[0:00] Well, we are honored to have Brother Keith Schumacher. Come on, Brother Keith. Brother Keith's a minister of Macedonia World Baptist Missions. He's the African director, been church planning in Burkina and Africa since about 2002.
[0:13] Amen. Thank you, preacher. It was a joy and a blessing to be with you. Open your Bibles to Judges chapter number 17. As you're turning there, we'll just give you a little update. I first want to start by saying thank you.
[0:25] Thank you to Vision Baptist Church. Thank you for how good you've been to us. Thank you for your prayers. For our family. For the ministry. Thank you for the prayers during the time of this year.
[0:36] I guess for a lot of people didn't go like we had dreamed or even thought. But God is still good through it all. And I certainly do want to thank you, the church, for the flowers that you sent for the passing of my father. Thank you, Pastor Gardner, for coming down.
[0:49] When he told me in spite of his busy schedule he was flying down for the funeral of my father, I was greatly touched. And I know he's a very busy man. And I wrote him immediately and said, you don't have to come.
[1:00] And he said, I'm coming. And once he says, I'm coming, you're no use arguing again. So I just left it alone. And he came and I was greatly touched. Thank you, Brother John Pearson. And Miss Sandy also came down.
[1:11] They drove down and were actually there for the burial of my father. And I certainly do appreciate that. Wasn't expecting any of that. I thank you so much for your love towards us and towards our family.
[1:22] Thank you so much for your prayers for Meredith. Meredith. I don't know. I know some of you might know this already. But due to Meredith's situation with the dust problem, allergy, or whatever you call it, making her cough, we are most likely, we are heading back, Lord willing, the sixth, here this Wednesday.
[1:40] As long as we can get tested and get out of here. But Meredith will have to stay. And just because she's not able to, the climate there is just not agreeable to her. And she will be staying with my in-laws, her grandparents, and we'll be coming back probably in June.
[1:56] Most likely we will stay probably a year at that time. Take a furlough and I'll travel back and forth and then just preach in churches. So pray with us. We've got a lot going on, things that we weren't expecting. But through it all, God continues to move the ministry.
[2:08] I just got a note in about two weeks ago from Pastor Salif. And Pastor Salif said, Pastor, we've just went out to a new village. We've got a young man. He's about to graduate in our Bible college.
[2:18] He says he's about ready to go out there. His name is Julien. Julien, I guess, is his name. And he's ready to go out there. So I think they're looking at starting another church there pretty soon. Pastor Gilbert sent me a couple pictures with some old men that he was sitting around a tree in another village.
[2:32] And they're wanting to give him a piece of land for a church. I'll tell you, it's exciting just to see how God continues to move the ministry in the right way. We started praying about many years ago. Buying some land for a camp.
[2:43] And we just really wanted to have a place where we could have youth camp. Where we could have discipleship training. Maybe some retreats for couples and that kind of thing. And pastor's camp and that kind of thing.
[2:55] Because we always used schools and everything else. But it was never quite. We may do, but it wasn't quite what we wanted. So we felt like if we built that. And then here recently and the last few months we began to feel the need to move the Bible college onto that place.
[3:09] And base camp. And he says that's basically where that mountain climber starts off at the beginning. Where he gets his orientation. And he's preparing to go to the summit. And going to the top.
[3:20] And so I said how fitting that name is to what we're trying to do. So pray with us. We've already started parts of the wall. We couldn't build the whole wall around 10 acres. That's a whole lot. But we put little sections here and there.
[3:32] So people know that that's ours. And so they can't say when they come and take our sand and dig. That's what they'll do. And we've had to stop them a few times. They'll come up to the other end of it. And they'll be taking sand off of our land.
[3:44] And they'll say, well we didn't know that was your land. And so now they can't say that. But we started on our first buildings. We're going to turn that into our Bible college classroom and dorm room real soon. Those will be dorm rooms at the end.
[3:55] But we're just dreaming that God would allow us to do that. God's given us money already to buy the land and to start some of it. God's given us water there. If you've seen the video of the well.
[4:06] And we've got a tower now and a solar power pump. And water's flowing good. And so God's been good to us through all of that. And so we've got about 10,000 left in the bank. And probably need another about 100 and something thousand to get going.
[4:20] And to get the rest of it going. But we're going to use whatever comes in. So pray with us that God would help us to meet that need. But here in Judges chapter number 17 and verse number 6. We're actually going to go to the book of Ruth shortly thereafter.
[4:32] But I just want to pick up a verse right here first before we get into that. The Bible says, In those days there was no king in Israel. But every man did according to that which was right in his own eyes.
