Whatever You Do Is Fine! Series

Whatever You do is Fine!

Ruth 1

© 2007 Eric Bain

NOTE: An audio version of this sermon is available at www.sanctuary-church.com

This morning we are beginning a new - four week series looking at an OT Narrative… called Ruth.

Grab a Bible...

• Open to Ruth

• Don’t be afraid to use the index…

• Ruth is only about 4 pages long…

• It comes after the book of Judges… Just before 1 & 2 Samuel.

While you’re trying to find it. Let me just say…

 I love teaching out of OT Narratives because they’re about real life…

o These are real people… experiencing real…

 Joy

 Love

 Passion

o But they’re also experiencing real…

 Disappointment

 Suffering

 Fear

 Doubt……. As they make their way on their spiritual journeys.

And what’s cool is that the author’s don’t soften things for us…

 In other words, these stories are often very raw.

 There’s no candy coating…

 It’s just real life… with all it’s ups and downs.

Which is great… because as far as I know… that’s what you and I are experiencing – Real Life!

o Which is sometimes amazing… sometimes wonderful!

o But sometimes disappointing…

o Sometimes it’s great… and exciting!

o But other times it just sucks…

(pause)

Here’s one thing I know…

There’s something about hearing someone else’s story… that is helpful.

o Maybe it’s just that we can relate… so it’s soothing!

o Or, maybe, it’s that we can learn from other people’s lives…

o Or, maybe, it’s just knowing that we’re not alone on the journey…

Whatever it is… I look forward to experiencing the book of Ruth…

• You see, I look forward to seeing how God interacts with the characters in this story… as I reflect on how God interacts with me.

• I look forward to getting to know… my God on a more personal level!

• I look forward to seeing what principles we can draw from this story… and how we can apply them to our lives…

• I look forward to seeing how Ruth… can helpful to us. (PRAY)

RU 1:1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites… from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

As the book of Ruth opens… it begins with the story of a family. A family of a man named… Elimelech.

And the story tells us that they lived “In the days when the judges ruled.”

o Now, I already mentioned that the Biblical book just before the book of Ruth, is the book of Judges. That’s important!

o You see, the book of Judges describes the BIG picture of what’s happening amongst the People of God at the time… (Wide-angle lens)

o The book of Ruth, on the other hand… is a very focused lens… focusing on just one family.

 So if we were to read these two books in order…

 What we would first get - in the book of Judges - is a very wide angled view of what is going on amongst the entire community of the People of God.

 Then when we got to the book of Ruth… we would sort of back up… but then zoom in. And focus on just one family during the same time period.

The point is… you can’t divorce the book of Ruth from the book of Judges, because the book of Judges provides the backdrop for the story in the book of Ruth.

So… if we had read the book of Judges… what would we have learned?

o Well, we would have learned that this was a time of moral and spiritual disaster for the People of God.

o In fact, the book of Judges ends with this quote, “In those days there was no king in Israel: Every person did… what was right… in their own eyes.”

Every person did… what was right… in their own eyes.

• In other words, they did what felt right to them. Not that it was right… it just felt right.

• You see, there was no greater moral compass that the people were turning to for guidance…

• They had no Leader!

 In other words, you might think of it much like today…

• In out Postmodern

• Relativistic society

I mean isn’t our motto…

Whatever you do is fine, as long as it doesn’t hurt… anyone else. (Repeat)

Isn’t that a lot like saying…