Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / When Having It All Still Isn't Enough - December 24, 2025
Transcript
- 0:00Good evening, Merry Christmas. Welcome to cozy Christmas.
- 0:06So my name is Daniel. I'm the lead pastor here.
- 0:08I I brought out. So they're cozy slippers, but
- 0:11they're all terrain for the storm.
- 0:19Ready to go, ready to go. All right, tonight in just the
- 0:23the few moments, because we have a pretty short service so that
- 0:25you can get home and go hang out and and have some eggnog
- 0:29tonight. I want you to see 11 really big
- 0:32thing about Christmas. And it actually is also in our
- 0:35story as we finish up the book of Ruth today.
- 0:37And it's this idea. The end was never in doubt.
- 0:42The end was never in doubt. So over the past four weeks
- 0:45we've been going through this book called Ruth and we've been
- 0:48looking at it as a Christmas story, even though it took place
- 0:52about 1000 plus years before the 1st Christmas story.
- 0:56And what happened if you you kind of missed part of this is
- 0:59that there are two widows, a Naomi and her Moabite
- 1:03daughter-in-law named Ruth. And she's a foreigner to the
- 1:08Jewish nation. But they've come back from Moab
- 1:11to the city of Bethlehem. And while there, they have found
- 1:16food, they have found protection, they have found
- 1:19kindness by the hand of a distant relative.
- 1:22His he's named Boaz, and he has agreed to this bold request that
- 1:28Ruth made of him, and he's going to marry Ruth.
- 1:31And so last week on Sunday, we looked at sort of this kind of
- 1:34brilliant, almost legal maneuver that Boaz makes in order to
- 1:39become the first in line to marry her.
- 1:42And he takes over a title that was something that they used in
- 1:46the ancient world called a kinsman Redeemer.
- 1:50A kinsman Redeemer. And we're going to pick up this
- 1:54story in chapter 4. This is the end of the book
- 1:57around verse 7. And in verse 7, he seals the
- 2:02deal. He kind of completes this, this
- 2:04legal proceeding. There's 10 elders sitting around
- 2:07and he's making this, this covenant to redeem Naomi and
- 2:13Ruth. Now, in the ancient times, I
- 2:15know it's a little weird. In ancient times, they would
- 2:17take off their sandal and they would give it to the other
- 2:22person. And somehow that was like, now
- 2:24we use DocuSign, which I got to be honest, smells a lot better.
- 2:28But they would handle hand this sandal over as a way to finish
- 2:33out this agreement, this transaction.
- 2:35And I, I live in Bakersfield. So if someone takes off a sandal
- 2:38here, we call that a chunk LA. And that means mama's mad and
- 2:42you're about to get beat. But back then, this is how you
- 2:48finalize the deal. And so Boaz is purchasing the
- 2:52land of this relative, but he's choosing to take on the
- 2:55responsibility to care for the widow Naomi.
- 2:59And he's pledging to Mary Ruth and to produce an heir.
- 3:03He's committing to this role of kinsman Redeemer, someone that
- 3:07has the right and the responsibility to rescue family
- 3:10members in crisis. And so the elders that are there
- 3:13at the gate of this story, they they bless this and then they
- 3:17pray a blessing over the new family and the couple.
- 3:21And we're going to pick up the very end of our love story in
- 3:24chapter 4, verse 13. And so you can follow along on
- 3:28the screen. We'll start at verse 13.
- 3:30It says this. So Boaz took Ruth and she became
- 3:35his wife and he went into her and the Lord gave her conception
- 3:39and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi,
- 3:44Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a
- 3:48Redeemer, and may His name be renowned in Israel.
- 3:53He shall be a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.
- 3:58For your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you
- 4:02than seven sons, has given birth to him.
- 4:07Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became
- 4:11his nurse. And the women of the
- 4:12neighborhood gave him a name saying a son has been born to
- 4:16Naomi. They named him Obed.
- 4:18He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
- 4:22Now, this is the very end of our book, the book of Ruth.
