Sermon 3: Blessings of a New Life
Series: Ruth
Chuck Sligh
June 23, 2019
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Ruth 1.
INTRODUCTION
Illus. – I have a pastor friend in the U.S. who, several years after his wife had died, met, fell in love with and proposed to a woman he met on a missions trip to El Salvador. He had not really thought out what that would mean for her if she said yes.
She was madly in love with him, but, she explained that she had never dreamed that one day she would be living in the United States. Her family, her friends, her life, her town, her belongings, were all in El Salvador. If she accepted his proposal, she knew her life would be dramatically different—they would move to the U.S.; she would have to leave behind everything and everyone she was familiar with; and she would start a new life all over again, one that would be different and sometimes strange.
That was what Ruth, the Moabite woman, faced in today’s story in Ruth 1. She too made a commitment to someone, and because of this commitment, her life too was dramatically changed, and she ended up going on a great adventure of a lifetime.
It all began one day when she met a foreigner from the land of Judah, and they ended up getting married. Unfortunately for her, her husband died before they had had any children. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, decided to return to her native land—to Bethlehem in Judah. Naomi urged her two Moabite daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah to stay in Moab with their families. Orpah started to go with Naomi, but decided to return to her people and her gods.
But Ruth was different. Let’s read what Ruth told Naomi in Ruth 1:16-17 – “And Ruth said, ‘Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for where thou goest, I will go; and where thou dwellest, I will dwell: thy people shalt be my people, and thy God my God: 17 Where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts thee and me.”
Ruth speaks to us of many important truths, but none is more evident in our passage than her loyalty and her decisive commitment. Her decision is a beautiful picture to us of the kind of decisiveness and commitment we should have in our faith in Jesus Christ and our Christian walk.
Illus. – Once there was a hen and a pig who became very good friends. One day as they strolled about the barnyard lot, the hen suggested that since they had never eaten breakfast together, they should do so the very next morning.
“Great idea,” replied the pig. “What will we eat?”
Thinking on it a minute, the hen said, “If each of us contributes something to the meal it will be more meaningful to each of us.”
“Fine,” said the pig, “and what do you suggest?”
Again, the hen stood as if in deep thought for a while and then said, “I have an idea, let’s have ham and eggs. I’ll provide the eggs and you the ham.”
“Hold on,” said the pig, “What you offer to contribute is the fruit of your labor, but what you’re asking of me requires TOTAL COMMITMENT!”
That’s what the Lord wants from us—total commitment. That’s what Ruth’s decision required to leave everything she had ever known to go and live in Bethlehem-judah with Naomi.
Brethren, living the Christian life involves great commitment and sacrifice. Oh, but it also involves great REWARD! Let’s not forget that. In this passage are represented five wonderful “new things” that a Christian receives when he or she accepts Christ as Savior. Let’s consider them this morning:
I. FIRST, RUTH RECEIVED A NEW PATH FOR HER FEET – Verse 16a – “…for where you go, I will go…”
When a person decides to follow Jesus, he or she trades lifestyles. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
God does not want His children to live the same way as they did before they knew Christ! When Ruth moved to Bethlehem-Judah, she adopted a new lifestyle, new modes of dress, new attitudes about things and new cultural patterns. Like Ruth, we to enter a NEW PATH when we come to Jesus….
We don’t follow the paths of the world—we follow the path of Jesus.
We don’t follow the paths other people—we follow the path of Jesus.
We don’t follow the paths of human philosophy—we follow the path of Jesus.
Note the following verses in Proverbs:
Proverbs 1:15 – “My son, do not walk in the way with them [i.e., sinners–v. 10]; keep your foot from their path”
Proverbs 4:14 – “Do not enter into the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evildoers.”
Proverbs 4:18 – “But the path of the just is as the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full light of day.”
Proverbs 4:26 – “Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be steadfast.”
Now, if it’s true that when we’re saved, we have a new path for our feet, then many things must change: For just a few examples…
We must not be dishonest like we used to be.
We must no longer hang out in places where Christ and righteousness are mocked and blasphemed.
We must learn to stop habits that are displeasing to God.
We must stop saying things we used to say that are demeaning, dirty or unedifying.
That’s the NEGATIVE side of the coin. The FLIP side is that we replace these kinds of things with NEW THINGS…
We experience joy and peace as we trust in the Lord.
We have relationships with believers that are so much more meaningful than before we were saved.
We have God’s power to resist the corruption of an evil culture.
We develop good habits to replace the old bad ones.
We learn a new vocabulary, one that is positive, edifying, joyful, uplifting—making ourselves a joy and a blessing to others. You know, some people are a blessing wherever they go; others are a blessing WHENEVER they go! When you follow Christ, God wants to you be the former, not the latter.
II. SECOND, RUTH RECEIVED A NEW PLACE FOR HER HOME – Verse 16b – “…and where you dwell, I will dwell …”
To the believer, as the old spiritual said, “This world is not our home, we’re just a-passin’ through”
The Bible teaches that heaven is our new home – John 14:1-3 – “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many dwelling places: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
Note that Jesus said, “Don’t let not your heart be troubled…” We need to get our eyes off of this world and our problems here and recognize that we’re just not home yet!
