Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Morning, church.
It's an exciting day.
It's a blessing to be a part of baptisms. And not that it's a bigger blessing, but it's a multiple blessings because we have three members of family all being baptized together this one day. So it's an exciting day. Yes.
So we have the camels, we have the father, Mike, and the wife, Stacy, and the son, Chase, will be baptized today.
They will come down and they will share a testimony in a minute here, and then we will baptize them. But to begin with, we want to start with a passage of scripture that just epitomizes what this is all about. From Romans, chapter 6, verse 3 says, do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.
We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
And these three are going to come today, and they're going to demonstrate that what has already happened, the newness of life is there and being in our gospel community. Hear that newness. Hear the energy, the excitement, the love they have for Jesus Christ and the desire to give their testimony to show you.
[00:01:16] Speaker B: It's.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: It's so cool. And so we're going to continue that today with these baptisms. So Mike's going to come down first.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: Good morning.
As the day was ending, most days, I felt there was something missing in my life.
An empty feeling.
I felt anxious, bored, lonely, and sometimes depressed.
I would grab a few beers and I would feel better or just forget.
This went on for years.
I noticed my son Chase, going through some struggles and was having a tough time.
He started going to church, and I noticed a miraculous change in him.
He would.
He would come over from time to time and share scripture with me and talk about Jesus.
We would talk for hours. Sometimes I was very happy for him.
I have a strong belief that he was praying for me. Because suddenly the bear didn't help anymore.
In fact, I was feeling worse.
I have a strong belief.
One day, while feeling very bad, I looked up and prayed. I said, thank you, God, for helping Chase.
Please help me.
I know you can help me. I need to change.
I can't live like this anymore.
I will do anything. Please help me feel better.
With God's grace, I suddenly started to feel better quickly.
Two days later, we went to see my grandson get baptized.
When in church, I heard my daughter say to Chase, hey, Chase, if you come back to Woodlands some Sunday, and go to your church. I would like to go with you.
And I said I will go, too.
Well, here we are. Here I am.
I feel better than I can ever remember.
Thank you, Jesus. I love you and I will follow you forever.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Thank you.
All right, Mike, you acknowledged to the congregation that you were a sinner.
And you knew that because of your sin that you would be judged by God and eternally separated from Him. Correct? Correct.
And now you believe because of his death, his blood shed for you on the cross, that because of that blood that you do have forgiveness of your sins?
[00:04:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: And you commit to follow Jesus and love him for the rest of your life? Yes. And you commit to serve and fellowship and love this church also?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: All right.
Well, Mike, because of your professed faith in Jesus Christ, I now baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
See who the smart one was? She laminated it.
[00:05:06] Speaker C: There was a moment in my life that I will never forget. The moment everything changed. It began when I saw my son at one of the lowest points in his life.
Watching him reach out to God, surrender his struggles and completely turn his life around through the faith of Jesus touched me deeply.
When he shared his testimony with me and he told me how God had saved him, something stirred in my heart.
A few months later, my great nephew was born and immediately faced serious complications. It was a frightening touch and go situation.
But then I witnessed Miracle God's hand over that tiny baby's life. Seeing God move so powerfully opened my eyes and made me reflect on my own relationship with him.
That's when I knew I wanted a deeper connection with God.
When I finally surrendered my life to him, everything changed. I felt a peace wash over me. A peace that comes from knowing God is with me and will guide me through his grace, faithfulness, and mercy. I am so thankful for Jesus who had died for me so that my sins could be forgiven and so I can have internal life with Him. I stand here today because of his grace, and I choose to walk with him for the rest of my life.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: All right, Stacy, you have professed that you acknowledge you have sinned and fallen short of God's wonderful glory and grace. And because of that, you would face judgment?
[00:06:46] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: And because of your faith and belief and trust in Jesus Christ that His blood was shed for you and covered your sins, you will not have eternal life?
[00:06:54] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: And you profess and confess to God and to this church that you will follow Jesus, love him for the rest of your life?
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: And you Commit to this church that you will serve and fellowship here while you're here. Yes. All right.