- 4:24And there's some really interesting things that happen
- 4:28right at the end. Here's the first thing.
- 4:31So Ruth and Boaz get married and they have a son.
- 4:34So we're now at least nine plus months out from this moment at
- 4:38the gate that we we looked at on Sunday and they've been in town
- 4:41for at least over a year. And once again, we see Ruth
- 4:44mentioned here in verse 13 when she gives birth to a son.
- 4:46Here's what's interesting. She's not mentioned again for
- 4:48the rest of the story, and that's a little weird because
- 4:53like this book is called the book of Ruth.
- 4:55So it seems like she's the main character and it seems kind of
- 4:58weird to not mention the main character if that's her for all
- 5:01the rest of the story. The rest of the book that we
- 5:05just read is about Naomi, her mother-in-law, and about this
- 5:09grandson. The women says the women in the
- 5:12community or the women in the neighborhood said this to Naomi.
- 5:15This is kind of the end of the story and I find this very
- 5:17interesting. They say to her, blessed be the
- 5:20Lord who has not left you this day without a Redeemer, and may
- 5:25his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be a restorer of life
- 5:28and a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter-in-law whom
- 5:31you love more than seven sons has given birth to him worth
- 5:36more than seven sons. That seems kind of random, but
- 5:38see, it's actually it culturally.
- 5:41That was the Jewish dream. So the if the American dream is
- 5:432 1/2 kids in a white picket fence, the Jewish dream was to
- 5:47have seven sons because 7 was a holy number.
- 5:52And the women are saying, listen, Ruth means more to you
- 5:55than even the dream of a perfect family.
- 5:58And then they say something that I think is really odd because I
- 6:01had to read this over and over again.
- 6:02I kept reading this trying to understand what what this meant.
- 6:04It said they said, blessed is the Lord because he didn't leave
- 6:07you without a Redeemer. And so I kept reading that and
- 6:10going, what are they talking about?
- 6:13Because we have this guy, a kinsman Redeemer.
- 6:15That's what Boaz is doing. But they're not talking about
- 6:18Boaz. They're talking about the baby.
- 6:25They're calling the baby a Redeemer.
- 6:26And I was like, that is really weird.
- 6:29That's really odd. This is what they say about the
- 6:32a newborn child. That's what they say.
- 6:33He shall be a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.
- 6:42How's a how's a newborn baby supposed to do that?
- 6:45Like y'all thought that that that cheerleading parents put a
- 6:48lot of pressure on their kids. That's a lot of pressure for a
- 6:52newborn to be a Redeemer, to be a nourisher.
- 6:58See, I think there's actually a couple of of reasons that I want
- 7:00you to see that they would mention this, but to but to
- 7:03understand the context of why they would call this baby a
- 7:06Redeemer, you got to go back to the very beginning of the story
- 7:10in chapter 1 to get a full view of the problem.
- 7:14And so when Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem in chapter 1, it
- 7:20was the women of the community that greeted them.
- 7:24If you flip back to chapter one, verse 20, this is what happens.
- 7:26They walk into town, the women recognize her.
- 7:29And then Naomi says to the women in the community, she said to
- 7:32them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, which literally means
- 7:37bitter, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- 7:43I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.
- 7:47Now, if you remember the story, they left for Moab, her husband
- 7:50dies, her sons die, she comes back a widow and her
- 7:53daughter-in-law are widows. Why call me Naomi when the Lord
- 7:57has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity
- 8:01upon me? That's how our story started.
- 8:04So Naomi comes to Bethlehem hurting and broken and empty,
- 8:09and she blames God, despite the fact that she and her husband
- 8:15left voluntarily to go live with God's enemies.
- 8:18And she says, my new name is bitter.
- 8:23Now her name, Naomi, actually means sweet or pleasant.
- 8:26And she looks at this community of women and she says, you know,
- 8:30I used to be pleasant, but now I'm defined by my bitterness.
