recently on a trip with family, I took my middle son carter boogie boarding, that's a lot of, a lot of fun and, and you know, I, I got me thinking, I wonder where they came up with the name boogie boarding, you know, maybe there was a meeting and I'm like, well we can't use surfing, we've got to be something completely different. Okay, well we got, well, what is it? It's, it's a board and it's, it's in water, what we could call it, waterboarding, Okay, No, not, not at all. That's not good at all. So, okay, we gotta get completely away from that. What's, what's something fun and just completely different. I don't know, dancing now, boogie, yes, boogie boarding. There we go. And so, so I'm boogie boarding with my son carter and, and the thing was, he liked to go to the kind of shallow waves at first and for a while we were catching some waves, but then he thought it would be fun if we could just ride over the waves. But the problem is, is that I'm not a small person and that's not the joke. That wasn't a joke. That was just a statement. There's people laughing in the room that's, I don't appreciate that, I'm now offended. Um and so no, I'm not, I'm not a, a small person. And so, uh, so what happened was I would be on the board and carter would be next to me and the wave would come and he would just kind of go over it and then because of my size, I would just kind of sink to the bottom and the wave would just hit me in the face and like, but he was having so much fun, I just stayed out there with him and so we're sitting there floating and uh and so he's having so much fun and I'm just repeatedly getting hit in the face wave after wave and it was fun in the moment with with my kid and and enjoying that time. But I wonder a little bit when it comes to change, how many of us feel that we're just getting hit wave after wave right? It seems like this past year. Well I'm excited that things are starting to open up that there were so many waves that came our way and some small but some maybe even in your life more like a tsunami tsunami, Japanese, two words that actually means harbor wave. It's so a wave that is so large it takes out harbor. And so some of us have been just facing so many difficulties in the past year and a half. Maybe you're walking through one right now or maybe you're doing great but you can think of a loved one who's walking through a difficult time. Well this summer what I want to do as we jump into some stories and books in the old testament. We're gonna spend the next three weeks in the story of ruth and here is this just a powerhouse woman, a woman of faith, This Mobi who just you're gonna see her incredible faith. And over these next three weeks we're gonna see how to deal with change, how to handle difficulties because change is unavoidable. The question is not just will you experience change, but rather how will you respond when the change comes? And so over the next three weeks to give you a little preview is that today we're gonna talk about finding trust in the midst of tragedy, We're gonna take a look at Ruth chapter one and then next week we're gonna see about how ruth was faithful, even in the field of uncertainty. We're gonna look at Ruth chapters two and 3 And then in week three We're gonna see how God's provision is greater than anything we could ask for and a message that's going to be called the lasting legacy of redemption. So I encourage you if you're watching online or here in the room making a priority of these next three weeks to be here every week because I think you're gonna get a lot out of it. I know for me in preparation for this series, God's been showing me a lot and I'm happy to share with you because when I get up here to preach for me preaching, it's not just something where I speak at you, but rather an opportunity for me to share what God's doing in my life and if God's working in my life, my prayer and hope is that God will work in your life as well. So if you have your bibles open up to Ruth Chapter one, but it's kind of towards the beginning there. But before we jump into Ruth chapter one, I want to give you a little bit of context of this old testament story. The story that we're going to read over the next three weeks took place around 1100 BC. So 1100 years before Christ and that seems like a long time ago. But if you think about it for a moment, here we are in 2021, so we're 2000 years past the life of Christ and now we're going about 1000 years, a little more than that before the life of Christ. And to put it within context, actually about 300 years before this story is actually when moses led the Israelites out of captivity out of Egypt, they got lost for 40 years, which is such a guy thing to do. But Um and so they got lost for 40 years, but eventually Joshua leads him into the promised land and all is great until it's not. And so what happened was they moved into the promised land and the Israelites started following and worshiping other gods. And so In Bible terms in historical terms between 1400 and 1100 is seen as some of the darkest times in world history multiple times in the book of Judges actually says this, I'll just quote two of them, two Judges 17 6 and the Judges 21 25 says in those days there was no king of Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So anything awful that you can imagine happened. And this is the context in which we have the story of ruth and so the story of ruth, even if you're questionable about, I don't know if I believe the bible or not is the way it's put together is so incredibly beautiful as a piece of literature. But when you put this beauty of ruth and her faith and obedience and her strength and her courage on the backdrop of what was actually happening and happening in the culture of that day, it stands out even more so and so in those days, in the Book of Judges, if you ever really want to be depressed, just read through Judges and you want to see the depravity of humanity of what happens when people are left to their own devices and their own desires and there is no justice and there is no worship. Well there is worship, but not of the true god. And