Introduction:
The Fulfilled Promises of God... (Ruth 4):
- Come at a Cost . (Ruth 4:1-12)
Colossians 3:2 - Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.
Colossians 3:16 - Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.
- Exceed my Own Expectations . (Ruth 4:13-17b)
Romans 8:28 - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
- Are bigger than Me . (Ruth 4:17c-22)
Judges 21:25 - In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
2 Samuel 7:16 - "And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever."
Luke 1:32-33 - "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will no end."
2 Corinthians 1:20 - For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him.
Number 23:19 - "God is not man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?""
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:57-01:29
I turn to Ruth chapter 4 and while you're turning there I want you to raise your hand if you are a collector of anything Don't be ashamed of a minute. Although there's a lot more collectors than this. Come on. It can be anything trading cards stamps coins American Girl dolls antiques. I don't know whatever it is All right. I know there's more of you out there than you are actually admitting When I was a kid back in the 90s, I fell into a lot of collecting crazes. You name it. I collected it Crazy bones, Pokemon cards, Pogs.
01:29-01:30
Who remembers Pogs?
01:30-01:32
Wow, a lot of Pog lovers here.
01:32-01:33
See, you do collect Pogs.
01:33-01:34
You were lying before.
01:36-01:40
Furbies, Happy Meal toys, and Beanie Babies.
01:40-01:42
Who else collected Beanie Babies?
01:43-01:47
You know, I didn't collect these things just to have fun with and to look at.
01:47-01:50
I viewed them as a serious investment for my future.
01:52-01:57
Children of the mid to late 90s were that promised that all these things would be worth a fortune someday.
01:57-02:01
If you bought enough, you'd be set for life and you could retire in style.
02:03-02:06
And it wasn't just children that bought into these promises, adults did as well.
02:07-02:12
Adults got into fistfights in stores across this country over toys that were made for children.
02:13-02:27
You know, in 1999, 18 Wheeler filled with beanie babies accidentally dumped their cargo on the interstate and people stopped on the interstate, did dodging cars to grab up beanie babies and people were seen opening their doors, trying to grab them while they drove by.
02:29-02:34
As a kid, I viewed these various toys in my closet as playable gold.
02:35-02:40
I bought into this promise of riches, and I thought I was sitting on millions of dollars.
02:42-02:43
Well, how do you think that worked out for me?
02:45-02:50
Well, based on the fact that I'm not on a beach right now, retired, I think you know how it worked out for me.
02:51-02:58
And to be fair, a tiny portion of these collectibles can be worth some money, but that's a tiny fraction, right?
02:58-03:02
That is the exception rather than the rule.
03:03-03:15
You know, looking back at these unfulfilled promises makes me laugh now, but I remember being really disappointed back when I was a kid and I realized that my collecting goals didn't exactly line up with reality.
03:16-03:27
Now you may not be able to relate to my collecting lows, but every single person in this room can relate to what it feels like to be let down by an unfulfilled promise.
03:28-03:32
Maybe there is a broken promise from your childhood that still haunts you to this day.
03:33-03:37
Maybe a close friend promised to stick by you but bailed when you needed them the most.
03:38-03:52
Maybe your boss keeps stringing you along that things will get better at work and you'll get that big promotion, you'll get that big raise, but it's been months and even years of that carrot being dangled in front of you and nothing seems to change.
03:54-04:00
Politicians always say that, "I'm gonna accomplish all of my campaign goals, "all my campaign promises." How does that work?
04:02-04:05
You're blessed if even one of those promises is fulfilled by the end of their term.
04:07-04:15
We are fed a steady diet of empty promises and we take that distrust of other people, when we wrongly put it on God.
04:16-04:24
We say with our mouths that God is 100% trustworthy, but then we live as if he is not.
04:25-04:29
We get stuck in that endless and worthless loop of worrying about the future.
04:30-04:33
We can wrestle with doubts about God's character and his purposes.
04:34-04:38
We can grumble and complain when life doesn't go the way that we want it to.
