The Power of Example (Mother’s Day)

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Power of Example (Mother’s Day). He will be reading out of Ruth 1:16, 19-22.

That’s the testimony that Ruth saw in Naomi, and that’s the testimony that this world needs to see in us. Even though we struggle, we have not given up on our God, and we have not stopped believing in our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Welcome to Hope Worth Having radio program. My name is Mike Sanders, and I serve as the senior pastor of the Open Door Church. We wish all moms happy Mother’s Day. And we want to talk about the power of example.

Let’s go to the book of Ruth that’s in the Old Testament, and we’re going to look at several verses in that first chapter. And we see the great example of Ruth and how she made impact upon others. And so join me as we begin our study.

I want to talk to you this morning about the power of example. The power of example. One of the ways that you can make Mother’s Day a very memorable and meaningful day of insight and renewal in your own heart is to take time today to read through this beautiful story that is found in the book of Ruth.

It may seem strange to you that the pastor would preach on Mother’s Day out of the book of Ruth because one of the characters is Naomi. And Naomi is Ruth’s mother -in -law. And you might say, well, why would you even talk about a mother -in -law on Mother’s Day?

Because the truth is all of us in many ways can learn even from our mothers and our mother -in -laws. And some of you ladies, you’re going to become mother -in -laws. And Naomi is a good example for our hearts this morning.

The question I want you to answer is your mother -in -law. you to consider this morning is why did Ruth leave her own family and why did she go to a foreign land with her mother -in -law Naomi. It seems such an unusual thing that she would do that.

Let me just bring you a little bit of context and background of the book of Ruth, but let me just fast -track you real quickly and that is Naomi and her husband realized that they were in a situation where there was much famine in the land.

Naomi’s husband was a limalek and he decided that we got to relocate so they moved the family to a place that is called Moab. It was far different than where they were in Bethlehem and they were in a land that worshiped strange gods, a land that was different from Israel and Bethlehem and here they were in this new land.

getting off to this new start. And it isn’t long in this journey of this new beginning that a limalek passes away. Naomi had two sons. They kind of stepped in when dad died and picked up the mantle and began to carry on the duties and the responsibilities of taking care of mom.

They married two young ladies from the land of Moab. Those two ladies, one of them was Orpah and the other was Ruth. And 10 years in their journey in the new land of Moab, the two boys, Naomi’s sons, passed away.

We come down to verse 16 and the boys have died, dad has died, and Naomi has decided that she’s going back to Bethlehem. She has instructed her daughter -in -laws to go on back to their families and to start all over.

We pick up in verse 16 and Ruth decides that she’s not going to. Orpah takes off, but here’s what Ruth says, in treat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go.

And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. I want you to jump down to verse 19 of chapter 1 of the book of Ruth. The Bible says, now 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 has 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 Moabites, her daughter -in -law with her, who returned from the country of Moab, now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of Barley Harvest.

Now, let’s go back to that question. Why did Ruth leave her own family to go with Naomi? And that she would move from the land of Moab, she was a Moabite, and that’s all she knew. And she now is following her mother -in -law back to Bethlehem.

Why did she do that? Such a unusual thing to do, and that’s what I wanna submit unto you, is that first of all, I am convinced that Ruth saw how Naomi handled herself in the family. Naomi continued to live a godly life of dedication to her God.

As a matter of fact, if we were to read the book of Ruth in Hebrew, and don’t worry, we are not. Every time that Naomi refers to God, or she refers to the Lord, or she refers to the name translated Almighty, she is referring to the God Yahweh.

That’s what you would read in the Hebrew, Yahweh. It’s not Elohim, which is certainly a name of the God of Israel, and refers to not only his ability to create, but it also refers to his great power, and certainly the Hebrew word Elohim is plural, and refers to the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, but she uses the term Yahweh, the name Yahweh, referring to God as being not only Almighty,

but that he is the personal Almighty Yah. When we think about all that Ruth has gone through, and all that Naomi has faced, it’s interesting to see how that as Ruth is observing Naomi’s life, she sees such a great example and a dedication to Yahweh.

To God himself, what Ruth saw in Naomi was that she was a good mother to her sons. Certainly if she was not, Ruth would have as well said, hey, I’m out of here, I’m going back to my own family, and I can’t wait to get away from this family.

But Naomi was distinct, she was different. She was a godly mother. She was a woman who was an example to Ruth. The Bible reminds us in 1 Thessalonians chapter one, and verse seven, the apostle in describing the church at Thessalonica said that you became examples.

