Deciding to Walk Away

So let's start the book of Ruth. Let's start the book of Ruth. We've got a series on the book of Ruth here, and as you know, the Ruth is found in the Old Testament, so I just want to give you a little bit of background overview, and we're going to hit on something here. It's found in the Old Testament, and let me say this. How many of you, and I bet all of you or most of you are movie watchers, you like a good movie.

What's your favorite genre of movie? How many action people do we have in here? Action movies all day long. I just watched the Fast and the Furious the other day. Which one is it?

10 or 1100? I don't know which one it was. I turned it on, and they had a hanging. The end didn't even end. I mean, it was like, it was a cliffhanger.

I'm like, oh man, now I've got to watch the next one. But it's just silly, silly action movies that make no sense, like cars jumping over mountains and stuff. It just makes no sense and landing perfect. But it's just something about them. How many of you are comedy people?

Comedy, oh, we've got comedies. Comedy is some laughter. Laughter is good medicine. How about superhero people? Superhero movies?

All right, yeah. All these Marvel, DC movies. Are you a thriller person? Any thriller people in here? You like to be on the edge of your seat, right?

You're like, oh man, I just like the pit of your stomach. Some of you are like, I'm staying away from those. My nerves can't handle it. What am I missing here? How about rom-coms?

Rom-com. Are y'all rom-com people? Those romantic comedies, you know, that you've got to have both that and ha ha ha, you know, you've got to have it all at the same time. Yeah. Well, if this book, let's talk about Ruth.

What's interesting, if this book were a movie, it wouldn't be a Sylvester Stallone film. It wouldn't be a Liam Neeson taken action film. You wouldn't see shout outs. You wouldn't see explosions. You wouldn't see car chases.

You wouldn't see any of that. You would see a couple of women and a lot of talking. Of the 85 verses, 55 of those verses are dialogue. It's dialogue. It's talking.

And if we wanted to compare it to a movie, which I love comparing narratives to movies because they're a lot like movies, I would compare it to a chick flick. All right. A good chick flick, actually. Some of you guys are like, oh, I'm turning. No, this is the best chick flick you could ever have.

And sadly, what we have in this story is two women. They lost everything. They're completely, utterly lost with everything. But God is present. But God isn't present in the way that we would think that He'd be present.

Because there was no miracles. There was no parting of the seas. There were no healings. There was no raising of the dead. But on every page of this scripture is the presence, the power, and the providence.

It's a powerful story. So the book of Ruth, it speaks to those who are discouraged. It speaks to those who are hurting. Those who are losing hope. But believe God that He has something better for them.

For those of you that feel stuck and in a place where you don't feel like you should be and you want to get out of, this is the book for you. The book of Ruth. Today we're going to talk about deciding to walk away. Deciding to walk away. Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for your scripture. Pour on us today. Speak to us, Lord. Let us take it and let it make us more like you. Amen.

So we're going to start with Ruth 1. And if you have your Bibles, you can pull those out. If you have your app, the Bible app, you can pull that out. Also, you have a little note page that was handed out to you and you can follow along. We're going to start right here with chapter 1, verse 1.

And it says, In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. In the days that the judges ruled. I want us to think about that for a minute. This is happening simultaneously with the judges. What do we know about the judges?

The previous book before Ruth. What do we know about the judges? It wasn't a very good time. It was horrible. In fact, things were happening.

They had no leader. They had no king. In fact, it said this in those days. And this is the last scripture in judges. In those days, Israel had no king and all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

They did what was right in their own eyes. And here we have in Ruth's day, people were living similar to today, doing what they feel is right in their own eyes. So going on. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and his two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi.

And the names of their two sons were Malan and Killian. And they were Ephorites. Ephorites. Ephorites. Can y'all say that for me?

Ephorites. Ephorites. Ephorites. Ephorites. Ephorites.

Ephorites. Ephorites from the tribe of Ethereum, okay? The Ethereum people, okay? From Bethlehem. I tried to practice that, and it didn't work.

Of Judah. People pronounce it all the time wrong, and I tried to get it right. And they went to Moab and lived there. And so let's look at the characters in this particular story. Okay, we have Elimelech, which means God is king.

My God is king. And then we have another person in the story, Naomi, which is one of the main characters, and it means sweet or... Pleasant. So you have, my God is King, Elimelech, living, you know, with this powerful name, and Naomi, sweet and pleasant, and then there were two sons, and when you named sons in that day, you either named them what you wanted them to be, or what they actually were doing during that time, right? You prophetically said, I want to be a man of God, so I'm going to name him a man of God, or maybe it's like Jacob.

He's a swindler. He came out of his mother's womb holding his brother, trying to beat his brother, you know, grabbing his leg, and they named him Jacob, right? So that's how they named people in this day. Well, interestingly enough, Malan was sick and sickly. They called him sick and sickly, so there must have been something going on there.