04:40-04:50
Living this way is not only destructive for us, but it's dishonoring to our God, who has never once dropped the ball, who has never once failed.
04:51-04:56
This morning, we will wrap up our study of the book of Ruth by focusing on our promise keeping God.
04:57-05:03
We will be reminded that he always follows through on his word every single time without fail.
05:05-05:17
So before we continue, please take a moment to pray for me that I will faithfully proclaim Ruth chapter four, and I will pray for you, that you will have open eyes, ears, and hearts as we come to God's word this morning.
05:17-05:19
So please, spend some time in prayer with the Lord.
05:21-05:21
Amen.
05:22-05:30
So before we dive into the final chapter of Ruth, let me give a quick summary of what we've studied over the past month, because I know how easy it is to forget things.
05:30-05:34
Life is busy, and it's really easy to lose some of these important details.
05:34-05:43
So a famine hits the nation of Israel, a family of four escapes to the pagan nation of Moab in order to survive and find food.
05:43-05:55
And the mother, Naomi, returns back to Bethlehem after she hears that the famine is over and her two sons, Malon and Kilian, as well as their dad, have all died.
05:56-05:58
But she hasn't come back alone.
05:58-06:11
She comes back with her Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, who has chosen to stick by Naomi's side to worship the one true God of Israel, Yahweh, instead of the false gods that she grew up with.
06:12-06:18
After a short time in Israel, Ruth is shown great kindness by a wealthy field owner named Boaz.
06:19-06:22
And Naomi tells Ruth that Boaz is actually one of their relatives.
06:23-06:33
He is one of their redeemers, which means that he can marry Ruth and carry on the family name of Malon so that the family name does not die with him.
06:34-06:39
And last week we learned that Naomi came up with a crazy proposal idea that actually worked.
06:39-06:42
Everything happened according to plan.
06:42-06:48
Boaz promises to marry and redeem Ruth, but there's a catch.
06:49-06:54
There is another closer relative and redeemer in the family who has the right of first dibs, so to speak.
06:55-07:01
Boaz can't just cut in line without asking this redeemer first, which we will read about in chapter four.
07:02-07:04
Are we all clear on what has happened so far?
07:04-07:06
I can do that all over again if you want me to.
07:07-07:07
You're like, please don't.
07:08-07:20
All right, so let's read chapter four, verses one through 12, which lays out how Boaz fulfilled his promise to Ruth and gives us a glimpse of our God who fulfills his promises to us.
07:20-07:23
So verses one through 12 of chapter four.
07:23-07:26
Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there.
07:26-07:29
And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.
07:30-07:34
So Boaz said, "Turn aside, friend, sit down here." And he turned and sat down.
07:34-07:39
And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, "Sit down here." So they sat down.
07:40-07:54
Then he said to the redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, "is selling the parcel of land "that belonged to our relative Elimelech." So I thought I would tell you of it and say, "Buy it in the presence of those sitting here, "and in the presence of the elders of my people.
07:54-07:56
"If you will redeem it, redeem it.
07:56-08:21
"But if you will not, tell me, "that I may know, but there is no one besides you "to redeem it, and I come after you." And he said, "I will redeem it." And Boaz said, "The day you buy the field "from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, "the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate "the name of the dead and his inheritance." Then the Redeemer said, "I cannot redeem it for myself, "lest I impair my own inheritance.
08:22-08:31
"Take my right of redemption yourself, "for I cannot redeem it." Now this was the custom in former times in Israel, concerning redeeming and exchanging.
08:32-08:39
To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel.
08:40-08:44
So when the redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal.
08:45-08:54
Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belong to Elimelech and all that belong to Kilian and to Malon.
08:55-09:07
Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his native place.
09:08-09:10
You are witnesses this day.
09:11-09:21
Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses, may the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together build up the house of Israel.
09:21-09:27
May you act worthily, Neferthah, and be renowned in Bethlehem.
09:28-09:38
And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give to you by this young woman.