- 8:34And it's God's fault. Never mind that I had a role in
- 8:39this. My husband had a role in this.
- 8:40It's God's fault. Sound familiar?
- 8:46Now, how often have I done that in my own life?
- 8:49Made a mess of relationships, made a mess of situations, lied
- 8:53to cover up, lies to cover up more lies, finding myself in a
- 8:57hole that I dug. And I'm angry at God.
- 9:01It must be his fault. But if you followed our story
- 9:06through 4 chapters, since she's come back, she she's had food,
- 9:12she's had protection, she's actually seen God's Providence
- 9:16throughout the whole story. She's had all of her physical
- 9:20needs met, and yet that alone has not fixed the problem.
- 9:30How? How much of our lives do we
- 9:32spend? Just just how much of our lives
- 9:36revolve around our physical needs and desires?
- 9:41You know, a lot of us live to eat.
- 9:45We we, we work 4050 sixty hours just to to have food and to have
- 9:51shelter and to have protection. But in fact, if you're you
- 9:55really want to bring this close to home, you think about that.
- 9:58In America, we have almost no discipline around our physical
- 10:02urges. We're a country with with very
- 10:06little people with very little discipline.
- 10:09You want to you want to know we've actually turned hungry and
- 10:13angry into a word? It's called hangry.
- 10:17Many of you are sitting next to someone that's hangry.
- 10:19I'm sorry. We'll be done soon.
- 10:25If you want to ever know how our physical needs control us, get
- 10:28in the long drive through line and look at the faces of the
- 10:30people waiting. So angry that my food won't be
- 10:33two minutes faster. How dare you get the wrong
- 10:37topping on my $8 coffee at Starbucks.
- 10:43This is the culture that we live in.
- 10:46We make all sorts of choices in our life to fulfill physical
- 10:50desires and physical needs. And so here is Naomi.
- 10:54All of the physical needs have been met, and yet she's still
- 10:58bitter. Naomi is experiencing something
- 11:03that I think many of us, maybe, maybe all of us, can relate to.
- 11:07It's this idea that no amount of physical provision satisfies the
- 11:14soul. Being safe, being fed, being
- 11:20warm is not enough. We we can simply look at our
- 11:23culture and come to this realization.
- 11:26It it is the most famous people in our culture.
- 11:30It is the most successful people in our culture.
- 11:33It is the wealthiest people in our culture that have the
- 11:35highest rate of depression and the highest rate of suicide.
- 11:41Actors, wealthy, successful people, get to the end of this
- 11:45little rat race and realize that nothing in this world actually
- 11:50feeds to the soul. From Robin Williams to Anthony
- 11:55Bourdain, hopelessness is a human condition.
- 11:59If only. If only there were something
- 12:02perfectly shaped to fit this hole inside of us.
- 12:09Something no amount of scrolling on Instagram or jumping into
- 12:13another relationship or self medicating with substances could
- 12:16fix. So.
- 12:20So the women in this community who one year earlier had heard
- 12:24Naomi introduce herself as bitter, now look at her holding
- 12:29her grandson. And you know what they say?
- 12:31The first thing they say? They look at her holding this,
- 12:34this little child and they say, blessed be the Lord, the one you
- 12:40blamed for your condition. Blessed be the Lord because you
- 12:45were bitter and you needed your bitterness redeemed, not just
- 12:50your hunger. And now look at how God has
- 12:54provided for you because food is not enough.
- 12:59Jesus would go into the wilderness and and as he's
- 13:01tempted by Satan, he would say man will not live by bread
- 13:05alone. And now in our story, in our
- 13:08love story, God has delivered a Redeemer not just for bread, but
- 13:13to save Naomi from her bitterness.
- 13:19And then and listen, this is a little crazy because I don't
- 13:22know how you chose if you have kids, I don't know how you chose
- 13:24your kids names. But do you notice that it's the
- 13:26ladies in the town that choose the baby's name?
- 13:31You probably didn't crowd source your baby's name.
- 13:35They don't even name their own baby.
