Three Funerals And A Wedding

hree Funerals and a Wedding

By the help of the Lord I plan to preach this at a youth rally tomorrow night in Wisconsin. Your prayers are appreciated

Three Funerals and a Wedding

Thank you Rev. Mike Faulk

Ruth 1:14-18 KJV

14: And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

15: And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

16: And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

17: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

18: When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

Introduction

- The book of Ruth begins like this:

o Now it came to pass in the days when the Judges ruled

- It was during the reign of the Judges

- There was no King on the throne

- People did which was right in their on eyes

- The children of Israel were living in a backslidden state

- Time of cruelty in Israel

- A time of division among Gods chosen people

- A time of instability within the nation

- The setting of the book of Ruth was a time of Spiritual Darkness

- It was Much like the setting that we live in today

- A time when it seemed they would make a little bit of progress

- A setback would come and

- Right in the middle of these turbulent times

- We find a beautiful love story

- A story that is full of hope

- A story about a harvest

- A story about how love found away

- When there seemed to be know way

Famine

- Abimilech, Naomi, Chillion, and Malon

- Run to what seems to be greener pastures

- They tried to run from the famine they had in Israel

- The were running from the will of God

- There are three things you can do when trouble comes

1. Try to escape…Try and run from your problems

a. That is what this family did

b. They tried to run from trouble

c. They tried to run from the will of God

2. Try to endure the trial

a. I am not going to let this thing move me

b. If you do this you will end up just like Naomi

c. You will find yourself bitter

d. The trial will become your master and you will become it’s slave

3. Turn the trial into your servant

a. You can allow that trial to serve you

b. We can have the spirit that Ruth had

c. That said

i. It can change me

ii. It can touch me

iii. And I am going to allow God to work through it

- Alimilech said that when the famine comes we are going to run

- We are not going to try to overcome it

- We are not going to try and endure the famine

- But when it comes were going to run

- Were going to leave this land that God has promised us.

- We are going down to a little place called Moab

- We are just going to be down here for little while

- After the famine is over

- And when the blessing are being poured out in Israel

- Then we’ll make our way back to God’s promised land and the will of God

- But for now I will run from the problem

- I am going to get as far away from the dilemma as possible

- I am not going to face the situation we are in

- We are just going to run and put it all behind me

- Alimilech was following the flesh

- He was not walking after the spirit

- He ended up exchanging a famine for death

- He end up dead, along with his two sons in Moab

Application

-

Moab

Meaning of Moab

- Moab is a place where physical things are elevated above the spiritual

- A place where you walk by the flesh and not by the spirit

- Moab came about because Lot when he had the opportunity to pick out any place he wanted to live

- He lifted up his physical eyes

- All he could see was the well watered plain

- He could have lived anywhere he wanted to live