Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Thank you so much. Hey, welcome to church. How's everyone doing?
[00:00:06] I am Sarah Berger, for those of you who don't know me. And I help partner with my dad to lead this beautiful campus. Him and my gorgeous mom are on a little getaway to New York to go visit my brother, my baby brother who I love.
[00:00:22] And I have the honor of being with you today. But I am going to pray to get us started.
[00:00:29] Father, I love the words of that song. That you can use anything.
[00:00:36] And it's my deepest desire that you use this broken girl.
[00:00:41] That it's less of me, Father, and it's more of you that today you will speak, that your spirit will be in this place.
[00:00:53] And I pray your name will be honored and glorified.
[00:00:56] In your mighty son's name we pray. Amen.
[00:00:59] Okay, so I have a very busy summer. Does anyone else have a very busy summer?
[00:01:06] Okay, I have my beautiful Tay Rose getting married in less than two weeks to her handsome fiance.
[00:01:17] And we've just been busy here at the church. We've got Love Week this week. Like Abby said, we've been going hard at our CC midweek, and our younger generation has been leading it. And Jacob and I have a tradition with some of our best friends that we go away to Geneva on the lake once a year together.
[00:01:39] And so months and months and months ago, we planned this trip, but we planned it for this week.
[00:01:46] Now we're weeks away from the wedding, and I try to act like we're cool. You know what I'm saying? Easy. Mama's got this for Taylor. I'm like, whatever you need, baby. Mommy's got you, okay? But inside, it's like.
[00:02:05] And so I also did not know I'd be preaching this week. And preaching is like one of those things. It's like the deepest honor, but it's like a weighted vest you wear all week.
[00:02:17] If you've ever spoke or if you've ever done anything for God, you know that you want to just honor him in all you do. And so preaching. I think for a good sermon for me, it takes anywhere from 20 to 40 hours for me to really study and seek him and try to learn as much as I can and let him work through me so that I have something better to offer you. And so the trip's coming up, and I am a very fun person. I love fun. I love spontaneity. But I learned that I love it when I'm free. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, fun is more fun when you don't have anything to think about. Spontaneity is fun when you don't have responsibilities. Okay, so we were planning on just staying the night Thursday, but on Wednesday, or maybe even when it's Tuesday, Jake's like, how about we sneak away Wednesday?
[00:03:09] And he knows my heart. He knows spontaneity is like, yes, let's do it. So I'm trying to be cool, you know, I'm trying to be fun. I'm trying to not let the anxiety creep in. I'm trying to not let the weighted vest crush me.
[00:03:21] And so I knew this trip was going to be fun because it's our best friends, but I didn't want it to be, like, ruined and tainted because I couldn't let go. Do you know what I'm saying?
[00:03:33] I wanted to be present.
[00:03:36] I wanted to have fun.
[00:03:38] And so I had to think about this trip in a little bit different way. I kind of had to reframe how I was thinking about it. And my family, we are watching this youtuber. His name's Ryan Trahan, and him and his wife. Anyone heard of ryan Trahan on YouTube?
[00:03:54] Okay. Thank you, good sir. Thank you.
[00:03:57] So he does this YouTube page. Him and his wife are awesome. They're young, they're cool, and. And they got it this adventure in their mind that they were gonna go to 50 states in 50 days and try to raise money for St. Jude. So their goal was 50 states, 50 days, raise a million dollars for St. Jude. And they, in this adventure, they literally drive from state to state every day. They stay in the coolest Airbnb they can find for the state.
[00:04:28] And there is challenges along the way. They have this box that's called the Wheel of Doom.
[00:04:35] And anyone that donates over $50,000 can set off the Wheel of Doom. And you spin the Wheel of Doom, and then whatever challenge comes up on the Wheel of Doom, they have to do that day before they get to the next Airbnb. So we have been loving this series. We've been loving it. We couldn't wait for them to get to Ohio. We've been watching it together every day. We've been, like, trying to pick where are they going to go in Ohio? What's the coolest Airbnb?
[00:04:59] And so we've been watching it every day. So for this trip that Jacob and I were going on, I caught a thought, okay?
[00:05:06] And I said, what if we are Ryan and his wife Hailey, and we film a little video and vlog it for our kids? Okay. Because I was thinking, I'll Be present. It'll be fun.
