Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / When You're Too Scared To Take The Risk - December 14, 2025

Transcript

When You're Too Scared To Take The Risk - December 14, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

0:00
Good morning. My name is Daniel.
0:03
I'm the lead pastor here at Rez Church.
0:05
Welcome to Rez. Merry Christmas.
0:08
I think guys are not in the Christmas spirit yet.
0:10
I can tell. All right, OK.
0:13
We're in week 3 of this series. Going to talk about in just a
0:15
minute. How do you know?
0:17
And I can get this question every once in a while.
0:19
Maybe you've had this, too. How do you know when a decision
0:23
that you're thinking about making is, is something that God
0:26
is leading you into something that would please the Lord
0:29
versus something maybe that is, is not of God at all and, and
0:32
wouldn't be pleasing to God? And I, I, I, I think that that
0:35
is one of the things that we deal with a lot of Christians
0:38
trying to understand what it looks like to follow God's
0:42
prompting and not necessarily make bad decisions.
0:44
I, I, when, a couple years ago when, when my wife and I decided
0:47
to close our, our businesses and, and I was going to go into
0:51
ministry for full time and just be a full time pastor.
0:54
You know, they're, I was really trying to just struggling with
0:56
the, I think God is, is asking me to do this.
0:59
And, you know, one of the things that difficult was like, that
1:02
was not a very attractive thing to do.
1:03
Like certainly financially this is not very attractive.
1:06
And I thought, man, I don't know if this is something that God
1:09
is, is doing or not, but over time, I just felt like God was
1:12
really moving in an area and he was inviting me into what was
1:15
acceptable obedience. It was was not necessarily easy
1:19
and you know, in those moments you're struggling with is is God
1:23
leading me to this or, or am I making an unwise decision And I
1:27
we're going to see something like that again today.
1:29
We've seen it throughout this book of Ruth as we've been
1:32
reading through it. And I think my struggle for
1:35
that. Maybe you're maybe you can
1:36
relate to this struggle is often times what God is asking me to
1:38
do is not very logical. Anyone else like logic?
1:41
Me and me and logic are really good buddies.
1:44
We spend a lot of time together and there are times where God is
1:47
going to ask us to do some that we feel like is illogical.
1:49
And so we're going to see that all we'll talk about the rest of
1:52
that story in a minute, but we're going to see that here in
1:54
chapter 3 today. So if you're if you're just
1:56
joining us, let me catch you up. We are doing our Christmas
1:59
series in the book of Ruth, which happened 1100 years before
2:03
the actual Christmas story and we're in chapter 3.
2:07
So in in the 1st chapter there's a lady named Naomi and her
2:10
husband and they make a disastrous decision to disobey
2:13
God and to move away from Bethlehem into the country of
2:16
Moab, which was forbidden. God said don't do it, don't
2:20
associate with those people. They did it anyways.
2:22
Then they married both of their sons to Moabite women and it did
2:26
not go well. That's probably an
2:28
understatement. All the men died and they were
2:32
left, Naomi, a widow and her two Moabite daughter in
2:54
And then in chapter 2, we see God begin to move in
2:58
supernaturally into this moment, into this, this point of the
3:02
story. And while God had kept them safe
3:07
in chapter 1, we see more explicit provision by God in
3:11
chapter 2. And So what happens is Ruth
3:15
there, there's a Judaic law that says when you're harvesting the
3:18
field that if you some of the grain drops, you have to leave
3:22
it there. And that's so that the poor, the
3:24
starving can come behind and pick up this leftover grain.
3:28
And so we see Ruth go out to a field in Chapter 2 and she's
3:32
picking up this leftover grain that that falls on the ground,
3:36
but it's back breaking work. She, she, she's there before
3:39
sunrise. She stays till after sundown,
3:42
day after day. And then trying to get enough
3:44
grain, not only to not starve, but also to take care of this
3:48
mother-in-law who's too old to work.
3:50
She's noticed by the landowner, Boaz, and he in an act of
3:54
kindness, invites her. She, she gets to stay with his
3:58
servants during lunch and eat. And he, he has, he says, stay
4:01
near my servants for protection because there's actually no law
4:03
protecting her in this land. And he's very kind to her.
4:08
And so he notices in Chapter 2 her, her character, her hard
4:12
work, her loyalty. He gives her extra grain.
4:14
He gives about 40 lbs of grain to take back so that they don't
4:18
starve. And now we're going to go to
4:20
Chapter 3. That's going to be today and
4:22
what happens in Chapter 3. The first thing you need to
4:24
know. Here if you're if you've got
4:25
your Bible. Open is there is a Fast forward
4:29
from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3. So actually two months or so has
4:32
elapsed from the end of Chapter 2 to the beginning of Chapter 3.
4:36
And that's important to note because there's a lot that
4:38
actually occurred during those two months that we will have to
4:41
catch up on in order to understand what's going on.
4:43
Because what happened is at the beginning, these two ladies get
4:47
to Bethlehem, it's the beginning of barley harvest.