Well, Stacy, because of your profession of faith in Jesus Christ, I now baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And we have the one that God uses a catalyst for all of this today.
This is Chase.
Thank you.
I lived my life seeking acceptance and the praise of man not only for status, but to feel though my life had purpose, worth.
When I fell short of my expectations, I became empty and depressed. Filling the emptiness with anything and everything that would help me run away, becoming addicted and isolated.
In this shame, embarrassment, lies and blame on anyone and everything.
In this came shame, embarrassment, lies and thank you, blame on everyone and everything but myself.
I stopped caring about people and life, hardening my heart.
After many failed attempts to change this.
I cried out to Jesus in shame and sorrow for what I had done to myself, others and Him.
I surrendered and begged Jesus to change me, for I could not change on my own.
In that moment, I felt his presence and his hand on my shoulder with forgiveness, love and assurance that he would change me.
Since that moment, without a doubt, I know he is real. And since then, he has blessed and redeemed my life.
I will follow and praise him forever.
So you acknowledge the fact that you have sinned and fallen short of God's perfection and face his judgment? I have. And you believe that by the blood of Christ and the shed blood that he forgives you of all your sins? Yes, I do. And you commit and confess to follow Jesus and love him for the rest of your life? Yes. And you want to commit and follow and fellowship in the church and just keep worshiping him for the rest of your life? Yes.
Chase, because of your profession of faith in Jesus Christ Christ, I now baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let's join me as we pray for the Campbell family. Lord. Father. What a great day this is, Lord, to see new life represented here in this water. Lord, just confessing you as their Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray as a church that we would just surround them with love and prayers and discipleship, Lord, to help them grow in their faith and love for you and for us, Lord, that they would continue to serve you and persevere to the very end. Father. Lord, we thank you for this time and what a blessing it has been. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
All right.
Well, good morning, everybody.
Wasn't that exciting seeing baptisms? A whole family Baptized. It's just an amazing grace of God.
As we get settled Here, children ages 3 to 5, you are welcome to join.
The mass exodus.
We're going to be in the Book of Ruth today, and it's not 26 chapters. It's not 30 chapters. There's only four chapters.
And I was telling people I was very, very tempted just to read the story. That's it. Read the four chapters and be done. It's just a beautiful work. You read about the Book of Ruth, and people call it a masterpiece in literature.
They call it the greatest love story ever written.
All these adjectives to describe it. Why not just read it? So I encourage you after today to read the entirety of the Book of Ruth.
And you can see all that I left out, because you can only pick and choose so much in these four chapters. And there's a lot there, but here's a little prop for a class. So after this, I decided, you know what? In Sunday school, we're just going to go through the Book of Ruth verse by verse. And so if you're interested in that little advertisement, you can join us in the room on the end down there on the outside. And we're going to walk through Ruth and look at all the things that we didn't look at today. So we'll start that in a couple weeks. So you can join us if you would like to do so.
All right, let's pray, and then we'll get started. Father, you are a great God.
And, Lord, you are here, you are present, you are active. Your word is alive as it always is, Lord. It's gonna speak to us through your spirit, Lord. And lives are gonna be changed today because of you and your work. Father, I thank you that we have the opportunity. Lord, thank you for the privilege you've given me to speak and to walk through this book, Lord, just to paint a picture of the redemption you have in store for your creation.
So, Lord, just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
I also want to pray. Our brother Jay was just taken to the hospital, and so I know I just. We got to pray. And so want to pray for Jay, Want to pray for the doctors and pray that the healing is already taking place in his body. All right, let's pray, Father. God, thank you, Lord, that we can stop and pray, Lord, that you are listening and you are aware. Lord, just pray for the healing process and Jay to take place now. Lord, that your hand is upon him. Your mercy and grace is upon him. Father, be at the doctors. Lord, thank you for the knowledge you have given them about the body.
Lord, to diagnose quickly what is the issue, the problem, Lord, and by your grace and leading, Lord, that you would give them the right way to treat whatever is happening.