09:40-09:45
So our outline for this morning, based on our text, is the fulfilled promises of God.
09:45-09:50
And we see, firstly, that the fulfilled promises of God come at a cost.
09:51-09:53
They come at a cost.
09:55-09:58
In these verses, Boaz is a man on a mission.
09:59-10:02
He made a commitment to Ruth and to Naomi, he's gonna follow through.
10:03-10:08
That very day, he goes to the gates of Bethlehem to find this redeemer.
10:09-10:24
And the gates of Bethlehem were like the town hall, the courthouse, or the meeting room at Pantera Bread, as Pastor Jeff calls it, It is where serious business meetings were done, where serious transactions were made.
10:25-10:28
And he sits by and waits for this other Redeemer to pass by.
10:28-10:33
And we're not given this Redeemer's name, so we're just gonna call him Mr. No-Name to make it easier for us, okay?
10:34-10:41
So finally, Mr. No-Name finally comes by, and Boaz politely sneak attacks him and makes him sit down.
10:42-10:46
And he draws elders from the city to come down and sit with them as well.
10:46-10:55
I was just laughing this past week, imagining Mr. No-Name strolling along Bethlehem, whistling a tune when he's suddenly caught up in the most serious business meeting of his life.
10:56-10:58
And Boaz isn't beating around the bush, he gets right to it.
10:59-11:04
Naomi is selling her land, you're the closest redeemer, you're expected to buy it.
11:05-11:06
And Mr. No-Name is a smart businessman.
11:07-11:08
This is really exciting to him.
11:09-11:14
He thinks he can add this to his financial portfolio and make a bunch of money off of it.
11:14-11:17
He can rent out the tenants and make even more money.
11:17-11:22
And when he dies, he can pass it on to his children and they can profit from it as well.
11:23-11:26
And the cherry on top would be that he looks like such a nice guy.
11:27-11:31
He looks like such the noble hero, but he is actually anything but.
11:31-11:34
He only has cash register sounds ringing in his ears.
11:35-11:38
He is not interested in helping Naomi in the slightest.
11:39-11:52
Mr. No Name jumps at this no duh deal and he says, "Yeah, I will buy it, I will redeem it." And Boaz quickly pulls the rug out from under him with the catch to this deal and pulls the classic Columbo move that you all know about, right?
11:52-11:53
One more thing, one more thing.
11:54-11:55
Is that okay?
11:56-11:56
All right, good.
11:57-11:58
I was working on that all week.
11:59-11:59
(congregation laughing)
12:00-12:02
Thank you, thank you so much, thank you.
12:03-12:03
One more thing.
12:04-12:08
This deal also includes you marrying Ruth the Moabite, just so you know.
12:09-12:14
I imagine this guy's stomach sinking when he finally realizes what he has agreed to.
12:14-12:20
If he marries Ruth, he is agreeing to attempt to father a son with her.
12:20-12:26
And this son will own this land when he grows up, not his existing kids.
12:28-12:31
Suddenly, this amazing deal doesn't seem so amazing anymore.
12:32-12:36
It seems like a liability rather than a profit.
12:36-12:39
And Mr. No Name isn't interested in doing the right thing.
12:39-12:42
He's not interested in offering any charity.
12:42-12:44
So he kind of walks back his promises.
12:44-12:45
Whoa, whoa, nevermind.
12:46-12:47
I didn't read the fine print for saying yes.
12:48-12:52
Boaz, if you want it, go ahead, redeem the land 'cause I cannot do it.
12:53-13:00
And I just imagine that Boaz had to resist the urge to fist pump and high five all of the elders 'cause that's what he wanted to hear.
13:00-13:04
He wanted this guy to say no so that he could say yes.
13:05-13:09
And they do something a bit strange to seal the deal to us in 2024.
13:09-13:13
So I'm gonna actually have James Austin come up to help give you a physical demonstration of this.
13:13-13:15
Let's give James a round of applause before he gets up here.
13:19-13:19
All right.
13:20-13:23
So imagine that James is Boaz, okay?