[4:45] And here the book of Ruth and Ruth chapter number 1. The story of Ruth happened in that time of Judges. And so as we begin to think about that. You realize that everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes.
[4:58] And it's kind of like the society we live in today it seems like. Does it not? There was great problems. There was great struggles. There was great tribulations. I think for some reason we think we've got the worst it's ever been.
[5:09] But I think if we go back into history. We still have it pretty good. Matter of fact. If you just get out of America. And you go to a foreign land in some of these foreign countries. You'd realize in spite of the political climate today.
[5:20] You still have it good. And many of you understand that traveling around the world. But you know you just think about all these struggles and everything that's happened. But boy I'll tell you what a great thing to think about.
[5:32] In spite of the problems and the struggles that happened in the book of Judges. And during that time you've got this great story of redemption of love in the book of Ruth. And so that just begins to show to us in spite of the political climate.
[5:45] In spite of the struggles. In spite of the problems. I'm telling you we can still shine. And God can still bless. And we can still thrive instead of die. And we can still go forward instead of go backwards.
[5:56] And God is still with us. God still is here today. And we appreciate that. But here in the book of Ruth chapter number 1. In verse number 1. The Bible says. Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled.
[6:07] That there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons.
[6:18] And now when we look at this. And we're going to take the different people that we see in the book of Ruth here in chapter number 1. And we're just going to try to preach the best that we can. The different paths that we see here in the book of Ruth chapter number 1.
[6:32] Point number 1 that we have very clearly is. We see the path of bad decisions. The path of bad decisions. Now I don't know if you've seen this and you've watched people. But if you're a pastor.
[6:44] If you've been a missionary for any time. And no doubt that those that are adults. Those that have children. Maybe you've watched your own children make bad decisions. Maybe you've watched friends make bad decisions.
[6:55] As a pastor all the time. We watch people make bad decisions. And I tell you it breaks our heart when we see that. But here we've got a man by the name of Elimelech. And Elimelech made a bad decision.
[7:05] And that decision cost them very badly. And so I will say to you this. That you've got to be careful to make the right decisions. The bad decisions many times will cost you greatly.
[7:16] There was a famine no doubt. But he left Bethlehem. And Bethlehem right here means the house of bread. But he went to Moab. And it's kind of interesting sometimes when someone is beginning to run from the will of God.
[7:29] When someone is beginning to run from what God wants them to do. Or where God wants them to stay. And they run right to the house of the enemy. And Moab was exactly that. Moab was a type of the house of the enemy.
[7:41] And here he is. And even if you're in the house of Israel. And even if you're struggling in the house of Israel. You ought to just stay probably right where you're at. Because you know sooner or later. God's a good God.
[7:52] And God's going to bless. But a little bit of that gets on there. And because he sees there's a famine. He sees there's problems. He leaves because he thinks the grass is greener on the other side.
[8:03] How many times and how many stories can we get up here and tell? Every missionary. Every pastor. And even you most likely can tell. Friends and family and members and church members. And even pastors and even missionaries.
[8:15] And even national pastors. That have got their eyes fixed on a field on the other side. They thought it was a little bit greener. And they got over there and they realized it wasn't quite what they thought it was going to be.
[8:26] We've seen it happen a lot. I've watched young men. I remember as I went to Togo. And I didn't know what I was doing. Brother Gardner had challenged me. Beginning as a missionary.
[8:38] He had challenged me to invest my life into training young men. So in Togo I was able to win a Ghanaian. A man from Ghana to Christ. And I had a short time with him.
[8:49] And we were heading back to the Ivory Coast. And I didn't know what I was doing at the time. And I probably did things a little bit too quickly. But I invited David and his family to go over to the Ivory Coast with us.
[9:00] And there were some problems that happened there. And probably some of it was my fault. And David got very, got kind of frustrated about a few things. And David came up to me one day and he says, I'm leaving.
[9:13] And I said, David, I'm not here to keep you here. But all I want you to tell me is that you know that this is God's will for your life. That you know without a shadow of doubt that God is in this decision.
[9:24] And David said, Pastor, I cannot tell you that. But I've already made up my mind I'm leaving. I said, David, I'm afraid if you're leaving because of this certain problem that we can work out. Guess what's going to happen? You're going to call me back in a few months.
[9:35] You're going to say I made a mistake. And David said, well, I'm leaving. So I took David to the border. Matter of fact, my dad was visiting me at that time. We took him to the border, dropped him off. David went back.
[9:46] And about three months later, David calls me up. And guess what David said? He says, Pastor. Actually, actually in Ghana they call you pasta. And so if he said to this day, he always calls me pasta, pasta.
