Have You Found Significance?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Wednesday, September fourth, twenty twenty four. It is currently five h five pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. The year was nineteen eighty seven. Nineteen eighty seven, it was New Music Day. I walked into a record store and there it was the brand new album by the band YouTube, The brand new album by the band YouTube. And I was like, oh, I cannot wait to take this home and let's I had been a YouTube fan all the way from their first album I had anytime. I had friends who hated them at the time and their early albums. In fact, I had one time I had put it. I know this is dating myself, but I had put the cassette and the cassette player in the car and someone ejected the cassette and threw it out the window. Was like, YouTube, it's trash. They're garbage. I'm like, yeah, you say that.

1:25 Now when they become the biggest band in the world, you can apologize to me and by my okay, all right. Yeah, I did get a little frustrated by it, but yes, they then became the band everyone knew YouTube, right, remember YouTube? Yeah you do? Okay, right, all right. Well in nineteen eighty seven, when I was listening to that new album, well I remember these lyrics. I have climbed the highest mountain. I've run through the fields only to be with you. I have run, I have crawled, I've scaled these city walls, these city walls, only to be with you. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I have kissed honey lips, felt the healing in her fingertips. It burned like fire, this burning desire. I've spoke with the tongue of angels.

2:32 I've held the hand of a devil. It was warm in the night, I was cold as a stone. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I believe in the kingdom. Come then all the colors will bleed into one, bleed into one. But yes, I'm still running. You broke the bonds, and you loose the chains buried the cross of my shame. You know I believe it, but I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Do you remember that song by You Two from the album Joshua Tree?

3:15 Do you. That song had a profound impact on me? The whole album did? The album was just powerful? The album was beautiful. I probably have. I know at some point I had numerous notebooks where I was just listening to the album just you know, stream of consciousness, just writing down whatever, because that song really captured even though at that time I think I'd already made a profession of faith, so I believe I was a Christian at the time, and but yet I felt like, in some ways I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Yeah, yeah, I believe you carried my cross. I believe you carried my shame. But have I have I found what I'm looking for? What am I looking for? Look? How do you define it?

3:58 What should it be? What should it feel like? Should this be everything? I was still trying to process that, and of course I was a teenager at the times, you know, teenage angst and trying to figure out life. And of course, you know, we won't get into everything going on in my life at the time, but to say it was a dumpster fire, train wreck, you know, a nuclear explosion, you know, the apocalypse, what, however, armageddon? I mean, I don't know if there's any words strong enough to describe how bad things were going. But I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But what are we looking for? What should we be looking for? What should we hope to find? What do we want to find?

4:44 Now? The reason I'm kind of putting forth this idea is a little while ago. Well, I was kind of sitting here. I've kind of been I haven't really accomplished a lot today, but there's been a little bit like Okay, so I did the earlier broadcast. I still haven't found what I'm looking for because that didn't really go very well and I didn't really like it, and it was up to me. I was going to delete it, but I'm like, I went like, I don't know, fifty minutes. I'm like, do I delete fifty minutes of work simply because I don't like it? I'm like, well, you know, yeah, Well I've got other things I want to do, and I've got the Indiana Fever game. I definitely want to watch that. Okay, So but I need what am I looking for I need to accomplish, I need to do something today, Right.

5:26 You just sometimes you know, you just don't feel I don't know what you're supposed to feel, right, So I just kind of said here and I kind of opened my Bible and I'm like, well, you know, well I don't really know. I know what I'll do. You know, it's the sermons two point oh app sermon challenge. Let me grab the sermon's two point oh app because that's something I need to do today. Let's click tap on my feed tab. And then I saw finding and I'm like finding what Okay, well, I mean the word is there, but I was like, hm, have I ever found that? What does it sound like to find that? So then I was looking. I'm like, well, maybe I should listen to a little bit of this. And then I'm like, well, I don't know. Well, oh wait, this is from Pensacola Christian College. Remember I told everyone school's back in session, So go listen and find every Christian college, Christian university, and seminary and the sermon's two point oh app and follow them so your feed is filled with all of the college and university messages. And then I know this was the Pensacola Christian College opening convocation, and I'm like, oh, okay, so this, so this is right there, all right? What what?

6:36 What? So? What do they want the students to know? Well, obviously it sounds like they want the students to find something, to find that to find what they're looking for, and maybe what they're actually looking for is well real is it? Do you want to hear how how it went down? Okay? Or I'm not going to try to review all of this, but we're gonna review some of the The next thing that kind of caught my attention was the text. The text was Ruth, chapter one, verse sixteen. I'm like, wait a minute, Ruth one sixteen. Okay. I've definitely taught through the Book of Ruth multiple times. In fact, I think I think some people have said that that's one of the favorite studies I've ever done, is on the Book of Ruth. So maybe we'll have to dig back into that. Maybe, maybe, I mean I think that could be. Maybe that's something we'll put on the table. We still have a lot things to do in the Book of Romans with the there fours, we still need to finish eschatology, So but maybe we can do something with that. So I'm like, Okay, well, I know the book pretty good? Is the book about finding that? Hmmm, I don't know. Let's see how it sounded.

