapter
1 today. And I want to invite you to do something.
It's a narrative. It's a different kind of writing
in Scripture. It's a narrative and it's meant
for us to enter into the story. We love stories.
We have stories all the time. And we love movies.
And we can kind of feel ourselves get into a
story. Well, this story is no different. And
so I want to invite you to enter into the story.
Imagine what it would be like to stand in the
different characters' shoes as we unpack this.
And how does that translate into your life? The
story of Ruth is a story of loss. which you'll
see today. It's a story of love. It's a story
of redemption. And it's a story of belonging.
So as we step into the opening scenes of this
story, I want to ask you to picture something
in your brain. I want you to picture with me,
there are three women walking down a dusty road.
Dirt road. And they have lost everything. Everything
but each other. As we zoom in closer, we can
see and we can hear their pain and their weeping
together. Can you picture that in your brain?
How did we get to that point? How did we get
to a place where we see three women in suffering
and pain along this road with nothing? How did
we get to this point? Where are they going? So
let's enter into the story together and just
at first look at some of the context of this
story. And verse 1 really helps us in it. So
we're just going to slowly work our way through
this, okay? Verse 1. During the time of the judges,
there was a famine in the land. And a man left
Bethlehem in Judea. with his wife and his two
sons to stay in the territory of moab for a while
so simple enough right just kind of gets the
setting well there's a lot going on and one of
the things about ruth you'll understand is that
it's so deep with meaning so let's just start
off with one our story takes place during the
time of the judges now it was a four judges if
you look at your bible it goes joshua judges
ruth right Not Joshua, Judges, Ruth, which is
the way we remember that, but that's where it
falls. And the book of Judges is a 400 -year
period of Israel, and Israel had entered into
the promised land, and not too long before it,
they had said to God, coming out of the Exodus,
they had said to God, like, hey, man, we're going
to follow you forever. We're going to be committed
to you. Man, it's a beautiful covenant they make
with God. Like, we're in. And if you know the
story, they don't do a very good job, do they?
They enter into this promised land. And this
is a time before, from the time of Joshua, before
there was any kings of Israel. But it's one of
the darkest, it is the most dark and most wicked
and rebellious period of Israel's history. In
fact, if you read all of Judges, it's quite depressing.
I did it this last week again. Read the whole
thing in pretty much one setting. And it's ugly.
Joshua 21 verse 25 is the very last verse basically
in the book of Judges before you open the page
of Ruth and it says this, in those days there
were no king of Israel and every man did what
is right in his own eyes. It gives you a sense
of what was going on. Every man, every person
was doing whatever they wanted, whatever was
right in their own eyes and we know where that
leads, right? Destruction. Kind of like today.
And the Israelites were surrounded by people
who had no time for the one true God, much like
you and I live in a world today. But in a world
where disgusting, horrific, immoral things were
happening all around them, and as time went on,
they gave in to those things, and as they gave
in to those things, destruction came. And they
were just surrounded by temptation. Surrounded
and giving into those temptations instead of
being surrendered to God. That was the process.
And they would get to this point in their life
where things would just fall apart. And then
they'd finally cry out to God and God would come
and rescue them. And then everything would be
good. In one generation, everything would fall
apart again. And it's this pattern over and over
and over. And you see it really. This incredibly
disgusting and dark picture in the book of Judges.
So the result was God's people from one generation
to the next would increase in their wickedness
and rebellion. Now, what the book of Ruth does
though, is it's set literally in the middle of
the book of Judges. Some people think it's right
around chapter 10 or 11, somewhere in there.
I don't know exactly, but we know that it's pretty
close. It fits right in there. And my wife used
this statement the other day, and I thought it
was so good. She says, you know, Ruth is like
a whisper of hope during the dark period of wickedness
and rebellion. It's a whisper of hope. And so
you've got to understand, like, when in this
opening scene, We're seeing, we understand the
context of what's going on with the book of Ruth.
It's dark. It's an evil time. So on top of Ruth
being set in this period of the judges, now we
see in verse 1 that there's also a famine in
the land. We don't know if this is because part
of God's judgment or what's going on. All we
know is that things were going really bad for
the children of Israel, those that lived in Bethlehem.
And so there's this family. We see this family,
this Jewish family that goes, okay, that live
in Bethlehem. And by the way, Bethlehem means
house of bread. That's what it means. And so
it's interesting to me that in the house of bread,
God's people are starving to death. So there's
a decision to take the family and move to Moab.
