Good morning. My name is Daniel.
I'm the lead pastor here at Rez Church.
Welcome to Rez. Merry Christmas.
I think guys are not in the Christmas spirit yet.
I can tell. All right, OK.
We're in week 3 of this series. Going to talk about in just a
minute. How do you know?
And I can get this question every once in a while.
Maybe you've had this, too. How do you know when a decision
that you're thinking about making is, is something that God
is leading you into something that would please the Lord
versus something maybe that is, is not of God at all and, and
wouldn't be pleasing to God? And I, I, I, I think that that
is one of the things that we deal with a lot of Christians
trying to understand what it looks like to follow God's
prompting and not necessarily make bad decisions.
I, I, when, a couple years ago when, when my wife and I decided
to close our, our businesses and, and I was going to go into
ministry for full time and just be a full time pastor.
You know, they're, I was really trying to just struggling with
the, I think God is, is asking me to do this.
And, you know, one of the things that difficult was like, that
was not a very attractive thing to do.
Like certainly financially this is not very attractive.
And I thought, man, I don't know if this is something that God
is, is doing or not, but over time, I just felt like God was
really moving in an area and he was inviting me into what was
acceptable obedience. It was was not necessarily easy
and you know, in those moments you're struggling with is is God
leading me to this or, or am I making an unwise decision And I
we're going to see something like that again today.
We've seen it throughout this book of Ruth as we've been
reading through it. And I think my struggle for
that. Maybe you're maybe you can
relate to this struggle is often times what God is asking me to
do is not very logical. Anyone else like logic?
Me and me and logic are really good buddies.
We spend a lot of time together and there are times where God is
going to ask us to do some that we feel like is illogical.
And so we're going to see that all we'll talk about the rest of
that story in a minute, but we're going to see that here in
chapter 3 today. So if you're if you're just
joining us, let me catch you up. We are doing our Christmas
series in the book of Ruth, which happened 1100 years before
the actual Christmas story and we're in chapter 3.
So in in the 1st chapter there's a lady named Naomi and her
husband and they make a disastrous decision to disobey
God and to move away from Bethlehem into the country of
Moab, which was forbidden. God said don't do it, don't
associate with those people. They did it anyways.
Then they married both of their sons to Moabite women and it did
not go well. That's probably an
understatement. All the men died and they were
left, Naomi, a widow and her two Moabite daughter in
And then in chapter 2, we see God begin to move in
supernaturally into this moment, into this, this point of the
story. And while God had kept them safe
in chapter 1, we see more explicit provision by God in
chapter 2. And So what happens is Ruth
there, there's a Judaic law that says when you're harvesting the
field that if you some of the grain drops, you have to leave
it there. And that's so that the poor, the
starving can come behind and pick up this leftover grain.
And so we see Ruth go out to a field in Chapter 2 and she's
picking up this leftover grain that that falls on the ground,
but it's back breaking work. She, she, she's there before
sunrise. She stays till after sundown,
day after day. And then trying to get enough
grain, not only to not starve, but also to take care of this
mother-in-law who's too old to work.
She's noticed by the landowner, Boaz, and he in an act of
kindness, invites her. She, she gets to stay with his
servants during lunch and eat. And he, he has, he says, stay
near my servants for protection because there's actually no law
protecting her in this land. And he's very kind to her.
And so he notices in Chapter 2 her, her character, her hard
work, her loyalty. He gives her extra grain.
He gives about 40 lbs of grain to take back so that they don't
starve. And now we're going to go to
Chapter 3. That's going to be today and
what happens in Chapter 3. The first thing you need to
know. Here if you're if you've got
your Bible. Open is there is a Fast forward
from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3. So actually two months or so has
elapsed from the end of Chapter 2 to the beginning of Chapter 3.
And that's important to note because there's a lot that
actually occurred during those two months that we will have to
catch up on in order to understand what's going on.
Because what happened is at the beginning, these two ladies get
to Bethlehem, it's the beginning of barley harvest.
That takes a certain amount of time.