And again, we just lay him in your hands. Father, we trust you because you are God and you are his God. You are his Father and you will take care of him. Lord, we thank you for your perfect will and plan.
We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
All right.
The introduction says we are born into a foreign world, a world that God doesn't intend for us to live in forever. Thank goodness for that.
There's a world broken by sin and far from the goodness of his original design. Yet while we're here, by his sovereign grace, God pursued us or pursues us in ways we could never have imagined.
And here, this book of Ruth gives us a beautiful snake snapshot of how God works out his masterful plan, a plan to redeem what was lost through sin.
And so the basics we have here of this brief book, brief letter, brief story of redemption. We have the author unknown. Perhaps it's Samuel, because it's so closely to the time of Samuel and the first king that they would cry out for just to be like everybody else.
The timeline, 1120 BC to about 1105 BC. It's a small snapshot of time here and perhaps again very close to the time of Saul when he would be established as king. And location is Bethlehem.
And the name of Bethlehem we know is the House of Bread. Right. And it's kind of ironic that this story is taking place in a place called the House of Bread that God established and where that bread would be looked for in other places. And of course it's going to take us down to the plains of Moab because of what the choices that we make. Sometimes the themes. I'm just going to give you all at one time here so you can write them in just in case I miss them or don't point them out to you first one feasting on the world rather than the bread of life going to lead to ruin. We know that and we see that the next one. Remember and return to the one who is faithful.
God is faithful to receive those who belong to Him.
This one probably won't like. I don't know. Some people get a little weird by this, but true romance is demonstrated in the Bible. I like it. And then finally, the result is redemption.
And so God was gracious. He gave me a bunch of R words to Use.
And so if you like those types of things, there you go.
All right, let's look at this first point.
Feasting on the world, rather than the bread of life, will lead to ruin. Let's look at the first few verses in chapter one.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife was Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephratites. From Bethlehem in Judah, they went to the country of Moab and remained there. So let's look at the map real quick of where we're at. And so they're in Bethlehem in the house of bread. And then things get a little sketchy in the land and they make this journey across the top of the sea and they go down into the land of Moab. Do we have that slide up there?
Beautiful. So it doesn't look too long, but it takes a few, few days, weeks to get there. And for whatever reason, we're looking at why they went there, but this is the trek that they took. We'll continue reading and kind of underline or look at the word remained, because that's important. Sometimes we, we will cross places or make choices, and instead of coming back to God, we remain there a bit too long. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died. Naomi died and she was left with her two sons. These took or these took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Oprah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They're.
They lived there about 10 years. And both Malan and Chilean died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband in this strange land of Moab. Now we know Moab was not a nice place to the Israelites, they sworn enemies.
And we see him going there, choosing to go to Moab. You probably heard there's good stuff there, there's jobs there. I can make a living, I can do this, I can perform, provided my family, whatever it may be, they went to this place that was not good. They worshiped baal, as we learned. They had child sacrifices. It was just an evil, wicked place that did not love God.
But we see here, and as we mentioned in this snapshot, we see one man, one family in this 450 year cycle of just making bad decisions, chasing after the world, God judging them, God providing provisions. God Bringing them back. And this was them, this life cycle during the time, this one man who could have represented maybe hundreds of different men, fathers, husbands of families that made poor decisions that led their families away from God, which is just like, why would you do that?
But it was happening. So here we have, again, this beautiful picture of God working out his plan of redemption for Israel.
It is a period that the Bible describes as the days in which there was no king in Israel, and every man did what or did that which was right in his own eyes. So basically, there was no king. They weren't acknowledging God as king. They wanted an earthly king. And in the meantime, who was being king?
Men were. Why? Because they were listening to themselves. And that's a bad situation. We know that.
And we have this picture of Elimelech basically saying, I know everything. I know the best thing to do for my family. I am the king. I will make my decisions.
A time when men lived by what they thought was right, what pleased them, what gave them joy, Making decisions on present rather than the eternal. And how many times do we do that, that we make a decision for the present, instead of like, God has my life eternally, that this present circumstance is going to last about. I can't say that very good that long.
That's it.
