February 24, 2019

Watch the Sermon

Ruth 1:1-5

1. We went through some of the major themes of the book of Ruth: providence/concurrence, hesed, redemption, & location. How is it helpful to be aware of some of the major themes of a book prior to reading that book of the Bible?

2. God’s providence deals with God’s governing of all things according to his perfect will & infallible knowledge to the praise of His glory, while concurrence is God’s working out of His own will through the actions of human wills without violating a human’s will. How does a understanding and belief in the providence of God as well as concurrence motivates us to trust God & live for His glory?

3. The theme of “hesed” was defined as gracious, selfless, loyal lovingkindness that goes beyond the call of duty. The parable of the Good Samaritan was given as an example. What are ways that you’ve seen others demonstrate hesed? How can you demonstrate hesed in your day to day living right now?

4. After going through the themes, we then talked about the spiritual condition at the start of Ruth 1:1. From Leviticus 26:1-5, Leviticus 26:14-20 & Judges 21:25 it was seen that there was a spiritual crisis taking place. What are marks of a spiritual crisis? How do people come to see that they are in a state of spiritual bankruptcy?

5. We then saw that Elimelech & his family escaped the spiritual crisis rather than confront it by heading to Moab. The question was posed to us: what spiritual difficulties are we facing that we’re attempting to flee rather than fight? Also, what are ways people attempt to escape the difficulties of today?

6. Starting in v. 2, we saw the progression of sin as the family goes from sojourning to Moab, to settling in Moab, to marrying in Moab by v. 4. Sin is never satisfied, it keeps consuming until it is killed. How are we to kill our sin? How can we encourage others to fight sin?

7. Not only do v. 2-4 show the progression of sin…they also show the deadliness of sin. When a person really believes that sin is deadly, how does that affect their relationship to sin?

8. We ended by seeing the move in v. 5 from the macro-crisis of the book to the micro-crisis…to the question: how will a gracious, loyal, loving God deal with a widow who was a part of a family that was not loyal to God? What does it mean that God is over both the macro & the micro elements of life?