After that, there's something called the wheat harvest, and
we're at the very end of that. So we're about two months
elapsed. Now in that time, they work six
days a week. And Ruth has been working six
days a week through two months, picking up just literally in the
dirt, picking up leftover grain from before the sun comes up
till after the sun goes down. 50 days of that fifty work days,
it's about 775 labor hours crawling around in the dirt,
picking up grain to have enough to not starve.
That's pretty crazy. See, you see, there's a, there's
a beautiful tension in the Bible and it and it's all throughout
this story in every chapter. And the same tension, tension
exists even in the gospel of Christ.
And the tension is this Who's responsible for the blessings
and the successes in my life? Is it me or is it God?
Yes, the answer is yes. The two women have to come back
to Bethlehem where they were supposed to be in the 1st place.
But it's God that protects them. So, so both were involved in
that process. God is is protecting them.
He has provision for them. But they still had to make the
journey and it was long and it was hard.
It could have potentially been dangerous.
And then they get back. God blesses them, but
providentially sending Ruth accidentally it seems like, into
this field that ends up being a relative who cares for her and
and allows her to work there and keeps her safe.
But. She still had to get up every.
Single morning before the sun was up and work 12/14/16 hour
days. Six days a week.
So God is providing, but at the same time there's hard work.
That is, Ruth has spent some This is tough work. 50 days of
this. 50 days of grinding and sweating. 50 days of being
lonely, 50 days of doubt, 50 days of early mornings at at
late nights, 50 days of of everything being so sore you can
barely move. God provided the opportunity for
blessing, but that did not remove Ruth's need to go and
work really, really hard. This blessing would never have
actually been received if Ruth had cried out to God and then
sat in her tent and been like, well, when he wants to bless me,
he'll bring it to me. So it's it's both.
And So what we see is God providing, but Ruth having to
step into that blessing and work hard.
And I want you to see the theme and you're going to see the same
theme again here in chapter 3 that we've seen already.
And, and it's this idea when God moves, when God, when God does a
miracle, when God does something supernatural, it's an invitation
to participation. It's an invitation to
participation. Every time that we see God move,
He allows us to recognize that he's doing something, and that's
an invitation for us to move toward Him and step into that as
he leads. It's always an invitation to
join Him. And so keep that in mind as we.
Pick up our. Reading in chapter 3 verse one.
Join me here. That'll be on the screen as
well. If you don't have your Bible,
then Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, said to her, My
daughter, should I not seek? Rest for you.
That it may be well with you is not Boaz.
That's the landowner or relative with whose young women you were.
OK. So culturally, again, you got to
set your minds right. It's not 2025 in America.
It's 1100 BC in the Middle East. And for Ruth and for for Naomi,
you know, the rules of the culture are different.
And so Naomi sinks. She has one obligation left as a
mother-in-law and that is to find a husband for Ruth.
It's very important. It's so important that if you go
back to chapter 1, she tells Ruth, hey, look, you should just
go back to your people because I'm too old to have more sons to
get you a husband. And even if I could have a son,
you're not going to wait for him.
Everything for her is dominated by like, it's my responsibility
to make sure Ruth has a husband. And this we're back to this
again two chapters later, and here's her plan.
And she about to start scheming. I'm just going to tell you now
it's going to get weird, OK? You were warned.
She see he Boaz is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing
floor, because the harvests are over.
Wash therefore, and anoint yourself.
So you know, put on some perfume and put on your cloak and go
down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known
to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies.
Then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you
what to do. And she replied all that you say
I will do. Now you could read this and you
could think this is a bit shady. Like, wait until this guy has
had the the feast at the end of the harvest and has has drank a
lot of wine and then sneak in and uncover him in the dark and
lie down. What does lie down mean?
And if you're thinking like there have been some
commentaries historically that are like, no, we're not sure
what that means. Like the author of the story is
is very vague, kind of on purpose.
This storyteller does leave some things for you to imagine.
But I will just tell you, let me just tell you this right now.
I'm never giving my daughter this advice.