13:23-13:24
And I'm Mr. No Name.
13:24-13:26
So you're the good guy in this story and I'm the bad guy, okay?
13:27-13:33
So instead of signing a contract or shaking hands, Boaz, I'm sorry, Mr. No Name takes off his sandal.
13:33-13:38
Imagine this is a sandal because I look really dumb in sandals and didn't feel like the best idea for preaching.
13:38-13:43
So he took off his sandal and he gave it to Boaz.
13:43-13:46
I sprayed that shoe, but I still wouldn't smell it if I were you.
13:47-13:48
So let me have that back.
13:48-13:53
So by giving Boaz his sandal, he is giving away his redeemer right.
13:54-13:59
He is saying, I am giving up all of my claim to Ruth and this property.
13:59-14:01
I am now giving it to Boaz.
14:01-14:02
Does that make sense?
14:03-14:04
All right, this ought to make sense.
14:04-14:06
You would keep the shoe, but that'd be kind of weird.
14:06-14:08
So everyone thank James while I get my shoe back on.
14:13-14:23
So after this big ceremony, the elders verify this legal transaction, and they also speak a word of blessing over Ruth and Boaz.
14:23-14:28
And they are sure that the Lord will bless this future marriage with a son.
14:30-14:36
You know, Boaz's fulfilled promise to Ruth came at a great personal cost.
14:37-14:42
He agreed to attempt to father a son that would not even legally be his.
14:44-14:52
He is agreeing to steward a piece of property that will not ultimately belong to him or boost his personal net worth long term.
14:53-15:00
But out of love and loyalty, Boaz paid this price joyfully and willingly.
15:01-15:04
Does that remind you of anyone else in scripture?
15:05-15:14
The Old Testament points to the Messiah, the chosen one, the anointed one of God who would come to pay the price for our sin.
15:14-15:18
He would suffer and die to save his people.
15:18-15:24
Jesus joyfully and willingly paid this great and terrible cost.
15:27-15:34
I was thinking this past week, how often do we really stop and think all that Jesus has sacrificed for us.
15:35-15:36
And I'm not just talking about the cross.
15:37-15:44
I'm talking about the years, the months, the days, the hours, the minutes, and the seconds that led up to it.
15:45-15:49
God Almighty took on flesh and became a man.
15:50-15:56
The one who spoke everything into being entered into this world as a little baby.
15:57-16:05
The same one who spoke the world into existence, The power of his words had to learn how to read and to speak.
16:05-16:08
He lowered himself enough to do that.
16:09-16:18
The one who knit his earthly parents together in the womb submitted to their leadership even though he was perfect and they were sinful.
16:19-16:27
The all-powerful sustainer of existence had to sleep, he had to eat, he had to deal with all the annoyances that come along with having a human body.
16:28-16:32
the giver of life laid down his own life on the cross.
16:34-16:42
The one who had perfect fellowship with his father was rejected and separated on the cross for what felt like eternity.
16:44-16:49
We cannot even begin to scratch the surface of all that Jesus has sacrificed for us.
16:50-16:59
But thankfully we have all of eternity to thank him, to worship him, to fall down in amazement and awe before him.
17:01-17:08
In the meantime, let us choose to meditate upon this sacrifice and further explore its depths in the word of God.
17:10-17:14
We get so sidetracked and impressed by the most trivial things, don't we?
17:15-17:15
I know that I do.
17:16-17:30
We get sucked into the YouTube wormhole, pointless posts on social media, a 24-hour news and sports cycle, and dumb games on our phone that suck out so much time that we'll never ever get back.
17:31-17:38
We willingly choose to take our eyes off the most important thing in existence, the holy love of God in Christ Jesus.
17:40-17:43
No wonder we sometimes doubt if God actually cares about us.
17:44-17:48
It's no surprise that our circumstances seem so insurmountable at times.
17:49-17:57
It's not exactly a head-scratcher why we often fail to fully engage on Sunday mornings or obey God's clear commands.
