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Home , Book of Ruth, The Story of Ruth

THE STORY OF – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series

Good morning, Life Fellowship. Now I don’t know what your emotional stance is this morning as you come to church, but if I were a betting man there are probably some of you here that are really struggling. And you could use some good old fashioned hope today. In fact maybe your circumstances are such that you have found that even living seems hopeless. Maybe you feel depressed, you have inner angst, you have confusion, your emotions feel flayed, and your circumstances are very disturbing and troublesome.

Well, it is my hope that our journey through the today will help restore that lost hope to a place of hopefulness again. I want to encourage you to turn to the book of Ruth, as we are going through this series called, ‘Six Men & Six Women,’ where we have been looking at these different biographical sketches of characters. And today this is a great story. It could have easily been called the book of as well as the book of Ruth. The reason is this is a story about how God uses two people, namely Ruth and , to restore the hope that Naomi once had.

Naomi has lost her husband. She has lost her two sons. And she is absolutely shattered. And Ruth and Boaz were these characters that you are going to meet today that come alongside to help Naomi restore her hope. This is one of those books you go to when you are looking to find hope, when you are looking to find a way out of depression, when you are looking to find how you can trust God. This is one of the books that you can go to find that kind of strength.

The book of Ruth is the eighth book in the Bible. You have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy that make up the , the Law, or the Pentateuch. Then you have Joshua, Judges and next is the book of Ruth. It is the eighth book in. We are not really sure who the author of this book was. Some have said that it was , but there is no internal or external evidence to help us to understand that.

What do I mean by internal or external evidence? Well, when you read Paul’s letters, he will identify his authorship in the book itself. That is the internal evidence. So within the book of Ruth, no one identifies themselves as the author in the internal evidence. Then the external evidence – if we were to look at the archology or external writings, we don’t really have anything that would show a clear strong case for who the author was.

We do know that this was written in the time period of the judges. This was the setting that takes place. Basically Chapter 1 of the book of Ruth is the setting. It is a four chapter book. And what I am going to do is give you a layout of this book. We are going to go through and look at the different scenes, and it is a massive task. I have taught through the entire book of Ruth in several messages, and today I am going to try to give you the life of Ruth in one message. So we won’t be able to drop in and read all the

Page 1 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series verses; I am just going to tell you the story. Then I am going to point out some verses. And then at the end we are going to draw out some practical insights from Ruth herself. We are going to imagine if Ruth were to come into this room today and talk to us, what it would be that she would want to say to us. That is where we are going.

So the setting then would be Chapter 1. And we will look at the first few verses to just kind of get a feel of the layout. Beginning in verse 1 it says, “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land.” So let me kick it off by saying sometimes things go bad. They just do. So this is in the time when the judges ruled and you will remember the , the book that precedes Ruth, that it says over and over again, “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

This was a culture that wasn’t concerned with living for God. They were living individualistic lives. They were living for themselves. They just did what was right in their own eyes. And this is the culture that Naomi is living in at this stage. We are going to start off with Naomi and there is a famine in the land. What land? It was the land of . And the name Bethlehem means ‘house of bread.’ So think about it. The house of bread, Bethlehem, had no bread. There was a famine in the house of bread or in Bethlehem.

“In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in went to sojourn in the country of , he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were . They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.”

So how do we know that things were bad? First of all the Moabites oppressed the Jews. They oppressed those in Bethlehem. They were like a nemesis to them. So you know things are bad when you leave your own country and you go to the land of your nemesis. They have been pushed out and their pain has made them to go away and leave their circumstances. And isn’t that what we do when life gets difficult? When pain gets hard? We want a new set of circumstances. So we want to change our setting. We look to get out of there and out of those circumstances when things go bad.

So Elimelech decides to go to Moab, and he takes his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. If you are looking for a cool name try one of those on for size. They make their way over to Moab because things are tough. But after they show up in Moab what happens? Sometimes things go bad and sometimes things go from bad to worse. And that is what happened here.

In verse 3 it says, “But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left her two sons.” Now I know for sure that this was written by a guy; I don’t know which guy it was written by, but I know it was written by a guy because there are no details on

Page 2 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series how Elimelech died. “But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,” that is a guy statement. We get no details. We don’t learn that he died of a kidney transplant or from an aneurysm. We don’t learn anything but that he died. So spoken like a true guy.