Look at verse 2. Man's name was Elimelech and
his wife's name was Naomi. And their names of
their two sons was Milion and I like Chilin,
but it's Chilin. Chilin just sounds better. They
were Ephraites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they
entered the fields of Moab and settled there.
Okay, so what's significant about this? So Elimelech
takes his family 50 miles away. Now, 50 miles
is nothing for us, but if you're walking, that's
a long ways. 50 miles, and he moves his family
50 miles away to Moab, where everything seemed
to be fine. There was no famine there, right?
Seems like a good choice. Seems like a wise choice.
If you're a husband, you're like, man, I gotta
take care of my family. They're starving to death.
Problem is, is God's people were not to dwell
there. It was direct, like, this is not where
you go. See, the Moabites, they were wicked people,
descendants from Lot. And the story of Lot, and
I won't go into a lot of detail, but the story
of Lot and how the Moabites came about is a dark
story. It's a story of a daughter having intercourse
with Lot and then bearing a child, and that child
is named Moab. And the Moabites were known as
a wicked people who worshiped false gods, multiple
gods. One of them was Baal. And one of the things
they know about it is they were perverted in
their worship and they were also sacrificing
people. This was a dark and ugly. We don't even
have a category for the kind of wickedness that
Moab, well, we do. We have categories, similar.
But in that time, this was, God had clearly said,
no, I don't dwell there. And so what you have
is so Elimelech takes matters into his own hands,
and he justifies his actions, and he takes this
tragic decision to move his family to another
land. You think, well, that's stupid. Well, think
about it for a second. No food versus food. Starving
children versus there's food over there. Now,
you may think we can easily quickly judge Elimelech
and say, Elimelech, you're... What were you thinking?
Well, he was thinking with his belly. And he
justified his decisions, but very clearly was
God saying, no, you're not to go. But he justifies
it. So now, as we go through the story, it's
important for us to understand what these names
mean. The reason they're in there. So Elimelech,
check this out, means God is my king. That's
what his name means. And for these people, their
name meant something. And we'll see that at the
end of this chapter. God is my king. And the
sad part is that he doesn't act like it. He doesn't
cry out to his God as king. He goes against his
God and he acts like he is king and makes a tragic
decision. Then Naomi, her name means pleasant
or sweet. But her life is anything but. Very
pleasant and sweet. Milion, her son, means sickness.
Chilion means wasting. You get this idea like,
this is a mess. Who names their kids sickness?
Unless you're in a place of pain. So the first
two verses that you look at, start out, you get
this idea that it's not going the way it should.
It gets worse though. Let's look at verse 3.
Naomi's husband, Elimelech, died. And she was
left with her two sons. You know, sickness and
wasting. Her sons took Moabite women as their
wives. One whose name was Orba, and the second
named Ruth. And after living in Moab for about
ten years, both... Melian and Chilin, I can never
say it right, also died. And the women were left
without two children and without her husband.
Okay. You're welcome to dyslexia. I don't know
why I'm right there, jumping all over the place.
But here's the thing. This story goes from sad
to hopeless in a matter of just a couple verses.
I want you just to imagine what it would be like
to be Naomi in this situation. Think about her
pain. Like I asked you to enter into the story.
Enter into Naomi's story for a minute. First,
you're starving to death because there's no food.
And so you move to a new land where you don't
know people. You have no friends, no family.
Isolated. You submit to your husband. whatever
happened in that dynamic, but they're there together.
And then as you're there, your husband dies,
leaving you with two boys who are not very good
off. And then these two boys do what they shouldn't
do, and that's marry Moabite wives. That's like
a bad day. They're not supposed to do that. It's
very clear. And then... On top of that, now both
of her sons die. Blow after blow, tragedy upon
tragedy, a 10 -year nightmare summed up in three
verses. Starts off really depressing. 10 years,
and now here's Naomi with nothing. Look at verse
6. She and her daughters... daughter -in -law
set off out to return from the territory of Moab
because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had
paid attention to his people's needs by providing
them food. She left the place where she had been
living accompanied by her two daughter -in -laws
and they traveled along the road leading back
to the land of Judah. So now we see these three
women in this dusty road. In all of their pain,
in all their despair, Naomi is moving toward
the only hope imaginable. She's going home. Now,
before you think that's just normal, I want you
to think about the prodigal son returning home.
The story in the New Testament of the prodigal
son returning home with emptiness and disgrace.
Nothing about Naomi's life had honor. She was
all disgrace. culturally in a place of disgrace.
