5/31/2026
Ruth 1:1-22 (NIV)
Matthew 5:3-9 (NIV)
Sermon Info
• Duration: 21:07
• Speaker / Pastor: Rev. Douglas Dill
• Reader / Scripture Reader: Chaplain Leonard
• Participants: Pastor Doug, Speaker B (children), Chaplain Leonard
Scripture References
• Ruth 1:1-22 – read and used as the main text to contrast two responses to loss and to introduce the Hebrew concept hesed (steadfast love).
• Matthew 5:3-9 (Beatitudes) – Gospel reading (Beatitudes) framed God’s care for the humble, mourning, meek, merciful and peacemakers.
Central Message
• God’s character is hesed — a steadfast, loyal love that remains with us in loss and on the “desert road” of life; we are called to trust that love and to choose faithful loyalty in response.
Key Points
• 1. The Hebrew word hesed means steadfast love, deeper than simple kindness — it implies loyalty and faithful commitment.
• 2. The story of Ruth and Naomi contrasts two responses to suffering: Ruth’s choice of loyalty and faith, Naomi’s bitterness and doubt.
• 3. God does not abandon us in grief or difficulty; God walks with us, carries us, and sometimes drags us through hard seasons until we reach provision.
• 4. Choosing to follow God is often a decision without immediate promises or guarantees — like Ruth, faith includes following into uncertainty.
• 5. Practical faith shows itself in priorities (putting God first) and in staying faithful even when life seems unjust or painful.
Notable Quotes
• “It’s called hesed — steadfast love.”
• “God is loyal. Will never give up. Always be around.”
• “Ruth: ‘Where you go, I will go… your God will be my God.'”
• “God doesn’t cause those bad times… God will respond in those bad times for us.”
Application
• Choose loyalty and faithful presence toward others (model Ruth) rather than withdrawing in bitterness.
• When you face a “desert road” or season of loss, remember hesed: trust God to walk with you, care for you, and provide in time.
• Reorder priorities: make faith and relationship with God central in daily life (not weekend or secondary).
• Speak and pray using the language of trust when anxious: remind yourself “You will take care of this; you will not abandon me.”
Prayer Points
• Thanks for God’s hesed (steadfast love); asking God to help the congregation remember hesed in good times and especially in bad times.
• Congregational affirmation: all God’s children said, “Amen.”
Reflection Questions
• 1. Are you on a “desert road” right now — uncertain, anxious, or grieving? How might you invite God to walk with you there?
• 2. In the face of loss, do you tend toward Naomi’s bitterness or Ruth’s choice of faith and loyalty? What would choosing hesed look like for you this week?
• 3. Where is your priority? How does your regular life show that faith is first?
• 4. Who around you needs one person to stay loyal and present like Ruth did?
Transcript
Pastor Doug
I’m adaptable. I think you guys do this to me on purpose.
Pastor Doug
Yes, yeah. Yeah, that happens.
Pastor Doug
Hey, does everything go perfect for you all the time? Really?
Pastor Doug
Really? It doesn’t always go perfect? Yeah, that’s not the way it always is.
Pastor Doug
Are you ever sad? Do things happen that hurt your feelings sometimes?
Pastor Doug
Yeah. So is God still there? See, I don’t need to do anything else.
Pastor Doug
They got it. Yes, no matter what, even when things aren’t going good, God is there.
Pastor Doug
In fact, God’s probably there more when things are bad because you need God. You need Jesus to be with you during those rough times.
Pastor Doug
Like a friend says something nasty to you, or maybe you lose something, or maybe a pet dies. There’s all sorts of things that can happen.
Pastor Doug
That doesn’t mean God has abandoned you. God is loyal.
Pastor Doug
You know what loyal is? Will never give up.
Pastor Doug
Always be around. Loyal.
Pastor Doug
Like friends, hopefully your best friend is loyal. Will always be there.
Pastor Doug
And that’s who God is. I’m going to give you a fancy word.
Pastor Doug
You ready for a fancy word? They’re going to get more on it, but you get a preview.
Pastor Doug
Okay. It’s called hesed. Ooh, hesed.
Pastor Doug
Steadfast love. That’s who God is for us.
Pastor Doug
He is hesed. Steadfast.
Pastor Doug
Always steady there, loving you no matter what. That’s who God is in Jesus for us.
Pastor Doug
Can you say hesed?
Speaker B (Children)
Hesed.
Pastor Doug
Remember, hesed. Hesed.