And then Killian, frail and tired. So they had their kids sick and tired. Meet my kids sick and tired. And then there was a famine, and Elimelech, like anyone, became worried, and he moved them from Bethlehem to Moab. And if you see, this is kind of giving you a map.

It gives you a map of what's happening, the travels there. So they start out in Bethlehem, and they have to wrap around the Salt Sea or the Dead Sea, and they go all the way down to this area called Moab. So it was about a 55-mile journey. It took a couple of days to get there, obviously on foot. They didn't have the fastest camels in the world or anything like that, you know.

They didn't have a Mustang. They had feet for the most part. And they moved to Moab, which was a big mistake. It's a terrible mistake. Why?

Because God had strictly forbidden His people to live among the Moabites in Moab. Why would God restrict that? Well, the descendants of Moab, remember back in Genesis 19, Genesis 19, Lot, you have Lot, who's Abraham's brother, right? Or cousin, rather. And then his daughters wanted a child.

So what did they do? The weirdest, crazy story happens, and they get their father drunk and have sex with him and have children. And the child, one of those childs, was Moab. So they had Moab out of incest, disobedient to God, out of incest. And the Moabites worshipped false gods.

And one of those false gods, the main false god, was Chemos. Chemos was you sacrificed your children to this idol. So the Moabites sacrificed children to their God. And, in fact, it made God so upset that He said in Psalm 60, verse 8, Moab is my wash basin. Meaning, I dislike them so much that it's like my dirty feet can be washed on them.

That's how deep this is for God to see these people. And Elimelech, which is my God is king, was not living like his God was king. And he made a decision to do something that was right in his own eyes. And just like many today, we look and we compare and we do what's right in our own eyes. Now you can understand, you can make some sense of Elimelech.

I'm sure you all can can identify Elimelech. I mean, when you look at another place and you're, you know, your place is dry. You're not making money. You're starving. You're worried about your kids.

You're looking at another land. Hey, you could be prosperous there. I can get a bigger house. I can have more land. I can have a better quality of life.

It makes sense to a lot of people. But here's here's a gentle spiritual warning. I just want to give you this. I'm going to lean into this. Okay.

That when it comes to our families, because often we make decisions based on our families, we are often tempted to prioritize economic prosperity or provision over spiritual protection. More money, more comfort drives our decisions. Rather than doing God's will, we do what's right in our own eyes. Now, sometimes it is God. God does bless us and God does call us to other places.

And maybe you're like, well, it's God. God, but you have to be careful. We need to be careful that more often than not, I would say that people make their decisions based on economic prosperity, economic provision over that which God really has for them. And I've watched people as they get more money, as they change places and locations and jobs, because they want more prosperity. I've watched Holy Spirit filled people who love the Lord, who love church, who attend every Sunday, who are engaged, begin to fall out because more money, less God.

More money, less God. So be careful not to always prioritize economics over God. And times got tough. You know, they left Bethlehem. They left the people of God.

But they went to this sinful land of Moab. And let's be honest. When times get tough. Take note on this. When times get tough, Moab looks very tempting.

When times get tough, Moab looks tempting. My God is my king. You're probably saying that. My God is my king. I'll do anything for my fault.

But when times are hard, when you're pressured, man, Moab looks really, really tempting. My God's my king. I want to trust and obey Him. And I'm not going to have sex before marriage as a single person. I know that because God has the best for me.

But you've been dating. You've been waiting. And your needs are there. And you're built for mating, right? And you want it so bad.

But will you obey God? Or will you obey your feelings? And what will you obey? Do you obey God? IlhaWhat Software to Forgive Will you move to Moab, or will you trust and obey God?

My God is my Lord, and I want to trust Him with my finances. Everything is His. It's all His. I'm going to honor Him with my tithes. I want to be generous.

I want to advance the kingdom of God. But when times get tough, what happens? We look at that bank account and decide, Moab looks really tempting. And then we see that item that we really want in the store. And we're like, I've got to get that, right?

Instead of honoring God with your tithes, and honoring God with giving, and trusting Him, and obeying and trusting Him. My God is my King! My God! You're my life! Everything I have is yours.

But man, when times get tough, when pressure comes on, when stress hits, and you're looking at that bottle of alcohol after you've given it up, and you've walked away from it, or whatever that addiction might be, it looks really tempting to go back to that to cover that stress when you're in that situation. Moab looks really tempting when times are tough. And times will be tough. Now, I'm not here. We're not judging Elimelech.

We're not, you know, he had a dilemma. He was scared. He was starving. He wants to feed his children, but he does not what God requires of him, but he does what he thinks is right in his own eyes. And let's be honest.

Let's be real for a minute, okay? Most of us have gone to Moab under way less pressure. We've gone there. We didn't have starving. We just went there because Moab looked really tempting.

