The Altitude of our Attitude
Ruth 1:19
-Book of Ruth written during the time of Judges in Israel before there were kings. The message of the book focuses on Gods redemption through Christ even though it was written 1000 years before the birth of Christ
-The main character is Ruth who is a moabite woman who through several tough circumstances will find herself in the family tree of our Saviour found in the gospel of Matthew
Elimelelch along with his wife, Naomi and two sons moved to moab to survive a famine that had hit in the land of Israel. While there Elimelech died his two sons married moabite women and the two sons died leaving Naomi and her two daughter in laws alone
-Last week we looked at Christian commitment that we found in Ruth's words and actions towards Naomi. Remember she said where you go I will go, where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people and your God my God where you die I will die and there will I be buried
This is all very powerful because in the whole scheme of things God is bringing Ruth to Israel to get married and become an ancestor to Christ. For Ruth it meant leaving her upbringing and the false god of Moab and staying with Naomi
In this passage today we see more of Gods plan coming about because Namoi and Ruth go back to the city of Bethlehem, the city in which a 1000 years later Christ is going to be born in. Think about where you were born. I spent some time tracing back some of my ancestors to find out that a few hundred years ago they lived in Germany. Had they not made that decision I might have been born in Germany. So again we see the hand of God working everything out to bring salvation to mankind.
-but something happens when they come into town. The scripture says the whole town is stirred by them in verse 19, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” If you have every gone back to your class reunion you can understand what they are saying. Life plus time and circumstances has a way of changing us.
People change. Some for the better some for the worse. It had only been 10 years since Naomi had left. Yet the change was noticeable enough that people noticed. She had left married, came back widowed, had left energized came back weary. Had come back with more gray hair and and wrinkles
but what I want to talk about today is the biggest change that was noticeable and that was her attitude.
See after the famine, the move, the death of her husband her sons marrying moabitie women and then the death of her sons and now the move back while in poverty Naomi has allowed life to make her bitter
she returns with a bad attitude about God and life
Attitude is defined as a mental position with regard to a fact or a state. In layman terms It is a mindset, the way we think or process the circumstances and situations that happen to us
look back at this passage. In verse 20 she says, “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.”
there is significance in the name change. The name Naomi in the Hebrew language means pleasant and the name Mara means Bitter.
In an airplane there is an instrument called an altimeter which determines the altitude of the plane. When the plane is climbing it has a nose high altitude when the aircraft is diving its called a nose down altitude. The performance of the plane is dependent on its altitude. It is necessary to change the altitude in order to change the performance.
Now hang with me for just a second, because in this passage of scripture we have two women. Naomi and Ruth both had gone through some bad times. Poverty, death of loved ones, moving.
The same things have happened to them but their attitudes are not the same. You can either have a good attitude or a bad attitude, but if you want to experience the abundant life, that Christ talked about, the joy that Paul wrote about it is dependent on the altitude of your attitude. Have you allowed life to make you bitter or better.
At this point Naomi is bitter at God. She says, “the ALMIGHTY has dealt Bitterly with me. The LORD has brought me back empty. The ALMIGHTY has brought Calamity upon me.
I believe that Christians should have good attitudes about life and God, unfortunately I have come across too many that either need to change the altitude of their attitude or change their names to Mara
Right Mindset
the events that happened to Naomi were outside of her control. You can't control when someone is going to die, or when a famine is going to come. But we can control how we respond to what happens in our life.
Let me give you an example
Act 7:54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.
Act 7:55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Act 7:56 And he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
Act 7:57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together [fn] at him.
Act 7:58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Act 7:59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Act 7:60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Stephen couldn't control what the people did to him, but he was able to control his response, which was to offer forgiveness to his enemies. He didn't lash out, didn't rebuke or curse them he forgave them. He kept his mind on the right things. His whole focus was on Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father.”
Pro 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart [is] not with thee. (KJV)
If we sit around blaming God for everything that goes wrong in our lives we will become bitter at life and God, just like Naomi did in this passage today, and we will literally waste the life that God has given us. Isn't it strange that we are quick to blame God when something goes wrong but we take the credit for all the good stuff that happens to us.
If we think the best days are behind us, that people aren't interested in the things of God anymore, that no one wants to come to church. Then this ministry will cease to exist. It won't be that people weren't interested, it would be the negative attitude that would cause an unwelcoming atmosphere.
About 400 years before Christ the Jews returned to Jerusalem under the leadership of Nehemiah. The city lay in ruins and Nehemiah started a campaign to rebuild the walls of that great city. There was a lot of opposition from their neighbors but the people started working and they used the old bricks, not new material. And they completed the wall in 52 days. The secret is found in one verse
Neh 4:6 So we built the wall. And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
Their thoughts affected their attitude and their attitude affected their work
This doesn't mean that we go through life denying the reality that is around us, because we do live in a world that is in war, we are reminded daily of the economic uncertainty. We suffer with sickness and struggle with temptation and sin, but the Bible says that
Rom 8:36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."