17:57-18:07
We are so often checked out spiritually, but dialed into worldly things that ramp up, that crank up our ignorance and our anxiety.
18:08-18:18
We need to unbury our heads from the garbage of this culture and instead saturate our minds in the heavenly truths of the word of God.
18:19-18:26
as Paul says in Colossians 3, 2, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
18:27-18:33
And later on in that same chapter, Paul gives this command, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
18:35-18:37
Do those verses describe you?
18:38-18:41
Do those verses describe what you think about day by day?
18:43-18:46
Do you set your mind on things that are above, where Christ is?
18:47-18:51
is the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
18:52-18:56
We must continually set our minds upon the truth.
18:57-19:04
We can't just dip our toes into the word of God and we feel like it, we're called to immerse ourself in it.
19:05-19:20
We are called to preach the gospel of grace to ourselves every single day instead of falling into the self-advice and pep talks that so many people in the church fall into, harvest, let us truly live up to our middle name and be people of the Bible.
19:21-19:27
People who immerse ourselves in the word of God because every single time we come to it, God is speaking to us.
19:29-19:31
Let's stop focusing on things that do not matter.
19:32-19:37
Secondly, the fulfilled promises of God exceed my own expectations.
19:38-19:40
Exceed my own expectations.
19:43-19:48
So let's see how Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz's stories conclude in verses 13 through 17.
19:50-19:57
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went into her and the Lord gave her conception and she bore a son.
19:58-20:06
Then the women said to Naomi, blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer and may his name be renowned in Israel.
20:07-20:11
He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.
20:11-20:17
for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him.
20:18-20:22
Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.
20:22-20:28
And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying a son has been born to Naomi.
20:28-20:30
They named him Obed.
20:32-20:38
What a beautiful outcome for these three people that we've learned so much about over the past month.
20:39-20:49
Ruth and Boaz get married and the Lord quickly blesses this union with a son, which means the family line of Elimelech and Malon has not died and come to an end.
20:50-20:56
And the women of Bethlehem actually name this little baby, they rejoice over this birth, and they name him Obed.
20:57-20:58
Isn't that a bit weird?
20:59-21:03
Can you imagine anyone but you as the parent naming your own child?
21:04-21:06
Can you imagine someone just being like, stepping in and be like, hold on, I got this.
21:07-21:08
Coming up with names is what I'm good at.
21:09-21:12
How about Farron if it's a boy and Jezebel if it's a girl?
21:14-21:14
No thank you.
21:16-21:20
Whenever Kate and I were planning our kids' names, we didn't put a poll on Facebook.
21:21-21:26
We didn't ask the doctors and the nurses and the janitors at the hospital to do the honors for us.
21:26-21:30
This is the only time in scripture where a child is named in this way.
21:32-21:37
And the ladies decide on the name Obed, which means servant, servant of God.
21:38-21:44
They describe him as Naomi's redeemer, her restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.
21:44-21:47
Obed will be the number one man in her life.
21:48-21:52
He is expected to grow up and take care of his grandmother and provide for her.
21:52-21:53
He will be her guardian.
21:54-21:55
He will be her protector.
21:55-21:58
He will be her redeemer.
22:00-22:05
And the Bethlehem Golden Girls, as I like to call them, also remind Naomi that she was taken care of
22:05-22:06
(congregation laughing)
22:09-22:10
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
22:10-22:11
(congregation laughing)
22:13-22:24
So the Bedlam Golden Girls also remind Naomi that she had been blessed all along, that the Lord had blessed her with Ruth, who is better than having seven sons.
22:25-22:31
And we kind of lose the impact of this in 2024 because having a daughter or a son is of equal value and excitement, right?
22:31-22:35
But back in those days, A son was the one who cared on the family line.
22:35-22:37
So he was used the one that the father wanted to have.
22:37-22:42
No, actually, Ruth is better than having seven sons of your own.
22:44-22:53
In chapter one, we read that Naomi felt like the hand of God had afflicted her, but he had actually blessed her with the gift of Ruth.