[00:05:19] And then I gave the responsibility of the Wheel of doom, which would be a text message that my soon to be son in law could send to us with a challenge anytime. We would not know when it was going to come. Okay, so Jacob and I go on this trip. We're laughing, we're having so much fun because it's so dumb. Like, it's so dumb. We're literally like recreating the things they do on our phone for our kids.
[00:05:43] But man, I was able to be present.
[00:05:45] I was able to invite the kids into something silly and fun. And I would send them a little vlog the next morning of what happened in our day.
[00:05:55] And I think in our life, what happens is we can be overwhelmed by different things of life.
[00:06:00] And when we frame it, how we are hardwired for maybe control or to fix it or to make things, whatever, there can be a pressure, there can be an unhealthy way of showing up.
[00:06:15] And we are in this series. Dad kicked it off last week on Psalms 130. But the idea of the series is how to seek God in hard times.
[00:06:26] And one of my biggest beliefs I learned this young, and I actually learned it from my dad, was the idea of reframing.
[00:06:34] Reframing. I've got a definition we're going to pop up on the screen.
[00:06:37] It's the idea of creating a different way of looking at a situation or a relationship by changing its meaning.
[00:06:47] I think when we are, especially in hard times of our life, it's easy for us to. To lose a healthy perspective.
[00:06:56] I can do it in anxiety. I can do it in the overwhelm season. I can do it just. My mind loves to go to all the hard, bad places. Okay, I am like a freak up here because I can stress and I can overwhelm. I can make situations up that haven't even happened. And I'll have conversations about something that hasn't even happened in my head.
[00:07:16] Any amens out there?
[00:07:18] Okay, thank you. I don't wanna be alone up here.
[00:07:22] I will struggle. But then when it's really in the most difficult seasons of my life, I can really, really struggle.
[00:07:32] I can struggle to have a healthy thought life process.
[00:07:35] I can struggle to how to see God clearly.
[00:07:39] And that's what pain can do. It can skew us. It can confuse us.
[00:07:45] And I believe that there is a God in heaven who wants something better for every single one of us.
[00:07:51] I believe there is a God who has a divine purpose and plan for our lives.
[00:07:57] A God who wants to help us frame our life in a way that is healthy and will not keep us stuck, but will propel us forward, even in the most unthinkable, unbearable moments of our life.
[00:08:11] One of the things I know for sure is that we cannot control what happens to. To us, but we can control how we frame it.
[00:08:22] We can control how we see it, we can control our perspective on it.
[00:08:29] And one of the most beautiful books in the Bible, in my opinion, is the Book of Ruth.
[00:08:36] And it has God's providence written all over it.
[00:08:43] You see God working even when the author doesn't tell you.
[00:08:47] When you read this book, you can see God moving.
[00:08:51] And I was studying it because I'm going through my theses for my ordination, and we have to write a thesis for each book of the Bible. And I just. I kind of fell in love with Ruth all over again.
[00:09:02] And I want to bring your attention to Ruth, chapter four. And we're going to start at verse nine.
[00:09:09] I can't read my Bible anyway, so I won't even bother. They printed it out for me. I need my glasses. Okay. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the land of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Killian and Mahlon.
[00:09:31] Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.
[00:09:49] Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.
[00:10:02] May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.
[00:10:16] So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and he went into her, and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son.
[00:10:24] Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a Redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel.
[00:10:35] He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter in law, who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.
[00:10:47] Then Naomi took the child and Laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, a son has been born to Naomi. A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse and the father of David.
[00:11:05] It's funny because I think sometimes when we read the Bible, we read it in isolation and it's easy to look at the end of Ruth. This is the last bit of Ruth and say, man, God was good. In this story, there's deep, deep blessing.
[00:11:24] They had a baby. God was the Redeemer. He took care of everything. And when you look at things in isolation, you get a very small frame of the full context of the story.
[00:11:37] And everyone's looking at Naomi and Ruth and Boaz and there is just blessing upon blessing upon blessing. And it's easy to look at scripture like that where we take one tiny part of a verse and we make it the full context.
[00:11:53] And really that's not how scripture is meant to be read.
[00:11:56] I'm a huge fan of the Bible app that gives you the verse for the day if you do that. I love it, I think it's awesome.
[00:12:03] But I don't think you should stop there because oftentimes we don't get the full picture of what scripture is really trying to show.
