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Well today, we're starting a new series,
It's timely during the holiday seasons.
There's a lot of emotional
I guess...darkness that people experience.
There's all sorts of things that happen, and it seems like the holiday
season accentuates the pain and the sufferings
and the trials and tribulations that we go through.
So, we have to ask the question, is there hope in the midst of those
storms? Certainly as that song indicated, yes, there
is. In Jesus Christ, He is our cornerstone.
A couple of things that I wanted to mention
right at the outset. Some statistics.
Recently, I went to the Billy Graham
website, and they had some statistics about the
average neighborhood. Most of you live in a neighborhood
and you know, on average there's about a hundred people that live
around you. Out of that 100,
here's what you can expect in their lives, that's
seven, seven of those neighbors are struggling with
depression. Even contemplating suicide.
Another seven of those neighbors are
addicted to drugs or alcohol. They abuse drugs and alcohol
in some way. Sixty--this is huge. Sixty
of those one hundred don't profess to know Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior.
Sixty out of a hundred.
Fourteen of those one hundred feel crippled or trapped by
fear and anxiety. Certainly that's huge
right now. I mean, we're wondering about jobs,
and what our future is going to be, and we hear all of the
news stories about the fiscal cliff and
what is that going to mean to us. Are folks going to lose their jobs, are we going to have
food, are we going to have move out of our homes?
So that anxiety grips our hearts, and so fourteen out of the hundred
are crippled or trapped by fear or anxiety.
Three are grieving the death of a loved one.
Eight are struggling with the loss of a job.
That's almost a hundred out of a hundred
that are suffering with something. Something is going on
in life. Is there an answer?
Is there a solution? Is there a way out of this
darkness, where we can experience hope,
in the midst of the storms, and victory in
this life? Richard? Come lead us.
Let's pray. Lord God,
We need to look at some hard stuff, today.
It's hard, because it's so common.
If it didn't effect all of us, we wouldn't think about it.
But it does effect us, and we need You to show
the truth as only You can show it, as we go through
these stories, today. Thank You in advance for You're going to do,
In Jesus' name, amen.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit
One of our famous documents
says of happiness. They almost got it
right. We've talked about life here a lot.
First life, and then change.
We've talked about liberty here a lot. First faith,
then freedom. But what we don't very often talk about is the pursuit of happiness.
Because no one of you, not even me, has ever
going to catch it. Happiness is always one
step ahead. I wish they hadn't
written it that way. I understand why they did. It has to do
with our freedom to pursue things; to be better than we
are; to educate ourselves; to work at whatever job we choose rather than to
to be locked in, because of how we were born, or
who we're related to, or how much money we have. I understand that, but
the happiness thing is a momentary thing.
I can be happy right now, and not happy
the very next moment. Quite often we experience
that all through the day.
So, I wanted to take a look a couple of stories in the Old Testament. One
of these stories, the people involved
did it exactly the wrong way.
One of the stories, the people involved, some of them tried
to do it the wrong way, but others wouldn't let them.
And I think you'll see God's hand in both of these. But first,
I want to review a diagram with you.
We've changed this a little bit. Bob and I were talking
and what we realized was that we had the wrong
starting point. The starting point is that life happens.
Doesn't matter who you are,
where you live, how much money you have or don't have; what kind of work you do;
life happens. Good things and bad things.
Right? Your finances can be great or terrible. You can have
marriage issues; have trouble with your kids.
Natural disasters. I read yesterday that in
Long Island, a whole bunch of the power company
customers got a normal bill
and they haven't had power in over a month. They were a little
angry at that. Okay? Life happens.
Good things can happen, and bad things can happen. Don't
think that when good things happen, that you're somehow safe from misinterpreting
them. Because a lot of us live
on the one hand with fear that the other shoe is about the drop. Yeah, I know it's
good right now, but, you know...
I happen to be one of those people. In front of
every silver lining, is a cloud.
