the unplanned journey to bitterness life pack
TRANSCRIPT
The Unplanned JourneySermon Notes
January 18-19, 2014
I. Hard TimesA. The famine
1. Moving to Moab2. The death of Elimelech3. The boys get married4. The death of the sons5. Time to go home to Israel
II. Naomi’s PerspectiveA. The common perspective on difficulties in that day
1. God gives good stuff and God gives bad stuffGod initiates goodGod initiates evil
2. God is only so bigGod rules over Israel, but not sure he is over other landsGod rewards and punishes people based on what they do, or how they are blessed or cursed by others
B. Naomi is bitter
C. Biblically speaking, hardship comes from:1. Sin - People do evil things that impact themselves and
others2. A Fallen World - When sin came, the world was put under
a curse. This affects the weather, random events, etc.3. The Prince of the Power of the Air - Satan, who was given
dominion at the Fall of Man, seeks to kill, steal, and destroy
4. Human error and foolishness - People make mistakes and act foolishly
5. The law of sowing and reaping - When we sow evil, evil returns to us
6. When we do things contrary to the laws of nature and especially to the laws of God2 19
Table TalkTeens
Question One:The story of Ruth shines as a bright spot during a dark age in Israel’s history.
Share how you can be a light in today’s dark world. Question Two:In verse 1: 6, this is the first mention of God’s name in the story. God himself is at the center of the book. This verse illustrates the mercy of the Lord.
How did God show his mercy in this verse? Question Three:The Lord supported His disobedient people with food. He visited His people both for blessings and for discipline.
What are ways that God has shown his blessing and discipline in your life?
Question Four:In verse 1: 8, the Hebrew word translated as “kindly” is often used to describe God and means “loyal love”. The word expresses both God’s loyalty to His covenant and His love for His people. Here Naomi expressed the hope that the Lord’s love would extend to her daughters-in-law, who were outside the land of Israel and were not Jewish.
Describe why God’s love is for everyone.
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III.The Daughters-in-LawA. Orpah
1. Her name means, Stiff Necked2. She is a kind, loving person but does not see what God is
doing3. She departs and goes home to her Moabite family
B. Ruth1. Her name means, Friendship2. She refuses to leave Naomi3. She swears she will NEVER leave Naomi4. She has a sense that following Naomi is following
God5. God will use Ruth’s strengths, her loyalty, kindness,
and faithfulness, to redeem the whole family
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Life Group Questions for January 18-19, 2014
Message =The Unplanned JourneyIce Breaker: Tell about one of the best days of your life.
Read Ruth chapter 1.
1. What do you observe about this passage?
2. Do you think Elimelech and his family should have stayed in the promised land and tried to make it through the famine? Or do you think they did the right thing in going to Moab?
3. Tell about one of the hardest times of your life and how God revealed Himself through it.
4. What does Ruth’s response to Naomi tell you about her character?
5. Naomi seems to blame God for most of her difficulties. Do you ever blame God for hard times? Please explain.
6. Has God ever brought a Ruth (a loyal, helpful, redemptive friend) in your life when you were going through difficulty? Please explain.
7. Have someone read verses 15-‐‑18. What do you think about Ruth’s commitment to Naomi?
8. See if anyone in the group can share some verses from the New Testament that help us understand what aUitude we are to have when times get hard and difficult.
9. Pray for one another.
Table TalkElementary
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Table TalkPreschool & Nursery
Scripture: Ruth 1: 1-9 Day 1: Read Ruth 1: 1-9Ask your child(ren) if they know the two major sections of the Bible (the Old and the New Testaments). Share a little about how the Old Testament is full of stories that happened before Jesus was born and the New Testament has stories from after Jesus was born. Day 2: Read Ruth 1: 1-9 againTalk about what happens in your family when things do not go as planned or something unexpected comes up. Do you get upset and throw a fit? In the story, things do not go well for Naomi and her family, but Naomi stayed strong. The Lord provided for Naomi. Memory Verse:“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” - Jeremiah 29: 11 Day 3:As a family, discuss some ways to work through unexpected changes or dealing with the unplanned. First, you can always trust that God will help you through. You can make up your mind to enjoy the new adventure God has given you. Maybe try to learn something new. Always pray and talk your feelings through with God. He will understand. Pray together and thank God for his provision. Activity:Team up into groups or two or three and hold hands or latch arms and take a pretend journey through your house or even outside. Let your child lead and take them in an unexpected direction or over an unplanned obstacle.