[9:57] And so he says, pasta. He said, I made a mistake. Can I come back? I said, David. I said, you've got consequences to your decision. Do you not?
[10:08] He said, yes. I said, David, I told you this was going to happen. I said, because you didn't know it was God. He made a bad decision. And every year or so, David would call me up and say, Pastor, will you forgive me?
[10:21] I said, David, forgive you for what? Because there in Africa, they think that when there's a problem between somebody, if you forgive them, then everything goes back to the way it once was.
[10:34] But that's not always the case. We see here, Elimelech made a decision. He left because of one problem. He left because of a famine. And by the time Naomi left, there were three funerals.
[10:48] Doesn't pay to make the wrong decisions. When trouble comes, when trials come, when things come, there's a lot of things we can do. But I wrote down three things. Number one, you can run from them, just like we said.
[10:59] You can run from them, but that becomes a great problem. You can endure it. There's a lot of people who endure trials. They don't like it, but they endure it. There's another thing you can do.
[11:12] You can stay faithful in it. And when you stay faithful in it, God will bless. Just like we see here in Ruth's life, how she stayed faithful and God blessed. And what a wonderful thing it is.
[11:24] My mom, I was talking with my mom right after my dad had passed away. And my mom had read a number of things about what to do when your spouse passes away.
[11:35] And one of the things that they said not to do, they said, don't make too many crucial and major decisions before one year's time. That's a worldly thing that I think that I've heard other people say similar things that happens.
[11:50] But here's some times with God when struggles and trials come. Within a day, you've already made your decision to run. Why is that? And so I hope that today as we start 2021, I hope today that you're not on the path of a bad decision.
[12:08] You can change that today. You can make a decision like Ruth made. You can make a decision to do the right thing. So in path number two, in verse number six, as we read verse number six, then she arose with her daughters-in-law that they might return from the country of Moab.
[12:27] For she had heard in the country of Moab how the Lord had visited his people and giving them bread. We have the path of the herald here. He is giving good news.
[12:39] He is, we don't know much about this man. We don't know exactly what happened, but somebody came by and said, I've got good news. God has been in his people.
[12:51] I don't believe Naomi would have ever got up. The Bible says that she got up, that she arose, and she went back because she heard good news. And this world is looking for something today.
[13:05] They're looking for something real. And they're not finding it in politics. That's why we have a mess. They're looking for it in wealth and finances and everything else.
[13:16] And they're not finding it. The world says get rich. It'll make you happy. The world says, hey, let's let Washington change these rules. It'll make us all happy.
[13:27] But it's not working. The world says, let's get rid of coronavirus and everything will be okay. But that's not going to happen. The only way to find what man really needs is for somebody to tell them, I've got some good news.
[13:44] So when we come to 2021, who are you? Think about this right now. Who do you have on your prayer list that's lost and you're praying for their salvation every day?
[13:56] It's a good question. I guarantee you can name me more people that are sick that you're praying about their physical problem instead of their spiritual problem. Just goes to show, there's nothing wrong with praying for people when they're sick and often will say, I've got this or I've got that.
[14:13] Will you pray for me? Pray for me a new job. Pray for me that. But how many times do we really concentrate on praying for those that are lost and dying and going to hell? Here was a man that stood up and gave good news.
[14:30] Let's look at the third path right here. We have the path of bitterness. I don't know if you've ever been bitter, but most likely you have in one way or another, in one form or another.
[14:43] Maybe you've never even realized it, but you've been bitter. But look at verse number 19 and verse number 20. So they went until they came to Bethlehem, and it came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?
[14:59] And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, Call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Now, we realize that the word Naomi means simply pleasant.
[15:13] But Naomi didn't want to be called pleasant anymore. She wanted simply to be called bitter. Talk about someone who's just saying, Hey, I'm bitter. Just call me bitter. That's who I am.
[15:26] When I was studying for this message, I came across Warren Wiersbe, and I was reading down through there a little bit, and Warren Wiersbe said he was in a prayer meeting with Jacob Stamm. He is the brother of John Stamm. And they were in a prayer meeting, and they were praying over the different things for their ministry and everything else, and they were praying, God bless this, and God bless this, and God bless this, and God bless this.
[15:47] And it came time for Jacob Stamm to pray, and here's what he said. He said, Lord, we've asked you to bless all these things, but please, Lord, make us blessable.
[16:01] Kind of like that. We pray for God's blessings, but the question is, are we blessable? Naomi was not really in a state of being a blessable person at this time.
[16:14] Matter of fact, her bitterness caused some problems. I've got some things. Here's what bitterness causes. Bitterness causes false perception.
