Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Morning, guys.
[00:00:02] I love you.
[00:00:05] Come on.
[00:00:08] That's the first time I've gotten that back. I'll take it.
[00:00:12] I love you for a lot of reasons. One, you're the best at coming to church in the summer I've ever seen. So you are to be commended.
[00:00:19] Thank you guys for being here for the last week of our.
[00:00:23] The last week of our series in Ruth. I'm so excited about today's message. I'm also sad that this, this book is almost over before we get into it.
[00:00:33] We are going to do communion at the end of the service today. So if a lot of people in the room, we may not have gotten full coverage, raise your hand if you did not get the communion elements and you would like them. And we will probably not sprint them, but we will briskly walk them to you.
[00:00:49] Great. We have some. We'll get it way up here.
[00:00:53] Ushers, y' all are going to get your steps in. Thank you.
[00:00:56] Leave them up till you get them because that is how we're going to end today. We are going to be at the end of Ruth, chapter four, and we are going to see a powerful theme of the Christian life.
[00:01:10] So far in our time in Ruth, we have seen the love story in week one between God and Naomi.
[00:01:18] And we learned that God's love is based on his kindness, not our questions.
[00:01:25] And then last week, we saw this love story between Ruth and Boaz, mirroring the story between God and the whole world as the kinsman Redeemer. And we remembered that in the griefs of this life, it won't always be this way.
[00:01:41] And today I want to remind you for a few minutes that often God works in extraordinary ways through our lives, even when we can't tell it's happening.
[00:01:56] And in honor of the NBA Finals that are taking place right now, which I'm aware some of you don't, my wife probably doesn't even know that's happening, so this one might be for me. But let's start by remembering the basketball team that won the most recent Olympics. If you guys don't like basketball, I will help you through this.
[00:02:16] Here's my favorite picture from the gold medal game. It's a little blurry, but the player with the ball in his hands closest to me in the bottom left corner in the blue jersey is a guy named Steph Curry. This is the gold medal game. The time is winding down. The score is tight.
[00:02:33] As you could see, Steph Curry is double teamed. Two huge guys flying toward him.
[00:02:42] Wide open, one pass away.
[00:02:44] So top left, right There with the blurry face, you can't see it, but just believe me, that's Kevin Durant.
[00:02:50] And Kevin Durant is wildly considered to be the greatest scoring forward in history. For those of you who don't care about basketball, he's very good at making shots.
[00:03:01] The guy next to him with his hands up like this in the DOP, that's LeBron James, considered to be one of the greatest basketball players ever in the world.
[00:03:13] Steph Curry takes the shot. You see him start to take right here. He does not pass.
[00:03:19] He didn't need to pass.
[00:03:20] He took the shot. He made the shot. US won the gold. For our purposes, Steph Curry will be a picture of Jesus.
[00:03:28] Just go with me on this, Because Jesus has a team, but he doesn't need a team.
[00:03:41] Jesus makes us his family and his friends when we trust in him, but he is not reliant on us ever for victory. In fact, in this scenario, as absurd as it may be that we're thinking about, we shouldn't see ourselves even as LeBron or Durant. Let me remind you, or in fact probably introduce you to another member of the U.S. olympic gold medal team. For that we should more rightly identify with. His name is Tyrese Halliburton.
[00:04:12] Has anybody even heard the name Tyrese Haliburton? Yeah, just a handful in the last service too. Congrats to you guys. Those are the ones that will enjoy this illustration.
[00:04:24] I love this guy so much, by the way. He's the guy doing this.
[00:04:28] Tyrese Haliburton was The Joyful Celebrating 12th man of the US Gold Medal Squad in the gold medal game. He was on the bench in his warm ups. He cheered for Steph Curry like that.
[00:04:45] So after the game he posted a picture of himself with his gold medal and he included this caption he wrote. When you ain't do none on the group project and still get an A gold medal.
[00:05:06] That's awesome.