What is that plan? Absolutely not.
Listen girl, go get your hair did.
Get your nails done, put some perfume on and then shake it in
the dark when he's had a bunch to drink and like, what are you
talking about? No, do not do do not do
unsubscribe. Naomi has been scheming
shipments now. If you had no know much about
her lady, she actually came from a guy named Jacob who was called
a schemer. So this kind of runs in the
family. She's been thinking hard about
this. And part of the reason she she
doesn't say just like, why don't you just go to Boaz and ask, you
know, and have a conversation is that there were there were
cultural rules and laws about who would marry a widow.
And it wasn't him. He wasn't the next in line to
do. There was no responsibility for
him to do this. So.
So it's kind of in doubt. So she doesn't want to leave
things to doubt. She wants to kind of scheme
about how to how to do this. And like, let's just think about
this. Where'd she get the oil to
anoint Ruth with? They didn't bring that from the
lab, man. She took some of that grain and
she went to the Mart. She's been planning.
OK. Did like, if you're old enough,
you remember the A-Team, right? Like, like when that, like she's
putting it all together, Mission Impossible.
It's like Tom Cruise, she's going to rappel down this thing
and she's putting a plan together here.
Like you're going to do this, you're going to do this.
You're going to sneak in in the dark, You're going to.
And then you see Ruth's like, OK, this ought to get
interesting. She's been scheming.
Now he, I will say this, and this is important to note, this
is the last night of the last harvest.
This is the last moment. That Ruth is going to see Boaz
for the whole season, like until the next next harvest probably.
There's no reason for them to be around.
She's been getting to see him dailies at least six days a week
in the fields as she goes to harvest.
And this is it. This is the last chance.
The very last chance. Last shot.
Look, if you had one shot and one opportunity to seize
everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it
or just let it slip? Now that's not the Bible.
That's from a deep philosopher. Named Slim Shady, but her palms
probably wore sweaty knees. Weak arms are heavy.
Mom's spaghetti, anyways. Why is she why is she nervous?
Why would she be nervous? Like you're thinking she's
nervous because she's going to sneak in and and maybe be
rejected. And we all no one likes
rejection. But that's not actually why, why
she's really nervous because I mean, that's maybe part of it,
but but you need to understand the danger of what she's doing
in this moment. There are no laws or no cultural
laws that protect her in a culture that looks down on
women. She's about to sneak in
somewhere and she is about she could be abused.
She could be she. He could.
He could come out of this scenario accusing her of some
really inappropriate things. She already is a foreigner who's
looked down upon as a Moabite woman.
She could be ostracized. I mean, things could go really,
really poorly in this moment beyond just rejection.
He could take advantage of her and throw her out because she
has no right to, no protection, no one looking out for her.
But both Naomi and Ruth, in these moments we've seen, they
see God moving and and Naomi for all.
Of the weird. Scheming it is telling her you
need to, you need to press into where God is moving.
This is an invitation. It is an invitation to
participation. Maybe not in this way, maybe not
to do it this way, but it is an invitation, so she's going to do
it. Here we go over 6.
She went down to the threshing floor and did just as her
mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and
drunk and his heart was merry. Mary, as in Sir, you may not
legally operate a motor vehicle in all 50 states, Mary.
OK. He went to lie down at the end
of the heap of grain. Then she saw, came softly and
uncovered his feet. Now they don't wear blankets.
He has an outer cloak. So she's uncovering his cloak.
So I said it gets a little. Sketchy and lays down to his
feet. Verse 8 And at midnight the man
was startled and turned over and behold, a woman lay at his feet.
You can imagine, right? You wake up, it's dark and
you're like, how much did I drink?
And he says. Who are you?
Now that's how you know it's really dark because he's seen
Ruth every single day. He knows exactly what she looks
like. They've had all these
conversations and he's like, there's not a.
Lot of Night Lights in 1100 BC right and he's like who are you
now this line I don't want you to miss this line this.
This is the line. OK, this is probably.
The line of the whole book of Ruth.