and so it just gets to this darkness. So there's murder, there's killing, there's there's rape, there's all these these issues going on. And so that is the backdrop to ruth. So then now you have all this incredible horrible stuff going on. You add to it a famine. And here in the famine. This guy named Elimelech. He took his family and went 50 miles away to this town called moab with the hopes of okay well maybe they have food there. And so he leaves this little town of Bethlehem that sounds familiar. Right? We're gonna get to that in week three of why that's important. So he leaves the little town of Bethlehem where he was and then he goes and over to moab. But they run into some issues. So here's where we pick up our story Ruth chapter one verse 1 through five in the days when the judges ruled and there was a famine in the land. In other words when there is complete chaos everywhere. And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn to the country of moab And his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was at mill. Yeah Elimelech and the name of his wife was Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Italian and Chilean. And the app Aphrodite's from Bethlehem and Judah and they went into the country of moab and they remained there. Okay. So that's good. Right? But Elimelech husband of Naomi died. Oh that took a turn really quickly and she was left with her two sons. Okay. That's doing pretty good. And these took more bite wives. And the names of one of the rives was Oprah. Okay. Actually it's not it's it's or PPA but I really wanted to be Oprah. Right, Can you imagine just Oprah and moab? Welcome to moab. You get a donkey, you get a donkey. Okay sorry. This is how my mind works. Okay So he's got or PPA And then the name of the other is ruth and they lived there about 10 years. Then both million and Chilean died so that the woman was left without her two sons, her husband. So wow. So you're in a land of chaos, you're in a famine. You moved to this land moab, your husband dies. Your sons get married, the sons die. Now what? So now you're left with three characters you got or PPA Naomi and Ruth. We're gonna see these three characters today in a very sharp contrast of how they responded to tragedy. But you're gonna see this contrast in light of reality meaning my heart actually goes out to or PPA into Naomi into ruth. It's not like one person was just complete rejection of God and it was it was horrible. You you can actually see where they landed and how they got there. But you're also going to see a clear right choice of how to find trust in the midst of tragedy. So what were some of the challenges facing or PPA Naomi and Ruth first, the obvious one is physical, there was a famine. There's no supermarkets. Okay. So when the food is gone people die. So there was there was the whole reason they went to moab now they should have known that going to moab was probably not the best place to go because moab was actually the long descendants of lot. If you if for people who know the old testament of Abraham and lot and so in genesis, I want to say it's Genesis 19 verses 30-38 is where moab was founded and moab was founded by lot through a series of incest. That's how the town started. Not a great start. Okay, so mo bites was seen as a super pagan land. And so they had the physical challenge of the famine. But next they had in there they had the spiritual challenge. So started from some horrible situations and for hundreds of years now were worshiping pagan gods. And so they were battling things physically. They were battling things spiritually, a little crazy to think that Bethlehem, which means house of bread, experienced a famine and elimelech whose name means my God is king. But instead of being faithful in that moment, trusting God to provide said, nope, I'm gonna provide for my family and he leaves and then now there's famine there too. So they had physical challenges. They had spiritual challenges. But then next they had emotional challenges if you've ever experienced the loss of a loved one. I don't, I don't know how you respond because you don't you don't snap back from that, you're you're forever changed aren't you? For those who have lost a loved one, you forever changed and marked by that. You can move forward, but you'll never go back to how it was. And that's how tragedy works. You know, tragedy, you start out here, something tragic happens and you go down here and the reality is is you can never get back to how things were right. But thankfully even though you can't get back to how things were God can take you to somewhere new, it's more different to make you stronger for what is to come. Here's another thing that you don't, I didn't really think about until I became a parent. So they were married. The sons were married for two for 10 years. They didn't have kids. So back then kids meant inheritance and lineage and legacy and prominence. And so it was super important to have kids. So they actually struggled with infertility. So for or PPA and for ruth, they lost their father in law, they lost their husband and they didn't have any kids in the process. And so they they struggled with that emotionally with infertility as well. So they had a physical challenge. They had a spiritual challenge. They had emotional challenge. And then they had a mental challenge of just simply what in the world are we going to do because this is judges, this is the land where if you traveled by yourself, you were probably gonna get beaten up things done. This is where people could come take your land and if you can't defend yourself, you're unsure. What are you gonna do? Who are you going to report to? There really was no king. There wasn't really established law. So what what do you do? Everyone's out for themselves. And so here you have or PPA and Naomi and ruth and going, oh my goodness! What are we gonna do? So let's keep reading you guys encouraged it. Just stay with me here Verse eight. But Naomi said to her two daughters in law. Okay, go return each of you to your mother's house. May the Lord deal with you kindly me show you love and