[00:05:09] And that is a pretty good picture of what it is like to be a Christian when you have. You don't have to care about basketball to understand. When you have the right person on your side, the pressure is off.
[00:05:28] What I want you to see for a few minutes at the end of the book of Ruth is that the shot has been made for us. Jesus is in control as Christians. We have someone else carrying us along to victory.
[00:05:44] And I want us to see what this looked like in the life of Ruth and Boaz through the genealogy at the end of their story. Let's read the end of Ruth 4 beginning in verse 14, the basketball part's over. You made it.
[00:05:58] Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer. And I bet you can hardly read that without getting a little emotional after what we've heard so far in this series. May his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter in law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed.
[00:06:31] He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. The End of the Book of Ruth.
[00:06:52] So this is a genealogy that comes at the end of Ruth.
[00:06:56] So I want to review the story one more time, the shortest version so far, so that it's fresh our minds as we look at it. So there's a famine in Bethlehem, and a man named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and two sons from Bethlehem to live in Moab. Things went poorly.
[00:07:13] Elimelech died.
[00:07:16] The two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, marry women from Moab, Ruth and Orpah. By the way, I still have not heard of a baby in our church being named Chilion.
[00:07:28] But I was told this week that one of our high school students named her car Chilean, and another student in our church named her Bunny Chileon.
[00:07:41] So I think we're headed in the right direction.
[00:07:45] Continuing the story after 10 years and without Ruth or Orpah ever conceiving, the two sons also died. Naomi then is a widow. She's lost both of her sons, no grandchildren to carry on the family name. Naomi heard that there was bread again in Bethlehem and went back home in time for the barley harvest.
[00:08:07] Ruth, amazingly, decides to go with Naomi and have her God be Naomi's God be her God, Naomi. Ruth goes go to Bethlehem. But as we saw, they go with little hope. Naomi tells people to call her bitter, right, call me Mara, because life had made her bitter. But Ruth goes to collect the free leftover barley outlined for us last week at deuteronomy24. It just so happens that she goes to the barley field of a nobleman named Boaz, who happens to be a family redeemer for Ruth and Naomi. Meaning that Ruth could. Could marry. That he could marry Ruth and the family name and an inheritance of Elimelech will continue. Ruth and Naomi will be cared for. Ruth goes in the middle of the night. She makes it clear that she wants Boaz to redeem her. Boaz says yes and pays the price of redemption. Boaz marries Ruth. He redeems the whole family. Boaz and Ruth have a son named Obed. The name and the land of Elimelech continue, and Naomi and Ruth are provided for. And it might seem strange to end such a beautiful narrative book with a genealogy, with a list of people being born.
[00:09:18] But through this genealogy, we can actually see a couple of things that help us understand the amazing position of followers of God.
[00:09:29] And the first is this God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through ordinary people.
[00:09:38] Who's the ordinary people?
[00:09:44] Like Tyrese Halliburton and his gold medal.
[00:09:48] Small roles can be part of big victories are part of big victories in the kingdom of heaven. God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through ordinary people. Look again at the last two verses of Ruth. It simply says, boaz fathered obedience, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. Now, no one in here, I believe, is an Israelite from 2500 years ago.
[00:10:13] But this genealogy was a big deal for God's people back then because the greatest human king they ever had was King David. The last name on that list, that's the David we're talking about.
[00:10:26] It's Boaz the kinsman Redeemer, then Obed, then Jesse, then King David the giant conqueror, King David the lion killer, King David the writer of much of the Book of Psalms. You guys remember when the prophet Samuel goes to Jesse because the Lord told him to anoint one of Jesse's sons as the king of Israel?
[00:10:48] Jesse is Ruth and Boaz's grandson.
[00:10:52] King David is their great great or, sorry, their great grandson.
[00:10:58] And this is such a special truth for the Christian.
[00:11:02] God does big things in small moments.
[00:11:07] Because think about the historic impact from the perspective of the people in the story that we've been looking at in Ruth. Boaz wasn't trying to begin a line of kings.