7:41 So let's go to Pensacola Christian College for the for the opening convocation of Fall twenty twenty four. This was posted today. Here we go. Of the Doxology by the PCC student body begins Pensacola Christian College Chapel. At each chapel service, students have an opportunity to receive spiritual exhortation and enrichment during a time of music and meditation on God's work. This podcast shares selected recent chapel messages from guest speakers, faculty, and staff.

8:21 Welcome to the PCC Chapel Podcast. Now we talked about chapel services and what should they be there for. Are they a spiritual pep rally? Are they to exhort? Are they to teach? Should they be mandatory? Remember we had a lot of those conversations. But we're not going to talk about that now because well, we're trying to find out what we're looking for and have we founded and is this what we should find well? And what is okay let's just see what happened. I want you to open your bible to the Book of Ruth this morning, the Book of Ruth, and we're just going to read one verse and then talk a bit about this great story, you know, the story. I don't want you to tune out what an exciting story it is. But I want to read what I think is the most important verse in.

9:14 The entire book a Ruth, chapter number one. Now, this is interesting that he believes Ruth one, verse sixteen is the most important verse of the book. Hmm, that's interesting. Now is it the most important verse in the book because it's the verse you're going to use for your sermon or from a just from a like you you you take the book apart, would would this verse be the most important verse? I found that somewhat interesting. But let's let's see. He's going to read it and then he's gonna he's gonna talk here. A little bit, and I want you to look at verse number sixteen Ruth chapter one and verse number sixteen.

10:03 Ruth is responding to. Naomi's plea for her to return back to Moab and not to go with Naomi to Bethlehem. And watch what Ruth says in verse number sixteen. And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee. Quit telling me to go. Entreat me not to leave THEE or to return from following after THEE. And watch what Ruth says. Now, For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge. I'm going to go where you go. I'm going to live where you live.

10:44 Look at verse number sixteen again, thy people shall be my people. And then here it is the most important decision that Ruth ever made in her life is the last part of verse sixteen where she says, and thy God my God. So here's where Ruth, who's part. Of a country and a religion that's polytheistic, now makes a decision that Jehovah, God, the God of Israel, the God of Naomi, is my God. And I would just say that that's the most important decision you'll ever make in your life. When you make a decision personally to embrace God God the Son Jesus Christ as your personal savior, that's your most important decision.

11:30 Look at verse number seventeen. Now, before we move on to verse seventeen, I would point out that many people are many pastors, or maybe it's the couple itself. But this verse is used a lot for weddings. Right and Ruth said, and treat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee. For whether thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lie, and thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Many people believe that's a perfect text for a wedding, for a marriage, it really describes the way it's supposed to be. You could, I mean, maybe it could. It would be a worthy discussion should that verse be used. Is it to be used to describe a marriage? Is that what it's really about? Is that an appropriate application? We could have that conversation. But okay, we want to know and still still haven't found what I'm looking for? And he is using this about us finding something. What are we trying to find? Let's see?

12:37 Is it finding God? Is it finding salvation? Where thou diest? Will I die? And there will I be buried? The Lord? Do so to me? And more? Also if aught but death part THEE and me? You know, we read these Old Testament stories and I love the Old Testament. By the way, I really do. I think the reason I like the Old Testament is because it's full of stories. I love stories. I've never gotten over stories. I just I love stories. And the Bible actually tells us in the New Testament that we're supposed to look back at the stories of the Old Testament and learn lessons. We're supposed to do that. Whatsoever things we're written before time, we're written for our learning.

13:23 Paul told us in Romans chapter fifteen, and then James told us and James chapter five that were to take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord as an example. So when we look at the Old Testament, I do. I love stories. I love storytelling. I love to see how a story is structured. I like who's the protagonist, the antagonist. I like to see how it's structured, the story, art, character development. I love it all. That's why I love to analyze movies, analyze a television program. Hey that I mean some people people hate it. But that's why I love professional wrestling, because it is storytelling and real time in front of a live audience, with no CGI, no stuntmen.