He admires their example. He is affirmative of their example, not only within the church, but within the community, that they were individuals that others could. could look up to and that others could follow because they had been that godly example.

That’s exactly what we’re seeing here in the book of Ruth. We are seeing that Ruth saw Naomi, not only as a good mother, but a good mother -in -law. We see here as we back up into Ruth, chapter one, and I want you to look at verse eight, just keep your Bible open and follow along with me because the word of God is what changes hearts and will bless you and encourage you on this mother’s day.

But I want you to see that Naomi expresses her appreciation to both of her daughters -in -law. Look at verse eight, and Naomi said to her two daughter -in -laws, go return each to her mother’s house.

The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. Naomi takes the time to express to her daughter -in -laws how kind they have been to her as she has been dealing with the death of her husband, the death.

of her sons and she expresses that to them, that appreciation. We look at verse nine and we see that Naomi is expressing her blessings and a special prayer upon her two daughter -in -laws. Look at verse nine.

The Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. The Bible says, so she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. You can see the emotion that is there, the relationship between the daughter -in -laws and the mother -in -laws as you see this deep connection that they have and the love that is between them.

Look down to verse 14. The Bible says, then they lifted up their voices and they wept again and Orpah kissed her mother -in -law. But here’s the key, Ruth clung to her. You see, Ruth was very touched by how Naomi handled herself with her family.

I wanna remind every mom and I want to remind all of us that our success is not measured by what we have done, but by what those we have mentored have done and their successes. Naomi has incredible influence and incredible impact upon Ruth that leads her to make an open declaration in verse 16 that is often read at weddings and it’s a dedication of commitment and that she is going to go wherever Naomi goes and she says,

not only is your place my place, but your God is my God. She sees something different and distinct in her life. The Bible teaches us in the book of Titus, you can read it on your own in chapter two, but it teaches us that the younger women are to learn from the older women.

Ladies, part of your responsibility and really all of our responsibilities, but we are to take that time to mentor. and to invest into the younger generation. We know that there are a lot of differences and a lot of distinctions and even some dysfunctions in families today and some complications, but that’s why it’s important for you to step up in a big way and to be a godly example to the younger generation.

There is a great need for more Naomi’s to be influencing more Ruth’s in this world, that they would be such a powerful example. And you say, what’s the big deal, pastor, about this powerful example? Who cares?

Well, let me tell you something. Because of Naomi’s example that touched the life of Ruth, and if you know the story of Ruth, it’s such a redemptive and encouraging, not only love story, but it is a blessing to see a beautiful picture of how our Savior redeems us and draws us into the family of God.

You say, what are you talking about, Pastor? Well, you see, Naomi and Ruth are ancestors of King David, and therefore they are ancestors of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you take time, read the genealogy of the Gospel of Matthew, and you’ll see how Ruth is in that genealogy and that it is through her influence and who was she influenced by Naomi that would bring about our Lord and Savior,

Jesus, who would save us from our sins. Can God’s people say amen? My friends, the power of an influence, you don’t know the impact you’ll have from generation to generation. You don’t understand the power of your example and how it is influencing so many lives.

I want you to see that Ruth not only saw how Naomi handled herself in the family, but I want you to see the power of an example Ruth saw how Naomi handled grief. Let’s continue to study this text. You know the story, Ruth’s husband, Naomi’s son, he had died, and here we find that Naomi encouraged Ruth to stay in Moab with her own family while she went back to Bethlehem, but that was not to be, and that was not exactly what Ruth wanted.

I want you to see with me again here in verse 21 of Ruth chapter one, because Naomi is really being real with God. She is expressing her grief, and Ruth is observing this. Again, note in verse 21 of chapter one, I went out full, meaning she had left Bethlehem full, and I think what Naomi means is that she had her husband and her two boys with her, and that’s what she means by full, because truly,

if you go back to the early… parts of the chapter. They left Bethlehem because there was a famine. But see, the way a woman sees that what is full is her relationships. A guy says he is full when he’s had a good steak, amen?

But for ladies, it’s their relationships. And that’s why Naomi says that. In verse 21, I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty. She left with a husband, she left with two children, and she has come back empty.

Now I’m not sure how Ruth feels as she’s seeing that, but she says, why do you call me Naomi? Which means pleasant. She says, since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty, here is the word Yahweh, has in expressing her emotions, that even though she feels the very brunt of her suffering and her grief, she continues to refer to God as her personal Yahweh, that she has a personal relationship with God.

Even in her destitution, she is resolute in her spirit and she is determined that she will return home. She is not only real in her expression of her grief, but she is honest and she is human. Look, we back up into verse 20.