I can remember years ago when a good buddy of mine was in a car accident. And a guy from the church calls to let me know, and I wasn’t home so the guy decides to leave a message on my answering machine. I pushed ‘play,’ and I heard, ‘Hey Bobby, Thomas Meadows was killed in a car accident.’ Seriously, that was how he wanted to break the news with no padding like, ‘Hey bro, sit down because I have some tough news for you.’ But guys just aren’t detail people in a relational way. My wife would always like to hear more details from me. She can talk to me about theology or history or philosophy or Bible, and I will give her details, too many details. But the relational details don’t come as easy for us as guys sometimes.

I can visit the hospital and when I come home my wife will be ready with a of questions. She wants details. And I will just say, ‘Well, the baby is healthy, honey.’ And she will ask if it was a boy or girl. And I will be like, ‘Uhh, I think it was a boy.’ And if she goes to the hospital she will come home with details like, ‘Oh, she had the sweetest little fingers and toes. And she has a lot of blond fuzz all over her head.’ She will have all the details down. But guys don’t get those details as much; we are more data information crunchers.

But here Naomi’s husband dies of something and things go from bad to worse. She had followed her husband from Bethlehem to Moab and then he dies. Now she is still in Moab and she is left with her two sons. And then sometimes things go bad, and sometimes things go from bad to worse, and then sometimes things go from worse to impossible. Let’s see what happened next.

In verse 4 it says, “These took Moabite wives, the name of the one was and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.” Now Ruth is going to be a great asset in Naomi’s life. And Boaz is going to be a great asset in both Ruth and Naomi’s lives. But here we see that Naomi knows pain because she has lost not only her husband but both of her sons. And what does a woman need? She needs security and protection.

Naomi has left her homeland, she left all her other relatives and friends, and she had to go to Moab which was a land of her enemies. Then her husband dies and she grieves that. Her sons marry two Moabite women and then they die. Naomi has lived in Moab for ten years as a vagabond. And now she has no husband, she has no sons; she has lost it all. She lost her homeland, she lost her husband, and she lost her sons, all the

Page 3 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series things that would mean so much to a woman. Her dreams of a happy family have been shattered. Can you feel it? It is upsetting. It is tragic. It is difficult.

And as we stand in her shoes, here is what I will say. As a pastor who has been in ministry now for about 20 years, I can see a pattern when people get hurt, especially when they are frustrated at God. They push away those whom they need the most. And that is what Naomi would try to do with Ruth and Orpah. She would try and push them away.

So here is Naomi who has lost her husband and her sons and is no longer living in her homeland. She is grieving but then she hears that there is bread again in Bethlehem. The house of bread has bread again. So what does she do? She prepares to leave Moab and make her way back to Bethlehem, back to her homeland. And before she leaves, she tells Orpah and Ruth, her daughter in laws, to say in Moab. She tells them that even if they came with her and if she were to find another husband and have more sons, the daughter in laws would be too old by the time those sons grew old enough to marry. So she tells them to just stay behind in Moab with their own people.

And Ruth, in this amazing declaration, in Chapter 1 and verse 16, says this: “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” And she continues to follow Naomi. Orpah stays behind thinking Naomi had given her some pretty good advice. And we shouldn’t fault Orpah for not going along because Naomi had given her good advice. What would you do? Would you leave your homeland and go with a mother in law to a strange land? Ruth was leaving the place of her god, the place of her family, and she was leaving her comfort zone. But she was willing to do all of that to be with Naomi. She was a tremendous woman and we get a lot from her. But we still can’t fault Orpah for staying in her own homeland.

Next what happens is Naomi and Ruth make their way back to Bethlehem. And people see Naomi entering and they say, “Is this Naomi?” And Naomi says this: “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.” Now let me draw out a couple of cool insights here. “Do not call me Naomi.” The name Naomi means ‘pleasant.’ She doesn’t want to be called the pleasant one, she wants them to call her Mara, which means ‘bitter.’ In other words, she is telling them that she went away as a pleasant woman because she had what mattered most to her. Even though Bethlehem was in a famine, she still had her husband and her two sons. But now she did not want to be called pleasant. She did not think her name corresponded to who she now was. She was bitter and she wanted to be called Mara.

