The Prodigal Family | Part 2
In this episode, we continue our journey through Ruth 1, exploring how our choices shape not just our families but future generations. We dive into the power of faith-driven decisions, especially in life’s toughest seasons. If you’ve ever felt weighed down by past mistakes, this episode offers practical wisdom and spiritual encouragement to help you find your way back to God’s blessings!
Checkout these other Family Fortress Ministries Podcasts:
TIME FOR THREE daily couples devotional: https://time-for-three.captivate.fm/listen
FORTIFYING YOUR FAMILY: https://fortifying-your-family.captivate.fm/listen
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Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.
Speaker B:And the decisions we make as a husband, the decisions we make as a father do not just affect us.
Speaker B:They affect our wife.
Speaker B:They affect our family.
Speaker B:And listen, they can affect our family for generations to come.
Speaker B:Now listen, some choices we make are inconsequential, but some choices we make are life changing choices.
Speaker B:Now it isn't a big deal what color tie I wear this morning.
Speaker B:As long as it matches my socks.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:Debbie says she helps me with that, you know, but that's not a big deal.
Speaker B:That's pretty inconsequential.
Speaker B:Some choices are inconsequential, but some choices are life changing choices.
Speaker B:Elimelech made a logical choice, but he made a choice that was not based.
Speaker B:Faith.
Speaker B:And the Bible says whatsoever is not of faith is what church is.
Speaker B:Sin.
Speaker B:Without faith, it's impossible to do what church please, God.
Speaker B:God says that we're to be a people as Christians, a people of faith.
Speaker B:I can't help but think of the story in Exodus chapter 33 where God tells Moses to depart.
Speaker B:He says, and take the people to the land of promise.
Speaker B:He said, I will send an angel before you to drive out all the pagan people and you will prosper there.
Speaker B:But in verse 3 of Exodus 33, God adds this alarming statement.
Speaker B:He says, for I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiff necked people, lest I consume thee in the way.
Speaker B:God said, you go and I'll send my angel before you and you'll prosper when you get there.
Speaker B:But I'm not going with you.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:How does Moses respond to that?
Speaker B:Moses said, if thy presence God go not with me, then God, we don't want to go.
Speaker B:God, I don't want to go where you're not at.
Speaker B:If you're not going to go with me, God, then I'm going to stay here, right where I'm at.
Speaker B:You know, when I read that a few weeks ago, I thought to myself, there's a lot of churches today.
Speaker B:Well, you can look at that church and they can have even large numbers.
Speaker B:A lot of very seeker friendly churches.
Speaker B:They're not preaching the word of God.
Speaker B:They're not preaching the theology and doctrines of the word of God.
Speaker B:On the outside it looks like they're prospering.
Speaker B:But God's nowhere near it.
Speaker B:And we have to make sure, even as a church, that we're not in a place where God is not.
Speaker B:We need to stay right where God wants us to be.
Speaker B:You say, preacher, what should this family have done when this time of testing came, when this famine came to the land?
Speaker B:Elimelech should have stayed where he was and sought the face of God.
Speaker B:He should have stayed right there and said, God, what are you trying to show me?
Speaker B:But he did what many Christians do.
Speaker B:He sought his own way out.
Speaker B:After all, he was living in a time where people were doing what was right in their own eyes.
Speaker B:So he turned away from the plan of God for his life.
Speaker B:And as a result, his family became a prodigal family.
Speaker B:They turned away from God.
Speaker B:They left the land and went into a place of cursing, away from God.
Speaker B:Listen to me today.
Speaker B:Some of you may be in a deep famine in your life here today, and what you do next, the choices you make in a time of testing in your life are critical.
Speaker B:Critical, we might say, to the destiny of your family, to those descendants in years to come.
Speaker B:Your life is a summary, we might say, of the choices that you make.
Speaker B:I want to give you four statements that are very important statements concerning choices that we make in light of what I'm sharing with you here this morning.
Speaker B:The first one is this.
Speaker B:We are free to choose.