4:49
That takes a certain amount of time.
4:50
After that, there's something called the wheat harvest, and
4:53
we're at the very end of that. So we're about two months
4:56
elapsed. Now in that time, they work six
4:59
days a week. And Ruth has been working six
5:04
days a week through two months, picking up just literally in the
5:08
dirt, picking up leftover grain from before the sun comes up
5:13
till after the sun goes down. 50 days of that fifty work days,
5:18
it's about 775 labor hours crawling around in the dirt,
5:23
picking up grain to have enough to not starve.
5:29
That's pretty crazy. See, you see, there's a, there's
5:32
a beautiful tension in the Bible and it and it's all throughout
5:35
this story in every chapter. And the same tension, tension
5:39
exists even in the gospel of Christ.
5:41
And the tension is this Who's responsible for the blessings
5:45
and the successes in my life? Is it me or is it God?
5:51
Yes, the answer is yes. The two women have to come back
5:58
to Bethlehem where they were supposed to be in the 1st place.
6:00
But it's God that protects them. So, so both were involved in
6:03
that process. God is is protecting them.
6:05
He has provision for them. But they still had to make the
6:07
journey and it was long and it was hard.
6:08
It could have potentially been dangerous.
6:10
And then they get back. God blesses them, but
6:14
providentially sending Ruth accidentally it seems like, into
6:17
this field that ends up being a relative who cares for her and
6:20
and allows her to work there and keeps her safe.
6:23
But. She still had to get up every.
6:24
Single morning before the sun was up and work 12/14/16 hour
6:29
days. Six days a week.
6:31
So God is providing, but at the same time there's hard work.
6:34
That is, Ruth has spent some This is tough work. 50 days of
6:41
this. 50 days of grinding and sweating. 50 days of being
6:45
lonely, 50 days of doubt, 50 days of early mornings at at
6:49
late nights, 50 days of of everything being so sore you can
6:52
barely move. God provided the opportunity for
6:59
blessing, but that did not remove Ruth's need to go and
7:03
work really, really hard. This blessing would never have
7:09
actually been received if Ruth had cried out to God and then
7:13
sat in her tent and been like, well, when he wants to bless me,
7:15
he'll bring it to me. So it's it's both.
7:23
And So what we see is God providing, but Ruth having to
7:27
step into that blessing and work hard.
7:32
And I want you to see the theme and you're going to see the same
7:34
theme again here in chapter 3 that we've seen already.
7:37
And, and it's this idea when God moves, when God, when God does a
7:41
miracle, when God does something supernatural, it's an invitation
7:45
to participation. It's an invitation to
7:49
participation. Every time that we see God move,
7:53
He allows us to recognize that he's doing something, and that's
7:57
an invitation for us to move toward Him and step into that as
8:01
he leads. It's always an invitation to
8:02
join Him. And so keep that in mind as we.
8:06
Pick up our. Reading in chapter 3 verse one.
8:09
Join me here. That'll be on the screen as
8:11
well. If you don't have your Bible,
8:13
then Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, said to her, My
8:16
daughter, should I not seek? Rest for you.
8:20
That it may be well with you is not Boaz.
8:22
That's the landowner or relative with whose young women you were.
8:27
OK. So culturally, again, you got to
8:29
set your minds right. It's not 2025 in America.
8:32
It's 1100 BC in the Middle East. And for Ruth and for for Naomi,
8:39
you know, the rules of the culture are different.
8:40
And so Naomi sinks. She has one obligation left as a
8:44
mother-in-law and that is to find a husband for Ruth.
8:48
It's very important. It's so important that if you go
8:51
back to chapter 1, she tells Ruth, hey, look, you should just
8:54
go back to your people because I'm too old to have more sons to
8:58
get you a husband. And even if I could have a son,
9:01
you're not going to wait for him.
9:03
Everything for her is dominated by like, it's my responsibility
9:06
to make sure Ruth has a husband. And this we're back to this
9:08
again two chapters later, and here's her plan.
9:13
And she about to start scheming. I'm just going to tell you now
9:15
it's going to get weird, OK? You were warned.
9:19
She see he Boaz is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing
9:24
floor, because the harvests are over.
9:25
Wash therefore, and anoint yourself.
9:28
So you know, put on some perfume and put on your cloak and go
9:32
down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known
9:36
to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
9:41
But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies.
9:46
Then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you
9:50
what to do. And she replied all that you say
9:54
I will do. Now you could read this and you
10:07
could think this is a bit shady. Like, wait until this guy has
10:15
had the the feast at the end of the harvest and has has drank a
10:19
lot of wine and then sneak in and uncover him in the dark and
10:24
lie down. What does lie down mean?
10:29
And if you're thinking like there have been some
10:32
commentaries historically that are like, no, we're not sure
10:35
what that means. Like the author of the story is
10:38
is very vague, kind of on purpose.
10:41
This storyteller does leave some things for you to imagine.
10:43
But I will just tell you, let me just tell you this right now.