And you can imagine them seeing Naomi and Ruth entering into the city and thinking how distressed Naomi was. They wonder what has happened to her. And

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Naomi tells them that she is bitter. They don’t understand yet that she has lost her husband and her sons. And Naomi has to tell them they all died. She has to tell them the story of all that happened to them in Moab. She has to open us the wounds and tell them and she is hurting. And when we hurt what happens? We often push away those we need the most. She had tried to persuade both Orpah and Ruth to stay in Moab, but thankfully Ruth would not leave her.

Not only that, but when life feels impossible we can get bitter. Naomi doesn’t want the name meaning pleasant anymore; she wants to be called Mara which means bitter. And that is what can happen when our lives hurt, when our lives struggle, we can grow bitter. And we can also get angry at God. And that is exactly what happens to Naomi in verses 20 and 21. She tells the crowd that sees her entering into Bethlehem, “I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.” She doesn’t mean that she went away with a full stomach, but that she went away with her family, and then came back without them.

“And the Lord has brought me back empty.” So she is blaming God. “Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” Naomi has tried to push away those she needs the most. She is bitter and she is angry at God. And here is what I will say. One way to end up disillusioned with life is when we have the wrong idea of God. When we have a tweak theology, it can create disillusionment.

Larry Crabb in his book ‘Shattered Dreams,’ that goes basically through the book of Ruth, says this: “Some dreams important to us will shatter, and the realization that God could have fulfilled those dreams pushes us into a terrible battle with Him.” We can start wondering if God is an all-powerful God then where is He? Or we can wonder why if God is a good God we don’t fit His compassion. And this was Naomi’s case. Blown expectations without a proper theology leads to disillusionment. I think that is worth repeating: Blown expectations without a proper theology leads to disillusionment.

Just think if God fixed every little thing, would there really be freedom of will to begin with? We live in a place where there is freedom of will, and we don’t really want what God wants. We want what we want. We want to go our own way. We don’t want to hear what God has to say. We want to do what feels good to us. And that is kind of how we live our lives. And that is what we see in Ruth Chapter 1. It gives us the setting.

Now Chapter 2 is all about providence. Because just as Naomi in Chapter 1 was a foreigner in Moab, now what you see is Ruth being a foreigner in Bethlehem. And this is a chapter where God is providentially at work in these amazing ways. Ruth has decided to follow Naomi to Bethlehem and now she makes the decision to go out and work. She

Page 5 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series decides to go out into the fields and look for a place where she can glean some barley from the harvest.

Now it was standard in those days that God’s people, the , and in particular those who had means, would leave some of their harvest along the edges of the fields for the poor to go and glean. And what is really cool about that is that was a system in place whereby God assured that the poor would be taken care of. And notice what happens. The poor were taken care of because those who had means would leave some along the edges for them to glean, but the poor still had to work to get it. They still had to go out and glean. So it was a plan put in place that protected people from just falling into absolute passivity and being irresponsible by not working, yet it recognized that people can fall on hard times. People can go through difficult circumstances.

So Ruth goes out to the fields and she looks for a place where hopefully she can glean. And this took incredible faith on her part because first of all she is from Moab, and the Moabites had oppressed the Israelites, so they were hated. But she is hard working and she wants to take care of her mother in law. She has demonstrated faith, she is loyal and she is a very virtuous lady. And providence is at work in a big time way as she goes out in the fields.

But before I pull that out let me just say this. Ruth does not allow her pain or her fears to paralyze her. First, she didn’t allow her pain to paralyze her as she also has lost her husband. And second she didn’t allow her fears to paralyze her, the fear of leaving Moab to go with Naomi back to a strange land. And thirdly she didn’t allow her fear of going out in the fields to look for grain to glean to paralyze her. She could have been sexually abused, physically abused, rejected or treated badly by the other local men and women. But she did not allow those fears to get her to a place of being paralyzed.

