Making choices

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM 20 JULY 2025 am - MR T ANDERSON

JOSHUA 21 VERSE 25 AND RUTH CHAPTER 1 - MAKING CHOICES

Whenever you think of a title such as "making choices" your mind has already started to run away. When you think of the choices in life there are things you have done in life and you might think they are bad ones, we wish we hadn't bought that car or went on that holiday to that particular place. Maybe you shouldn't have done that one thing such as changing jobs because you have realised the grass is not always greener on the other side. There are a lot of choices we make - moving home for instance. Remember Lot who chose to move home to Sodom with his wife and family. I'm not sure if Lot was to stand here today would he say he regretted every hearing about Sodom? There he lost his wife, the respect of his children and his sons-in-law. Our choices are not always good. We make them every day. We choose what we wear. We make choices in the supermarket. We are always making choices whether we like it or not. One of the best choice we can make is to trust the Lord as Saviour. If you have made that choice your mind is already going back to that moment when you decided to follow Christ. "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Choices are always being made. We chose this morning to come to church. 

In our story today we read of a family. The nation is in a desperate situation. The nation has turned their back on God. "They did that which was right in their own eyes." They were doing everything contrary to the will of God. In the day of the judges lawlessness was rife. As we read the book of Judges we realise how desperate the situation was. God sends a famine. I want to look at 4 things today.

A great family. What a family - Elimelech, Naomi and their 2 boys. They are living in the midst of anarchy, a desperate rebellion against their God. There are times when Elimelech must have thought 'what are we going to do?' Elimelech was thinking of his wife and children. Elimelech's name means "my God is king." Here is a man whose name means this - what has he to fear? All around him things are going on and Elimelech thinks to himself 'how can I preserve my wife and children from starvation?' He begins to make choices. He is from a very godly family. Ruth takes us to the very coming of the Lord, goes right to where we have David and finally Jesus in the lineage of the coming Saviour. The royal family of God but this family is face with our second point - a famine.

A great famine. Elimelech finds himself in a famine. No food. What do you do if there is a shortage? We become very selfish. Elimelech thinks of himself, his wife and his sons. They need to move to where food is available for a short time. They went to live in Moab to survive this famine. They had every intention to come back. They were making a choice that was wrong. He was leaving the God in whom he lived and trusted in. Bethlehem means house of bread. Elimelech was turning his back on God. Why didn't he believe in God providing for him? There were hundreds living in Bethlehem who never moved but this family did. Moab was a godless nation. They had no thought of God in their heart. Elimelech's God was not honoured in the land of Moab. A ruthless, godless, pagan people yet Elimelech decided to go and live there. He goes with his wife and 2 boys. This great family are fleeing a great family and going to the land that was polluted with pagan gods. A land that did not have any time for the peopl eof God. Here he is going down and mixing with them against every principle he had been taught to do. They were not to intermarry with pagans. He goes from the house of bread and finds himself in this polluted godless pagan nation. It appears he has no problem getting somewhere to live. He is fitting in with the Moabites. He is thinking 'there is food on the table, everything is good, at least they will not go to bed hungry.' While they are in the land of Moab God begins to move.

The funerals. It was not long after they moved into Moab before Naomi lost her husband - he died in verse 3. He was the head of the home. Naomi describes herself as "bitter" verse 20. Why? Because they had turned their back on God. The 2 sons find themselves local girls, Orpah and Ruth. They marry and afterwards things get worse. Perhaps Naomi was looking forward to grandchildren but instead her 2 boys get ill and die. Now she has to return to the grave and bury her sons. Life is not good for this woman. These funerals testify to the consciousness of walking away from God. You are free to choose but you are not free from the consequences of your choices. The moment Elimelech decided to go from Bethlehem Judah he made a choice and the consequences would be hard. It was the same for the Prodigal Son - he chose to go to his father and ask for the money, he chose to go into the far country, he chose to spend his money. The consequences were that he had nothing left and was feeding pigs. He came back home a pauper. Elimelech made a choice to go to Moab with his wife and 2 sons. Now all 3 are dead.

A great farewell. Naomi comes to the point where she realises she cannot keep goin like this. She has come from Bethlehem to Moab but now she hears that God has blessed the land again with food. When she heard the she decided to return home, to go back to her people - verse 6. "There is bread again in the land." She bids farewell to Moab. She starts the journey home and turns to her daughters-in-law and tells them to return to Moab. She must have shown something that makes Ruth decide to go with Naomi. How would she have known about Naomi's God unless Naomi had shown her? Naomi encourages them both to go back home. "I left full now I am empty, I have nothing." She tells them to go back and asks the Lord to grant them rest and husbands back home - verse 14. They didn't want to do that, they wanted to go with Naomi. She convinces Orpah to go back home but Ruth bids farewell to everything. She had seen something different in Naomi's life and wanted it for herself. Even though Naomi had gone away from God's will and disobeyed God she still felt God had not forsaken her. Many commentators say that it was at this point that we see Ruth's conversion. She turned her back on the heathen land and put her trust in God. God can bring good out of bad. Ruth became part of the lineage of Jesus - Matthew 1 shows that she is mentioned. She went on to marry Boaz. God is in the business of changing things. 

The future - it is bright. When Naomi came back to Bethlehem the people did not recognise her. They questioned if it was really her. She had changed. Her countenance was sad. She told them not to call her Naomi but Marah - "for the almighty have dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty" verse 22. She came back to Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest. The fields were being harvested. God had visited his people again. The story is a beautiful one. We know what happens - how Ruth goes out to the field and meets Boaz. Eventually Ruth and Boaz marry and they have a little boy. Naomi became a nurse, a grandmother, a doting one. God has a future for you - it is your choice - will you let him have his way?