 chapter 1 and verse 16 and verse 17 and treat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you raise my mic please for whatever you go I will go and whatever 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 for a moment you're thinking that this is a guy writing to a girl but this is actually a daughter writing to her mother-in-law Lord Jesus there are miracles that happen in the Bible that is powerful right there when the daughter not to her own mom but to her mother-in-law I mean this powerful words right there the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts you and me power right there let's read also chapter 2 and verse 15 and when she rose up Ruth she now goes to Israel to glean Boas let's go back Boas commanded his young man saying let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her and we also have a verse in Romans 5 17 and what it says that through the abundance of grace if by one man's offense death rain through the one much more those who receive abundance of grace somebody say grace and the gift of righteousness will rain somebody say rain in life so not just in heaven not just in the spiritual world but in life or reigning life through the one Jesus Christ somebody say amen we will take the story of Ruth today to learn few lessons that pertain to our spiritual life and to our material life relation life and every life that we are currently living the title of this message will be called when grace changes your story Naomi is where the everything begins with she has a husband and she has two sons during a time of famine she decides to leave nation of Israel and go into a land of Moab because there was famine in the land of Israel and she decides to go to another country the country that is not good if we would say not a Christian country as we would say in today's world and she goes in there and she avoids starvation but it's interesting that she doesn't avoid problems because there though she doesn't die out of famine we see her husband dies and her two sons they die always remember this about sin sin will cure the famine and create a funeral sin will cure a famine but will also create a funeral instead sin will give you with one hand what you need with another hand will take what your life depends on she was trying to avoid the funeral by getting into a non-Christian territory if I would say in the modern language but in the reality she avoided the famine she didn't avoid the funeral the funeral still came and there she is buried her husband buried her two sons and she has these two daughter-in-laws one of them quickly says hey you know what I'm gonna go back home I'm gonna try to start my life again I'm gonna try to forget about everything and the other daughter-in-law his name her name was Ruth and when Naomi says hey Ruth go back home I'm not gonna produce any more children anytime soon and honestly thank you so much for helping with the funeral being loyal to my son thank you so much for not getting bitter move on and Ruth says not at my watch I am gonna go with you where you go I am not gonna leave you and not only that but I am gonna have your God as my God and the only thing that will separate me and you is not a boyfriend death now remember she has to go to a different country where this different country is not very receptive of immigrants different country Israel did not welcome immigrants like America welcomes immigrants they saw people from other countries as a threat to their worship they look down upon them they gave them those those stairs they gave them those looks they call them with names they call them dogs so she's coming to a territory that has a prejudice it has almost like a racism because of the other religious that people worship and she's going and says I'm gonna go with you no matter what and interestingly God begins to change Ruth's life to that degree where we have a book named Ruth in a Bible she's one of the four women mentioned in the lineage of Jesus becomes the ancestor of the greatest king Israel has ever had David and today everybody remembers Ruth as the great woman of faith how can God rewrite your story there's really two main points to her story one is association and the other one is location and that's what I talk about today association it's when you leave the church when others leave her Naomi represents the church today Naomi has had a lot of losses Naomi is not where she's supposed to be Naomi has made mistakes Naomi is not perfect if you look through the church throughout the ages and you will see that Naomi has a lot of made a lot of poor decisions and why would someone like Ruth who is stuck in life follow someone who's not doing better because Ruth knew Naomi may not be where she's supposed to be but the reason I will cleave to Naomi is because Naomi has a map Naomi has directions Naomi is headed somewhere Naomi is going somewhere and that's where I want to be your life will begin to change when you make up your mind who you will cleave and who you will leave many people unlike Ruth they attach themselves to boyfriends girlfriends their degree their dream and other things and they have a lost relationship with church and they have reasons to have this lost relationship with church and next thing they find out is that everything in life has a tendency of disappointing you but when you cleave yourself to the kingdom of God when you attach yourself to the kingdom of God and when you make this resolution me and God me and the church me and my home group me and my Bible till death do us apart something happens in your life your life begins to change when you change your association every person has to come to a point in their life where in your subconscious you make a decision to get close to God and you make a decision that there is never going back that serving God is not for a season and it's not only for a reason it's for a lifetime devotion church Bible commitment to God is not only because I'm broke hard life and challenges and it's not only because things are good or things are not so good it is for life what Ruth said to Naomi is what you have to say to your relationship to God and to your relationship with the church till death do us apart the last day that I will be on the earth will be the day