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Good morning, we're in Ruth chapter number one. Ruth chapter one, the Bible reads, Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife, Naomi, the name of his two sons, Malon and Kileon, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came into the country of Moab and continued there. And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left and her two sons. And they took them wives of the women of Moab, name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other, Ruth, and they dwelled there about 10 years. And Malon and Kileon died also, both of them, and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for you had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. Wherefore, she sent forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters, why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, I should have an husband also tonight and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown? Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for agree with me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people and unto her gods. Return now after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, And treat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For where thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if all but death part thee in me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. So they too went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them. And they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, but call me Mara. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, we thank you for your word, and just ask that you would be with Pastor Mahia now, as he preaches it. Please just bless the preaching, help us to be edified, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Ruth chapter one this morning, and the subject I'm gonna preach on today is blaming God. That is the title of the sermon, Blaming God. Ruth chapter one and verse 19 says, So they went, so they too went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, is this Naomi? And they said unto them, call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. This morning I wanna look at the story of Naomi, particularly in the book of Ruth, and how she had essentially this attitude of blaming God for some of the evils that befell her in her life. Now what I mean by blaming God? Well, implying that whatever evil God allows or decrees in your life was wrong. Now we obviously understand that God is omniscient, he's omnipotent, and he knows the evil that's gonna befall us, but you know what? We can't necessarily give him credit for every single bad thing that happens in this world, and especially the bad things that happen in our life. Sometimes it's just a result of our bad decisions. Sometimes it's just a matter of someone exercising their free will to do evil upon you. We can't blame God for that, okay? And as weird as it sounds, one of the most natural responses that people have when bad things happen to them is that they blame God. Even if they are devoted Christians, they believe the Bible, they love the Lord, when evil befalls them, one of the most natural things for people to do is think to themselves, why did God allow this, or why did God do this to me? Seeing he is Almighty, he is all-powerful, why did that take place? And obviously, two of the reasons why people think that is because of the fact that God has a quality of omniscience meaning that he is all-knowing, right? He has perfect knowledge of everything that's gonna take place in this world, in our personal lives, in the lives of those around us, and so we automatically think that he knew this evil was gonna come upon me, he knew this was gonna happen, therefore, he could have prevented it. You understand what I'm saying? So people have that attitude, well, God is omniscient, he could have done something to stop this, but he didn't. Another reason is because of this quality of being omnipotent, meaning that he is all-powerful, he is capable, he is almighty, and therefore, he must be the person responsible for doing this particular thing in my life, and therefore, people blame God. Now, what is the danger in blaming God as a Christian? Well, number one is the fact that you can become bitter towards God, and eventually, no longer be devoted towards the things of the Lord, you can backslide, get away from God, get out of church, stop reading your Bible, therefore, causing the blessing of God to cease in your life, and eventually, in curing God's discipline on your life, understand? Because you don't have the right mindset, you're not thinking straight, you're blaming God for some bad thing that happened to you, and you almost become adversarial towards God in your mind, and then, therefore, you suffer the consequences because of it. To read to you from Isaiah chapter 45 in verse number seven, the Bible says here, God's saying, I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. Now, don't let this word evil confuse you. A lot of times, we associate evil or equate it with that which is sinful, that which is synonymous with iniquity and transgression, and throughout the Bible, that's definitely the case, but we also see that evil just means judgment, okay? It can mean something that God allows in your life that is judgment, it is something that's some type of chastisement, so when he says he creates evil, he's not referring to the fact that he creates sin because obviously, that's against the nature of God. You know, God's not tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man, the Bible says. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed, the Bible tells us, and so, when he says he creates evil, he's referring to the fact that he is the source of judgment, is there an evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it? You know, when you have these natural disasters take place in this world, hurricanes and earthquakes and all types of natural disasters, you know, we can accredit God for that, he's the one who decreed for that to take place because he does create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things, he says, and says in verse number nine, won't him that striveth with his Maker, what does it mean to strive? It means to fight, right? There's people in this world that strive with their Maker, they fight with their Maker. Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth, shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, what makest thou, or thy work he hath no hands? Won't him that saith unto his father, why beget us thou, or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth? What is the Bible saying here? You know, it's a really stupid thing when the create, that which is created tries to argue with the creator and say, why are you doing this? You know, why did you allow this? And what makes you think you have the right to do these things? And why is it stupid? Because you're the one who was fashioned, okay? By the creator, by the Maker, and every human being has finite understanding of life, okay? Whereas God has infinite understanding, and we don't see the bigger picture, and so it's a fool's errand to try to, you know, figure out why is it that God does all things, because at the end of the day, even if we had the answer, we still wouldn't be able to understand it, okay? And this is later reiterated in Romans chapter nine, where he says, nay, but oh man, who art thou that repliest against God, shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Okay? Now, that is taking place a lot today, where people are dissatisfied with their skin color, they're dissatisfied with the way God created them, they're dissatisfied with what gender they are, or whatever, you know? They're dissatisfied with their looks, or whatever it may be, and they actually reply against God, and say, why did you make me this way? Whereas the Bible tells us that we're fearfully and wonderfully made, the Bible tells us. So the way you look is exactly the way God wanted you to look, and in fact, he made no mistakes in how he formulated your DNA, and allowed you