provisions as you have dealt with the dead. And with me the Lord that grant that you may find rest. That each of you in the house of her husband. And she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and they wept together and they said to her, no we will return with you to your people will go back to Bethlehem by no. Naomi said no. Turn back my daughters. Why would you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that may come. Your husbands. This sounds like a really weird verse. But you have to understand in those days that if husband died, it was the responsibility then of a brother to step in and carry on the family name. And so it's like I'm too old to have kids. Like I don't have, I don't have any more Children for you to marry. Like nothing's gonna happen. It says if I should um it says once again, she says turn back my daughters go your way for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say that I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore just wait till these babies grow up and they're grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, that the hand of the lord has gone out against me. And then they lifted up their voices and wept again and or Pra kissed her mother in law, meaning she kissed her goodbye and went back. But ruth clung to her and she said, see your sister in law has gone back to her people and her gods and return after your sister in law. Now, what's interesting about that word clung is is that it's the same word. If you if you think of the genesis account where it says when they're talking about how a man and woman should leave their father and mother and cling together cleave together and become one. So this idea of clung to or cling to is an extreme expression of loyalty. And so you have these three characters or PPA Naomi and ruth and you're gonna see three very different responses to tragedy. So the first or PPA or Burt responds to tragedy being broken. That makes sense, doesn't it? I mean it's her family but it wasn't her family. Like she married in struggled with infertility and then her husband dies. It's not my faith, not my people. Like she committed, she went a little ways. She started walking with Naomi, but after the third time that Naomi said no seriously go back. She goes I got nothing left, okay. It's not mad at or poor right? But you can see how she would get there, don't you? They're just broken. She's got nothing left. That's how you can respond to tragedy. We're all watching online or here in person knows someone who's responded to tragedy by simply being broken? Right? Then you have Naomi, Naomi actually would go on and she would change her name her name. Naomi means God is pleasant and she would change her name. Tamara, which means bitter. She literally changed her name to bitter. And that's another understandable response to tragedy, isn't it? When something bad happens, when something tragic happens, it's very easy to get angry at God. If you've ever had the metaphorical fist in the air to God God, how could you why, why would a good God fill in the blank. We all have stories like that, don't we? How could God if God is good allow this, she becomes bitter. So you can see the response of being broken, you can see a response of being bitter. But I want to encourage you, there is a third and better way and it's ruth, ruth. The mobile, not the jewish woman, not the religious pious woman, not the educated wife of a Pharisee political ruler, grew up in the church woman. No, this is the woman who has every possible reason not to believe in God, but it's her courage and her faith That now here, we are 3000 years later and she has a book in the bible named after her for her story and her response. We're not reading the book of or PPA we're not even reading the book of Naomi reading the book of ruth, it's because of her response. How did she respond? Let's read it Here in starting in verse 16, but ruth said do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you for where you go. I go think of the Carole King song, you know the Gilmore Girls theme song. Where are you going? I will follow. Come on, come on now you've seen Gilmore Girls. Okay, I'm not the only one. Don't give me that look. Okay, you felt the tension between Lorelei and luke. I'm just saying you felt the tension, you know All right, so ruth say no where you go, I won't go and where you lodge. I will lodge your people will be my people and this last phrase here think of the context and your God, oh my God and where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. And then chapter one finishes by showing back up to Bethlehem at the beginning of the Barley Harvest season, It lasts about two months. And what's interesting is that the barley harvest, the harvest of Spring Harvest represents both physically spiritually, emotionally and mentally. A new season. Yes, no husband, no sons, no food, no land, no house I'm gonna go. So how can you respond to tragedy? Well you can be broken like corporate, you can be bitter like Naomi or you can choose to be brave. You can be brave, turn to your neighbor and turn to them and say be brave. I'm telling you if you're walking through the fire right now, if you're walking through a difficult circumstance, I don't know all the details. But what I do know is that you have the opportunity to change the narrative and the story for legacies and generations to come. If right now in the middle of this moment you choose to brave. I want you to write this down either on your phone or you know somewhere I want to write this down that when you get hit by a wave, choose to be brave. When you get hit by a wave choose to be brave. Change is unavoidable, but how you respond is up to you and because of ruth's bravery, we have a story that shaped literally world history, but we'll get to that in week three, but it started with her being brave. The title This morning's message is finding trust in the myths of tragedy. Let me give you just a good definition of trust. Trust can be defined as the confidence you have in one's character and competence. Trust is the currency of every relationship, isn't