- 13:37Look at this verse 16. The Naomi took the child, laid
- 13:40him on her lap and became his nurse.
- 13:41And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name
- 13:46saying a son has been born to Naomi.
- 13:49They named him Obed. He's the father of Jesse, the
- 13:52father of David. Not only to move past this too
- 13:55quickly, because I think this is a little bit interesting.
- 13:57This baby named Obed, he grows up to be the father of Jesse.
- 14:01Jesse has eight sons, the youngest of which is a little
- 14:04shepherd boy named David, who goes and kills the giant,
- 14:06becomes the greatest king that Israel ever had.
- 14:10But the story isn't in there. God makes a promise to that
- 14:14little shepherd boy who becomes king that one of his descendants
- 14:18would sit on the throne forever. And 28 generations after King
- 14:24David, roughly 1000 years later, in the same family line in a
- 14:29little town of Bethlehem where our story takes place, another
- 14:32baby is born. And this baby would be called
- 14:36the Son of David. His name is Jesus, Emmanuel.
- 14:43God is with us and unlike David, his Kingdom would have no end.
- 14:48So the the ladies in the town decide they're going to name the
- 14:52baby and they pick Obed. Who names their kid Obed.
- 14:59It sounds like a pillow company. You know, that could be a lot in
- 15:05a name. We see that all throughout the
- 15:06Bible, right? Like my my wife and I, but
- 15:09before we got married we picked 2 girl names and two boy names.
- 15:13I'm a bit of a planner and we wanted our first 2 girls are
- 15:19going to be named Avery and Baya and our first two boys are going
- 15:21to be Quintin and Aidan. And I really liked Quintin
- 15:24because I wanted to name my first son after my dad's dad
- 15:28Quinn. But we liked Quintin a little
- 15:30bit better and so I was really excited about that.
- 15:33Except we didn't have a son. We had four girls in a row.
- 15:41And so when we had decided we're only going to have 4 kids, and
- 15:43when I found out my final child was going to be a daughter, that
- 15:46I was going to be a dad of daughters only.
- 15:47We call that a dodo. Yeah.
- 15:51When I realized I was going to be a dad of daughters only, I
- 15:55remember going, Oh my Lord, this is going to be pink and glitter
- 15:58everywhere. And I went out that day and I
- 16:02bought a Doberman Pinscher named Maximus Eridius.
- 16:08We got to get some testosterone in the house.
- 16:10It's dying. Some of you know our story.
- 16:15We lost our fourth child at birth.
- 16:19And, you know, the loss of Dansley for our family was just,
- 16:26it was a tremendous, we, we spent a great deal of time
- 16:29dealing with bitterness and grief and loss.
- 16:36And it was a couple of years later we found out we were going
- 16:39to have a fifth child. And we found out it was going to
- 16:44be a boy. And so of course his name would
- 16:49be Quentin. I'd been waiting like 12 years
- 16:52to use that name. And so while we did all the
- 16:57things you do and you're, the pregnancy is progressing.
- 16:59We got the vinyl that spelled Quentin up on the wall and we
- 17:02got the pirate blankie with the little stitching that says baby
- 17:05Quentin on it. You know, we're getting all the
- 17:07fun stuff. And I mean, we were 6-7 months
- 17:09into this and someone looked at me and goes, oh, that's cool.
- 17:12What does Quentin mean? And I went, oh, I don't know.
- 17:18And it kind of scared me for just a minute because I realized
- 17:20like, we took a lot of care with all of our daughters names.
- 17:23We were very intentional about how we named them and what they
- 17:25named. And I'd never looked up
- 17:27Quinton's name because it was after my grandpa.
- 17:29So it was just, you know. And look, you know that names
- 17:31can mean some crazy stuff, right?
- 17:33I mean, y'all are familiar with some of these?
- 17:35There's a guy in First Samuel, his name is Nabal and that
- 17:40literally means fool. And I just have questions for
- 17:44his parents. What were you thinking?