But she said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt with me very bitterly. The Almighty, again, the Yahweh, her grief was honest. It was human. I wanna say something about grief to be a help to you.

In your grief, it’s okay to express. What’s more important than suppressing your emotions and suppressing your feelings is for you to express your feelings and to feel safe to express that, to even express some of your doubts and your disappointment.

Here, we can sense from Naomi that she’s really disappointed in Yahweh. She probably cried and begged God to save her boys, to raise up her husband, but that was not to be. And Naomi is very honest. And when she is greeted with great hospitality by the community, she bluntly says to them, I mean, could you imagine welcoming somebody into your house and you say, come on in, my friend, and you call them by their name,

and they say, don’t call me that anymore. That’s their first response to you, call me bitter. This is how Naomi is feeling. She has felt the hand of God has been hard upon her and her family. She has experienced the famine, the move to Moab, the death of her husband, the death of her sons.

One blow after another has caused Naomi to say, I am bitter. That’s who I am. Back up to verse 13. She says to Ruth and Orpah, would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husband know my daughters?

For it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Naomi is taking it personal. She’s taking her suffering very personal. God is against me. His hand is against me.

She is struggling. She is being real with God. And so she is saying, God has dealt with me bitterly. But I want you to note that even as we are reading this, that her grief does not destroy her faith.

She is complaining against God. She does not understand why God has allowed this to take place in her life. She doesn’t understand all that she is dealing with. But deep in her heart, even as she expresses herself to her friends and her former families and her community that she goes back to, she continues to describe her God as the personal Yahweh.

And all along, Ruth is watching how she handles grief. Faith in God sees beyond any present setback, any suffering, any sorrow in our hearts. As we journey through life, we’re all going to experience setbacks, sorrows, and suffering.

There’s going to be tough days. Following Christ is not a bed of roses. It’s a life of sacrifice. It’s a life of devotion to Christ. And there are going to be moments and times that life is going to be difficult.

When our children were little, they would often like to say to me and their mother, that’s not fair. And I would say life’s not fair. And you say, you’re so mean. No, I’m preparing that this world, because of all the sin in the world, because of all the sorrow in the world and the sufferings in the world, it doesn’t seem to be fair.

And we wonder, and we might even question, but I want to encourage you this morning that every time we wrestle with God, remember that we can find comfort in his word. The psalmist said, my soul weeps because of grief.

Strengthen me according to your word. It is the comfort of God’s word. It is the hope of the truth of God’s word that continues to sustain you and strengthens you to take steps to move forward. This is why I say to you often, church family, that you need more than just entertainment.

You need something that is feeding your soul. You need something that is lifting your heart and strengthening your faith that is causing you to go deeper with God. And that is God’s word, because when you stand at the foot of a grave, it isn’t going to be entertainment.

that gives you hope or even help. It is the comfort of the promises of God. Naomi models for every mother this morning the way that God works through a woman who continues to move forward in her suffering, in her grief, even in the midst of a tragedy and a trial, actively seizing every opportunity that Naomi had, God provided for her.

She did not just hide herself and seclude herself and isolate herself, but rather she decided that she had to move forward and the way for her moving forward was to get back to Bethlehem and she started to move forward by moving to Bethlehem and God was working effectively in her heart.

And guess who’s standing by watching the whole thing? It is Ruth. She sees her honesty. She sees how real she is. She sees her frustrations. She sees her doubts, she certainly saw her tears. She is watching her mother -in -law, even through the valley of the shadow of death, finding comfort in God.

She is finding comfort in His word, and she is continuing to be active in her faith. The psalmist said, yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. When we study the Hebrew language, this phrase, the valley of the shadow of death, often meant the deepest darkness that a person could experience. The psalmist is saying that even when I walk through the deepest darkness in my life, God has not forsaken me.

God has not left me. I may not understand and I may not even agree and I may have my doubts and my questions and my anger and my frustrations. But God is with me. I want a God who lets me be real, and I want a God who even when I’m not at my best, He is still with me, amen?

You see, my friends, Jesus Christ not only came to this earth to suffer on the cross for our sins, but He came, He was called Emmanuel, God, with us. Jesus came not only to suffer for us on the cross, but He came to suffer with us.

Not like the gods of the world, not like the gods of other religions where their gods are distant and they do not manifest their presence and they are not real and they cannot be heard. Our God is a God who is here and He walks with us through the darkest of days.

The third and final truth that I want you to see in the power of example, the example that Naomi was to Ruth, Ruth saw that the source of Naomi’s strength laid in her faith, Ruth’s statement of her commitment.

to go with Naomi is a very classic statement. It is often referred to as a literary gem. And you will note again in verse 16 that it says, and treat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you.