Speaker B:Elimelech was free to choose to leave the place of blessing and go into the place of cursing.
Speaker B:He was free to choose to do that.
Speaker B:Listen, I live over at Mission Point, as most of you know, and I could walk up to the bluff line, which I often do, and I'm free to choose to walk off the bluff line wouldn't be a real smart thing to do, but I'm free to choose to do that.
Speaker B:This leads to the second statement.
Speaker B:The second statement is this.
Speaker B:While we're free to choose, we're not free to choose the consequences of our sin.
Speaker B:We might be free to choose.
Speaker B:I can go to the bluff line.
Speaker B:I'm free to choose to walk off.
Speaker B:I'm not free to choose the consequences of walking off.
Speaker B:Gravity takes over.
Speaker B:I fall to the bottom and I'm killed.
Speaker B:And while we're free to choose, we're not free to choose the consequences of our sin.
Speaker B:Listen, a young lady can make a choice to have an abortion, but she's not free to choose the consequences of having that abortion.
Speaker B:Listen, young people, you're free to choose, we might say, to have premarital sex, but you're not free to choose the consequences of premarital sex.
Speaker B:16 million people in the United States of America this year will contract a sexually transmitted disease.
Speaker B:You're free to choose to make that choice, but you're not free to choose the consequences of that choice and how it will ruin and can ruin even your intimacy with your husband or your wife in the years to come.
Speaker B:You're free to choose who you hang out with, but you're not free to choose the consequences of who you hang out with.
Speaker B:So while we are free to choose, we're not free to choose the consequences of our choice.
Speaker B:And thirdly, and very, very importantly, one big choice, folks, takes care of a lot of small choices.
Speaker B:One big choice takes care of a lot of small choices.
Speaker B:Let me give you an example of this.
Speaker B:Perhaps the day after lunch, you get in the car outside as a husband and wife, and you say, let's go out to eat.
Speaker B:And you look over at your wife and say, honey, where would you like to go?
Speaker B:She looks back at you and says, honey, I don't care.
Speaker B:Where would you like to go?
Speaker B:You look back at her and say, honey, I don't care.
Speaker B:Where do you want to go?
Speaker B:Have y'all ever done this before?
Speaker B:And she looks back and says, I don't care.
Speaker B:Where do you want to go?
Speaker B:You're sitting there and you're going nowhere.
Speaker B:But if you make the big choice and say, well, let's go eat at Garcia's, then you go out, you turn left, you go down here, it takes care of all the other little choices.
Speaker B:One big choice takes care of a lot of small choices.
Speaker B:I remember years ago when we made a big choice when I quit my job as an engineer.
Speaker B:Actually, at that time, Debbie, we had our first son.
Speaker B:Debbie made a big choice.
Speaker B:We made a big choice because we had prayed about it, that when we had our first child, we had Josh, that she would quit her job.
Speaker B:And she did.
Speaker B:We didn't know that a few years later, God would call me into the ministry and I'd quit my job.
Speaker B:We didn't know that then, but we made the big choice that she would quit her job and stay at home to raise our children.
Speaker B:But when God called me in the ministry and I quit my job, our income plummeted down to poverty level.
Speaker B:We were making about $8,000 a year.
Speaker B:We started an inner city ministry, and we had all kind of people come to us, and they would come to Debbie and say, what's a smart girl like you who's got a college degree in computer science staying at home with children for.
Speaker B:Go out and get your job back.
Speaker B:Y'all need the money now.
Speaker B:I'm thankful at those times, we didn't do that because we had already made the big choice.
Speaker B:And that big choice took care of all the small choices.
Speaker B:And through making that big choice, God honored that for us.
Speaker B:I'm not saying this is a choice you didn't make, but this is what God led us to do.
Speaker B:We saw God miraculously intervene in our lives many, many, many times when God would answer our prayers through bringing physical and material provision to us in many miraculous ways.
Speaker B:One big choice takes care of a lot of small choices.
Speaker B:Now, don't miss the fourth one.