My wife is constantly talking to me about this, "Why are you saying these things?" "Well it
could happen!" Alright? Other people
have good things happen, and they expect, "Oh, this
is the way it's going to be from now on to the end of time,"
and when it isn't, now what? Okay? So life
happens. All of us experience this.
After life happens, certain emotions occur.
Disappointment, fear, or even elation.
It's just a whole list of things I could put here. They're neither good nor bad,
because when bad things happen, of course you should be disappointed. When good things happen,
of course you should be elated. When certain things happen,
kids don't get home at curfew; the fear, the worry,
begins to kick in. This is normal. Everybody does this.
If somebody, or you yourself have come
to the conclusion that these emotions
are bad, then you've come to the wrong conclusion. They just
are. It's what we do with them. So we
have a choice to make. We can react or we can respond.
Notice that's an 'or'.
If you do one, a certain set of things happen.
If you do the other, another set of things happen.
Since it's so common, we'll start with the reaction part of the
decision tree. If you
react, then defense mechanisms and or worldly thinking kick in.
This is the
"no no... this isn't going to happen to me! Not again! Never again!"
or, "I don't care what happens, I'm
"taking it," That kind of thing. We'll see
in our first example where the worldly thinking really hammered these people.
If we continue on this leg of the journey,
anger is sure to result. If you continue in anger,
self-pity is sure to result. If you continue in self-pity,
depression is sure to result, and if you continue in depression, you're going to end up in despair,
Those seven people that Bob just talked about who are contemplating
suicide have gone to despair.
There's nothing anyone can say to them,
that will bring them out of their despair. It takes a work of God.
It's one of the reasons
why we've stopped talking here about counseling.
Because people used to come here and say, "Oh! Now that I'm here,
"I'm a counselor" and they would go grab the most depressed person they could find off
the street and say, "you know? Jesus can fix that!" And the people wander off.
They say, "Why didn't it work?" Well, first of all, you didn't have a relationship with them. Why
should they pay any attention to you? "Oh, you have to have a relationship? I thought
you just had to give them truth!" Naa, this is interpersonal stuff.
And when someone has gone into despair, they are so drawn into
inside themselves, they don't want to respond to anybody
or have a relationship. This first
story is going to show you what happens when you run this leg
of the journey. So, if you've got your Bibles, you can turn to
2 Samuel chapter 13.
That's page 380 in my Bible. I have no idea where it is
in yours. It's after 1 Samuel.
Do I? Terrible.
Bad for me. You can tell I was a little busy with 3 days.
Did y'all see the email I sent out? Talking about Sunday the 28th?
(chuckles from audience)
You see, all these dark things happen--no.
So, 2 Samuel, chapter 13.
So this is the "life happens" portion of the story.
Verse 1. "In the course of time, Amnon,
"son of David, fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom,
"son of David." Okay?
These things happen. We find it a little disconcerting in our day and age
but, they weren't very closely related, just
shared the same father. Remember this was a long time ago.
Amnon falls in love Tamar.
Life happened. Disappointment and fear followed.
"Amnon became frustrated to the point
"of illness, on account of his sister Tamar, for she
"was a ***, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her."
You know, I thought in chapt--in verse
one, that Amnon fell in love with her.
And in verse 2, he's frustrated because he can't do
anything to her. That doesn't sound like
love to me. It's no wonder that he
was frustrated. This word "frustrated", remember
a couple of months ago, when we were talking about faith,
that Hebrew doesn't have conceptual
words. They have very specific words and the concepts are
gleaned from the context in the way those words are used.
So, this particular word "frustrated" means
bound up, or tied up. Quite literally tied up with
ropes. Distressed, troubled, oppressed, cramped,
anxious, worried. In its verb form, it can mean to
be an enemy or adversary. Who
had tied up Amnon? Amnon.
Who was Amnon's adversary or enemy?