14:08 They have to do it all right there, But they're telling a story. There's a story. There's a story outside of the ring that explains why they're getting in the ring, and then then in the ring, the entire match is a story. There's a story being told. Some people catch on to the storytelling, some people don't, but it's a story. I love the stories in the Bible. Now. The only thing I get sometimes bothered by with preachers or Christianity with the stories of the Bible is one I believe in many cases they take the story, then they almost embellish add to you know, like you know the chosen television show. Okay, okay, but they and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, where are you going with that? And because the preacher gets going because he kind of reads the story, then he kind of retells the story. But when he retells, he adds maybe humor or drama or emotion, and sometimes the story almost turns into something that I don't think is necessarily true to the text. I am guilty of that.

15:06 I think every preacher is guilty of that. You go to one of these Old Testament stories and now you're gonna you're gonna read it, but then you're gonna start talking about it, You're gonna basically retell it, and you're going to add, you know, because you're trying to pull the people in. The only problem is how much do you add before you actually do damage to it. You're and it's hard to find that balance because at the same time you just read it, you don't want to just sit there in a monotone way going, well, we just read about what happened, and this is what happened bullet point number one, just like you want to. You wanna then try to capture the emotion of it. But it's it's hard to find that ballance. So that's one thing that sometimes bothers me about how Christianity handles the story and the stories. But the other thing is sometimes they take these stories that is just being descriptive. It's just simply describing what happens, and then the next thing, you know, so we rip it out of its context and it's somehow about us, right, marching around Jericho is not about Israel marching around a city with real walls.

16:09 It's about you and me marching around our problem seven times and blowing the trumpet so out our problems crashed to the ground and you're like, what are you talking about? And so many times now it's you and I. We're David, and we're fighting the goliath in your life and you just got to get those smooth stones and have faith and swing your slingshot and boom, you can take down the chat. Well where did I end up in the story? And how did Goliath become my problem? Or the walls of Jericho? That kind of stuff drives me absolutely totally insane. The scriptures, the stories there are not for me just to hijack them and make me the star of the story and now recast the story into basically my own image in my own life. Preachers love doing that nonsense.

16:57 I don't know why the people in the pew I'll allow it or celebrate it or applaud it, or think it's saying amen to it, because somebody should be like, wait a minute, I'm not David. My problem isn't Goliath. Okay, stop, all right. So there's things I do hate about the stories. Not let me rephrase it. I don't hate the stories. I hate what people do to the stories, and I hate the things I have done to the stories in my past as well. But what we want to know is okay in Ruth, What do we find? What are we supposed to find? It is wise for us to look at the entire life story of.

17:38 The particular person. For instance, we can look. At Jacob's story, or look at Isaiah's story, or look at Daniel's story. Now, I know that when we read the Bible, we tend to take four or five or maybe ten. Or fifteen verse sections and preach through them. And that's typically what I do. We call that expository preaching. A big fan of that. But sometimes what we need to do when we read the Bible is just read large sections so that we can see how it all connects. And that's what I want to do today. Now, Now, that's that's I do agree with that. Sometimes we do need to read large sections so we don't so miss you know, we're looking at one tree and we're missing the forest. Right, Sometimes we miss the forest because of the tree, and we just look at the Sometimes you're going to look at the big picture and see how it connects. I completely agree with that. I think that's great advice. I think that's awesome all right, But what what what are we finding? What are we finding now? Listen carefully. This is I think this is exactly where it shows up in this because I listened to just a few minutes of this and when he said this part, this is the when I was like, Okay, I know what I'm going to do now. And immediately when he said it, I was like, you two, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Immediately it all connected in my brain. Or right here we go.

19:00 Now we're not going to read a large section, but I want to tell you the story. I want to tell you the story. I want to tell you the story of Ruth. Four chapters law, And in each chapter there is a significant principle that we can learn, am I. And so in each chapter there's a significant principle we can learn, all right? Is that what he means about finding something? He's getting ready to tell us about finding something? Is it about finding a significant point in each chapter?

19:40 And Ruth, let's just he's he's going to use a different phrase. And this is when my brain started kind of going in a different direction. Right, let's listen, opinion. And so I want I want us to talk this morning about finding significance, because really that's what Ruth did. Ruth went from a nobody to a somebody. So what he wants to talk to the students about is about finding significance. And he says, that's what Ruth did. She went from a nobody to a somebody. So is finding significance where you go from being a nobody to a somebody like that? Is that what finding significance is? Hey, I found significance. I was a nobody, then I started a podcast and I became a somebody. Is that is that what finding significance is? Let's see if he offers any kind of clarification here.

20:38 She went from this more bodis girl who would have been unknown and unthought of, to somebody that was part of the lineage of Jesus Christ himself finding significance. That would be my prayer for you, And I prayed for you this morning. By the way, My prayer for you is that in your life you would find significance. Not so he prayed for the students, and he prayed that in their life they would find significance. So let me ask you the question, have you found what you're looking for? Have you found or you have? Have you not found what you're looking for? Have you still not found what you're looking for? Are you looking for significance?