[16:25] Did you see what she said? She said, For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Verse 21, she says, I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty.
[16:39] She had some false perception. Did she really go out full? Maybe if you consider she had a husband and two sons, maybe that was what she was concentrating on.
[16:52] But many times, if you thought about it, the very reason why they left, they left because they were physically in problems, and they left. And so she really didn't leave out full, and she really did not return empty.
[17:05] And instead of having one trophy of grace, if she wouldn't have been bitter, she might have had two trophies of grace. Bitterness will destroy. Bitterness will destroy your spirit in the church.
[17:18] Bitterness will destroy your ministry. Bitterness will destroy families. Bitterness is just simply rotten. And it destroys.
[17:30] She also says here in verse number 13, Would you tarry for them till they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands?
[17:41] Nay, my daughters, for it griever me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. She has a false perception. Listen, it's not God's fault that they made bad decisions.
[17:58] How many times do you blame God for the situation you're in? A lot of times you have made those decisions that have led to the consequences that you're suffering.
[18:10] And then you want to blame God. I've met some bitter pastors. I've met a lot of bitter missionaries. How many times will a, with a pastor just past Sunday, and he's told me about a young man that, I'm not going to give his name, some of you know who, would know who I was talking about, was a missionary.
[18:33] And he said he had to drop that missionary because he changed who he was. He came in, presented, this is who I am. That church has a certain standard.
[18:45] That church has certain guidelines that they support a missionary under. That missionary changed. He wrote him a letter and said, I'm sorry, but because you have changed your stance in this and this and this, we are going to have to drop you.
[18:57] And that missionary called him up and just tore him up one side and down the other. It wasn't the pastor's fault that that missionary changed. You have to give an account for yourself as a missionary, but that pastor has to give an account also in the way he led that church.
[19:17] How many times in the ministry, I remember years ago, there was a missionary that, in Burkina Faso, he asked me to help him a little bit and we sat down and we were talking for a little bit about the ministry. And he says, would you mind if we just take a couple of four hours one day or five hours and just sit down and talk and you can go through some things on how to grow a church?
[19:35] I said, sure, I'd love to. And so we sat down and I'm telling you, we went from one to one to one to here and here and here and here. And he says, man, that's so good. He said, I'm going to start working on that right away. So a couple of weeks went by, got with him and I said, how are things going?
[19:47] He said, it's great. Our churches went from here to here. I said, man, that's wonderful. And I felt pretty good. I said, I must have gave you a little good advice. Praise God for that. And a couple of weeks later, we're there and I meet with him and I said, well, how's it going?
[19:59] He said, it's going good. We're growing a little bit more. I said, man, that's wonderful. I swear I'm glad you're growing. And I met with him again. And next thing he knows, he says, we're growing a little bit more. And I began to realize that his numbers are just a little bit below my numbers now.
[20:12] And I'm thinking, eh, here I helped him and what happens when he gets above me? That's jealousy, is it not? You know what that jealousy causes?
[20:23] Jealousy causes bitterness. Bitterness will ruin you. Think about this. It gives a false perception of who God is. It gives a false perception of a lot of things.
[20:34] But it also causes people to make bad decisions. Bitterness does. We're going to talk about, here's another, it also causes bad attitudes and a bad testimony. Here it is.
[20:46] Here's Naomi. Listen to this. In verse number, in verse number eight. The Bible says, and Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, go return each to her mother's house and the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
[21:08] Let's look at verse number, which one is it? Verse number nine. Let's look at that. The Lord grant you that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.
[21:20] Then she kissed them and lifted up her voice and wept. And she goes on and goes on and goes on and here she is. She sent Orpah back to a place where they worshiped false gods because she was bitter.
[21:38] You living in bitterness, you say, well, I'm just living my life. That is a selfish attitude. And that selfish attitude is leading others down the wrong path.
[21:49] It really is. Bitterness will destroy. I remember a few years ago, you say, well, what do you do when you get bitterness in your heart? Well, a lot of times, and I mentioned that, a lot of times, I think jealousy ends up creating bitterness.
[22:01] Maybe another missionary has raised his support quicker than you have. Have you ever seen someone that have a problem with you and you're like, man, what did I even do? I know there's something there. And you go and talk to them and they, oh, everything's good.
[22:12] And you know stuff's not good. Had a pastor's wife, a pastor's wife in Burkina Faso come up to me six years after something supposedly happened that never happened.
[22:26] Long story, I don't have time to go into the whole story. And the pastor was in the process of leaving and the ministry and some other things. But the wife said, she says, can I say something?
