In The Midst of the Mess - Week 3 - The CORE - Pastor Michael Ewart
In the Midst of the Mess
Week 3 - The CORE
Pastor Michael Ewart
Thanks for joining us for week 3 of our sermon series on the Book of Ruth, in the midst of the mess. We have gotten so much great feedback about this series, so many people have come up and talk to me or send me emails saying, Pastor Michael, this was a needed message at a needed time. I am in the midst of the mess and I've heard many different kinds of messes, but this sermon series has been so helpful to so many and I would encourage you if you missed any of the messages either of the other two, that you'll go back and listen to those because you really do need To hear the whole story of the, of the Book of Ruth, but I'm happy to share with you chapter 3 today as we get into this, and I have a goal today that, by the end of the message today, you will have a clearer picture of what it is. That, that Jesus is your Redeemer. What does it mean to have a redeemer? What is a redeemer? It's a pretty well-known church word, right? And you've most of you have probably heard the word before, but if I forced you to Define it or When you hear it, you have a clear picture of it. Do you understand immediately what it is? By the end of the message today? I pray that you will in connection with that. What does it look like to have faith in Our Redeemer? There's a lot of misunderstanding about what faith is about, what faith looks like. I don't think our English understanding of the word faith matches. Exactly what we see in the Bible. So my hope is that. We what we learn from Ruth chapter 3 today will understand help you to understand what Looks like to have faith in Our Redeemer, okay?
So, let's Jump Right In and I'm going to bring you up to speed for those of you who weren't here before. So I'll do that as quickly as I can. We have so much to cover today. I'm going to talk fast, so there was a famine in Bethlehem. So a man takes his wife and his two sons to Moab, which was about 30 to 50 miles away. Another country where there's not a famine, he goes there, the end up living there for 10 years, so he ends up dying, leaving his widow, his two sons married. Women from that foreign country called Moab. So he may be married to moabites both sons and up dying and what we're left is with three widows the Widow Naomi the mother decides she's going to go back to Bethlehem because the famine is over after a decade, she's heading back and her to daughter-in-law start with her. But one heads back to Moab and one promises lifelong faithfulness to her and that second daughter-in-law is Ruth from which this book is named. They get to Bethlehem. There's going to be a harvest this year, good news, bad news Naomi and Ruth are destitute widows with no way of making an income. So they followed the law that is in the Old Testament, which says that for widows and foreigners and those in poverty, they checked all three boxes, you could go to the margins of the field. The margins were reserved for the marginalized. That God said, the Widow's the foreigners, and the poor people can go to the margins of the field and there they can glean they can pick up the leftovers and from that they can be, they can be provided for. So, Goes out to do that and we are introduced to another third character of the story named Boaz. What do we know about bow as well, as with single Boaz was a bit older Boaz was successful, a landowner and who's gonna have a bumper crop of a harvest here. And most importantly that he is Godly. And that's significant. Because in this time of the judges, when this takes place, we're told that it was a time when everybody did what was right in their own eyes. But Boaz was a man who was determined to do what was right in God's eyes. And we see that again and again through the Book of Ruth Boaz was a faithful godly man. So it just so happens that Ruth ends up in Boaz's field and is leaning their Boaz takes notice of her Boaz protects her and tells the men, you do not touch her and he provides extra for her so that she will go home and Have plenty of food to eat because he has heard that she is a Moabite woman who has pledged herself to this Jewish woman and who has taken the Our God. Our God, the one true God as her own, he had great respect for her and her character and that brings us up to chapter 3. So here we go.
One day, Ruth's mother-in-law Naomi said to her. My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. You see, this gleaning was an nice stop Gap measure. If they weren't going to starve to death short term. But she knew this wasn't a great long-term solution. She wanted Ruth to have a husband to have a home to have a future and so Naomi hatches a plan. Now go as with the who's women, you have been working, he's a relative of ours. Hours tonight. He will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. It's important that he's our relative because we're gonna find out more about that soon. What that kinsman-redeemer Guardian Redeemer Pastor Tim unpacked that a little bit for us last week we'll talk about that again in just a little bit. He is a relative. He's going to be out on the threshing floor. It's getting near the end of the Harvest, the piles of grain are building up. And the the winnowing means you're throwing the grain into the air, the wind catches, the chaff and blows it away in the grain falls to the ground. It was kind of the way to get the bad stuff out and just be left with the grain. That's where he will be this evening and he Then she says to Naomi wash yourself put on perfume and get dressed in your best clothes. Okay? So imagine what Boaz has has seen up to this point. You seen a worker in the field, dirty, hot, sweaty and smelly with dirt under her fingernails. And Naomi says tonight, he's going to see a different roof is what she's thinking. By the way, is another reason, she may have told her to do this, is because that was the process for when you were done grieving the grieving process is now done and she's kind of saying you're going to be letting him know that you're now eligible, we're told that about David when he when he was going to lose his son, he was in sack cloth, and Ashes and morning. And then when his son died, he got up and he washed and he ate and kind of refreshed himself and that was the indication to everybody around him. That he's now done mourning, and maybe Ruth is sending that message as well. So that Boaz knows that she is now an eligible bachelorette. So then she says go down to the threshing floor. But don't let him know that you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. And here we're starting to get into some questionable advice, the book of Hosea chapter 9 verse 10. We read that at the threshing floor, though, this was Blue Collar, guys who've been working hard, it's payday. All the money's coming in from The Barley now and they're drinking and they're partying and they're eating and it was at This one says that, that was a place that it wasn't unusual for prostitutes to go as well, Naomi what are you telling your daughter-in-law to do is where our mind immediately starts to go when we hear this, right? This isn't sounding good and it gets worse. Verse 4 when he lies down. Note the place where he is lying because I do not want you to get the wrong guy. Note the place where he is lying, then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do. This is sounds so weird. He's sleeping, you go lift, the, whatever the it is, outer garment is what's keeping him? Warm lift that up off of his feet, lay down at his feet and he'll tell you what to do,
All the fathers who are here today. Are saying, he sure will. This is not a good idea. Well, if a little Elimelech, her husband Naomi's, husband were still around. Would he have been on board with this? I don't think he would have. Would I ever give advice like this to one of my daughters? I definitely would not. This is sounding like really, really bad advice and we're not sure at this point what exactly Naomi is thinking, but I think it's going to become clear as the story plays out and Naomi says I will do whatever you say. Okay, Ruth has pledged herself to Naomi Naomi thinks. This is a good idea. I'm going to do what Naomi says and she says, I'm going to do it. So the writer is setting up a tension here that she is putting herself in a very vulnerable position, that could very easily, go really wrong but Boaz could easily become tempted. He could take advantage of her or Boaz could call for lights and point out this woman and shame her where she would never have a reputation in that. Area ever again and she would probably have to leave or he could simply quietly deny her, which also would mean no future for her. I mean, there's so many ways that this could go sideways but it's slightly less bad.
When you keep in mind what Ruth and Naomi already knew and that is the character of Boaz. Who is he? He is a godly man and he has demonstrated it again, and again. And again he has shown that he is inclined favorably toward Ruth. Okay? This was a risk, but a calculated risk. It wasn't as bad as it first sounds. Okay. So verse 6. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do, when boys had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits to stomachs full. Maybe he's had a little bit of wine doesn't say he was drunk. And a little bit of wine and he's feeling He went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. That was a custom back. Then, that once the grain has been harvested, it's basically like having piles of cash, out in your barn. You want to protect it. So they would sleep out by the barley because foreign Invaders could come in or even people who thought it was right in their own sight, time of the judges, to just steal other people's stuff. They would they would protect their stuff by sleeping near it. In the evenings, until everything was, was brought in from the Harvest. So he goes he lays down.
He's falling asleep. Ruth approached quietly. He's already fallen asleep. She uncovered his feet. Like, she was told to do, and she lies down at his feet in the middle of the night, something startles, the man, I wonder what his feet are getting cold and you ever you ever had that sense that somebody is nearby you father's here. And it's Father's Day of. You have any of you ever been in a nice sleep in this morning and you something feels a little bit weird and you open your eyes. And there's one of your three year old standing next to you three feet away, two feet away, staring at you. That's kind of how I imagined what happened here with Boaz you senses. There's somebody nearby somebody there plus, he's probably on high alert because people might be coming to Rob his stuff. So he senses that there's somebody nearby or somebody at his feet. So he asked the obvious question. Its pitch black. This is they didn't have night lights back then. There's no electricity. It's night. And so he asks, who are you? I am your servant Ruth she said. And she said something weird spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a guardian Redeemer of our family. What is she saying? What is she asking for? This sounds a little sketchy, right? I think it's helpful to look at a different translation. This is the NIV that we have up here. That's the one we usually use here at The CORE but the ESV has a literal translation that I think is more helpful in this situation. Instead of spread the corner of your garment over me. ESV says spread your wings, spread your wings over your servant, your suggest still not helpful, Michael still not getting what you're talking about here. So I think I think that Ruth is reminding Boaz of a blessing or a promise, or a prayer that he had said in what we heard in the chapter before. Boaz had said to Ruth, when she was out in the fields, may you be blessed, may you be richly blessed by the Lord, the god of Israel under whose wings, you have come to take refuge, but as bless her and said, may you be blessed by the Lord under whose wings you have come to take refuge that word Wing is the Hebrew word Knopf. And it's the same Hebrew word that can mean the corner of a garment or it can be no wing and so the interview went with corner of a garment and the ESV went with wing and I think maybe the ESV, he's got the right translation. Here she is. Reminding Boaz. Remember that prayer Boaz when we met then you said that nice blessing for me. You asked that the Lord would bless me and you understood that I have taken Refuge under the wing of the Lord. Do I trust in him now? Well now I'm asking you Boaz to be the answer to your own prayer.
I want you to be the one who blesses me in the name of the Lord by taking me under your wing. Would you spread your wings over me and protection? Would you be the servant of the Lord the servant of God to be a blessing to me by taking me under your wing? And that's what I think is happening here. And is this essentially a proposal to get married? The answer is yes. Bad. Boys knows exactly what she is asking. And that was bold and that was risky and that was so countercultural. We would even say in our day that would be a little bit of a little bit bold. It happens but it's not all that common that the woman asks the man to get married. But in that day, that culture it just didn't happen. There were four reasons she should not have been asking all for any one of the four would say don't do it but she did it. Anyway, she was the woman asking the man, not what you do. She was the younger whole asking the older man. He was her own Elder in a sense and yet she's proposing that maybe he should marry her. She was the one in poverty with no means asking a man of means and who is successful to take her under his wing. She should not have been, she should not have been asking that of him. It wasn't really appropriate and she was a Moabite. A foreigner, asking an Israelite in his own country to take her under his wing.
That was bold and risky. But I would suggest that it was also reasonable. Why was it reasonable for her to ask? Because she knew who she was asking. She knew who he was. She knew his character. She knew his godliness that he was a man of Faith. A man of principle, a man of integrity. And she knew his position as the guardian Redeemer of the family. That was a term the pastor Tim unpack for us last week. If you missed it. Let me, let me just quickly summarize. What? That is. It's a Hebrew word, that's three. Three letters long. A single word that we translate, Guardian Redeemer of the family, because we do not have a word for this in Hebrew. It's goaell. But we don't have an English word. How you translate it, some translations say kinsman redeemer, this one says Guardian Redeemer of the family. Another translation just goes with Redeemer the kinsman redeemer, the guardian Redeemer. The go whale was somebody who could do any one of four functions. If he if there was a relative that was wronged or murdered unjustly it was to goaell that the kinsman redeemer the guardian Redeemer whose job it was to make sure that that there was that there was Justice. That was served. That was his job to go out and make sure that happened second. If there was land, that was lost. The land in Israel was so important. It was called the promised land. Their connection to the land was in an Essence, their connection to God and his promises. So if somebody lost their land for whatever reason due to Poverty or tragedy or whatever the kinsman redeemer, the Redeemer, his job was to buy back that land to pay the price to get that land back into the family. Third responsibility was if somebody had to sell themselves into slavery because of a debt, the Redeemer would pay the price to set them free from slavery. And then the fourth thing that the Redeemer would do, if somebody was married, their husband dies, they didn't have any children, the nearest of kin Brother or somebody close would marry that woman and their first son, would be the heir of that estate to continue the family line to continue the inheritance to the to the Next Generation. That was the role of the goaell the Redeemer and Ruth new. That's that boy has could serve in that role and that's what she's also asking him, not just for marriage but that he would serve in that role that capacity as the goaell, the Redeemer. So that was why she could ask as well with less with it being a little bit less risky. It was reasonable knowing who he was knowing his position and then the third reason she could ask and it was reasonable, is that she believed in God, she trusted that the Lord would be with her. She trusted that this was in line with the will of God. So she could act boldly taking on her wrist, but it was reasonable because of her faith in God. Okay, so we're at the apex of the story here. It's midnight. It's pitch-black. She's at his feet, he wakes up. He's asking the she asks, him, this enormous ask to be the kinsman redeemer it to essentially to marry her and to be her, her husband. What is he going to do? What will he say? How will this turn out? Say just shut up and read a Pastor, Michael. Okay, so verse 10, the Lord bless you my daughter, he replied. And we already have our answer, how this is going to be received.
Lord bless you, my daughter. He calls her my daughter because he realizes that Ruth first and foremost is a child of God. He's going to treat her with the utmost respect and his first words out of his mouth, the Lord bless you. That's how he greeted his is workers in the field. Remember in the beginning of the book, this is who Boaz is and she immediately knows this isn't going to go horribly wrong. He goes on The kindness this, kindness Ruth that you're showing me Boaz is speaking. This kindness, is greater than that, which you showed earlier and we're thinking, what kind of squishy show earlier? He's thinking about the kindness that Ruth had shown to Naomi that this destitute woman, whom she owed nothing to. She could have stayed at Ruth could have stayed in her home country of Moab. But she promised herself to Naomi and she promised herself to the god of Naomi, the true God of Israel. She promised herself to that. At and Boaz knew that boy has noticed that he said that was a great kindness. And now what you are proposing, I consider a greater kindness yet.
So he says, you have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. Boaz he's pretty self-aware, it's pretty honest. I'm not much of a catch. I know it. I'm an older man already there are younger men available and yeah, some are poor but honestly, there are available men who are richer than me. And you are passing them up for me Ruth, he notices that verse 11 and now my daughter he says there's he's that same term of endearment. My daughter don't be afraid. There's a lot to fear and how this was all going to play out. He says no don't don't be afraid. I will. For you all you ask I would. In other words, I will be your husband. I will be your, your Redeemer, all the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Which is amazing. Here's a quick little aside. Something I discovered in my research, the original order of the books in the Old Testament is not the order. We see today that we have in our Bibles, Ruth comes right after judges chronologically, that's a good place for it. But in the ancient Hebrew scriptures, they put Ruth with a block of literature called the writings and Ruth came immediately. After the Book of Proverbs, do you know what's at the end of The Book of Proverbs? Proverbs 31:10, there's an organization called That, you know what? That is, that's the wife of noble, the woman of noble character chapter worth reading later, by the way. So after reading, and these old ancient Hebrew scriptures about the description of a wife of the woman of noble character as you open your scroll, to the next book or pick up the next scroll in order. It is the Book of Ruth a beautiful story and description of a woman of noble character which Boaz calls out and says you are and people know it.
Not even a Jewish woman, she was the woman of noble character.
So, We're starting to hear the wedding bells ring. We've got our resolution to this story. Chapter 3 must be the last chapter of the Book of Ruth, right? Except it's not, there's a fourth chapter. The Cinderella story seems like it's going to all immediately have a happy ending but there's one final plot twist, which is going to be, you're going to come back one more week to find out the exciting conclusion to the Book of Ruth because there's an issue. He says, although it is true that I am a guardian Redeemer of our family. There is another who is more closely related than I and this may be why Boaz hadn't started down this path already. Why Ruth kind of had to push it a little bit because he knows, I'm not the first. There is a closer relative that has first dibs that relative could marry you, that relative could buy the land back for. You could be the go Leo the Redeemer for you. There's another one more closely related than I. So he says, stay here for the night and in the morning, if he wants to do his duty as your guardian Redeemer good. Let him redeem you, which sounds so unromantic, come on. Go as fight for your woman, but
He is a remember, it's better than it sounds. He is a man of God although he would say, he would have openly admitted I would prefer to marry her. I so want to marry her this woman of noble character. I that is my greatest desire, but I love God more and God says, I don't have first rights here, so I'm going to leave this on. Put this in God's hands and I'm gonna I'm gonna work on this tomorrow to try to resolve this issue, but if he marries you, he's going to marry you. I just use. Need to know that up front, he says, but he says, if he is not willing as surely as the Lord lives, he's taking an oath, I will do it. Lie here until morning. So Boaz promises I will be that Redeemer if this other guy won't do it. But these Asana tension point, right? We don't know how this is all going to resolve tune in next week. Now you hear the story you hear about what's happening in this midnight meeting and she stays till morning and you say, yeah, Pastor Michael I can connect the dots. I know it happened that night. It didn't. What makes me so sure because the Old Testament never glosses over. That sort of thing. Never whitewashes, it. There are so many ugly stories in the Old Testament. For example, you know where the moabite people came from lot was Abraham's nephew Lot got drunk. His Daughters said, we need children. We need heirs. They go and sleep with her father. And one of the sons is where the Moabite people came from. He was the father of the Moabite race of the more bite people. The Bible doesn't whitewash things, Abraham? Slept with his wife's servant girl in order to get her pregnant. So he could have a son. The white, the Bible doesn't whitewash things. David saw a beautiful woman bathing and has her brought over to the palace and has an affair with her. My guess is unwillingly from her side. And she gets pregnant. And it's a long story, but it's ugly. The Bible does not whitewash it. If Boaz and Ruth were intimate that evening, the Bible would have told us And they weren't it was just safer for her to stay there for the night. Rather than walking at two in the morning and through pitch black fields to try to get back into town, to try to get home. So she's spends the night there. Okay, so
Then it talks about how Ruth heads back home. He says, in verse 15, bring me your shawl. Sorry, so she laid until morning. She laid until morning until and got up before anyone could be recognized and he said, no one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor. So, Boaz is concerned about her reputation. Stay until morning, but is still pretty dark, get up. And now he's going to, he's going to send. Her home. He also said to her, bring me the shawl that you are wearing and hold it out. So, there was this outer garment a shawl and she holds it out and , when she did. So he poured into it, six measures of barley. We don't know what size of measure he was using, but it was big enough that he had to place the bundle on her. So it's not just curing at home like this, but it's probably on her back. As there's so much green that she's carrying and then he went back to town. Okay, loads are up with the grain. She heads back home. When Ruth came to her, Naomi asked how did it go. My daughter, she's sitting on pins and needles wondering how this is all going didn't have cellphones. She wasn't texting along the way and literally the question she asked her daughter is who are you my daughter? And and she wasn't saying, I don't know who you are. It's not like I still dark know who are you now? What is your identity? Are you still Ruth Widow of Mahlon? Or are you Ruth fiance of Boaz who are you and she got to tell her exactly what happened so she told her everything that boy has had done for her and added he gave me these six measures of barley saying, don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed which I think is really interesting because Naomi came to Bethlehem empty, bitter, thinking the Lord was completely against her and as the story progresses we're seeing no me it Naomi get more and more hope and Naomi is getting more and more filled up and this time with six measures of barley, then Naomi said Wait, my daughter until you find out what happens for the man will not rest until the matter is settled. Today, our answer is soon. We're going to find out how this all resolves. We just need to be a little bit patient for a little bit longer and then we're going to find out because chapter 4 is coming. So stay tuned next week.
Before we go though, there are some important things. I want you to take out of Ruth chapter 3. I told you when we started, what I wanted you to get to gain from, especially this chapter is this maybe want to write this down Ruth. Especially chapter 3 is a beautiful picture of Faith In Our Redeemer. A beautiful picture of Faith In Our Redeemer, you get a better idea. A better picture of what Our Redeemer is, and what Our Redeemer looks like and faith and what faith is and what faith looks like. So, let's unpack that quick. I've got five keywords actually gonna give you a bonus one. There's maybe a sixth one that I want you to write down about a picture of a redeemer. What does a redeemer look like first one, pity? A redeemer takes pity on a person in a helpless condition. And that's exactly what boy has did for Ruth. He saw her helpless condition in his heart was moved to help her in her helplessness. You have a better Redeemer, and his name is Jesus, and he has taken pity on you because he has seen your helpless condition that you are stuck in sin and you are destined for an eternity separated from God and you're redeemed. Redeemer took pity on you, he has mercy on you. He is filled with grace toward you and he restores you to the father through his death on the cross. You have a better Redeemer and his name is Jesus.
Second one Purity. Your Redeemer has Purity. Boaz was a man who was upright? A man who is tempted by a woman in the middle of the night. It was a Temptation for him but he resisted it, he remained pure time and again he showed that he was more concerned about God's opinion than people's opinion. He was more concerned about what God wanted, then what Boaz wanted? He was a man of Purity. That's what a redeemer is like and you got a better one. His name is Jesus and he is completely pure the father, totally pleased with this perfect son, who is pure, in thought, word and action all the days of his life. He is your substitute, he is your savior. He is your perfect. Redeemer pure Redeemer, it is the Lord Jesus. That's your Redeemer.
Number three, a redeemer protects. To Boaz did for Ruth, right? First thing he does when he sees her in the field the first time Men see her off limits. You don't touch her. When Ruth was in the presence of Boaz, she felt safe. She felt secure so safe. She could take a huge risk and go to him in the middle of the night and ask this question of him, right? Your Redeemer protects perfectly. There is a roaring lion out there, seeking to devour you, but you have a powerful Redeemer who protects you from him and keeps him from tearing you apart. You have a redeemer who protects you and gives you an eternal home in the immediate presence of God where you'll be safe forever and ever and ever.
Fourth one. Our Redeemer provides. It was providing for Ruth, wasn't he more than one time gave her extra grain lots of grain to make sure that she and Naomi were well provided for. He's about to provide her with a home to give her rest and security forever. He's going to provide everything that Ruth needs and you have a better savior who provides for all of your needs. And your biggest need is that burden of sin that guilt that's on your account. It has to be removed in your helpless to do it, but the Lord provides. It's a perfect, pure Savior, Jesus who takes your sin, and your guilt takes it to the Cross. Pays your debt sin in full. So that You are provided. So that you have the Holiness, you need to spend an eternity in the presence of the almighty. God, you have a perfect Redeemer, who provides the fifth one promises. But as promised Ruth he would do everything. And we're going to find out how he keeps his promise. You have a better Redeemer who has promised you spectacular things and he's going to keep every one of those promises. He promises you that you are right. With God, you and God. You're good because of Jesus, your Redeemer who paid the price to set you free. You are good with God and that means you're going to spend eternity with him. In heaven. You have a savior, a redeemer who promises And he's going to keep every one of them. Oh, and then there's here. I told you, there was a bonus one, he couldn't write down a sixth one.
Our Redeemer pays a price to go away. All that Old Testament Guardian Redeemer, whether it was the land or the air or whatever it was. There was a price to be paid, setting them, free from slavery. There was a price to be paid in order to be a redeemer you pay and something is received by the beneficiary and Our Redeemer your better Redeemer Jesus Paid the ultimate price to set, you free from slavery and to give you an eternal inheritance to Make you an heir of God's Eternal Kingdom and the price. He paid was his own blood shed on the cross. You have a better Redeemer And my hope and my prayer is that you're going to keep that picture of the Redeemer in your mind's. That every time you hear that word, all these P words will flood back into your mind and you're going to remember what kind of Redeemer you have.
But we also heard this beautiful picture of Faith. What is Faith like? We don't always understand that. So I got for our words, for you that are going to help us understand the kind of faith that the Bible describes and Ruth gave us this example of Faith. Number one, we've been talking about this faith is risky. Okay? She was ready to act boldly knowing who her Redeemer was she was ready to put herself completely at the mercy of Boaz which is exactly what she did and trusting that he would protect and provide and faith means you do the same with your better Redeemer, Jesus. It's risky. You put Off at his feet you put yourself at his mercy and you trust that he is going to protect and provides risky love trust and Obey Jesus no matter what. Take that risk, second faith is reasonable. Which sounds strange. You just said it was risky. How can it also be reasonable? Because, you know, your Redeemer God has a track record, doesn't he? There are 66 books collected in this Anthology, we call the Bible and those 66 books have a long ancient historical, track record of your God, how he dealt with people, the promises he made and kept, all in great detail for you to explore and read. So that when you take a risk of Faith, it's not as much of a leap of faith. As you might think, our faith is not just float in the air. Our faith is grounded on. On scripture, it is reasonable. When you read about your God and all that. He's done for you and your savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and all he did for you and his resurrection from the dead. All the proof that your faith is also reasonable, just like Ruth was third one Resolute. What is Faith? Like faith is Resolute? What does that mean? Well, it means it's firm, it's not on again off. Again, it's, it's there, it's confident. It rest securely. Faith is resolute.
That was how Ruth trusted Boaz and it's how God invites you to trust in the Lord Jesus as well. It's decided, it's firm. There's no other option. It's all in for God. Faith is resolute. Fourth one faith is respectful. Might not have been expected. But faith is respectful. What does that mean? It means that you are humble before the Lord, like Ruth was before Boaz. She knew that Boaz didn't owe her anything that boy has could do what he wants to do but she humbled herself before him, she called herself a servant before Boaz and that's what faith does faith is respectful and I think that's sometimes lacking from American Christianity to be perfectly honest. You sometimes hear of people that if you, if you ask in the name of Jesus and You have complete faith and confidence in your heart, then you can demand anything you want for God, and God will give it. No, he won't. Because you don't get to command God, you don't get to tell God what to do. I don't care how strong your faith is. He's still God and you're not. Does he listen? Of course. Well, he give it to you if it's good. Yes, he will. But you know what? He knows better than you. He is the almighty God. Asked with Resolute Faith, but respectfully understand. He's not going to give you what's bad for you and he sees the whole picture and he knows better. So we have to be for that. Our faith is also respectful of the one true God. So that's the picture of faith. Your Redeemer. And it's a beautiful picture.
So let me ask you this. Will you be content? Will you be content to glean in the margins of God's fields? That's the way some have a relationship with God. He is this distant may be cruel master, I don't really know him, but I'm going to come to him sometimes. Maybe there's a little blessing. I can pick up here or there. Maybe, he'll be gracious. Enough to provide for me, in some measure some blessing. So I'll go there. And hopefully, you won't notice me too much, and I can just glean some blessings off with him. Is that the kind of Faith you want? Are you going to have a faith in your Redeemer like the faith of Ruth? You want to get close to God? You want to know him even better? Do you want to be married to Jesus? That's actually a common picture in the Bible that Jesus is the bridegroom is the groom. And we are, we are his church, we are the bride and he is the groom who makes us beautiful and who provides and protects gives us all good things. You want that relationship. Are you just going to be distant gleaning in the fields?
This Book of Ruth today gives us this beautiful picture of faith and Redeemer. My prayer is that you will lean in. You will draw close, you will come to know. Intimately your savior, your Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, here's the thing. Can you imagine how your life would look even in the midst of the mess if you had faith in your better Redeemer. The Lord Jesus Christ. It's a good life. That's right.