22:53-23:05
She said, "I feel like I've come back to Bethlehem "empty-handed, but now those same hands "are holding her precious grandson who would not exist apart from the trials that she had to endure.
23:06-23:09
There would be no Obed without opposition.
23:11-23:17
Naomi's life turned out much differently than she expected when she married a limeleck all those years before.
23:18-23:25
She definitely wouldn't have chosen this bitter path that she had to walk, but God's sweet blessings were at the end of it.
23:25-23:30
And he far exceeded her own ideas and plans for her life.
23:32-23:37
I was thinking this past week, we all have dreams that we want to see come true.
23:39-23:42
Expectations that we hope to see become reality.
23:42-23:45
Ideas for how our lives should go.
23:46-23:48
And it's normal to make these plans.
23:49-23:51
It's normal to pursue after certain goals.
23:52-23:56
But it's a bad idea to hold God to your own plans and timetables.
23:57-24:01
God is not a divine vending machine who spits out every treat you desire.
24:02-24:05
He is not a waiter that you can snap at and boss around.
24:05-24:09
He is not a servant who feeds you grapes and fans you with a big leaf.
24:10-24:14
We should never expect God to fulfill what he never promised.
24:15-24:19
We should never expect God to fulfill what he never promised.
24:21-24:24
All right, so what does God promise us?
24:25-24:26
Well, he promises us a lot of things.
24:26-24:32
We can't possibly talk about all of them this morning, let me focus on a big one that we often get wrong.
24:32-24:54
In Romans 8, 28, the apostle Paul promises that, "And we know for those who love God, "all things work together for good "for those who are called according to his purpose." A lot of Christians know and love this verse and have it memorized, but they totally have misunderstood it and misapplied it.
24:54-24:59
Paul isn't promising that God will work all things together to accomplish your personal dreams.
25:00-25:04
He isn't promising that God will work all things together to fulfill your wish list.
25:05-25:10
He isn't promising that God will work all things together to give you a life of comfort.
25:10-25:16
He is promising that God will work all things together for your ultimate good.
25:18-25:22
All right, great, but what is my ultimate good?
25:23-25:26
Is my ultimate good being successful in my chosen profession?
25:27-25:32
It can't be that because a lot of the most successful people are the most miserable people on this planet.
25:33-25:34
Is it financial security?
25:35-25:43
Well, as great as that is and as nice as that is, it certainly won't make you happy as you think, and it won't solve all your problems.
25:44-25:47
Is it the easiest life possible with the least amount of road bumps?
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Again, it can't be that because the people with the cushiest lives tend to grumble and complain more than anyone else.
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Okay, then what is it?
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What is your ultimate good?
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Well, it's actually very simple, according to the next verse in Romans chapter eight and the rest of the New Testament.
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Your ultimate good is Christ-likeness.
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Being conformed, being drawn into the image of who Christ is and becoming more like him.
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And this involves putting your sin to death, denying yourself, exalting God and all things instead of yourself.
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Christlikeness must be the driving goal and ambition of your life, because that is God's driving goal and ambition for your life.
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And God cannot cut away our sinful edges without the instrument of pain.
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Gold cannot be refined apart from fire.
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A diamond cannot be made without intense pressure.
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I know what some of you are thinking right now.
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I've heard this all before, Taylor, but you have no idea what I'm going through right now.
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And you're right.
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I in no way want to minimize your pain or belittle your hardships.
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I know that some of you in this room are going through suffering I can't even begin to understand.
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But I want you to know, at the deepest level of your being, that God never, ever wastes your pain.
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Suffering is never senseless, ever.
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Paul promises that the Lord will use every single situation, every single relationship in your life, every single adversity to bring you into conformity to Christ and draw you ever nearer to him.
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Does that sound good and right to you?
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And if it doesn't, then you may be trying to use God your own agenda rather than submitting to him to be used to advance his agenda.
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You may be putting your own wrong expectations above the right expectations of God.
