Scripture ref: Ruth 1:1622

1

• Scripture ref Ruth 116-22
• Rth 111 And Naomi said, Turn again, my
  daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there yet
  sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
  Rth 114-16 And they lifted up their voice and
  wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law.
  But Ruth clung to her. And she said, Behold, Your
  sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to
  her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. And
  Ruth said, Do not beg me to leave you, to return
  from following after you. For where you go, I
  will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people
  shall be my people, and your God my God.

2
Moving from Moab to Bethlehem

• Moving from Moab to Bethlehem is moving from the
  place I'm at to the place of my promise.
• See Moab was a place where there was no dancing,
  no praise, no gladness in the fields, and no joy
  in the streets because it was a cursed place.
  (Jer 4843)
• Bethlehem was for a girl named Ruth the place of
  promise and of hope. Ruth was saying 'I'm going
  where I've never been to create something I've
  never had. Ruth recognized that she had already
  experienced her past, and she hadn't liked it and
  she made a choice to leave her past.
• See leaving your past is a deliberate and
  conscious act. This is often easier said than
  done. Our past hold brokenness, disappointment,
  and we are still living out the consequences of
  our failures and foolish choices. And sometimes
  the past even hold our successes ...

3

• But stepping into the promise of your potential
  is always a matter of stepping out of your
  yesterday. Yesterday is in the tomb, tomorrow is
  in the womb and what we are intimate with today
  is what we will give birth to in the future.
• Paul wrote - Phi 313-14 Brothers and sisters,
  I do not consider myself to have laid hold, but
  forgetting indeed one thing, the things
  behind, but reaching out to the things ahead. I
  press forward toward the goal, for the prize of
  the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus
• You see one cannot enter your tomorrow as long as
  you hold on to your yesterday and dying to your
  past is going to determine the hight of your
  future.
• It is a decision to 'forget' and forgetting does
  not mean that you now develop amnesia. You will
  still have a memory about the good/bad events
  you've experienced. But it is a choice not to
  dwell on these moments and memories. See our
  thoughts become our words. Our words become our
  actions. Our actions then become our habits.

4

• Our habits shape who we become and our character
  becomes our destiny. That is what the Bible
  teach I have to consciously and purposefully
  choose to think about things that are true,
  noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, and
  praiseworthy.
• It is to say, 'I resist the tendency to think
  this way and feel this way. I choose instead to
  think new thought and to meditate on those things
  that are praiseworthy.'
• Paul is saying that whether yesterday was good or
  bad, he had to release it Do not look behind
  Don't long for things that are past. Don't linger
  mentally, emotionally, or spiritually on those
  things that are over. Look ahead to where God is
  leading you. Don't stay on the same level. God
  wants to take you up to the next level so that
  you can establish new patterns of breakthrough
  for your life.
• In the story of Ruth - Moab represents the past
  Bethlehem represents the future and Boaz the
  promise of God.

5

• God has a place and a purpose for you if you are
  willing to leave your past and walk into your
  future with him.
• Jer 2911 'For I know the purposes which I am
  purposing for you, says Jehovah purposes of
  peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a
  hope.' Ruth was willing to seek the God of Naomi,
  she was willing to believe for a future and hope.
  Ruth did not have any hope of marriage and
  children in following Naomi to Bethlehem
  nevertheless, she was looking towards Bethlehem.
• Change your focus to your future. See what you
  focus on is what captures your attention and your
  affection.
• Change your focus. You must begin to see yourself
  in new ways. There's no room in your future for a
  'victim mentality' 'I can't be happy until you
  make me happy' or 'I can't succeed until you
  allow me to succeed'. People with a victim
  mentality give away all power to other people and
  God never leaves your destiny in someone else's
  hands.

6

• It doesn't depend on what other people did or are
  still doing. It all depends on what you do. You
  are a victor not a victim!
• See what you look at longest is what will become
  strongest in your life. Whatever captures your
  attention, masters you.
• In Making a decision to leave Moab and accompany
  Naomi to Bethlehem, Ruth was also making a
  decision to serve her mother-in-law. Naomi's
  experiences in Moab had left her hard, cynical
  and angry about the death of her husband and sons
  (see Ruth 120-21) When her old friends came out
  to greet her as she arrived in Bethlehem, they
  called her name, 'Naomi' She said, 'Don't call me
  Naomi meaning 'pleasant'. She told them, Call
  me 'Mara' meaning 'bitter'.
• B NAOMI BECAME THE WAY OUT OF RUTHS YESTERDAY
  See it is not easy to serve a bitter person, but
  Ruth made that decision because she knew to whom
  she had been assigned. And almost no one in
  today's world seems to know or accept what it
  means to be 'assigned' to serve another.