they'll bring me to church but I will still be in church when Ruth said that Naomi's response was go home Naomi didn't say oh my goodness I've been waiting for this been praying for this kind of response no Naomi says no don't do that go home she gives her apparent rejection and Ruth pierces through that rejection and recognizes Naomi doesn't mean that rejection and she overcomes that obvious rejection and still goes through with her commitment I want to challenge you with something one of the biggest stumbling blocks to people staying in church is this is when they experience rejection in the church and they take that rejection personally Naomi said to Ruth go away but Ruth didn't take that personally Ruth knew this she didn't mean it you want to know a secret to staying in the church for a very long time everyone who treats you badly in the church they didn't mean it when Jesus was on the cross and people treated him really badly did you know what he said father forgave them they don't know what they're doing his own brothers did that to him Joseph had to overcome rejection from his brothers why did he still forgave them and loved on them he knew they didn't know what they were doing anytime you want to get closer to God or you want to be committed to church you're gonna have to learn to overcome rejection from people they don't mean it and how do I know that because there will be days you will reject people not even knowing you did it and I'm not talking about rejection where you throw them outside of the church and you get a restraining order I'm not talking about rejection for you hired a hitman like they did to Joseph I'm not talking about rejection when you assemble a console and you decide how to murder Jesus I'm not talking about that rejection today if that's how you get rejected Lord Jesus run from that kind of church they do mean it actually I'm talking about rejection when you're coming for first few months and you the center of the attention and after a few months they want you to make someone else the center of the attention and you get offended I'm talking about the rejection when somebody begins to call on you hey you've been coming here you know you got to take another step too much pressure too much pressure that kind of rejection I'm talking about a rejection when you come to church and then you start slipping sipping falling tripping and people say hey where have you been get off of me I didn't sign up for anything why are you why are you trying to get on my on my case I'm talking about that kind of rejection when you're not given the attention when somebody may be correct you and you perceived it as they hate you that kind of rejection we all experienced that ask Bartimaeus and he will tell you before he could get to Jesus there was a crowd that screamed and this crowd was closer to Jesus than Bartimaeus and they told Bartimaeus they were supposed to be like Jesus you know what they said to Bartimaeus shut up and what a Bartimaeus do he knew they didn't mean it he screamed louder asked a woman with the issue of blood she suffered for 12 years lost all of her money was trying to get closer to Jesus what do people close to Jesus did they say oh here is the red carpet rolling come on in we want to see another miracle the Bible says they were so close to Jesus she had to push through why didn't let her in what does she know she knew they didn't mean it I'm gonna still push through ask a short man named Zacchaeus who had a bad reputation and the scripture says he wanted to see Jesus but he was too short to see Jesus and the crowd didn't let him see Jesus and Zacchaeus didn't walk away and say you know what these people close to Jesus don't even care about short people no the Bible says Zacchaeus told himself they don't mean it climbed on the tree and says I'll still find a way to see Jesus if you want to be committed to church there is one secret learn to overcome the rejection from people when it feels like rejection when it feels like you're not getting that learn to overcome that if you want your life to change you have to change your association your association will determine where you're gonna be in life where you're gonna be headed in life and one of the things that we have to connect one of the things that we have to make a decision for us as believers is that we have to make a decision is to have a great relationship with God in the church I understand some people look for a church not where they can be found and changed some people look for a church where they can get lost a lot of people look for a church where they can get lost means I want to be in a church come there that nobody knows who I am nobody knows what's going on with me I just want to sit there mind my business come when I want to and leave and that's it that is called getting lost in the church and there's nothing worse than being lost in the church don't go to a church to get lost go to a church to be found go to a church to find to serve go to a church where you can stretch where you can grow Naomi Ruth wasn't looking for someone just to give words to she was looking for someone who can change and transform her life be like her I understand other people find a problem with going to church because sometimes we say well church is not perfect Naomi wasn't perfect Naomi's life wasn't it were supposed to be and sometimes that's how church will be you will begin to come to church and you begin to realize man these people they still don't have it all together perfect join the party we all can make it work and if you find the perfect church please don't join it or you ruin it don't join the perfect church because you're not a perfect person and you will be the person they'll ruin it church is like a gym like a gym membership you know I go to the gym more regularly now as you can see I see so many overweight people in the gym I see so many people who are more under phone than the under machines I see so many people who don't come to work out who come to socialize who don't take fitness seriously I see them all the time I see some grandpa's in the morning who have no idea how the machine works who don't even have the proper shoes to be in the gym I don't know how well who allows him to even work out there who are