to have certain features, that's exactly how God wants you to be. And so, what the Bible's telling us here is that, we as created beings should never reply to God, and blame God, and shift the judgment on him, put him on trial, and seek to blame him for the bad that takes place in our life, okay? Now let me just say this, is that even though God is omnipotent, he is omnipresent, and to a certain extent he is sovereign, it doesn't mean that he is responsible for all evil actions in this world. There are certain things that people do out of their own free will, and we should never credit God for those things, right? And in fact, let me read to you from Jeremiah 19 and verse number five, it says, they have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal. What does that talk about? Infanticide, killing children, burning them alive, these are things that God's people in the Old Testament were participating in, because they're being influenced by the heathen, and it says, which I commanded not, nor spake it, listen to this, neither came it into my mind. He's like, I didn't even imagine such a wicked thing, but these wicked individuals are exercising their free will to participate in crime, and murder, and infanticide, but it's not something that was even created in God's mind, he never intended for that to happen. So you have people today that will look at all the ills of this world, all of the injustices of this world, all of the crimes and murders, and say, well, if your God is so powerful, why didn't he stop that guy from doing that to that particular person? You know why? Because of the fact that everyone has a free will, and God didn't create robots, he's not making you do something, he's allowing you to choose to do good or to do evil. You understand? And so are there instances where he, there is divine intervention, of course, but in general, the way God has structured things is for us to exercise our free will to do right, to search for the truth, and therefore, there are evil individuals in this world who are not being mechanically forced to do something by God, they choose to do it, okay? People are like, oh, I didn't have a choice or something, you know, and this is the way I am, this is the way I was born, wrong, okay? Everyone has a choice, everyone has a free will, stop blaming God for your bad decisions. And let me also say this by way of introduction is that one thing that people need to understand, especially Christians, is that evil befalls everyone. Okay? Bad things will happen to everyone, and in fact, especially to Christians. It's just how life is, okay? And that's not God's fault, it's the fact that we live in a sin-filled world, it's a fallen world where sin abounds, sin is present, and the effects of sin is also permeated throughout society, and so, you know, the law of numbers, so to speak, says that evil will befall us as well. And look, it's not like God didn't warn us about this either, because the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, remember thy creator in the days of thy youth, listen to this, when the evil days come not. So he's telling people, hey, when you're young, when you're a teenager, when you are a kid, you should think upon your creator, think upon your maker, because there's gonna come a day when evil will come upon you. You know, when you're a kid, you kind of live carefree, right? You just got your parents, you're having fun, you just do your homework, you play, you eat, you sleep, you bother your siblings, you're just a kid, and there's no evil day. But you know what, the older you get, the more you realize, man, this is a sick world. This is an evil world. And then you start experiencing that evil firsthand in your life. God told us about this. And the Bible tells us to take on the whole armor of God, listen to this, that ye may be able to stand, listen to this, in the evil day, having done all to stand. So he specifically tells us, you better prepare for that evil day, just because you're a Christian, just because you're saved, just because you believe the Bible, just because you go to church, doesn't prevent evil from coming upon you, because evil is just the natural things that happens to everyone. And in some cases, it's because we make bad decisions, in other cases, we suffer because of the bad decisions of others. We are victims of other people's decisions. And so at the end of the day, we just need to prepare ourselves for that evil day, so that it doesn't derail us spiritually, we don't get off track, and we don't do something as stupid as blame God for it, you understand? Because at the end of the day, when the evil day comes upon us, listen to me, God is your greatest ally. He's not your adversary, he's not the one responsible, he is your greatest ally, he is the one that you need to draw nigh unto, because at the end of the day, the formula of Romans 8.28 always exists, which is all things work together for good. And you know when we use that verse? Not when something good happens to us, it's when something bad happens to us. When we feel like there's no solution to whatever evil has taken place, we remind ourselves that somehow, God will take the ingredients of this evil situation, and work it out together for good, and still make muffins, and biscuits, and a good meal, somehow, because he's the chief chef, that can take whatever ingredients are in your life, and work it together for good. But you know a lot of people, they get to that point where evil happens to them, and they allow it to derail them spiritually, they get out of church, they stop reading the Bible, and they start holding God accountable, thinking to themselves, well he didn't do it to so-and-so, why did he do it to me? And why did this take place in my life, if I'm being faithful to God, I'm serving him, you know you're charging God foolishly, okay? And so evil befalls everyone, and I dare say that evil shall befall you this year. Evil may befall you this week, evil may befall me this week as well, we never know. All we can do is have a spirit of expectation that it will happen, and when it happens, we need to be ready for it, and not charge God foolishly. So let's look at the life of, with that being said, let's look at the life of Naomi, because Naomi isn't necessarily a bad person, she's just a victim of unfortunate circumstances. She's placed in a hard situation, where she basically loses everything that's near and dear to her heart, and she's left with virtually nothing, and I wanna look at some of the responses that she has to this particular trial. Now look at Ruth chapter one and verse number one, it says in verse number one, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land. Now what is a famine? Famine is when there's no food, okay? And particularly, specifically what this means is that there's no rain to rain on the crops, to water the crops, to produce the food, and so there is a dryness in the land, there is a dearth in the land, producing famine, people are starving, there's no food, and so what is the solution? Well it says, and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife, and his two sons. So the solution that Naomi's husband comes up with is that they're going to visit Moab, which they're not supposed to do, but they're gonna visit, sojourn means to journey in the land for a small period of time, okay? So it's like we're gonna go there for just a short period of time until we can get our finances and get food or whatever, it's not supposed to be a permanent residence, okay? They're gonna sojourn in that country with his family. Verse number two, and the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons was Malon and Killian, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah, and they came into the country of Moab and continued there. So it sounds like they didn't really sojourn there, right? And let me just say this is that, this is a side note here, you know it's always dangerous to take on a job that takes you out of the particular will of God, you're just saying well I'm just gonna do it for a little season so that I can get my bills paid, my debt and all