A Mom's Legacy

Happy Mother's Day. I'll add that to it's already been said multiple times, but the reality is none of us would be here without our moms. Some of you won't get that till you drive home, but uh it's impossible for you to be here without a mom. Oh, I'm blessed to have my mom here with me. I love my mom. I'm blessed that she loved me. And that she put up with my brother. Blessed that she loved God. Blessed that she puts up with my father. It's also blessed with a wonderful wife who's an amazing mother to to our daughters. I ran across these sayings that kids have said to their mothers. You know, moms, you you guys are just underpaid. Yeah. I'm going to say that again. Moms are underpaid. Yeah.

In fact, according to research from salary.com and this is current, the stay-at-home moms given all they've dealt with including the stuff they went through during the pandemic being available 24/7 365, this commitment averages your salary out at $162,581 a year. So, is there any moms underpaid in the room? Yeah. Yeah, underpaid. Here's a couple of things that moms have to deal with, okay? And dads, we we deal with stuff, but this this day is not about us. It's about the moms. Here's Here's a few things that have been written down recorded of actual things that have been said to mom. 10-year-old boy went to his mom and said, "Mom, I don't need a bath. You can just Febreze me." And I think, you know what, Tim? That might not have been a bad idea. Upon being asked to unload the dishwasher after dinner, the preteen daughter asked her mom, "Is there anything less strenuous that she could do?" One 4-year-old said, "If Jesus walked on water, Mom, I know he could do a great handstand." After getting in trouble for something, a little boy said to his mom, "I'm only five. I don't know all the rules yet." Another 5-year-old looked at his mom and said, "Mom, are the little flowers on the tomato plant the cheerleaders for the tomatoes?" One of my favorites, on a long car ride back from vacation, the 10-year-old boy told his mom that if his 8-year-old sister were miss was Mrs. Potato Head, he would have taken her mouth already. And then possibly my favorite, a little girl was studying her mom who had just had a baby a few weeks earlier and she told her mom, "I know where your belly went. It went around back." Oh my. Oh my. I think we'll all agree that a mom's work is never done. In fact, I was listening to the radio. In fact, I was I was riding with my 10-year-old daughter and we were listening to I believe it was Caleb and the lady on there, the DJ, said, "Moms, if you if you do if you need just about 10 minutes away by yourself and no bother, grab your cleaning supplies right now and go to the bathroom. Shut the door. Go ahead and and actually clean the toilet, but nobody's going to join you for that process. And then once you've cleaned it, stay in there for a little while and just enjoy the solitude."

For my message today, I want to take us to one of the smallest books in the Bible, but it has one of the biggest stories. We're going to go to Ruth chapter 1. And this is a message for moms, but it's also a message for everyone here today. I want I want to preach about a mother's legacy. And if I could give it a subtitle, I would say simply this, "Naomi's Mistake." Ruth chapter 1, verse number 19 reads this way, "Now the two of them," this would be Naomi and Ruth, "the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem, and it happened when they had come to Bethlehem that all the city was excited because of them. And the women said, 'Is this Naomi?' But she said to them, 'Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me.' So, Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest."

Naomi's mistake. Now, I've lived long enough at this point, 46 trips around the sun, to know this, that human perspective sometimes is lot like being on a submarine. I remember we went when I was younger to a theme park. I don't remember which one it was, but it had a submarine ride that you could go get on and I remember thinking to myself, "This is going to be awesome." Now, I don't remember where it was, but it wasn't at a big name place. It was some discount place my mom and dad took us to. Now, we go there and I remember being so excited to get in the submarine and thinking this is going to be amazing and awesome. I'm going to be able to see all this underwater life only to get in there and as we go on our journey and I look out my little window view that I can't see a thing cuz it's just some dirty nasty water. The only cool part about the whole deal was that you were in a submarine. Has anybody ever felt like your life perspective is being in that same submarine? Where you know you're going somewhere, but you're really not sure. You're trying your best to look out the window. You know you're moving, but you don't even know what's around you.

God's perspective, however, sees beyond what we do. See, God's perspective is a lot like the periscope on the submarine. It's able to get up out and above and see what's happening ahead. He sees not only where we've been, but also where we're going. And that's an important piece of information to have because we don't get that perspective often in life. We are stuck in the moment right now. I'm going to say that again. We are stuck in the moment right now. We We're not able to back up. We can gain some perspective from what we have done, but we're here. We're not even 5 minutes from now. We can talk about 5 minutes from now. Some of you can start a timer on your watch if you wanted to for 5 minutes from now, but we're not THERE YET. WE'RE PROBABLY going to get there, but we're not there yet and the truth is we don't even have a guarantee we're going to make it there.