And when pain comes our way, it can paralyze us. I can feel that. You just want to sleep. You just want to escape. You don’t want to think about it. Have you ever been in so much pain that it is hard to even roll out of bed? You just want to isolate? And you want to push away those you need the most? You just want to sleep and hope that when you wake up it will all have just been a dream. That is what pain can do. It can paralyze. But the way forward is to not be paralyzed. It is to get up and move.

And that is what Ruth modelled. She goes out. And we see in Chapter 2 that she just happens to end up in the right field. She goes out to do some gleaning and it says in verse 3, “She happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.” You can underline the phrase ‘she happened to come.’ In the Hebrew it reads like this, ‘And her chance chanced.’ Isn’t that cool? ‘And her chance chanced.’ God was providentially working behind the scenes and of all the fields she could have ended up, she ends up in the field of this guy named Boaz.

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And Boaz was a kinsman redeemer, and we will talk more about that in a little bit. Boaz was someone who was a person of means who could provide; and awesomely God has gone before Ruth in faithfulness. What ends up happening when God is at work in our lives, when we are guided by providence, is we can trust that God will open up key relational opportunities for us. And that is what happened in this story. God opens up a key relational opportunity when they were walking in His will. We get to see Him at work. We get to have a sense that He is doing amazing things. And here the right people take notice of Ruth. Verse 5, “Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this?” And the young man answered Boaz by telling him about Ruth who had come back with Naomi from Moab. So Boaz began to hear what an incredible woman Ruth was. Not only that but if the right people take notice of you, then the right people take action for you. We see that in verses 8 and 9 where Boaz tells his servants to let Ruth glean. So Ruth found favor in powerful ways with Boaz. And as the story unfolds we will see this.

And the right people can also show favor to you. It is an amazing thing when we are being guided by providence. People take notice of you, they take action for you, and they show you favor. I think about my life and where it is today because of a mentor in my life named Robert Lewis. And how strategic it was, providentially, as many things went down for me to get to know him, for us to have a relationship, and for him to open up the doors in my life that he did. Robert Lewis was the directional leader of our mother church. Some of you have studied his Men’s Fraternity Curriculum, or have been through his books, ‘Rocking the Rolls’ or ‘Raising a Modern Day Knight.’

Robert Lewis was critical in my life. He met with my wife and I when we came to church. He showed favor to us and gave us some time. He would encourage us in some strategic steps that we followed. He opened up the doors for me to have an internship at the church. Then he encouraged me to go to Dallas Seminary. He opened the doors for me to come back to Fellowship Church to be a part of a one year church planting residency. He helped us start Life Fellowship. He knew Dennis Rainey and the speaking team at Family Life, and it was because of Robert Lewis that I was brought on the speaking team for nine years. In all of those things, seminary, this church plant and Family Life, God used Robert to show favor to me. And it absolutely set my life up. When I see Robert I tell him that. I say, ‘Robert, God absolutely used you to position my life in so many ways.’

And some of you know that there are some people in your life that have shown you favor, that gave you an opportunity, and who believed in you. And as a result you are who you are. You were given the opportunities that you have been given because of them. Have you ever sensed that you were in the right place at the right time? Where you felt God was with you? It is a powerful thing. I have sensed this on several

Page 7 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series different occasions, usually at very strategic times in my life, and usually at moments when I am expressing myself in desperate prayer. A lot of times we don’t get to see the hand of God’s providence because we are not desperately seeking Him. And sometimes when we are desperate and we are seeking Him and we think He has abandoned us, at just the right time He comes through.

I can remember when I was living in Southern California as a new believer and some of you have heard this story over and over again, but it does my heart good to remember God’s work in my life. So I am sharing this for selfish reasons; please bear with me. Here I was praying that God would show me if I was supposed to go to Bible College in Conway, Arkansas. I had sensed a tug on my heart for ministry, and I was crying out to God as I was driving along in my pickup truck about three hours before a conference that I was going to go to at Saddleback Church. I was praying, ‘God show me if I am supposed to move from California to Conway, Arkansas to go to Bible College.’ I can still see myself in that truck crying and praying to God with passion and fervour.