So I need to see it. I'll explain why it's such a
line in a minute. And she answered.
I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your
servant for your Redeemer. Now, like, let me explain
because this is like, this is a certified bar.
Naomi. When Naomi gave her the scheme,
she didn't tell her what to say. If you remember the instructions
she said, get yourself all done up sneaking in the dark.
He'll tell you what to do. But he didn't.
So she's coming up with this. Live in the moment, she says.
I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your
servant for your Redeemer. Now when she says that, don't
just think about if you were here last week when they met and
she introduced herself. She said she called herself your
servant. Except what you can't see in
English is she used a different Hebrew term.
See, the first Hebrew term meant servant.
The second Hebrew term that she's using right here means
servant. But there's an extra connotation
here that that communicates status.
And what she says here would actually be translated as I am
your single servant. I am your unmarried servant.
So there's this is this is pregnant with possibility here.
OK, so she says. I am your single, unmarried
servant. And then she says, spread your
wings over me. Now, the Hebrew word for wings
that she's using has two definitions.
One of them is, is the wings of a bird.
OK. The other one means literally
means the edge of 1's outer cloak.
So she's laying at his feet. She has uncovered the outer
cloak and she's saying spread your wings over me.
Now that line matters because if you turn back one page to Ruth
Chapter 2, two months earlier they met, and when they met,
Boaz said something to her. Here's what he said.
This is Ruth 2 verses 11 and 12. He said.
Boaz answered her. All that you have done for your
mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been.
Fully told to me and how you left your father and mother of
your native land and came to a people that you didn't know
before verse 12 the this is the Lord repay you for what you have
done and a full reward be given to you by the Lord the God of
Israel under whose word under whose wings you have come to
take refuge. OK, so he says that it's almost
like he's. Prophetically praying a blessing
over he has recognized the risk that she's taken the loyalty of
this woman and he's like you've put yourself under the wings of
the Lord and now here sketchy encounter in the dark two months
later and she looks at him and says spread your wings over your
servant. What is she saying?
He's saying look and I I want God to recognize what you've
done to protect you to bless you.
And eight weeks later, in the middle of the night, she looks
at him and she says. You be those wings you want to
pray God's protection and blessing over me.
You be those wings, Boaz, because you're a Redeemer.
Now if if you're new to that the Bible, maybe you've never read
it or you don't really believe in it.
You need to understand this term Redeemer has has a bunch of
implications and we'll talk a. Little bit about.
Some of the legal implications of that term Redeemer that are
laid out in some books like Leviticus chapter 25 and
Deuteronomy chapter 25. We'll talk about that next week
because this is going to come to fruition.
But she, she's a foreigner. She doesn't even know any of
these laws. What is she saying in the
moment? Then when she says you're a
Redeemer, what she's saying is, hey, you are someone that can
protect and provide and step in the gap where where my life is
hopeless and nothing that I can do can fix the problem.
Someone else is going to have to step in and redeem me.
You're a Redeemer. You see, Boaz, two months ago
saw God's hand at work in Ruth's life, and he commented on it and
he prayed over her and he praised this blessing.
And two months later, she looks and goes, You're the blessing,
you're the blessing. You're someone who can make
away. You see, that's why.
Ruth is a Christmas story. Even though it takes place in
millennia before Christmas, because that is the Christmas
story. The Bible speaks to this in
Isaiah 44, six. The Bible prophetically says
this. Thus says the Lord, the King of
Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.
I am the 1st and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God.
The message of the Bible throughout the Old Testament is
you are hopeless. Merry Christmas.
You're hopeless. You're Ruth, a foreigner in a
foreign land with no help, and nobody's coming but me.
I'm coming. Jesus did this willingly.
See we the message, the Bible's we're hopeless and we needed a
Savior. We needed a Redeemer.
Ephesians 1. Seven through 10.
The Apostle Paul. In after Jesus comes, he's going
to look back and he's going to explain it this way so that we
would understand it and not miss it.
He says this in him. Jesus, we have redemption
through his blood. Redemption.