Speaker B:This is crucial.
Speaker B:Your heart will determine your choices.
Speaker B:Where your heart is will determine the choices that you make.
Speaker B:Proverbs 4:23.
Speaker B:Solomon, the wisest man in the world, said, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.
Speaker B:According to Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, he said, keep your heart.
Speaker B:That word keep means to guard your heart.
Speaker B:Fortify your heart with all diligence.
Speaker B:All diligence means above everything else in this life, guard your heart.
Speaker B:Protect your heart.
Speaker B:Why?
Speaker B:Because your heart is the orchestrator of your life that will determine the choices that you make and the things that you do.
Speaker B:Our heart determines our choices.
Speaker B:If our heart is not with with God, then we will not make godly choices.
Speaker B:If our heart is far away from God, we will make choices that are ungodly.
Speaker B:In our story, Elimelech made the big choice to move his family to Moab.
Speaker B:But look at the misery that resulted in this big choice that he made.
Speaker B:Look at verse three.
Speaker B:And Elimelech, Naomi's husband, what happened to him?
Speaker B:He died.
Speaker B:And she was left, and her two sons, and they took them.
Speaker B:Wives of the women of Moab.
Speaker B:And the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth.
Speaker B:And they dwelled there about 10 years.
Speaker B:But look at verse 5.
Speaker B:And Maon and Chilion, what happened to them?
Speaker B:They died also, both of them.
Speaker B:And the woman was left of her two sons and her husband Elimelech.
Speaker B:Here's a man who was running from death, who found death for himself, but not only for himself, but for his two sons also.
Speaker B:His wife was left a widow in a place away from God, in a cursed land with really two pagan daughters in laws.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Be careful.
Speaker B:You're flirting with a funeral.
Speaker B:Anytime you leave the land and go into the country.
Speaker B:That's exactly what God is saying to us right here.
Speaker B:Listen, folks, don't force God's hand.
Speaker B:God will go only so far.
Speaker B:Then God will discipline us.
Speaker B:If you're truly a child of God.
Speaker B:That's what I said and I preached on a few weeks ago.
Speaker B:In Hebrews, chapter 12 that God disciplines, he chastises those sons whom he loves.
Speaker B:If you're truly a child of God, you cannot leave and go into the far country away from God without God's chastening hand to come upon you, if you can.
Speaker B:And God says, check up, examine your faith.
Speaker B:Make sure you have the faith, because I chasten those whom I love.
Speaker B:God loves us too much to leave us in the far country.
Speaker B:He loves us too much.
Speaker B:In this story, we see the path of a prodigal.
Speaker B:And I want you to look at it with me.
Speaker B:Look at this path that they take.
Speaker B:And I share this with you because it's a path that I've seen so many families take.
Speaker B:I've seen so many singles take.
Speaker B:It's a path, if we're not careful, that every one of us will take.
Speaker B:Here's the first thing that happens.
Speaker B:You react to circumstances instead of responding to God.
Speaker B:You react to the circumstances around you instead of responding to God.
Speaker B:Many times God will bring a test into our life.
Speaker B:How do we respond to that test?
Speaker B:How do we respond to the circumstances that are surrounding us?
Speaker B:We're not careful.
Speaker B:Many times we react to the circumstances instead of seeking God in the midst of those circumstances and asking the question, God, what are you trying to show me here?
Speaker B:God, what are you doing in my life?
Speaker B:Here's the second step.
Speaker B:The second step is you remove yourself from the land.
Speaker B:And we see that in this story here this morning.
Speaker B:You react to the circumstances instead of responding to God.
Speaker B:And then you remove yourself from the place of blessing.
Speaker B:And again, I've seen this so many times with so many families that I've counseled.
Speaker B:Where a couple who is married and they have marriage problems, they react to those circumstances in their marriage instead of responding to God in the midst of those circumstances, looking at themselves and saying, God, where do I need to change God?
Speaker B:How do I need to be more conformed into the image of Christ?
Speaker B:God, where do I need to confess sin?