But yet we get stuck in the present, just as we see this picture here, listening to their own heart rather than the true law that God had already given them and what they would be doing and how to live their life.
And in reality, because of their father, and he's the head of the household, he's the spiritual leader.
He was basically feasting on himself, wasn't he?
He wasn't living by the bread of God or the word of God, the bread of life.
And we'll look at their names real quickly because they're going to come into play later. And the first one is like, really? Elimelech, his name means God is my king.
How long did that last?
Parents gave birth, they named him, maybe that was their life.
But him, he did not live this way very long. Naomi was the pleasant one. We'll see how that played out later. And what's really telling are the two sons, Mahlon, which means sick, and chilion or chilion mean pining or suffering from a physical decline.
Now you think about, if they were born in the time of this famine, they could have had all types of illnesses and they were weak.
And you say, well, can we blame Elimelech saying, here are my two sons, they're not doing very well. They're sick. We got medical bills going out nowhere.
I want to take care of them.
So I'm going to step up and do the best thing I know is right. And what am I going to do?
I'm going to load up the truck and move to Moab.
And they make the trip knowing what Moab is all about.
You see them sitting around the dinner table looking at their bills, saying, how are we going to do this? There's no food, our children are dying.
I'm going to take over God, you're not providing for me. I'm going to provide for my family and take care of them the best I can.
And so they go.
And you think, how can we blame them?
I think all of us would probably do something similar, right?
We would probably pray first, hopefully ask God for help. Hopefully.
But how patient are we to wait upon God when things are dire right in front of us?
We have a tendency to want to escalate things very quickly.
But I guess what's kind of ironic is they lived in the place called the House of Bread.
And God provided.
And yes, he's a little bit removed from the stories of the desert and the wilderness and how God provided not only bread, but he provided meat as well, didn't he?
And he provided water.
Well, there was nothing. There was nothing there. There was no food access whatsoever. And God provided for their needs.
I'm sure Elimelech heard the story. His name is, by the way, God is my king.
Kings usually provide for their people somewhat, but this is where they're at.
So they decide to leave and sojourn there for a while, he says. But what was the word we were supposed to remember? That he.
He remained, he stayed there in a place where he shouldn't be, where apparently there would be food and bread for him and his family, that they would be taken care of.
Yes, it was called a sojourn.
But what he intended this to be temporary.
It lasted way too long.
He intended that under the stress of the present situation, with mouths to feed, he had no choice but to leave for just a little while. We will come back, he says.
But you notice at the end of verse two, like we stated, it's stated that he continued there, he remained there, or he stayed, relying upon an ulterior source of food going directly against what Moses said. And God said to Moses In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 3, he says this, and he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna. So God was humbling this again. Maybe the famine was Just a way of judging them. Another time.
450 years of judgment, this famine comes along. He's testing them, judging them. Where are you going to turn to?
And how long is it going to take you to return to me?
This is where we find him.
This verse is so relevant to this point. Says, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that the man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Living your lives by the word of God, trusting God with everything that you have, is living your lives by the word of God.
Jesus says something very similar and draws from this same passage in John 6:49, 51. He says, Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
But here, the man whose name is God, is my king, chose to be king himself rather than humble himself before God and his living word.
Even though it's the Old Testament, it's still God's living word, isn't it?
Sometimes we neglect that.
And the purpose of this survey is to show us that God's living words, God's grace permeates the Gospel, permeates every part of the Old Testament.
It points to Jesus. And Jesus is alive.
It is living.
So he chose to trust himself. And what was the result?
He died.
Not soon after they get there, he died.
Wife is left alone, needs some children.
The sons are going to marry some Moabite women, and we're going to see what happens there. So what's the lesson here?
The idea that when we eat of the bread of this world, of ourselves, we tend to go to ruin, that is ourselves. I think the lesson here we have to remember is sin has collateral damage, doesn't it?
It's not a private sin or a secret sin or things we do that no one is looking.
Sin is going to manifest itself and it's going to affect the people around you.
There is collateral damage, even our secret sin.