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And if that's you, I just wanna tell you to hold your plans, to hold your expectations very loosely.
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Give them over to the Lord.
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Let go of your short-sighted expectations and grab onto his guaranteed promises instead.
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Finally, the fulfilled promises of God are bigger than me.
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The fulfilled promises of God are bigger than me.
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And these last few verses that we're about to read may seem unimportant at a first glance.
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You might look at 'em like, oh, a genealogy, I can just tune out and not listen to this.
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That'd be a big mistake because these are by far the most exciting and the most important verses of the entire book of Ruth.
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These past four chapters, the author has zoomed in on the personal lives of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz, but now he is zooming out to show us the big picture, to show us what God has been up to all along.
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So let's read verses 17 through 22.
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They named him Obed.
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He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
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Now these are the generations of Perez.
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Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amenadab, Amenadab fathered Nishan, Nishan fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
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You know, the most difficult part of seminary for me was learning the original biblical languages.
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Tackling New Testament Greek certainly wasn't easy, but it was much easier than doing Old Testament Hebrew.
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And to be honest with you, I procrastinated to the last possible second of my seminary degree to take Hebrew because I didn't think I could do it.
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Hebrew is particularly difficult because the letters look ridiculous to an English speaker's mind.
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These are the last few verses of Ruth in Hebrew.
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Now you know how I felt back in 2018 on my first day of Hebrew, like what is this?
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And the other hard thing about Hebrew is that you don't read it from left to right like we read.
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You read it from right to left.
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If you try to read it frontwards, it'll look like senseless gobbledygook.
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But if you read it backwards, that will lead to true understanding and comprehension.
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And a pastor from several hundred years ago once wrote, "The providence of God is like a Hebrew word.
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"It can only be read backwards." God's plans often do not make sense to us until we can see where they ultimately lead.
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His ways can seem ridiculous and random until we have this backwards viewpoint that typically only comes with time and patience.
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And this certainly rings true for the book of Ruth.
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We have been on a wild ride with a lot of twists and turns, but now we have arrived at God's intended destination.
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Everything that we have studied over the past month only makes sense in light of these final verses.
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This book would be incomplete and pointless without its ending.
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God orchestrated and used the famine in Israel, the deaths of Elimelech and his boys, the depression of Naomi, the barley harvest in Bethlehem, the weird midnight proposal with Boaz and Ruth and the sudden business meeting at the gates of Bethlehem to lead to Obed, who fathered Jesse, who then fathered David.
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This whole month, we've been studying the family line of King David.
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Remember that Ruth takes place in the time of judges, which ends with these words, "In those days, there was no king in Israel.
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Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
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But during that time, God was getting ready the king who would serve with a heart that is after his own.
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A king who would serve with righteousness and integrity.
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The most famous king in Israel's history.
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And we could end this message right here, but we would still miss the real ending of the book of Ruth.
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'Cause let me ask you, if you know David's life story, was he the perfect king?
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Did he do everything right?
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Not at all.
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He did great things, but he also did despicable things that we still talk about to this day.
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He was unable to fix all of Israel's problems, and his sinful choices led to the devastation, not just his family, but of his kingdom.
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David's family line included good kings, but a lot of bad kings as well that led Israel into idolatry and sin.
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And eventually because of this, God brings exile upon his people, which seemingly crushes the kingly line of David.
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It seems like God's promise to David has been left unfulfilled and broken.
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From 2 Samuel 7, 16, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
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Your throne shall be established forever.
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Bummer, what a massive disappointment.
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Or maybe God was providentially directing his promise to be fulfilled in the most unexpected of ways.
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This genealogy from Ruth chapter four, verses 18 through 22 is repeated in Matthew chapter one, verses three through six.
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And Matthew continues on with the family line of David until he ends on one final name and descendant.
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And this name is the name above every other name.
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This final name is the ultimate fulfillment of this promise to David, and the name is what?
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Jesus.
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Listen to how he is described by the angel Gabriel before he was even born.
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He will be great, and he will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
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The promise is fulfilled.