10:47
I'm never giving my daughter this advice.
10:51
What is that plan? Absolutely not.
10:57
Listen girl, go get your hair did.
10:59
Get your nails done, put some perfume on and then shake it in
11:01
the dark when he's had a bunch to drink and like, what are you
11:04
talking about? No, do not do do not do
11:08
unsubscribe. Naomi has been scheming
11:16
shipments now. If you had no know much about
11:20
her lady, she actually came from a guy named Jacob who was called
11:23
a schemer. So this kind of runs in the
11:24
family. She's been thinking hard about
11:27
this. And part of the reason she she
11:31
doesn't say just like, why don't you just go to Boaz and ask, you
11:34
know, and have a conversation is that there were there were
11:37
cultural rules and laws about who would marry a widow.
11:40
And it wasn't him. He wasn't the next in line to
11:43
do. There was no responsibility for
11:44
him to do this. So.
11:45
So it's kind of in doubt. So she doesn't want to leave
11:47
things to doubt. She wants to kind of scheme
11:49
about how to how to do this. And like, let's just think about
11:51
this. Where'd she get the oil to
11:55
anoint Ruth with? They didn't bring that from the
11:58
lab, man. She took some of that grain and
12:01
she went to the Mart. She's been planning.
12:03
OK. Did like, if you're old enough,
12:05
you remember the A-Team, right? Like, like when that, like she's
12:11
putting it all together, Mission Impossible.
12:14
It's like Tom Cruise, she's going to rappel down this thing
12:16
and she's putting a plan together here.
12:19
Like you're going to do this, you're going to do this.
12:20
You're going to sneak in in the dark, You're going to.
12:22
And then you see Ruth's like, OK, this ought to get
12:28
interesting. She's been scheming.
12:31
Now he, I will say this, and this is important to note, this
12:34
is the last night of the last harvest.
12:36
This is the last moment. That Ruth is going to see Boaz
12:41
for the whole season, like until the next next harvest probably.
12:44
There's no reason for them to be around.
12:46
She's been getting to see him dailies at least six days a week
12:49
in the fields as she goes to harvest.
12:51
And this is it. This is the last chance.
12:52
The very last chance. Last shot.
12:56
Look, if you had one shot and one opportunity to seize
12:59
everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture it
13:04
or just let it slip? Now that's not the Bible.
13:09
That's from a deep philosopher. Named Slim Shady, but her palms
13:14
probably wore sweaty knees. Weak arms are heavy.
13:16
Mom's spaghetti, anyways. Why is she why is she nervous?
13:20
Why would she be nervous? Like you're thinking she's
13:22
nervous because she's going to sneak in and and maybe be
13:25
rejected. And we all no one likes
13:26
rejection. But that's not actually why, why
13:28
she's really nervous because I mean, that's maybe part of it,
13:30
but but you need to understand the danger of what she's doing
13:33
in this moment. There are no laws or no cultural
13:36
laws that protect her in a culture that looks down on
13:40
women. She's about to sneak in
13:42
somewhere and she is about she could be abused.
13:47
She could be she. He could.
13:48
He could come out of this scenario accusing her of some
13:52
really inappropriate things. She already is a foreigner who's
13:56
looked down upon as a Moabite woman.
13:58
She could be ostracized. I mean, things could go really,
14:01
really poorly in this moment beyond just rejection.
14:05
He could take advantage of her and throw her out because she
14:09
has no right to, no protection, no one looking out for her.
14:12
But both Naomi and Ruth, in these moments we've seen, they
14:16
see God moving and and Naomi for all.
14:20
Of the weird. Scheming it is telling her you
14:22
need to, you need to press into where God is moving.
14:24
This is an invitation. It is an invitation to
14:27
participation. Maybe not in this way, maybe not
14:32
to do it this way, but it is an invitation, so she's going to do
14:35
it. Here we go over 6.
14:38
She went down to the threshing floor and did just as her
14:42
mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and
14:44
drunk and his heart was merry. Mary, as in Sir, you may not
14:50
legally operate a motor vehicle in all 50 states, Mary.
14:55
OK. He went to lie down at the end
14:58
of the heap of grain. Then she saw, came softly and
15:01
uncovered his feet. Now they don't wear blankets.
15:04
He has an outer cloak. So she's uncovering his cloak.
15:08
So I said it gets a little. Sketchy and lays down to his
15:11
feet. Verse 8 And at midnight the man
15:15
was startled and turned over and behold, a woman lay at his feet.
15:20
You can imagine, right? You wake up, it's dark and
15:23
you're like, how much did I drink?
15:40
And he says. Who are you?
15:43
Now that's how you know it's really dark because he's seen
15:45
Ruth every single day. He knows exactly what she looks
15:47
like. They've had all these
15:48
conversations and he's like, there's not a.
15:50
Lot of Night Lights in 1100 BC right and he's like who are you
15:54
now this line I don't want you to miss this line this.
15:58
This is the line. OK, this is probably.
16:00
The line of the whole book of Ruth.