And at the same time, our sovereign God can use this. And this is the beauty of it, you guys. That God can use our sin, this sin and damage that it causes, for his glory and his redemptive plan. That's the beauty of Ruth.
Cause we see a woman who is in dire straits, spiritually bankrupt because of her husband is dead, no sons, and she has no place to turn to.
Naomi. I'm sorry, I said Ruth. Naomi and Ruth, who comes into play because she's married. We see how God uses the worst things that can come our way to bring people to salvation.
And we just witness a family who found themselves making decisions and choices in their life and doing things their way. Even though they knew about God and they knew about Jesus and the cross, they realized, you know what? This is not good.
And they surrendered their lives to Jesus.
God used a son who was doing his thing, came back to Jesus. And with that, parents seeing that and realizing, wow, I need this too.
Isn't that a beautiful thing?
That's God.
That's something we can't muster up or ever do.
So as you go on, the next theme is remembering and returning to the one who is faithful.
And so time goes on.
Sons marry, sons die.
Naomi's. Now, I don't want to say stuck, but reality kind of stuck with two women that really can't do much for her.
No name, no provision, no work, no labor, no way to earn food.
And she's living in this land that hates God.
Don't know the plight of the women. You know, how far you got to assume that they were sacrificing or they were worshiping these Baals just as well.
So after this, she arose in verse six with her daughters in law to return from the country of Moab. For why? She heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
God was showing grace to his people again, and she remembered that.
I don't think she ever forgot it. And I'll share that thought here in a moment.
He visited the people and given them food. Verse 7. So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters in law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
Elimelech had decided to remain, and he didn't last long.
The boys married, they assimilated, and we talked about assimilation last week. As we can't assimilate to our culture, we have to engage our culture. We have to, like, be in the culture so that we can be light in the culture, but we can't assimilate.
A few things can happen with culture. We can like it and like, wow, that's pretty cool. And we can assimilate, which is not good. We know that.
Or we can run and hide from culture and say, you know what? This is scary. I'm gonna go hide. Get off the grid. I Can't take it. I'm just gonna be myself in my own little world. And that's. And what good does that do? What light are you in the world?
Or you can engage.
And I think for 10 years, and this is the point I get to later, but I think for 10 years Naomi was engaging in the culture with her two daughters in law.
I firmly believe that she was discipling them. She was talking about the God of Israel, what else does she have?
And so Elimelech had an opportunity and he took it. And it was bad. Naomi was given an opportunity and she took it.
And in the light of the loss and bitterness, God did not lose hold of her. And she remembered the faithfulness of God. And we gotta remember that, right? We tend to let go, don't we?
And what did Jesus say?
God, I will not lose, or Father, I will not lose any that you have given me. Right?
So we tend to like hands off, but God just has a firm grip on you.
We got to be grateful for that because we tend to get sidetracked really quickly, don't we?
We tend to follow squirrels all the time. Don't.
But God hangs on to us.
And for these 10 years we gotta know that God had a firm grip on Naomi.
And even though she would change her name and call herself Mara, being empty and just having nothing, I don't think she changed from who she was the 10 years she was in Moab.
I have to believe that her virtuous and righteous life had an impact on her daughter in law, Ruth.
It is though Naomi discipled ruth for those 10 years.
And I just, like I said, I have to believe she talked about the God of Israel, the God of Jacob and Abraham and Isaac and the faithfulness and the stories that she heard that, that he provided for his people.
And then what happened?
God visited Israel.
So everything that she was saying about God, God visited Israel, he met their need as he was always done.
So Elimelech had collateral damage, right? Which wasn't good.
Naomi, her collateral, I want to say damage, her collateral good works.
Of Naomi's faithfulness to God, besides her pleasant life, her life and faith was a testimony to Ruth so much that Ruth was willing to give up her identity in this world to follow Naomi and worship her God.
And we have this passage in Ruth, we can't do Ruth without this passage, right? I think I would get like rocks thrown at me.
Chapter one, verses 15 through 18.
And she said, see, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after your Sisters in law or your sister in law? Again, the conversation back and forth. Her telling the two girls, just stay here, stay here, stay here and find the one left.