it? It's the air we breathe, it's the money we spend in the relationships you every relationship needs trust. If you do not have trust, it will not work, friendships, parent child, siblings, coworkers, boss, employees, marriage. Any relationship requires trust and trust is your level of confidence and the other one's character and competence. In other words, do you trust that person? Because a situation comes up, A gap comes up between what was said and what was done and now you have a choice. Do you trust them or not? And if you have high character and you trust in their competence, their ability, then you can move forward. Okay think of this definition now and think about what it comes to trusting God in the midst of tragedy and ask yourself what is your level of confidence in God's first character, not circumstance, it's not confidence in your circumstance, it's confidence and character. Okay, I know this is bad, but God you are good, you are holy. And then the next thing competence, How powerful is God? You see God is all knowing, all powerful, all present, all loving and so you can have complete trust and confidence and God is your provider. God is your savior. God is your redeemer because he is perfect, he is holy and he loves you. So when your circumstances are bad, put your trust and your confidence in God's character and his confidence and say God, I don't know what's gonna happen here, but you do. So I will take that step, Ruth didn't respond to tragedy and said, I have a 15 step plan of how we're going to respond and get ourselves out. We're going to start a business, right? I'm gonna set up a booth that's gonna be called ruth's booth and we're gonna sell some stuff and it's gonna be great, we're gonna start our own business is gonna be awesome. Know what all she says, I don't know, but God does and that's enough. So Ruth lost everything, she lost her family, she lost her land, she lost relationship. But instead of focusing on what she didn't have, she focused on what she had, what did she have once he had life a lot of people were dying. It's your life. two, she had God, she had come to see the God of Israel As the one true God And then three she had Naomi she had family and for her that was enough to be brave. What do you have in your life? Who do you have in your life now? What was taken? But what is there? What is present? Let me give you three practical ways to be brave this week. Number one talk with gratitude. Who's in your life? Not who are the 10 people who left you? Who was the one who stayed by your side? Who is there? What do you have? You might have lost your job. You have a house, you might have lost your house but you have a car. All right. It's really hard to be grateful and worried at the same time. I'm not saying you don't but I'm just saying it's really hard to be grateful and worried at this exact same moment. So if you're worried, try focusing and what you have So talk with gratitude number two then is to walk with grit. Life is not easy and we know it we know it but we don't, does that make sense? We know it Like No one wants to watch an easy movie like that's not fun. Like you go to the movie theater and it's just like a couple that's already together and like they just go through life and it's all happy and he got the promotion and then the movie ends right? Like there's no movie called the peace agreement. Like there's no war. And like they just get along like the conflict makes the movie okay, well conflict is gonna shape your life. Nobody, nobody said it was easy, but we want that. So instead choose to walk with grit, perseverance, encourage. So talk with gratitude, walk with grit and lastly live for glory. That's what ruth did he? She didn't say, I don't know we're done. He said, your God is my God and I don't know what's going to happen. But he's got this, that's enough 18, 18. There's a little boy named Louis, his father trump made harnesses for horseback riding and other leather products and stuff. And so he wanted to learn the trade as a little kid. He went into the workshop and he tried to work on a piece of leather and start hammering with an all like it looks like a screwdriver. But it's just a point. The problem was he hit it, flipped up, took out his eye, a small child lost his eye and the other, I became infected. And so at a young age here is this child who could see completely blind fast forward a little bit outside. Someone hands them a pine cone a tree. I can't see anything but his fingers are pretty sensitive and so he starts feeling all the differences on the little marks of the pine cone. Like I got an idea and he goes, he takes an all the same instrument that took out his eye and he starts pounding little dots and he would create the first recognized alphabet and language for blind people and louis braille forever changed. How blind people can understand the world that is someone who took a tragedy responded and shape the world with his response. And you can do it too. Let's pray dear Heavenly father for those that are walking through difficult times right now. I pray that you would bring them comfort, bring them courage. You gotta help us not to respond and be broken like corpora, help us not to become bitter like Naomi instead help us to be brave like ruth, help us to talk with gratitude to not focus on what we don't have but on what and who we do have. God help us to walk with grit and courage and perseverance to overcome and help us then to live for your glory and not ours because God, we want you to work in our lives, we want you to be present. We trust you with everything that we have. We have complete confidence in your character and in your competence and while I don't know the future God you do and that is enough. And so we give our circumstances and our trials and our issues to you today. We love you. It's in your son's name. We pray Amen, will you stand with us here in the room if you're watching online. Find a quiet place, just take this to respond, saying that Yes, God, I will. I will believe in you. I will trust in you. I will give everything I have to you. We respond to him this morning.