[00:12:11] And in this story, if we just looked at this, you wouldn't see the weight, you wouldn't see the power of how God moved. It would just look like a happy ending. It would look like our Instagram reels, you know what I'm saying? It would look like our TikTok where it's the highlight.
[00:12:29] But to really fully understand Ruth 4, you gotta understand the beginning.
[00:12:38] The book of Ruth is like sandwiched in between some powerhouse books of the Bible. Joshua, it's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Jeremy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, first and second Samuel, it's sandwiched in.
[00:12:56] And why would God have this four chapter book about a woman named Ruth in between these powerhouse stories?
[00:13:05] To get context. In the book of Judges, God was saying, I want you to turn to me. I want to be your God. But the people were broken and they were messed up and they kept turning from God. They kept turning to other gods to find life and to find their way. And so God, God would bring in nations that would come in and they would take over Israel.
[00:13:29] And then there would be years of the people repenting and seeking God. And so he would raise up a judge and say, okay, listen to the voice of this judge.
[00:13:39] And it would be short lived because time and time and time and time again, the people kept going back to the things that were no good for them. Does it sound familiar, CHURCH?
[00:13:52] And right smack dab in the middle of this era, Ruth exists.
[00:14:00] And the beginning of Ruth is the story of Elimelech.
[00:14:06] He was a man who had a wife named Naomi, and she had two sons with Elimelech, Mahlon and Killian.
[00:14:14] And because of this time of the Judges and the era that it was in, there was a famine in the land. And Elimelech decided to take his family out of Bethlehem and take them in to Moab.
[00:14:28] Now, you can read right over that, because what's Moab? We don't really know. We just think it's a city. But there's significance to this.
[00:14:35] He was taking them out of the place where God was the central God, where God was trying to work and draw his people back to him. And he took his family to Moab.
[00:14:50] Now, Moab is an incredibly sinful nation.
[00:14:56] The God that they believed in his name was Kamash. And. And one of the central beliefs was that you would have to do human sacrifices to Kamash, and it was often child sacrifices.
[00:15:10] And so Elimelech, really, he should have never taken his family there.
[00:15:15] He should have never gone there. But they were hungry, there was a famine, he was seeking food, and nonetheless, he takes his family there.
[00:15:23] And the Bible tells us in chapter one of Ruth that Elimelech dies and Ruth is left with her two sons.
[00:15:31] And Ruth has it seemingly like, I'm sure that was one of the hardest moments of her life, but it seems like she was okay, and her sons married two women, Orpah and Ruth.
[00:15:47] And then the unthinkable happened, the unbearable happened.
[00:15:52] Ruth's two sons die.
[00:15:57] And it's a loss that is so incredibly deep.
[00:16:02] It's a loss that is all encompassing, a pain that is like to your bones.
[00:16:11] And the Bible tells us how Ruth, or how Naomi responds to the loss.
[00:16:16] In Ruth, chapter one, verse 20, she said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
[00:16:30] 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?
[00:16:47] Dad talked last week about this idea of the absurdity of life.
[00:16:52] If you missed his sermon, I highly recommend going back.
[00:16:56] I think in the Enlightenment era, there was like, you find reason in everything, but in the absurdity of life, it doesn't yield to reason.
[00:17:10] And when Naomi lost everything, those boys were irreplaceable.
[00:17:18] And to make it even worse, in the context of when they were living, if you were a widow, especially at the age of Naomi, you were destitute. If you didn't have sons to take care of you, for you, to provide, you would have been absolutely destitute. There would have been very little hope.
[00:17:37] And Naomi is sitting in this moment.
[00:17:43] There's a taste in her mouth.
[00:17:47] It's bitter.
[00:17:51] And sometimes we read the Bible and we see these lines that she says, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
[00:17:59] I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.
[00:18:03] And so sometimes when we read these things, we're like, well, it's in the Bible.
[00:18:07] But the problem is you have to understand the context.
[00:18:11] The context is she's in deep, deep pain. Has anyone been there? Just in deep pain, man.
[00:18:19] And what happens is, in our pain, we get confused about God.
[00:18:24] When you can't rationalize, when you can't make the reason seem reasonable, the question becomes, why God?
[00:18:33] Why would you allow this pain? Why would you allow this suffering in my life?
[00:18:39] And she's here and she's feeling bitter. She doesn't even wanna be called Naomi. She wants to be called Mara because she came in full. But God brought her back empty is how she views it.