So I go to the conference with Heather, who is living in California at this time. She had grown up in Arkansas, but she was in California at this time. There were at least 2,000 people at this conference, most of them pastors, from all over the world that had flown in to hear Rick Warren do his ‘Purpose Driven Church Conference.’ And the worship pastor told everyone to shake hands with the person next to them. So I shook hands with the person on my left and Heather shook hands with the man on her right. And the man happened to pick up on Heather’s accent, and he asked her where she was from. Heather said she was from Arkansas, and the man said that he used to live in Arkansas. He said, ‘I am sure you have never heard of this town, but it was a little town called Conway, Arkansas. And I went to a little Bible College called Central Baptist College.’

And Heather could hardly speak. She said to me, ‘You are not going to believe this. This guy standing next to me is Kirk, and he has a badge on that says he is from Texas, but he told me that he used to live in Conway, Arkansas, and it was because he recognized my accent. And he told me that he went to Central Baptist College when they had only about 50 students.’ And here I am on the west coast in California praying that God would show me if I was supposed to go to Central Baptist College in Conway, Arkansas or not!

I thought it was just unbelievable. And I have had these things happen in my life that relates to how I was prayerfully asking God to show me His will for my life. I asked His will in marrying Heather, in moving to Charlotte to plant a church, and even on whether I should work on a second doctorate. I have sensed God in these different strategic moments. And there have been these different things that have happened when I was seeking His heart. Your chance doesn’t seem to chance if you don’t seek His

Page 8 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series heart, because you can become blinded, you may not notice it, or you may be pushing those you care about away, or you might even become angry at God. But if you want to see your chance-chance, pursue Him, seek Him and go after His heart. It is very cool when it happens.

Now back to Ruth. In Chapter 3 we find the threshing floor story. All of this providence happens, and we know what is going on so far. Ruth is in Bethlehem, she has gone out to glean, and she has found favor with Boaz. Now she goes back and tells Naomi what happened, and Naomi starts to find her hope again. She starts to have her hope restored. And when you sense God’s providence at work, it will help your hope return. When you see that God’s hand is in your life, even if your situation is desperate, it can give you the hope to keep on hoping. Many times we lose our hope because we lose our connection with God. We start our false theology and we get angry. We want what we really want. We are not willing to do the hard thing.

So now Naomi tells Ruth that Boaz is a kinsman redeemer. A kinsman redeemer is this – in the event that a lady loses her husband, the closest kin to her husband can marry the widow, and therefore take care of her with the hope of providing offspring so that the husband’s legacy can live on. Boaz happened to be a kinsman redeemer so he was properly positioned whereby he could redeem Ruth and in doing so take care of her and of Naomi.

Naomi tells Ruth about Boaz and she tells Ruth to go out to the threshing floor that night. She tells her that after Boaz finishes his supper he will lie down on the threshing floor to rest. The threshing floor is the place where all the grain is brought together and it is thrown up in the air to separate the grain from the chaff. And what the owner would do is he would sleep on the threshing floor at night to prevent robbers from coming in to steal the grain.

So Boaz was going to go to the threshing floor to guard the grain. And Naomi tells Ruth that when Boaz lies down, she is to go there, uncover his feet, and then lie down at his feet. And when Boaz wakes up Ruth is basically to propose to him. Now this is crazy, right? But she is to tell him that he could be her kinsman redeemer. And you can imagine how Ruth felt preparing to do this, and the courage it would take for her to carry out this plan. But she does go up, she uncovers Boaz’s feet, and then she lies down.

And in verse 9 it says, “He says, ‘Who is this?’ And Ruth answers, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And Boaz is probably having a hard time believing that Ruth would come to him like that. He had already heard about how great her character was, but he was probably surprised that she would be interested in an old man like him. He was probably just blown away. He

Page 9 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series knows that Ruth loves Naomi, and now he understands that she desires him to be her kinsman redeemer. And he is willing to be that.

Ruth uncovering Boaz’s feet was an act of submission. And she asks him to spread his wings over her. In other words, she wants him to be her security, her protector and her provider. Boaz agrees with all of this, but he has to do something first. In Chapter 4 we see that Boaz must first go to someone else who is closer kin than he is. He must first ask the closest kin if he wants to redeem Ruth. So he goes out in the early morning and he sits down with several witnesses to wait for the man to come by. Naomi and Ruth are probably at home anxiously waiting to see what is going to happen.