16:02
So I need to see it. I'll explain why it's such a
16:04
line in a minute. And she answered.
16:07
I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your
16:13
servant for your Redeemer. Now, like, let me explain
16:18
because this is like, this is a certified bar.
16:23
Naomi. When Naomi gave her the scheme,
16:25
she didn't tell her what to say. If you remember the instructions
16:27
she said, get yourself all done up sneaking in the dark.
16:30
He'll tell you what to do. But he didn't.
16:34
So she's coming up with this. Live in the moment, she says.
16:39
I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your
16:41
servant for your Redeemer. Now when she says that, don't
16:44
just think about if you were here last week when they met and
16:48
she introduced herself. She said she called herself your
16:51
servant. Except what you can't see in
16:53
English is she used a different Hebrew term.
16:57
See, the first Hebrew term meant servant.
16:59
The second Hebrew term that she's using right here means
17:02
servant. But there's an extra connotation
17:04
here that that communicates status.
17:08
And what she says here would actually be translated as I am
17:11
your single servant. I am your unmarried servant.
17:16
So there's this is this is pregnant with possibility here.
17:19
OK, so she says. I am your single, unmarried
17:24
servant. And then she says, spread your
17:26
wings over me. Now, the Hebrew word for wings
17:29
that she's using has two definitions.
17:32
One of them is, is the wings of a bird.
17:34
OK. The other one means literally
17:38
means the edge of 1's outer cloak.
17:42
So she's laying at his feet. She has uncovered the outer
17:44
cloak and she's saying spread your wings over me.
17:50
Now that line matters because if you turn back one page to Ruth
17:56
Chapter 2, two months earlier they met, and when they met,
18:02
Boaz said something to her. Here's what he said.
18:06
This is Ruth 2 verses 11 and 12. He said.
18:09
Boaz answered her. All that you have done for your
18:12
mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been.
18:14
Fully told to me and how you left your father and mother of
18:17
your native land and came to a people that you didn't know
18:19
before verse 12 the this is the Lord repay you for what you have
18:24
done and a full reward be given to you by the Lord the God of
18:27
Israel under whose word under whose wings you have come to
18:32
take refuge. OK, so he says that it's almost
18:35
like he's. Prophetically praying a blessing
18:39
over he has recognized the risk that she's taken the loyalty of
18:42
this woman and he's like you've put yourself under the wings of
18:46
the Lord and now here sketchy encounter in the dark two months
18:52
later and she looks at him and says spread your wings over your
18:55
servant. What is she saying?
18:56
He's saying look and I I want God to recognize what you've
19:00
done to protect you to bless you.
19:01
And eight weeks later, in the middle of the night, she looks
19:03
at him and she says. You be those wings you want to
19:09
pray God's protection and blessing over me.
19:11
You be those wings, Boaz, because you're a Redeemer.
19:17
Now if if you're new to that the Bible, maybe you've never read
19:20
it or you don't really believe in it.
19:22
You need to understand this term Redeemer has has a bunch of
19:25
implications and we'll talk a. Little bit about.
19:28
Some of the legal implications of that term Redeemer that are
19:31
laid out in some books like Leviticus chapter 25 and
19:34
Deuteronomy chapter 25. We'll talk about that next week
19:36
because this is going to come to fruition.
19:39
But she, she's a foreigner. She doesn't even know any of
19:41
these laws. What is she saying in the
19:43
moment? Then when she says you're a
19:44
Redeemer, what she's saying is, hey, you are someone that can
19:48
protect and provide and step in the gap where where my life is
19:53
hopeless and nothing that I can do can fix the problem.
19:56
Someone else is going to have to step in and redeem me.
20:01
You're a Redeemer. You see, Boaz, two months ago
20:05
saw God's hand at work in Ruth's life, and he commented on it and
20:09
he prayed over her and he praised this blessing.
20:12
And two months later, she looks and goes, You're the blessing,
20:16
you're the blessing. You're someone who can make
20:20
away. You see, that's why.
20:22
Ruth is a Christmas story. Even though it takes place in
20:25
millennia before Christmas, because that is the Christmas
20:29
story. The Bible speaks to this in
20:31
Isaiah 44, six. The Bible prophetically says
20:35
this. Thus says the Lord, the King of
20:38
Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.
20:45
I am the 1st and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God.
20:49
The message of the Bible throughout the Old Testament is
20:52
you are hopeless. Merry Christmas.
21:01
You're hopeless. You're Ruth, a foreigner in a
21:05
foreign land with no help, and nobody's coming but me.
21:12
I'm coming. Jesus did this willingly.
21:17
See we the message, the Bible's we're hopeless and we needed a
21:20
Savior. We needed a Redeemer.
21:22
Ephesians 1. Seven through 10.
21:23
The Apostle Paul. In after Jesus comes, he's going
21:26
to look back and he's going to explain it this way so that we
21:28
would understand it and not miss it.
21:30
He says this in him. Jesus, we have redemption
21:34
through his blood. Redemption.