Pastor Doug
That’s important. That’s God is steadfast love.
Pastor Doug
Are you waving to God? Give me five.
Pastor Doug
All right. Let’s pray, all right?
Pastor Doug
Praises, God. Thank you for your hesed.
Pastor Doug
Help us to remember your hesed when times are good and especially when they are bad. And all God’s children said, “Amen.” Now, I hear boy, you’re just anxious, aren’t you?
Pastor Doug
Do you know what she’s anxious about? Now is time to go to Sunday school.
Pastor Doug
Got to get out of the way quick.
Chaplain Leonard
Reading this morning from Ruth 1:1-22. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
Chaplain Leonard
So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Eli-Melech, and his wife’s name was Naomi.
Chaplain Leonard
And the names of his two sons were Mellon and Kilian. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem, Judah.
Chaplain Leonard
And they went to Moab to live there. Now, Eli-Melech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
Chaplain Leonard
They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about 10 years, both Mellon and Kilian had died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Chaplain Leonard
When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to aid his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. When her two daughters-in-law, she left the place, and she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Chaplain Leonard
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husband and to me.
Chaplain Leonard
May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye, and they wept aloud. And said to her, “We will go back with you, to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters.
Chaplain Leonard
Why would you come with me? I am going to have any more sons.
Chaplain Leonard
Am I going to have to become your husband? Return home, my daughters.
Chaplain Leonard
I am too old and have another to have another husband, even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and to give birth to sons. Would you wait until they grew up?
Chaplain Leonard
Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters.
Chaplain Leonard
It is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord’s hand is turned against me.” At this, they wept aloud again. But Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth hung to her.
Chaplain Leonard
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her God. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “I don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Chaplain Leonard
Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Chaplain Leonard
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me the ever so severely, even death separate you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Chaplain Leonard
So the two women went on together, and they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.
Chaplain Leonard
And the women explained, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she said. She told them, “My name is Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
Chaplain Leonard
I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi?
Chaplain Leonard
The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Chaplain Leonard
The word of the Lord. Thank you for your help.
Pastor Doug
Please rise if you’re able. The Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Pastor Doug
And Jesus is speaking. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Pastor Doug
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Pastor Doug
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Pastor Doug
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” The Gospel of our Lord.
Pastor Doug
You may be seated. Thank you for doing that reading.
Pastor Doug
Where are you? Thank you, chaplain Leonard, for doing that reading.
Pastor Doug
That is words that I don’t want to have to pronounce. That’s the good thing about being the Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug
I don’t have to read some of those tough words. There’s rarely tough words in the Gospel.
Pastor Doug
So we’re in the book of Ruth. How many of you can remember the last time you heard anything out of the book of Ruth?
Pastor Doug
Not too often, right? But we’re on a preaching series this summer.
Pastor Doug
And so we’re on a series. We’re going to be going through all of Ruth, and then we’re going through parts of Esther.
Pastor Doug
So it’s six weeks, four weeks of Ruth, and then two parts of Esther. So how many of you also know what the literal meaning of Bethlehem is?
Pastor Doug
Okay. So let’s set the stage. They’ve left Bethlehem to go live in a foreign land, right?
Pastor Doug
And they left because there’s no food. It’s a bad time.
Pastor Doug
And Bethlehem literally means house of bread. The house of bread is empty.
Pastor Doug
This is the time of judges, before the kings. People did whatever they wanted to do, what they thought was right.
Pastor Doug
There was nobody to centralize them around. They leave because there’s no food, and things happen to them while they’re gone.
Pastor Doug
Now, you heard me tell the kids about hesed, all right? And it’s important to know what hesed is.
Pastor Doug
That’s Hebrew, and it means steadfast love. So let’s read verse 8.
Pastor Doug
And I’m going to read it with this in there. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.
Pastor Doug
May the Lord show you hesed, steadfast love, as you have shown hesed, steadfast love to your dead husbands and to me.” Not kindness. Steadfast love.
Pastor Doug
For some reason, somebody decided to translate it as kindness, but it’s much more than kindness. Steadfast love.
Pastor Doug
That’s loyalty. Loyalty that God shows to us, and we hear Ruth is showing to Naomi.
Pastor Doug
A loyalty. A staying with Naomi.
Pastor Doug
But more than that, she stays and chooses to follow Naomi’s God as well. Not her God, but Naomi’s God.
Pastor Doug
Naomi told her to go back to your land and follow your God. She said, “No, your God will be my God.
