Welcome to LIFEPOINT Online! LifePoint Online is a community of people all over experiencing God and connecting with one another like never before in history. You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you —just as you are. Introduce yourself in the chat and let us know where you're from! Next Steps www.lifepointnv.com/new if you are new. www.lifepointnv.com/next to take your Next Steps www.lifepointnv.com/deeper to take share your Story See what’s happening at LifePoint: www.lifepointnv.com/events Follow LifePoint Online Like our Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/lifepointnv Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/lifepointnv Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifepointnv Download the Bible App: www.bible.com/app Download the Church Center App: www.churchcenter.com/setup God’s everyday love Pastor Kile Baker - November 6th, 2022 Ruth 1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. 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 Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelek, 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. Judges 21:25 In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. Bethlehem - “House of Bread” Elimelech - “God is King” Moab - Tried to curse Israel (Num. 22-24). Ruled over Israel for 18 years (Judges 3:12-14) If we lose sight of God’s long term promises, we may only see our temporary problems. The danger of disobedience is that it takes us in the opposite direction of God. God uses discipline as a way of delivering us, not destroying us. When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. 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 husbands and to me. 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. 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. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!” At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” We can lose perspective on God’s sovereignty when we’re in personal misery. It’s really hard to believe God is in control, when our lives are out of our control. But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and 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 even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “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.” Untreated brokenness can lead to unimaginable bitterness. In one moment we may ask God to bless us and the people we love with His great promises; and in another we blame him for all the problems that we created. So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. God’s everyday love is that He loves everyday, and through everything that He does.