In the Bible, God reveals himself and his view of our world and what he says and what he does. I love the story of Job. I love how Job's going through a a really difficult situation and you and I as as the reader, we get some insight that Job's not aware of. Job's just living life. Job's just in the moment. He doesn't realize that there's a lot more going on to the story and things transpire and he's dealt with with all kind of loss and tragedy and then as the story unfolds, we find where Job's actually saying, "You know what? I want to talk to God. I want him to come down right here where I'm at. I want to look at him eye to eye, face to face and I want to ask him a few questions." Boy, did he ever get his wish granted. Because God showed up and said, "Let me ask you some questions first. Where were you when I was setting the foundations?" Where were you when I was forming the world? And all of a sudden, Job realized, "You know what? He's God and I'm not." And that's a handy piece of information to know. You're not God. Look at your neighbor right now and say, "You're not God." Yeah, and I'm not either. There's only one God.

In Psalms 139, David tells us that because God is everywhere, unbounded by place, there is nowhere that David can flee from his presence. David was realizing and understanding this is a handy thing to know, is that God is everywhere, but I'm here. In the book of Revelations, God reveals himself as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who is unconfined by time. You and I, we are stuck inside of time. God is outside of time. Matter of fact, time is his invention. He took eternity and inserted time into it. Now, for some of you, I just short-circuited your mind. That's what that noise was.

See, here's something. God's perspective is beyond our finite understanding for he alone is able to see the world in its entirety, past, present, and future. And what we would do well to remember when we're in a moment that I don't like, that I'm not going to be here forever. This may be something I'm not happy about. This may be going on for longer than I wish, but things are always changing.

I feel like most of us are under the impression that we have a pretty good grip on life. But the truth is we're really bad at being able to completely interpret life. Many are the times when things happen in our lives and they seem like they're the worst thing that could ever happen, but that's simply not the case.

How many are willing to say that you've experienced something in your life and you thought this is as bad as it has ever been and will ever be in my life only to be proven wrong? In fact, you're probably a little gun-shy about even raising your hand because you don't want to go another round. I understand. How many know because of time passing and years of experience that often the things that seemed to be the worst oftentimes were blessings in disguise? Isn't it amazing how God works that way? In the moment when I was stuck, in the moment when I was unhappy, in the moment when I was facing this, I I thought this is terrible and why has this happened to me? Why has God allowed this to take place in my life? This is not how I envisioned, this is not what I had planned for, only to get a little further down the road and be able to look back and say, "Oh my God, how gracious and kind you were to me in that moment. I'm so sorry that I was complaining about what YOU WERE DOING. HAD I KNOWN THAT YOU WERE GOING to bring me to here and I had to go through that, I WOULDN'T HAVE SAID ANYTHING." BUT GOD DOESN'T ALWAYS reveal his plan in all the details to you and I. But God has a plan. Are you thankful that God has a plan? I am, too. In fact, I'm thankful not only does he have a plan, but even when I try to mess up his plan, he still is able to work it back to where it needs to be. What a good God we have.

It's hard to tell the truth about life because of our limited view. Life can be hard. That's the truth and none of us will make it through without scars. I've been in ministry now for 27 years, 18 of those in full-time ministry and the last eight as senior pastor of this amazing church.

What I have discovered and what I have seen is intellectual people, I mean real smart folks, take a skewed view of life because of one moment or one situation or one circumstance and they seem to write their entire life off as a loss because of that. Now again, I'm going to say that. I'm talking about real smart, intellectual. They'll get stuck in one moment, one set of circumstances and they begin to write off that life is only going to be this way from now on. That that they have done something so bad or that God doesn't like them or that God has forgotten about them or that God is is pouring out his vengeance on them and this is how their life is going to be from now on. Only to be shown that that was not the truth. Now do not misunderstand me. Things happen in life that that that will rock us at our core. Life throws us curveballs. We run into potholes and even tidal waves will come crashing in to our life from time to time, but we are so limited in our perspective, especially in those moments. We must be careful what we determine as a loss and what is a gain.