Amnon. All of this was happening in his
head. He'd looked at this girl,
fell in love in with her because she was beautiful
She wasn't giving him the time of day, he was so frustrated
he was fit to be tied.
There's the disappointment and fear. It's starting to roll, it's starting
to turn and churn, and he's in a bad way.
So, he reacted and he had some help.
It led to worldly thinking.
"Now, Amnon had a friend named Jonadab,
"son of Shimeah, David's brother."
Okay. Remember the story of David,
when they came to look for the next king,
Jesse sent all the sons, from the oldest down.
David was the youngest. This means Shimeah
was one of the guys that was overlooked. He had a son
named Jonadab, who was probably aware of this story.
It says that Jonadab was a very shrewd
man. Jonadab is looking for an
angle. Amnon thinks he's a friend.
He is--sort of. But as the story
turns out, with friends like this, who needs enemies?
"Jonadab asks Amnon, "Why do you,
"the king's son, look so haggard morning after morning?
"Won't you tell me?" I mean, Amnon was losing
sleep over this. Have any of you ever lost sleep over
a girl? Come on, be honest. Yeah!
yeah--the rest of you are lying. You're just afraid to say
it. (laughter)
"Amnon said to him, "I'm in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister,"
"Go to bed, and pretend to be ill,"
"Jonadab said. "When your father comes to see you, say to him,
" 'I would like my sister Tamar to come and give me something
"to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight, so I may watch
"her and then eat it from her hand." This is Jonadab's
advice. You know this isn't going well.
So, the worldly thinking
leads to *** and hatred.
The story goes on, David came and visited, sent
Tamar in to cook for him, she cooked for him, and all of his servants were there, and all
of that. It still wasn't going the way he wanted it to go, so he sends all
the servants out, and says, "Tamar,
"come feed me in my bed," Tamar, being innocent
walks in and sits down and starts feeding him. He grabs her
arm. She figures it out, and says no.
"But he refused to listen to her,
"and since he was stronger than she, he *** her."
Is this just the greatest expression of love
ever written in the Bible?
You see--this is one of the reasons I like the Bible.
It's a warts-and-all book. If I was writing
my history, and wanted to have a legacy,
I would probably write mostly good things.
I would give a little hint of humanity, so that the lesser mortals don't
quite see me as unapproachable, but I don't want them to see
all the warts. The Bible writers put it all in there.
So, Amnon, who claims to love his sister-half sister,
ends up raping her. "Then,
"Amnon hated her with intense hatred.
"In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her."
Instantaneously. If you've read news reports
or ever heard stories from, or known people who have been ***. Especially
by people they knew, which is where most rapes occur.
It started out as some guy saying, "I really love you!"
And when the girl doesn't respond,
then he gets forceful, and overpowering. When he's done,
quite often, this is exactly what happens "Get up
and get out!" I mean,
palpable hatred, he would have killed her on the spot, if he thought it
would do him any good.
Well, what's the rest of the story?
Tamar leaves, tears her
robes, which was a sign that indeed she had been ***.
And her brother finds her, brings her
to home to his house, where she lives in seclusion as far as we know, the rest of her life.
Absalom tells David, and David does nothing.
Nothing.
Absalom holds this in his heart.
Now, Absalom's got to deal with disappointment, and he does it the wrong way.
And so because this...this...
series of things happened, it just started to
cascade, and two years later, after the harvest,
Absalom throws a party, and invites all of his brothers and half-brothers.
And at the party, he, Absalom does,
and he murders Amnon at the party.
Kills him dead. All the rest of them run.
Come running back to the palace, David's afraid
that he's got a full scale revolt on his hands. And Jonadab
shows up. The same Jonadab.
"Well, David, I think it's going to be okay, it was only Amnon,"
"And I think it was because he *** Tamar."
"I had nothin' to do with it. I'm just here serving you,
"My Lord" Does this sound familiar?
I mean, I honestly did something, when I was prepping
for this, I honestly watched 90210 this last week.
Just to see how far it's gone. Okay?