Boaz talks to the nearest kin and he tells him that Naomi’s husband has died and asks him if he wants to purchase Elimelech’s land as he is the nearest kinsmen. The man says he will purchase it. Then Boaz tells him that if he does take the land that he must also take Naomi and Ruth as well. And in verse 6 we see that the man says, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.” And the custom of that time to confirm a transaction was to take off your sandal and give it to the other party. So the man took off his sandal and handed it to Boaz. And the people there were the witnesses of this transaction.

Now try that tomorrow at the Honda dealership when you buy a car. The salesman will come out for the 15th time to try to sell you a car, and you can take off your sandal off and say, ‘You’ve got a deal.’ That would really be odd, right? But that was the custom of that day. The deal was made. And then all the witnesses give Boaz a great blessing as he goes to marry Ruth. You can imagine how happy both Ruth and Naomi were to have this happen. And what ends up happening after that is Ruth bears a child and that child would become the grandfather of King . And then through David would come the ultimate Messiah, the ultimate kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ.

See we step back and we think about how Naomi had become Mara, bitter, and now how her bitterness has been restored. And I want to say this – no matter what you have been through in your life, no matter where you are right now, no matter what the context, focus on being faithful to God and He can pull you through.

Now what might Ruth want to say to us as we tie this message together. We have done an overview of walking through the book of Ruth in one message. First of all I think Ruth would want to say this - ‘Make the most of your family relationships as tomorrow is not a guarantee.’ Ruth would have known that very well. She would have known the pain that Naomi went through when she lost her husband Elimelech. Ruth would have known the pain that she and Orpah had gone through when they lost their own husbands.

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And we need to realize that we need to make the most of our relationships. We need to really maximize them and make the most of them. In marriage there are going to be tough times, and in parenting there are going to be tough times. That is just life. There will be tough times in work. There will be tough times in school. There will be just times that are tough. It is a fact of life. But we need to persevere and we need to do the right things because that is what integrity does. We need to become people of valor. And we need to stay committed, we need to work and we need to grow. Make the most of your relationships.

There was a tragedy that happened on April 1st in downtown Davidson when a lady who walked dogs was hit by a truck. We should pray for her family and her loved ones as they have lost a mom, a daughter, a sister and a friend. It was a sad story and it shows how life can change very quickly.

I also think Ruth would want to say this to us – ‘Refuse to draw negative conclusions about God in the midst of despair by remembering your story is not yet complete.’ See when we read the book of Ruth we have a vantage point that Naomi didn’t have. We can read Chapter 4. Naomi is stuck there in Chapter 1. And then in Chapter 2 we see that hope is beginning to return, but she wants to be called Mara, bitter. And can you just sense that God feels badly for her because He sees her hurting, but He is still at work in her life, and He knows she will find hope again.

And you know what we often do when we struggle and are in pain, we often want to frame up our lives, and then we want to come to a conclusion about God. We can become bitter. We can become frustrated. But we need to learn not to dwell on negative conclusions about God in the midst of despair. We need to remember our story is not yet complete. We can read how the story of Naomi and Ruth comes together in spite of all their pain, but we can’t see the rest of our own stories.

In Larry Crabb’s book of ‘Shattered Dreams,’ he talks about this whole idea of suffering. He says, “There is a place in our life when the apex of spiritual maturity is when you look out and all of your circumstances are dire. And you can find nothing in your circumstances to rejoice about, and how do you find your joy?’

There is a place where life can get so hard, like if your spouse is gone, or if your kids are gone, or if your is gone. Life can be so impossible that the only way we can find joy is through the apex of spiritual maturity, which is in knowing that our reaction to our abysmal circumstances brings pleasure to God. You know your life is in a tough spot when you are finding joy in knowing you are responding in a way that would please God. And guess who shines more than anyone? It is that person who is able to find a way to be Naomi when they are tempted to be Mara.