The truth I give to everyone, including the mothers in the room today, is that we are unfit to judge an unfinished life. I'm going to say that again. We are unfit to judge an unfinished life. Every one of us in this room, every one of us under the sound of my voice, every one of us who are watching online right now, we are all unfinished works. How unfit we are in reality to judge whether or not it is going to end up good or bad because we have no idea what tomorrow holds.

Even when things are bad and we know this because things get bad sometimes, God's word tells us in Romans 8:28 that he'll work all things together for good. SO EVEN WHEN I MESS UP, HE'LL TAKE MY MISTAKE, IF I'LL GIVE it to him, and he'll TURN SOMETHING GOOD OUT of it. Now it may not be immediate, but if I'll stick to God and stay close to him, he'll take the worst MISTAKE IN MY LIFE and turn that broken mess into some beautiful picture that will lead me back in his perfect plan and will in MY LIFE. THAT'S WHAT'S WONDERFUL and amazing about the God we serve. Is that even when it goes wrong, it can still be right. That sounds like a country song, didn't it?

So whatever you see in the moment, you need to know this. We are all unqualified to pass judgment on an unfinished piece of work. In fact, the longer that I live, the more I realize just how little I know about life. Ain't it amazing when you're in these first couple of rows right here, how you got it all figured out? How that nobody can really tell you what to do? I've said this before. When I I was a teenager, I remember struggling and fighting a lot with my one of my parents and and it's amazing how smart they got when I was in my 20s. Some people think they know it all, but more often than not they end up looking foolish.

The story that I read to you in our opening text, the scripture verses that were there, is one of the grandest stories in the Bible. It's a story of redemption of the kinsman redeemer. It's a story about a Gentile bride that is brought into the family of Boaz, the Jew. It's a story that ties into the story of Jesus. I love this story cuz it starts out in a very interesting way and if you've never read the story before, I encourage you, it's a small book, one of the smallest in the Bible. Go read Ruth, the four chapters are there.

We, as the reader, begin the story and we're given a little bit of information. We see that it talks about the fact that Naomi starts off and her family is facing some decisions that have to be made. Because of circumstances that are beyond their control, there was a famine in the land. So they're having to talk about survival and what we're going to do. This happens to us. You live long enough, there's going to come a moment in your family where you're going to have to talk about some real life situations because of what has been handed you, something out of your control. So we start this story and they are faced with a set of circumstances that there's no food to be had. They're going to have to do something. If they stay there, they're going to starve to death. And like a lot of us, they're having to make a pretty quick decision and sometimes when you're forced into quick decisions, you don't always make the best decision. So this is how the book starts right off the bat is Naomi and her husband Elimelech, they're they're making a decision that caused them and led them to move and they took their two sons and they moved to Moab because in Moab there's food. In Moab there's sustenance there.

Life will bring you to a point of making decisions and those decisions will lead you to a different place. Some decisions were made and sometimes decisions that are made cannot be undone. Sometimes you have to live in the bed that you make. Sometimes we have to to to to to live with a choice. At this point in Naomi's story, we do not know if this is a good move or a bad move. We just know they had to move. That was the choice they were given. We're not given the exact amount of time, but at some point after the move, she suffers an extreme loss. She has to deal with the loss and death of her husband. But things change. She learns to adapt to now understand that I have to live a life as a single parent.

She has her two sons with her. We are given a span of time that 10 years are passing and during those 10 years, her two sons marry women from Moab and it seems like there's been an adjustment and everything is okay in her life. It's not ideal, it's not perfect, it's not how she planned it, but it's going okay at this moment. But then, she's dealt another loss. We're not given the circumstances, we're only given the facts that she now loses both of her sons. First her husband, a readjustment, a resettling, a dealing with life, getting her back on her feet and then, another loss. This one tragic, she loses both of her sons.

All she's left with now is two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. And there's this whole moment of exchange when Naomi hears that God has blessed Israel, her homeland, and now there is food there available. So she's evaluating her situation because again there's a choice to be made and she looks at her daughters-in-law and say, "Look, the best thing you can do is just go back to your families." In fact, there's a whole exchange that takes place here where she says, "It's the best move." And they begin to talk with her and she says, "Look, are you going to wait I If I If I could even get married soon and I and I could have children, are you going to wait around for them to get old enough for you to marry them and move forward? Look, look girls, the best thing for you is just go back home." And they have a little moment where they're where they're crying and and it's it it's it's it's it's it's just little unfolding deal and Orpah goes home, but Ruth makes a pledge here. Ruth says, "No." We We seen it on the video a while ago where Ruth says, "I'm I'm going with you. Wherever you go, I'm going to go. Wherever you lodge, that's where I'll lodge. Whoever's your God is going to be my God." And there's this whole exchange there in this moment and they begin to head back home.

