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Yes the same Monday.com. You're tuned into the Potter's House podcast where we are encouraged by powerful testimonies and life changing truth. Let's go.

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Let's go to the Book of Ruth. Ruth 1:19 through 21 and my Scriptures are in the new King James Version and I have another scripture and then I have another scripture. Let me tell you y' all had me weak and studying, let me tell you, because, Dr. James, I didn't want to get up here and embarrass you. You know, for some of you may not realize yesterday was our Pastor Bonnet's birthday. And she was a great mentor to me, and I miss her terribly. And her husband was trying to put a Facebook post up for her. And so Pastor Moon encouraged me. And today I feel her standing over there smiling and shaking her head. Okay, so Ruth, 1:19. Now, the two of them, Ruth and Naomi, went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them. And the women said, is this Naomi? But she said to them, do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again, empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. Now keep a pinky finger in Ruth and skip to Hebrews for me. 1035. Therefore, therefore, do not cast away your confidence which has great reward. And where that pinky is in Ruth. Let's go to Ruth. 4, 15, 17. Ruth, 4, 15, 17. In the new King James says, and may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter in law who loves you, who was better to you than seven sons has borne him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse to him. Also the neighbor women gave him a name saying, there is born. There is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. My topic very loosely is, even when I lose, even when I lose, I will win again. Even when I lose, I will win again. God is. Please rest on your seats. Alrighty. Now go to work. How about it? Go to work. Yes, go to work. Okay. So God has called you by your name. You are the apple of his eye. The message today has less to do about the occasion, but more about losing. Just a little testimony of mine. When we first moved to Dallas, the feeling was overwhelmingly gratifying. We were so excited, so delighted. I mean, everything was coming up roses, I promise you. We couldn't find our way to the church, but we were happy trying to get here. It was amazing. It was amazing. The people came and they thronged us. And we had maybe 300 people when we were in West Virginia. And Babe says, that's counting pregnant women. And so it was Amazing to see 2,500 people. Lady Brenda, Brother John came to join that very first Sunday. We opened the doors and we were like, om, look at all of the people coming to Jesus. And we thought, oh, my goodness, what are we going to do, Lady Faith? How are we going to comfort and get our arms around all of these people? And then we found out that there is always a pothole on the way to destiny. I woke up one morning in excruciating pain. Had to crawl to the front door on my hands and knees. Dexter was two to try to open the door so Pastor Frazier could come and take me to the er. Babe was traveling. The girls were gone to school, the twins were gone to school. And Dexie was just sitting there on the stairs watching his mother writhe with pain on the floor. And I thought, what happened to all of that joy? And then I looked up and. And then I had to have surgery on my gallbladder. Emergency. Okay, fine. Surely that's the end of it. I passed that test. Bless my soul. I looked up again, and I had to have another emergency surgery. All of this within just the first few years. And I walked around with a catheter, and I thought, who's going to help me cover this catheter? Embarrassing? Yes. Smelly? Yes. Came through that. Hallelujah. Then my mother got sick with Gillian Barret, and by the time I looked up in one week, she was gone. I thought, what happened to all that winning? What happened to all that joy? What happened to all that pleasantness? What happened to me? All within the first years? But then I thought about, how do you handle it when what's going on inside of you contradicts what's going on outside of you? What do you do when you. Your body's wracked in pain and the saints are rejoicing and the building's going up and you've bent over in pain? What do you do? How do you handle the things in life that don't line up with what you feel is your ideal situation? The things that make you happy, the things that made you smile and made you want to laugh and talk? You find yourself sitting in bitterness. You feel like I'm in this by myself and nobody sees me, and everybody expects me to be pleasant, happy. And I'm going through a very private situation in a public setting. I wanted to get up under the chair and hide, throw up my hands and just give up. Have you ever found yourself mentoring when you needed somebody to mentor you? Male, female, it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what age you are, when people expect you to be one way all the time and you're