21:36
There's that word again. We have redemption.
21:38
We've been redeemed. We've been bought with a price
21:42
through His blood that He shed on the cross, the forgiveness of
21:46
our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He
21:50
lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us
21:55
the mystery of His will according to His purpose which
21:57
He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to
22:01
unite all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on
22:04
earth. Jesus did this willingly, and
22:12
Boaz will do this willingly. See it here verse 10.
22:16
She says you be those wings Boaz for sin.
22:18
He said, may you be blessed by the Lord.
22:20
My daughter, you have made this last kindness greater than the
22:24
first and that you have not gone after young men, whether rich or
22:27
poor. And now my daughter, do not
22:28
fear. Do not fear because I know the
22:30
risk you took coming here. Do not fear.
22:33
I will do for you all that you ask for.
22:36
My fellow, you'd underline this. If you're reading this for my
22:39
fellow townsmen, know that you are a worthy woman.
22:43
In two months, the entire town knows that the Moabite widow is
22:48
a worthy woman. How did that happen?
22:54
She, she's from a nation explicitly excluded by law.
23:00
There's a law that says you can't even marry people from
23:03
there. And and he's saying two months
23:05
later that everyone in town knows you're a worthy woman.
23:11
How? Well, she has displayed
23:16
integrity, She's displayed loyalty.
23:19
She has worked hard for two months, shown up before the sun
23:22
came up every single morning and all the way to sundown.
23:25
She's shown humility and how she spoke to Boaz when she met him
23:29
in chapter 2. In fact, you know, if we were
23:31
to, if we were to say, well, you know what does make a worthy
23:34
woman? The Bible gives us a chapter in
23:36
Proverbs 31. It's an entire chapter, almost a
23:38
whole chapter that says this is what a worthy woman looks like.
23:45
That she's trustworthy. Ruth's pretty trustworthy.
23:52
That she rises early in the morning to provide, and Ruth's
23:55
been doing that for two months. That she meets other needs
23:58
first, like this mother-in-law that she didn't have to stay
24:01
with, who's too old to work, and that she's out there breaking
24:04
her back to feed her. That she's a hard worker, as if
24:08
she provides for her household. And on and on and on.
24:11
In fact, I would challenge you this week.
24:12
Go open up Proverbs 31 and and read through that description of
24:16
a worthy woman. And what you're going to see is
24:17
a description of Ruth. So much so that in two months
24:24
time the entire town apparently knows her reputation and she
24:27
didn't have to tell anyone. Do you realize that she didn't
24:29
have to put a single post on Instagram?
24:36
No, no, no self promotion did this.
24:41
Her character was on display through hard work and everyone
24:45
noticed and she some of us want a blessing that our character
24:56
can't handle. This blessing comes two months
25:02
later, after just grueling work for months, and she has the
25:07
character, actually. For the blessing, but, but, but
25:10
for a lot of us, man, how often, how, how many times have I
25:14
prayed for something from the Lord that if he gave it to me,
25:16
my character couldn't have handled anyways, it would have
25:19
hurt me. You, you, you pray for, for
25:23
financial blessing that you can't even handle because you
25:25
can't steward your money. I I play, I pray for for the
25:27
church to grow faster and then realize that I don't think I'm
25:29
enough of a leader to handle that growth anyways.
25:34
What, what if, what if my character is not ready for the
25:36
blessings that I'm asking God for?
25:37
Is he a good God if he's going to give that to me when I, I
25:40
couldn't handle it? In the Bible, the, the frequent
25:45
analogy that we'll see in scripture about refining.
25:49
So someone's character is the refining fire.
25:52
It's like it's metallurgy, right?
25:54
Where, where they heat up metal and then they scrape out the
25:56
impurities in order to purify the metal and talks about our
25:58
character being that way. And, and that's good.
26:00
I like to think of it more like cooking in an oven, probably
26:03
because I like food more. Than metallurgy, but you know,
26:06
and so I you ever you ever take something out of the oven too
26:10
early doesn't taste real good. You see, I think there's plenty
26:15
of times in my life where I'm praying for something and God's
26:18
like, well, let's check. You know, he puts on the
26:19
heavenly oven mitts and he pulls the oven down and he pulls
26:23
Daniel out and he goes, well, plenty plump enough, but not
26:29
done yet. And he just pushes me back in,
26:32
closes that oven back up, sets that timer again.
26:35
We'll check on him in a little while.
26:38
Character's not ready, going to need more time.
26:48
God only gives us the blessings that our character can handle.
26:54
Now, in this moment, as Boaz is recognizing that Ruth is a woman
27:00
of character and is actually affirming that the entire town
27:02
now knows that she is a woman of character.
27:05
He's not. Actually required to do
27:07
anything. He's not legally obligated to
27:12
redeem her, to marry her, to take care of her.
27:14
That's not in the rules. But he chooses to.
27:18
And I need you to see that this is voluntary.
27:20
He's not legally required to do any of this.