There's that word again. We have redemption.
We've been redeemed. We've been bought with a price
through His blood that He shed on the cross, 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 mystery of His will according to His purpose which
He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to
unite all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on
earth. Jesus did this willingly, and
Boaz will do this willingly. See it here verse 10.
She says you be those wings Boaz for sin.
He said, may you be blessed by the Lord.
My daughter, you have made this last kindness greater than the
first and that you have not gone after young men, whether rich or
poor. And now my daughter, do not
fear. Do not fear because I know the
risk you took coming here. Do not fear.
I will do for you all that you ask for.
My fellow, you'd underline this. If you're reading this for my
fellow townsmen, know that you are a worthy woman.
In two months, the entire town knows that the Moabite widow is
a worthy woman. How did that happen?
She, she's from a nation explicitly excluded by law.
There's a law that says you can't even marry people from
there. And and he's saying two months
later that everyone in town knows you're a worthy woman.
How? Well, she has displayed
integrity, She's displayed loyalty.
She has worked hard for two months, shown up before the sun
came up every single morning and all the way to sundown.
She's shown humility and how she spoke to Boaz when she met him
in chapter 2. In fact, you know, if we were
to, if we were to say, well, you know what does make a worthy
woman? The Bible gives us a chapter in
Proverbs 31. It's an entire chapter, almost a
whole chapter that says this is what a worthy woman looks like.
That she's trustworthy. Ruth's pretty trustworthy.
That she rises early in the morning to provide, and Ruth's
been doing that for two months. That she meets other needs
first, like this mother-in-law that she didn't have to stay
with, who's too old to work, and that she's out there breaking
her back to feed her. That she's a hard worker, as if
she provides for her household. And on and on and on.
In fact, I would challenge you this week.
Go open up Proverbs 31 and and read through that description of
a worthy woman. And what you're going to see is
a description of Ruth. So much so that in two months
time the entire town apparently knows her reputation and she
didn't have to tell anyone. Do you realize that she didn't
have to put a single post on Instagram?
No, no, no self promotion did this.
Her character was on display through hard work and everyone
noticed and she some of us want a blessing that our character
can't handle. This blessing comes two months
later, after just grueling work for months, and she has the
character, actually. For the blessing, but, but, but
for a lot of us, man, how often, how, how many times have I
prayed for something from the Lord that if he gave it to me,
my character couldn't have handled anyways, it would have
hurt me. You, you, you pray for, for
financial blessing that you can't even handle because you
can't steward your money. I I play, I pray for for the
church to grow faster and then realize that I don't think I'm
enough of a leader to handle that growth anyways.
What, what if, what if my character is not ready for the
blessings that I'm asking God for?
Is he a good God if he's going to give that to me when I, I
couldn't handle it? In the Bible, the, the frequent
analogy that we'll see in scripture about refining.
So someone's character is the refining fire.
It's like it's metallurgy, right?
Where, where they heat up metal and then they scrape out the
impurities in order to purify the metal and talks about our
character being that way. And, and that's good.
I like to think of it more like cooking in an oven, probably
because I like food more. Than metallurgy, but you know,
and so I you ever you ever take something out of the oven too
early doesn't taste real good. You see, I think there's plenty
of times in my life where I'm praying for something and God's
like, well, let's check. You know, he puts on the
heavenly oven mitts and he pulls the oven down and he pulls
Daniel out and he goes, well, plenty plump enough, but not
done yet. And he just pushes me back in,
closes that oven back up, sets that timer again.
We'll check on him in a little while.
Character's not ready, going to need more time.
God only gives us the blessings that our character can handle.
Now, in this moment, as Boaz is recognizing that Ruth is a woman
of character and is actually affirming that the entire town
now knows that she is a woman of character.
He's not. Actually required to do
anything. He's not legally obligated to
redeem her, to marry her, to take care of her.
That's not in the rules. But he chooses to.
And I need you to see that this is voluntary.
He's not legally required to do any of this.
He has the ability to. He has the standing, he has the
resources. He may be one of the only people
in town that truly could do this, but he isn't.