these things, because sojourning may end up turning to a permanent state and you actually end up losing more of what's important in the long term than in the short term, okay? If you study sojourning in the Bible, it's like people go there to sojourn and it just never happens that way. Either they end up permanently staying there or they end up bringing back baggage with them that affects them in the long run, okay? You say well what should they have done? Well you know what, obviously we don't know the situation here, but in general, when God's people experience a famine, the geographical location never really mattered to God, because God can provide for anyone in any particular geographical location, in any state, in any nation, as long as they're depending on Him. And obviously we don't know the whole story, Elimelech is just trying to be practical, he might have made just a really bad decision of moving to Moab, or he was just trying to be practical, trying to get some resources and come back and feed his family, but what happened? It actually cost him his life to stay there longer, and we'll see later that it cost him the life of his sons. So now his wife is a widow, his daughters-in-law are widows, and it looks like Naomi still doesn't have anything. You know sin will take you farther than you wanna go, cost you more than you wanna pay, and keep you longer than you wanna stay. And so he says there in verse number three, in Elimelech, Naomi's husband died, and she was left and her two sons. And so the first tragedy that she experiences collectively with her family is famine, the second tragedy that she experiences is the death of her husband. And obviously we know death is gonna come upon our spouses and our family, it's gonna happen, but you can never really prepare yourself for something like that. Even though we know in the back of our minds we're gonna lose our spouse, or we're gonna be the spouse that our spouse loses first, at the end of the day, we can't really prepare ourselves for that because of the fact that we're humans, and sometimes we just take each other for granted, we think that we're gonna see each other tomorrow, and it's gonna be the same this week, and next week, and next month, and this year, but the reality is this, is that death can come upon us at any moment, right? And so here's the issue though, when it comes to this particular story, is that not to be insensitive, but think about this, if Elimelech lost Naomi, Elimelech could just continue to go, of course he would mourn, but he can work a job, and provide for himself, and for his sons, and just continue to live life. It's a lot harder for his wife to do that though, especially in these days, okay? Because biblically she's supposed to get married so that someone else can provide for her or go back to her family, but that's obviously not taking place here, so this is a very difficult situation for Naomi, her husband's dead, she's in a foreign land, it's not her home, look at verse number four, and they took them wives of the women of Moab, referring to her sons, the name of the one was Orpah, not Oprah, okay? Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth, and they dwelled there about 10 years, that doesn't sound like a sojourn, 10 years is a long time to be somewhere where you're supposed to only be visiting. And Malon and Killian died also both of them, and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. So what is the other tragedy that we see? She loses her sons. Now that's another thing that we can't necessarily prepare for, because as parents we believe that we're gonna outlive, or excuse me, that we will die before our children, right? I mean that is the natural course of life, that's how it should be, and so obviously it's a very devastating thing when parents lose their children, so she lost her husband, she lost her sons, I mean she's losing that which is near and dear to her life, look at verse number six. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. So it seems like if Elimelech would've just stayed, he would've been able to experience that provision of the Lord that she's hearing about in another country where apparently she doesn't have anything, where they went to go get something. Look at verse seven. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return into the land of Judah, and they only said unto her two daughters-in-law, go return each to her mother's house, the Lord deal kindly with you as the Lord has dealt with me? No, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me. I believe what's taking place here is the natural course of someone who is beginning to blame God, is that she implies that God is dealing kindly with others, but not necessarily the way she would wanna be dealt with. God's not dealing kindly with her. He's not providing for her, but God is helping them. And this is something that people will do when they experience evil in their life, is they'll begin to accentuate how much God is working in someone else's life, but not necessarily in ours. We're like, oh man, look how God's blessing them. Obviously, God's favoring them. Obviously, God's helping them, but here I am just kinda suffering. Oh, look at that marriage. That marriage is doing so good. Mine's not doing so well. Oh, look at their kids. Their kids are doing great, not my kids. Oh, man, look at this person got a job, and they're getting, you start comparing yourself to the blessings that other people have received and kinda indirectly blaming God because you're claiming that, well, God's not doing that for me. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have done to me, not necessarily the Lord. No, Naomi, God is dealing kindly with you, which is why you're alive, and you're getting an entire story in the Bible. And in fact, your daughter-in-law is gonna be a part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 10. It says, and they said unto her, surely we will return with thee unto thy people. You know, herein we find an anomaly because daughters-in-laws are getting along with their mother-in-law. That's not very common. See, Naomi, miracles are happening in your life. Because the daughter-in-laws want to be with the mother-in-law. They're like, we'll go with you. In other cases, they'll be like, have fun in Judah. See you later. We'll write to you every once in a while or something. This is very strange here, okay? I read this and I'm like, wow, this is another miracle that people don't really talk about. But what it shows us is that obviously they get along, and believe it or not, some in-laws do get along. Believe it or not. Not all of them, but some of them do, as we see here. Look at verse 11, and Naomi said, turn again, my daughters, why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons. Oh, I think I cut the verse here. I did cut the verse, let me see. Verse 13, would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for agree with me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. So obviously we see that she not only has this attitude that God's not doing good to her, but now she's declaring to her daughters-in-law that God's hand is against her. Now why does she think this? Because of her circumstances, because she's seen the death of her husband, the death of her sons, so she has this attitude of hopelessness, of thinking, what good can come upon me? Why would you wanna come with me, seeing that God's hand is against me? It's not like God's blessing my life or anything like that, so there's no reason for you to come with me, I can't offer you sons, for you to marry, so she has this fatalistic type of hopeless attitude because of what she's experiencing. Look at verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 14. And they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave unto her, and she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people and unto her gods, returned thou after thy sister-in-law. Now I always thought that was kinda weird because Naomi's a believer and the God of the Bible, and so in her mind, it's better for Orpah to go back to her false gods than for her to come