The Redeemer Is Working

The recording missed the first couple minutes of the sermon today, so there is an abrupt start.

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Kevin. Thanks for listening to our message. We strive each week to bring you relevant, practical, biblical teaching that meets you where you are. Hope you enjoy the message.

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And uh then tragedy strikes in the story, and Naomi's husband dies, followed by her two sons. And uh with the husband gone and the two sons gone, in that culture, uh, when the men were gone, the women had no choice but to return to family and live a very poor, uh forgotten life. And uh that's what they did. They they went back to Bethlehem and Naomi being uh a mother-in-law that realized that in her tradition and her religion, the two daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah, would have no future. There's no way that Ruth, there's no way that Naomi could have a son, that son grow up, and then desire to marry and take Ruth or Orpah. Um, and Naomi just looked at their lives and said, Hey, look, I'm cursed. And if you stay with me, you're gonna be cursed too. Uh, even to the point where Naomi said, Don't even call me Naomi anymore. Just call me uh bitter, uh uh, what was the um what is it? Mara, yeah, Mara. It's like it's the don't even call me by my real name because my life is just so miserable. And uh Orpah said, Okay, I'm gonna go back to my people. And Ruth, Ruth is the one who said, No, I'm I am not gonna go. And that's where we hear this this great line, where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. I was reminded this week of the beauty of the King James version of this. I think we have it up on the screen. Um just listen to the to the uh poetry of this. It's it's wonderfully romantic. And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. And where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught, but death part thee and me. Isn't that beautiful? Leave that up just for a minute. Um now I'm I'm more of an artsy guy. I'm a I'm a musician, I I I like drama, I uh drama movies, I don't like drama in life, but uh, but uh I like I like romantic movies. I mean, I'm I'm a I'm a feeler, okay? So so I I love this. I I think this is just super, super. I mean, if if I could propose to my wife all over, I would try to use some of those words like, you know, will you goist with me? Will you lodgist with me? When you once we get married, would you lieth with me? Um, but I know some of you guys look at that and you're like, I don't I I don't even know that looks like and they're the engineer minds. They're the guys who'd say, hey, wanna get married? You know. But this, I I just I love, I love the poetry that King James uh keeps uh into into that. Of course, this is Ruth talking to her mother-in-law, but nonetheless, Ruth is choosing. No, I'm not gonna go back because that may make sense to you, Naomi, but I made a covenant with you. I made a covenant to your God. I made a covenant to your son. And although that looks more comfortable for me to go back and be with my people and maybe get remarried and have a life, I made a covenant. And the covenant is more important than my comfort. She goes on to really say, I am going to choose your faith. Um your God will be my God. I'm not gonna go back and have other gods. I have found something, I have found something in your faith that I want in my life. And although that back there might be familiar to me, I'm not going back. I'm not gonna do that. Ruth goes all in. Even when it is uncomfortable. When Naomi and Ruth return to Bethlehem, again, we talked about this two weeks ago, but Ruth doesn't wait around. She doesn't wait around and asks what she should do. Without being prompted, Ruth goes to work. Ruth goes right to work in the fields to glean. And what that means is once the harvesters come through, it was it was in the book of Leviticus. For those of you who are reading through the Bible, uh, you'll be remember that uh God gave the laws to the Levites, and the Levites said, When you're gleaning the fields, make sure you leave left over for poor people. It shows God's heart. God genuinely cares about all people, and and his way of taking care of people who don't have as much is make sure you harvesters leave plenty of grain and barley on the ground. And that's what Ruth does. She goes and she gets to work gleaning in the field, picking up what's been left over for the poor people. And um, we talked about this line too, chapter two, uh, verse three. And as it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz. As it turned out, not by accident, but by providence, she ends up in the field of Boaz. A relative of Naomi. We were walking in the park with uh Cody and Kayla's family yesterday, and um I was pushing my youngest granddaughter Kellen into stroller, and uh, she was asleep, and I was watching the kids, two of the kids riding their bikes, and Lisa was talking to Kayla, and uh uh Cody, Cody was with me talking, and it made me think back to um the day that Chad and Carolina and little Cody came into this church. And and Chad took Cody back to Lisa's office to introduce him to her because he wanted her to, he wanted him to come to youth group. And Cody uh kind of walked out of here like Lincoln walked out today. If some of you saw, if you saw my Lincoln going out, he he'd he was he was upset about something. And um and Cody was like, hello, you know, and and I thought, and as it turned out, what a day. What a day. I'm pushing this little kid in the stroller and I think back to that moment. And all of you have people things in your life like that, that it's like, oh, as it turned out, because of that one thing, I met this person or I made this decision. It's just God is God has this uh providence over life, and Ruth, as it turns out, ends up in the field of Boaz. And Boaz, he notices her. He says to one of his workers, Who's that?