- 17:51So, so in a semi panic, like I run to Google.
- 17:54I'm like, oh, we could have made a mistake here.
- 17:56And I Google what does Quentin mean?
- 17:59And I, and it comes up on the screen and I literally I'm, I'm,
- 18:02I'm looking at it like because Quentin actually means, you
- 18:08know, the thing about names in the Bible is that sometimes
- 18:15they're, they're given like as a prophecy over the child's life.
- 18:19I mean, that was actually the case with Nabal in first if
- 18:22you'll, he was destined to be a fool.
- 18:25But, but sometimes names are even more strategic.
- 18:29Sometimes in the Bible it's used to foreshadow something that's
- 18:33coming that's even further away. But always in the Bible, when we
- 18:37see this intentionality with names, it is actually to remind
- 18:41us that God is sovereign. What that means is that God is
- 18:45ultimately in control, regardless of what how chaotic
- 18:48we think life is and and how wild and disastrous we think
- 18:52that that life might be, that God is actually ultimately
- 18:54completely in control. But things aren't random.
- 19:05And so after 12 plus years of waiting to get to name my first
- 19:10son Quentin, I sat in front of a computer staring at some Google
- 19:15results. And I started crying because the
- 19:19name Quentin means fifth born child.
- 19:29Because the end was never in doubt.
- 19:34God was never not in control of my life.
- 19:38Not in the loss, not in the grief, not in the pain, not in
- 19:45the darkness. And so, as Naomi holds Obed in
- 19:50her lap and he stares at those chubby little cheeks and begins
- 19:54to realize the goodness of God, who has never not been in
- 19:58control but has blessed her and saved her despite her own
- 20:04decisions, despite her being angry at God for all the things
- 20:08that she and her husband did, she finally sees God's
- 20:12redemption in her life. What she doesn't know in this
- 20:17moment is that God's redemptive plan is a lot bigger than what
- 20:21she sees. It's not just a plan for Naomi.
- 20:23It's not just a plan for Ruth. It's not just a plan for Daniel.
- 20:27It is to save all of us. So these ladies in the
- 20:34community, they look at this little chubby baby and they name
- 20:37him Obed. And in that moment, holding this
- 20:42tiny baby, Naomi has no idea that she's holding the
- 20:47grandfather of King David. She has no idea that 28
- 20:52generations later in this family, Jesus will be born in
- 20:55this same town. She has no idea that the prophet
- 20:58Isaiah will one day write about a coming Messiah who would be
- 21:02called God's servant, someone who would bring justice not
- 21:06through power, but through humility and sacrifice.
- 21:11That's how the apostle Paul describes Jesus in Philippians
- 21:152. He says this.
- 21:19Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus,
- 21:23who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality
- 21:29with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking
- 21:36the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of
- 21:41men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by
- 21:48becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
- 21:55The Bible is filled with stories that foreshadowed Jesus, and
- 22:00this is one of them. Ruth, the outsider who's grafted
- 22:06into God's family. That's the church.
- 22:09That's you and I, Boaz, the kinsman Redeemer who willingly
- 22:14pays the price to rescue. That's Jesus, Naomi, bitter and
- 22:21broken, restored to overflowing joy.
- 22:26That's what Jesus does for us. And Obed, this baby named
- 22:31specifically who carries the bloodline of the king, the
- 22:36genealogy that leads to Jesus, the servant King born in
- 22:39Bethlehem. God was writing the Christmas
- 22:42story for 1000 years before Jesus was born, and He made sure
- 22:47that you and I wouldn't miss it. Of all of the names that that
- 22:52community of women could have picked for this little baby, joy
- 22:56or happiness or excitement, they didn't pick any of those names.
- 23:00They picked Obed the most illogical name in that moment
- 23:04because Obed means servant. In the moment, that seems like a
- 23:13really illogical name for that little baby.