with her with the true God, where she would be blessed. But apparently she doesn't think that she'll be blessed. Apparently she doesn't think that God can work in her life so it's just like, go back to your parents' house and to your gods. I mean, this is a wrong way to think. This is obviously an attitude that is, she's almost like taking shots at the character of God. She's so hopeless in this situation. You know, none of us, if we were to experience some sort of trial with someone, will tell any of our family members, cousins, in-laws, you know, it's just best for you to go back to the Catholic church. It's just better for you to join the Jehovah's Witnesses again or something, you know? It's crazy, but it's kinda showing you, you know, what her attitude is and the fact that she's so hopeless, she doesn't even think that God can work in her daughter-in-law's life if they were to come with her. Look at verse 20. It says in verse 20, and she said it to him, so make it back to Judah, and she said it to him, call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Because, you know, she comes to Judah and they're just like, is this Naomi? And you can interpret that a variety of ways. You can say like, or you could read that a variety of different ways, like, is that Mara? You know, maybe she has like a bitter face. Or it just could be it's been years. So she's aged, she looks different, and maybe they're happy to see her, like, oh, is this Mara? And she responds by saying, don't call me, or I'm sorry, is this Naomi? She responds by saying, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Lord had dealt very bitterly with me. Now what can we learn from that? Well, she's obviously making her misfortune her identity. So the bad that's coming upon her, it's not like she's just putting it on the back burner and just kinda leaving the past behind in Moab and leaving the misfortune and all that bad stuff that's happened to her. She's bringing that baggage to Judah, saying, you know what, I'm just gonna change my name completely to Bitter, because God had dealt very bitterly with me. So how awkward is that? Then when you're talking to Naomi, you're like, uh, Mara? You're just like, hey, Bitter. You know, but that's her identity now. And let me just say this, is that there's people in this world who literally identify with all their misfortunes. That's literally what they build their life around. That's all they want people to know them for is all the evils and bad stuff that happened to them, and that's just how they wanna be remembered and how they wanna be known. You know, I think of this particular story that's come up within recent months, Gypsy Rose, okay? And if you know anything about Gypsy Rose, you know, she had a lot of evil come upon her. Her mother did a lot of evil to her, and for selfish, wicked reasons, she had a bad mom. I mean, her mom just dealt very evil with her daughter and tried to cause her to think that she was mentally ill and had all these problems. I mean, it's a sad story, but hold on a second. Gypsy Rose then kills her mom, which is equally as evil. Murder is evil, my friends. But you know what? Today, in 2024, Gypsy Rose is like a hero. She's like super popular. On social media, people are praising her, they are exalting her, and literally her life is just based around the evil that came upon her. And I'm thinking to myself, what about like the evil that you've done, though? Yeah, right. I mean, obviously, her mom was evil and wicked, but folks, justice is blind, and she deserves the same punishment as anybody who murders anybody, even if the recipient of that murder is just as wicked. You understand what I'm saying? But now people are praising her, and all she's doing is building this platform based off of the ills that came upon her. And here's the thing, folks, is that obviously, you know, the evils that come upon us, the bad things that happen to us, it makes us who we are, right? They are essentially the building blocks to the character that we become, and they, you know, they make us, they make our character, they provide for our outlook, they mature us. But folks, let's not allow it for it to become our identity, where you are literally, you know what, just don't even call me Bruce, call me bitter. They both start with B. You know, don't call me Bruce, call me depressed. Don't call me Bruce, call me anxiety, or something, you know, just like, and that's what you want your life to revolve around. Folks, I thought, as Christians, our life revolves around Christ and his sufferings, right? You see, we exalt the sufferings of Christ. We exalt the afflictions of Christ. We preach Christ and him crucified. Not our misfortunes, and I'm not downplaying if something traumatic happened to your life, but let's just be real honest, a lot of traumatic things have happened to all of us, okay? And we can't necessarily try to build up a platform off of those things. You know, we need to make sure that God, that we recognize that God allowed some of those things in our lives in order for us to seek the Lord, to know the truth of God's word, to seek solace in the word of God, and to love the Lord, and recognize that he is the God of all comfort, and ultimately, so that we can help others who find themselves in that situation. You understand what I'm saying? Not to publicize it, and to just make it our identity, and I don't wanna call myself this anymore. My name is Mara. I'm bitter, I'm angry, I'm whatever. You know, can't be our identity. And this also reminds me of Jacob in the Bible. You know, think about Jacob in the Bible. He plays a very prominent part in the Old Testament, right? I mean, Jacob becomes Israel, who's the father of the 12 tribes, right? Well, when he goes to Egypt, and God provides for him and his sons, he receives Joseph again. He realizes that Joseph is not dead, and he has his family. Joseph has now preserved the lives of those in Israel, and all of their families, and their children. Well, then Jacob goes to meet Pharaoh. And at this point, Jacob is like old. So he looks old. How do we know that? Because Pharaoh's like, how old are you? And I don't think he's just trying to make conversation with them. Like, oh, how old are you? You know, he's just like, how old are you? Let me read it actually, because it's funny. It says, verse eight, Pharaoh said unto Jacob, how old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, listen to this, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. So yeah, he probably looks really old. Might have some wrinkles. He might be sagging a little bit, okay? But listen to this, few and evil have the days of my years of my life been. Well, first of all, didn't you just say that you lived for 130 years? How is that few? What? He's 130 years, and he's like, few, and by the way, not just few, evil. Really, because from what I remember, I think God delivered you and blessed you, and his hand was upon you, and you actually, your name isn't necessarily Jacob, it's actually Israel. That's weird, but you know what? Bitter people only focus on, accentuate, the bad things that happen in their life. And it's just like, Pharaoh could have just been like, hey buddy, I didn't ask for your biography, I just asked, how old are you? He's like, few and evil have my days been, it's just like, I just asked how old you were, sorry. And you know what though, there's people like that today though, where it's just like, how's it going, and then just like throw up all of their trauma upon you, just like, whoa. Well, I'm doing good too, you know, it's just like. I mean, I remember back in the day, we had a person in church, and this person apparently, supposedly, experienced some traumatic things with their husband, but anytime you'd have conversation with her about anything, it would always come back to how wicked her husband was. And you know what, anybody who had a conversation with that person would always leave grieved. Like, my soul is vexed, and then they wouldn't wanna talk to her anymore. Why, because it's just not a pleasant thing to have a conversation with someone that lives in the past, you