Thankfully, there was no nudity. But,
one of the people was angry
at her live-in boyfriend because he'd been injured,
and was in pain, and she thought he was whining. So, she
goes to some other guy and seduces him.
Another guy, who hasn't gotten
what he thought he deserved from a company, sells
the company secrets to another company, and goes to work for them.
Yet, another guy, who, you know, was
unrequited love kind of thing, exposed
the relationship that one of the other characters was having with a teacher.
That's all in the news, now. For a half an hour,
No--it went on for almost an hour. I kept turning away from it
because it was just too disgusting. I'd turn back and they were still doing it.
They just went on and on and on and on, and the only thing that was happening
was, "You've done something I don't like, therefore,
"I am justified to do anything to you, or about you, that I feel like
"doing, and there's nothing you can do about it." And everybody goes, "Well, I guess you're right."
This reflects our society, folks. This story of Amnon
is what happens here, day after day. You see it on the news, you read it
in the magazines and newspapers. I mean, just stand in line
at the grocery store and look at the covers only of all the magazine.
And who's doing what to whom.
What marriage is broken up. Who's cheating on whom.
All of this stuff. This is what happens when you
react to the disappoint. Notice the disappointment was okay.
It was okay for Amnon to be disappointed. But it wasn't okay
for him to react and go where he went. Nor was it good for Jonadab
to do what he did, nor Absalom what he did. And Absalom's
thing ended up in open rebellion, and even Absalom was killed, and David
almost lost the kingdom. All because
Amnon was disappointed, and had no way of dealing with it
in a healthy way.
So what is God telling us in this?
What does He say?
Beware of this
path. Everyone of us is capable
of it. Maybe we're not going to *** someone, or commit ***, or rebel,
against the government, but all of us go
to the dark side if we don't pay attention.
Everyone of us can do this. I'll bet
you everyone of us has done this.
I myself have been depressed many many times because of certain situations.
I didn't get what I wanted, or something happened that should've happened,
and didn't, and now I feel justified in feeling sorry for myself,
you know. Stand back and wait for the other shoe
to drop on those people who were treating me so badly.
Say things about people, write things about people,
I mean, it got so that at Hewellet Packerd, when I was working
there, I finally had a manager come to me, and say, "Richard,
"Why are you burning bridges?" I said, "Am I burning bridges?"
He said, "There's wreckage everywhere."
"Stop it!" I said, "Why? They were wrong." He said, "You never know when
"you're going to have to work with these people again. If you refuse to be
"in relationship with them, and allow them to learn, and for you to learn from them,
"You're never going to make it in this company" I'm thankful
somebody said to me, "Stop it!"
You know, all these emotions, running ramped, controlling me, instead of
looking at what's really happening. Okay?
That's the terrible story. The very
least, it serves as a warning for each of us. Obviously
this isn't the way God would have had Amnon and Absalom
and David work through this situation.
When you read a story like this and it continues on--you can read the
next several chapters, and then you see that David was called a man after God's
own heart. Does it give you hope?
David was capable of incredible
bad things. Most of us think about
he and Bathsheba. But right at this moment, may have been
David's single worst moment, because he refused to act
as a father. He chose to act
politically, and it nearly cost him. So this
story is a beacon for all of this. Whenever
you find yourself going down this path, think about Amnon.
Say, "God! Help me!"
"Don't let me go the route Amnon went"
So, what's the alternative? The alternative is a
response. So, if you're responding to
the disappointment, of the fear or the over elation, or whatever,
instead of turning inward,
We're counseled in the Bible to turn outward.
So, y'all know
Romans 12: 1 & 2... "in view of God's mercy..."
"offer yourselves as living sacrifices to God."
Don't be conformed anymore to the pattern
of this world. Don't be forced into a mold. But be transformed
by the renewing of your mind, so you can know what His will is.
See, that's all outward focus. The
Holy Spirit has taken up residence in me, so this is unavailable to a lost person.