And verse 16. But Ruth said, basically, stop, I'm going with you. Right? I mean, you want to modernize it, Just shut up.
Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people and your God, my God.
And you read that and say, where did that come from?
Obviously, God was at work in her life, right?
That's God. He's working way ahead of us all the time.
And I firmly believe, and I may be wrong, and God can tell me that I see him in heaven, you were wrong about that.
But I firmly believe that Ruth was living her virtuous life, or Naomi, during this time. And Ruth saw that her life was a testimony of God.
She says, where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me. And more also, if anything but death parts me from you.
What a promise.
What loyalty.
Again, what. Where did that come from?
And when Naomi saw that, she was determined to go with her.
She says, all right, let's go take a couple good lessons from this.
When life gets sketchy, what are people seeing in you?
What kind of testimony of God's faithfulness are you testifying about in your life?
If we're not practicing kindness when life is good, there isn't no way that you will be kind.
When the stresses of life are abounding, we have to practice kindness all the time. I truly believe Naomi was practicing kindness.
Even Jesus, in the throes of his facing death by taking our sin and the sins of the world, he was showing kindness and patience and took the time and prayed for you and I before he died on the cross.
We have to be in the habit of practicing and living and doing the works that God has called us to do, even when it's not easy.
And usually it's not easy because of the dumb choices we make.
But there are times when it's out of our control and life isn't easy.
Another lesson. God is always working to provide you and I with opportunities to make disciples.
Even in the bad times, even in the tough times, even in the lean times.
And maybe you're going through lean times. They are very lean right now.
We don't stop being disciple makers.
It's probably the best time to be a disciple maker because people are seeing your faith and it's Real.
Because we can proclaim faith in Jesus Christ when things are easy. But when things aren't so easy, what's coming out of your mouth.
That testimony is going to be strong and powerful either way. A good testimony or a bad testimony.
All right, let's move on.
The next theme. That God is faithful to receive those who belong to Him.
We got to know, right?
We read it in 2 Thessalonians that God chose us before the beginning of the foundations of the world. Correct. We know that.
And God is faithful to receive those who belong to Him.
Did God know about Ruth before the foundations of the world?
Yes.
Did the famine surprise God?
No.
Did God know he's going to use that famine to redeem Ruth? Yes.
Can we understand that? Totally.
You're lying if you say yes. I know God. How he works is.
It's a miracle.
He's God. Who counsels God?
Nobody.
Because he is God.
So we see here the receiving of both Naomi and Ruth, just as God sovereignly acted in the famine that brought Naomi to Ruth. Right? Because that's what. That's. That's what. The bridge. Right? God provided the bridge from Naomi to Ruth.
And what did Naomi do? She used that bridge. To do what?
To bring Naomi back to Judea, to Bethlehem.
Who is God building a bridge for you for?
Think about that.
How is God using you to engage with somebody in this world who doesn't know God, who may hate God, but he's building a bridge. He's allowing you to build a bridge so you can communicate, have a relationship, and walk that person back to God?
Does God want that to happen?
Yes.
Does he provide opportunities for that to happen?
Just ask and he will.
Right? If you ask for those bridges, is God going to help you with that?
Please say yes.
But we have to ask, right? We have to want it.
And Scripture says, whatever we ask for in his name, what will he do? He will give it to us.
If we desire God and we delight in God, and our hearts are shaped after God, he will give you the desires of your heart.
What is your heart shaped after?
I think Naomi's heart was still shaped after God, even in the bad times.
Ruth 2, 1 says now, Naomi had a relative of her husband, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name. His name was Boaz.
He's a man of valor who had an unusual capacity to obtain and hold land. He was a rich guy, and he was closely related to her.
Boaz means strength, swiftness, or in him is strength. And in fact, one of the pillars of Solomon's temple is named Boaz, remembering the guy, the man who was representation of Jesus Christ.
Now, did Naomi know of Boaz? Yes, but it's been a while.
They go back, we see in verse or chapter two of verse two. And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whom sight I shall find favor.