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Who's that?

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Because he's heard of her faithfulness, he's heard of her loyalty, he's he he had heard of how she had been so uh gracious and kind to Naomi, and Naomi was a relative of hers. He he realized that she was already this woman of sacrifice. And then I love it in the story where Boaz begins to provide for Ruth. He says to his workers, hey, where she is, leave a little bit extra. Leave a little bit extra. You see, what what looks like a coincidence is actually this divine orchestration of life. I want you to catch that. When you're walking with God and you're living a life of obedience, there is a divine orchestration, and and we will never be able to figure it out. This next part of the story just it just gets me. One evening, Naomi, I I just pictured them sitting around uh watching TV or something, and and one evening Naomi talks to Ruth, and Ruth says, I don't know, I think Boaz may like me. And Naomi says, Oh, well, if that's the case, you know, he's a kinsman redeemer. That means he's part of our family. And he could, he could redeem us. He could redeem us. He could, we could be like come become a part of his household. If if he if he likes you, Ruth, we and so Naomi works out this plan, like a mother-in-law, and she says, Ruth, I'm gonna tell you what to do. I want you to go get ready, and I want you to, I want you to wash yourself, and I want you to put on some perfume, and I want you to I want you to dress yourself, put on a nice dress, and then I want you to go to Boaz, and I want you to uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what to do. I was talking about this scripture with a a group of pastors this week down in East St. Louis, and uh, and and and they you know that there were several women pastors in the group, and uh um I I made a joke and I said, This is what this is Lisa sleeps at the feet of my bed. And and you know, if she and she says, honey, what would you like me to do? And she just sleeps at the feet of my bed. And these women were just like, sounds strange to us, but this is very, it's deeply, deeply symbolic. Because Ruth is approaching her redeemer. And Boaz, he wakes up and he's startled and it's dark, and so he says, Who who is that? And Ruth says, It's it's it's me. Ruth, you are a kinsman redeemer, and I am placing yourself under your covering. Now, for any women who out there who think, I'm not doing that, hang on. Boaz responds with so much integrity. Boaz says, but Ruth, there's a there's another kinsman redeemer that's closer than I am. And and if anybody is going to be your kinsman redeemer, it really needs to be him. But I'll go, I'll go and I'll ask him if he's interested. And if he's not interested, then I will, and he even says, I will let you know soon. Naomi says, Oh, you'll hear from him before the end of the day. And that's what you see. You see, Boaz goes to this other guy and he says, Hey, I I've been approached. I would, I would like to take Ruth and her and Naomi and her family, but if I'm to do that, I can only do that if you if you allow me to do that. And uh, because that was the law. That was the law that was laid out in Leviticus, by the way. And so so the other guy says, Well, I'm married and I have kids, and if I buy Ruth and Naomi, then that's gonna cut into what my kids will get, and my wife. This is I this is what I think he says. My wife ain't gonna let me take on a young woman. I think that's what really happened. That's not even King James, man. That's Eric, right? That's the cotton patch version or something like that. It's like, that is just not gonna happen. But anyway, they uh and so he uh Boaz says, well, we have to shake on this, and so they they take off one of the sandals, and that that's part of that tradition of instead of shaking hands, they they they give a sandal uh to them, and Boaz uh uh uh takes on takes on Ruth. Naomi. A couple of things that I want you to notice. Ruth isn't manipulating the situation. She's not manipulating, she's doing what Naomi told her to do, and she's doing it, she's doing it out of obedience to the law laid out in Leviticus. She doesn't force the outcome either. And she positions herself to just trust. Now, friends, that's I I I want you to see something here because this is the great symbolism of this book of Ruth. This is how we come to our Redeemer. We wash ourselves, we come in repentance, we come cleansed, made new, fresh. When I was growing up, it was custom during that time that on Saturday nights, on Saturday nights, everybody took a bath and got ready and laid our clothes out for church for Sunday