Don't be surprised when lost people around you behave badly.
That's all they can do. If they ever behaved well, it's still probably
self-interest that's getting them there.
If you've come to Jesus, you have a chance of responding
by the Spirit, to the Spirit, and having your mind renewed.
And then, in Philippians 4, you know this verse.
Whatever's going on. With thanksgiving,
bring it to God, and let Him quiet your heart
and minds. See the difference?
That's why in Hebrews and then in last week, we've talked so much
about thankfulness, because thankfulness is outside of us.
I mean, it just sounds silly when I say, "Thank you, Richard, for being you."
No, I never say that. You have to say
"Thank you" to someone. Someone who has served you, who has helped
you; who has taught you something. So when you
say, "thank you", you're reflecting the Grace of God back to Him.
You don't have that grace on your own. But since He has filled you
with His grace, you can reflect it back to Him. So, you're getting outside
of yourself instead of looking at your own situation, and then God does miraculous
things in your mind. That leads to thanksgiving,
and that leads to peace;
and that leads to a renewed mind.
See how that
works? The only way to
fix me on the inside, is for me to look
outside. The left side of this picture
I'm looking inside, I'm feeling terrible. Well, why am I feeling terrible?
Well it's because I don't have what I want. Why don't I have what I want?
Why don't I have what I want? Because they won't give it to me!
Well then, I better go take it! Then I take it!
Then you get phone calls: Please pray for my son!
Why? Well he's
on trial. Well, he's on trial. What for?
*** assault on a minor. Well did he do it? Weeelll,
Umm..umm. naaa. You know.
Then you try to keep people focused on reality.
Terrible things happen. It's because we
get our minds and our eyes off of Jesus.
So, what's our second story?
Turn back to Ruth.
We've talked about this a couple of times, but not
quite this way. The whole book of Ruth is really not
the story of Ruth, it's the story of Naomi, and
how she helped Ruth. But that's okay.
So, before we do this, because if I don't cover this
point, it won't make sense. When you're stuck over in the
other dimension, the way
out of it, is not to go back through the spiral
and up and over.
Can't do it. It can only be done if you break out.
Breaking out of that spiral is the greatest
expression of your will that you will ever experience.
The farther down in the despair of spiral you've gotten,
the harder the breakout is.
So, if you're in your despair, you say, "Oh Lord, if I could
"only be just depressed." And if I'm depressed, if
I could just have self-pity for a while, then I'll move back up. That doesn't work.
It's a one way trip.
So, break out in thankfulness, break
out as a New Covenant believer. Okay?
So now let's see how this happened with Naomi.
So here's her "life happens" moments. "In the days
"when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land" Chapter 1 verse 1.
"And a man from Bethlehem and Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while
"in the country of Moab." So we've got a famine, there's not enough food,
that's bad. Let's go where there is food. Moab
is that place. Well, how much trouble
was it for a Jew to give up Israel and move
to Moab? It's kind of a repudiation of everything.
But this guy was concerned, and so they all went.
Now, Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died,
"and she was left with her two sons.
"They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth.
"After they had lived there about ten years, both
Mahlon and Kilion also died,
"and Naomi was left without her two sons, and her husband.
This is tough. No fault
of her own. She was serving her husband, she went with him, they moved there.
They found reasonable living accommodations, and then he dies.
Well, her sons are still there, helping her, taking care of her, as good Jewish sons
should. They met women and got married, and then they died!
So here we have 3 widows, with nothing.
The disappointment and fear show up
Naomi decided to go back
home to Bethlehem, and the daughters decided
to go with her, the daughters-in-law. She says to them, "Go back
"each of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show kindness
"to you as you have shown to your dead, and to me.
"May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest of
"another husband." Notice
the fear in that statement. The disappointment in that statement.
You can't come with me. Maybe
just maybe, because you've been so nice to me, God will give you husbands
back home someplace. So go back home
and perhaps you'll find a husband. There's no victory in this statement.