understand? We don't wanna be people that live in the past, we obviously understand that we need to not forget our past to a certain extent and learn the lessons from it, but to only live in the past and not be in the present and look forward to the future, it doesn't make for good conversation, and in fact, it makes you just a bitter person. Folks, there's people who literally had traumatic things happen to them 30 years ago, and they'll talk about it today as though it happened yesterday. There's people who will talk about traumatic experiences that happened to them as though it just happened yesterday. You know why? Because they're constantly thinking about it. And let me just say this, is that if you had some sort of traumatic experience happen in your life, one of the best ways to heal from it, I don't know if that's an appropriate term to use, to heal from it, let me just tell you, just don't think about it. That's literally what you have to do. You know, I've had people remind me of certain traumatic experiences that I've had in my life, and I have to think about it for a couple minutes, I'm like, man, did that happen? And after a while I'm just like, oh yeah, oh wow, and then I start crying, and then I become depressed, and you know, I get in a fetal position, and you know, and stuff like that. But it takes me a while to remember, because I don't really like to think about those things. Why not only think about the good times, amen? You know, think about, but you know, people who are maras, people who want to identify as the mara, that's all they think about is the evil that came upon them, and they become bitter individuals, and they can't seem to get over it. But here's the thing, folks, is that, you know, Jesus Christ is acquainted with grief, he's experienced the greatest evil that this world can ever experience, because he took the sins of the whole world upon his own body, he was crucified for the sins of the world, and in fact, God the Father turned his back on him, he went to hell for three days and three nights, right? And so, it's important for us to realize as evil as we've had it, or the traumas that you've experienced, they pale in comparison to the sufferings of Christ, okay? And so, let me read to you from Ecclesiastes 9, verse 11. It says, I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bred to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, listen to this, but time and chance happeneth to them all. What does that mean? The Bible consistently teaches that if you wanna be successful, you gotta be diligent, and it gives these particular virtues that you should be exercising in order to attain these certain achievements, right? But let's say you work hard, you train, you do all these things, and you still don't attain it, and someone else who doesn't work as hard as you does, just mark it down as just chance. And you have to realize that life sometimes is just not fair, and when it's not fair, you have to realize time and chance happeneth to them all. You're a hard worker, you didn't get the promotion, but the lazy bum who comes late and doesn't do anything does get the promotion. Okay, you know what? It's not that God's blessing this guy and he's not blessing me, it's just that time and chance happeneth to them all. And on that same token, it says in verse 12 of Ecclesiastes 9, for man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them. And what it's telling us here is just as it's by chance that good things happen to bad people, sometimes it's by chance that bad things happen to good people. You know, I think a great example of this is my father-in-law. He was a man of God, he was pastor in a church for 30 plus years and he started churches in the states and also in foreign countries. He reached a lot of people, he was very influential. All of a sudden, boom, he gets sick, can no longer pastor, is no longer the same person till this day. 10 years ago, had an AVM in his brain that ruptured, blood permeated his brain and permanently disabled him. As far as we know, he's still permanently disabled, he's not capable of speaking as much and you just think to yourself, oh man, why is it that this happens? Why did God allow it? Time and chance happens to them all. And I was discussing this with my wife and I was thinking to myself, you know, with my father-in-law, you know, it's easy to say, God, why did you allow that because he was doing so many great things. It's easy to just kind of say, God, why? But really, what I should be thinking is, you know, it's a miracle, the fact that God allowed him to live this long and accomplish all those things. Especially when you take into account that people who have AVMs, they rupture around the age of 20. His ruptured late 50s. And another miracle on top of that is that those who have ruptured AVMs, only 1% of them live. Well, he's part of that 1%. So instead of thinking like, why did God allow this, it's more like, wow, it's amazing that God allowed him to live this long, to start all those churches, to start those programs, to reach those people, to raise a family. That's the miracle in and of itself. And what I've learned when it comes to trials in people's lives is that we often blame God for things that he didn't do and don't give him enough credit for the things that he did do. He just blamed God, it's just like, it's not his fault. But then when good things happen, it's just like, your praise is nowhere to be found. Giving God credit for things that he actually did. Time and chance happens to them all, my friends. You know what, time and chance shall happen to you too. You know, you might be the lazy employee in this room that gets a promotion. You're like, wow, God's blessed me. Maybe just by chance, but you got that. But you might also fall in an evil net and you may think to yourself, well, why did this happen to me? Sometimes just by chance, sometimes just by chance, okay? And so don't make it your identity. You know, Naomi should have just stayed Naomi. And Ruth should have just been like, I like Naomi better. I feel weird calling you bitter. But that's how she wants to be identified as because that's how she's living her life. Look at verse 21. It says, I went out full and the Lord brought me home again empty. Why then call you me Naomi, seeing the Lord had testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me. So now she's blaming God for taking her family, which is kind of interesting because she's saying that she went out full and came back empty. But didn't they leave empty because of the famine? Now she could obviously be referring to her family and referring to the fact that she was full because she had her husband, she had her sons, but it's saying here that the Lord hath testified against me and the Lord hath afflicted me. And here's the thing. I don't believe God killed Elimelech or his sons. It's just kind of life. But sometimes when there's no one else to blame, then people just put the blame on God. When there's no other legitimate answer, it's like, oh, it must be God then. God's the one who did this. It's just life sometimes. The Lord hath testified against me. The Almighty hath afflicted me. He's the one who's responsible for this. He's the one who took away my sons. He's the one who took away my husband. I went out full, I came back empty. Well, it sounds like you actually left full and you're coming back even more full because Ruth is gonna marry Boaz and she's basically set, you know? Boaz is gonna take care of them. And of course, the rest is history. Look at verse 21 again. Actually, let me read to you from Ecclesiastes 9. In verse number one, it says, For all this I consider to my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. No man knoweth either love or hatred by all this is before them. All things come alike to all. There is one event to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean, to him that sacrifices and to him that sacrifices not. As is the good, so is the sinner. And he that sweareth as he that feareth an oath. This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all, yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and