So what happened in this story? Going on in the story. So they left God's people. They left God's will, and everything worked out just fine, right? No.

In fact, going on, verse 2. Now, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. And she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women. One named Oprah.

Orpah actually is the name, but I thought I'd say that because that's where Oprah's name actually came from. And the other Ruth. And after they had lived there about 10 years, both Malan and Killian also died. And Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. So she was in a bad place.

He left her with not a lot. He made a poor decision. Elimelech made a poor decision and left her with nothing. And we don't know why he died. They don't give us any information.

But he left her in a bad place. And what's interesting is Naomi stayed there for 10 years in that situation. For 10 years. And she lost her two sons as a result of that. When Bethlehem was right around the corner, when Bethlehem was just a two-day walk back, she stayed there for 10 years.

Any of you identify with that? We stay in Moab. We think we're going to get through, but we're still... We're still in Moab, 50 miles away. It's right around the corner.

And then she had these two sons and they married Moabite women. Moabite women, the very people that God didn't even want them to identify with. Wow! Now, you got to give the boys the benefit of the doubt, right? I mean, these are Moabites, man.

They're cute. They look good. They got good personalities. They're good girls, you know? I mean, they look good.

And maybe I can convert them. Maybe I can missionary date a little bit here. I mean, she's a good person. He's a good person. They're good people.

They got a lot. I mean, they mean well. But in God's love, He sets boundaries to protect us. And when we go to Moab, we break those boundaries. What does it say?

Some of you ask, can I marry an unbeliever? Can I marry, if you're single here today, can I marry an unbeliever? According to Scripture, it's not okay. According to Scripture, it's wrong. In fact, Paul lays it out.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. 2 Corinthians 6, 14. So why is God so restrictive? Some of you are like, why is He so restrictive? Why is He doing this to us?

Is He trying to spoil our fun? No, He loves us. He loves us. He cares for us. And honestly, if God is your king, if God is the king of your life, why would you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody where God is not the king of their lives?

When you go through times, when you go through hard times, when your child is sick, when you're going through really heavy periods, you want to be able to go to your wife, you want to be able to go to your husband, you want to be able to pray over them, you want to be on the same page, right? You want to be with people who believe God, who put God first in your life. So why did they leave Bethlehem? Because they didn't want to die. I mean, you know, why did they leave Bethlehem?

Yeah, they didn't want to die, but all three men died. So it's interesting that they left Bethlehem to not die, and then three of them died and it left them in a hopeless place. Sometimes we do that, right? We look at Bethlehem and we're like, I don't want to die here in Bethlehem because, you know, I know it's God's will, but I feel like I'm going to die here, right? And then we go to Moab and it becomes much, much, much worse.

It didn't turn out as they hoped because they did what was right in their own eyes. So the story of Ruth begins. Three widows, no home, no money, and no hope. And finally, Naomi decides, you know what? It's time to return to Bethlehem.

It's time to return to Bethlehem. It's time to get out of this place that I'm in. I mean, Bethlehem's just right around the corner. All I have to do is turn that way and go that way and it will be all right. I've decided to return and get to the right place, the place where I'm supposed to be.

And along the way, these three women have these conversations and Naomi tells these girls, he says, I'll let you go home if you want to. I'm... Going back to Bethlehem, I'm going to get right with God, I'm going to get to the place that I'm supposed to be, but I'm going to release you and let you do what you need to do. You can go back to your family, you can live the rest of your life with your family, because I don't want you to have to leave your family and come to me, because tradition was the daughter-in-laws took care of the mother-in-law. She said, I'm releasing you.

So Orpah, she decides, oh yeah, I'm going back to my family. I'm going to start a talk show and be real successful, and the rest is history, right? But what's interesting is Ruth stays. Ruth stays. In verse 16, Ruth speaks for the first time in these famous words, the faith of this woman.

As she places her faith in Naomi and places her faith in God, we see something very powerful here. It says, but Ruth replied, don't urge me to leave you and to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. And here's the big one. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

Ruth made this massive declaration of loyalty to Naomi, and not only that, she committed her life to the God of Israel, the God of all gods, the Lord of all lords. Ruth and Naomi left Moab, returned to God, went back to Bethlehem. That's a beautiful picture of redemption. You know, it doesn't matter where you've gone. It doesn't matter how far in Moab you are.

You can always turn. You can always turn. You know what repentance means? Re means turn. Repentance means that high place.

He's asking you to turn back to the high place. If you're in a low place and you're in Moab, and it's not working for you because you've tried it, you can turn back and roll to Bethlehem. Bethlehem is waiting for you. The land of bread, the bread of life is waiting for you. And you can make a decision.

You can turn your back on sin and turn towards God. You have to turn your back on Moab, though. And you have to turn towards Bethlehem. So it highlights this very important truth. To get to the right place, you have to leave the wrong one.