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Personal Devotion PagesThe following pages are designed to help you enjoy a regular time alone with God. We have divided up the curriculum to help us grow wherever we are at in our relationship with God and in our knowledge of His Kingdom.
LEVELS: Since we are a Colorado church, we use skiing imagery to communicate the different levels of intensity and time involved in relating to God.
BEGINNER: If you are new in your relationship with God, we encourage you to try the exercises under this symbol:
INTERMEDIATE: If you have walked with God for some time and would like a little more challenge and more time involvement, try the exercises under this symbol:
ADVANCED: These exercises are for people who have walked with God for some time and display maturity in their relationship with Him.
These exercises provide a practical way to encounter God and His truth on a regular basis. There are no rules here. Please don’t hurry through the process. Slow meditation and memorization seems to soak in better than cramming.
Enjoy!
Day One1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy
thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately.
2. Read Ruth 1.
3. Write down the name of some true friends you have in your life.
4. Take time to pray for people you know who are going through great difficulty.
Memorize James 1: 2-‐‑4.
Memorize James 1: 2-‐‑5.
Memorize James 1: 2-‐‑8
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“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me.”
~Ruth 1:20, NLT
Naomi and her family have left the promised land, the place where God promised to care for His people. Through the idolatry and sin of the Israelites, God allowed a famine to hit the land. Instead of staying and allowing God to provide, the family left God’s promised land and went to Moab, a country that symbolizes striving and a man centered lifestyle.
When things continue to go bad for Naomi (her husband and sons died), she sees this as God doing it to her. She tells her friends, Don’t call me Naomi (meaning, Pleasant), instead, call me Mara (meaning, Bitter), for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me.
The tendency for us all is to blame God. Yet, God delights in giving us a Ruth to bring us back to reality. God will use Ruth to reveal to Naomi that He has never left her or forsaken her, and He is the author of life, not death, the giver of redemption and grace, not bitterness.
Have you blamed God for bad things in your life? Why not take time to tell Him that you blame Him for the hard things that have happened. He’s a big boy. He can handle your honesty. Then, take time to do what few of us are willing to do: listen. Ask Him to give you His perspective on your hardships. Listening will require you to have an open mind and a soft heart.
Father, as I look at the hard things I have experienced, will You please give me Your perspective on them?
Day Five1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy
thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately.
2. Read Ruth chapter 1 again today and write down what you learn by re-‐‑reading it.
3. Take time to pray for your children. If you do not have children, then pray for the children in your extended family and ask God to reveal Himself to them in profound ways.
4. Finish your Bible memorization today.
Day OneElimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons. The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth. But about ten years later, both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her husband or sons.
~Ruth 1:3-5, NLT
Things seemed to be going so well. Naomi had married a good man from a well respected family and a respectable tribe of Israel. Over time, they were blessed with two healthy boys. As in most ancient cultures, boys were a sign of heavenly favor to a couple.
Then, a famine hit and the family farm became unfruitful. They had to leave their inherited land near Bethlehem and go east to Moab. It was the first sign that the family was headed down a hard path. Soon, the patriarch of the family died and Naomi was left without a husband in a strange land. Ten years later, for some unwritten reason, both her sons died as well. Naomi, whose name means, Pleasant, had become Bitter.
Over the years, I’ve met many people who were living large until tragedy struck. Bitterness moved in and their entire personality changed. They became angry, manipulative, fearful, sometimes overbearing, and sometimes completely withdrawn.