Now they get back to Bethlehem and they gotta have food.
And Naomi, I think being humble enough, could she gone right away and knocked on Boaz's door or whoever, maybe, but she humbled herself like any other servant, any other foreigner.
And she has Ruth go gleam, which was the Levitical thing to do, to provide for the people who needed it.
[00:43:33] Speaker C: And.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: And she humbled herself to that state of being.
And she said to her, go, my daughter. So she set out and went and gleaned in the field of the reapers. And I love this. And she happened.
Is there any just happened with God?
I always joke with Val, we'd drive in the parking lot at Costco. Oh, you got lucky, you got the spot right there. No, God gave me that spot.
There's no just happenstance with God, is there?
She just happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimina. Go figure.
[00:44:15] Speaker C: That
[00:44:17] Speaker A: God is working his plan.
And behold, it's like behold, walks in Boaz. Oh, here comes Boaz. He came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered, the Lord bless you. What a relationship.
Thinking about the well being of his servants.
And they esteem him so highly that he's such a good man, they return the favor to him. May the Lord bless you.
Do we have that relationship in our workplaces that you're praying for? The well being of the people that don't like you very much.
They esteem you so well that they. They want to bless you.
And we see her humbleness again, Naomi's humbleness. She said to them, to the people who were like, this is Naomi, she's back. She's going to call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.
Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?
She was humble.
Jesus calls this in Matthew 5:3.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of God.
She was poor in her spirit. At this time she felt empty.
So knowing Boaz wealth, I mean, she knew of Him.
Naomi's instructions were not to go seek Boaz field. She just told Ruth, go glean like any other widow, needy person, stranger. And it just happened.
And we see God's continuing providence and bringing Ruth and Boaz together, right? It's gonna happen.
She is just humbly working and providing for Naomi.
In a short time, Ruth has already made a name for herself by doing what was right. I mean, they got the attention of the workers. I mean, people were talking about, this is Naomi. And of course, they recognized that she wasn't an Israelite, she was a Moabite, and said, this woman came back with Naomi.
She'd been loyal to her, taking care of her, providing for her, going out and gleaning food and providing for both of Boaz noticed her even before he knew about her.
Like Naomi, Ruth acknowledged the fact that she is a foreigner and is entitled to nothing.
Boaz responds with an abundant grace and mercy. He receives her. And even in the story, he invites her to eat with him.
What does the psalmist say that the shepherd does for us, prepares a place for us in the presence of our enemies?
She's an enemy, but he invites her to set and dine with him.
That's just a beautiful picture.
What God does for us, invites us to his banquet table.
Says in the mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. Take. So that she sat beside the reapers and he passed her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some leftover. When she arose to glean again, she went back to work. Boaz instructed his young men, saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her. Just leave her alone.
Lesson here, circumstances are not a coincidence, even the seemingly mundane, because God is also sovereign in the mundane.
A little romance happening. People, they read this like, oh, this is kind of weird, right?
Naomi gives her instructions. Clean up. You're all sweaty. You smell. Put some perfume on, Put your nice dress on.
Wait till the Boaz has a little food, a little wine, he's happy. And then when he goes to sleep, lay down at his feet.
What's up with that?
It's custom. We don't get the custom.
That's what they did. And that. Well, she's kind of aggressive there. She went to go ask him to marry. Well, you know what?
It's God's plan.
She was young, he was an older man. That was kind of weird to begin with, but it shows her humility.
But it's Also showing her being obedient to the one who is helping her through this process.
So we find true romance here. I mean, unfortunately, the modern world has like just perverted romance altogether, hasn't it?
This is wrong, what they call romance.
Some look at verse 10 and he said, may you be blessed as this happens. And he wakes up and sees her, says, may you be blessed by the Lord. My daughter calls her daughter because she's way younger than he is.
You made this last kindness, what you just did, greater than the first. Talking about what she had done for Naomi and that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.
This kindness, the word used here, is one of many ways that the Hebrew word is hesed, can be translated, can also mean loyal love. Isn't that really good romance? When you have loyal love for you men out there, don't stop the loyal love.
