Christian Commitment
Ruth 1:6-18
-Last week we started our study into the book of Ruth. Only two books named after women, Esther and Ruth. The message in the book of Ruth is the message of Gods redeeming mercy and Grace.
-Last week we looked at the providence of God in the first 5 verses of Ruth. How the plan of God was fulfilled through a famine, a family moving to a sinful idol worshiping nation and Naomi's Husband and sons dying. We saw the providence of God when we looked into the Gospel of Matthew and the genealogy of Jesus how it all fit with Ruth marrying Boaz and having a baby named Obed who grew up and had a son named Jesse who fathered David and how that fits leading up to the birth of Christ
events outside of Naomi and Ruth's control but not Gods. It was all part of Gods plan.
This passage today is probably one of the most famous or well known from the book of Ruth. It is often quoted at weddings and engraved into jewelry, because it shows us what true commitment is all about.
Commitment is most certainly a message that our society needs to hear today that was evident from a letter that a young man was writing to his girlfriend. The young man poured out his heart’s devotion on paper as he wrote to the girl of his dreams: “Darling: I would climb the highest mountain, swim the widest stream, cross the burning desert, and die at the stake for you. P.S. I will see you on Saturday it doesn’t rain.”
As funny as that is it describes the idea that a lot of people have about commitment. We live in society where people promise to stay married until death and leave at the first sign of trouble, Promise to serve God faithfully but jump ship at the first big wave, commit themselves to church membership but quickly leave the first time someone disagrees with their opinion.
I want you to know today that this message is not for the world or the people who aren't here this is a message that everyone of us need to hear today and apply to our hearts and life. Apply it to our marriages, to our relationship with our Lord and to our church.
Naomi, Ruth and Orpah are left alone in Moab. Naomi hears news that there is food again in the land of Israel vs 6, “The she arose with her daughters-in-law to return form the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.”
-It is not a religious decision to go back to Israel, at this point it is a survival decision. There is food again in Israel so its time to go back home.
-Naomi tells her daughter-in laws to both go back home because she is too old to get re married and have more sons and in verse 13 she is starting to get a little bitter about her situation in life. She said, “For it is exceeding bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”
-her one daughter-in law orpah kissed her and turned back, but not Ruth. Ruth Clung to her
and that's when we see Ruths commitment to her mother in law Naomi. She says where you go I will go, where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people and your God my God where you die I will die and there will I be buried.
These are words of love. Love is best defined as commitment. And in Ruth's comments to Naomi we see the two most important parts of Christian love or commitment. Commitment to God and Commitment to one another
One time Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was and he broke it down into two very simple commands.
Mat 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
These are the two area of Christian love, Christian commitment that I want to talk about today and unpack from these words of Ruth to Naomi
Commitment to God
The first thing I want you to see about Ruths love in these verses is her commitment to God. The land of Moab served false gods. Ruth and Orpah would not have grown up serving the God of Abraham. Verse 15 says, “See, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods;”
but Ruth made a commitment to Naomi's God. She says, “Your God will be my God.” In order for Ruth to make Naomis God her God it would require her to forsake the gods of her land, the false gods that she was raised believing in.
When a person gets married they promise their love to one another. That love put into action is what causes them to forsake all others and cling to their spouse. Christianity is the same way. We Christ is not just something that we add to our belief system. In order to love the Lord thy God with all your heart. To be committed to him you have to forsake all other Gods and put him first
The very first command that God gives in the top ten is
Exd 20:2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Exd 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before me.
True Christianity is to love God with all your heart soul and mind. It is for us to be completely committed to God.
It is to be like the woman who came to Jesus in the gospel of Mark after she had suffered for 12 years with a disease and she had spent everything she had on doctors she came to Jesus and grabbed his garment knowing that only Christ could make her whole
Mar 5:25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years,
Mar 5:26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Mar 5:27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
Mar 5:28 For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well."
That's the type of commitment we need for Christ if we want to see change in our families, our church and our nation because it says by our actions that we believe Christ is the answer. Not the gods of this world, not money, not fame, not possessions, not politics, but God alone. It is a commitment that says I cling to Christ through thick and thin through the good times and bad times because I trust that there is no other God besides Him.
One time a rich young man came to Jesus and asked him what he had to do to have eternal life. He told Jesus that he had kept the law from his youth up and then Jesus told pointed out his lack of true love and commitment to God
Mat 19:21 Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Mat 19:22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Now Jesus didn't tell him this because it is wrong to have money or even great wealth. The reason he told him this was because this young man had made a god out of his money, he trusted his wealth more than God and he was unwilling to give it up instead he turned and walked away very sad.
See commitment is not just in our words, it's in our actions
1Jo 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
One man at his wedding told his wife that he loved her. He went on to say and I will spend the rest of my life proving it
Ruth demonstrated her commitment to God by leaving her citizenship, leaving her family, leaving her moabite roots and moabite gods.