Speaker B:God, what do I need to repent of as far as my selfishness is concerned?
Speaker B:And they react to the circumstances instead of responding to God in the midst of those circumstances.
Speaker B:Then they move themselves from the land.
Speaker B:You know what that's saying?
Speaker B:It's saying they quit coming to church.
Speaker B:They quit coming where they can hear the truth.
Speaker B:They get out of the Word of God and quit reading the Word of God if they were reading the Word of God.
Speaker B:So they remove themselves from the place of blessing, they remove themselves from the land, and then they go and they get advice from people who have been married three or four times and had divorces about how they can save their marriage.
Speaker B:Instead of going to a godly counselor, somebody take the word of God and say, here, I can give you help to help you your marriage.
Speaker B:Here's the third step.
Speaker B:You rationalize your behavior.
Speaker B:You rationalize what you did.
Speaker B:Don't you think Elimelech rationalized why he moved into the country?
Speaker B:He said, you know, it is tough living here.
Speaker B:I can't find anything to eat.
Speaker B:It's hard to live here anymore.
Speaker B:I don't have any water.
Speaker B:I got to take care of my family.
Speaker B:There was all kinds of rationalization I'm sure that he used.
Speaker B:So in the interest of self preservation, he took his family out of the land into a far country called Moab, away from God.
Speaker B:It sounds so innocent, but listen.
Speaker B:Where self preservation may be the first law of survival, self denial is the first law of grace.
Speaker B:Let me say that again.
Speaker B:Listen.
Speaker B:Where self preservation may be the first law of survival.
Speaker B:Listen.
Speaker B:Self denial is the first law of grace.
Speaker B:Jesus said, if any man comes after me, let him what, Deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Speaker B:God never promised us a rose garden.
Speaker B:In fact, God says plainly in the word of God that there will be suffering, there will be affliction, there will be testings in our life.
Speaker B:I'm reminded of what Paul said in First Corinthians, chapter 10 and verse 13.
Speaker B:He says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man.
Speaker B:I thought about that verse in light of this story.
Speaker B:I thought this, this testing was common to every person there in the land.
Speaker B:Not just Elimelech and his family, but every other family, every other Israelite family in the land was facing the same thing that he faced.
Speaker B:But you look at this verse.
Speaker B:It says, but God is faithful.
Speaker B:Friends, do you believe that God is faithful?
Speaker B:I mentioned at the beginning of the service, as I welcomed you here today, that God is a God who does not change.
Speaker B:His faithfulness does not change.
Speaker B:God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation, also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.
Speaker B:Listen.
Speaker B:Elimelech chose to leave.
Speaker B:Others stayed there.
Speaker B:They bore it, they lived through it, they endured it.
Speaker B:But not Elimelech.
Speaker B:Do you see the rationalization I Came across this statement by Denny Burke several years ago, and I just wrote it down.
Speaker B:When I did, I thought, man, this is powerful.
Speaker B:He said, to rationalize is to commit the sin of suppressing the truth that God has revealed in order to justify the conscience.
Speaker B:Every time you rationalize your sin, you harden your heart, you put a callus on your conscience, and you put your soul in mortal danger.
Speaker B:What a statement.
Speaker B:And, folks, if we're not careful, every one of us here today can rationalize away our sin.
Speaker B:Amen.
Speaker B:It's so easy to do so.
Speaker B:We see these steps here.
Speaker B:We see the steps, that of this prodigal.
Speaker B:You react to your circumstances instead of responding to God.
Speaker B:In the midst of those circumstances, you remove yourself from the land, the place of blessing, where God has you.
Speaker B:You rationalize your behavior.
Speaker B:And then fourthly, you remain in the country longer than you ever intended, away from God.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:You remain there longer than you ever, ever thought that you would.
Speaker B:I said earlier, I've had so many people come to my office and say, I never, ever would have dreamed I'd be right here.
Speaker B:I've had pastors who have committed adultery on their wife that we've sat down and tried to help them through it.