[00:18:54] And it ultimately, it comes down to this question of if God is good, if he's all powerful, then why is there suffering in the world?
[00:19:06] We just did this huge series at our midweek about some of the top questions of life.
[00:19:12] And I listened to these debates with people who are Christian and agnostics or atheists. And the conversation always comes back to this question.
[00:19:22] And I was listening to an amazing man named John Lennox.
[00:19:28] And he is a mathematician. He's a professor at Oxford and he teaches math.
[00:19:35] And he was in one of these debates with a young man who was agnostic. And it was like a really interesting conversation, very polite. And ultimately the question came back, you know, either God's not all powerful or he's not good, because there is suffering in the world.
[00:19:52] And John Lennox is.
[00:19:54] He's funny. He's an older gentleman with a big belly, and he's just fun to listen to.
[00:20:00] And he said, you know, in math, there have been years and years and years where there are problems that we cannot solve.
[00:20:11] There are math problems we can't solve.
[00:20:14] And he said, so in the math world, we say we must be asking the wrong question.
[00:20:20] And John Lennox took an unanswerable question and he reframed it, and he said, instead of asking, why does God allow suffering or why is there suffering? He says, let's reframe it and say, okay, because there is a reality in this world that there is pain.
[00:20:39] Because there is a reality in this world that there is suffering. Then the question becomes, is there a God who, who understands?
[00:20:48] The question becomes, is there a God who is with you?
[00:20:52] Is there a God who is able to strengthen you?
[00:20:56] And that reframe, that reframe of thought is something I want to share with us today. In our confusion, in our pain. When life doesn't yield to reason, we can easily blame God.
[00:21:09] But that's not the real framework that is gonna change our life.
[00:21:12] It's the framework that's gonna dig us deeper into pain, that's gonna dig us deeper into sorrow. The framework, is there a God who understands, is answerable? Yes, we know that Jesus Christ came and he lived. He left everything and came for us.
[00:21:30] We know the deep suffering. We know the sorrow he felt. We know the loss he felt. We know the deep rejection and pain of life that our God felt.
[00:21:41] And I think part of the Christian faith is trusting in a God who is not far and distant and sitting on a throne and just throwing out bad things in the world. But he's a God who fully understands.
[00:21:55] He's a God who fully gets the pain, who fully understands the suffering of life, yet he's there for us.
[00:22:04] Yet he walked the road of suffering. He was a man of many sorrows. It's all in the scripture. And I think in our Christian faith, it's so easy to be like, well, if I'm a Christian, it's gonna be good.
[00:22:16] But man, this book shows us something so different. And the stories of the Bible, they show us something so different.
[00:22:27] Was Ruth, was Naomi truly alone?
[00:22:33] If we just go a few chapters up, you see that she wasn't.
[00:22:39] That she had two daughter in laws.
[00:22:45] And when she realizes that she can't stay in Moab and she has to go back home, she wants to go back to Bethlehem.
[00:22:52] She tells the girls, I want you to go back to your families.
[00:22:57] I want you to go back to your dad's house. He's going to offer protection. You have a chance of remarrying with the people you know here.
[00:23:04] And it tells us that the girls wept bitterly, that they loved her, but one of them left.
[00:23:12] And that's why this book is not the book of Orpah, it's the book of Ruth.
[00:23:20] You get this beautiful image in Ruth, chapter one, starting at verse 16.
[00:23:27] Ruth said to Naomi, do not urge me to leave you boys, I need my glasses.
[00:23:37] She says, do not urge me to leave you or return from following you, for where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
[00:23:55] 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.
[00:24:06] She wasn't alone.
[00:24:09] God gave her the gift of a Moabite woman.
[00:24:13] The. It didn't come in the package. I think she thought it wasn't the plan that I think she thought.
[00:24:21] But God blessed her with a young lady who was loyal.
[00:24:26] Anyone have some loyal people in their lives?
[00:24:29] I mean, that is a blessing of God.
[00:24:33] People who stick, people who know the ins and the outs, but they choose to love you anyways.
[00:24:41] And I love this picture of Ruth because she chose to be part of Elimelech's family. She chose to marry Mahlon. But even when all that was gone, she still clung to Naomi.
[00:24:55] And I think when we read these verses, you often hear them at weddings. And I will go where you go. You know, there's this powerful imagery of just, like, commitment and. And loyalty and faith.