madness is in their heart while they live and after that, they go to the dead. What is he saying? Here's what he's saying in a nutshell. You're all gonna die. Everyone dies. There's one evil that no man can prevent and that is death. Of course, that's unless of course, you know, the rapture takes place which obviously is a separate situation there but in general, for the last thousands of years that we've existed on this earth, people just die and it's not because God is evil, it's not because it's just not fair, it's because of the fact that we are sinners and we have a cap of life. We can't necessarily live on forever here on this side of eternity. Death will come upon us and it's crazy that we've lived, humans have lived in this world for thousands of years and we can't still get used to that, right? Which is completely normal obviously. I'm just saying like, you know, death, even though it's happened for thousands of years, it still catches us by surprise. It still hurts. It's called the sting of death, okay? And so obviously, that goes into the point of, you know, that's why it's important for you to get saved. Because death, you know, I don't want this to be a doom and gloom type of a sermon but you know, doom and gloom is part of the Christian life. But luckily, you know, if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you placed your faith in him for salvation, you have eternal life. The Bible says you'll never die. The Bible says, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And if you're saved and you physically die, you know what, your soul will be in the presence of God and in fact, at the rapture, he's gonna resurrect your physical body and transfigure it to be likened unto his glorified body and so shall you ever be with the Lord. This is why it's important for us as Christians that we, first and foremost, we get people saved but we wanna get our family saved. You know, you wanna get your brothers and sisters and friends saved because at the end of the day, you know, we want our loved ones to be in heaven with us, right? We want them to have eternal life. We wanna know them and see them for all of eternity. And so yeah, you know, death has a sting but the sting is removed once you get saved and all of us to a certain extent may fear death, you know, not necessarily dying but just the transportation of getting there, you know what I mean? We don't know how we're gonna die but quite frankly, you know, death is different for the Christian. It's just different. You know, for the unsaved person, it's scary. For the unsaved person that thinks that they're going to heaven, it's even more scary because they had this expectation they're gonna be in heaven and then boom, they lift up their eyes and hell being in torment. And so at the end of the day, obviously, you know, death is a horrible thing. However, for the Christian, it's just an end to this corruptible life to inherit in corruption, okay? Now let me just say this, okay, because we're talking about Naomi. Look at verse 15. And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back unto her people, she's talking to Ruth, and unto her gods, returned thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, And treat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest thou will go, where thou lodgest thou will lodge, thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Where thou diest thou will I die, there will I be buried, and the Lord do so to me, and more also if aww death but death part thee and me. Let me just say this, you know, if you're not a Naomi, I hope you're a Ruth, and you should be a Naomi to a Ruth. Excuse me, you should be a Ruth to a Naomi. Don't be a Naomi to a Ruth. You should be a Ruth to a Naomi. And you know what, we commend Ruth because she is a foreigner, right? She's a foreigner, she is not necessary, wasn't raised in biblical religion, she's part of paganism, but she's like encouraging her mother-in-law, she's like, you know, thy God shall be my God, your people my people, everything's gonna be okay. And obviously she had a lot of faith. And if you're not experiencing the trials and tribulations of Amara, and you're a Ruth, then look for Amara to encourage and to let her know, you know, we have God, we have the Bible, I'm here for you. You're not alone. Now go to Hebrews chapter 12, if you would, Hebrews chapter 12. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. And let me just say this is that sometimes it's hard to discern when evil things come upon us, what the source is. You guys understand what I'm saying? Like when something bad happens to you, you run through a whole slew of different thoughts like, is God punishing me? Oh man, it's because I didn't read enough Bible, or you know, I didn't get through enough chapters, or is it because I did this? You know, you start running through the inventory of certain things, and it's hard to kind of determine and pinpoint, you know, why this is happening to you, right? And that's completely normal. Now, here are the basic steps to figure out, to kind of narrow down why something is happening to you. The most natural response should be, good response should be, well, is there something in my life that God is not pleased with? Okay, in other words, do I have sin in my life? Am I participating in sin, and therefore God is chastising me, he's punishing me to get my attention. Now, after thorough inventory, if you say, you know what, to the best of my knowledge, nothing, I'm not involved in anything wicked, I'm not living a wicked life, then you're clear, God's not punishing you. He says, so what's the next thing after that? Well then, the conclusion of the matter is, God is just allowing this in my life to kind of prune me to help me to be a better Christian. Because here's the thing, folks, let's say you just, this is not gonna happen, but let's say you just never made a bad decision in your life, you'd be a horrible person still, with no character. We need spankings, we need chastisement, we need hardships, we need difficulty, we like need the evil to come upon our life, because it builds integrity. We need hardship because it builds character, it creates, listen to this, humility. And if you never had any hardships, you'd just be the most prideful person, the most arrogant person ever. But you know what trials do? They humble you. They help you to realize you're not as good as you thought you were, okay? So when you realize, well I haven't done anything wrong, so therefore this trial that's come upon my life, it's not a result of my actions, you know, that God is punishing me, you can come to the conclusion, well God is just allowing it to build character in my life. Maybe it's happening by chance, in either case, God is allowing it, because it's gonna help build character, okay? But in either case, we can refer to both of those cases because if you did do something, you know, you did commit some sin, and God is punishing you, it's still gonna yield the same results as if you didn't do something, and you're being punished. Did I lose you? You understand what I'm saying? So both categories will produce the same results. So it's either you make bad decisions, and God chastises you, and then you become better for it, or you don't do something bad, chance happens to you, evil falls upon you, and it yields superior results as well. You understand what I'm saying? Now I'd prefer the latter though, or the second one, because of the fact that, you know, I don't wanna live a life that's disobedient to God, I don't wanna be involved in sin, and here's the thing folks, is that when you commit sin, when you do things that are displeasing to the Lord, you kinda get a double whammy. Because number one, you get chastised by the Lord, but you also receive the consequences, built in consequences of your sin. You understand what I'm saying? Because there's built in consequences to our actions. So we not only suffer that, but sometimes we even suffer the chastisement of the Lord. Now look at Hebrews 12 verse 11, it says, Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. Now that's a word