[00:11:19] He was looking for a wife.
[00:11:22] Ruth wasn't attempting to invest in the future of the Israelite monarchy.
[00:11:28] She was a Moabite widow looking for a steady source of food to eat.
[00:11:34] But they both ended up receiving a staggering place in the story of God. And I want us to understand today that there's no such thing as natural born super Christians.
[00:11:45] Paul and Peter and Moses and Ruth and King David. And everyone you ever see in the Bible who is a part of something supernatural or a part of something world shaped, was just a regular person like us, just people.
[00:11:58] Because God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through ordinary people.
[00:12:03] And watch this.
[00:12:05] Some of y' all know this. It's not only King David, the greatest human king of God's people that comes from this family. When you get to the New Testament and you read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, you see that Ruth and Boaz are the forebears in the family of the Messiah himself.
[00:12:25] It's almost the exact same genealogy as in Ruth, except this time Ruth's name is added.
[00:12:30] Let me read it. Boaz fought. This is now in Matthew. Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth. Obed fathered Jesse and Jesse fathered King David. And then in verse 16, after it's filled in the generations in between, it says and Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
[00:12:52] Joyfully acknowledge some simple facts.
[00:12:58] A woman from Moab goes to Bethlehem and meets a businessman from Bethlehem.
[00:13:05] That's what happened.
[00:13:08] King David, their great grandchild, was born in Bethlehem.
[00:13:13] And where was it that Mary and Joseph went because they were of the house and lineage of David when it was time for all the world to be taxed. Merry Christmas, Bethlehem and then Jesus the Christ the Redeemer of the world was born in Bethlehem.
[00:13:38] Ordinary people were part of the extraordinary plan of God for Jesus to save the world.
[00:13:50] A destitute Moabite woman made a decision to move with her mother in law.
[00:13:56] She met a small business owner trying to honor the Lord.
[00:14:00] And then the Messiah was born in that family in that place.
[00:14:05] That's incredible.
[00:14:08] God is so kind over and over again to involve his people in his purposes. We see it everywhere in the Bible. We ordinary Moses, a murdering son of a slave, got to lead God's people out of slavery.
[00:14:24] Ordinary Peter, a fisherman with a questionable attitude, got to be the founder of the Church of God.
[00:14:35] Ordinary sinful Paul got to be God's messenger to the Gentiles and writer of much of the New Testament. Ordinary Boaz got to be the pattern of Jesus as the great kinsman Redeemer. And then he got to be Jesus's great great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great great grandpa.
[00:14:53] For those of you who are counting, I did not count. That's directionally accurate.
[00:14:58] I do not know how many greats we see this everywhere we look. Ordinary people following God and the extraordinary works of God are slowly but surely accomplished in and through their lives. It's unbelievable. And what's so helpful for us, I think know it. Speaking of Ruth and Boaz, Come on, I promise this is good for your soul.
[00:15:25] They didn't know what their lives would even lead to.
[00:15:30] Ruth and Boaz never saw their great grandson come to grow up to be the king of God's people and the man after God's own heart. But they surely played a part of it.
[00:15:42] The way they raised Obed shaped Jesse David and they certainly wouldn't have seen Jesus be born into the family of Joseph and Mary in their hometown of Bethlehem. They found out about the significance in their of their story, the true significance only after they died and were in the presence of God.
[00:16:05] I'm so blessed by this thought.
[00:16:09] When I was in my 20s preaching at this big church in Miami, the senior pastor there always called me Billy Graham.
[00:16:16] I was the young guy, hey Billy, every time he saw me.
[00:16:20] And I don't know what God might use me to do the rest of my life. But I'm not Billy Graham.
[00:16:27] I'm regular Brandon.
[00:16:31] But I also don't know what extraordinary things God might be doing through me without my knowledge right now or in the future.
[00:16:44] Can I follow Jesus and help my children become the kind of gospel centered people who then lead other people who then disciple the next Billy Graham?
[00:16:59] Right.