Here she is moving home and her pain and her
suffering, she turns though in the midst of all
of that struggle, listen to me church, she turns
back to God. This is the picture. In verse 6,
God is mentioned for the first time by the author.
In verse 6 and in chapter 4, we see that this
theme about God that God gives. God gives. He
gives food and he gives a child. We'll see that
later. And what I wanted to point out here is
this is the first glimpse of one of the characters
of God in this story. That God gives. In midst
of the pain and the suffering, God gives. So
let me just stop at this point. in the story
and explain a couple of the theological themes.
And it's really important that you understand
what is at the thread that's going on theologically.
It's our understanding of who God is and what
he does and how that works, right? It'll help
us if we understand these as we go forward in
the book, as you read the book, to understand,
to have a lens to see it through. So think about
an eyeball lens. I don't understand eyeball.
I'm not Raul, but there's an eye doctor in the
house. But just think about your lens where you
have a kind of an arc, a top of the lens and
the bottom of the lens, okay? I didn't do any
drawing for you. Use your imagination. On the
top of the lens, we have this thing called the
providence of God. And in there is that God is
sovereign and that is good. That God is good.
Those are two doctrines that fall in that. But
on the bottom of the lens, we have this idea
of redemption. That God is our redeemer. As the
story unfolds, you'll see the theme of redemption
and belonging begin to happen. When we talk about
the providence of God, we're talking about how
God is at work. His hand in scripture, his hand
in history, and his hand in our lives. God's
hand of providence is the belief that God is
at work, not just in history, but in everyday
details of normal peoples like Naomi and like
Ruth and like you and I. God's providential hand.
So when we speak of the providence of God, we
have to think about two doctrines that fall in
the providence of God. One is that God is sovereign
and that God is good. That God is sovereign.
He possesses supreme authority, absolute power,
and total control in all of creation. God the
Almighty. We sang about this, right? That last
song, that God Almighty, like He is sovereign.
God Almighty reigns in all affairs of man. And
He is the highest authority. That's the one side
of it. But there's the second part that God in
all of that, but God is good. He is loving and
patient. He is merciful and he's kind and he's
compassionate and he's slow to anger and he's
abounding in steadfast love. This is who God
is. And it's wrapped up in the providence of
God. And you'll see in this story how some of
that begins to be unfolded for us. Both of these
threads are throughout all of Scripture. These
theological themes are at work in the book of
Ruth, and they're really important to keep in
that back mind as we go through the story. So
let's go back to the story. These three women
back on the road again. They're started off to
Bethlehem, but somewhere along the way, Naomi
with her two daughter -in -laws stops and has
this to say. Look at verse 8. Naomi said to them,
each of you go back to your mother's home. May
the Lord show kindness to you as you have shown
to the dead and to me. May the Lord grant each
of you rest in the house of a new husband. And
she kissed them and they wept loudly. So she
turns to the girls and she says, I have nothing
to give you, obviously. She says, but my God
is chesed. That's a little word that we can't,
we don't have a definition for, and so it doesn't
even show up in your English translation, but
it's this word chesed, H -E -S -E -D. And it
means, it's the summation of the wonderful attributes
of God. The loving and the gracious and the merciful
and the patient and the kind and the overflowing
love and blessing of God. And she wants this.
She says, she tells the girls, I have nothing
but I am going to pray to God that because God
is chesed, because God is this kind of God. See?
This view of God that Naomi has is really important
for us to see right now. It's really important
for us to see because we need to see it all the
way through. But chesed is this idea that God,
so Naomi's looking and goes, I believe that this
God is like this, but is she able to embrace
that herself? Look at what happens in verse 10.
They said to her, we insist on returning with
you to your people. But Naomi replied, return
home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with
me? Am I able to have any more sons who could
become your husbands? Return home, my daughters.
Go on. For I am too old to have another husband.
Even if I thought there was still hope for me
to have a husband tonight and bear sons, would
you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would
you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No.
My daughters, my life is much too bitter for
you to share because the Lord's hand has turned
against me. So, have you ever felt that kind
of pain that Naomi has right now? Just think
about Naomi's pain. She has nothing. She's got
her daughter -in -laws, which is evident that
she loves them. She wants what's best for them.
But she's in such pain. Have you ever felt that?
Have you ever been in a place where you just
go, gosh, I feel so hopeless? See, Naomi believes
that God is responsible for her tragedy. She
believes that God is the one responsible for
the tragedy she's experiencing. She knows that
God is sovereign in her life. It's obvious it
comes right out of there. But she is bitter.