21:22 What is it like? Hey Lord, I prayed that the people listening to this podcast will find significance. I mean, I don't know how old you are. Have you found it? Have you found significance? So now I don't know if I exactly know what significance is here, because he basically said the two examples was Ruth from a nobody to somebody, and then she basically was a moa Bidas who became a part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. So is finding significance that I that I find myself in some important family family lineage. Is that is my finding significance? I go from a nobody to a somebody? Is that what it means to find significance? That's sounds like a very I'm not saying that's what. I'm not saying that he is doing this, but it sounds to me sounds like a very worldly idea of significance or am I missing something?

22:14 Not not significance the way that maybe the world looks at significance like being famous or being rich or being powerful, but significance in the eyes of God, significance. That will last for eternity. Okay, so he offered a little clarification. What's good because he's like, not becoming famous or something. But his first example was she went from a nobody to somebody but becoming significant in the eyes of God? How do you become significant in the eyes of God? Now that's really a little bit troubling here, right, So do I have to do something to become significant in the eyes of God? Is God sitting there, just sitting right now, He's sitting on the throne. He's like, Man, I know, okay, I know that person who does that Theology Central podcast. I know that person who's listening to him in Georgia. I think someone else is listening in Tennessee or North Carolina.

23:06 I don't remember all the states, but I know those people are listening. I need them to do something so that they will become significant in my eyes. Do we do something to become significant in God's eyes? Or does God make us significant in his eyes? Or are we just significant because of God's sovereignty and his eternal choice? What makes me significant in the eyes of God? Do I have to do something to become significant in the eyes of God? All right? So, oh, all right? Let's see. Let's see how he if he says any more to clarify this this part, I haven't heard any of this part.

23:46 Significance that will matter when we look back at your life one hundred years from now or two hundred years from now and say that life mattered. So how is it that we find significance? Okay, so you need to find significance. So if you look back in your life in one hundred years and two hundred years, that life meant something. Well, how do you define a life that meant something? Do I have to have a Do I have to write a book? Do I have to have a monument a statue? What do I have to do that my life meant something? Do I need to have created a great business? Do I have to have leave generational wealth behind? What do I have to do that my life meant something? Now?

24:37 Are you still looking for? This? Is this the thing we're still I still haven't found what I'm looking for. I need to find significance. Well, you know, the lead singer of YouTube of Bono, I'm assuming he found it, since you know YouTube is now you know viewed one of the you know, very significant band in the history of music. So did he find what he was looking for? I don't know. Is that significance? So got to be I gotta find a way to be significant in the eyes of God and basically be able to have a life when I look back one hundred years from now that life meant something. But who gets to define if the life meant something? Is it God? Or wherever you are this morning, whoever you are this morning?

25:19 How can I find significance? And Father, that's our question, that's the question burning in our hearts. That's the question we're seeking an answer for. And so I pray that in these moments that we have allocated for this chapel service, that you would help us to discover that answer. Lord, may we see in a poignant way the story of Ruth, and Lord may her story. May her story superimposed upon ours, so that we can learn lessons about true biblical significance. And I asked this in Jesus' name. Amen? All right? So I want you to write down, if you take notes, right down, the phrase true biblical significance. What is a life that meets the definition of true biblical significance? If you were to find to compile of Versus, right, that you could then use to define what is true biblical significance.

26:19 What versues would you pull from? Like this concept of true biblical significance? This is kind of now. See now I'm curious, like, Lord, help us find significance, true biblical significance. Well, what do I have to do to find it? What do I have to do to get it? What do I have to do to obtain it? What do I have to do to keep it? It sounds like I'm going to have to do something, all right, So where does the story begin? It begins this way ready, once upon a time, because that's the way all good stories begin. Once upon a time, there was a man by the name of a Limelech. Matter of fact, that name means God is my King. And so no doubt his parents wanted him to be somebody that followed God, somebody that honored God, somebody that made good choices for God. But Elimelech lived at a time called the time of the Judges. And unfortunately, during the time of the Judges, the Bible says that every man did that which is right in his own eyes. That's a bad thing, because there is a way which seems right.

27:23 Unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. And so Olimelech was faced with a choice. You see, what was happening is the economy was really bad. I mean grocery store prices were skyrocket. I mean things were bad and there was no heavy cream available. I mean things were really really bad in Bethlehem. And so Elimelech instead of trusting God Elimok, instead of realizing that this was part of God's teaching and training of the nation who had turned away from him. Instead, Elimelech decided to run. And that's always a bad thing when troubles come, it's always bad to run. Turn to God, but don't run, and took his wife, Naomi, took us two boys, Maylon and Killion, and they left town. Ironically, the town they left was Bethlehem, which means house of bread, and of course we know Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus.