For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people. And your God, my God. Whether thou goest, I will go. Having observed Naomi’s grief, and having observed how she handled and treated her own family, and how she invested in the lives of her own two boys, Ruth sees in Naomi her faith.

And even though she is bitter, and even though she is hurting, and even though she is struggling in the loss of her husband, and the loss of her two boys, we see this faith manifested, and Ruth says, I will go where you go.

There are. some people that I don’t want to go where they go, amen. There’s some people it’s difficult to hang around with. They’re always negative, they’re always critical, they’re always finding fault, they’re always complaining.

They always are able to point out the problem, but they never want to be a part of the solution to the problem, amen. You know those people in your life? Everything’s always wrong, and they always find something negative, and rather than getting in and say, hey, let me help you, you know what I’m saying?

They find something. But that’s not the way Naomi was. Ruth said, look, I want to go where you go, even though the path was rough, even though it was hard. Ruth was committed to going with Naomi to Bethlehem.

Some change paths as soon as it gets tough, don’t they? As soon as there’s a rough patch, you can’t find them anymore. They don’t respond to you anymore. As soon as things get tough, they’re gone. But Ruth’s not like that.

Ruth says, I want to be there with you, Naomi. I want what you have, because the real testimony of your faith is not, do I love God when the bank account is full, but do I love God when it’s empty? The real testimony of your faith is, do I love God when I have a job?

But do you love God when you don’t have a job? The real testimony of your faith is, do I love God when everything seems to be aligning right, and all my relationships are wonderful, and there seems to be no problems, but do you love God when there is so much sorrow, so much hurt, so much pain, so much difficulty in your relationships?

That’s the testimony that Ruth saw in Naomi, and that’s the testimony that this world needs to see in us. They need to see our faith as real and as raw and honest as they can see it, that even though we struggle, we have not been.

given up on our God, and we have not stopped believing in our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Following the Lord is not easy. It requires all of us to have strong commitment in our hearts. There are going to be moments in your life where you’re going to question, am I on the right path, am I doing the right thing?

But let me tell you, my friends, the benefit of following Jesus Christ and giving your life to Him fully and freely supersedes any sorrow, any struggle on this earth, because the Bible teaches us that there is one day coming an opportunity for all who believe in Jesus Christ to be in the place where our Savior is.

A place that is called heaven. A place where the dead in Christ shall rise and we which remain shall be caught up together to be with our savior forever and ever and ever and whatever you have sacrificed for God and whatever you have suffered for God and whatever you have endured for God will be rewarded to you 10 ,000 times in heaven.

The question is, are you that kind of a person who would go where other believers would go? Are you the kind of person who would say to even your savior, I will go where you lead me, Lord. Even though it’s not what I want, I will trust in you.

Even though the road is hard, I will trust in you. Ruth said to Naomi, your people will be my people and your God will be my God. She saw Jehovah, she saw Yahweh as superior to the gods of Moab. She realized in the life of Naomi that not only her faith was real, but her God was real and that she would rather follow Naomi and be a part of her life and a part of her people than to go back to the world and to go back to the false gods of this world.

In our journey of faith, you’re gonna be tempted to leave. You’re gonna be tempted to go back to the world. But I wanna tell you, my friends, the pleasure of sin is only for a season and that the Bible says we reap what we sow.

Everything comes full circle and you will regret ever walking away from the Lord Jesus Christ. But even when we walk away, we have the promise that we have a savior who is always beckoning and he is always calling us back to him and he is always imploring us to come and give our lives fully to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m grateful that the many times that I have stumbled and the many times that I have fumbled and I have failed God, that there is. There’s been a Savior who’s been right there ready to pick me up, restore me, and to redeem me and to begin to empower me to live a faithful life for Him.

Yes, the Bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth Him out of them all. The most important question that is upon each of our hearts today is who am I going to live Am I going to live for self, or am I going to live for Christ?

Never underestimate the power of example. If there’s anything that a mom needs to do is be an example. Nothing influence your children more than just being an example. And so we hope today that you’ll commit to do that and that you’ll make the promise to God that through His strength.

you’ll be able to live as that example. I hope the word of God has encouraged you today and we hope that you are encouraged in moms. We think about moms in heaven. We think about moms that maybe have lost a child on this day as well.

And so we offer our comfort to you through the word of God and we pray that God will continue to strengthen you on this special day of Mother’s Day and that you’ll be blessed and encouraged. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.