[00:17:01] What might God do through the regular great grandkids of regular Christ followers and today that might shape heaven to come?
[00:17:16] God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through ordinary people. One of the most famous examples of this reality in more modern history is a guy named Edward Kimball. Fewer of you have heard of him than have heard of Tyrese Halliburton.
[00:17:32] Edward Kimball was the spiritual grandfather and great grandfather of leaders that God used to shake the the whole world. Let me read you an excerpt of an article about him from Harvest Ministries.
[00:17:45] Edward Kimball was a shoe salesman who worked alongside a guy named Dwight.
[00:17:51] Edward shared the gospel with Dwight and Dwight accepted christ. It was 1858 and Dwight's last name was Moody.
[00:17:59] We know him as D.L. moody, who was one of the great evangelists of history.
[00:18:05] Years later, when Moody was preaching, a pastor named Frederick D. Meyer was deeply stirred and as a result he went into his own nationwide preaching ministry. On one occasion when Meyer was preaching, a college student named J. Wilbur Chapman heard him and accepted Christ. He went out and began to share the gospel and then he employed a young baseball player named Billy Sunday.
[00:18:23] Billy Sunday ended up being the greatest evangelist of his generation. It's not done yet. When Billy Sunday preached the gospel in Charlotte, North Carolina, it was such a great meeting that he was invited back. But when he couldn't be there, Sunday recommended a preacher named Mordecai Hamm. Hamm went to Charlotte and preached. But not many people responded to the invitation to accept Christ. But on one of the last nights, a tall, lanky boy who worked on the local dairy farm walked forward. Everyone knew him as Billy Frank, and we now know him as Billy Graham, the real one.
[00:18:57] D.L. moody.
[00:18:59] Billy Sunday, Billy Graham.
[00:19:03] That's literally millions of lives, millions of people who encountered the saving love of Jesus Christ as a result of the simple discipleship of a shoe salesman.
[00:19:17] God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through the most ordinary people.
[00:19:24] That's what happened with Ruth and Boaz.
[00:19:26] That's what happened with Edward Kimball. And that's what the Lord can do through you as God works his infinite power through our finite faithfulness.
[00:19:38] And that takes us to the second thing that I want us to see. It's not just purpose.
[00:19:44] God gives extraordinary peace through ordinary people to ordinary people. Once you realize where the power comes from, once you understand how the purposes are accomplished in God, we get both extraordinary purpose and peace. Christians. Let's see the portion of the genealogy from Matthew 1 again.
[00:20:05] Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth. Obed fathered Jesse. Jesse fathered King David. Fast forward. And Jacob fathered Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, who was called the Messiah.
[00:20:19] This genealogy is a simple history lesson, but it gets us to the peace we need because it gets us to Jesus. And when we get to Jesus, we remember that we don't need to be the hero.
[00:20:36] There already is one church. The Christian life means getting to hold these two truths together. You can be part of the extraordinary work of God and you can be at peace because Jesus is the real hero. Jesus is the rescuer.
[00:20:56] Jesus is Ruth and Boaz's rescuer.
[00:21:01] The Bible teaches that Old Testament followers of Jesus were redeemed, were saved by faith that Jesus was going to come as the sacrifice for sin and as the conqueror of death. And Ruth and Boaz were rescued by their great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson who was the God of the univers.
[00:21:27] Ruth and Boaz got to be a part of the extraordinary work of God. But you know what they didn't have to do?
[00:21:36] They didn't have to fix their own sin or destroy death and hell because Jesus did that.
[00:21:44] Their offspring did that.
[00:21:46] Ruth and Boaz, their job wasn't to save the world. Their job wasn't to secure hope and heaven for God's people. Their job was to remind God's people that someday the great kinsman Redeemer would arrive, that someday the true king would come and he would have redemption available for anybody. Their job was, in whatever small or big ways that were presented to them, to prepare the way for Jesus to come and die on a cross and cry out, it is finished.
[00:22:18] He made it so that everything that really matters most is finished.