7

• The prophet Elisha knew that he had been assigned
  to serve and learn under the prophet Elijah. The
  disciples of Jesus knew that they had been called
  to serve and learn under Jesus.
• When you know that you have been assigned by God
  to serve and learn from someone, you are willing
  to put up with all kinds of difficulties that
  come to distract you from that relationship.
• You are willing to do all kinds of jobs and put
  up with all kinds of hardships because you know
  without a doubt that God has called you to that
  relationship to teach you, prepare you, and
  ultimately to bless you.
• See Moab represents your past Bethlehem
  represents your future and Boaz the promise of
  God and to get from your Moab to your Boaz you've
  got to travel with a Naomi.
• Then God sets people in your life 'assigned
  people' to help you move from your Moab to your
  Boaz.

8

• God then assigns you to this somebody to serve
  that person and learn from him... willingly!
  Doing it gladly and with joy. Doing it faithfully
  and with humility for God is preparing you for
  something greater than you can ever imagine!
• In reality Naomi shouldn't have blamed God for
  what had happend. God had not called Elimelech
  and Naomi to go to Moab. In fact the command of
  God to all the Israelites was just the opposite
  don't go to Moab, Elimelech had both failed to
  trust God and had disobeyed God. The consequences
  he had his family suffered were consequences then
  of his own actions.
• See there are always consequences for
  disobedience. So rather pursue the voice and
  vision of God for your life. It will lead you
  into a 'land flowing with milk and honey', a
  place of peace and prosperity.
• Important Ruth did not move into her destiny in
  a day.

9

• See God transforms our desires, our character,
  our nature through time, but we are the ones who
  must change our behaviour. We are the ones who
  must lay down the past and pick up the future,
  lay down evil and pick up good, lay down what
  corrupts and pick up what is eternal.
• Ruth chose to follow Naomi and then she went into
  the barley harvest and worked. She didn't crawl
  into her bed and mowned until somebody gave her
  the desires of her heart. She got busy and worked
  tirelessly and it was while she was working that
  she was noticed by Boaz.
• See Ruth understood her assignment. She served
  her mother-in-law and there came a day that the
  woman of Bethlehem said to Naomi these words
  about Ruth Your daughter-in-law, who loves you
  is better to you than seven sons' (Ruth 415)?
• Ruth didn't plan her promotion and began to date
  the young men of Bethlehem. She was single-minded
  in her care of Naomi.

10

• God's Word says Be obedient ... with good will
  doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men,
  knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will
  receive the same from the Lord' (Ps 65,7-8)?
• IN SERVING NAOMI RUTH WAS POSITIONING HERSELF
  READY TO RECIEVE THE PROMISE OF GOD.
• This is true for us. It is as you work and as you
  seek to serve that God puts you in a position
  for promotion. God's word tells us 'The Lord
  upholds all who fall, and raises up all who are
  bowed down' (Ps 14514) See Ruth may have
  appeared 'bowed down' as she took the grain from
  the field of Boaz, but she was in precisely the
  right position to be raised up by the Lord.
• No job is too little or too 'unimportant' if you
  are seeking to serve. There isn't anything that
  you should ever consider 'beneath' you when it
  comes to serving other people. Remember Every
  person is worthy of your best.

11

• In serving we decide to listen. Ruth listened to
  what Boaz told her to do. He told her exactly
  where to pick up the grain and how to do it. She
  listened to her mother-in-law. She took her
  instruction and followed it to the letter. Naomi
  told Ruth exactly how to win the heart of Boaz
  remember ... and Ruth exactly did what Naomi told
  her.
• One of the greatest signs of respect that you can
  show a person who is in authority over you is to
  listen closely and then do what he or she
  requests you to do. We need to learn to follow
  instruction See in following the instructions
  of those in authority over you, you are giving
  them honour, and as you honour them, you honour
  the Lord who is over them!
• Ruth benifited from Naomi's instruction. As she
  walked out in obedience the things that Naomi
  told her to do, Ruth came to know her destiny.
  She was moved into her place of promise.
• See as you honour the authority over you God is
  already preparing a reward for you.

12

• What was God's destiny for Ruth? She became the
  wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed, the
  great-grandfather of David, an ancestor of Jesus.
  Ruth's destiny was to be in the bloodline of our
  saviour and Lord!
• See everytime God desires to do something
  significant, he sends a person who has been
  changed.
• You have the capability of ushering a new season
  into your community and your church. You carry
  within you the seed of a new season ... a new
  revival ... a new move of God. But to usher in
  that new season, you must leave the old season
  and be prepared to move with God's assignement.
• See Ruth the heathen born woman from a place
  that murdered babies became the ancestor of
  Jesus, who died to give 'born-again' life to the
  heathen.
• Let's allow God to do the changing and
  preparation work in you. It is time to disconnect
  from what was and move toward the presence of
  greatness in your future.