[00:25:10] And you get to this point where it says, your God will be my God. And it's almost like she's saying, okay, I'm gonna give your God a try.
[00:25:17] But you see something very unique. Can we pull up Ruth 1:17?
[00:25:21] She says, where you die, I will die. And there will I be buried. May the Lord. Now, I want to point this out in your Bibles, anytime the word Lord is on all capitalized, this is the word Yahweh.
[00:25:37] A Moabite person would have never had this intimate name for God.
[00:25:44] There. There are more generic names for God. That's a bad way of saying it. But there are more words for God that people in other nations would have called him.
[00:25:52] They would not have called him Yahweh. Yahweh was the name that God gave to his people.
[00:26:00] Yahweh was a deeply personal name with a God who was close with a God who was walking in life with you.
[00:26:08] And so it's easy to miss this because you don't know what you don't know. But when it's all capitalized, it's not like Ruth is saying, your God will be my God. I'll give it a shot. Her God was already Yahweh.
[00:26:20] Her God was already deeply personal to her.
[00:26:26] He was intimately involved in all things of her life. And so. So when she says, I will cling to Naomi in this picture of I will go where you go, I will die where you die. It's this picture of her clinging to her mother in law. But ultimately she's clinging to something much bigger. She is clinging to Yahweh.
[00:26:47] She is clinging to a God that she knows and loves and church. In the weariness of life, in the discouragement, what do you cling to?
[00:27:03] It's in the discouraged phases of our life that we're most vulnerable.
[00:27:11] It's in that weariness when you're tired, when you've tried everything and it just doesn't seem to be working, that we are most susceptible.
[00:27:24] Clinging to the stuff that hurts us the most.
[00:27:32] In the Gospels we get this beautiful picture of Jesus saying, come to me all who are weary and all who are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
[00:27:42] It's interesting that he says come to me because we go to something.
[00:27:49] We go to something.
[00:27:53] Some of us, it's control.
[00:27:55] It's kind of my M.O.
[00:27:57] if life feels out of control, then I am going to get it back in control and everyone is going to do what I say doesn't work out well for some of us it's numbing, it's drinking too much, it's smoking whatever, it's taking whatever. And we numb some of us. It's like I'm going to keep busy and not feel and I'm just going to keep trucking on. But something inside of us is broken.
[00:28:32] I do not know what you cling to, but today I challenge you to cling to Yahweh.
[00:28:40] Cling to a God who is close to a God who is personal.
[00:28:45] There's this idea, it's in theology, it's called the providence of God. And the idea is that God is working through time and history. But N.T. wright, he had a better way of looking this. He said he is intimately and divinely near to us as he works in history.
[00:29:03] He is not distant and far like I said, but he is a God who is near to us.
[00:29:09] And in those moments of life when we are weary and we're worn out and it's just all been too much or the anxiety and I can order a Mr. Heroes Roman Burger faster than anybody. Okay, Anyone? Anyone like a Roman Burger in the house? You know what I'm saying? Okay. Mama can say, I'm gonna get some comfort in this Roman Burger. Give me some waffle fries and cheesy dip. Okay?
[00:29:36] But this is showing us that is not what's happening, that we have a God that when we are in the deepest parts of the muck, when we're overwhelmed, when the anxiety is real, when there's suffering that aches to the core, there is a God who is near to us.
[00:29:52] And although the book of Ruth doesn't show, though this is the providence of God at work, it's unescapable. As you read it, Naomi and Ruth, they head back to Bethlehem and they go to their hometown. And they're noticed because at this time, Bethlehem was small.
[00:30:08] And all the women say, oh, this is Naomi. And this is where she says, no, don't even call me Naomi. Call me Mara.
[00:30:15] Call me bitter.
[00:30:17] And Ruth is with her right by her side, clinging to her and clinging to God.
[00:30:24] And they show up and they make a plan. And the plan is, Naomi is too old to go glean in the fields. But years and years and years before this, God put a provision in the Levitical law for women just like this.
[00:30:38] He put a provision that if you were destitute, if you've lost everybody, if you were poor, if you were a foreigner, however, you came into the land, that if you were hungry, you could go into a grain field and glean behind the servants of that field and pick up whatever crumb was left over and you could. You could hopefully get enough food for a meal.
[00:31:01] And so Naomi must have told this to Ruth. So Ruth goes out, and the field she lands on is none other than Boaz.