27:23
He has the ability to. He has the standing, he has the
27:25
resources. He may be one of the only people
27:28
in town that truly could do this, but he isn't.
27:31
He isn't required to do it. And look, he's not tricked.
27:34
He's not seduced. He's not leveraged.
27:36
He's not manipulated. Boaz chooses to love Ruth.
27:42
He chooses. Don't miss that, because love is
27:46
a choice. You don't fall in love, you fall
27:52
into emotions. You can't fall in love because
27:55
love doesn't have gravity. You can fall in a swimming pool,
27:57
you can fall down the stairs, but love is a choice.
28:02
That's also why you can't fall out of love.
28:04
Want to sit down with married couples and someone's like?
28:06
Well, you know, I just don't. Love them anymore, I go well,
28:09
you chose that. That's a choice.
28:18
Boaz chooses to love her. He didn't have to.
28:22
Real love isn't a. Feeling you fall into it's a
28:24
choice you make. That's why we call marriage a
28:26
covenant, because it's not just emotions.
28:29
When the feelings fade, the choice to love remains.
28:33
Boaz chooses to love Ruth. Why am I making such a big deal
28:36
about this? Because Jesus chooses to love
28:40
us. He didn't have to.
28:43
He chose to. So look at verse 12.
28:48
Boaz is going to finish this answer.
28:50
And now it is true that I am a Redeemer, meaning he is
28:53
technically related to the widow.
28:56
Yet there is a Redeemer nearer than I.
28:57
I'll explain why that matters next week.
29:00
Remain tonight in the morning. If he will redeem you, good, let
29:03
him do it. But if not, he's not willing to
29:05
redeem you. Then as the Lord lives, I will
29:06
redeem you. Lie down until the morning.
29:09
Verse 14. So she lay at his feet until the
29:11
morning. But arose before one could
29:14
recognize another. So it's still dark.
29:15
And he said let it not be known that the woman came to the
29:19
threshing floor. He's protecting her reputation.
29:21
And he said bring the garment you're wearing, hold it out.
29:24
She held it out and he measured 6 measures of barley and put it
29:28
on her. And then she went out to the
29:29
city. I just I want you to see that
29:35
that is an intense amount of integrity.
29:38
Like how many single men faced with that scenario?
29:43
Fail. You want to be a man of God.
29:46
It is about character. We develop character with no
29:49
one's looking in the dark. We work on honoring God in the
29:53
smallest ways, in those common ways that you and I are going to
29:59
honor God. In fact, the most common ways
30:01
we're going to be invited in to participate in God's work is the
30:04
Holy Spirit is going to convict. US of sin, someone's going to
30:08
correct us when they see a sin, and our job in humility is to
30:12
receive that and repent. Obedience, humility, repentance,
30:24
obedience, humility, repentance. I get corrected because I I said
30:29
something unkind and instead of getting defensive, I obey the
30:32
prompting of the Holy Spirit. I confess that to God.
30:35
I apologize for my actions to the person.
30:38
I, I, I get, I get caught up in some worldly pursuit or, or or
30:41
doing too or working too much or too much free time or too many
30:44
hobbies or too much fantasy football.
30:45
No one's ever done that before, right?
30:48
Something and God gently corrects me and I confess my sin
30:52
and I put things in place to go chase him faster.
30:54
That's the recipe to develop character, and it's going to
30:59
take this happening hundreds of times in our lives.
31:05
Obeying God's call to holiness over and over and over again to
31:08
ever have a character worth anything.
31:11
Boaz, lonely, tipsy in the dark, wakes up with a beautiful young
31:20
woman at his feet, and everything he does in this
31:25
moment is honorable. It's a man of character, so God
31:35
moves and he invites us in that move in that moment to join him
31:42
to participate. He protects the women in chapter
31:46
1, but they still have to make the the grueling journey in
31:49
chapter 2. He provides sustenance and
31:51
Providence through a field, but Ruth still has to get up every
31:54
day and work her little tail end off.
31:59
And then in chapter 3, here's maybe not the best advice from
32:04
Naomi, but there's an opportunity.
32:08
They see God moving and they step into that.
32:10
Take a risk toward Boaz in our lives.
32:12
When you notice that God is at work, it is always an invitation
32:16
to join Him in that work that that stranger who suddenly
32:21
begins to share with you something disastrous is going on
32:24
in their life. Stop what you're doing and go
32:28
pray for them right there in that moment that that that is
32:32
not an accidental conversation. That relative who suddenly
32:35
becomes interested in conversations about faith or
32:37
spirituality or the afterlife. Stop what you're doing.
32:40
Drop everything that that God is moving in their life.
32:43
Go speak to them and spend time with them.
32:44
That opportunity to to serve in some new ministry or area you've
32:48
never really considered. Why do you think you're being
32:50
like again, over and over and over again, God is going to move
32:53
and it is an invitation. You begin to step into that and
32:55
see if God is moving in those things.
32:58
Do we have this horrible problem in our lives?
33:00
We say we we worship. The God of the universe who
33:04
created everything simply by speaking it into existence.