- 23:16But if the purpose of that name is so that you and I might not
- 23:21miss the most important story in history, that a servant king who
- 23:27came to die, rise again and conquer, well, if that were the
- 23:32purpose, then this is a very appropriate name for a baby
- 23:35indeed. Obed servant pointing to a
- 23:45servant that would come 1000 years later.
- 23:49What does this mean for you and I on Christmas?
- 23:52Two things. Two things.
- 23:55First, if you're a Christian tonight, but you've been running
- 23:59on empty, maybe you're bitter like Naomi, and you don't even
- 24:03know why. I want you to know that God is
- 24:06not surprised. He's not ashamed of you.
- 24:09He's not angry. He's calling you to repentance.
- 24:15He didn't send his only Son to die for you so that you could
- 24:18feel ashamed. He sent him so that you could be
- 24:22redeemed, that you might have your soul restored to go from
- 24:28bitter and empty to a cup that overflows if you follow Christ,
- 24:35if you know Christ as your Savior, but you found yourself
- 24:38living a life by your own power, by your own strength, by your
- 24:42own wisdom, and you've forgotten that it is God who sustains and
- 24:48gives us life. Then tonight I give you the
- 24:52simple recipe of the gospel to throw yourself on Jesus.
- 24:59What does that mean? It means to rely on His finished
- 25:02work on the cross, not your own merit.
- 25:05It means to confess and repent and follow Him anew every day.
- 25:11And you can do that tonight, in just a moment.
- 25:14As we respond to the sermon, our prayer team is going to be down
- 25:16here. We would love to pray for you
- 25:18and with you. And if you need to come up and
- 25:21confess and repent and be prayed for, we would love to do that
- 25:25for you here on Christmas Eve. We have a community that wants
- 25:29to walk with you. Maybe you've gotten caught up in
- 25:34the difficulties of life, but I want you to remember when you
- 25:39wake up tomorrow on Christmas Day as a child of God, the end
- 25:44is not in doubt. The end was never in doubt.
- 25:49It's already been written. 2nd For those of you that have never
- 25:56surrendered your life to Christ, baby, tonight on Christmas Eve
- 26:03you'd like to do that for the first time.
- 26:05There's no greater gift than the salvation offered to us freely
- 26:09by Christ Jesus according to scripture.
- 26:14Here's how you do that. Romans 10/9 and 10 says if you
- 26:18confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
- 26:20your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
- 26:24saved. For with the heart 1 believes
- 26:27and is justified, and with the mouth 1 confesses and is saved.
- 26:33So if you would like to surrender to God today, I want
- 26:36to give you that chance. Would you all please bow your
- 26:39heads and close your eyes for a brief moment as we wrap up?
- 26:44If you're willing to ask God for forgiveness and salvation with
- 26:49every eye closed, with every head bowed, I just want you to
- 26:52quietly or even silently repeat this prayer after me.
- 26:55Jesus, I know I'm lost. I want you to redeem me and save
- 27:05me. I want to be part of your
- 27:09family. I surrender everything to you.
- 27:16Be my Lord. Please Jesus, if you prayed that
- 27:22prayer for the very first time right now, would you be brave
- 27:25and raise your hand for me to see?
- 27:29Thank you, thank you. You can put your hands down.
- 27:32Thank you, thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
- 27:36Real quick, right here, real quick.
- 27:39Jesus loves you. And if you just gave your life
- 27:45to Christ, welcome to the family.
- 27:55We're going to have a time to respond to this.
- 27:57You go and stand. We're going to sing as well.
- 27:59Our prayer team's going to be on both sides over here.
- 28:01If you would like prayer for any reason at all, come down.
- 28:04We would love to pray with you and for you and over you.
- 28:08If you just made a declaration of faith to Christ, we would
- 28:11love to talk to you. There's some tables in the back.
- 28:13Say I raised my hand. You can go back there.
- 28:14You can come up to one of us. We have a gift for you.
- 28:17We'd love to celebrate with you. Our prayer team is up here to
- 28:23pray with you for any reason. You move as the Lord leads you
- 28:27church. We love you and Merry Christmas.