Pastor Doug
I will be with you.” Now, you remember this guy called Abraham? Anybody ever heard of him?
Pastor Doug
Father Abraham? Well, if you remember, he was given promises by God, right?
Pastor Doug
You’re going to be a father of a nation. And he continues to follow God.
Pastor Doug
God gives him promises. What promises were given to Ruth?
Pastor Doug
Not a single one. But she chooses.
Pastor Doug
She chooses to be loyal. Even in all her loss, she chooses to be loyal to Naomi and to Naomi’s God.
Pastor Doug
And they go back to the house of bread where barley is being harvested. Food is coming.
Pastor Doug
So she chooses a path of continuing to be loyal and following, and she’s going to learn about who this God of Abraham is. With no promises that it’ll be good, but only that God is there.
Pastor Doug
Her God, Naomi’s God, will now be Ruth’s God. Wow, that’s a faith.
Pastor Doug
That is a faith. But how did Naomi react?
Pastor Doug
“Look what God did to me. Woe is me.
Pastor Doug
Look what God did. I’ve lost all this.
Pastor Doug
And who did this? God’s hand did this.” How many of you have had bad things happen in your life?
Pastor Doug
Yeah, the reality is we all have bad things happen in our lives. Some are very tragic.
Pastor Doug
Some are just little things. But we all have bad things that happen in our lives.
Pastor Doug
And it doesn’t mean God isn’t there. Life happens.
Pastor Doug
God will respond in those bad times. God does not cause those bad times.
Pastor Doug
Naomi said God caused this. But God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to our lives.
Pastor Doug
God will respond in those bad things for us. So Ruth and Naomi had off to Bethlehem.
Pastor Doug
One got a positive outlook and one not so positive. So how do you respond?
Pastor Doug
Well, you heard the opening song, the prelude, Desert Road. I don’t know if you remember.
Pastor Doug
I’ve requested that song before. I think Yvonne’s been playing that.
Pastor Doug
I didn’t ask for it, but it’s perfect for today. Ruth doesn’t know where she’s headed.
Pastor Doug
She’s headed down this desert road that has no idea what’s going to be happening. But we follow.
Pastor Doug
When I lost my call because of financial issues with the previous congregation, I didn’t know what was going to happen. And I knew it was a desert road.
Pastor Doug
I’m not patting myself on the back, but I chose to follow, saying the whole time, “You’ll take care of this. I don’t know how.
Pastor Doug
You’ll take care of this. You’re not going to abandon me.” I still had to do some work, nine different jobs to make ends meet, but you’ll take care of this.
Pastor Doug
Look where I’m at. I love being here.
Pastor Doug
I love being with you all. God took care of that.
Pastor Doug
Not me. I had nothing to do with it.
Pastor Doug
God did it. I’ve got a friend of mine whose daughter was murdered almost a year ago.
Pastor Doug
And an anniversary is coming up. And he could choose to say, “There is no God anymore.
Pastor Doug
How can there be God? God did this.
Pastor Doug
Took my daughter from me.” That’s not how he responds. It happens that the day that his daughter was murdered is the anniversary of the death of his previous wife, the mother of his daughter.
Pastor Doug
That double compound things. He’s going through a divorce right now.
Pastor Doug
His wife left him three months ago. He still is remaining faithful, knowing that God will take care of things.
Pastor Doug
He has not abandoned his faith. So yesterday, I said this, and he signed up for a dating app.
Pastor Doug
And I looked at my wife yesterday and said, “Don’t ever make me have to sign up for a dating app. I want nothing to do with it.” But I like what he did.
Pastor Doug
First of all, he said, “I only want Christians. I don’t want somebody that isn’t Christian.
Pastor Doug
I don’t want an atheist. I want somebody that I can share my faith with.” That was number one.
Pastor Doug
His first question that he asked people is, “So what does your Sunday look like to you?” Good question. And he said, “If they come back and say, ‘Sitting by the pool drinking mimosas,’ he said, ‘You’re out.’ But if they say, ‘I go to church and then I sit by the pool and drink mimosas,’ you’re in.” Nothing wrong
Pastor Doug
with the mimosas, but where’s the priority? The priority is God.
Pastor Doug
Priority is faith. Their mother, when his grandmother died, abandoned God, turned her back on God because something bad happened in her life.
Pastor Doug
But God doesn’t abandon us. God has hesed, steadfast love, loyalty for us.
Pastor Doug
Loyalty to us. To care for us.