[22:37] I can tell you wasn't happy. I said, sure. And she said, she said, did you say this? And I said, I don't remember when I said that.
[22:48] When did I say that? She said, well, it was about six years ago. I said, did you hear me say that? And she said, no. I said, well, then who heard?
[22:59] It turns out that her daughter heard somebody else say that I supposedly said. And it was something that I never said.
[23:10] Our relationship for years was struggling and was breaking and was messed up because she got bitter over believing the lie of the devil. Wasn't a true story.
[23:23] Never said that about her husband. Never said that. It would have been evil if I'd have said something like that. Bitterness destroys. Bitterness is very, very, very difficult.
[23:36] I can share a testimony with Vicente. Vicente is just so great. Vicente Garcia is wonderful. Him and his wife are just wonderful people. We've loved every minute that they've been in the ministry with us.
[23:46] But shortly, a short time after they were in the ministry with us, Vicente was, one day he was invited by pastor. His name is Pastor Justin. He was invited by Pastor Justin to come to Pastor Justin's house to eat a meal.
[24:02] Now, Pastor Justin was in my church. Pastor Justin, here's the new guy that just came in. He got invited to go eat the meal. Pastor Justin, he wasn't actually a pastor at that time.
[24:13] I think he'd just been called to preach. But he never invited me for a meal. You want to know what my evil heart said? So that's not fair. That's not right.
[24:25] I know you're not as wicked as I am. I know you're not that way. That's what my heart said. You know what I had to do? You know what I had to learn how to do? The moment that that that that that that that moment of jealousy begins to enter into my heart, you know what I do?
[24:39] I bow my head immediately. And I said, God, I know I am a wicked man. And will you please take this bitterness? Will you please take this jealousy out of my heart? And most of the time it is gone.
[24:50] Here we got we've already looked at three. We've got two others. We got the path of the quitter. That's Orpah.
[25:04] Now Orpah, I don't know if she really wanted to quit or not. We don't know. Seemed like Orpah was willing to go. It seemed like even when Naomi told her the first time she was still willing to go.
[25:16] But by the time she told her the second time she turned back. You know what? You know normally when someone quits their step on God when someone quits the church it's not just usually they come in one Sunday morning and by the Sunday afternoon they decide they're gone.
[25:34] It's usually not when one missionary on the mission field just all of a sudden says I'm done. It usually doesn't happen that way. It's usually steps. Happens in one step after another step after another step and after another step.
[25:45] And you normally have got time to correct it. But if you won't correct it you've got problems. Now I'll say to you this it's very dangerous. Do you know what Naomi used the world's reasoning to turn Orpah back.
[26:00] She said I've got no sons for you. That's what a lot of people will do to keep you from serving God. They'll use the Lord's reasoning. How many young men want to serve God? How many young men want to go to the mission field?
[26:12] How many young men want to preach sometimes? And the very ones that should support them are the ones holding them back. Oh but how are you going to make it? Oh what if you don't have a job to fall back on?
[26:24] Well if you're not going to quit you don't have to have something to fall back on. The path of the quitter. Verse 8 through 10 And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law Go return each to her mother's house.
[26:39] The Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant you that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voice and they wept.
[26:52] And they said unto her surely we will return with thee unto thy people. By the time we get to verse number 14 the Bible says and they lifted up their voice and wept again and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth clave unto her and she said behold thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people and unto her gods return thou after thy sister-in-law.
[27:18] Orpah turned back. She quit. I don't know about you but that was one thing I never wanted to be called. I never wanted to be called a quitter.
[27:31] Now there's thinking about this as missionary said my wife we were and I shared with you about David and the struggle we had with David and David leaving and we had another young man that turned out bad.
[27:44] I think we had like three at the very beginning of our ministry and my wife finally looked at me after we had about three failures of trying to train some young men early on the ministry and she looked at me and she says it's just bound by chance to happen that the next one is going to be a good one.
[28:02] It's kind of true sometimes amen and God has given me some wonderful men that have come and they're pastoring and they're working the ministry and they're plowing and they're doing a great job but they've not quit.
[28:14] They're still doing the job in spite of terrorism, in spite of problems in the world, in spite of not having much. They're still going forward. Don't be a quitter. Don't be a quitter.
[28:25] The last path that we see here, we see the path of the steadfastly minded. We were in Friday class a few weeks ago and somebody asked my wife, what are three things that a young lady needs in her life to go to the mission field?
[28:44] First thing that popped in my mind was the word stubbornness. But I wasn't going to shout that out. The question was asked of my wife. And so my wife gives point one and point two and all of a sudden she says stubbornness.