Illus. – The story is told of a missionary in the early twentieth century who had been on the field of Africa for ten years before being able to take a furlough. He returned on the same ship Teddy Roosevelt was on who was returning from a safari. Teddy Roosevelt had been president of the United States and was a great big-game hunter in his retirement.
As the ship arrived in New York harbor, great crowds cheered the return of Roosevelt—but not a single person was there to greet the missionary. The missionary found a hotel to stay in and brooded over the fact that Roosevelt was cheered and honored, but he, who was doing the more glorious work of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, had not a single person to greet him.
He said to God, with a tinge of resentment, “Lord, when Roosevelt returned home, great throngs met him; but no one was there when I got home.”
Then the still small voice of God spoke to his heart and said, “But you’re not home yet!”
Ah—that changes our whole perspective, doesn’t it? Praise God, when we find Christ as our Savior, we trade homes! Someday, Jesus will parade His people through heaven’s golden streets before a throng of saints had gone on before and the assembly of all the holy angels. THEN we’ll be HOME!
One of my favorite songs from my era is titled “Finally Home” and it goes like this:
When engulfed by the terror of tempestuous sea,
Unknown waves before you blow.
At the end of doubt and peril is eternity,
Though fear and conflict seize your soul.
Pretty scary, and an apt description sometimes of life in this world today. But then the chorus goes like this:
Just think of stepping on shore and finding it heaven;
Of touching a hand and finding it God’s;
Of breathing new air and finding it celestial;
Of waking up in glory and finding it home.
Isn’t that an exciting prospect? Someday we’ll finally be home!
III. THIRD, CONSIDER WITH ME THAT RUTH FOUND A NEW PEOPLE AS HER FAMILY – Verse 16c – “…your people will be my people…”
When we’re saved, we embrace a new family with many new friends.
1 John 2:10 says “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light…”
What happens when we come to know God?—God puts in our hearts a love for His people.
Illus. – I remember getting a call from a man named Mike when I was pastored in Wiesbaden. He asked me some questions over the phone about our beliefs and service times.
In the course of our conversation, he related to me that he had grown up in a Christian home, but had rejected the Gospel from his childhood. He joined the Army, fought in Vietnam and was injured, eventually recovering in a military hospital. After the war he married, but it was an unhappy marriage based on two selfish, self-centered people which was fed and compounded by drugs and alcohol
This ended in divorce and by this time, Mike had made a royal mess of his life. He had remarried a German woman and had started to get some order in his life when he started having marital problems with his new wife, partly because of recurring problems relating to what we now call PTSD. In the course of time, he realized that he had tried living life his way and that had led to utter failure, broken relationships, and emotional instability.
Out of nowhere, the Gospel he had heard as a child now struck a chord in his heart and he turned to God. Well, not out of nowhere…God reached down to Mike and pulled at his heart. With no one witnessing to him, no preacher around, and no one to lead him to Christ, he knelt down by his bedside, repented of his sin and trusted Christ as his Savior. He got up off his knees a new man.
And you know what he told me?—He said that the moment he got up off his knees he had an overwhelming desire to find some Christians—the very people he had been running from and at times he had despised his whole adult life! No preacher taught him that; he didn’t learn it from a discipleship course. He didn’t know where a single believer in Germany was, but suddenly HE HAD AN OVERWHELMING DESIRE TO FIND ONE!
Isn’t that amazing? He called his parents and told them of his decision to follow Christ and they found out about our church and told him to call us.
You know, sometimes I’ll be traveling and meet a Christian, and I often feel closer to these complete strangers who are believers than many of my own kin who are lost.
Illus. – I remember when we were on deputation (the term for a missionary raising support in church) in Florida, after the service the kids wanted to go to Taco Bell. We ordered and ate, and when we were almost finished with our meal, a couple came up to us and asked if we were Christians.
Well, we told them that we were indeed. They said they just thought we must be Christians just by watching us. Then we struck up a conversation that lasted for about fifteen minutes. And as we talked, we felt a kinship with one another, even though we had never met before in our lives and have never met since. We were able to talk of the things closest to our heart—our relationship with Jesus, and the ministry He had called us to—things that my own unsaved relatives had no interest in whatsoever.
Why was there this instant, natural kinship with these strangers?—Because we were both in the same family…the family of God. It was like meeting a long lost sibling. When you become a child of God, you get a new family.
By the way—when we’re saved, the world “unfriends us,” if I can use a Facebook phrase.
1 John 3:13 says, “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hate you.”
Did you catch that?—“HATE YOU!” But when you’re saved, you have a family who not only will love, nourish, care for and cherish you, but also loves the very world that hates them.
Jesus said this in John 15:18-20 – “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘The servant is not greater than his master.” If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.”
The world is not your family once you become a believer in Jesus Christ.
You have a new family, one based on love for all, not hate for anyone.