Pastor Doug
To be with us. To walk with us.
Pastor Doug
The story of Ruth is a story of two women and how they respond to that. You all heard about the poem, Footprints in the Sand, right?
Pastor Doug
You see two sets of footprints. I’m walking alongside of you, right?
Pastor Doug
One set of footprints, I’m carrying you. But how about this, where you see one set of footprints is where I carry you?
Pastor Doug
That long groove is where I drag you, kicking and screaming. God does not give up.
Pastor Doug
God brings us along no matter what. God’s love, hesed, is a steadfast love, a loyalty, even in our loss and our grief.
Pastor Doug
When we think things couldn’t get any worse, God is there. In the little things and in the big things.
Pastor Doug
When things are really tough. When things are very difficult, God comes on the scene.
Pastor Doug
God doesn’t abandon us. God carries us, sometimes dragging us.
Pastor Doug
But God will not abandon us. So as we walk through Ruth, we’re going to hear about two women and how they respond to what God is doing.
Pastor Doug
Will Naomi begin to see God differently? Will she see that even in loss, even in grief, God can work with all things that come our way and her way to change us and those around us?
Pastor Doug
Will you hear that? Will I hear that?
Pastor Doug
Well, you’ll have to stay tuned. And for those of you that grew up in the time period that I did, come back.
Pastor Doug
Same bat channel. Same bat time.
Pastor Doug
I’m adaptable. I think you guys do this to me on purpose.
Pastor Doug
Yes, yeah. Yeah, that happens.
Pastor Doug
Hey, does everything go perfect for you all the time? Really?
Pastor Doug
Really? It doesn’t always go perfect? Yeah, that’s not the way it always is.
Pastor Doug
Are you ever sad? Do things happen that hurt your feelings sometimes?
Pastor Doug
Yeah. So is God still there? See, I don’t need to do anything else.
Pastor Doug
They got it. Yes, no matter what, even when things aren’t going good, God is there.
Pastor Doug
In fact, God’s probably there more when things are bad because you need God. You need Jesus to be with you during those rough times.
Pastor Doug
Like a friend says something nasty to you, or maybe you lose something, or maybe a pet dies. There’s all sorts of things that can happen.
Pastor Doug
That doesn’t mean God has abandoned you. God is loyal.
Pastor Doug
You know what loyal is? Will never give up.
Pastor Doug
Always be around. Loyal.
Pastor Doug
Like friends, hopefully your best friend is loyal. Will always be there.
Pastor Doug
And that’s who God is. I’m going to give you a fancy word.
Pastor Doug
You ready for a fancy word? They’re going to get more on it, but you get a preview.
Pastor Doug
Okay. It’s called hesed. Ooh, hesed.
Pastor Doug
Steadfast love. That’s who God is for us.
Pastor Doug
He is hesed. Steadfast.
Pastor Doug
Always steady there, loving you no matter what. That’s who God is in Jesus for us.
Pastor Doug
Can you say hesed?
Speaker B (Children)
Hesed.
Pastor Doug
Remember, hesed. Hesed.
Pastor Doug
That’s important. That’s God is steadfast love.
Pastor Doug
Are you waving to God? Give me five.
Pastor Doug
All right. Let’s pray, all right?
Pastor Doug
Praises, God. Thank you for your hesed.
Pastor Doug
Help us to remember your hesed when times are good and especially when they are bad. And all God’s children said, “Amen.” Now, I hear boy, you’re just anxious, aren’t you?
Pastor Doug
Do you know what she’s anxious about? Now is time to go to Sunday school.
Pastor Doug
Got to get out of the way quick.
Chaplain Leonard
Reading this morning from Ruth 1:1-22. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
Chaplain Leonard
So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Eli-Melech, and his wife’s name was Naomi.
Chaplain Leonard
And the names of his two sons were Mellon and Kilian. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem, Judah.
Chaplain Leonard
And they went to Moab to live there. Now, Eli-Melech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
Chaplain Leonard
They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about 10 years, both Mellon and Kilian had died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Chaplain Leonard
When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to aid his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. When her two daughters-in-law, she left the place, and she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Chaplain Leonard
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husband and to me.
Chaplain Leonard
May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye, and they wept aloud. And said to her, “We will go back with you, to your people.” But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters.
Chaplain Leonard
Why would you come with me? I am going to have any more sons.
Chaplain Leonard
Am I going to have to become your husband? Return home, my daughters.
