Bible Text: Ruth 1:1-18 | Preacher: Lieutenant Rob Westwood-Payne | Series: Thank God! | In this sermon about God’s faithfulness, we are reminded that God’s loving-kindness is real, even when we face the most difficult circumstances.

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Great Lines from Films

Many films have memorable lines. The most memorable ones can actually change the way we talk. Have you ever used any of these?

I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse – The Godfather (1972).

May the Force be with you – Star Wars (1977)

There’s no place like home – The Wizard of Oz (1939)

I’ll be back – The Terminator (1984)

My mama always said Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get – Forrest Gump (1994)

These lines shape our lives.

Great Lines from the Bible

Films aren’t the only source of lines that shape our lives. The Bible is full of great phrases that we remember and quote:

Psalm 23:1 ESV

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Philippians 4:13 ESV

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Why do these lines resonate with us? They each give us an important insight on the nature of God and of human beings.

Today’s passage for this sermon about God’s faithfulness contains one of these great phrases:

Ruth 1:1-18, NIVUK

Naomi loses her husband and sons

1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’

Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’

11 But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me – even if...