28:15 Now the question is is was it wrong for Alimelech to leave Bethlehem. Did he have some specific scriptural, biblical, philological God revealed revelation do not leave? Now the fact that he went to Moab, would there have been a biblical prohibition to go to Moab. Now remember we're in the Book of Ruth. All right, so we've read numbers, Deuteronomy, Okay, Exodus, is are there laws there that would prohibit them from going to Moab? Those are questions I would have. But how do I find significance in this? Let's see, Well, we're gonna we're not gonna listen to all of this.

29:02 It's called finding significance Pensacola Christian College. You can find it on the sermon's two point Oh app so at some point you may we may come back to this. I'm trying to just get us to define what is significance, What is biblical significance? What is biblical significance? And how do I find it? How do I get it? So what does a littuck do? He makes a really, really bad choice, and the choice is compoundedly bad because he goes to Moab, a place where God said don't go there. That's a troubled place, don't go there. And so aliminck I mean expressly goes to the place that God says don't. Go there, like many of us do. Like many of us make choices in our life and we know it's the wrong choice and we know it's the wrong place, and we do it anyway.

29:48 That's what a Liminit did. So he shows up in Moab, and no doubt Elimink is thinking, I'm just gonna be here for a while. I'm just so journing. This is not permanent, and I'm gonna insulate my children. I'm not going to allow them to get involved in bullbikee culture. Let's just assume they had. He had the very best of motives. Again, when you tell the story God told, did God tell Alimilk or is alimit like supposed to know? Was this common revelation? Where was the revelation given? Like there's lots of questions here, But sometimes when you're constructing the story, well, hey, Olimolek, maybe the bad choice. He went where God told him not to go? Did God tell him not to go?

30:29 Like I mean, sometimes when you step back into this, just remember people weren't walking around carrying a phone where they could look up scripture. Okay, hey, guys, we have a famine or we have we have a famine in the land, we could possibly starve. All right, where do we go? Hey, guys, pull out your blue letter Bible app and let's look at the name of all the locations around us, and see if God has said anything specifically about these places. That's how the way we always treat the Old Testament characters. Hey, why didn't the Bible says? How come they didn't know? Did they even have a copy of it? Okay, right now, you maybe for if you want to paint a spiritual picture, I understand. I think we just sometimes have to at least be fair with the story. But okay, but.

31:14 The fact is, Elimelek died. He died. See, the predecision became the decision. He got to Moab and he died. Now he can't superintend his children. Now we can't guard them. And what do they do? They make really bad choices. And here's what happens. Maylon and Killion, the two sons of ALMANI like they marry Moabite girls. That is the absolute wrong thing to do. Never should a Christian young person marry somebody outside the faith. Never should a Christian young person marry outside of the faith. You should not engage in evangelistic dating. I'm gonna date somebody in hopes that he'll be saved. You should not engage in discipleship dating. I'm gonna I'm gonna date somebody in hopes that she'll get right with God.

31:59 No, no, no, no, no. Make sure that the person that you date, the person that you marry one day, is already a full time committed follower of God. But Maylan and a Chilleon did not do that. They married, respectively, bull bye girls. One married a girl by the name of Orpah and another married a girl by the name of Ruth. And here's what happened. Both boys died. This was obviously part of the judgment of God. Maybe some kind of a genetic problem in the male line of the family. But whatever it was, now you have illiminlac. He's dead now, all right. So this is judgment from God. So if someone dies, judgment from God. So did my mother die when I was a teenager because it was a judgment from God?

32:51 Did my father die because it was judgment from God? Did the four people killed today in Georgia? Was it a judgment from God that they were shot and killed? Hey? Hey, they these these these these No wait a minute, these were the sons, right, okay? So in the name and they know the man was a limelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons, Maelon and Chilean or Killian. I guess I get. I think it gets the case down. Now, wait a minute, there were the sons. Did they not have to go where their father took them? But now they're being judged and killed by God? Hey, you should have never went.

33:36 I mean, that's a radical if does the text say. That they were being judged by God? Now you have Maelon, he's dead. Now you have Killian, he's dead, and now you have three widows. Think about that, three widows. You have Naomi, you have Ruth, and you or book. They'd been there ten years. Can you imagine how depressing that must have been. Ten years they had been there, and to add insult to injury. One day, Naomi's reading them all by times. She's looking at the lead article and it says the economy is booming in Bethlehem, And no doubt she's thinking, if I had just stayed, if we had just trusted.