Jesus demonstrated his commitment, hid love for us not just by pulling the disciples aside and telling them that he loved them. His commitment was clearly seen when he prayed before going to the cross and said Father if possible let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.
So often we are guilty of singing the great Christian hymns with half our heart in it
We sing
Follow! follow! I would follow Jesus!
Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on!
Follow! follow! I would follow Jesus!
Everywhere He leads me I would follow on!
While in our heart we are thinking as long as he don't lead me out of Monroe county or away from mom and dad
True Christian commitment is when we say God I am yours you lead me I will follow you ask of me and I will give.
When we say like the prophet
Isa 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
before we go on to the next point, I want to also stress that this commitment to God is a lifelong commitment.
Ruth said to Naomi in verse 17, “Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried.”
The true test of a person's Christian faith is not just walking the aisle and professing Christ, its not even getting into the water and being baptized. The true test is when a person forsakes all others and commits their life to Christ for a lifetime.
Mat 10:22 and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Here is where you have to be careful, It is not the enduring to the end that saves us, but the people who are truly saved the people who truly love the Lord thy God with all their heart soul and mind will not quit the race, they will endure to the end until we step over the finish line and hear God say well done.
The same is true in marriage. The person who is truly committed will not abandon the marriage they will stay together until death. Its easy to tell God that we love him and sing oh how I love Jesus. It's more difficult to still be singing those words after you have been betrayed by friends, been diagnosed with cancer, grieved the death of a love one, lost your job.
We know from scripture that Paul finished the race being committed to Christ. Before Paul came to Christ he had what appeared to be everything going for him in this world. A good job, lots of friends, good education
after he committed himself to Christ and the work of the ministry
2Cr 11:24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
2Cr 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
2Cr 11:26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
2Cr 11:27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, [fn] in cold and exposure.
2Cr 11:28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Its easy to sing oh how I love Jesus when everything is going good, but true Christian commitment to God is tested in the trials and hardships of life
ILL.- A missionary society wrote to David Livingstone (missionary to Africa – 1813-1873) and asked, "Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you." Livingstone wrote back, "If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all." That’s true commitment.
Ruth refused to turn back, but instead she chose to follow the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob
the second thing I want you to see this morning is that Christian commitment is also a commitment to one another
Commitment to One Another
In this passage this morning Ruth did only commit herself to Naomi's God, but she also committed herself to Naomi.
Lets look at what she says. “For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge.” Your people shall be my people where you die I will die and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Jesus said the greatest commandment was to love the Lord thy God with all your heart soul and mind and then he went on and said
Mat 22:38 This is the great and first commandment.
Mat 22:39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
That's exactly what we are talking about today and unpacking from this passage Ruth's commitment to God and to Naomi
and from that we can see that Christian Commitment is all about loving God, Being committed to God and loving one another, being committed to one another
This is why Christ set up his Kingdom on earth, the church to be a community of people coming together to love and support one another through good times and bad. That's also why it's important for us to belong to a local church.
It doesn't just mean that we come to church one a week and hug one another- its a commitment that goes a whole lot deeper than that.
Its about helping each other through the hard times of life
Gal 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Its about encouraging one another when we are down and out
1Th 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
Its about being honest with each other even about our weaknesses and praying for one another
Jam 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Its about rejoicing together and crying together
Rom 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
Rom 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. [fn] Never be wise in your own sight.
Its even about forgiving one another
Col 3:13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
Isn't that the same type of love that marriage requires?
Too often we see people in the local church who leave when hard times come into their life, or they are rejected by other believers after a weakness comes out into the light or a grudge comes between two members and they refuse to forgive.
That's not the type of love for one another that God is calling us to
true Christian commitment to one another means that we are going to stick together forever. There may be times when we disagree but this is the community I have chosen to commit myself to, there may be times when we even get mad at one another but this is the community that I have chosen to commit myself to
There will be times in the life of this church that attendance will be down and giving will be down there will be times when attendance is up and giving is up, there will be times when we laugh together and even times when we cry there will be some issues that come up that we will not agree on but if we practice what the bible teaches we will stick together through it all.
This is what Ruth says to Naomi where you go I will go where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people
we the church our family, and when the dust settles we are still brothers and sisters in Christ
In closing,
Lets remember to put into practice the message of commitment that we can learn from the book of Ruth, to be committed to God and to one another
because Christian commitment has a whole other side of the coin, it is the commitment that Christ makes to us
When we come to faith in Christ, that is when we are called by God and we repent of our sins and believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he died was buried and God raised him from the dead, at theat moment Christ makes a commitment to us unlike anything we have ever experienced
Hbr 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
Rom 8:37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
Rom 8:39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is my prayer that everyone here today is able to sing that song I have Decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back
and truly mean it from the heart that is shown by your actions
if not we want to give you a chance to come today