Rom 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We accept the reality but we refuse to accept the answers the world has to deal with those realities. Our mindset is always on the good that God is bringing out of the bad, the eternal plan of redeeming mankind and to personally conform me to the image of His Son Christ Jesus, and in that mindset we are more than conquerors even though like sheep for the slaughter we are being killed all the day long
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Phiippi while he was in prison. The letter was written as a thank you for the gift they had sent him, and the whole book of Philippians overflows with joy. And the key to that joy is found in one verse
Phl 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Paul was in prison and was not bitter about his situation because he kept the right mindset. He chose to think of the things that were lovely, good and worthy of praise.
Naomi was going back to her homeland and she was bitter because all she thought about was the bad things that had taken place over the last 10 years. And by changing her name it says that she was just going to accept her bitterness as the norm. It was going to become who she was
Right Viewpoint
to have the right attitude we need the right mindset and we also need the right viewpoint. We get stuck sometimes in the way we view things.
Viewpoint is different than mindset. Mindset is the mental attitude we have about our life, whereas viewpoint deals more with the way we filter everything that happens to us by basing them on past experiences.
Let me give an example someone raised during the depression filters everything through that experience. They save everything and perceive life through the viewpoint that we could have hard times again and we need to ready.
Naomi's viewpoint caused her to get bitter about life and God because she was stuck on the past
Look at what Naomi missed it's right there in front of her face in the last sentence in verse 22, “at the beginning of the barley harvest.”
God had sent a HARVEST! The famine was over and Naomi is so bitter about her past that she cant see the great things that God has in store for her and Ruth in the days to come. Now for us its easy to look at Naomi and Ruth because we can look ahead for them to the book of Matthew 1000 years later and say cheer up God has a plan for you and its great!
But Naomi was too busy looking back to see the barley harvest in front of her
In that letter on joy written from prison to the church the Apostle Paul said
1Pe 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
Phl 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
Phl 3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
This doesn't mean that we have to forget about the love one we lost, or about the hard times we have had it just means that we have to let go of the bitterness and sorrow of yesterday and live in the joy and hope of today, knowing that God has a plan and that everything is going to work towards His plan
our viewpoint does not need to be looking back but always looking up. The reason Stephen could forgive and rejoice while being put to death for his faith was because he was looking up to see what God's plan was for the whole situation.
The great Chicago fire of 1871 leveled the entire business district of Chicago. A lawyer by the name of Horaito Spafford who had invested heavily in real estate lost everything he owned in that fire. Shortly after that while his wife and daughters were crossing the Atlantic their boat collided with another ship and his four daughters all died. His wife Anna sent him a telegram which said, “Saved alone” several weeks later when Spafford was crossing the Atlantic he passed over the place where his daughters had died and he wrote these words
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
Words that we still sing in the church today
When life is rough and seems unfair we can only keep the right attitude when we have an eternal viewpoint, that life here is temporary and the only thing that matters is whether or not it is well with our soul.
We need the right mindset, the right viewpoint and last but not least we also need the......
Right Faith
Faith means to trust. The technical biblical definition is found in the book of Hebrews
Hbr 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The reason that Naomi is bitter towards God at this point is because she has quit trusting in God, she has given up hoping for better (proven by the name change) she is intently focused on everything she has lost. Instead of the unseen things God has in store for her
The only way to have a good attitude about life, regardless of what happens to you is to put all your trust in God. As Solomon said
Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (KJV)
Why did God allow Stephen to be stoned to death after preaching his first sermon, God knows, and I'm sure it had something to do with Paul's salvation
Why did God allow the famine to come and the Naomi to lose her husband and sons, God knows, and I'm sure it had something to do with Ruth marrying a Jewish boy and being in the family tree of Christ in order to preach the message of the Gentiles being included in part of Gods plan
Jer 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.
Isa 26:4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD God is an everlasting rock.
Keep your faith in God. We can't control what tomorrow brings whether riches or poverty, we don't know if sickness or health is in our immediate future but when we have the right faith
which is a faith that rest in the unshakable rock of Christ we can come through the storms of life with and still have a good attitude towards God, towards others and towards life.
If we would have been there when Naomi came back after these 10 years we might have said something like this, She's had a hard life and it shows
but its possible to have a hard times and still have an abundant life
Peter writing to a church that was in exile because of their faith said that they could still have an abundant life of hope that would be so evident that the world would take notice
1Pe 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
We need to remember
Our attitude should be a reflection of how God see us and not how Satan would have us to view ourselves.
Satan would have you view your life as being hopeless and helpless but God wants you to know that if you have put all your faith and trust in Christ Jesus that you are his child, and he has good things in store for you.
What you have been or what you have gone through in life does not have to define who you are. There is no need to change your name to bitter or sinner, you can have the past erased today in Christ
In Closing
To have a good attitude keep the right mindset, the right viewpoint, and the right faith
There's not one person in this place that hasn't gone through difficulty in this life. Whether it be a divorce, financial hardship, sickness, death of a loved one
Let me ask you a question today after facing those situations
what is the altitude of your attitude?
Maybe your here today and you don't like what you have become. You have grown bitter at life and God and you want to come today and repent and get things right. We invite you to do that
maybe your here and you have realized from this message that your faith is in the wrong things and God is calling you to be saved. Won't you come today and turn from your sin, casting aside all idol gods and pick up the cross and follow Christ
However God is leading you during this time of invitation we invite you to get things right with God. Who knows if you will ever have another chance.