34:22 God, then none of this would have befallen me and I. So if they would have just stayed, none of these people would have died. That's a massive assumption. Hey, if they would have just stayed. No one would, because no one ever died in Bethlehem, no one. Honestly, Naomi became really, really bitter. I preached a whole message on the Naomi syndrome about the bitterness in Naomi's life. And so Naomi said, I've got to go back home. There's nothing for me in Moab. I'm going back home. Well guess what happens.

35:03 She and Orpah and Ruth they packed, They packed their bags. They load the camel. It's a double humped camel because women have a lot of stuff. And I mean, guys, when you packed for college, I mean you kind of threw things into a suitcase. You figured there's Walmarts in Pensacola and you just win. Girls, you've been packing for like nine years. Okay, So just I'm not I'm just saying. So here's Naomi. Here, here's Ruth, here's Orfa. They packed their bags, they're. On their way, and as they travel toward Bethlehem, Naomi stops and Naomi looks back at at Orpah and looks back at Ruth and says, girls, there's nothing in Bethlehem for you. You don't know the language, it's not your religion, it's not your home. Just go home, Just go home, just go back. And both of them said, no, no, we want to stay with you. We want to we want to live with you. And finally Naomi says, but there's nothing in Bethlehem. You'll never meet a husband there.

36:00 What do you want me to do? Get married and raise a sun? You'll marry him? That is just absurd. Go home? So what happens? Orpa goes home? Oh, they hug, no doubt, they cry, And can I just say this, girls, when you hug and cry like we guys, we don't know what to do, we just turn on ESPN because we really just don't know what to do in those moments. So are there hugging, crying? Orpa goes home? And now she turns to Ruth and says, Ruth, you're gonna go. Ruth said, I'm not going anywhere where you go. I'll go where you live. I'll live your people, my people, You're God, my God. Where you die, I die? Now, Ruth said, I am staying.

36:44 What do we see about Ruth? I think, first of all, I think, first of all, this morning, we see that Ruth was selfless in her life goals she. Was self, I'm not necessarily figuring out how we're going to find significance in this. I'm not I'm not really getting where where is how do we find significance? Do we find? Is he getting ready to say we find significance by being like Ruth, I want to leave this, but we'll Well, I got a whole bunch of notes on significance, right because when I saw the word significance, I just started looking up things about significance, the concept of significance. So let's let's go a little bit further and see if he if he ties it back to his his thesis is he wants us to find significance.

37:39 Helfless all the circumstances, said Ruth. Just it's better for you here, Ruth. There's more of a future for you here. Ruth said, that's more comfortable for you here. You know the language, you know the religion. You know the people. I mean, there's nothing for you over there. And your mother in law just told you there's no future for you over here. There's no future to be married, there's no future to be loved. You'll just be an immigrant status your whole life. I mean, Ruth, but you know what Ruth said. Ruth said, my life is not about my pleasure. My life is not about me. My life is about God and what He has for me. And I'm gonna trust him and I'm gonna go that way selfless in our life goals.

38:24 I think that's where it starts. I think that's where significance starts. I think that's where finding significant starts. It starts with a not I but Christ. It starts with a not I not what's for me? But how can my life best be used for God? All right? So then logically, if we put this together, you find significance in the eyes of God. In other words, you become significant in the eyes of God when you say not I but Christ. When you become self less in your life, you don't live life for self, you live life for Christ. Then you become significant. See that's like I don't like the way this philologically is working.

39:10 I find significant. I become significant in the eyes of God based off what I do. Like, if I don't do the right things, Guy's like, well, that person's not significant to me. That person has no significance because they didn't live a life of self lessness. Well, you know how many of us live a life of selfishness all of us, so there are none of us significant in the eyes of God? And what does it mean not to be significant in the eyes of God? This guy's like, well, that person's Oh, look at that one. That's a significant one? Like that, that's a weird plological perspective. Isn't my significance in the eyes of God based off the redemption provided to me in Christ Jesus? And by putting my faith in Christ? I am in Christ. I'm i positionally, I'm a new creature, the oldest gone, all is new. I'm now an adopted son of God. I am now declared to be perfect, righteous and holy because I'm significant because I'm in Christ. Isn't my significance found in my positional standing?

40:13 My significance is not found in my practical doing? Right? Would that not be the correct way to understand this? Hey, guys like, great, Sorry, you don't live selfless? Selfless enough? You live selfishly, Therefore you're not significant? And what does it mean not to be significant in the eyes of God? And I've got to be willing to say no to myself first? Is that the first requisite of discipleship? Is that not what Jesus said to his own disciples in Matthew sixteen and verse twenty four, if any man will come after me, let him, let him deny himself. See, we live in a society that says, oh, no, feat yourself, appraise yourself, self adrandizement, self fulfillment, self esteem. And yet the Bible is the exact opposite.