dressed like they're going to work and he's lifting literally he's just pushing it pushing and I'm looking at him I'm like you don't you don't belong with this kind of dress code here then I see those who only go there to show off and they only go there because there are so many people and then I see those in a locker room who buff why because they drink steroids and then you walk into a section where you want to work out and these big guys come and they flex and they intimidate you remember it was working out today and I I put at this particular weight and I was working on my back and I was pushing it hard and then I walk out and the lady comes in and doubles that I ran from that place I was like Jesus nobody saw me here it's interesting I just gave you about seven different reasons why you shouldn't go what I shouldn't go to gym yet I still do they know why I don't go to gym for none of those reasons that many people should stumble over going to gym I go there to mine my own business it's fitness for me not social and not what someone else is doing so is with church you can find hypocrites here you can find people who are not serious you can find people who spend more time on their Snapchat and listen to the pastor you can find people who come here and who actually don't take their faith seriously you can find people who are here only to check out the girls you can find people all kinds of different people keep in mind why you come you come here for your faith not for other people's opinions and not what's going on with others because somebody say man and can I remind you of something having a membership in the gym doesn't make you fit by telling everyone I go to church or I am a Christian that doesn't make you spiritual it's actually going and not just going but it's actually not sitting on the couch over there in Gold's gym but actually going and lifting some weight is what will change your appearance same thing with God many people you know Catholic Church in Richland has 7,000 members but how many people actually go not many some only go on Christmas Easter and that's it how many Christian churches there that have people say I go to the church and I usually ask them the question when was the last time you were there I don't remember what's the name of the pastor he's a good pastor I said I know he's a good pastor what is his name it's something with Jones now so what's your favorite football team tell me every person on the football team I told you everything was statistic and I'm like come on bro don't lie to the pastor okay because you're not just a membership doesn't make you fit same thing spiritually so Ruth is changing her association by joining with Naomi Naomi that is not perfect but Naomi has a right direction Naomi has a map Naomi knows where to go Naomi is not settled with here she wants to grow further she wants to become better she wants to be where God wants her to be and Ruth says you know what I am with you I don't know what's gonna happen but I am with you I want to see my life change that's exactly what God wants you and I to do attach yourself to the vision attach yourself to the movement of God on the earth through the local church in Jesus name because somebody say man you know what the beautiful part is is that here is Ruth attaching herself to Naomi not knowing 10 years down the road Naomi is gonna be nursing Ruth's children you know when you connect yourself to church not only God will bless you God will bless everything that will come out of you God will bless your children I know you're sitting here right now you're only thinking about finishing school but there will be a day you'll be married and you will have children and the streets won't raise your children TV won't be raising your children but the Naomi you commit to today will become the mother that will nurse the next generation in your life because somebody say a man I'm so happy that 15 years ago when our church started my parents they decided to join with our church our church looked like Naomi 15 years ago it was not sure what's gonna happen out of it a church that wanted to reach out to English speaking community that didn't even speak English a church that wanted to see miracles the church that wanted to see casting out of demons the church that was so controversial at that point people didn't understand much about it but my parents made a decision we will stick with Naomi because Naomi though she has nothing she has a map little did they know is that 15 years later this Naomi is gonna nurse all of her five children God wants to bless your future but today not tomorrow but today when you are young person make a decision I'm gonna serve God and when God will bless you with children and he will you will have a place to bring him to the hands of the church can somebody say a man the second key Ruth tells us about life and seeing it changed is location association means you change who you connect with you change who you Cleveland who you leave and location is when Ruth begins to change her zip code she begins to change her mailing address she begins to change where she lives she used to live in the grief of the loss of her husband she used to live in the pagan culture that didn't believe in the existence of one God but now she is changing her address she's not visiting Israel she is going to move to Israel she is changing her location your life can change not only when you change your association but when spiritually and mentally you stop living out of the loss out of the pain out of the trauma out of the grief out of the mess of your past and you put yourself first mentally into the grace and the cross of Jesus Christ if you come and I come to church but in the church my zip code my mental zip code has not changed and I keep living out of the grief instead of the grace I keep living out of the pain instead of the power that comes through the blood I keep living out of what people have done to me what my dad did to me what my mom did to me instead of what God did to me on the cross my life in the church will remain unchanged my life will be the same because not only your association has to change you have to spiritually mentally emotionally first change your location change your spiritual location what does