He isn't required to do it. And look, he's not tricked.
He's not seduced. He's not leveraged.
He's not manipulated. Boaz chooses to love Ruth.
He chooses. Don't miss that, because love is
a choice. You don't fall in love, you fall
into emotions. You can't fall in love because
love doesn't have gravity. You can fall in a swimming pool,
you can fall down the stairs, but love is a choice.
That's also why you can't fall out of love.
Want to sit down with married couples and someone's like?
Well, you know, I just don't. Love them anymore, I go well,
you chose that. That's a choice.
Boaz chooses to love her. He didn't have to.
Real love isn't a. Feeling you fall into it's a
choice you make. That's why we call marriage a
covenant, because it's not just emotions.
When the feelings fade, the choice to love remains.
Boaz chooses to love Ruth. Why am I making such a big deal
about this? Because Jesus chooses to love
us. He didn't have to.
He chose to. So look at verse 12.
Boaz is going to finish this answer.
And now it is true that I am a Redeemer, meaning he is
technically related to the widow.
Yet there is a Redeemer nearer than I.
I'll explain why that matters next week.
Remain tonight in the morning. If he will redeem you, good, let
him do it. But if not, he's not willing to
redeem you. Then as the Lord lives, I will
redeem you. Lie down until the morning.
Verse 14. So she lay at his feet until the
morning. But arose before one could
recognize another. So it's still dark.
And he said let it not be known that the woman came to the
threshing floor. He's protecting her reputation.
And he said bring the garment you're wearing, hold it out.
She held it out and he measured 6 measures of barley and put it
on her. And then she went out to the
city. I just I want you to see that
that is an intense amount of integrity.
Like how many single men faced with that scenario?
Fail. You want to be a man of God.
It is about character. We develop character with no
one's looking in the dark. We work on honoring God in the
smallest ways, in those common ways that you and I are going to
honor God. In fact, the most common ways
we're going to be invited in to participate in God's work is the
Holy Spirit is going to convict. US of sin, someone's going to
correct us when they see a sin, and our job in humility is to
receive that and repent. Obedience, humility, repentance,
obedience, humility, repentance. I get corrected because I I said
something unkind and instead of getting defensive, I obey the
prompting of the Holy Spirit. I confess that to God.
I apologize for my actions to the person.
I, I, I get, I get caught up in some worldly pursuit or, or or
doing too or working too much or too much free time or too many
hobbies or too much fantasy football.
No one's ever done that before, right?
Something and God gently corrects me and I confess my sin
and I put things in place to go chase him faster.
That's the recipe to develop character, and it's going to
take this happening hundreds of times in our lives.
Obeying God's call to holiness over and over and over again to
ever have a character worth anything.
Boaz, lonely, tipsy in the dark, wakes up with a beautiful young
woman at his feet, and everything he does in this
moment is honorable. It's a man of character, so God
moves and he invites us in that move in that moment to join him
to participate. He protects the women in chapter
1, but they still have to make the the grueling journey in
chapter 2. He provides sustenance and
Providence through a field, but Ruth still has to get up every
day and work her little tail end off.
And then in chapter 3, here's maybe not the best advice from
Naomi, but there's an opportunity.
They see God moving and they step into that.
Take a risk toward Boaz in our lives.
When you notice that God is at work, it is always an invitation
to join Him in that work that that stranger who suddenly
begins to share with you something disastrous is going on
in their life. Stop what you're doing and go
pray for them right there in that moment that that that is
not an accidental conversation. That relative who suddenly
becomes interested in conversations about faith or
spirituality or the afterlife. Stop what you're doing.
Drop everything that that God is moving in their life.
Go speak to them and spend time with them.
That opportunity to to serve in some new ministry or area you've
never really considered. Why do you think you're being
like again, over and over and over again, God is going to move
and it is an invitation. You begin to step into that and
see if God is moving in those things.
Do we have this horrible problem in our lives?
We say we we worship. The God of the universe who
created everything simply by speaking it into existence.