This is what has transpired to the point of the scriptures that I read to you at the beginning of this message. She's had to live a lot of life. She's had to make adjustments on the fly. Things have not gone the way that she planned for them to go. Things were not were were not according to the plan that her and Elimelech had had planned out for what they were going to do.

She had things really good when the story started. Even though there was a famine in land, she was blessed with a husband and two sons. The future looked okay. There was There was rumor in Moab of food, so they made a decision, but oh did that decision come at a high price. And now at least 10 years later, if not 13 years later, she's finding her way back home. She's coming back home now not the same way she left. She left, things were not perfect, but she had a lot of hope. She left, it was not the ideal circumstances and situations, but there was a lot of stuff in her life that was right. Oh, I'm speaking to somebody right now. You remember a time in your life when you had to make a few decisions because you were forced into them. Things were not so bad, but a choice had to be made. And but that decision seemingly set in motion other things that transpired. The domino was tipped and there was a much larger effect than you had ever planned to take place in your life.

For there is more than one Naomi in this room today. Naomi returns home broken and a battered woman, but upon her return, people recognize who she is. In matter of fact, there's an excitement about the fact that Naomi is coming home. We see this in verse 19 of Ruth 1. Now, the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem and it happened when they had come to Bethlehem, look, that all the city was excited. Now, Naomi's coming back. She has no idea what kind of reception she's going to receive. In fact, her perspective on life is somewhat skewed by her set of circumstances that she has lived through. And she has a hard time processing why there should be any joy in her life.

We see this in verse 20. And she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi." Naomi literally translated is pleasant or blessed. She doesn't like that that's what her name means in this moment. Because of what she's had to deal with and the loss that she's had to suffer in her life and all the circumstances that she's lived through at this point, when she comes back and somebody's excited and said, "Oh, pleasant one. Oh, blessed one. Oh, favored of God. How good it is to see you." AND NAOMI SAYS, "DON'T CALL ME BLESSED." OH, IF YOU'D known what I've lived through for the last 10 to 12 years of my life, YOU WOULDN'T DARE CALL ME that name. Call me Mara. Call me bitter. Call me disgraced. Call me forgotten. Because that's my life now. She didn't like the title that had been given to her in her life. In fact, she goes on to make accusation that says, "The Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me." We see that Naomi feels like God has judged her and God has been against her.

And what I see happening here is the same thing that I have seen over and over and over again in ministry. And it may be the same thing that somebody is going through in this room today here in listening to my voice. Naomi was allowing her circumstances to define who she was. She was allowing the circumstances to define who she was. The loss, the heartbreak, the sorrow and the pain. She had become identified with the circumstances and now her name, which meant pleasant, no longer did she choose that in her life. No longer did she believe that that was ever a possibility. Those were my past life. That's the way things used to be. No longer is it pleasant. No longer is it blessed. No longer is IT GOOD. BUT ALL I HAVE GOING FOR MY LIFE is bitterness. All I got going for MY LIFE IS SORROW. ALL I HAVE GOING FOR ME IS FORGOTTENNESS. GOD HAS PUT HIS HAND AGAINST ME. GOD HAS AFFLICTED ME AND I CAN'T identify with that name anymore. She was determined to change her name. No longer was she be pleasant from now on, only bitter. To Naomi, life had been one big failure, one big mess, just a joke. And I wonder if I'm speaking to anybody in this room today who feels the exactly the same way. Any mom, any dad, any individual who when you look back over your life so far, all you see is one big mess and failure and mistake after mistake and you think to yourself, "This is just how it's going to be. Life can't get any worse. I'm just a failure." But is that really the truth or is that simply your limited perspective and viewpoint in the moment you're living in right now? I wonder if anybody has bought into the lie that the enemy has tried to place on you that God has forgotten you and that you have you have been proven yourself to be unlovable and unworthy and that all you ever have to look forward to for the rest of your life is bitterness and heartache and pain and forgiveness. I'm here to tell you, quit listening to those lies right now. I don't know where you're at and maybe you feel like you're in that submarine looking out the porthole and all you see is murky water, but I'm telling YOU THERE'S A GOD WHO KNOWS RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE. And though the world may HAVE FORGOTTEN YOU, GOD HAS NOT GIVEN UP ON YOU one day of your life. For some here, if you had to give your life a grade right now, you would give yourself a failing score. Poor choices, mistakes, regrets. For some moms in the room, you live with such sting every time you see your children because you know that a lot of the things they've had to endure in their life have been directly reflected off of your poor decisions and choices that you've made. And even though you hope against hope that they'll turn out differently from you, the reality is that you're not doing the things you should be doing in your life to set them up for success. And that overwhelming tidal wave of guilt and shame comes crashing down on you every day in your life.