[29:03] And then I came across this word that said fastly minded. That means your mind is made up. Let's look at that real quick. The Bible, we already read that in verse number 14. It said that Ruth clave unto her.
[29:14] But let's read verse number 16. And Ruth said entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest I will go.
[29:26] And where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Where thou diest I will die and there will I be buried.
[29:37] The Lord do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me. When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her then she left speaking unto her.
[29:55] What Ruth Ruth had her mind made up. Really when I read verse 16 and verse 17 I thought man that's what every husband ought to look at his wife wherever you go I go.
[30:07] That's what every wife ought to say to their husband. That's what every missionary ought to say to the mission field. Where I go I'll be there I'll be there I'll be those people I'll cleave there and where you send me Lord I will die.
[30:23] My family never understood that when I went out as a missionary as a young man. Their favorite question was always when are you coming back to get a real job. And I'd always say God told me to go and if God doesn't tell me to come back that's where I'll die.
[30:38] But I told them 20 something years ago. They don't really ask me when I'm coming back anymore. Another missionary over in Togo he told me one day he asked me we were staying in his house his daughter had cancer at the time and he was on medical furlough and he came back in and we were living in her house in 2003 and he asked me about another missionary in town and I said well I heard they had some health problems and are going back.
[31:10] And he said health problems? He said there's not one of us missionaries in Africa who can't use health problems as a reason to leave the field. That's true.
[31:24] when you imagine if Ruth would have turned back. One of the greatest stories in the Bible a story of redemption story of great love.
[31:38] We think of Ruth and we think of that story and a trophy of grace of God's grace would have never been found in the word of God if Ruth would have turned back. You look even at the end of the book of if you look there in Judges and also in Matthew chapter number one it talks about Boaz begat Obed of Ruth and then you talk about Jesse and then after Jesse you've got David.
[32:01] So David here you know I was just thinking this this afternoon I don't know if this is the way it exactly is but I wonder if it's a little boy I'm pretty sure that David heard the story and matter of fact it was written about the time David was there the book of Ruth.
[32:16] Can you imagine that they said your great-grandmother here's her story and she and he heard how God took his great-grandmother out of the Moab and how she would not quit and how she claimed in Naomi and how she went and she and she went and God blessed and God and I wonder as a little boy when David heard that if he said if God could be with my great grandmother there maybe God could just be with me like that steadfastly minded so today are you steadfastly minded in where you're going do you know what God's doing in your heart today it I was simply thinking I could have it could have been easy for me and my wife to look at sickness many times malaria many times getting sick in 2005 passing out in the middle of the night and waking up and literally had blood all over me the floor and the wall and hemorrhaging and came back to America and literally for over six months I was just off my body was not finally it took me about six or seven months one day I woke up and I looked at my wife and said I finally feel somewhat normal which most people say I'm not normal anyway so that's all right and but you know we our time of that year furlough in 2005 came to an end and I wasn't looking to quit didn't want to quit but almost dying and as I was home recuperating
[34:05] I got malaria one time but not only one time two times and that's when I called up brother Dean Hamby and I said brother Hamby I don't know what to do he says you need to get on a plane and come home he said you need to let your body rest seven months of trying to get my body back in somewhat normal what I felt like normal feeling again after it had just been wiped totally down to the bottom and for a year of furlough I didn't say anything to my wife about never about not coming back because I just kept praying said Lord if you want us to go back we'll get on a plane we got on a plane and after about a couple of months I looked at my wife and I said you know there was times and there was days what almost felt like should we go back but God never said anything different we got on a plane she said you know my last memories of us being in Africa during that time was just waking up and seeing you and hearing you hit the floor and watching you throw up blood all over the floor and you and the wall we didn't have fond memories then the two works that we did have the young man that we left in charge destroyed everything he took a motorcycle we left for the ministry and said he got robbed but he sold it and sold got the money they destroyed the ministry there was nothing even to go back to it was a good time to say hey I just think I'll just stop right here and quit matter of fact I wouldn't have to use the word quit and no one probably would have even called me a quitter that's not what
[35:51] God had for me God wanted me to get back on that plane we went back over there and guess what many times we'll look back and me and my wife will say you know what we hear a young missionary or a young man or someone quit we'll say wow they just missed out on so many blessings they could have had they could have had so much more what I want to say to you today is don't quit but be like Ruth be steadfastly minded cleave unto that which is good stick with what is right and when times get hard just keep going because God will always win and God will make sure that you always win pastor our heads for a word of prayer if you would I feel certain that God sent the message because we need it which path are you on what did the Holy Spirit do with your heart about tonight maybe somebody is quitting and they come and get on their face before
[37:08] God and say God I don't want to quit maybe somebody's bitter maybe somebody's got their feelings hurt they can't get over the junk going on in our life they ought to come and ask God to forgive them maybe somebody's running you know leaving the house of bread to go down to the house of the devil just about the Holy Spirit spoke to your heart you ought to come and get things right you know what he said you know what the Holy Spirit said to you tonight you know what his will is for your life Holy Spirit's dealing with your heart respond to him as he deals with you right now anybody else anybody else Father God I pray you work I pray you be glorified I pray others would make decisions God I want to honor you and serve you and thank you for talking to me and speaking to me I'll give you praise with your heads bowed and eyes closed you can still come and pray maybe you've hindered others because you weren't happy just a lot was said won't you pray whenever you finish praying you can stand and sing with Stephen as he leads us in this song when we walk with the
[38:37] Lord in the light of his word what a glory he sheds on our way while we do his good will he abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust not a sorrow we share but our toil he doth richly repay not a grief or a loss not a frown or a cross but is blessed if we trust and obey trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in
[39:49] Jesus but to trust and obey well thank you very much you can have a seat I think I'll just do something a tad weird well both of y'all come over brother Keith miss Rebecca let's see if he might ask you a question you don't know brother Keith as well and you don't know mr.