Speaker B:That pastor, with tears coming down his cheeks, said, I never, ever thought I'd be right here.
Speaker B:He made a choice, some point in his life to do what was right in his own eyes.
Speaker B:He left the place of blessing.
Speaker B:He went into a place of cursing, away from God because he was doing what was right in his own eyes.
Speaker B:He rationalized away his sin.
Speaker B:He remained there longer than he ever thought he ever would.
Speaker B:And so many have.
Speaker B:And it destroys their marriage, destroys their family, destroys their life.
Speaker B:So what should you do when a wrong choice is made?
Speaker B:What should we do?
Speaker B:Well, I love these verses.
Speaker B:Look at verse six and seven.
Speaker B:Then she arose, that is Naomi, with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab.
Speaker B:For she had heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread.
Speaker B:Then look at verse seven.
Speaker B:Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her, and they went on their way to return to the land Judah or the land of praise.
Speaker B:Notice the word in verse 6.
Speaker B:Return.
Speaker B:Notice.
Speaker B:In verse 7, it says, she went forth out of the place where she was and went on her way to return where unto the land of Judah.
Speaker B:Naomi got up and said, wow, I need to get out of this place where I'm at.
Speaker B:I'm in I'm under the judgment of God.
Speaker B:I'm in a place of cursing.
Speaker B:I need to go back to Bethlehem, Judah.
Speaker B:So she got up and she turned around and she went back to the place of blessing, the land where God was.
Speaker B:That's a beautiful picture of repentance.
Speaker B:It says, yes, God, I realize I have sinned against you.
Speaker B:I am in a far country way over here, away from you.
Speaker B:And you have shown me that by your goodness and your kindness and your love and, and you grace.
Speaker B:And so, God, now I'm going to agree with you, confess.
Speaker B:Agree with God.
Speaker B:Yes, I'm here.
Speaker B:But, God, I don't want to stay here, God, I want to be over where you are at again.
Speaker B:And so you get up and you repent and you turn back and you go back to the place of blessing where God is.
Speaker B:There's many Christians, maybe some here today that need to get up and return to the place of blessing.
Speaker B:I know in closing that we have a niece who called Debbie years ago, and she said, aunt Debbie, Aunt Debbie, would you pray for me, a Christian husband?
Speaker B:And Debbie, knowing the kind of life that this niece was living, she said, you know, if I pray for you, a Christian husband, I would be praying a curse upon him because you're living over in Moab.
Speaker B:And she knew enough that she, she knew us.
Speaker B:She saw our marriage.
Speaker B:She.
Speaker B:She wanted to have a Christian husband, but she was living over in Moab.
Speaker B:And she said, debbie, will you, Aunt Debbie, will you pray for me that I could get a Christian husband?
Speaker B:And Debbie, I remember when she told me this, she said, I told her, I said, listen, if I pray for you, I'll be praying a curse upon him.
Speaker B:And Debbie went on to explain to her, I mean, this is a young lady.
Speaker B:She was.
Speaker B:She had several children from several different men who she was married to none of them.
Speaker B:And she was going out on the weekend.
Speaker B:She was a pretty good mom during the week, but she'd go out on the weekend and she'd go out bar hopping and partying all weekend.
Speaker B:She felt she deserved a break.
Speaker B:Debbie told her, said, listen, if you want to be blessed, you need to be in a place of blessing.
Speaker B:You need to be in a place of blessing in your life.
Speaker B:Folks, listen, there's many here today that may be over in Moab, and you're camped there.
Speaker B:You're camped out in the world.
Speaker B:And God is saying to you this morning, out of his love and his grace and his mercy and his kindness to you, you're not here by accident today.
Speaker B:This is a divine appointment of God that you're setting here in this auditorium this morning and God is saying to you, confess.
Speaker B:Agree with me as the Holy Spirit is speaking to your heart.
Speaker B:Agree with what I'm saying to you and pick up and get out of where you're at and go back to the place of blessing.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast, and if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's word.
Speaker A:Remember, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's.