41:03 He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. And Ruth gives us a great example. Be selfless in your life goals. It's not about you, it's about him. But watch this number two and chapter number two. So they arrive in Bethlehem, Naomi's. So it sounds like it's going to be about It's gonna be a lot about doing things. What you do determines if you have significance in the eyes of God. Let's just do a little quick just a quick read about the concept of significance. All right, Does that make sense? All right? Finding significance generally refers to the process of identifying or discovering, discovering meaning, importance, or value in something.

41:49 This could apply to a variety of context, such as interpreting events, understanding data, or recognizing the importance of certain experience or actions subjective experience. The idea of finding significance is often personal and subjective. Different people may find different meaning and the same event depending different meanings than the same event, depending on their perspectives, beliefs, and experience. So finding significance, well, then that I don't think we would from a thiological perspective, we wouldn't look at it as something subjective, right, I may find significance in. I see. Is there a subjective part to it? Even theologically? I think, well, I mean I may find significance in a certain line of work or in a certain vocation. That would be subjective, because that goes with your talents, your likes, your dislikes, your personality. You may find significance in climbing a mountain and sitting on top for five minutes, going look at the view, and then climbing all the way back down and going back home. I think that's kind of ridiculous, Okay, but all right, So but you may so we may find I guess there is a level of finding significance that is subjective. But he's talking about finding a biblical significance.

43:07 I don't think that that's a I think that's maybe different, right, maybe there's an objective context. In some cases, significance can also be determined more objectively. For example, statistical analysis might find significance and a data set meaning that a result is unlikely to occurred by chance, which implies its importance for the studies conclusions. Okay, that's kind of a little different than what maybe that would be. If I look at Ruth chapter one, I'll just show you from a hermeneutical the idea of hermeneutical significance. If I look at Ruth chapter one, you can do this. And when I did my study on Ruth, this is what a lot of people found my study of chapter one to be the most I think enlightening is if you go through chapter one, look up every name. Now he alluded to it a limit like is my king Bethlehem, house of bread?

44:02 Look at the name of everyone. All the names have a significance that seems to indicate that there's a significant word picture being developed in the text. It's too there's too much there to be a coincidence, right, All the names mean something, and you put them all together and you're kind of like, ah, I think there's a word play going on here. There. I think there's a word picture here that I think is significant. So hermoneutically is when you look to the text and you're like, oh, that is significant, because wait, come on, why is it doing that? Why is it using that? Like we're trying to figure out in the Book of Romans, isn't it significant that in the Book of Romans the word therefore is used between twenty seven and thirty three times depending on your translation. But five different Greek words are used for major ones? Why are they using different Greek words to be translated therefore? Because each and each of the Greek words have a kind of a slightly different emphasis, that seems to be hermonutically significant.

45:00 All right, So we can understand that when now philosophical and existential implications. Philosophically, finding significance can also be tied to existential questions of purpose and meaning in life. This concept is often discussed and feels like different forms of psychology or even theology, where individuals or scholars explore what makes life meaningful or what matters most in the human experience. So this is the idea of finding significance, is what makes life meaningful? Now from a thilological perspective, we would argue what should make life meaningful? Where should we find significance?

45:42 I think we find significance and a host of things, right. I think we find significance in relationships, We find significance in and certain emotions that make us feel significant. Right. Right. I've often this is not a perfect example, but just to kind of show you how it can and just kind of show up in different areas of life. This is now, this is fleshly, but I'll you know, I will explain it. So my life in high school, I've told about how horrible and messed up it was, and I didn't find any significance or no meaning in it in any way, shape or form. And I definitely felt less than I felt insignificant. I felt just all kinds of bad feelings, a little bit of that you know, teenage angst. But it was, you know, multiplied a million times until someone put me in a car and took me to a dance club. And I've told the story how I just stood there the first night and just watched, watched, and I went back the next night by myself, and I walked in. I ignored everyone else. I didn't care who was on the dance floor. Wasn't on the dance floor.

46:51 I went to that dance floor because when I dance, that's where, like life, all of a sudden, has significance. And so I just wanted to be lost in the met And then the next thing, you know, I look around and everyone's watching me. Everyone's looking at me. Then everyone's walking up, going, oh man, you're so great, You're you're you're awesome. And then one night at the club became two nights at the club, and then I was at the club basically every time the door was open, and at some point then everyone got to know me, and it's like I became like I'm I'm synonymous with the club. Now I'm that guy at the club and everyone talks about how great I dance. And now and all of a sudden, now I'm finding significance because now I'm good at something and I'm getting praise and I'm getting recognition, and all of a sudden, I feel like I'm on the top of the world significance. All right, So that's okay. Now that's not the logical significance. That's a worldly, fleshly significance.