I want to point out something here about Naomi because she's making a mistake and it's a common mistake that many of us make in our life and that is the mistake of measuring God's wisdom by our wisdom. I'm going to tell you again, it's a mistake to measure God's wisdom by our wisdom. Naomi says, "I left this land full. I had a husband. I had sons. I had a bright future, but I return with little to nothing, only a daughter-in-law and she's a Gentile at that." But Naomi airs in measuring God's wisdom and plan by her human ability and understanding. To Naomi, things could not get any worse in her life. She had reached rock bottom and not only had she reached rock bottom, but she went ahead and built her house there and decided this is as good as it's ever going to get for me for the rest of my life. There were going to be no more happy times, only bitterness and only sorrow for the rest of her days.

And I wonder how many in this room doubt that the sun will ever shine again in your life. I wonder how many people have simply decided that this is as good as my life is ever going to be.

For in doing so, you are no different than the disciples were in Matthew chapter 14. As they are in their little boat rocking to and fro and crying out thinking that they're about to lose their life and all of a sudden Jesus comes walking calmly across the very problem that they're worried about and they have a hard time even trying to decipher who it was that was out there thinking to themselves that it's a ghost. THEY COULD NOT identify their savior because of their PERSPECTIVE OF THE PROBLEM THEY WERE GOING THROUGH. I'm speaking to somebody right now that you have decided this is just the way it's going to be and you have allowed your perspective of the circumstance to define how it's going to be when THERE'S A GOD WHO AUTHORED YOUR LIFE TO START WITH, WHO PLACED INSIDE OF YOU THE things that he DESIRED TO PULL OUT OF YOU ONE DAY, WHO SAYS, "THAT'S NOT MY PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE. THAT'S NOT WHAT I KNOW I COULD DO WITH if you could ever see a little bit further than the end of your nose to understand there's this hill OF GOD WHO'S ON YOUR SIDE."

Don't make Naomi's mistake. To think just because you can't see a way out, that means there's no way out. Don't make the mistake of interrupting life or excuse me, interpreting life through the narrow window of your circumstances.

Naomi comes back to her homeland, which means that she came back to the altars of her God. Back to the courts of his temple. I don't care how bad life has been to you. It's always good to come back home. I don't care how far away you've been. It's always good to come back to God's altar in your life. There were blessings there that can never be lost. There are blessings at an altar that can never be lost. Oh, you may have misplaced them somewhere outside these walls. You may have traded them off for something else, but I promise you, there are blessings that can never be lost at the altar of God. It's good TO COME HOME SOMETIMES.

WHAT NAOMI NEEDED in her life was a fresh perspective. If she could have just seen 3 months further down the road, how differently her feelings would have been. If she could have just seen Ruth gleaning in Boaz's uh uh fields out there and that Boaz welcoming her and redeeming her in the bright future that was ahead. And as I said already, we are a bad judge of an unfinished life. Naomi has interpreted her life wrong. Don't call me blessed. Don't call me pleasant. Don't call me those things. I'm not desirable. Call me bitter. CALL ME BROKEN. CALL ME LOST. CALL ME HOPELESS. CALL ME ANY OF THOSE THINGS. I CAN IDENTIFY with that. That's where I am right now. But somebody needs to know that's not where you have to stay. YOU DON'T HAVE TO STAY BROKEN. YOU DON'T HAVE TO STAY DEPRESSED. YOU DON'T HAVE to stay hopeless. YOU DON'T HAVE TO STAY CHAINED. YOU DON'T HAVE TO STAY ADDICTED. THAT'S NOT GOD'S DESIRE FOR YOUR LIFE. Even if you didn't choose it or if you did choose it, IT DOESN'T MATTER. YOU DON'T HAVE TO STAY THERE.