Naomi is completely consumed with
herself and her grief, and she projects it on
to her daughters-in-law. So, with that reaction
comes the defense mechanisms. The two daughters-in-laws say,
"No, no, no no! We're coming with you!" And then she says
"Return home, my daughters. Why would you come
"with me?" See how she's drawn in?
"Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons
"who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters, I am too
"old to have another husband."
She can't see anything except
her own grief. She figures if they
come with her, she's responsible for them.
And she can't give them her own sons to become their husbands.
So, this just isn't going to go well, girls.
Again, she can't see.
Well, Orpah gives in and goes home.
We'll come back to Ruth.
Notice how this total
self-focus consumes Naomi
to the point of bitterness.
So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.
When they arrived at Bethlehem,
the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed,
"Can this be Naomi?" Haven't seen her for ten years!
Naomi means pleasant, or delight.
Her response: "Don't call me Naomi.
"Call me Mara, because the Almighty
"has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord
"has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has
"afflicted me, the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."
That is the greatest statement of self-pity in the Bible .
I went away full, God has done this to me.
It's HIS fault, He treated me bitterly.
So why shouldn't I be bitter? Have you ever heard that?
God did that to me, of course
I'm bitter. God did no such thing to you!
And yet, all of us tend to say that.
We may not be vocal about it, but when bad things happen,
Well, Lord?! I've been reading my Bible,
I've been praying. I've given money to People to People,
I've given money to others as well!
Lord? Why is this happening to me? Why is this happening
to you? Because we live in a fallen world.
I mean, we--we fall
for the lie of evolution, and here's how we fall for it.
Somehow, we've gotten the idea that after Adam,
maybe a generation or two. Certainly after Noah,
all we had were cave men. Of course
you know, they're dragging their women around by the hair, and clubbing animals to eat,
and that sort of thing. We have that idea in our heads,
because that's what we're taught. Well, nothing could be further from the truth!
Those people were so far advanced compared to us that we wouldn't even
recognize ourselves. Sin has
caused the degradation of our world in our society, not
it's increase. So why do we blame God for the
bad things that happen to us? I mean Paul tells us
in Romans, the Earth groans!
The Earth is trying to tear itself apart because of sin.
But, that's where Naomi went. She went there
big time. What's going to happen
if she stays there? Well, she's going to go into depression, despair,
but, in this situation, other people
began to break her out.
She's over here on the left side of this thing,
she is completely self-focus;
she's full of self-pity; she's angry at God,
why, why, why, why and in particular, why me?
So there were two phases
of her break out from this. The first one she was clueless
at, but it still had an impact on her. Go back to when
Ruth decides to stay. Orpah leaves.
Naomi has said, "I can't provide
"sons for you, I'm too old to get married and have children,
so you're going to be destitute without me."
Ruth says, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back.
"To leave you or turn back. Where
"you go, I will go; where you stay, I will stay,
"Your people will be my people, and your God, my God."
"Where you die, I will die."
"And there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so
"severely if anything but death separates
"you and me." You would think after
a statement like that, that Naomi would start crying,
Ruth would start crying, and they would hug each other... that's not what happened.
"When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go on
"with her, she stopped urging her."
So here was phase 1 of the break out from this
self-pity. Someone
named Ruth, came along side Naomi.
Came along side her, and she didn't
get it. But that's okay.
because Ruth came along beside her.
Critically important. When you're suffering
from this kind of self-pity, and depression and control of
by your emotions; if you can find it in your
self to look out and see who is
around you, what friends or family members
just as a start.
Most of us look around and go, "Ahhh they don't care"
No, no. Don't say that. Look around. Truly look around.
There may be someone standing right there
who is God's person for you. You may know them,
you may be related to you, or they may be a stranger, but somebody
is going to be put in your path, that if you'll
take a look, will help you break out of that self-pity and depression.