that mean to change my location write down three things about grace grace the place of grace is when you reap what you have not sown grace is the cross grace is the cross and the cross is the place where you can reap what you didn't sow many people what they do is they constantly live out of their past they constantly live out of what happened to them they constantly reap what they sow when they sow bad decisions they reap those bad decisions when they make mistakes mistakes have consequences and they live constantly out of the consequences of their mistakes but Ruth in here we see that she comes to a place of Israel and the Bible says she finds a field and this field someone else has sowed the seeds someone else has watered those seeds someone else has watched that it grew into a harvest and Ruth was not that someone else what Ruth did she came during harvest to pick up a harvest she had no business reaping because Ruth changed her location before she lived out of grief death curse and disappointment in Israel now Ruth lives out of a new location she goes on these fields and begins to this is not fair and this you may say not even legal grace is not legal grace is grace it's powerful where you begin to reap what you haven't sown someone else has sown it and you are reaping it where you come to church and you begin to make requests dreams anticipations where you begin to mentally savor your mind your heart not in the trauma but in the grace of God a voice is tell you you don't deserve that you lost your virginity at a young age you have a disease you have a temper problem you were addicted to substances you still have weaknesses you have no license you have a bad record you have a bad reputation nothing ever good will come to you and that's what the devil wants you to do to change your association but even with the new association you still have a bad mind and God wants you to switch mentally where you say yes devil I've done that and you are responsible for that but I choose someone else I choose the cross and the Calvary and I will mentally live out of that place instead of the mess that I am in to that degree that sin has affected your life to that degree and even more God's grace can affect your future to the degree sin has ruined your past God's grace can at least affect your future if you look back in the last 20 30 years of your life and you saw that sin Satan demons have ruined it to some degree at least to that degree God's grace can build your future God's grace can rebuild your future but you have to make a decision not to live out of the pain of your past not to live out of the drama of your past not to live out of the complication and the different mysteries out of your past but mentally say I am a new creation I belong to the grace of God and the grace of God is my portion I will begin to live dream pray and think like a person who has been savored and saved by the grace can somebody say amen if you change your location God will change your future God will change your life as long as you're living and reliving constantly the pain the trauma you are a self-fulfilling prophecy like a magnet you're drawing more things to be more depressed about more sad about more drama and more grief the second truth about grace is that Jesus is the grace not only cross is the grace but Jesus Christ is the grace the Bible says law came from Moses but the grace and truth came from Jesus Christ Jesus Christ if one thing you and I must know about Jesus is that he is good no bad in him and he loves to forgive restore rebuild and care for people the Bible says when you think of all that all the thoughts that God has toward you and God wants to bring it to our level he says go to all the beaches of the world by the ocean and take all of the sands and begin to count on them and if you can count them God says my thoughts for you the good thoughts I think toward you are more than that only God can think that many thoughts without frying his brain only God has the capacity to think that many thoughts about every one of us at the same time without going crazy how can he do bad if he thinks so much first and then so much good if your idea of God is his out with the gun looking someone to shoot if your idea of God he's a police officer at the end of the month looking someone to give a ticket to if your idea to God he is so holy and he cannot wait to punish you that idea is not consistent with the Bible because the idea we see is that Jesus Christ he is grace when the woman was caught in the act of adultery and this woman was brought to Jesus and the Bible says the people stood beside her and people ready to punish her and trust me there was the reasons why if you know Hitler's story you know one of the reasons why Hitler hated two kinds of people was women and the Jewish people is because his mom when his dad was constantly away on the trips cheated with a Jewish neighbor and she left him and he received the scar and the pain because she left with another man and she cheated on him and this is the woman she's committing a crime she's hurting her kids she's hurting her husband and she got caught in the middle of it she didn't get repented she got dragged out of her bed so people have stones and the Bible says they brought her to Jesus and say Jesus what will you say the losses kill her and Jesus writes something on the floor on this on the sand and next thing that happens is that Jesus gets up and says hey guys whoever is without sin throw the first stone at her because Jesus knows we as humans the only way we can be merciful if we are given a mirror we quickly forget where we come from we quickly forget how merciful God has been to us and when God gives you a mirror you quickly begin merciful and you lose your stones but after that you know what the Lord does to her when all of the people left her stones and they left and he lifts up and he says to her he says woman where are your accusers and he asked this mocking question he said no one accused you he said has there not no one who accused you and she says no my Lord no one and here is a person who has the right to accuse her here is the person who doesn't need a mirror because he is perfect here is the person who can pick up every stone in that place and it will