Naomi's mistake is often the same mistake we make in our lives. The mistake of thinking that temporary things the temporary events and the temporary places of life is permanent. Life changing, life ending. Name changing. The famous look at what the Lord did to me situation. We have heard in the story played out so many times in our life. Someone has it all and then some tragic event comes along and knocks them off their feet and takes the breath away from them and they don't know what to do and how to process this moment in their life and they become angry and bitter at God and blame the world for their everything being messed up. God put that ability into all humanity. Think about Eve in the garden. Adam when answering Eve uh because of the actions she took place and on and on it goes. We never really fully just own the moment. We're always deflecting and pushing away.

But here's a fact, God has a plan. God has a plan. Even if you don't have a plan, God has a plan. That's a fact. God has a plan and we have to trust that it's going to work out some way, somehow in my life. Here's another fact, he is better at fixing our lives than we are at messing them up. I'm going to say that again. This is a fact. He is better at fixing our lives than we are at messing that up. And that's saying something because some of you are really good at messing your LIFE UP, BUT GOD IS BETTER AT FIXING IT THAN YOU ARE AT MESSING IT UP. And here's another fact, he really does love you in the ups and the downs. FROM YOUR BEST DAY TO YOUR WORST DAY, GOD'S LOVE HAS NOT CHANGED ONE BIT ABOUT YOU. HE STILL SAYS YOU'RE MY BELOVED. YOU'RE MY PRECIOUS. YOU'RE MY CHILD. YOU'RE WORTH DYING FOR. NAOMI was the us short-sighted and only choosing to see the loss and not the purpose in the loss.

Please listen to me. As I know in this room and I I I'm I'm I'm not far from closing. I'm I'm not going to go I'm not intending to go long on Mother's Day. I'm getting ready to close. But here's what I know. I know in this room and these these days are hard. My my sweet wife alluded to it a while ago. These these days are tough. Because some some of you in this room, you're you're you're you're so happy and your life is full right now because your children are here or your grandchildren are here and and you are you you you you see that and and it's it's a great moment. Even though they may be maybe acting or not perfect right now, but you still they're in the room and that makes you feel good. But for some Mother's Day is tough because your mother's no longer here. For some it's tough because your relationship with your mother has always been strained. It's never been a good situation. For some of you this is a hard day because your child has been taken from you. For some of you in this room it's a hard day because your strongest desire is to be a mom. But God has never supplied a way. See, I I know I know in this room. That's just talking about the moms. Not to all the other individuals in this room who who are dealing with loss and pain and heartache and and I I did it's here. It's it's it's just called the brokenness of humanity. We all we all deal with it at some some level, some way, some point. It touches our life. We must be careful. We must understand that sometimes what seems to be losing is gaining. I I I'm I'm not Please please please please know my heart. I I I have no I have no way to explain why some loss has taken place. Why that seems fair and right. I I I can't do it. This is what I know. I that that that this word right here says to me that that he is love. And that I can't even understand love if I don't try to understand him. Because God is love. There's There's some things on on on this side of heaven, there's no human way to logically explain it to you. I have to trust that my great and good God in time and eternity will make all things come to make sense at some point. So there's something I can't My my father heart goes out and my my human heart goes out and and and I know some stories in this room and I hurt for you today because today is a a painful day for you.

But please please don't make Naomi's mistake and allow your present circumstance to define what God has for you. Naomi comes back and even though she's welcomed in and the and the city is excited to see her and they're they're ready to throw a party, she is so stuck inside of her circumstances that that VENOM POURS OUT OF her and says, "DON'T YOU DARE CALL MY LIFE PLEASANT. IT ISN'T ANYTHING BUT PLEASANT. IT ISN'T ANYTHING but blessed. You call me bitter. You call me forgotten. You call me unloved. Don't look at me with anything else but those eyes. But if she could only see what she had was enough. She discounted the fact that Ruth was there. She discounted THE FACT THAT GOD HAD NOT FORGOTTEN HER. AND THE VERY THING SHE TRIED TO KICK OUT OF HER LIFE CLUNG TO HER BECAUSE GOD HAD A BIGGER PLAN AND A BIGGER PURPOSE IN HER LIFE. OH, SOMEBODY OUGHT TO BE EXCITED RIGHT NOW BECAUSE WHAT YOU HAVE LEFT IS ENOUGH. WHAT YOU HAVE LEFT IS ENOUGH. DON'T MAKE NAOMI'S MISTAKE AND THINK IT'S JUST ALL A LOSS AND GOD HAS WRITTEN IT ALL OFF AND he's forgotten me. He has NOT FORGOTTEN YOU. HE DID NOT FORGET NAOMI.