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Ruth is way more than just a rom-com story of two people falling in love.
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Ruth is not about Ruth.
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It's not about Boaz.
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It's not about Naomi.
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It's not even about Obed and his grandson David, the great king of Israel, like the rest of scripture, that is about the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, Ruth points us to Jesus.
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He is the one we truly need.
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He is the one who can take away our sin and bring us into a right relationship with God.
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He is the true King of not just Israel, but of heaven and earth.
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He is the leader who can help us to turn away from doing what is right in our own eyes, so we can turn towards doing what is right in the eyes of our holy creator.
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Jesus is the answer to God's many promises.
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And Paul affirms this in 2 Corinthians 1:20, "For all, all the promises of God, find their yes in him." Find their yes in Jesus Christ.
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You know, I've heard the relationship between the Old and New Testament described in this profound way.
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The Old Testament is all about God making promises, and the New Testament is all about God keeping those promises.
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Harvest, we can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God will keep his many promises to us about our present and our future, because we can look in the word of God, the past of God, keeping all of his promises to his people.
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As we read in Numbers 23, 19, God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind?
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Has he said and will he not do it?
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Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?
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God is totally unlike us in every single way.
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God doesn't say something but mean another.
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He hasn't crossed his fingers behind his back when he says something.
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God's promises are reality.
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He is incapable of not fulfilling his word.
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the worship team can come forward.
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You know, over the past four weeks, and this morning in particular, I've tried to make it crystal clear that Ruth's book is not even about her.
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And as we wrap up this series, I want to make one final thing crystal clear to you as well.
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Your life is not about you.
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Your life is not about your job or your list of accomplishments.
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Your life is not about your spouse.
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Your life isn't even about your kids and your grandkids.
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Your life should be all about Jesus Christ and bringing him glory in all that you think, say, and do.
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And if you truly work that basic yet profound truth into your heart, into your mind, you will experience a sense of joy and freedom that you've never had before.
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That Christ-like mindset will free you to become a better and more selfless spouse, parent, friend, and church member.
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There is nothing more relieving than realizing that you're really not that important.
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You're important, but you're not that important.
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You are just a background stage actor in the movie of life.
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Jesus Christ is the main star, and you exist to shine the spotlight onto him.
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You know, in the Lord's Supper, we are given a tangible way of shining that spotlight onto Christ, and in particular, His sacrificial death upon the cross.
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This isn't just an empty religious ritual.
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This isn't something we do to pad out the service.
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This is a holy moment.
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We come together as the body of Christ to remember what He has done for us and to thank Him.
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When we eat the bread, we remember that he gave his body to be broken for us.
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That he gave his blood when we drink the cup to shed upon the cross to wash our sins clean.
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Do not take this time lightly because God does not take it lightly.
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This is one of the most serious things we can do as a church.
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It's where elders can now come forward.
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I wanna be clear, you don't need to be a member church to take part in communion, but you do need to be a member of the family of God.
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Scripture is so clear that this meal is only for born again believers in Christ.
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So if you are not a Christian, I encourage you to stay seated.
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But I also want to plead with you to bow the knee to Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
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Stop trying to take center stage in your life and instead humble yourself before him so that you can be forgiven and transformed.
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Make the most important decision of your life this very minute because you don't know how many minutes you have left.
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Please talk to me, talk to one of our elders before you leave, we would love nothing more than to answer any questions you might have, to pray with you and talk to you more about Jesus.
Small Group Discussion
Read Ruth 4:1-22
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Talk through all that Jesus had to sacrifice to fulfill His Father’s promises. How would your life be different if you meditated upon these truths multiple times a day?
What does the average American expect from life? What should the Christian expect from life?
How do you see yourself holding God to promises that He never made in His Word?
Why is it freeing to know that life isn’t about you and that you’re important but not THAT important?
Breakout
Share any frustrations or disappointments that you are experiencing in this current season of life.
Read Romans 8:28 and pray for each other in light of the truths found in this verse.