So, it hasn't happened yet. Remember after
this is when Naomi said, "Why call me Naomi? I'm bitter, so call me bitter!"
So Ruth is there.
Naomi is relying on her, and hasn't figured out
yet that she's relying on her, but there's more that has to happen.
So we need phase 2.
So, and this is right after Naomi
gives her speech about bitterness.
If I was writing the story, I would have said, "okay, So Mara returned from Moab.."
Notice that the writer says, "So Naomi
"returned from Moab" All of those women, who came charging
out to say, "waaahh!! Naomi's back!"
Heard her give this creed against God and how badly He'd
had treated her. And they go, "Oh yeah, yeah, you're just sad, you're home"
"You're home, come on!" They didn't buy her lie.
That's critically important. So her
friends from before didn't buy the lie. They just called her
Naomi. "Come on in" Naomi's still shuffling in,
*mumbles* You know how that goes, right? If you don't
shuffle physically, you sit in your chair at home and you shuffle mentally.
*mumbles* I wouldn't be saying this if I
hadn't done it myself, folks. So now
you don't have to feel guilty. "Yeah, he's just talking about himself,
"we don't have to pay any attention to that." No. So, the friends
just take her on in. We're still not done.
We still got more of phase 2. "Now Naomi had a relative on her
"husband's side, from the clan of Elimech,
a man of standing who's name was Boaz.
Aha. Boaz. And you know the rest of the story.
Ruth goes to Boaz's
field to glean; he spots her in the field, and says
"Who's she married to?" People say, "Oh no,
"she's not married. She's Naomi's daughter in law, married to one
"of Naomi's son, and he died, and she's here taking care of Naomi"
Boaz is impressed. Very impressed. Wow.
Someone who's not even one of us, Moabites,
would come to our country to take care of one of ours.
That's impressive. So he goes to her and talks to her,
and says, "From now on, don't glean in anybody else's field. Just glean
"here." and then he tells his harvesters
um... purposely miss things. So they're out harvesting,
harvesting. Then they'd miss and leave it
because they'd harvest and gather up you know handfuls of wheat
and they'd stack it together and tie it. You always got
a little bit, because it would just fall by the side. But they were
loosing handfuls of this stuff. Ruth would come a long and gather
it up and say, "Well, I'm doing better than I thought" she'd go home and
so, Boaz starts taking care of her.
They become interested in each other.
You notice Naomi hasn't had to get married and have more children?
That's what the self-pity does to you.
Naomi is just being; and finally she looks out
side of herself and says, "Ahh! Boaz is interested in you!"
I get it! Well, here's what you do" and so then she does
things that are completely Biblical in terms of
courting in a relationship that makes it completely
safe for both parties, as opposed to what Amnon did.
Ruth and Boaz end up
falling in love, and they have a baby named
Obed.
Well, Obed was one of the great grandfathers of Nathan.
The book ends, the story ends
with Naomi thrilled and
dandling the little baby on her knee.
Boaz plays the kinsmen redeemer role.
Sound familiar? Jesus is our
kinsmen redeemer.
You know, we're not of Israel. We're some of those other
people that don't even know God.
God brought us to a place where we could serve
and be served. Jesus dies and
raises again. We're made alive.
Naomi was resurrected.
by her friends; by Boaz,
by Ruth, because that's the way God worked it.
Never under estimate the power of fellowship.
Why did the writer in Hebrews make such a big deal in chapter 10? Remember chapter ten
is full of the terrible warnings, dire warnings
accept Jesus or go to hell!
Whoa! Right in the middle of all that,
don't give up, don't forsake
the meeting together with each other. To build each other
up in the faith, to prepare each other for good works. It's what God does.
among us people who are his children.
It's the power of fellowship. It's the power of
people who look beyond our bad attitudes,
and say, "Yeah, we know, that person's grieving over something,
"Fine to grieve. But what can we do in the name of
"God, to help them through this?"
What can we do to help them through this?