[00:31:14] And in this same Levitical law, there was a provision that was called a kinsman redeemer.
[00:31:21] And the idea was that if you lost your husband or you lost your sons and you had nothing, that your husband's closest relative, you could marry them and they would redeem you.
[00:31:33] And the idea was, the redeeming part was Naomi would have had to sell all her land.
[00:31:40] But in this Levitical provision, Leviticus is wild. And you read it and you're like, skip, skip, skip, boring, boring, boring.
[00:31:47] Fine, I do that sometimes. But when you really understand the laws that God was setting up for the least, for people that were in dire need, you see a God who was so mighty, and long before they ever knew it, God had already put provisions in play.
[00:32:04] And the idea of the kinsman Redeemer was you would buy back the land from the relative that sold it and had passed away, but then you would also redeem his wife, and she would become your wife. And then when you had children, they would bear the name of the man who passed away.
[00:32:23] And it's almost like, who would do that?
[00:32:26] Who would do that?
[00:32:27] Who would go into debt, marry a woman that you might not want to marry, and then your kids are his kids.
[00:32:36] That's a wild picture.
[00:32:41] And on this day, she lands on this field and she starts gleaning. The Bible tells us that she just took the next right step. Step.
[00:32:49] She didn't have to know everything.
[00:32:51] She didn't have to know the ultimate picture.
[00:32:54] But as she clung to Yahweh, as she clung to God, she just took the next right step.
[00:33:01] And she shows up on this field to work hard.
[00:33:04] And the Bible pointed out she worked hard that day.
[00:33:08] But Boaz showed up.
[00:33:11] And although I don't know that either of them knew it at the time, he was her kinsman, Redeemer.
[00:33:18] And he saw her working behind everybody. And he asked his men, who is she? Who's this woman?
[00:33:24] And they said, this is the daughter in law of Naomi. It's Ruth.
[00:33:29] Ruth had made a name for herself.
[00:33:32] Everyone saw the character of who she was.
[00:33:35] Everyone saw the light that she brought, where she went.
[00:33:38] And so Boaz goes up to her, and in Ruth 3, he kind of gives her a blessing.
[00:33:48] I'm sorry, Ruth 2. Ruth 2:12, he says to her, the Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
[00:34:06] And as the plot unfolds in this story, they find out that they're kinsmen, redeemers.
[00:34:15] And Naomi says, I want you to wait till it's later. I want you to wait till Boaz eats, he drinks a little, he's happy, and he's headed off to bed. And I want you to go and I want you to uncover his feet and I want you to lay at his feet that night.
[00:34:28] And Ruth goes and she does just as her mother in law asked.
[00:34:32] And Boaz, like, wakes up startled, and he's like, who are you?
[00:34:37] Not the best dating advice. Am I right? Am I right?
[00:34:41] Wouldn't want my kids doing that. But it worked out well.
[00:34:47] And she says, I'm Ruth and I want to share to you something I didn't connect before.
[00:34:55] Ruth 3:9.
[00:34:57] He said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your servant.
[00:35:00] Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a Redeemer.
[00:35:06] In Ruth 2:12. Can we go back to that really quick?
[00:35:10] Boaz says, the Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord and the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
[00:35:24] Seems like Ruth used the verbiage your Bibles might say something a little bit different because it can be translated spread your cloth over me or spread your wings.
[00:35:34] But I like the connection of this version of Boaz said, may you seek refuge under the wings of a mighty God.
[00:35:45] And it makes me think, man, she was looking for God in all things.
[00:35:50] And I think part of the beauty is that we find what we're looking for.
[00:35:57] I can look for reasons to be angry.
[00:35:59] I'll find them.
[00:36:01] Sometimes I don't even need to look. Can I get an amen?
[00:36:05] Okay.
[00:36:06] But when we choose to cling to Yahweh, when we choose to look for God, you'll find him.
[00:36:17] You find what you look for.
[00:36:20] And there is power in the words that she uses because she's connecting the provision of God to Boaz.
[00:36:27] See, my belief is that God wants to work in and through us.
[00:36:33] My belief is that the good that happens in our life is often based on the people who are around us and how God is working in and through them.
[00:36:43] There's a connection in Romans 8:28, and I'll just be brief because we don't have time, but in Romans 8:28, I wrote it down so I could see.