going through things that they can't imagine, but maybe you can imagine it. Do you find yourself not even recognizing the person that you are? You don't even recognize yourself. Your body has turned against you, your kids are acting super dumb. Your husband doesn't even know what you're going through, not you. I need a ride home. We all love the story of Ruth. We absolutely love it. We think that it's just, just the most poetic book in the Bible. It's a love story. But look at what happens in this wonderful love story, because we always talk about Ruth. But let's talk about Naomi. Her name is derived from the Hebrew word meaning pleasant, delightful or lovely, a pleasantness of Jehovah. And the name suggests it of all that is charming, agreeable and attractive. Until deep sorrow overshadowed her. We can understand Naomi having a nature corresponding to her name. Although her character came to be purged, her name had to be challenged. It was suffering. She had the nobility and the grace and personality and irresistible charm. They talk about Naomi and her husband Elimelech. They were members of the Hebrew race, were told nothing about their genealogy, but he married Elimelech, married Naomi, and is thought to have belonged to one of the outstanding families in Israel. If this was so, then Naomi began her married life in very comfortable circumstances. Naomi and Elimelech belonged to Bethlehem, Judah, where two sons were born to them, Mahlon and Chilion. Hard words to say. The Book of Ruth is one of the most enchanted story of two women in mentorship that we often think about. Naomi and her daughter in law Ruth, after the characters like Delilah and Jezebel. What a refreshing sketch of femininity. Let's kind of step aside on the experience of Naomi and think about the ringing groove of change that the poet Tennyson says. Because of her manifold changes in life, Naomi came to fear God in a deeper way. During the rule of the judges, Israel suffered a serious famine, A serious time of lack, a serious time of when everybody around them were suffering and they decided that they should move away from the famine and go somewhere where there was plenty. Now the problem with leaving something that you're familiar with to go to somewhere that you're unfamiliar with, you have to take along with you the things that were embreaded in you while you were in Bethlehem, in the house of bread, where you were joyful and sorry wasn't even part of your life. Everything was abundant. And then you go to another country that will change your name. Why? Because these people didn't know Naomi's God. So they left LAC and went to spiritual deprivation. These people were heathenistic idolaters. And here comes the the family of Elimelech with their holy selves into this land of heathens. Now, who's going to change whom? Who's going to influence this transition? The most wealthy, the sons, unfortunately hooked up with the women of Moab, and instead of helping their mother, they took wives of the alien country they were in. Now the Jewish law forbade marriage outside the nation. All of this is going on around Naomi, who's trying to hold on to her God looked up and her husband died and left her in a land of idolatrous. Without her husband, she loses all heart to live. And the poet says, to all appearances, Naomi was desolate. Husband was gone. She looked up and her children were gone. Her sons died, her husband died. She's losing. This pleasant woman, this happy woman, very pleasant woman, looked up in the thing that brought her the most joy was gone. She lost. She felt that the God of her fathers had deserted her. And she felt, I've got to go back to where I really, really belong. The greatest crisis in her life left her bitter. She was mad at God. I know that none of you, None of you have ever folded your arms and said, God, what is going on? I'm so sad. I'm so sorrowful. I don't even know how to put one foot in front of another. You've taken things that used to bring me joy, used to make me so happy. Now where does my happiness come from? Now I'm surrounded by people that don't even know your name, God. And now I've got these two girls that are looking at me to be strong and courageous, and they don't even know my God. And they're looking at Naomi thinking, what are we going to do now? You've got to mentor while losing. They're looking at you, wanting to know, what are you going to do? And she's looking at them like, don't talk to me about this, because in order for us to get through this, you're going to have to know my God. In order for me to get through this, I'm going to have to rekindle my relationship with God. And I can't do it here. I'm surrounded by idolaters. They don't even understand the depth of my pain. They don't even understand how joyful I was. They don't even care Actually. So Naomi made a decision, say to somebody like they did this morning, Make a decision. Make a decision. On the journey back, Naomi paused and pleaded with her daughters in law, don't go with me. Stay here. Don't go with me because I don't even know