And he wants our prayers. And then we're like, yeah, but I
don't ever pray. I talk more about the things I
should pray for, then I actually pray for them.
And if I ever do get around to praying for them, and then God
moves, I ignore that he's moving because that would be an act of
obedience that might be hard. So yeah.
Because God has a purpose and a. Future for you and he's not
silent, he's not idle. God is at work around you, but
in his graciousness he doesn't just do it.
He invites you to participate in it and that changes us in the
process. You realize that God doesn't
have to invite you to participate.
Like yeah, God doesn't need you to get things done.
This is like inviting your 3 year old to do chores with you.
It's going to take longer for God to use me to do Kingdom
things. It's actually going to take
longer than if He just did it himself, just like a three-year
old He's. Doing it as an act of kindness
so that I get to participate and be like, hey dad, I worked at it
too. He's like, sure you did.
And it changes me in the process.
The, the guy named Henry Blackaby wrote a bestseller
called Experiencing God years ago and he had kind of, I'll,
I'll sum that up into four big points, but they're, they're
right here. Same, same sort of thing.
Number one, God always initiates the work.
It God. It is God's initiation.
It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a random conversation.
It wasn't you suddenly noticed what was going on.
God initiated the work. God never joins us, We join him.
When you are called to that act of obedience, it will always
create a crisis of faith. Anyone ever gone through one of
those or 17? Yes, obedience will require a
crisis of faith because we have to change, not God.
And when we obey him, we get to join him in his work.
And that's what happens for Ruth, and that's what happens
for you and I all the time. It's an invitation to
participation. So I have two questions I want
you to consider today as we try to apply the truth from this
Ruth chapter 3 in our lives. Here's the first one.
Where are you noticing God at work right now?
If you would slow down and, and pay attention to what God's
doing in your work, in your life, in your family, in your
habits, in your relationships, where is God at work?
Because where you see God moving is an invitation for you to join
him. Now, what is it an invitation
to? I don't know.
That's the spicy part. You're going to have to step in
obedience and it might, might feel like a crisis, might feel a
little illogical. You have to step into that in
obedience to figure it out. That's the risky part.
It might not be as risky as going to seeing a drunk guy in
the middle of the night. I'm just saying, But it's going
to be risky. It's a step of faith.
Maybe you're being called to, to serve God or or the church in
some new way. Maybe you, you, you, you don't
serve and God's prompting you to, to, to start serving so you
can do something incredible in your life.
Maybe it's some little thing that we would never even
consider, but we begin to see God move.
Maybe it's something huge. Ruth wasn't looking for Boaz.
She was working hard. She was providing, she was
taking note of what God did and it was actually through Naomi
noticing and giving her counsel to help her see that God was
moving. I started the sermon this
morning talking about, you know, being faced with his decision of
closing some businesses and going to the ministry full time
and it it feeling like a crisis of faith.
But but I'm feeling like man, God really wants me to walk into
this and it is I'll be let me be honest.
In the last two years, it is not been easy.
It is been fraught with with days of anxiety and and crises
of faith. But but I but I also consider.
Because I have the. The benefit now the rearview
mirror again, the look of the last two years.
And I go, man, you know, in the last two years, God has saved
over 200 people at this church, and we have baptized about 200
people in the last two years. Now, I would have missed so much
of that if I was still trying to do the other things that God was
calling me away from. Like God.
God didn't need me to do it. He'd have done it anyways.
I just would have missed it. I would have gotten to
participate in all that stuff if I wasn't willing to step into
what God was asking me to do. If you want to see God work,
you've got to be willing to trust Him Where that journey
leads. Now I'm going to give you.
Just a moment of caution along with this.
Where's God at work? OK, Remember, Ruth is looking
for, she's working hard. She's not looking specifically
for this blessing. And for some of us, I'm just
going to, I'm just going to warn you.
And if this is you, I just want you to hear it.
Stop looking for the blessing and look for the One who
blesses. Because some of y'all have never
gotten to a Boaz in your life because you settled for a broke
ass. That deadbeat alternative that
you tried to shoehorn into God's plan?