Hardship is an equal opportunity employer. It randomly chooses it’s victims, caring not the consequences. The overwhelmingly great news is that the choice to be thankful and grateful in the midst of hardship expels bitterness promptly.
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I will say, rejoice!~Paul
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Day Two1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy
thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately.
2. Read Ruth chapter 1 again today.
3. Has God ever hidden His presence from you? What did you learn from that experience. Write it down here.
4. Ask God to show you where you blame Him for difficulties in your life. Talk to Him about it. Tell Him your honest, frank feelings and then listen to Him.
5. Continue memorizing and meditating on the scriptures for this week.
Day FourAnd again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye. But Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi. “See,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.” But Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. I will die where you die and will be buried there. May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” So when Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her, she stopped urging her.
~Ruth 1:14-18, NLT
Orpah and Ruth were good Moabite girls (modern day Jordanians). They both chose to stay with Naomi. If Naomi hadn’t insisted upon it, I don’t think Orpah would have gone home to her people. But Ruth, whose name means, Friendship, refused to go anywhere but with Naomi.
This was no spur of the moment commitment. She had made a solid commitment long ago when she married a Jewish man. The rest of the book shows us that Ruth didn’t make spur of the moment, ill-thought-out commitments. She had chosen Naomi’s God when she married Naomi’s son ten years ago. She had made Naomi her mother at that time too.
Naomi had apparently treated both of these women well. It’s obvious that Ruth was responding both to Naomi’s character and the character of her God.
Father, as I read about Ruth over the next month, will You begin to teach me deeply about what it means to be a true friend? Teach me how to make commitments that stick. Teach me about grace and loyalty.
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Day Two...Both Mahlon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her husband or sons.
~Ruth 1:5, NLT
In a culture where women cannot work or make a living outside of the home, Naomi must have felt that her world had completely fallen apart. I’m sure she felt destitute, even though she had two loving daughters-in-law.
Proverbs 25:20 says, singing light songs to the heavyhearted is like pouring salt in their wounds.Spouting trite truths when people are crushed with grief feels the same way, but the truths of the Word are far from trite and silly. If we cannot find refuge in God in times such as these, then why worship Him at all? He is either truly Savior or He is impotent.
This is where the New Testament writers seem almost crazy. With one voice they all agree with James when he writes, Consider it pure joy when you encounter various trials! Paul adds to the nuttiness by saying this, For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! Peter, John, and even Jesus agreed and spoke vociferously about the need to praise God in the midst of overwhelming misery and difficulty.
As we read Ruth a few thousand years later, we see how happily the book turns out. We see how God came to the rescue! But Naomi, with her physical eyes, could not see the future redemption. We need to view life through our spiritual eyes of faith in order to see that God will always triumph and always come through for us!
Day Four1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy
thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately.
2. Read I Peter chapter 4.
3. Ask the Lord what He is trying to teach you through difficulty.
4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week.
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Day Three Day Three1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy
thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately.
2. Read James 1 today.
3. Bring at least three friends or loved ones to the Lord and ask Him to bring them to repentance and faith. Ask Him to show you how you can boldly love them and speak the words of Jesus into their lives.
4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this
week.
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Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD himself has caused me to suffer.”
~Ruth 1:13, NLT
This view of God comes to many of us when we suffer. Naomi believes God brought the famine that wiped out their crops. He killed her husband, then later killed her two sons. God has brought all this calamity upon her.
Help me understand something. If your dad gave you sicknesses and diseases, killed your loved ones and sent you packing to some other country because he started a famine, then told you that he did it because he loves you, would you believe him? I’m sorry. I don’t think I would want a dad like that.
Naomi’s view of God was prevalent in her day. It is prevalent among believers today. The belief says that God initiates such evil against us so that we will love Him more. Others believe that God initiates such evil against us because we deserve it - we did something really bad, and therefore deserve to be crushed and punished for our evil deeds.
God allows evil in our world, He does not initiate it. He allows it because we invited it into our lives when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. God’s purpose has always been to redeem us and save us from evil, not give it to us.
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
~John 10: 10
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