She says it straight up. I know God's real. I
know he's in charge. I'm bitter. She sees the
sovereign hand of God, but she is not seeing
the good, the goodness of God. She wants a said
for her daughters -in -laws, but she's struggling
to believe a said for herself. Look at verse
14. Again, they wept loudly. and Orpah kissed
her mother -in -law, but Ruth clung to her. Underline
that. Ruth clung to her. See, Orpah ultimately
chooses to go back home to her people, and we'll
see in the next verse, to her gods. She returns
to her old ways. But what does Ruth do? Ruth
in this situation clings to Naomi. I just love
that picture. Is there any hope in Naomi? She
just clings to her and says, I'm committed to
you. Look at verse 15. Ruth begins to talk. Naomi
said, look, your sister -in -law, now she's talking
to Ruth. Look, your sister -in -law has gone
back to her people and to her gods. Follow your
sister -in -law. But Ruth replied, don't plead
with me to abandon you and return and not to
follow you. For wherever you go, I will go. And
wherever you live, I will live. And your people
will be my people. And your God will be my God.
And where you die, I will die. And when you are
buried, may the Lord punish me and do so severely
if anything but death separates you and me. And
Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with
her, and she stopped talking to her, meaning
she stopped begging her to stay. So we see Ruth,
beautiful Ruth, with a different posture. in
this painful situation. Ruth is trusting God.
She is all in, right? Humanly speaking, this
makes absolutely no sense. There's no hope for
her. If she goes back, there's no real hope for
her. She's a Moabite. What does she do? And I
love this picture. She puts her faith in God
alone. She's going to a foreign land where she
is most likely going to be despised and looked
down on because she is a Moabite. She has no
food, no husband, no job, no home. It's crazy.
This is the opposite of Elimelech. For Ruth,
her God, the one true God, is truly king. Unlike
Elimelech who was acting whose name meant, my
God is my king, Ruth is acting like her God is
her king. My question to us this morning, is
that true for you? Is that true for me? Is God
really your king? See, I think this is a picture
of what it means to become a Christian. When
you put your hope in Jesus, you step out in faith
in Jesus. We put our trust in a good and sovereign
God, even though it doesn't always make sense.
Look at verse 19. The two of them traveled until
they came to Bethlehem. 50 miles, right? When
they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited
about their arrival, and the local women explained,
can this be Naomi? Can you picture that scene
just for a minute? Here's raggedy old Naomi after
10 years of being away, coming back with nothing.
They look and all of her old friends see her.
Can this be her? Can this be Naomi? Verse 20,
don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara. She answered,
for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went
away full. The Lord has brought me back empty.
Why do you call me Naomi since the Lord has opposed
me and the Almighty has afflicted me? I wrestled
with this section a lot because it almost feels
like the Lord would do that to her. How did she
leave? She left the presence of God. She left.
Full. But she comes back empty. The attention
in this section goes back to Naomi where she,
here she returns and calls herself Mara, which
means bitter. Naomi is struggling with bitterness.
Maybe, and just real, and being real, maybe that
is one of your struggles. Bitterness is a real
thing, and it gets inside of us. And so it's
inside of Naomi right now. She just straight
up says, I'm bitter. I love that. I love Naomi's
honesty. I love that she's just real with her
people, open and honest, like don't call me sweetness.
Call me bitter. I believe she's telling these
other women. She's sharing her heart with these
women, but I believe in this situation, she's
also saying, I need help. It's kind of like I
said, the prodigal son who goes home and he's
coming back knowing he's got nothing to offer.
And he's honest and real. I have done this. And
I need help. I think that's the first part. of
our relationship with God, that we look at God
and say, God, I need help. In verse 22, though,
it begins that we get a glimpse of hope. So in
this darkness of this first chapter, by the way,
the rest of it is not so dark. The darkness of
this first chapter, at the very end, it leads
us to this place of hope. Look at verse 22. So
Naomi came back to the territory. from the territory
of Moab, with her daughter -in -law, Ruth, the
Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the
beginning of the barley harvest. Hey, what in
the world does that mean? It's hope. Bethlehem,
where Jesus was born, means a house of bread.