Chaplain Leonard
I am too old and have another to have another husband, even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and to give birth to sons. Would you wait until they grew up?
Chaplain Leonard
Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters.
Chaplain Leonard
It is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord’s hand is turned against me.” At this, they wept aloud again. But Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth hung to her.
Chaplain Leonard
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her God. Go back with her.” But Ruth replied, “I don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.
Chaplain Leonard
Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Chaplain Leonard
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me the ever so severely, even death separate you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
Chaplain Leonard
So the two women went on together, and they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.
Chaplain Leonard
And the women explained, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she said. She told them, “My name is Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
Chaplain Leonard
I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi?
Chaplain Leonard
The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Chaplain Leonard
The word of the Lord. Thank you for your help.
Pastor Doug
Please rise if you’re able. The Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Pastor Doug
And Jesus is speaking. He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Pastor Doug
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Pastor Doug
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Pastor Doug
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” The Gospel of our Lord.
Pastor Doug
You may be seated. Thank you for doing that reading.
Pastor Doug
Where are you? Thank you, chaplain Leonard, for doing that reading.
Pastor Doug
That is words that I don’t want to have to pronounce. That’s the good thing about being the Pastor Doug.
Pastor Doug
I don’t have to read some of those tough words. There’s rarely tough words in the Gospel.
Pastor Doug
So we’re in the book of Ruth. How many of you can remember the last time you heard anything out of the book of Ruth?
Pastor Doug
Not too often, right? But we’re on a preaching series this summer.
Pastor Doug
And so we’re on a series. We’re going to be going through all of Ruth, and then we’re going through parts of Esther.
Pastor Doug
So it’s six weeks, four weeks of Ruth, and then two parts of Esther. So how many of you also know what the literal meaning of Bethlehem is?
Pastor Doug
Okay. So let’s set the stage. They’ve left Bethlehem to go live in a foreign land, right?
Pastor Doug
And they left because there’s no food. It’s a bad time.
Pastor Doug
And Bethlehem literally means house of bread. The house of bread is empty.
Pastor Doug
This is the time of judges, before the kings. People did whatever they wanted to do, what they thought was right.
Pastor Doug
There was nobody to centralize them around. They leave because there’s no food, and things happen to them while they’re gone.
Pastor Doug
Now, you heard me tell the kids about hesed, all right? And it’s important to know what hesed is.
Pastor Doug
That’s Hebrew, and it means steadfast love. So let’s read verse 8.
Pastor Doug
And I’m going to read it with this in there. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.
Pastor Doug
May the Lord show you hesed, steadfast love, as you have shown hesed, steadfast love to your dead husbands and to me.” Not kindness. Steadfast love.
Pastor Doug
For some reason, somebody decided to translate it as kindness, but it’s much more than kindness. Steadfast love.
Pastor Doug
That’s loyalty. Loyalty that God shows to us, and we hear Ruth is showing to Naomi.
Pastor Doug
A loyalty. A staying with Naomi.
Pastor Doug
But more than that, she stays and chooses to follow Naomi’s God as well. Not her God, but Naomi’s God.
Pastor Doug
Naomi told her to go back to your land and follow your God. She said, “No, your God will be my God.
Pastor Doug
I will be with you.” Now, you remember this guy called Abraham? Anybody ever heard of him?
Pastor Doug
Father Abraham? Well, if you remember, he was given promises by God, right?
Pastor Doug
You’re going to be a father of a nation. And he continues to follow God.
Pastor Doug
God gives him promises. What promises were given to Ruth?
Pastor Doug
Not a single one. But she chooses.
Pastor Doug
She chooses to be loyal. Even in all her loss, she chooses to be loyal to Naomi and to Naomi’s God.
Pastor Doug
And they go back to the house of bread where barley is being harvested. Food is coming.
Pastor Doug
So she chooses a path of continuing to be loyal and following, and she’s going to learn about who this God of Abraham is. With no promises that it’ll be good, but only that God is there.
Pastor Doug
Her God, Naomi’s God, will now be Ruth’s God. Wow, that’s a faith.
Pastor Doug
That is a faith. But how did Naomi react?
Pastor Doug
“Look what God did to me. Woe is me.
Pastor Doug
Look what God did. I’ve lost all this.
Pastor Doug
And who did this? God’s hand did this.” How many of you have had bad things happen in your life?
Pastor Doug
Yeah, the reality is we all have bad things happen in our lives. Some are very tragic.
Pastor Doug
Some are just little things. But we all have bad things that happen in our lives.