that we don't typically use today. Chastening just simply means spanking, okay? Whooping, you understand? And here's the great thing about getting whooped by God, is that it confirms that you're a child of God. Because earlier in the chapter it says, if you don't get chastening, then you're bastards and no sons. And no, that's not a bad word. It's a biblical term to say that you're not a true born son of God, because God's not gonna spank a child that doesn't belong to him. You know, the world is suffering the consequences of their own actions. It's not because God is like, trying to, you know, bring them unto him. He's allowing those things in their lives so that they can seek after God. But at the end of the day, we're the ones who are getting spanked by God. You understand? And so when you get spanked, it's just like, man, I can't believe God did this to me. Well, first of all, it's just showing that he loves you because whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. So it's confirmation that he loves you. And he's not gonna go and spank someone else's kids. You know, parents, if you know what I'm talking about, you're like at a grocery store and some kid's throwing a tantrum on the floor because he's not getting whatever candy. You know, I remember growing up, my mom, my mom and I used to go to the store and some kid would be throwing a tantrum and she was just like, just five minutes with that kid. But she wasn't gonna go over there and whoop him because it's not her kid, you know? And so it's the same thing with our God. That's what he does, okay? And it's saying there that chastening or spanking is not joyous. In other words, it's not like, man, this is cool. I'm so glad I'm getting spanked. That's actually grievous. You know, when God chastises your finances, it's grievous. When he chastises your health, it's grievous. When he puts chastisement in your relationships, that's grievous, it's not joyous. But it says it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. What does that mean? It makes you what God wants you to be if you respond to it correctly. He says in verse 12, Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, listen to verse 13, and make straight paths for your feet. So if you find yourself in a situation where you feel like you're being chastised, here's the good response whether it's your fault or not. Fix your ways. Like, man, am I not reading enough Bible? I don't know, but you should just probably read more Bible now, though. Am I not, maybe it's because I'm not praying enough. Maybe, so start praying more. Maybe it's because I'm not going to church. Yeah, so just start going to church. You know what chastisement does? It just causes us to, like, fix everything. It causes us to confess everything. It to search our hearts and to make sure that we're right with God. And then we start looking for deficiencies in our Christian life. You start increasing your prayer life. Maybe you start memorizing scripture. Maybe you go soul winning again. Maybe you're a little more kinder to others, not as prideful, not as arrogant. See how it kind of yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness? Because you want to be situated in a position where God's blessing you again and He removes His hand of chastisement from you. So in either case, it's going to work together for good. Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. In other words, you know, if you're getting chastised, don't be stubborn and just go out of the way. Don't become bitter towards God and say, man, this bad thing is happening in my life, therefore I'm just going to get out of church altogether. I'll show them. Who are you going to show? Who are you going to show but yourself? Don't let your feet be turned out of the way. You know, now's the time to get more devoted to the things of God, more committed to the things of God, get help, okay? Look at verse 14, follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness, you know, like Mara, springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. You know what I've learned is bitter people produce bitter people. A bitter mom will create bitter children. A bitter wife will make a bitter husband and vice versa. You know, a bitter friend will have bitter people around him or her because it permeates, it spreads. You make people miserable. It's like a disease and what God is saying here is like, you know, when bad things happen to you, you better make sure you have the right response because you might actually have a root of bitterness in you where you're incapable of forgiving, you're incapable of seeing things the biblical way to look things through the lens of scripture and then that root, that seed of bitterness gets lodged in you and then it begins to spring forth and then you begin to verbalize that bitterness to others to the point where it's just like, you can't even have a normal conversation to the point where you might just call yourself Mara. I mean, Naomi, her calling herself Mara is just basically 10 years worth of bitterness brewing. And obviously it was more than 10 years. Like over 10 years of bitterness just brewing and now she just can't seem to just live a normal life. For her, she's just continuously a victim. Let me say this folks, if you're a victim of someone else's bad decision, at the end of the day, you're still a winner though because you're a Christian. Like as Christians, we take the win. No matter how traumatic of experience you've had, at the end of the day, you're the one going to heaven. You're the one who has eternal life. You've got the Bible. You're in church. You got God's hand on you. You got God's blessing on your life and so why even dwell on the past, the people who have hurt you or whatever, if you could just realize how much you already have now and how much God has been good to you. But you know, a bitter person can't see beyond that. Okay. He says, verse 16, "'Lest there be any fornicator, profane person "'as he saw who for morsel of meat sold his birthright.'" Now go to 2 Corinthians chapter one, if you would, 2 Corinthians chapter one. I'm gonna make a couple of closing thoughts before I finish up here. You know, when you think of two people who in the Bible that bad things really, like really bad things happen to them, I think of two, right? You got Naomi, who experienced some pretty evil stuff, but she blamed God, even though God had nothing to do with it. And who's the other person? Job. Job had a lot of bad stuff happen to him. And you know what? God was responsible for that. So like Naomi, God had nothing to do with Naomi's situation and Naomi's blaming him. God had dealt very bitterly with me. He's afflicted me. He's testified against me. Then you have Job, who lost all his children, all his resources, all his cattle, all on the same day. And then apart from that, his wife is like, curse God and die. She was definitely not a Ruth to the Naomi. You know, obviously, you know, Job's wife, she also equally lost all that as well. But man, come on, can we go through this together? She's like, curse God and die. And then you just never hear from her again after that. And then apart from that, you know, God is communing with Satan and Satan is just like, you know, remove your heads and he'll curse you to your face. And then he comes back the second time and he's just like, touch his body and he'll curse you to your face. So then Satan touches his body and he gets all these boils on his body, all this disease. So aside from the internal grievances that he has, the internal affliction of losing all his children, all his resources and the respect of the community. Because according to the book of Job, Job, he was like, he's him. You know, the guy was like the main character. Like the way he's described in the book of Job, like people respected him, they looked for his advice. He was also a man of great justice. He punished the evildoers. Job was awesome. Like he had position, he had clout, so to speak. Now no one respects him. No one's going to him. And then he has these bozo friends come to him. Who instead of like weeping, you know, weep with