33:06
And he wants our prayers. And then we're like, yeah, but I
33:08
don't ever pray. I talk more about the things I
33:13
should pray for, then I actually pray for them.
33:17
And if I ever do get around to praying for them, and then God
33:19
moves, I ignore that he's moving because that would be an act of
33:22
obedience that might be hard. So yeah.
33:27
Because God has a purpose and a. Future for you and he's not
33:34
silent, he's not idle. God is at work around you, but
33:39
in his graciousness he doesn't just do it.
33:43
He invites you to participate in it and that changes us in the
33:46
process. You realize that God doesn't
33:49
have to invite you to participate.
33:51
Like yeah, God doesn't need you to get things done.
33:55
This is like inviting your 3 year old to do chores with you.
33:59
It's going to take longer for God to use me to do Kingdom
34:04
things. It's actually going to take
34:05
longer than if He just did it himself, just like a three-year
34:09
old He's. Doing it as an act of kindness
34:12
so that I get to participate and be like, hey dad, I worked at it
34:15
too. He's like, sure you did.
34:18
And it changes me in the process.
34:22
The, the guy named Henry Blackaby wrote a bestseller
34:25
called Experiencing God years ago and he had kind of, I'll,
34:28
I'll sum that up into four big points, but they're, they're
34:30
right here. Same, same sort of thing.
34:32
Number one, God always initiates the work.
34:35
It God. It is God's initiation.
34:37
It wasn't a coincidence. It wasn't a random conversation.
34:40
It wasn't you suddenly noticed what was going on.
34:42
God initiated the work. God never joins us, We join him.
34:52
When you are called to that act of obedience, it will always
34:55
create a crisis of faith. Anyone ever gone through one of
34:59
those or 17? Yes, obedience will require a
35:05
crisis of faith because we have to change, not God.
35:08
And when we obey him, we get to join him in his work.
35:15
And that's what happens for Ruth, and that's what happens
35:19
for you and I all the time. It's an invitation to
35:23
participation. So I have two questions I want
35:26
you to consider today as we try to apply the truth from this
35:30
Ruth chapter 3 in our lives. Here's the first one.
35:34
Where are you noticing God at work right now?
35:40
If you would slow down and, and pay attention to what God's
35:43
doing in your work, in your life, in your family, in your
35:46
habits, in your relationships, where is God at work?
35:51
Because where you see God moving is an invitation for you to join
35:54
him. Now, what is it an invitation
35:58
to? I don't know.
35:59
That's the spicy part. You're going to have to step in
36:04
obedience and it might, might feel like a crisis, might feel a
36:06
little illogical. You have to step into that in
36:09
obedience to figure it out. That's the risky part.
36:14
It might not be as risky as going to seeing a drunk guy in
36:16
the middle of the night. I'm just saying, But it's going
36:19
to be risky. It's a step of faith.
36:22
Maybe you're being called to, to serve God or or the church in
36:26
some new way. Maybe you, you, you, you don't
36:29
serve and God's prompting you to, to, to start serving so you
36:32
can do something incredible in your life.
36:34
Maybe it's some little thing that we would never even
36:36
consider, but we begin to see God move.
36:38
Maybe it's something huge. Ruth wasn't looking for Boaz.
36:43
She was working hard. She was providing, she was
36:47
taking note of what God did and it was actually through Naomi
36:52
noticing and giving her counsel to help her see that God was
36:55
moving. I started the sermon this
36:59
morning talking about, you know, being faced with his decision of
37:02
closing some businesses and going to the ministry full time
37:05
and it it feeling like a crisis of faith.
37:08
But but I'm feeling like man, God really wants me to walk into
37:11
this and it is I'll be let me be honest.
37:13
In the last two years, it is not been easy.
37:16
It is been fraught with with days of anxiety and and crises
37:20
of faith. But but I but I also consider.
37:23
Because I have the. The benefit now the rearview
37:25
mirror again, the look of the last two years.
37:27
And I go, man, you know, in the last two years, God has saved
37:29
over 200 people at this church, and we have baptized about 200
37:39
people in the last two years. Now, I would have missed so much
37:44
of that if I was still trying to do the other things that God was
37:48
calling me away from. Like God.
37:50
God didn't need me to do it. He'd have done it anyways.
37:52
I just would have missed it. I would have gotten to
37:56
participate in all that stuff if I wasn't willing to step into
38:01
what God was asking me to do. If you want to see God work,
38:05
you've got to be willing to trust Him Where that journey
38:08
leads. Now I'm going to give you.
38:10
Just a moment of caution along with this.
38:12
Where's God at work? OK, Remember, Ruth is looking
38:16
for, she's working hard. She's not looking specifically
38:19
for this blessing. And for some of us, I'm just
38:22
going to, I'm just going to warn you.
38:24
And if this is you, I just want you to hear it.
38:27
Stop looking for the blessing and look for the One who
38:30
blesses. Because some of y'all have never
38:36
gotten to a Boaz in your life because you settled for a broke
38:39
ass. That deadbeat alternative that
38:46
you tried to shoehorn into God's plan?