47:52 Right. I wasn't finding my significance in God. I was finding significance and well, something that I was good at, being able to demonstrate, and being praised for it. No, I loved that part. Not going to deny it. I would be a liar if I said otherwise. Okay, all right, So the phrase finding significance is significant. That's funny. Finding significance is significant because it touches on a fundamental human need, the desire to understand and find meaning in our experiences, surroundings, and lives. The quest for significance drives much of human behavior, from the pursuit of knowledge and truth to the creation of art, religion, and culture. Now, I will argue one of the things that definitely drew me to, or one of the things that had been profoundly impacted me about the Bible and God and Jesus and Heaven and Hell is finding I felt significance.

48:54 Right. I've said before that I could many and I'll tie it back to the club. There were many nights I was being the club and then the floor would get crowded and it would just be a lot of people there, and I didn't have enough room to really be able to dance the way I wanted to dance, and so I typically a lot of times would leave, just get in the car by myself. And many times I would go and stop at a Catholic church because the sanctuary was open, and I would just go in and sit there. I would just go there and sit there. And as I was sitting there, I would just sit there and go, you know, I would see, you know, all the images and everything in the church, and the large crucifix, their Christ hanging on the cross, and I would just sit there and just think, all that stuff outside of here is kind of fleeting. I know it's not going to last.

49:50 I know it's not going to last. Right, the club is going to end. My time in there is going to I'm gonna get older, my physical appearance will change dancing. When you look when you're dancing at the age of nineteen, eighteen twenty, it looks one way. It looks different when you're now fifty, right, I mean, it's go I knew that it was fleeting in some way, shape or form, and I knew it was somewhat vain and somewhat frivolous. But when I would be there and it's kind of like the duality inside of me like I could feel just as home on the dance floor as I could inside a church. Like it's very that the duality in me is very pre present in this story. But I could just sit there and think, hmm, I wonder if I could find true significance if I give everything up and become a Catholic priest. I mean, I wasn't Catholic at the time, but I thought, maybe Catholicism. You know, you give up everything, and you're not pursuing a relationship of valleus celibacy. You're married to the church. This is your life. Your life will be right here, serve, preaching a homily, teaching catechises, you know, hearing cons you know, maybe this is where I would find significance. But so I always kind of strus so in some ways Christianity I thought gave me some level of significance, But then there was times I felt like I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Finding significance is crucial of both

51:22 personal and collective development. So what is significance from a biblical standpoint? I've got more here, I got more here, I got more here, I got more here. But I think what I want to do, I want to go through and more, but I kind of want to leave it there. I want to leave it there. Have you found significance? Have you? Where did you find it? And did you find significance by doing? Like? Did you find significance? I found significance in God because I stopped being selfish and I started living a life of selflessness. Then I found my significance. That's I don't think theologically that's the way to go. Don't we find significance in God? God? Because when we find God, we find our creator, we find our maker, we find the one who created that. I mean, do I not have significance simply because I'm a creation of God? Created in his image? Do I have to do anything to find that significance? And when I come to Him in faith?

52:19 Or am I not returning to the one who created me? Therefore my significance is found in Him and that I'm significant in his eyes because he created me and he redeemed me. Is it found in what I do? Or is it found in who I am and who my creator is? Now? The question is when you find that significance in God? Come on, do we really find significance in God? Because I think we find it, and a one one we're like, I have found significance. I have found my purpose, I have found everything. Oh praise God, I finally found it. And then the next manute, like all of a sudden, you start hearing the music of you two.

53:01 You still haven't found what you're looking for. And then you're like, well, now I need to find a husband or a wife. Okay, now I need to find a career. Now I need to find a house, and now I need to find this, and now I need friends, and now I need companionship, and now I need physical fulfillment, and now I need this, and now I need that. Do we ever truly find significance as being truly significant? Or is it only partially significant? Have you found it? What is it? How did you get it? How do you keep it? How should we understand it? I'll leave it there, and I'm leaving it there.

53:42 I'm not going to act like I'm being spiritual, because significantly I want to go watch your basketball game. I'm not going to even pretend to be spiritual here. Now I do find it. It's a good place to end it because it's at fifty three minutes, So I do find It's a good place to end it because it kind of places it in your hands, where now you can say, you can go talk to whomever, your friend, your husband, wife, and say, hey, have you ever thought about finding significance? Do you think we found it? Do we ask your kids? Hey, kids, what do you think is significant in my life? I don't know? All right, thanks for listening everyone, have a great night.

54:32 God bless