He gave Naomi Ruth. And if you don't understand that I invite you to read the book because I'll give you the Kevin version. Ruth even though she was not a part of the of the bloodline, even though she's a Moabite. Moab We know how God viewed Moab if you study the Bible. In fact, at one point God says Moab is my wash pot. Common language, he says "Moab is my toilet." She's from the toilet. But all of a sudden, what seemed to be a castaway and and just simply garbage is clinging to her. She can't get rid of it. Because God says, "I'll take even what you think is waste, and I'll turn something beautiful out of it if you'll let me. I You You have gotten yourself so caught up in your circumstances and think that I can't reach you. I'LL TAKE TRASH AND I'LL WEAVE IT INTO MY eternal story of redemption. You think it's a loss. YOU THINK WHAT YOU GOT is is just simply a throwaway, BUT YOU GOT RUTH, AND THROUGH RUTH, I'LL TIE YOU IN TO MY ETERNAL STORY OF REDEMPTION."

They go back. Obviously, they're they're two widow women. What are they going to do? If you understand culture in that day, that's as bad as it gets. Two widow women, what are they going to do? How are they going to earn any money? Ruth simply says to her, "Can I just go into the fields? They're they're gathering some crops and most of the time they don't get every little thing that's in the field. I'll just try to go and pick through and see if I can gather just any little thing that fell on the ground. Just something for us to have a meal." But God in his divine plan of orchestrating everything around, Ruth finds herself going to Boaz. Boaz is actually is is a kin of of of Elimelech, her her Naomi's husband. He was He was He should have been the redeemer that was there. In fact, there it unfolds in Ruth when she finds out where or or Naomi when she finds out where Ruth has been when she comes home with a little stuff, she says, "Oh, it's good that you're there. He's actually our kin." And God begins to unfold this whole story.

But the story is much bigger than that because if you go back up the family tree, Elimelech himself comes directly from Judah. When Judah, for those theologians in the room, messes up with his daughter-in-law Tamar and doesn't fulfill the right of the kinsman redeemer, and then Tamar has to take things in her own hands and calls his hand out on it. He actually does what he's supposed to do. That's Elimelech's line. You can follow it down in Matthew chapter 1. So, already we have a sorted tale of God using what's not perfect and right. And then Boaz, that's Rahab's son. Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho who hid the spies, THAT'S BOAZ'S MAMA. WHY? BECAUSE OUR GOD SAYS, "I'LL take unconventional methods and weave that into MY STORY BECAUSE YOUR LIFE DOESN'T ALWAYS go according to plan, but even if it's not according to your plan, I'll take it and I'll make IT A PART OF MY PLAN. I'LL WEAVE IT INTO MY STORY." OH, I'M PREACHING TO SOMEBODY. DON'T MAKE NAOMI'S MISTAKE AND THINK THAT THIS IS HOW IT'S ALWAYS GOING TO BE. GOD'LL USE THE MOST UNCONVENTIONAL methods to WEAVE YOUR LIFE BACK into his story.

I'm reaching for a Naomi today. Ruth is enough. It was Ruth that marries Boaz, the kinsman redeemer. It's Ruth that becomes pregnant and through that child carries on the family name through Obed because Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David, King David. And if you keep following down 14 more generations and then 14 more generations, you get to Joseph, THE FATHER OF JESUS. WHY? BECAUSE THAT'S JUST WHAT OUR GOD DOES. HE WILL PULL YOU OUT OF YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES IF YOU'LL LET HIM, AND HE'LL REDEFINE AND GIVE YOU A LEGACY.

Stay with me. I want to end this today. What Naomi thought was a loss, God turned into a gain. God turned it into a legacy. I'm reaching for somebody today. Don't make Naomi's mistake. Don't redefine your name. Stop judging an unfinished life. No matter what the circumstances are, God has not stopped reaching for you. He is here today on this Mother's Day. He is reaching for somebody who is allowing the circumstances to dictate your life. God is fixing the move.

Close your eyes with me if you're comfortable. Your kinsman redeemer is here. And though you bring him nothing but ashes and brokenness, those are the very things he works the best with. Bring them to him and allow him to weave your story back into his redemptive life.