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Next I think Ruth would want to say this – ‘When life feels hopeless remember that a providential God is working behind the scenes.’ Encourage yourself with stories like Ruth. Encourage yourself with stories like Joseph, who was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. And it just so happens that God turned that for the good and would raise him up as the prince of Egypt.

See, we can’t control our circumstances, folks, because we can’t control other people. Other people will wound us. Other people will hurt us. Other people will break their promises to us. All we can do is dance to our own tune, and play our own instruments. We can guarantee in our daily lives that we are going to be faithful to Him, but we can’t guarantee that others won’t let us down, that others won’t betray us, that others won’t hurt us. And we have to find our joy in knowing that no matter how bad life gets, we can still be faithful to God. And we can find joy in knowing that we are being faithful to Him. We can still be a witness in the midst of our trials.

Fourth, I think Ruth would want to say this – ‘Sometimes life’s greatest blessings come through life’s biggest risks.’ Ruth was a big risk taker. She left Moab and she left her god Chemosh. The Moabites would sacrifice children to the god Chemosh. Ruth would leave this religion and she would leave her family. She would leave her comfort zone. She took the risk to go to this foreign land. And she risked when she went out to the fields in Bethlehem to glean grain because she was a foreigner. She even risked going to the threshing floor for Boaz because she could have been rejected. But she was a risk taker.

I have found the greatest blessings in life comes with great risks. And those of you who are about my age, I am 43, we start getting into your late 30’s and we start slowing down on the risks. The purpose of life becomes being more comfortable, building our savings, taking care that our kids are doing well, and we no longer take many risks. And when we don’t risk, something dies inside of us. We are meant to be risk takers. Why do you think they stick a M16 into the hands of an 18 year old? It is because they are willing to risk.

While I am on this idea of risks, we are not helping our kids if we don’t let them take some risks. And I rebuke myself in this. I grew up in the generation where when I was about 11 years old I would get up in the morning and I would tell my parents I would be home later. And I would go ride my bike 10 or 15 miles away from home. That is what kids did in that generation. Today we are scared to death to drop our kids off at Birkdale when they are 16 or 17 years old. They don’t have the freedoms that we did. Now granted I got myself in a lot of trouble with some of my freedoms, and kids you need to understand that if you are going to be a bonehead you are going to give up some of your freedoms.

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But here is the deal. I was meeting with someone this week and he said he told his kids he was making the rules while they lived under his roof, and when they left home then they could make your own decisions. And for me as a dad some of these parenting things that I hear make me realize that I think about it a little bit differently. Would I rather let my kids in their senior year do whatever they want under my own roof, so that they can make some mistakes while I am still their parent and hopefully be able to help them through it, or would I rather them never learn what it is like to really be empowered until they are off on their own? I am just thinking, and I am not saying you have to do it this way, but I am wondering if that isn’t going to be the route I want to go. I think I would rather tell my kids when they are seniors that they can start making their own rules, and if there are consequences I will help them work through them. Because I would rather they make some mistakes while they are home with me, than just wait for them to do all their stupid stuff when they leave home.

I want to just give them some ownership and some freedom. And that way I hope to focus more on their relationship capital then managing them at age 18. Kids became adults at 13 in the Jewish community, and now kids are coming back and wanting to live with mom and dad when they are in their late 20’s. We are not letting them grow up. And part of the reason they don’t grow up is because we are afraid for them to take risks. I want to encourage you to risk. Those of you that are kids go off to Europe and backpack when you get older. Do things. Believe big. Go explore the world.

And those of you that are 40, 50 or 60, trust God with something. You believe you could never do this or that. It has been said that we need to get out on a limb so far that you are bound to fall unless God comes through for you. Trust God. That is what I told the elders. I told them we need to risk. I told my wife last night at dinner that I am an entrepreneur at heart and I am so excited about this new chapter because we have been in this same building for almost ten years. And I am just ready for something new. I am so excited about this next chapter, and that we are going to be in a new building by the grace of God. I am excited about planting churches and all kinds of things.

I think also Ruth would want to say this – ‘The price tag of redemption comes at the cost of personal sacrifice.’ Boaz had to make a sacrifice. He had to use his own assets to redeem them. He had to sacrifice his reputation , of what people might think of him, by marrying a Moabite. He had to sacrifice knowing that he would have to take care of Naomi as well as Ruth. And he had to sacrifice to purchase the land. But he was willing to do all of it.

