Sermon Notes - January 23, 2022
Choose: Ruth - Chapter 1 - Jon Furman
Judges 17:6 (NLT)
“In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.”
Deuteronomy 30:19-20b (NLT)
“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land…”
Ruth 1:1 (NLT)
“In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him.”
Every choice is a step towards God in faith, or an attempt to save ourselves.
Leviticus 26:40 & 44b (NIV)
“But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors—their unfaithfulness and their hostility toward me… bI will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.”
Ruth 1:6 (NLT)
Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland.
Ruth 1:8-9 (NLT)
But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to your mothers’ homes. And may the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me. May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.” Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all broke down and wept.
Ruth 1:14-16 (NLT)
And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. “Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Every choice we make forms an identity in us.
Ruth 1:20-21 (NLT)
“Don’t call me Naomi,” she responded. “Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?”
Every choice we make reveals our identity to us and others.
Ruth 1:22 (NLT)
So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Ruth, the young Moabite woman. They arrived in Bethlehem in late spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Remember how near God is to you.
Repentance is our first step towards God.
Risk being vulnerable with Him.