myself anymore. Stay here with your people. I'm going back to my folk who know Jesus, who love Jesus, who understand Jesus. When she found out that her country was ready and and had bread to offer, she started putting one foot in front of the other. She was sorrowful, she was sad, but she knew that there was bread waiting for her. And she started going back to Bethlehem. And we look up and she says to those girls, go back. Go back. And Orpah said, deal, I'm going back. And she looked at Ruth, she said, I told you to go back. And Ruth looked at her and said, oh, no. Where you go, I will go. And where you live, I will live. And where you die, I will die. I will not leave you. Sounds familiar. I will never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Your God will be my God, and your people will be my people. Okay, so come on, roll it up. Now. When they entered the city. When they entered the city, everybody came running out. They were like, oh, my God, look, here comes Naomi. Here comes Naomi. And then they said, and then there's that little girl with her. Here comes Naomi. And then Naomi said, wait a minute. That's not who I am anymore. I'm no longer glad and happy, and I'm bitter. I'm mad because God has dealt harshly with me, and I don't like it. And I don't want you to call me by what you used to call me. I named myself something different. And why would you change your name when God has already told you who you are? Circumstances change, but your name remained the same. Things came against you, but your name remains the same. He called you holy. He called you righteous. He said you were the apple of his eye. So why do you have this attitude where you think that you can change what God has already said? How dare you? Who am I to deny what the Lord can do? All right, roll it up. They got me on the clock. Hallelujah. Okay, so her arrival in this old community, they recognized her as being one person. But you came back different. How many of you have left a situation feeling happy and glad? And when you came back, you felt like just dirt? I mean, just dirt. Shannon. I don't feel like it. I don't want to laugh. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want you to talk to me. Don't say nothing to me. Don't look at me. Just leave me alone. Because God has dealt harshly with me. But did he really? Or was she right? If she's going to lay it at the feet of Jesus, if she's going to say, you did this, then only he can fix it, right? If she's going to lay it at the feet of the Almighty and say what he's done, then surely she put it at the right place. Cause who can fix it but him? Who can fix it but him? So with your bitter self, Naomi, you put it at God's feet. He said, okay, since it's mine anyway, since I did it anyway, since, since I didn't suffer your foot to be moved anyway, let me grab this thing up and fix you. So while she was mentoring, while she was losing, she taught this little girl how to go out into the fields. Have you ever been sent out to the fields by your mentor where you wanted to just sit up under somebody and then they send you out into the fields and tell you to go and glean, pick up the leftovers that other people have ignored? Have you ever had an opportunity to pick up the leftovers because your mentor taught you how to survive? They had to eat, they had to live. They had to have something to do. And so the little girl went out and started picking up the leftovers. Somebody's picking up your leftovers. Stuff that you've discarded is helping somebody else live, helping somebody else survive. And co. Some. Wait a minute. 10 years. She stayed in Moab. 10 years sounds like a long time. But look at what all happened in those 10 years. And I started thinking about the things that happened to me and you. In 10 years. I've watched you all battle cancer, lose loved ones, bury loved ones, walk into hellish situations. I've watched you survived the ridicule and the accusations that were thrown against you. And you felt like, don't call me happy because I'm not happy about this. Don't call me what I used to be. Call me something new. But God forbid that you lay in your sorrow. God forbid that you wallow in what you lost and not look at what you have left. You've got so much more in store for you than what you've experienced. You don't have to think that this is the end for me. Wait a minute. Let me get back. Roll it up. Okay. So when she was attempting to reclaim what she found or called home, it felt foreign. To her. She didn't remember how pleasant she or you remember how pleasant you used to be. You don't Even remember in 10 years, you've forgotten who you are. You've forgotten your name. You've renamed yourself after your situations. Somewhere along the way, though, there lies a thing, a very small thing that we call trust. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and don't even try to figure it out. Lean not into your own understanding. When all your ways, in all your bitterness, in all your sorrow, acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Roll it up.