That's not what Ruth is doing. Ruth's been working hard for two
months, head down, grinding, and then when God's moving to wise
counsel, she steps into that. And for some of y'all, you've
been chasing stuff that is not of God and I'm just telling you,
put your eyes back on the Creator, the one who gives
blessings, and He will lead you where He wants you to go.
Now if you're thinking to yourself, I already married the
broke ass, then let me pray for you.
May God give you the strength and the humility and the
endurance to choose to love them, to pray for them, to serve
them sacrificially, that they might come to know the Lord of
the universe because He is able. In my small group and in my my
mentorship group, these are the types of conversations we have
all the time. We are praying for one another.
We are talking about what's going on in our lives and
allowing wise counsel to push back into our lives to, to
either correct us or to encourage us or to stir us up,
just like Naomi is doing for Ruth.
So secondly, my question for you is, who is your Naomi?
Where is that close counsel that will encourage you to obey God
because you got to have it? There are times we need to be
encouraged because you're down. There's times where you need to
be stirred up because you've just gotten lazy, comfortable,
whiny, none of you, I mean, but me, me.
And we need to be stirred up to go hard after God again.
And so if you have been trying to play this solo Christian
Rambo game in isolation, you need to step into community.
You need to find people who love God, the church, and you in that
order, and are willing to speak truth into your life.
Where is God moving and who is close enough to you to tell you?
So these are the application questions for today.
Now, maybe maybe you came here today, you got maybe you got
drug here today didn't even want to come.
Maybe you're you're watching online.
Shout out to Casey and Steven if they're watching online.
But but however you got here today my question.
For you is this. Do you know the Lord of the
universe personally? Because if you don't know Jesus
Christ as your Lord and your Savior, I just want to point
something out to you that's in this text here.
And I want you to see that God is at work.
That's probably why you're participating in this service
today. The reason you tuned in online,
the reason you showed up, God is drawing you to him.
You know, 1100 years before Jesus would walk on the earth as
a human. We're, we're reading this story
and we're talking about these, these wings.
And Jesus actually says the same thing 1100 years later that he
that his wings are there for protection.
In Luke 13, he's he's talking about the city of Jerusalem
right before he's going to go to the cross.
And in Luke 13 he says this verse 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
the city that kills. The prophets and stones, those
who are sent to it, they're about to crucify him.
How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings?
And you were not willing. Jesus offers to redeem you like
Ruth does for Boaz to cover you in his wings.
And so the question, my final question for you today is, are
you willing? Are you willing?
God is moving. He is drawing you to him and he
is offering to cover you with his wings.
Are you willing? You see, just like Boaz chose to
love Ruth, Jesus chooses to love you.
And so if you would like to surrender your life to God
today, I want to offer you the chance as we close our service
for a brief moment, will you bow your heads and close your eyes?
If you're willing to ask God for forgiveness and for salvation
with every eye closed, every head bowed, I just, I just want
you to repeat this prayer after me.
Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I can't save myself.
I need to be redeemed. So I surrender everything to you
and I receive your promise of redemption.
Be my Lord, Please Jesus. If you prayed to surrender your
life to Jesus for the very first time, would you be brave and
raise your hand for me to see? Thank you, you can put your
hands down. Thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
Real quick as we close, if you just gave your life to Christ
for the very first time, welcome to the family.
We stand. We're going to sing a song as we
close. Our prayer team is going to come
up. We'd love to pray with you and
for you. As we sing, as we people come up
for prayer. If you gave your life to to to
Christ and you have not told anyone about it.
Maybe this happened moments ago. Maybe it happened recently.
We have some tables in the back say I raised my hand.
We would love to celebrate with you.
We have a gift for you. We want to talk about what it
looks like to pursue Jesus. What's next so you can make your
way back there while we sing If you need prayer for any reason,
we want to pray with you. And so don't be shy.
Come up and be prayed for. We love you church.
Merry Christmas, you move as the Lord leads you.