[40:10] Becca as well these are two of my heroes I love them very much I have watched them one night we were in their house I think brother John Pearson and I and I don't know if anybody else is there with us and and the shoemakers and they have his large iguanas they're about yay long feel like they're that long brother John's holding his hand up he's doing that and Rebecca was cooking if I remember pizza wasn't it she was cut she'd cooked homemade pizza and an iguana is coming across I watched them all the time I always thought you know I went to the bathroom one night and I had to sit down and I looked over in the corner of my bathroom and iguana was looking at me and I was like you stay over there I'll get up and leave real quick as soon as I can I leave I said please don't come here about the time you just took off running and ran right behind me scared me dead but anyway that iguana fell off the roof landed on her head dropped off the head onto the baby's high chair thing jumped off that and onto the floor she never missed a beat I passed out brother John picked me up brother John picked me up to help me get he did CPR on me and that's all the reason I'm alive anybody have a question for them y'all can sit in there where you got a pulpit there anybody want to ask a question I thought you might be interested watch this I'm wasting your time question for mr. back a question for brother
[41:37] Keith all right Brian I'm glad to see you're thinking about asking a question go ahead did you hear that yes sir you're doing better than me I got the microphone I still didn't hear we went those two churches so we were running those two churches and then I guess that was in 2006 and we were actually looking at the time also for a piece of land that would be more in the center of town to start and we found that at the end of 2006 started that in January of 2007 so it was about six months before and we were trying to run those three works at the beginning there in the ministry not everybody not everybody some a lot of them came back a lot of them came back the one village that we went out to just the way that the the young man had tore it up when we went back out there they thought they said we never thought we'd see you guys back out here again and so but you know God restored all that
[42:45] Daniel or Mika for mr. back you talked about your daughter Meredith staying here in the states while you're going back could you talk about as a mom and maybe just trusting God with your kids and how you handle that it's happening this Wednesday so it's probably the wrong day to ask me that but God has been very gracious in everything and given us great peace about it and she's um 16 years old it's not like you know she's a five year old we've discussed this a lot of times if this had happened you know when she were much younger we probably would have considered a ministry change but as it stands she only has a little bit of time before you know she'll be going to whatever she's going to do next in life and so we just prayed about it and um the thing that we're a little bit torn about is we do feel like Africa is the best place for our other children they have some things they're involved in um we have one who's got an excellent tutor there that he's needed for so many years and it's like that's an answer to prayer we've got one embraces and she needs to finish up there so the fact that it's a short term we would never leave you know separate as a family for a long term but it's a very short term we have talked with my parents about in fact I talked more in depth with them last night and um they have peace about it they're perfectly willing and it's not an answer in every situation for every family and every person have very godly parents and they even talked to me last night about you know how can we encourage her how can we study the Bible with her what can we do to keep her you know spiritually sound and so that's the kind of situation we're leaving her in it's not you know by any means easy um but I have to also think about the way she lived the last year um if you had seen her if you had known you know a lot of people didn't know what we were going through for a long time but from the time just shortly after the time we landed in January until we left
[44:38] I left with her in October she stayed shut in the house she couldn't go to church even because church is kind of open air or open windows and everything's open dust is all in the air she couldn't go to church she couldn't towards the end even get in the car and go anywhere without constant cough difficulty breathing and there were some times that were very scary for us so whenever I start you know thinking you know what am I doing to her I have to think back to the way she was living her life before we left and it just wasn't a good situation for anybody much less a teenage girl somebody online is asking what are you most looking forward to about returning to the field Miss Rebecca me well I'm looking forward to um really working you know I was doing it right before I had to leave some of our young ladies and maybe a lady in our ministry were really on the verge of stepping some things up in the ministry and being able to take some leadership and some responsibility themselves and I was really just ready to put them into place and work more closely with them so I'm looking forward to getting back to that because this has shown us you never know when God's going to move you out of picture and the people he's blessed you with on the field need to be ready to do the work too so I'm excited to get back kind of into that and really push hard during these four or five months