them that weep, they're explaining to him why this came upon him and why he's such a bad person. Like for chapters on end. Okay, and let me just explain something to you, okay? If ever we have a church member who experiences some sort of like, you know, evil to that of that magnitude, don't say anything. Don't, no one wants to hear your biblical knowledge. Okay, we don't need you to quote Romans 8.28. Everyone already knows that. Okay, they don't need something from Hobby Lobby. They don't need you to explain, give a three point outline and sometimes all they need is like a hug and say that you love them, you're praying for them and you're there for them and that's it. Sometimes the best thing to do is just keep your mouth shut. But you know, and this is why Job says of his friends like, what did he say? He said, miserable comforters are you all. And he called them physicians of no value. And of course later on he gets recompensed by the Lord and the Lord like backs him up and then he shames his friends for saying those things about Job. But the point that I'm making is that when all those evils come upon Job and it's some pretty bad stuff. I mean like, I don't know if any human being has ever experienced the amount of evil that Job experienced in one day. Because he's getting bad news from like the left and right everywhere. Like he gets bad news here and then someone else comes in and gives him bad news. And then someone else, and he's just like, and then he rents his garments. And you know what he does? This is your fault. No, actually it says that he didn't charge God foolishly. He says the Lord had given the Lord had taken blessed be the name of the Lord. So when God says that Job was a perfect and upright man, oh yeah, he was telling the truth on that, for sure. That was not an exaggeration. Because for a man to lose that much and still say, you know, the Lord had given the Lord had taken blessed be the name of the Lord and all this, Job did not charge God foolishly. Even though God gave the green light on Job. So we see those two examples there. Naomi is like, God's like, I'm helping you. Like he's there for her and yet she's blaming him. Job is just like, God did it, but you know what? I'm still not gonna charge God foolishly. Because at the end of the day, he's too finite to understand why God does things. And at the end, Job had enough biblical wisdom to understand I shall come forth as gold. I know that my redeemer liveth. He emphasized the character and the nature of God. And then God came and told him about dinosaurs and all this stuff. And then he's just like, man. And then he was like, I'm really stupid, you know. And then he blessed them even more afterwards. But look at 2 Corinthians chapter one, verse three. It says in 2 Corinthians chapter one, verse three, why do trials happen? Well, look what it says. Blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation. Why? That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. So in other words, the reason, one of the reasons bad things happen to you is so that you can build experience to help someone else. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so are consolation. Consolation, another word for that is comfort, also abounded by Christ. So the same level of trial and difficulty and tribulation that God allows you to go through, he matches that up with the same amount of comfort. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same suffering, which we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. What is he saying? You know, don't be selfish. Realize that when you go through hard times, especially as a Christian, it's like to add more experience in your arsenal because someone down the road is gonna experience that same exact thing, and you kinda need to pull through this to kinda help them out with that. You know why we, those of us who have experienced trauma, came forth as gold? Well because someone else, when we were going through that trauma, shared the fact that they went through the same exact thing. And there's something innately within us that says like, well if this person did it, then I can do it too. If this person experienced that, you know, misery loves company, right? And it's just like if this person's hurting, this person went through this trial, I can go through it as well, and they look like they're doing fine, they look like they're not crazy, you know, they're not calling themselves Mara, I can do the same. And so you need to see the value in tribulation and evil, and obviously it's not pleasant, but when it comes upon you, don't have the Naomi attitude, okay? Don't have the Naomi Mara type attitude, where it's just oh, God did this to me, I'm blaming him, and all these things, and it's just like Naomi, you know, just be happy over the fact that, you know, the fact that you're home again, and you know, there's people who probably have had it, what if your daughter-in-laws died too? Then you wouldn't have, you wouldn't be in the lineage of Christ anymore. You wouldn't even be a story in the Bible. But because she, you know, had that attitude, and look, Ruth was blessed thereafter, and some of that blessing was poured upon Naomi, but you know, you don't really hear about Naomi in a positive light anymore after that. She just kind of remained Mara. You know what, at the end of the day, some people go through certain things, and they just die in that state. Don't be the Christian that dies a Mara. Stay a Job, amen? Don't charge God foolishly, and you know, allow yourself, like the psalmist said, to say unto the Lord, who do I have in heaven but thee? You know, if you feel alone, and you feel like no one's going, no one knows what you're going through, first of all, you have people in church, but let's just say you just disregard everyone in church. Let's say you're just that Naomi, well then you can say, like the psalmist said, who do I have in heaven but thee? You know, I have the Lord with me, and I shall not want, God is with me, he is acquainted with my grief, okay? He knows what I'm going through, and we have in high priests, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was at all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. And so, you know, the important thing is don't blame God, okay? Go through the right channels, go through the right biblical principles, and don't just shift the blame on God because you can't explain it, understand? Let's pray, Father, we thank you so much for your word, and Lord, pray that you'd give us wisdom and endurance when we do go through hard times, and a sermon like this is necessary every once in a while, just to kind of give a reality check that we will all experience the evil day where something bad is gonna happen to us that we can't really explain, and if we're not careful, it can cause us to shift spiritually where we can be on the decline, and I pray that you'd help us, Lord, to keep these things in mind, and not to be a mara, but rather to respond to the trial as a Job. We love you, we thank you, pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Please turn your song books to song number 27. Song number 27, The Old Rugged Cross. Song number 27, all together, nice and strong on that first verse. On a hill far away Stood an old rugged cross The emblem of suffering and shame And I love that old cross Where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners was slain So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay near In town I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Oh, that old rugged cross By the world as a wondrous attraction for me For the dear Lamb of God Left His glory above To bear it to dark Calvary So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown In the old rugged cross Stained with blood so divine A wondrous beauty I see For it was on that old cross To pardon and sanctify me So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown To the old rugged cross I will ever be true Approach gladly there Then He'll call me someday To my home far away Where His glory forever I'll share So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown