Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / What Just Happened?

Transcript

What Just Happened? · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

0:10
Amen. What a blessing that was.
0:12
Isn't it cool to have to see the next generation rise up and be
0:18
bold and courageous and worshiping King Jesus and even
0:21
leading us the body of Christ. So kids, so proud of y'all.
0:24
Big thanks to Miss Teresa and Delhi K and Heidi and I'm sure
0:27
others that serve them in this way and ready them to lead us.
0:31
What a what a blessing church family, why don't we just go the
0:35
Lord in prayer before we open his word.
0:37
And if you would bow with me and let's pray together.
0:43
Heavenly Father, as we gather in your name to worship you.
0:48
Father, we praise you because we know you live.
0:51
Jesus, you are alive, you conquered death.
0:54
And Father, you've given us the hope of eternal life, life now
0:57
abundantly on this side of heaven, life with You forever.
1:01
When we take our last breath, Lord, we rejoice in the hope
1:05
that we have that cannot be taken from us.
1:08
We praise You, Father, for the greatest message that has
1:11
changed us, that we can impart to our children and their
1:14
children and their children, that our lives can be in Jesus.
1:17
Our lives can be redeemed, Father, our sin can be forgiven.
1:20
There's a God who reigns and who loves us and has a wonderful
1:24
plan for our lives. Father, I pray that we'd be
1:27
faithful to instill in the next generation that which you've
1:31
done in us so that you can do in them.
1:34
God, I pray, Lord, that you would meet with us in a special
1:38
way today. Bless the preaching of Your
1:40
Word. Father, I pray that you'd open
1:41
up our minds and our hearts to hear what you'd have to say to
1:44
us. God, Your Word is it's living
1:47
and active that it would penetrate and reveal to us by
1:50
Your power in our hearts what we need to see.
1:53
And we lay ourselves at your feet and say, have your way.
1:55
King Jesus, we pray and all God's people said Amen.
1:59
If you have your copy of God's word, and I hope you do, go and
2:02
make your way to Ruth chapter 2, Ruth chapter 2.
2:05
My original plan when it came to the book of Ruth was to preach 1
2:10
chapter, a sermon to preach Ruth in four.
2:12
And that's obviously not going to happen.
2:14
We're moving a little too slow for that, but that's OK.
2:17
That God's just laid some things on my heart and just brought
2:20
some things to the surface as I've walked through this book
2:23
that I just can't move too quick to to don't want to move too
2:26
fast through. And so we're going to take it in
2:28
some little smaller chunks than I had originally planned.
2:30
So we'll be in verses one through 7 of Ruth chapter 2
2:34
today. But I think you'll see why we'll
2:37
just take a little longer to camp out on it.
2:39
The name of this series is when God writes our story.
2:43
And again, what we're talking about is when we really give God
2:45
control of our lives. When we say God, we want you to
2:48
write, we want you to have the pen, we want you to do it.
2:50
Only you can do God. We're not in control.
2:52
We know you are. You be Lord and master God.
2:54
You be God. I don't want to be and God don't
2:55
let me get in your way. Y'all with me when God writes
2:59
the story. All right, so when we pick up in
3:01
chapter 2 verse one, here's what it says.
3:03
Let's just read that first verse together.
3:06
Now Naomi had a relative of her husband.
3:08
'S. A worthy man of the clan of
3:12
Elimelech whose name was Boaz. Now if you need a little
3:16
ketchup, if you're fresh to this and haven't been with us through
3:20
chapter 1, what's going on in the book of Ruth as we're in the
3:23
Old Testament with the Israelites and it's the time of
3:25
the judges and that's the time before their King's ruling.
3:28
And what you really need to know is spiritually the days are
3:31
dark. These are days of disobedience
3:33
and unfaithfulness on the part of God's people and God's doing
3:37
what God's said he would do when he said if God's people are
3:40
unfaithful, if y'all are unfaithful to me, then guess
3:43
what? I'm going to do things that are
3:44
going to make, they're going to make life difficult so that you
3:47
turn your attention back to me. You're going to realize I'm
3:51
going to help you realize you can't do life without me.
3:53
You can't live independent of me.
3:56
That's not the way this works. So I'm going to do things to get
3:59
your attention. And sure enough, some things
4:01
have happened. One of those things is famine.
4:03
There's no food in the grocery store.
4:04
There's no food in the fields because there's no rain from the
4:07
sky and there's no water in the ground.
4:10
And God's people are suffering. One man by the name of Elimelech
4:14
decides he's going to move his family to Moab.
4:16
That's away from the promised Land.
4:18
That's outside the revealed will of God.
4:20
And while they're outside the revealed will of God, guess what
4:22
happens? More decisions outside the
4:24
revealed will of God tend to happen when you get.
4:26
Outside the revealed will of God.
4:28
And so 3 bad decisions and about 10 years later we got 3 dead men
4:31
and three widows and life's just not real pretty and it and it
4:36
and it and it's things have gone gone wrong.
4:40
Naomi is a. Widow with two foreign daughters
4:44
in law and she decides she's going to make her way back to
4:47
the promised land. She's heard there's food.
4:49
God's people have cried out to God.
4:51
God has answered. She tries to convince two
4:54
daughters in law to stay behind. Y'all go back to your home, go
4:56
back to your address, go back to your family, go back to your
4:58
little G gods. One does, one doesn't.
5:03
Orpa turns her back and she goes back.
5:06
To moem goes back to her little G gods.
5:10
Ruth does the exact opposite. Ruth makes a vow in that moment.
5:15
She's she says to Naomi. Naomi, where you go, I'm going
5:17
to go. Where you live, I'm going to
5:20
live. Your God's going to be my God.
5:22
I'm making a God decision here, Ruth.
5:24
I'm making a life commitment decision here, Ruth.
5:26
And your God's going to be my God and God's people are going
5:30
to be my people. And God's land is going to be
5:31
where I live. And where you die is where I'm
5:33
going to die. And and Ruth commits herself,
5:35
she covenants herself, she converts to following God.
5:38
She goes from following little G false foreign gods and Moab to
5:42
the one big G God. And she's all in.
5:45
The question really is, when you come to chapter 2, is God going
5:48
to be kind to Ruth? Let me put it like this.
5:53
Will God commit himself to her at the same level as Ruth has
5:57
committed himself herself to him?
6:00
Will God honor such a decision to follow him and be all in?
6:03
Will God honor such faith? Will God reward such one that is
6:08
chosen to give their heart, mind, life, soul to follow God?
6:12
Well, the first thing we need to know after Ruth and Naomi have
6:16
returned from the promised land is that there is there are male
6:22
relatives in the clan of Elimelech.
6:24
You say why is that important? Well, this one, before I tell
6:28
you why that's important, we learned here in verse one right
6:30
out the gate, there are male relatives.
6:32
There's one in particular by the name of Boaz, and he is what the
6:35
Bible calls a worthy man that ought to jump off the page of
6:38
the Bible to you. Because if you know it's the
6:40
days of the judges and men are doing what's right in their own
6:43
eyes, guess what? There's one who's not.
6:46
There's at least one this this means I'll tell you more what it
6:49
means later, but there's one who's doing and seeking what's
6:51
right in God's eyes. And this is very practical
6:55
because if Ruth number one, this is important to know that
6:58
there's this man, there's a relative in Limelux clan.
7:01
It's a worthy man because number one, if Ruth is going to
7:03
experience peace and prosperity and provision and protection in
7:08
this world and this ancient culture she's in, she's going to
7:11
need a man most likely. I know that's politically not
7:13
correct these days. That's just the day she's living
7:15
in all right. She's going to need a husband.
7:17
She's going to need a provider. She's need to protect her.
7:19
She's going to need one that can provide her rights, all right?
7:21
Otherwise she's going to face some destitution the rest of her
7:24
life. So this is, practically
7:27
speaking, good news. There's a there's a man, if you
7:30
will. And not only is there a man,
7:31
he's a worthy man. I mean, come on.
7:34
Right. Sometimes maybe some Single
7:35
Ladies in the audiences, like I'm looking for a worthy 1.
7:37
All right. Well, there, there's one out
7:40
there for Ruth, all right, There's a, there's a potential
7:43
husband on the horizon. Hint, hint, the Bible is saying,
7:47
all right. So again, Boaz isn't just any
7:50
man. He's a worthy man, not just an
7:51
eligible bachelor. This guy's like a five star
7:53
prospect. When it says worthy, it means
7:57
he's excellent. He is righteous, he's good, he
7:59
is prosperous, he is wise. Again, I want to ask the
8:02
question right? We're asking this question.
8:04
Will God be kind to Ruth? She's committed.
8:07
She's coveted herself to God. Will God commit himself to her
8:10
as much as she's committed to him?
8:12
Will God honor such faith? Will God provide?
8:15
Will God be good? Well, sure seems like all the
8:19
sudden hint, hint, there's some hope, right?
8:23
There's a man in the picture and he's a good one.
8:25
Now listen to what the Bible says beginning in verse 2.
8:29
And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the field
8:33
and glean among the ears of grain after.
8:36
Him and whose sight I shall find favor, she said to her.
8:39
Go, my daughter. So she set out and went and
8:42
gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to
8:46
come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of
8:50
the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from
8:53
Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you.
8:58
And they answered, The Lord bless you.
9:01
And then Boaz said to the young man who was in charge of the
9:03
reapers, whose young woman is this?
9:06
And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered,
9:08
She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from
9:12
the country of Moab. She said Please let me glean and
9:15
gather among the. Sheaves.
9:17
After the Reapers. So she came and she's continued
9:20
from early morning until now except for a short rest.
9:25
What I first thought that came to my mind when I read this and
9:28
was studying this week. When I think about verse 2
9:30
through 7, what Ruth did here is Ruth realized life was not going
9:36
to happen by sitting at home. Amen.
9:40
Here she has moved to a foreign country.
9:42
She's a foreigner in a foreign land and she's destitute.
9:46
She's a widow, she's bereaved. Life has been not going right
9:49
but going wrong. There's all kind of excuses she
9:52
could have made. She could have stayed at home
9:54
and kind of clammed up and hidden.
9:55
And yet she realizes life's not going to happen.
9:57
More specifically, they're not going to eat if she stays at
10:00
home and the food is not in the grocery stores.
10:04
The food is in the the fields and the right best next decision
10:11
that somebody's got to make it somebody's got to get up and go
10:14
to work, Somebody's got to go get a JOB, right?
10:20
If we're going to eat, if we're going to live, somebody's got to
10:21
do something that's not necessarily it's not complex.
10:24
It may not be easy, but it's not complex, right?
10:26
Often times the gap between where we are and where we need
10:30
to be is just the simple right next best decision in front of
10:33
us that needs to happen instead of sitting.
10:36
But deciding to get up and do something about it.
10:39
I heard a pastor this week, I was on a podcast listing and he
10:42
said something that kind of resonated with me, caught me off
10:44
guard at first. I was like, I don't know if
10:46
that's right. But the more I thought about it,
10:48
it really resonated with me, he said.
10:50
You know, sometimes we as Christians can be very timid,
10:53
very passive and very fearful, very reserved, kind of sitting
10:59
back waiting for something to happen when it comes.
11:01
To the will of God in our lives. What he means is, is that often
11:05
times we'll seek to know the will of God and pray and pray
11:08
and pray and sometimes we we don't just step forward and go
11:11
ahead and walk through the doors God has opened and put ourselves
11:14
with that right next best decision to be in position for
11:17
God to bless. And so he said something
11:20
sometimes he said he tells people, listen when you're
11:22
trying to discern God's will, not every decision is going to
11:25
come with this crystal clear vision and 10 step plan where
11:28
you know the destination. God calls us not to walk by
11:32
sight, but by by fate. So he said, I tell people three
11:35
things. Pray, guess and go.
11:39
How I heard that I was like, wow, pray, guessing.
11:42
I'm not sure I agree with that. But then I thought about my life
11:45
a little bit, and I thought about how many decisions have
11:50
essentially have been my very best guesses after praying with
11:54
all I've got and asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance.
11:57
And you know what? God didn't speak to me audibly.
11:59
I've never heard the audible voice of God.
12:01
God didn't write it with clouds in the sky.
12:03
He didn't write it with ink on a paper.
12:05
But I prayed and prayed. I asked for peace, and I asked
12:08
for an open door. And guess what?
12:09
A door opened. And guess what?
12:12
Guess Kyle, take the best guess, but I remember thinking about
12:17
seminary and I visited different seminars.
12:18
Which one should I choose? God, There's lots of good ones.
12:21
And I just felt a piece about a certain 1 you could back up
12:23
right? And think about college and I
12:25
end up going to the University of Alabama.
12:26
And God never said Roll Tide somebody like sure, he didn't.
12:28
He said go dogs. He didn't say that either.
12:30
But I just met, you know, God opened the door.
12:33
I had a piece about it after I'd prayed about it.
12:35
I'm not saying I was throwing darts in the dark, OK?
12:38
And I'm not saying guess about like who to marry or some big
12:40
decisions in your life. But I am saying that sometimes,
12:45
sometimes we want we're going to put ourselves in the right best
12:48
next position by just simply moving forward with the doors
12:51
God has opened after we've prayed about it, said God will
12:53
move when you seem to open a door, I'm going to go pray,
12:56
guess, go. Some decisions, pray or know and
12:59
go. Some are pray, guess and go.
13:01
Now, in Ruth's case, what's going on here?
13:05
Is the fact that she. Knew God's law made very clear
13:09
provisions for the poor, for the destitute, for the orphan, for
13:15
the widow, for the foreigner and the sojourner.
13:19
And part of those provisions for the welfare of those people that
13:22
were very, very dependent on others for survival was that
13:26
during harvest time, the fields ready for harvest were not to be
13:32
gleaned by the harvesters on the edges.
13:35
Those were to be left. Furthermore, if they dropped any
13:39
stalks of barley or wheat or ears of grain, they were not to
13:43
pick them up. Why?
13:46
So that those that didn't own fields, So that those who didn't
13:51
have what it took to buy groceries at the grocery store
13:53
could show up and work and glean and gather enough food to eat.
13:57
This was part of God's plan and the grace of His law to provide
14:01
for people. And so she knows this, and yet,
14:04
right, even though she knows this, she also knows she's a
14:06
foreigner, she's a Moabite. Remember when this is and the
14:11
time of Israel, the days of the when men are righteous and
14:15
treating people with respect and dignity, think again.
14:19
They're doing what's right. No doubt she's still thinking,
14:21
OK, I know God's law says this, but guess what?
14:24
Probably what she's expecting to hear is to show up at the field
14:26
and said, hey, Moabite, go home. Hey, you don't.
14:30
You don't belong here. You don't, don't, don't step on
14:34
this field. She's probably expecting to be
14:36
treated unkindly, and so she's taking a risk and says, listen,
14:40
I'm going to go and seek which field I might find favor.
14:43
In other words, I'm probably not going to find favor everywhere.
14:45
There's probably going to be some people not like me when I
14:48
try to show up at work. But I'm going to go.
14:52
Somebody's got to go. I'm going to do the right next
14:53
best thing no matter what happens.
14:55
Naomi says go. She goes in the Bible.
14:58
Says something that ought to jump off the page to you when
15:01
you read it. And she, what's that next word
15:06
starts with an H Is it on the screen?
15:12
Where are we? There it is.
15:15
You see that word happened literally the Bible in the
15:21
Hebrews says by happenstance she happened.
15:25
Is the way you could translate or by chance she chanced.
15:28
And I just want to ask you upfront question right here is
15:30
God is his word literally saying by mere sheer coincidence or
15:36
luck or happenstance that Ruth ended up in the field belonging
15:40
to Boaz? Yes or no y'all don't seem too
15:45
clear do you think? I'm not going to ask that.
15:50
I don't want anyway. Let me put it like this.
15:52
I know the Bible literally says here that it's by chance, by
15:56
coincidence, by accident, if you will, that she shows up in just
16:00
the right field where it happens to belong to this worthy man,
16:03
which there's not that many of them, and just the right one
16:05
where she would find favor. But literally the Bible says
16:08
that. But that's literally not what
16:10
the Bible means. You know, we call that when you
16:11
literally say something, but you don't literally mean that.
16:14
That's called irony, and we use that in a literary or rhetorical
16:18
way that makes things something funny or make something so
16:21
obvious that you would literally say it.
16:23
But that's literally not what it means.
16:24
It means the exact opposite, Right.
16:26
So again, from Ruth's perspective, why would it say
16:29
that? Because from Ruth's perspective,
16:30
yeah, she just happened to choose a random field.
16:33
She just happened to show up, and this is the first job that
16:35
was presented. And it happens to be where she
16:37
finds there's a. But from God's perspective, we
16:40
know who sent the famine. God who's allowed Ruth and Naomi
16:45
to return it just the right time for the barley harvest.
16:48
God who's allowed Naomi to have the gift of a brother of a
16:52
daughter-in-law who wouldn't turn her back on her now, who's
16:55
guided by whose hand has guided Ruth to just the right field.
16:59
Nothing. Just so happened.
17:01
Nothing. In fact, I'm getting ahead of
17:03
myself. I don't know where I am.
17:04
And let me just go and give you the first point.
17:05
When God writes your story, nothing just happens.
17:08
Nothing. Now, sometimes I know we
17:11
struggle to believe that. But there is no such thing.
17:15
Hear me, you can disagree with me all you want to.
17:17
God will correct you when you get to heaven.
17:18
There's no such thing as luck, chance, happenstance, or
17:21
coincidence in life. The world was spoken into
17:25
existence by a sovereign God. Who holds it in his hands,
17:29
Ladies and gentlemen, He knows the number of hairs on your head
17:32
today versus the number that was on your head yesterday.
17:36
He knows when the Sparrow falls. He knows a word before you speak
17:41
it. God already knows.
17:42
He knows the thoughts and intentions of your heart.
17:45
Life is not unraveling chaotically outside the hands of
17:48
a sovereign God. It is in the hands of Almighty.
17:51
God, mark it down. Nothing just happens.
17:57
In fact, the word luck should not be in the vocabulary of a
18:00
Christian because there's no such thing.
18:03
And the Bible makes that clear. So here we are.
18:08
In reality, God is writing Ruth's story.
18:11
I've I've heard it said that our lives could be described as like
18:16
a split TV screen. You know when you're trying to
18:18
watch multiple ball games at one time, when your husband does
18:21
this and or maybe you know, if you're into sports.
18:25
So one side showing one view, the other side showing the other
18:29
view. It could be said that your life
18:31
is like this. One view is through your eyes.
18:34
It's what you see. It's what you're experiencing in
18:37
the moment. Live day by day, moment by
18:39
moment. And in this view is so zoomed
18:43
in, it's so particular, it's so personal to you, but you can't
18:46
really see outside of that. The larger picture from 40,000
18:50
foot, you can't see future and you can't always see all that
18:53
was in your past. You're right there in the moment
18:55
and you can't connect all the dots.
18:57
And often times what you experience through your split
18:59
screen seems random by chance, happenstance or coincidence
19:03
because you can't see the whole picture.
19:04
You can't see the whole timeline.
19:06
You can't see the whole. Plan, but there's another view
19:09
on the screen. And it's God's view.
19:13
From his view, you can see the whole thing.
19:16
He can see your past. He sees your present, and He
19:19
also sees your your future. He sees not only what's coming
19:24
out of your mouth, He sees what's in your heart.
19:28
Through His screen, He can see the plan and purpose He has for
19:30
you. Through His screen you can see
19:33
how He's orchestrating on connecting all the dots to work
19:36
all things Romans 828 for your good, for those who love Him and
19:41
are called according to His purpose.
19:43
From God's point of view, you can see everything.
19:46
If we could just get a glint now every now and then.
19:48
From our point of view, it's as if we see the hand of God all of
19:51
a sudden intervene. Like when something happens
19:53
that's so miraculous you can't explain it outside the
19:55
miraculous supernatural intervention of God.
19:58
You know what we call those in the world?
20:01
Miracles. It's it's been said God works in
20:04
two ways in our world. I think this is in your notes.
20:06
The first way is his visible hand.
20:09
God works sometimes, not most of the time, but sometimes in
20:12
supernatural miraculous ways where it's like, hey, that's,
20:15
that's inexplicable outside the miraculous supernatural hand of
20:19
God. We call those miracles.
20:20
God works in our world that way. God also works the second way in
20:23
our world, though most often he doesn't work through his visible
20:26
hand. He works through his invisible
20:28
hand. That's what we call Providence.
20:31
That's God's sovereign providential orchestration and
20:35
leading of all of human history and all of time and everything
20:38
according to His plan and according to His purpose, where
20:41
everything is in His hand and He is in His hands, are behind the
20:44
scenes working all these things for our good, even if we can't
20:47
see them. So listen #1 when God writes
20:50
your story, nothing just happens.
20:53
In fact, happenstance here in the text means, hello, wake up.
20:57
Can you see the hand of God at work?
21:02
Now moving on to Boaz. Boaz, if you noticed when we
21:05
read the text, shows up at the field.
21:08
Can I just modernize it a little bit?
21:09
Boaz shows up at the office. Boaz shows up at the
21:12
construction site. Boaz walks into the boardroom.
21:16
He then unashamedly greets his employees like this.
21:21
Did you hear what he said? The Lord be with you.
21:25
Is that how your boss talks to you at work Monday morning?
21:29
Right out the gate, lights turn on, unlocks the door
21:32
construction site. The Lord be with you from his
21:40
very first words. We're learning what kind of man
21:43
Boaz is, what kind of boss he is, what kind of man he is, what
21:47
kind of employer he is, supervisor he is.
21:50
I, I want to put it a couple ways, Boaz, we, we can notice
21:52
what is worthy man mean. Well, we're now seeing Boaz is a
21:55
godly man. We talk about being godly a lot.
21:57
What does that even really mean? Let me try to make it even more
22:00
practical. Monday morning for you, you
22:02
ready by godly man. Boaz is not just a Sunday
22:06
Christian. Boaz is a Monday Christian.
22:10
There's a big difference. A lot of people want to be
22:12
Sunday Christians. A lot of people don't want to be
22:15
Monday Christians. This is a guy.
22:17
He's a godly man. Boaz isn't a private Christian.
22:20
Boaz is a public Christian. Boaz is not a shy about his
22:24
faith. Christian Boaz is a bold about
22:27
his faith. Christian Boaz is a Christian.
22:29
No matter where he goes, no matter whom he's around, no
22:32
matter what he's doing, y'all follow me.
22:34
That's what godliness is. When God goes with you, where
22:38
you go because you're all about. Him.
22:41
And following him, Boaz is not just a God and he's a kind man.
22:45
We can know someones heart by their words.
22:47
You know where your words come from, The well of your heart.
22:53
His words are kind, his words are caring, His words are words
22:57
of blessing. His words are words of love for
23:00
the people in his life. And so the workplace culture, if
23:03
I could use that, we talk about our workplace culture.
23:06
His workplace culture is being created and impacted by a man,
23:10
reinforced by his response to his to his employees, His
23:13
response to him and their response back is the Lord bless
23:16
you. Does that sound like where you
23:17
work? The Lord be with you from the
23:20
boss and the Lord bless the boss.
23:22
Is that how your your coworkers talk about the boss?
23:27
Probably not, right? Let me ask you some questions.
23:30
Is God publicly honored where you work?
23:34
Is God's presence and blessing salt?
23:37
Is his love shown and shared between employers and employees?
23:41
Now, a lot of us, when we hear those questions, we've been
23:43
like, well, listen, Kyle, I'm not in control of where I work.
23:46
All right? I, I, I get that to some degree.
23:48
But listen, that's what the 1st of this Some of you are in
23:51
control of where you work. You own a business, you have
23:55
supervision, authority, and there's nothing that would stop
23:59
you from saying something like the Lord be with you and us
24:01
today. I'm going to pray God blesses
24:04
our work today. I'm going to pray God blesses
24:07
you and your family to let the Lord bless and be with you
24:10
today. There's nothing that would stop
24:12
you from pronouncing a blessing and publicly invoking the name
24:15
of God and publicly seeking God's blessing and publicly
24:18
seeking God's presence where you work if you chose to be
24:21
unashamed about it. Some of you own your own
24:22
business and no matter what anybody says, you can say what
24:25
you want to because it's your business, some of you where you
24:29
work. You got enough authority and got
24:31
enough position and supervision. You can pretty much say what you
24:33
want to. But sometimes do we choose not
24:38
to. Sometimes we choose to be a
24:42
private Christian instead of a public Christian, and maybe a
24:46
shy Christian instead of a bold one.
24:48
And we, we, we, we restrain what God wants to do, what he's doing
24:53
in US, what he wants to do through us to impact the people
24:56
around us. Boaz is allowing God to use him
25:00
to impact the people in his life.
25:02
But the deal is the godly condition of this man's heart is
25:05
creating a godly culture, if you will, in his business.
25:12
By the way, this is what the gospel does.
25:15
The gospel changes a person from the inside out and the gospel
25:20
and Jesus Christ is the only one who can do this.
25:24
This is why we must be so passionate about sharing Jesus
25:28
and his gospel. Because do you realize the only
25:30
thing, The only one who can change the human heart, The only
25:34
one who can change a person that can change a marriage that can
25:37
change a family that can change a home that can change a
25:39
neighborhood that can change a community that can change a
25:42
business that can change a. City and a state and a nation
25:46
and a government and the word. You realize the only one, the
25:48
only thing that can change that is Jesus and his gospel.
25:51
He is the only one that changes the human heart.
25:53
He's the why do I say that? Because he's the only one that
25:55
takes a dead heart and makes it alive, causes us to be born
26:02
again where we can say no to our sin by the power of the Holy
26:06
Spirit to live out a different kind of life.
26:11
No one else, nothing else can do that.
26:15
And so a change happens from the inside out when the gospel gets
26:17
a hold of us again. What?
26:18
What is that gospel, right? That that the reality is, is it
26:21
separated from God? We are born into this world in
26:24
our sin. We are separated from him and
26:26
have no hope of heaven. We have no hope of being able to
26:29
do anything ultimately to please God in our sin.
26:32
We're selfishly motivated. We worship ourselves and we seek
26:34
our own things. And yet we might find some.
26:37
Aspects of philanthropy and some good out there in the world.
26:40
We're not as bad as we could be, but we're not as good enough as
26:43
we need to be to please God. Our best efforts are like sinful
26:46
rags. The Bible says that's where.
26:52
That's where God so loved us. He chased after us by sending
26:56
His Son to live a sinless life in our place, to die, to pay the
27:02
price for our sin, to rise from the dead, defeating the result
27:07
of our sin which was death, to give the victory so that all who
27:11
would call on His name confessing Him, He would save
27:14
and make alive. He would change from the inside
27:17
out. Has that happened in your life?
27:20
Do you know that you're different because of Jesus?
27:24
If so, that change that happens on the inside is meant to now
27:27
flow through the outside and the people that's in are in your
27:31
path that God has put. That's how things change when
27:34
God starts with us in our heart. By the way, a little reminder
27:38
here, one of the greatest, greatest, greatest mission
27:42
fields that we overlook every single day is the place that we
27:44
work. The people we call our Co
27:47
workers or employees or employers.
27:52
These people, most of them may never walk in the doors of the
27:55
church, but they walk in the door of their workplace every
27:59
day. Where you walk in, where there's
28:01
a believer that's been changed by the gospel.
28:04
And one of the ways that we testify to the goodness of God
28:07
is in the way we work, how hard we work, how diligent we work,
28:11
how excellently we work, how honest we work, how we show up
28:15
on time, how we don't leave early, how we do the things that
28:18
God has called us to do, that we're faithful, in fact, the
28:21
way. We work preaches what we believe
28:23
about God because He's the one who originally gave us the
28:27
mandate to work and keep all the way back in Genesis in the the
28:31
garden. How we steward what we've been
28:33
entrusted is a testimony to Him and how we act.
28:35
Where we work is our mission field giving us opportunities to
28:38
testify to Him. We learn more about the kind of
28:41
man Boaz is by the next thing that he says.
28:44
Really. By what he doesn't say when he
28:47
walks up, Because what he doesn't say, What would you
28:50
expect the boss to say when he walks up on the construction
28:52
site? When he walks up on the ag field
28:54
and talks to the harvesters? What would you expect the
28:57
business owner to say? When he gets a midday report
28:59
from his employees, what's the first thing you'd expect him to
29:01
ask about? How's work?
29:06
How's business? How are profits?
29:10
How are we making it? Boaz didn't say any of that.
29:15
What does he say? He asked a question.
29:20
You notice the question he asked.
29:23
Whose young woman is that? That seems like an odd question
29:28
to ask, right? Is that how do you what?
29:29
What does he mean by whose young woman is that?
29:31
Well, again, during this day and time, a woman's rights and
29:33
identity were tied to who her father was or who her husband.
29:36
Was. And so he's never seen this lady
29:39
before. And he's, he's not asking about
29:41
work. Boaz, a godly man, a kind man, a
29:44
caring man, shows up and looks out on business and like, oh, I
29:47
see somebody I've never seen. Boaz notices.
29:49
People whose young woman is this?
29:53
Who does she belong to? I've never seen her.
29:56
And so we begin to see again further the kind of man Boaz is.
30:01
He notices her. He has an awareness of others
30:04
and shows that his foreman gets him up to speed.
30:08
Hey, this is the Moabite woman that came back with Naomi.
30:11
Everybody's heard about him. Everybody's been talking about
30:13
him. Boaz just has a chance to see
30:15
him or meet Ruth yet. The second thing I want you to
30:19
see here that we see in both the life of Ruth and.
30:21
Boaz is the second truth. When God writes your story.
30:25
When God writes your story, you still have a part to play.
30:30
You still have a part to play. What I don't mean when we talk
30:34
about when God writes your story is when we sit back and put life
30:37
in autopilot, when we just expect maybe to be a puppet in
30:45
the hands of God or a robot. That's not what I'm talking
30:47
about. Ultimately, God being in
30:50
control, he is. But don't make the mistake to
30:53
mean that we have no part to play.
30:56
God's sovereign Providence means that we are going to actively
31:00
entrust our lives to His will and actively seek His will every
31:04
moment of our lives. Let me make it even more
31:05
practical, right? God wants to provide for you.
31:11
But guess what? That means, just like it meant
31:13
for Ruth, that Barley's not going to walk its way home.
31:20
Somebody's got to get up and go go get it.
31:23
God wants to bless you. But your part is to get up and
31:26
go get it. But sometimes it's showing up
31:28
doing the right next best thing. God wants to bless you, but
31:31
guess what? God expects of you to give it
31:33
all you've got. God wants to use you to impact
31:36
the cultural around you, but you've got to be unashamed of
31:39
Jesus and willing to open your God wants to use you to impact
31:43
the culture around you and the people in your life.
31:46
But you need to pay attention, notice and care enough to ask.
31:51
Questions to get to know the people God is crossing your path
31:54
with. To know perhaps what God wants
31:56
you to do. I don't know why this truth
32:02
seemed to stick out to me in this way.
32:04
I think I've shared this with you before, a memory I have when
32:08
I was a a young kid from a movie that I watched.
32:11
And this very truth that we still have a part to play in God
32:15
being in total control, but God calling us to do our part.
32:19
First start with me when I watched the movie where the red
32:22
Fern grows. Anybody seen this movie?
32:26
Some of you kind of a movie that my wife won't watch with me is
32:30
too sad, she says. But I remember as as a kid
32:36
watching this movie and never forgetting this one particular
32:39
scene. If you know the movie, it's
32:41
essentially about this young boy named Billy and he desperately
32:45
wants to hunting dogs. And he wants them so bad he
32:49
can't stand it. But he's just prayed, prayed,
32:52
prayed and prayed and prayed for these two Coon dogs that he
32:55
desperately wants, But he doesn't have them.
32:58
In fact, it's gone on so long that he's convinced.
33:01
He tells his grandpa. Grandpa, I'm convinced God
33:03
doesn't want me to have two hunting dogs.
33:08
So he's telling Grandpa this. And grandpa says, well, Billy,
33:12
maybe God wants you to do your part.
33:17
And Billy said, well, what? What's that?
33:19
Grandpa says something like this.
33:20
So maybe God wants you to meet him halfway.
33:24
You know, I thought about a lot of times how we can be Billy
33:27
sometimes maybe because something we desperately desire
33:32
or direction, God wants us going.
33:34
We prayed, prayed and prayed and prayed about it.
33:35
But. It It's as if Billy was
33:37
expecting those two dogs to drop out of the sky or to wander away
33:41
from the neighbor and claim a new owner, right?
33:44
But that wasn't probably how it was going to happen.
33:48
This is going to happen as Billy decided to scrape every penny he
33:50
could get together and work hard and ask God for jobs and favor
33:54
and the ability to work hard and by God's help.
33:57
Really, that was the part Billy was to play as God wrote that
34:02
story for Ruth. God was writing her story.
34:06
But what if she just stayed at home that day and didn't walk
34:08
out to a field with all the risk that it?
34:10
Involved What if Boaz would have walked up on that field as a
34:14
godly man? But you know what, he just kind
34:16
of leaves this Christianity at church on Sunday and walks up
34:19
and all he's concerned about his money.
34:20
What he what would he have? What would he have missed?
34:25
And God wants to write your story, but God's expecting you
34:27
to do your part right to show up.
34:30
Say God, here I am, send me, God use me.
34:32
God, help me see as you see, want as you want, and do as you
34:36
do. God guide me, God, as I step
34:38
forward. Sometimes it's pray, guess, go.
34:40
Sometimes it's not. Always pray, no, go.
34:43
Ruth had no idea what she's going to encounter when she
34:45
walked out on that field as a Moabite widow, she had trusted
34:49
God. The question was, would God be
34:51
kind to her? Would God provide for her?
34:55
Sure enough, you see, when God writes your story, nothing just
34:59
happens when God writes your story, you still have a part to
35:02
play. And if I could just put it in
35:03
one sentence, when God writes your story, he writes with his
35:06
hands and yours. He writes with his hands and
35:11
yours. I, I want to share one more
35:15
thing with you that has impacted me this past week in a way that
35:23
I, I, I don't, I can't fully put into words, but.
35:27
It has to. Do with this whole concept of
35:29
when, when God writes our story and how God longs to do just
35:34
that. Not not just for Ruth, but for
35:36
you. I did a funeral about a week ago
35:41
for a lady in our church. Some of you knew her and perhaps
35:44
some of you didn't, but her life has impacted me.
35:50
And she was, she was the wife of a pastor for quite some time.
35:58
But without going into any detail, a lot about those years
36:03
was really hard, extremely hard, and ended in loss, tragic loss.
36:12
She found herself a widow after years of trying to walk
36:16
faithfully with God. She suffered from decisions that
36:21
she didn't necessarily make. And, you know, here she was
36:25
probably entering the fourth quarter of her life, and the
36:29
natural question for her to have asked was God.
36:33
Why God? What are you?
36:39
God, what? What are you?
36:40
What are you doing? That's not the question she
36:44
asked. She's 69 years old, a widow.
36:50
Things have gone, not all wrong, but some very wrong things.
36:55
And she was doing an Experiencing God Bible study by
36:58
Henry Blackaby. Some of you done that.
37:01
And she asked God this question. That's a dangerous question to
37:03
ask. She asked God the question, God,
37:06
what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?
37:10
What do you have left for me? God, God, how can you use me?
37:16
And she said God gave her incredible clarity and laid on
37:20
her something that she didn't expect at 69 years old.
37:24
She said she knew deep down in her heart God wanted to use her
37:28
as a missionary to Muslims. 69 years old.
37:35
People told her that to go would be dangerous.
37:38
She knew that. I'm sure in her mind, she
37:41
thought, God, I think you've called the wrong person wrong
37:44
life stage. She passed at 82.
37:49
She said yes to God at 69. To this call I want you to
37:53
listen to the places God took her in the last quarter of her
37:57
life when she said yes to God after what might have seemed
38:02
like a story that would not end well.
38:06
Listen to these places she got took her Hong Kong, China,
38:09
Macau, Mexico, Japan for a summer teaching English, Italy,
38:14
Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Monaco, Ghana, Costa
38:19
Rica, China a month in 1999, New England and Nova Scotia, Yemen,
38:24
Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Victoria,
38:28
Vancouver Island, Canada, Morocco and the Sahara Desert,
38:31
Niger, West Africa and Mali and Togo teaching English and Bible
38:36
to Muslims. Nicaragua for seven months
38:38
teaching English and a mission school, Israel, Jordan and
38:41
Palestine, Lebanon, the Middle East, helping refugees from war
38:45
in Iraq and Baka Valley and southern Lebanon, northern
38:48
Africa missions, teaching private English lessons to
38:51
Muslims for eight months, Spain and Gibraltar, Dominican
38:54
Republic. And she then she says, I think
38:56
I'm missing a few. Maybe I'll remember later.
39:02
So I did her her funeral and she write, she wrote, she wrote
39:12
this, she says I am still this was just a about a year, a few
39:19
months before she passed 81 and in contact with a few of my
39:24
students from each of these countries.
39:26
What a wonderful blessing God had in store for me later in my
39:30
later years of life until I surrendered at age 69.
39:33
I had no idea that these years what they would be, what they
39:37
would be. And it still amazes me.
39:40
And this is what she said. An awesome God gave me an
39:44
amazing life story. An awesome God gave me an
39:51
amazing life story. An amazing God gave Ruth an
39:56
amazing life story. Ruth was at a point when she
40:00
didn't. She didn't know if she had any
40:03
good chapters ahead. This lady I speak of wouldn't
40:08
have expected to have such chapters ahead.
40:12
But is God good and is God kind? Do we go through some chapters
40:17
we wonder why he wrote them a certain way or why they went a
40:20
certain way? Sure, but God doesn't waste
40:23
anything. The question is, are we all in?
40:28
Have we given everything to him and trusted Him?
40:31
Are we willing to let Him write? Are we willing to trust He's an
40:33
awesome God wanting to write an amazing life story for us?
40:39
Do we trust His hand? Do we realize nothing just
40:43
happens but he's riding through his hands and ours?
40:49
I don't know as Pastor John and Praise team are going to come
40:51
out. I don't know where you are in
40:54
your story. Maybe you're at a point where
40:59
you know there's never been that moment in your life when you've
41:02
been changed, made alive, and are different because of Jesus
41:05
Christ. And listen, if that's you,
41:07
that's the that's the point where the story starts.
41:12
I'm going to stand here in the time of invitation and just
41:14
invite you to step out from where you are.
41:16
If God is calling you to say, just come to me, would you trust
41:19
me? Confess me as Lord?
41:21
Let me forgive you and heal you and make you alive.
41:24
Would you come? Maybe you need to come because
41:27
you're right now you're just walking through chapters that
41:30
you just don't know how this story ends and you've really
41:32
lost hope that God has any good chapters to write.
41:36
They shouldn't come and trust God and say, God, I don't know
41:38
where you're leading me, but God, maybe I want to ask that
41:40
same question. God, what do you want me to do?
41:42
God, what do you want me to do? I'm willing to go.
41:45
I'm willing to walk through whatever door it is, no matter
41:47
age you are, where you are, what you're going through.
41:49
God, what do you? Want me to do God?
41:51
I'm going to trust you. Maybe you just want to come and
41:57
put yourself at the feet of Jesus to say God, I don't want
42:02
to be a Sunday Christian. I want to be a Monday 1 and I
42:05
want you to use me everywhere and every moment of my life.
42:07
I want to make everyone I'm count God use me and write,
42:12
write an amazing story through my life for your glory.
42:15
I'm going to pray. I'm going to ask you to stand
42:16
and then you come as God lead. Heavenly Father, I want to pray
42:20
in these next moments as we respond to you that we do so
42:22
unashamedly. We would do so trusting you with
42:25
our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
42:27
God, I want to just thank you for writing an amazing life
42:30
story for this lady we celebrated a week ago.
42:33
There wasn't all roses that God, she trusted you through the
42:37
thick and thin and you showed yourself faithful to her.
42:41
I pray you to remind somebody here today that you're faithful
42:43
and that you're good. I pray that you'd encourage us
42:46
and I pray that someone to trust Jesus today as the Lord and
42:49
Savior and their story would truly begin.
42:51
In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Cherish family.
42:53
Would you stand with me as we sing and worship?
42:55
Would you come and respond as God leads you to this morning?