[45:57] I have with them to get them ready in the event that I have to spend more time with her next year with Meredith hey there from from what I understand you've had malaria quite a few times could you talk a little bit about walking through that and your walk with the Lord on those times and also my wife is very curious as to what the first two points were besides stubbornness I don't remember the the malaria I've Rebecca's had it what twice probably twice and so I've had it more than 40 so not sure how many you counted for a long time and then finally just quit that 40 was years ago that was years ago probably 60 or 70 or 80 I want to be accused of what some exaggeration so literally literally the first few years I was getting it almost every other month so you imagine six times a year that adds up pretty quick
[46:59] I've gone down to about two times a year for me so typically malaria now is is just because you've had it so much you know when it's really coming on and so in legs begin to ache and I usually come like man why are my legs aching sometimes I've got I've got bad knees they do that every once in a while but then all of a sudden the head will start to hurt very and I don't get headaches and so I'm like it's coming and fever starts and so I usually just go get a treatment and so typically typically I within about 12 hours finally the fever is gone after I take the treatment and it's over and a day or so arrest and you're good the first few years was not the case because just different situations where we were at and different things and didn't really just go take a treatment right away and always thinking I guess I was didn't you know didn't want to go down to the doctor and get pricked every time or get medicine and so I would just try to fight through whatever I had thinking I don't know what I got and so malaria goes in cycles so the first cycle will start to go out so you start feeling better so you think it's over you thought I just had a touch of the flu or something well the second cycle is not fun second cycle is when you're really bad your fever gets even higher I maxed out a thermometer two thermometers matter of fact one at 105 and one at 107 in the Ivory Coast one time and I was just slap burning up Rebecca made me get into the bathtub she said you're getting in the bathtub and I'm not getting about I was shaking like crazy didn't want to it hurt probably just you know it's probably hot water anyway but just cooler than what I was but it was it was bad so Jason Hamby was missionary there he said I was speaking out of my mind a little bit by that time that thing so you know malaria is tough but you know I was sitting there in bed one day and just shaking and if you've ever had a bad fever with shakes you know it hurts it hurts sometimes it just hurts so I was sitting there and this is just probably about five or six years ago I'm sitting there just shaking in the bed covered up with covers and still shaking and looking at the ceiling and I said God here I am your servant why do I have to endure this and I was kind of in a roundabout way saying God could you take this away or arouse and so you want to know what God said to me absolutely nothing so after about 10 minutes still shaking still looking at the ceiling I said Lord if I get malaria another hundred times just give me the grace to get through one malaria at a time and God has always given us the grace to get through one step at a time
[49:35] Rebecca you remember the other two points Katie Holt here she had a question I remember one was like purity like guarding your heart and thoughts in in all areas you know just think pure peaceful thoughts not selfish thoughts that that are about me and and faithfulness I think that went along with the stubbornness I don't remember what the other one was steadfastly minded if you enjoyed that say man if you'll pray for them give them a round of applause I love them I'm glad you get to meet them before Trent comes with announcements I just tell you this the shoemaker kids are the kind of kids that their parents would have and so Meredith's not faking it I can promise you that I've known the kids since they were little bitty little bitty kids I knew Keith and Rebecca before they got married so we've been friends or I've been their friend
[50:39] I love them whether they love me back or not I did love them all these years and I've watched their kids grow up and so pray for Meredith it's a tough thing to be here she'd like to be in Africa but Ralph doesn't let her she really is really really sick and I'm the hardest one to get to believe that a mystery is really that sick so I'm really proud of Meredith and all the kids and so pray for them also I'll tell you Rebecca's parents the lands good godly people just good godly salt of the earth people he was a Georgia state trooper so I would not have liked him when he was in active duty because I drive right and he probably wouldn't have thought so and it was very honest man there was a corruption going on and he wouldn't get corrupt so he took early retirement man of God stood for his conviction so I've always respected brother land to brother trip