Keep romancing your wives, vice versa, living out your loyalty to your spouse each and every day, knowing them, doing for them what pleases them. That's just. We'll get a different thing there. But this type of love is not based on fleeting romantic feelings that last for the moment.
This is long lasting love. This is persevering love. This is love under all circumstances. This is love until death do us part.
That's the kindness that was being displayed in this romantic interaction here.
This is a love that lasts through the good times and the bad times.
They were not merely following their emotions, they were making decisions based on this loyal love for one another.
They both understood that this love requires sacrifice, putting the other person first and making a commitment that lasts forever. And we're gonna see that coming up here.
The results are redemptive.
We know the rest of the story. It goes on, she awakens, she gets herself together and goes back and he says, you know what? I know a guy who's closer to you.
He is your next really true kinsman, redeemer.
So they're going to go and they'll sit at the gate and they'll have this legal thing going on. And he's going to approach this guy and say, hey, this woman Naomi has a bunch of land. You can buy it, you can redeem her, marry Ruth and take on, you know, your children will be her children.
And Elimelech's name, which is like, that's a tough pill to swallow because you're going to do what? If you marry this woman and have children, they're going to be in the name of Elimelech. And what happens to your name?
It's Gone.
That's a lot.
That's a lot to give up.
And so the man knew that his own family's property could be transferred to the son he would have with Ruth in the event that his existing son died. His plan would therefore die out, for the son with Ruth would not be reckoned as the son of the unnamed Redeemer.
He was more concerned with perpetuating his own name than doing what he should have done.
It was a Levitical law, the Kinsman Redeemer.
So he was very self centered, very narcissistic.
There is a little irony here.
The name of the closer Redeemer is not perpetuated. In fact, it doesn't even exist, does it?
Not even mentioned in Ruth.
So what he was so worried about didn't even happen.
Boaz, on the other hand, was truly selfless, just as Christ would be.
Verse 8. It picks up. So when the Redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself.
And he drew off his sandal like a legal binding agreement says, no, you buy the land.
Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are a witness this day that I have bought, redeemed from the hand of Naomi, all that belonged to Imalek and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. Also Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of Mahalim, I have bought to be my wife. To perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance. Isn't that crazy?
That is sacrifice. That is selfless.
To deny yourself. What does Jesus call us to do each day?
Deny yourself. Pick up your cross and follow me. Identify with me every single day.
The name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of the native place. You are my witnesses this day.
So what did Boaz do?
He emptied himself.
What did Jesus do?
Emptied himself.
He chose to step off his throne, step into our nasty world, take upon our sin.
He became sin almost like he became our name sin. We are born into sin. He took upon our sins.
He stepped into our world to be our bridegroom.
And he took another name sin.
And by doing that, what happened, Just as what happened to Naomi and Ruth, and by his blood redeemed us so that we could become the righteousness of God.
This is what the story is telling us today about Boaz, Ruth and Naomi.
In reality, Boaz had the attitude of Christ, didn't he?
Looking at the interest of others above himself. The other dude, the other guy, he was more worried about his own interest.
But Boaz was more concerned about the interest of Naomi and Ruth.
And what does Paul say about that attitude?
That we should have the same attitude as Christ.
A couple applications, real simple.
The Savior Jesus is Our Redeemer.
Ephesians 17:10. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the very mystery of his will according to his purpose, which is set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to him, and things in heaven and things on earth. Isn't that verse like a snapshot of what we just went through?
It was God's plan. God's will.
Using Boaz to redeem two women as he wanted.
What's our application? Another R word for you.
Replicate the attitude of Christ.
Philippians 2, 3, 5. Don't be selfish.
Don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
Don't look out only for your own interest, but take an interest in others.
You must have the same attitude that Jesus Christ had.
Let's walk away with that application today. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, you are so good. You are so faithful. Thank you for this story.
It's your story. It's your love story for your creation, representing your perfect plan to save the world that you created.
We thank you for that. Lord.
Thank you for your amazing, selfless love to redeem us and call yours your own. Father, we love you. We thank you. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
