Family 101

Sunday, June 28, 2026
Pastor Jojo Ma

Weekly Bulletin | Song Lyrics | Nicene Creed

Ruth 1:1-5

What is your favorite kind of story?

Within the pages of this God-inspired, Old Testament historical book, we have a lot of troubles and trials, a lot of difficulties and defeats; yet we also see a lot of grace, redemption, and God’s sovereign purposes played out in human lives.

But the similarities are more important, especially how God is faithful to His people and how He provides for them and preserves them through all their God-ordained, God-appointed, hardships and trials. This is something we need to believe.

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, 5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

Where are you headed? Where are you going? And are you prepared for the long-term consequences of those choices?

Prov 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.

Prov 21:1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He will.

We make genuine choices, we are responsible, but the Lord ultimately controls it all. How He does this is a mystery; that He does it is without question. God is sovereign over everything.

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

Judg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.

Don’t make choices in life merely based on comfort, security, happiness, and success. Is God involved in your decision-making process? Will your decision affect your raising of a truly Christian family? Are you walking by sight, rather than by faith (in the promises of God’s Word)? Will your decision honor the Lord?

3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years.

They could have returned to Bethlehem, but they felt more at home in the land of compromise than in the land of promise.

5 And both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

When we choose to sin and live unfaithfully before God, it continues to be the way of despair and even death. Sin has never yielded a positive return.

Do you cling to the promises of His Word over the pleasures of this world?

Haven’t there been many times in your life when the grass just looked so much greener on the Moabite side of the fence?

Or will you faithfully persevere in the land of promise, living with self-control and living by faith, pressing onward to know Christ? I know that the food this world, this unpromised land, offers seems very real and tangible and satisfying, but it will only leave you empty and dissatisfied in the end. You can be sure that God is testing your faith to see what you’re made of.

God welcomes you back, He delights when prodigals return home. In Christ there is forgiveness. Remember, you are more wicked than you ever believed, but you are more loved than you ever dared hope.

This slow work of holiness in our hearts, killing idols, mortifying sin, pleasing God in our thoughts and actions, it often involves a painful path. God will strip away your false gods, your allegiances, wean you off of your love for this world…often in pain-wrenching ways. He wants your full trust and allegiance, not a half-hearted devotion.

C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”

“Every tear of loss that God inflicts on us is a tear whose cost he himself understands. The pain of God’s chastening work is therefore never harsh; it is never more than is absolutely necessary to turn us to himself. It is measured and designed to show us the emptiness of the paths we have chosen for ourselves, so that we may return to his ways.”