You notice, it doesn't record that Naomi
had a bunch of theological discussions with people?
They just came along side and gave her a hug.
Talked to her about regular stuff. Met her
in the market place. Hung out. Just hung out and were
friends. Slowly but surely,
she could let go of the grief. It's not like it went
away. It's not like it didn't happen. But she could put it
in context, and begin to respond to others and
to break out of the cycle.
So, you see the whole picture again.
I don't know
that there's a one of us here, who has ever,
at the first sign of disappointment and fear, responded with thanks.
Some of you have gotten that far.
I'm trying to remember in my own life, if I've ever responded in thanks.
Usually I react. My first
tendency is to react. (mock gruff) "Well Lord!
and what I see changing
is that the point of break out is changing.
Sometimes, I realize
that I'm in this defense mechanism and worldly thinking mode;
and I'm laying there, staring at the ceiling at night,
getting angrier and angrier, and the Spirit says,
"How's this going for ya?" "Well, it's not going
"so well, Lord." "Well, why don't you let go of it?"
Sometimes the Spirit doesn't catch me there.
Sometimes I get down in the anger and self-pity. Then it's harder
because I'm more withdrawn, more inwardly focused.
But the Spirit never lets go;
is never leaving us. He's always inviting us
just take a step out. We think it's so
difficult because it involves a choice.
But once we've made that choice, it's like the Spirit sweeps that stuff away
like it never existed. At least in terms of the bad emotions.
Then you can deal with reality. You can have your mind renewed. You can
fellowship; you can grow; you can find out what it means to
have peace. I wrote a bunch of
songs back in the '70's. I may have played
one of them for some of you. Most of them, you don't want to hear.
I was begging God for peace. BEGGING Him for peace.
I'm sure the music kept me sane
because it was an outlet. Lois can tell you...she could tell how I feel
by how I play.
I needed to get out of
legalism. I didn't know that. So God
gave me music to help,
and then He gave me friends to ask interesting questions.
Very few people sat down with me and had long theological
discussions. Those came in time, but first,
He had to get me out of myself, and start looking outside
into His word.
And Life changed. It's the same thing with all of you.
Each of us tend to react first.
A measure of your walk with God,
a measure of how your faith is going, is how quickly
you catch on when you're in the emotional
response side to the face that you're responding emotionally
reacting emotionally, instead of responding according to the Spirit.
It will vary. All of us are really good
at certain things, and really bad at others. So don't be surprised when
the stuff you're not so good at, drives you into a funk.
The Spirit works a little harder, a little longer.
and changes your life more dramatically in those instances.
It all starts with saying, "Thank You"
The best way to break
out of the downward spiral and into truth,
is to say, "Thank You", because we've all
already been given everything we need for life and Godliness. We've been blessed with
every spiritual blessing. We are saved, no one can take us out of
Jesus' hands, or His Father's hands, because they're one.
It's guaranteed, folks, so don't live there.
This Christmas season, don't live there
with the denial, and the guilt and the over spending.
Most of us overspend because we're spending emotionally.
It'll make me feel better. Well, it does for about five minutes.
Then the realization of the bill coming due hits you.
Now you're depressed again. But you're embarrassed to take it back.
See the internal thinking? Instead,
say, "Thank You, Lord. Maybe I can't get this
"gift this time, even if it's for someone else, I just can't do it"
So don't do it. Take your time, save the money,
pay cash for it. Wow! Now there's a gift.
Right? Don't buy the lie,
that's being shown to you every day on TV and every day on radio.
Say, "Thank You" and live the way God
gives you to live. Let's pray.
Lord, we look at these stories,
we see ourselves in them.
In both of them. All of us have done this wrong from time to time
maybe too many times. All of us have done it right from time to time.
Help us to realize
sooner, just what it is you've given to us.
Just what it means to follow you, to say Thank You.
To rely on the Spirit to do the changing.
that is so desperately needed in all of our lives. We thank You for it,