morning. How many of you grew up in a home like that? You just, yeah, good, good. That's good, that's good. I I did. I all of our clothes, we did not never ever did we decide on a Sunday morning were we going to church that day? No way. It was Saturday night, clothes were laid out, clothes were ironed. Uh we all had to, we all had to take a bath. I assume we bathed on other nights, but I don't remember that. I just am assuming that happened. Uh but I remember Saturday night, and Saturday night we went to bed early because we got up, we had breakfast, and we went to church. It was it was a it was a very formal thing in at least in the church that I grew up with, because uh other kids that grew up in that church, they did that they would say the same thing if they were telling you, uh talking today. But uh that's a physical thing, but there's a spiritual preparation that that when we come to our Redeemer, we come with with a cleansed heart, a new heart. We approach God um as uh uh in a in a repentant, not not in a demanding kind of way. And then Ruth, she anoints herself with perfume. Um Julie, as she started the service off today, talked about uh how we come in worship. And and now oftentimes I'll say something like uh, may our may the aroma of our worship be pleasing to you, Father. See, that's we come, uh the aroma that we bring to Christ as cleansed people, it's it's an aroma of praise. It's it's an aroma of, God, may you, may you experience our worship in a way that that we would experience a sweet aroma that's rising to you. And then she lays at his feet. We come surrendered. We come surrendered, resting, trusting, no striving, not trying to control God, but just total trust that our Redeemer is in control. We don't earn the redemption. We don't come and we we try to, you know, try to, and I I hate this phrase, I don't see it as often, and I think I've told you this before. I'm going to church to get my Jesus on. I just we do not approach God Almighty and say, gotta get my Jesus on. No, we we come and we we we we are trusting totally in the providence and the protection and the care and the provision of God. And our worship is this sweet aroma out of the purity of our heart, out of the out of the desire to be pleasing to Him. And then the Redeemer steps in. Notice that too. Boaz, Boaz doesn't act first, Ruth acts first. Well, I guess Boaz does act first in the sense of him providing and and uh uh giving Ruth respect. But but it's Ruth that moves in towards the Redeemer. And Boaz he covers Ruth. It's a beautiful scene. He covers Ruth, he provides for her, and he restores her future. This this outside, outsider, this widow, this Moabite, this woman that grew up in a home that had many gods and idolatry and nothing godly about her, comes out of this this Moabite culture into being an Israelite and Ruth, this miracle of miracles, he, the Redeemer restores Ruth's future. This woman who had no future. And God says, because of the Redeemer, now you have a future. Even to the point where she becomes part of the lineage of King David and ultimately Jesus Christ. That's grace. That's grace. God takes what looks like a loss and writes redemption. That's what God does for us as our redeemer. He steps in and he redeems us. He covers us with grace and mercy and forgiveness. He provides for us. He restores our future. What a story. So, what can we take from this story? Um, the first thing I take away from it is your devotion matters greatly. Choosing God, even when it costs you something, is always worth it. Ruth's choice to follow Naomi, it cost her something. It cost her to trust in Naomi. It it caused her to shift her trust in what was familiar to her to Naomi. Devotion matters. Your devotion matters. Your devotion matters to God, your devotion matters to your family, your devotion matters to this church. Devotion matters. Devotion matters. Secondly, I think loyalty reflects the heart of God. Loyalty reflects the heart of God. People that are faithful in hard seasons of life mirror the character of God. Some of you may be going through a really difficult experience in life. You would call it a hard season. And your faithfulness and your loyalty reflects the the character of God during those times. Um I have I just had gone through a uh a pretty tough season with uh with a certain situation um with Illinois Ministries. And uh The I I had gone to the post office because I was waiting for uh a sizable check to come, and it had not gone, and it Lisa and I were were uh um sacrificing pretty heavily, and it was like, when's this gonna happen? When's this gonna happen? This check was supposed to come, and uh I'm box number 13 at Postnet, and I have to bend