Pastor Doug
And it doesn’t mean God isn’t there. Life happens.
Pastor Doug
God will respond in those bad times. God does not cause those bad times.
Pastor Doug
Naomi said God caused this. But God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to our lives.
Pastor Doug
God will respond in those bad things for us. So Ruth and Naomi had off to Bethlehem.
Pastor Doug
One got a positive outlook and one not so positive. So how do you respond?
Pastor Doug
Well, you heard the opening song, the prelude, Desert Road. I don’t know if you remember.
Pastor Doug
I’ve requested that song before. I think Yvonne’s been playing that.
Pastor Doug
I didn’t ask for it, but it’s perfect for today. Ruth doesn’t know where she’s headed.
Pastor Doug
She’s headed down this desert road that has no idea what’s going to be happening. But we follow.
Pastor Doug
When I lost my call because of financial issues with the previous congregation, I didn’t know what was going to happen. And I knew it was a desert road.
Pastor Doug
I’m not patting myself on the back, but I chose to follow, saying the whole time, “You’ll take care of this. I don’t know how.
Pastor Doug
You’ll take care of this. You’re not going to abandon me.” I still had to do some work, nine different jobs to make ends meet, but you’ll take care of this.
Pastor Doug
Look where I’m at. I love being here.
Pastor Doug
I love being with you all. God took care of that.
Pastor Doug
Not me. I had nothing to do with it.
Pastor Doug
God did it. I’ve got a friend of mine whose daughter was murdered almost a year ago.
Pastor Doug
And an anniversary is coming up. And he could choose to say, “There is no God anymore.
Pastor Doug
How can there be God? God did this.
Pastor Doug
Took my daughter from me.” That’s not how he responds. It happens that the day that his daughter was murdered is the anniversary of the death of his previous wife, the mother of his daughter.
Pastor Doug
That double compound things. He’s going through a divorce right now.
Pastor Doug
His wife left him three months ago. He still is remaining faithful, knowing that God will take care of things.
Pastor Doug
He has not abandoned his faith. So yesterday, I said this, and he signed up for a dating app.
Pastor Doug
And I looked at my wife yesterday and said, “Don’t ever make me have to sign up for a dating app. I want nothing to do with it.” But I like what he did.
Pastor Doug
First of all, he said, “I only want Christians. I don’t want somebody that isn’t Christian.
Pastor Doug
I don’t want an atheist. I want somebody that I can share my faith with.” That was number one.
Pastor Doug
His first question that he asked people is, “So what does your Sunday look like to you?” Good question. And he said, “If they come back and say, ‘Sitting by the pool drinking mimosas,’ he said, ‘You’re out.’ But if they say, ‘I go to church and then I sit by the pool and drink mimosas,’ you’re in.” Nothing wrong
Pastor Doug
with the mimosas, but where’s the priority? The priority is God.
Pastor Doug
Priority is faith. Their mother, when his grandmother died, abandoned God, turned her back on God because something bad happened in her life.
Pastor Doug
But God doesn’t abandon us. God has hesed, steadfast love, loyalty for us.
Pastor Doug
Loyalty to us. To care for us.
Pastor Doug
To be with us. To walk with us.
Pastor Doug
The story of Ruth is a story of two women and how they respond to that. You all heard about the poem, Footprints in the Sand, right?
Pastor Doug
You see two sets of footprints. I’m walking alongside of you, right?
Pastor Doug
One set of footprints, I’m carrying you. But how about this, where you see one set of footprints is where I carry you?
Pastor Doug
That long groove is where I drag you, kicking and screaming. God does not give up.
Pastor Doug
God brings us along no matter what. God’s love, hesed, is a steadfast love, a loyalty, even in our loss and our grief.
Pastor Doug
When we think things couldn’t get any worse, God is there. In the little things and in the big things.
Pastor Doug
When things are really tough. When things are very difficult, God comes on the scene.
Pastor Doug
God doesn’t abandon us. God carries us, sometimes dragging us.
Pastor Doug
But God will not abandon us. So as we walk through Ruth, we’re going to hear about two women and how they respond to what God is doing.
Pastor Doug
Will Naomi begin to see God differently? Will she see that even in loss, even in grief, God can work with all things that come our way and her way to change us and those around us?
Pastor Doug
Will you hear that? Will I hear that?
Pastor Doug
Well, you’ll have to stay tuned. And for those of you that grew up in the time period that I did, come back.
Pastor Doug
Same bat channel. Same bat time.
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