[00:36:52] It says this, and we know that in all things God works for the good. This is another verse we take out of context. We just use that in all things, God's going to work for the good. In all things, God's going to work for the good. And we use that. But there's context that's in isolation. And we got to look at the context. It says, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.
[00:37:20] N.T. wright, the old Testament scholar, he said, one of the better ways of translating this is, and we know that in all things, God works for the good with those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose. The idea is that in all things, not just in the big things, not just in the life changer things, but in all, all things, God works for the good with or through those who love Him.
[00:37:51] And you see this pouring out in Boaz is he is connected to Yahweh. He believes in God and his life is tied up in God's purpose and God's plan.
[00:38:03] And he becomes the kinsman Redeemer.
[00:38:07] He takes on the debt and he buys back Elimelech's farm.
[00:38:11] He takes on the beauty and the character of who Ruth is and he takes her as his wife.
[00:38:17] And in the book of Ruth there is like, 81 verses.
[00:38:24] Don't totally believe me on these numbers, but I'm roundabout. There's about 81 verses in the book of Ruth. And over 20 times the word redeem, redeemer, redeem, some form of redeem is used.
[00:38:37] And when you're studying Scripture, you're looking for these words that are used multiple times because it creates a theme.
[00:38:44] And the theme of this book is this redemptive story for a family who started out hopeless for a family who started out and just was like, there's no possible way the Lord Almighty has done this to me.
[00:39:01] And it ends with this provision.
[00:39:04] It ends with this redeeming power of a man who took the family, who did the unthinkable, and he brought them hope and he brought them life.
[00:39:14] And the whole story ends with saying that they named the baby that Boaz and Ruth had Obed.
[00:39:22] And Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of King David.
[00:39:30] And King David, his line.
[00:39:33] Jesus Christ came.
[00:39:36] Naomi had no way of knowing in Moab what the faithfulness of God would have done.
[00:39:46] He is a redeemer.
[00:39:49] Like Ruth left her family and her father.
[00:39:56] We get this redeeming power that points us to something bigger, the Old Testament we're looking for. How does it point to Jesus Christ?
[00:40:10] And when you read this book, it's not to become more like Ruth or Boaz. It's to become more ultimately like Jesus Christ.
[00:40:18] And Ruth left her family, left everything, and came to a nation that she did not know.
[00:40:25] And our redeemer, Jesus Christ, he left his heavenly father and he came to a place that he knew.
[00:40:30] But unlike Ruth, where she said nothing but death will separate us. Jesus Christ says even death will not separate us.
[00:40:41] There is a redeeming power in that.
[00:40:46] Like Boaz was the kinsman redeemed her and he bought the family back with a high price. Our Heavenly Father is our kinsman, redeemer, and he wants to renew and restore, and he wants you to have purpose and faith in this life.
[00:41:02] He does not want us to be stuck, but he wants to call us to something so much more beautiful.
[00:41:08] He redeems us.
[00:41:10] We were bought with a high price when Jesus Christ gave his life, when he took our debt and gave us his riches.
[00:41:19] Church. There is power in this story because it points us to something bigger.
[00:41:25] There is power in this story when we cling to a God who is for you.
[00:41:31] When you reframe the. The hardest questions you. When you reframe the. The anxiety and the pain that you're living in. And you cling to Yahweh.
[00:41:41] There is a redeeming quality that only he can work, only he can renew, and only he can restore.
[00:41:52] Dear Heavenly Father, we want to reverse Naomi's call of she came in full, but left empty today.
[00:42:04] And so we claim your name. We cling to you, Yahweh.
[00:42:09] And we ask those of us who have come in empty, will you. Will you carry us out from.
[00:42:17] It is only by your power and your purpose in this world, Father, that you are at work.
[00:42:23] And I thank you that you are not distant.
[00:42:27] I thank you that you are near.
[00:42:31] I thank you that you give us healthier ways to think.
[00:42:36] And I pray for every person listening in this room or online, whenever and wherever, Father, that. That they will look for you, that they'll reframe and they'll ask the better question, Father.
[00:42:52] And when the moments come that are unbearable, it will not be where are you? But it will be. I am in unbearable pain, but I'm trusting that you are next to me.
[00:43:01] I want to see you where I can't see you.
[00:43:04] And I ask that you will use me and fill me so that your purpose will be done in this world.
[00:43:11] In your mighty and good son's name, we pray.
[00:43:13] Amen.