[00:22:24] The stranglehold of your sin is finished. In Jesus. The constant need to justify ourselves or to validate ourselves by our own lives is finished. That means being a Christian is so win, win. Because watch. Some days you're gonna be like Boaz. This church was built over many, many years because people do have days like Boaz, when you're noble and you stand up for justice and you do the right thing, and you honor the Lord and. And you love your neighbor and you represent Jesus wherever you live, work, and play. That definitely happens. But a lot more days, you're like Naomi, and you're bitter, or you're broken, or you're beaten up by life. And sometimes we're just like Elimelech and we die early, like that happens in this life.
[00:23:09] Thank God. Elimelech's future wasn't up to Elimelech. He died in the first sentence of the story.
[00:23:19] The point is, we don't have to be the heroes that matter most, because Jesus already is, and Jesus already won.
[00:23:28] That means that today, tomorrow, you can take the next right step of faith and obedience that God puts in front of you in confidence that there is extraordinary purpose for you and in confidence that it can't depend on you.
[00:23:50] Ask God what that is. That's my prayer for you today.
[00:23:54] Like Ruth, ask God what barley field he's putting in front of you this week.
[00:24:00] Like Boaz, ask God who he wants you to serve tomorrow. Maybe you end up with a wife because of it, maybe you don't, and then leave the extraordinary impact up to him.
[00:24:16] He's the one who makes it happen.
[00:24:18] And this reality can change everything in our lives. But I want to finish with perhaps the three most obvious applications of this truth from the Book of Ruth.
[00:24:28] The first way we can apply this truth is by recognizing that we work resting in God's work.
[00:24:37] Work any other way.
[00:24:39] Once we realize that Jesus is the true hero, it frees us to do what's in front of us. Ruth went to the barley field to take care of Naomi. It's God who made it extraordinary.
[00:24:52] Boaz went to work countless days in his life and we see clearly that he wanted to honor the Lord in his work. But he never even knew it was extraordinary.
[00:25:03] He did ordinary work that was made extraordinary by God's work.
[00:25:10] So in your workplace, in your home, in our church, you are free to work passionately, but you're also free to work humbly and restfully. The Apostle Paul perfectly describes what it's like to serve in the win win of the children of God. He said in First Corinthians 15, but by the grace of God, I am what I am by the grace of God. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them.
[00:25:34] Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
[00:25:40] Your work is his work. Christian.
[00:25:44] We can work resting in the work of God. How beautiful. Here's another way your heart can apply this truth we give resting in God's gift.
[00:25:55] Please don't do that any other way.
[00:25:57] We don't have enough to give back to you.
[00:26:01] We see so much generosity in this story.
[00:26:06] Ruth gave herself to Naomi. We didn't cover it. But multiple times in the story, Boaz stacks up the barley for Ruth, just heaping the whatever measures. I forget what he does.
[00:26:22] Boaz paid the redemption price that the other Redeemer didn't want to pay.
[00:26:28] But the gift that matters most isn't the price that Boaz paid to redeem Ruth, but the price that Jesus paid to redeem the world.
[00:26:37] Second Corinthians 8 says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. The only reason really to give is because you've been given to.
[00:26:53] This is important for this time in our church. We talked about it. Next week we're going to affirm our ministry budget for next year. If you want to see it, you can see it at gcc.org budget but the story of Ruth is telling us that our giving can be responding to and resting in the fact that Jesus has already given Himself for our sake to the death and forever. The story of Ruth also tells us that our giving can have an extraordinary impact. Right?
[00:27:25] Sure, we know that. We've talked about it. Our church, God blessed our church to grow 11% this year. That is so beautiful. But we have no idea the full ripple effects of what God has done and is doing here and around the world through the dollars that we give so that the ministry can Happen. God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through ordinary bank accounts.
[00:27:49] Some of your bank accounts are less ordinary than mine.
[00:27:53] God's works extraordinary purposes through ordinary bank accounts.