over. It's the worst part about my job. I have to bend over to get into box number 13, and and in the background, they were playing the song The Battle Belongs to the Lord. And I opened the mailbox and there was the check. And and I was I was like, literally, I was like, wow, thank you, thank you. And then I heard the song, The Battle Belongs to the Lord. And I was like, wow. Take a deep breath. I didn't give up. Um, I trusted in God. And and it happened. And there, and and there were times, I mean, there were times that I said, God, you're scaring me to death, but the loyalty matters. Devotion matters. You you you stay you stay with it. You don't walk away when it gets tough. Um third thing that I think this story teaches us is the initiative. Our initiative activates faith. Our initiative activates faith. Step into where God has you right now. Step into it. He knows exactly where you are, so step into what he has put in front of you. If he wants it to change, let him change it. But step into where he has you. And then finally, obedience always leads to blessing. I have never been disappointed that I've obeyed the Lord. Never. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone that is walking with the Lord today that says, Boy, I sure wish I would have been more disobedient to the Lord. Obedience leads to blessing. Even when nobody else sees it, even when nobody else sees it, I want you to know that your obedience matters to God. Some of the details in this story, I think, add uh value to it. Um, I've mentioned a little bit of it, but so much of what we see in the story of Ruth, the the laws, the idea of the kinsman redeemer, the idea of laying at someone's feet, the customs, um, it all of those things come out of the story of Leviticus. I don't I don't want you to miss this. Because when I was reading through Leviticus, I I was thinking, this is really boring. I don't know if anybody else, when you were reading Leviticus, if you kind of thought, this is so boring. But it hit me this week that God was writing some of this stuff in Leviticus because he knew Ruth would need these laws someday. When those laws were given in Leviticus, and we were reading them, and we thought, this is so crazy, this is strange, and what are they doing that with the blood for? Because God already knew someday, someday, Ruth is going to need a redeemer. And I want you to hear this clearly today, friends. God is working in ways that we will never understand. God is working in ways that I don't understand. There are things happening in your life right now that may not make sense, but friends, trust me on this. They are not wasted. You may not see it, but your faithfulness is positioning something. It just might be that you are standing in the field of your boaz. Ruth didn't know how her story would end, but she trusted the God who was writing it. And I want you to know, no matter what you are facing, no matter what you are looking at in life, you can trust in God. He'll be faithful to you. He will not let you down. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are always working. Even when we cannot see it, even when we don't understand it. Thank you for being our redeemer. Thank you that we don't have to come into this place and sing on key or sing loud enough or stand or to earn your love. But we can simply come and just kneel at your feet. Teach us to come to you like Ruth did to Boaz, with clean hands, with a pure heart. God, I thank you for the way that in this past year our worship in this place has just been a pleasing aroma to you. What a powerful time. It's one of my favorite parts of the entire week. It's just to come and listen to people praise you. But it's not even about the songs that we sing, it's it's about the posture in which we come. It's a pleasing aroma to me. And now we've come with pure hearts. We've raised worship as a pleasing aroma. And now we posture ourselves at your feet in total surrender. Lord, I pray for those who are walking through uncertain times. Remind them that you are in every detail. You are in the fields where it feels like we have nothing. You are in the waiting when we're in between seasons. You are in the total process. Even while we sleep, you are working it out. Strengthen our devotion to you, God. Deepen our faithfulness. Give us a determination, a boldness to take a step of obedience and follow you, and help us, God, above all, to trust in you. We believe that you are writing our story greater than we can see. A story of redemption, a story of restoration, a story of grace. We rest in you today, our true kinsman redeemer. In Jesus' name we pray.

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