I am thankful for the fact that Boaz was willing to sacrifice. And as it relates to sacrifice, I think about my wife. One way to tell if someone loves you is if they are willing to take a risk for you. And I think about my wife who grew up in north Little Rock, Arkansas. It wasn’t Little Rock, it was much smaller. She was from the country

Page 13 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series and didn’t have a lot of means growing up. I can remember when I was living in Arkansas for a short period of time that I met her, and then I went back to California. And I remember her writing me a note saying, ‘Maybe I will move out to California.’

And if you know anything about Arkansas, most people don’t leave Arkansas. Very few leave there. Everybody there is from Arkansas. They didn’t know what to do with me when I showed up there with my skateboard shorts and my high tops and using words like, ‘Dude, Cool, Bro and Stoked.’ I did not fit in Central Arkansas. So Heather ends up moving to California, and I remember how hard it was for her mom and dad when she left Arkansas. I took Heather and we were driving across the United States together and she is taking a big risk. And we drove into and into south Orange County, and this southern girl was in for some big surprises living out there. But she took a risk and she was willing to sacrifice.

And that is what happened with Ruth and Boaz in their relationship. Ruth was willing to take a risk for Boaz, and Boaz was willing to sacrifice for Naomi and Ruth. Jesus Christ was willing to be a sacrifice as our Heavenly Boaz. He was willing to pay for our redemption. We, like Ruth, are on the outside. We, like Ruth, are unworthy. We, like Ruth, are in need of favor. But Jesus Christ in His grace came to be our kinsman redeemer. Yet there was no nearer kin than Jesus. He was the only one fit to be our redeemer. And He would go to the cross and pay for our debts in the same way that Boaz would pay for the debts of Naomi and Ruth. In the same way that Boaz would bring Naomi and Ruth into relationship, into covenant relationships, so too would Jesus Christ, as our kinsman redeemer, die on a cross to bring us into covenant relationship with Him.

Which leads me to say the final thing that I think Ruth would want to say to us today is this – ‘In light of all this, spiritually commit your life to Jesus today.’ He is the redeemer. Ruth had the opportunity to be redeemed by Boaz, and you have the opportunity to be redeemed by Jesus. He will forgive you for your sins, He will take care of you and He will be your protector. Ask Jesus to spread His wings over you, to provide for you and to protect you and give you security.

I close with this touching story that I heard this week. A black man grew up in the time of the depression and he experienced a lot of pain in his life. And a Jewish boy showed him a profound amount of love. He was touched by it and always remembered that love. Later on this man would go to a theological school that taught Judaism. And the school would give the students who were taking Judaism classes a family that they could live with. So this man got to stay with a Jewish family. And he became much loved at the synagogue, at the school and with the family he was staying with.

He went to the synagogue one night and he read verses 16 and 17 of Chapter 1 to the people gathered there. And this is what Ruth had said to Naomi when Naomi was

Page 14 of 15 pages 4/10/2016 THE STORY OF RUTH – ‘Six Men & Six Women’ Series urging her to stay behind. This man read those verses to the people at the synagogue what Ruth had said to Naomi. He read, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

I thought about that and how great it would be if we could be that kind of church that loves the world so well that they would want to be a part of what’s happening here. And that love starts in our homes. So goes the man, so goes the family. So goes the family, so goes the church. So goes the church, so goes the city. So goes the city, so goes the state. So goes the state, so goes the nation. So goes the nation, so goes the world.

Men, we need to rise up and find a Boaz within us and take care of our families. And lead them and provide security for them. And be a covering to them. And be a refuge for them. And ladies, we need you to risk with us, and dream with us, and to think big with us. And together we need to shine for Jesus. Let’s pray.

Lord, thank you for your word. Use it to change lives. We thank you for your grace. Amen.

The preceding transcript was completed using raw audio recordings. As much as possible, it includes the actual words of the message with minor grammatical changes and editorial clarifications to provide context. Hebrew and Greek words are spelled using Google Translator and the actual spelling may be different in some cases.

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