IV. FOURTH, NOTICE THAT RUTH RECEIVED A NEW POWER FOR HER LIFE – Verse 16d – “…and your God my God…”
When Ruth followed Naomi to Bethlehem-judah, she had no idea powerful the one, true God of Israel was. And very few new believers realize how awesomely powerful God is, and how He wants to unleash His power in our lives.
The writer of tells us in Hebrews 1:3a – “And He [Jesus] is the radiance of his [God’s] glory, and the exact imprint of his nature, and upholding all things by the word of his power…”
Hold that thought for a moment. Genesis 1:1 tells us that, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
But John 1:1-4 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was WITH God, [so “the Word” was distinct from God in some way…] and the Word WAS God [so, He was WITH God, but He also WAS God. Hmm. That’s weird….]. 2 The same was in the beginning with God [that is, “the Word” PRECEDED the all creation]. 3 All things were made by him [the Word]; and without him was not anything made that was made. [Wait a minute! Didn’t Genesis 1:1 say that GOD created the world and all that is in it?…] 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. [Life can come only from God, yet, “the Word” is said here to be the source of life]”
Are you starting to get confused? Who is “the Word?”—John answers that question later in verse 14, John tells us that “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. Well, who took on human flesh, dwelled with us and was full of grace and truth?— Jesus Christ, of course. John was teaching us about the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ.
So, this is what the Hebrews 1:3 means when it says that Jesus was the exact imprint of God’s nature. – He was the exact imprint of God’s nature because He WAS God. John tells us it was Jesus—God the Son—who created the heavens and the earth. Folks, that tells us that Jesus Christ is AWESOMELY POWERFUL! But the writer of Hebrew goes even a step further: He says that right now, Jesus is upholding all things by the word of His POWER!
In other words, it is Christ who literally holds this universe together by His power. Every atom in the universe a nucleus that contains positively charged and neutral particles. Scientists tell us that mutual electrostatic repulsion between positive protons would drive the nucleus apart if it were not for what scientists call the “strong force” which binds the nucleus together. Scientists themselves say that there is an active force imposed on the universe, which actively holds the very atoms of the material world together moment by moment, day by day, century by century.
An article at the website, “Universe Today,” estimates that there are between 10 to the 78th power to 10 to the 82nd power number of atoms in the known, observable universe. The article says, and I quote, “In laymen’s terms, this works out to between ten quadrillion vigintillion to one-hundred thousand quadrillion vigintillion atoms.”
Yeah, laymen’s terms; we all understand that, right? All I know is that means a number with a LOT of zeroes after it! And Jesus Christ holds together ALL of them! Without Him, they would all explode in a ball of fire in an instant! Brethren, that’s POWER!
And Paul tells us that this incredible power is working IN YOU if you are a believer! – Ephesians 3:20 – “Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power THAT WORKS IN US.”
Do you see it?—Jesus is working His power IN YOU, if you will let Him! Stop talking about what a sinner you are; stop listening to the voice of the enemy who tells you that you are a failure; stop saying you can’t kick a habit! Yes, you sin and let the Lord down sometimes, but YOU ARE NOT A VICTIM! You have in you the very power that holds the universe together!
In Romans 8:37, Paul tells what we really are: He says, “…we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
The phrase, “more than conquerors,” literally means “super conquerors.” You may not realize it, but under my shirt and yours, if you belong to God, is a blue shirt with a big “S” on it which stands for “Super Conqueror.” You and I may not be able to fly like Superman, but when we face temptation, we CAN be victorious, because we are super conquerors through Christ who loved us!
Ruth had no idea how powerful the God she turned to was, and I think we all too often underestimate how powerful God wants to be in our lives.
V. LAST, NOTICE THAT WHEN RUTH RECEIVED A NEW PROSPECT FOR THE FUTURE – Verse 17a – “Where you die, I will die…”
One day both Naomi and Ruth would die. Ruth was content to die in a new land, but what about after that?
Naomi, Ruth and Orpah, would all, like each of us, go out into eternity.
Hebrews 9:27 reminds us “…it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment.”
Naomi and Ruth were believers in God, but from everything we see in this passage, Orpah most likely went into eternity lost. There is no joyful hope for Orpah, but oh, what joys that awaited Naomi and Ruth when they reached heaven! Right now, they are in the Lord’s presence, enjoying the pleasures of heaven. And such is the hope of every person who is a believer.
CONCLUSION
Yes, there are sacrifices for our commitment to follow Jesus Christ. But they are no comparison to the blessings that attend our walk with Christ and His family.
No wonder Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you [because there IS a yoke to follow Christ: the yoke of GIVING UP our own lives, our own desires, our own plans, our own comfort for the Lord. Jesus continues…], and learn from me [that is, become a follower of me; get to know me]; for I am gentle and humble in heart: and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Yes, the Lord’s yoke is easy, for with any sacrifices we make for God, in return we receive…
A new PATH for our feet
A new PLACE for our home
A new PEOPLE as our family
A new POWER for our lives
A new PROSPECT our future