38:49
That's not what Ruth is doing. Ruth's been working hard for two
38:52
months, head down, grinding, and then when God's moving to wise
38:58
counsel, she steps into that. And for some of y'all, you've
39:02
been chasing stuff that is not of God and I'm just telling you,
39:06
put your eyes back on the Creator, the one who gives
39:08
blessings, and He will lead you where He wants you to go.
39:12
Now if you're thinking to yourself, I already married the
39:14
broke ass, then let me pray for you.
39:28
May God give you the strength and the humility and the
39:34
endurance to choose to love them, to pray for them, to serve
39:40
them sacrificially, that they might come to know the Lord of
39:44
the universe because He is able. In my small group and in my my
39:52
mentorship group, these are the types of conversations we have
39:56
all the time. We are praying for one another.
39:59
We are talking about what's going on in our lives and
40:02
allowing wise counsel to push back into our lives to, to
40:06
either correct us or to encourage us or to stir us up,
40:09
just like Naomi is doing for Ruth.
40:11
So secondly, my question for you is, who is your Naomi?
40:16
Where is that close counsel that will encourage you to obey God
40:20
because you got to have it? There are times we need to be
40:23
encouraged because you're down. There's times where you need to
40:25
be stirred up because you've just gotten lazy, comfortable,
40:31
whiny, none of you, I mean, but me, me.
40:35
And we need to be stirred up to go hard after God again.
40:41
And so if you have been trying to play this solo Christian
40:44
Rambo game in isolation, you need to step into community.
40:49
You need to find people who love God, the church, and you in that
40:53
order, and are willing to speak truth into your life.
40:58
Where is God moving and who is close enough to you to tell you?
41:02
So these are the application questions for today.
41:05
Now, maybe maybe you came here today, you got maybe you got
41:08
drug here today didn't even want to come.
41:10
Maybe you're you're watching online.
41:13
Shout out to Casey and Steven if they're watching online.
41:16
But but however you got here today my question.
41:19
For you is this. Do you know the Lord of the
41:24
universe personally? Because if you don't know Jesus
41:28
Christ as your Lord and your Savior, I just want to point
41:30
something out to you that's in this text here.
41:33
And I want you to see that God is at work.
41:36
That's probably why you're participating in this service
41:39
today. The reason you tuned in online,
41:42
the reason you showed up, God is drawing you to him.
41:45
You know, 1100 years before Jesus would walk on the earth as
41:49
a human. We're, we're reading this story
41:52
and we're talking about these, these wings.
41:54
And Jesus actually says the same thing 1100 years later that he
42:01
that his wings are there for protection.
42:02
In Luke 13, he's he's talking about the city of Jerusalem
42:06
right before he's going to go to the cross.
42:08
And in Luke 13 he says this verse 34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
42:13
the city that kills. The prophets and stones, those
42:15
who are sent to it, they're about to crucify him.
42:18
How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
42:22
gathers her brood under her wings?
42:27
And you were not willing. Jesus offers to redeem you like
42:33
Ruth does for Boaz to cover you in his wings.
42:37
And so the question, my final question for you today is, are
42:40
you willing? Are you willing?
42:43
God is moving. He is drawing you to him and he
42:46
is offering to cover you with his wings.
42:49
Are you willing? You see, just like Boaz chose to
42:54
love Ruth, Jesus chooses to love you.
42:59
And so if you would like to surrender your life to God
43:01
today, I want to offer you the chance as we close our service
43:04
for a brief moment, will you bow your heads and close your eyes?
43:07
If you're willing to ask God for forgiveness and for salvation
43:11
with every eye closed, every head bowed, I just, I just want
43:15
you to repeat this prayer after me.
43:20
Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner and I can't save myself.
43:29
I need to be redeemed. So I surrender everything to you
43:39
and I receive your promise of redemption.
43:43
Be my Lord, Please Jesus. If you prayed to surrender your
43:50
life to Jesus for the very first time, would you be brave and
43:53
raise your hand for me to see? Thank you, you can put your
44:00
hands down. Thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
44:05
Real quick as we close, if you just gave your life to Christ
44:10
for the very first time, welcome to the family.
44:18
We stand. We're going to sing a song as we
44:19
close. Our prayer team is going to come
44:22
up. We'd love to pray with you and
44:24
for you. As we sing, as we people come up
44:27
for prayer. If you gave your life to to to
44:30
Christ and you have not told anyone about it.
44:31
Maybe this happened moments ago. Maybe it happened recently.
44:34
We have some tables in the back say I raised my hand.
44:36
We would love to celebrate with you.
44:37
We have a gift for you. We want to talk about what it
44:39
looks like to pursue Jesus. What's next so you can make your
44:43
way back there while we sing If you need prayer for any reason,
44:45
we want to pray with you. And so don't be shy.
44:48
Come up and be prayed for. We love you church.
44:50
Merry Christmas, you move as the Lord leads you.