It's a picture of hope. The barley harvest is
in the same window as the... Passover feast where
they would look back at the redeeming work of
God and redeeming the people out of slavery into
a place of belonging as his people the barley
harvest happens right there among the Passover
the Passover is also the time where Jesus the
Lamb of God was crucified in our place same time
where he took He gave us hope. Why? How did he
do that? He took all of our disobedience, all
of our brokenness upon himself. And he stood
in our place. And it was at Passover that this
happened. And it's all back from the very original
Passover in the Exodus pointing all the way toward
Christ. What Christ does is comes in and stands
in our place. He does what the sacrificial lamb
in the Passover does. He sacrifices himself.
He says, I'll take it all. And our response to
that is, do we hope and do we put our trust in
Jesus? Are we coming back to the place of hope?
See, hope is found in Bethlehem. This is the
picture. Your hope, just like Naomi's hope, is
found in Bethlehem. Why? Because that's where
Jesus was from. That's where Jesus was born.
Their hope is found in Jesus. So as we close
chapter one today, I want you, this is what I
want to encourage you with. I don't know your
stories. I don't know any of our stories. I mean,
I know some of your story, but I don't know the
inner workings of your story. I don't know your
heart, but I would encourage you to be honest
with God. I love this picture about Naomi. Naomi
is incredibly honest with God. And then let me
ask you this. Is there anybody, any of these
characters in the story? We haven't got, there's
more to come. Boaz is coming. He's a cool character.
But in these characters we've looked at, do you
identify with your story? Let's look at Elimelech.
Do you claim that God is your king? That you
just call on him when you need him? You're not
acting as if he's truly king of your life. You
take matters into your own hands. If I'm really
honest, this is the one I struggle with the most.
I like to just do it. And then I have to go backwards.
You only see your immediate problems in your
life. Maybe your money or your well -being matters
most to you. That's a limelight. Then there's
Ophir. I think that's how you say your name.
Orpha. There we go. You tried God, but it didn't
really work. So you're just going to go back
to your old way of life. I suspect that there's
not a whole lot of those in this room, but there's
a whole lot of people like that. Because if you
were in this room, good chance you still are
hoping on hanging on to something. But if this
is the posture you've lived in, don't run back
to the old way. Then there's Naomi. Oh, there's
Ruth. Let's go to Ruth first. There's Ruth. Ruth
says, I'm going to trust the Lord as my Savior
and my Lord. And I'm going to walk in faith.
I don't even know what this looks like. Then
there's Naomi, who's... broken who's frustrated
who's a bitter person that god deeply loves i
believe you believe maybe in the sovereign hand
of god but you are struggling to see him as a
good and loving god so wherever you are at today
i just want to encourage you right where you
sit when we're saying today just to be honest
with god he can handle it Be honest to God, but
get your eyes on Jesus. Get your eyes on Jesus.
Because that's where your hope is. Ruth is our
example where she humbly steps in faith to a
good and loving and sovereign God. Step in faith
toward him. Step toward the hope that you have
in Jesus. And the band, I want you to come up
now. And as you go back, we always do communion
every week, and the reason we do it is that our
gaze, our attention goes back to this most important
thing, and that is Jesus and what he did for
you and I. Guys, when we go to the communion
table, that is a picture of the hope that you
have in Jesus. You're not clinging to something
that's false. You're clinging. Like Ruth, you
cling to Jesus. You cling to the hope. And as
you look at the reason you can cling to that
hope is because Jesus did it for you. He stood
in your place. His body was broken. You think
he understands pain? You think he understands
hurt and suffering? Absolutely. His body was
broken for you and his blood was shed for you.
Because of that, you stand new in him. And come
back to that moment over and over. with your
eyes with hope toward the future on Jesus. So
cling to Jesus today. Let's pray. Lord, help
us to come to you like Ruth and say, your God
is my God. In the midst of whatever struggle
we're going through, God, I pray that we will
come before you and say, God, I don't understand
all the problems. I don't understand the outcome,
but I trust you. I want my life to honor you
and to be where you are first and foremost in
every detail. Help us not to take matters into
our own hands, but to humbly submit and surrender
to you. All of us, we give to you, Lord. All
of us. We know that you give all of you back
to us, and that's a pretty good trade. Thank
you for what you did on the cross. We thank you
for your surrender so that we might have a right
relationship with you. Thank you for suffering
in our place, for dying for our sins, that we
may be made new in you. Before we close this
prayer, if there's anyone in this room who has
yet to surrender, do like Ruth said, and my God
is your God. Do like Ruth and surrender your
life to Jesus. I pray that today will be the
day for you. Thank you, Lord. As we respond,
we're going to sing a song. And I just encourage
you, listen to it. If you feel like standing
and singing, you're welcome to. This is a song
that's just like pouring out.