be completely right for him to throw every stone in her face here is the person to say woman you should have never done that woman you are crazy woman you better repent you better go to the prayer because you your life is a mess what do you think are you doing you know what the first words to Jesus from Jesus to that woman who didn't even ask for repentance I don't condemn you go and sin no more Jesus is about grace and that grace has the power to give you power not to sin no more you can not sin on your own you can only not sin through the grace of God the Bible says the gift of righteousness and the power of the grace of God help us to reign in life without that guess what happens we cannot reign in life we endure life we suffer through life and we die in under the weight of our sin can somebody say man and last thing about grace is that grace not only it has the ability to with Jesus is the grace and the cross of God is the grace but we also through the grace we become a product our life becomes changed and not only the grace of God can satisfy our stomach but it can also fill our womb when the when Ruth was coming to this field constantly she was receiving and receiving of this grain after a while her mother said to her I want you to go and I want you to strike a conversation with the owner of the field whose name is Boas and I want you to see if because he was like some people we have today he was afraid to approach beautiful people and so she told him I want you to strike a conversation see if he wants to take you on a date it was modern way of saying that and so she did that and he said yes an accident happened as they got married and not only that but now she is she has a husband this woman was completely lonely she has a husband not only that but the Bible says she got a child and now not only she was a wife but she is a mother and you see everything started with her being filled in her stomach and everything ended with her dreams of being a wife and being a mother also became real God's grace can meet your problems but it also can fulfill your potential God's grace is not only to fix the material the simple but God's grace is also to unleash the destiny that is in your life God's grace is to fulfill my needs but it also to unlock my dreams God wants you to have both your needs met by his grace and your dreams fulfilled by his grace your dreams to have a home group your dreams of getting married your dreams of being financially free your dreams of being healthy your dreams of building an orphanage your dreams of having your own business one today maybe you are on a parole your dreams of blessing other people when today you're honestly praying every day just not to fall into the same sin your dream the grace of God can take you from filling your stomach to filling your dream even the wildest dream God's grace is able to happen if you believe it it may seem completely out of this world today so it was for Ruth if this happened under the Old Testament much more can happen under the New Testament through the power of grace of God can somebody say man you know I see almost every morning Brian Brian Ashley and I remember when so my sister first time he came to our church and he gave his life to the Lord and one of the things that I had a challenge with Brian is that he always stood there and he never prayed in the morning prayer especially he was brought for morning prayers and he stood there and he always like just looked at everybody and I remember I told Nazar once I'm like Nazar tell him to like act like he praying because it's bothering me so I'm like just tell him to close his eyes and just like do something just with his mouth but not look at everybody because he constantly looks I'm like he and then Brian he was very philosophical a little bit you know always ask questions for everything because we just believe everything Brian is you know questions and everything and then you saw after sometime God begins to change his life and you'll hear his testimony a little bit in few months a few weeks from now when he was on drugs where he was doing really bad things in debt a lot of things were lost and suicidal so many times try to come in suicide just a powerful powerful testimony and now you see Brian coming here almost every single morning sometimes like everybody's leaving and I want to leave and I just feel guilty because Brian is still praying it happened today a few times and then today is his day off so he comes during his break comes to church to clean to help and so I'm waiting he's gonna start cleaning and helping out and he's praying I was like Lord Jesus what is this now he is an example an inspiration of prayer yesterday he comes to me he's a pastor that just just want to tell you something that you know God's been putting on my heart and if you ask him he already gave a lot of checks away from the people paid off his debts and start giving and blessing a lot of people and he says hey I just had this you know paycheck and I decided to give my whole paycheck and I was praying who to give this whole paycheck to and then God showed me this family that is in need I gave them the whole paycheck and they were crying and I'm like and he's well they were crying and it was just happy and I'm sitting and he doesn't know my heart inside is melting like ice cubes because I'm seeing a guy who came first time in the beginning of the year and I'm seeing a guy who lives a ruthless radical life whose life is no longer the same I mean which kind of guy who was on drugs now literally is addicted to praying and gives his paychecks away the power of grace if you know anything about people who abused drugs they're the greediest people you know why because they always take they steal to use drugs the Holy Spirit to change that completely and make someone who is not wealthy on rich but in his head he's already wealthy and rich because anybody who gives paychecks away is not broke things have shifted on his side guys the power of God's grace we're gonna see more and more and more what changed him it wasn't the rules it wasn't me it was the Holy Spirit it was the grace of God and he's gonna change more and more people your dreams will become a reality through the power of God's grace can somebody say man