[00:27:59] So next week we'll affirm a $7.6 million budget. And I hope we all give joyfully and sacrificially throughout the year to God's work here. But even as we give our gifts, we do so resting fully in Jesus gift. We rest in what Jesus gift says about the heart of God toward us. Romans 8:32. God did not even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything we give Resting in God's gifts and we love resting in God's love. Even how we love changes when we understand this.
[00:28:40] You don't have to work up some great love you don't have as though you are the answer.
[00:28:47] Good luck.
[00:28:50] Rather, we love when we remember that Jesus is the ultimate love and he's given it to us already.
[00:29:00] Guess what I'm standing in right now?
[00:29:03] The love of Jesus.
[00:29:05] That's what it looks like. It's pretty normal looking.
[00:29:11] There is so much love in the book of Ruth. As we talked about the first week, that love was ultimately mirroring God's love. Because first John says we love because he first loved us.
[00:29:22] When we experience Jesus, he enables us to love others. It's still his work.
[00:29:29] A couple of years ago, I read the Hiding place by corrie10 Boom. I'm sure a lot of you have read that book.
[00:29:37] And she tells the story of being in a German concentration camp in World War II. It's a beautiful book. And after she survived the concentration camp, Corrie Ten Boom had a speaking ministry teaching about the power and the beauty of Jesus. In light of the things that she experienced there. She's actually an incredible example of what we're talking about today. God blessed her with extraordinary impact for the kingdom. But she also knew that it was Jesus that was the real hero.
[00:30:03] And one day after teaching in Germany, one of the guards she recognized from her concentration camp came up to her and said, how grateful I am for your message. To think that, as you say, he has washed my sins away.
[00:30:23] And he tried to shake her hand, but she said she couldn't get her arm to move. To shake his hand.
[00:30:30] This is what she wrote.
[00:30:32] She said, I tried to smile.
[00:30:35] I struggled to raise my hand. I could not.
[00:30:38] I felt nothing. Not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give your righteousness.
[00:30:51] As I Took his hand. The most incredible thing happened from my shoulder, along my arm, and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him. While into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
[00:31:07] Then she wrote, when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he gives along with the command, the love itself.
[00:31:16] My favorite line of the book.
[00:31:18] Jesus gives the love when we see his love for us. Jesus gives the generosity when we remember his generosity to us. Jesus does the extraordinary work as we keep doing the ordinary work. Christian, you can work this week trusting that Jesus is the one truly accomplishing the work. Who knows what he will do tomorrow or a hundred years from now through what you do today? Who knows? It's fun to think about.
[00:31:48] You could give this week responding to his gift. You can love this week with the love that flows from his love.
[00:31:55] And you can be ordinary again this week.
[00:32:00] I love telling people that, guess what, guys?
[00:32:05] Go be ordinary.
[00:32:07] Knowing that God accomplishes extraordinary purposes through ordinary people like Ruth and Boaz and me and you.
[00:32:18] And let's pray together right now that God will make much the small moments of our lives as we trust in Him.
[00:32:33] Father, as we just read from Corrie Ten Boom's testimony, it is almost overwhelming the love that you have for us, for the people around us, for our friends, our family, our enemies, our neighbors.
[00:32:49] You are love God. I pray for my friends, my brothers and sisters, that you would help us to love because you loved first. That you would help us to give because you give first. That you would help us to work, knowing that it's your grace that works in us. God, I pray that you would make us the most fruitful, ordinary people we can imagine.
[00:33:13] God, I pray that we would get to meet in heaven people that got to meet Jesus because our great grandkids led them to Christ.
[00:33:30] You're the best God I pray for. I pray for our people that you will help us to know the field you want us to plant, that you would help us to know the widow you want us to serve.
[00:33:46] And that in Jesus name we would be your love God. We will leave the extraordinary results to you.
[00:33:57] Thank you for loving us.
[00:34:00] Thank you for sacrificing yourself so that we can have this.
[00:34:05] We sing to you now, Jesus. Amen. Let's stand and let's sing about it.