To get to the right place, you have to make a decision to walk away from the wrong one. You have to make that decision. To get to where God wants you to be, you have to leave the place you are and walk back into the will of our Lord. Maybe for you, let's just be real. Some of you, you want to marry the right person if you're single here today.

You need to break up with the wrong person and get your life back with God so that you can find the right person. Maybe you need to return to Bethlehem. Ruth made one decision. She turned her back on Moab. and it changed everything.

it changed everything. she Turn to the God of Bethlehem. One decision, one act of repentance, listen to me people, one act of repentance, one choice could change the trajectory of your life. It changed the trajectory, it changed the legacy of her entire life based on that one decision to turn from Moab and turn back or turn to Bethlehem. She changed her mind, it changed everything and I don't want to give it away because there's so much more to the story, but you've heard of Bethlehem, the house of bread.

Jesus is the bread of life and through the lineage of this sinful Moabite woman was born the Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. He came out of her lineage because she made a choice. God decided to use her despite her sinfulness. That she turned from that way, she repented and she walked to Bethlehem and she gave her life to God, the God of Israel, and He used her. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end was born.

The Son of God was born because she made a choice that changed the trajectory, the legacy. The reason we are here today is because a sinful Moabite woman made a small, small decision to not go back to her comfortable place where she thought it was comfortable, but she chose life. She chose life. So, what about you? Let's just apply this for a minute.

You wonder if there's some part of your life that's still in Moab? Do you have something in your life that's still sitting in Moab? Maybe you say, my God is king. He's king of my life. My name is my God is king.

My name is Elimelech. But you're still doing the wrong things. You can't speak out of both sides of your mouth. You can't say that your God is king and then you live one way. You do what's right in your own eyes.

And when you do what's right in your own eyes, it never ends up well. Well, so, let me ask this question. This is the question to just take with you if we're applying this today. What one decision could you make? What one action can you take that would change the trajectory of your life and legacy?

What would that one thing be? What one decision could make all the difference? Whatever that might be. Maybe that's cutting up a credit card. Maybe it's time to let that go.

Maybe it's apologizing to somebody. Maybe it's breaking up with that person and moving out of the house because they don't care about you anyway. If they respected you as a child of God, they wouldn't put you in that situation anyway. Maybe it's a block of phone number that keeps coming in that's bringing you down all the time. Maybe it's disconnecting from some friends in your life that may not be bringing you down and pulling you in places in Moab that you don't need to go.

Maybe it's staying away from some of those places that pull you back into those lifestyles that you were before. Maybe it's that relationship that you're a part of that you just need to go. To exit out of as quick as possible so you can get back to Bethlehem. Maybe you need to just live on less and give more. Whatever that might be in your life, whatever that might be, you need to surrender something to God.

Maybe you need to surrender someone to God. Maybe you need to fall on your knees. Maybe you just simply need to fall on your knees in broken repentance towards Jesus. And confess and surrender Jesus. That's what repentance is.

That beautiful word found at 1100 times in scripture is available to us. And when you rebuke the enemy and return to God, he changes everything. When you repent and receive Jesus, when you repent and you return to Jesus, he changes the way we think, he changes our hearts, he restores our lives, he gives us hope once again, he rewards us even with relationships that we've never, ever, ever expected before. When we give our lives, when we turn from Moab and walk to Bethlehem, walk into the bread of life. There is a life available to us, life available to us.

If you bow your heads and close your eyes and as you as you're processing this message, as you're processing the words that are spoken, the word of God right now. Now, let me ask this question. Maybe you need to surrender something to God. What decision that you need to make, what action do you need to take to change the trajectory of your life? Because God wants to renew you.

He wants to make you new. He wants to rebuild your life. And you will reap rewards. Is that you today that's ready to surrender? Is that you today?

Okay, that's ready to put it all on. Are you ready to just fall on your knees in broken repentance today and say, Lord, I surrender it all to you. I've done it the way of Moab and the way of Moab never worked for me. There is hope in the gospel. There is hope in Jesus Christ.

Would you surrender it today in the name of Jesus? If there's a hand raised here today, say, I'm ready. I'm ready to make that call. Amen, amen, amen, hallelujah. Celebrate Jesus, hallelujah.

Oh God, we thank you so much for your word, your gospel, Lord, that goes out. And if everybody here today, I want us just to proclaim it together. Let's say it together. Let's just repeat those wonderful words from our heart. Lord, I believe that you are Jesus Christ.

I believe that you died on the cross for my sins. I'm a sinner, Lord, but you gave your life for me. Would you come into my heart? Would you restore my mind? Would you restore my heart?

Would you restore my life? Would You give me hope, Lord? Would You make me a new creation in You today? Come into my life. In Jesus' name, Amen.