Hi. How are you guys? I was listening to and talk about
all the babies that are being born here and the ministries we
get to have an opportunity to be a part of and the
children we're watching grow up. Guys, there's so much
fruit in the house. There's so much fruit, God is doing
things and I'm so encouraged
by what I see all around us. So we're gonna
press into the word today because I think it is the word that changes us.
I believe it is the truth of the word that gives us a foundation
to stand on and allows us to move forward, and I find it
very much like God that this particular
Sunday, I would have the opportunity to share about
Ruth, and that I would have the opportunity to talk with you
guys about how we navigate things when
seasons change in our life. Anybody been going through
anything lately? Let's just start over here
with the first row. Life happens,
doesn't it? Things happen, disappointment happens,
our hearts get broken, relationships change,
we have to navigate hard places sometimes. Have any of
you ever had to navigate a place that you didn't really know? Well
number one, you didn't want to be there in the first place, and number two,
you're like what am I going to do now? Anybody, what am I going to
do now? I seem to spend a perpetual amount of
time asking the Lord, okay, what do I do now? Well He had taken
me in the book of Ruth some time ago, taken me through some
steps, some life lessons that have
really served me well. I feel like when the Lord implants
something in your spirit through his word, that's not just for
now. It's one of those things that you use over and over and
over again as the Lord changes your seasons.
Have the leaves fallen off of anyone's trees lately?
Because that's how I feel a lot of times when the seasons change in my
life, and I'm watching Ruth walk through
some seasons, and I watch to see
how the Lord helps her navigate those places. And I just want to
share it with you and see what the Lord would do with these things in
your life as you navigate the hard seasons
or the changing seasons or fields that you didn't even
want to be in in the first place? How do we navigate those
places in a way that brings glory to God,
brings wholeness to us, and strengthens us and we can
learn as we go. So we're gonna stand and read a passage
in a minute. Let me set it up. How many of you know the story
of Ruth? Okay. Tell your neighbor
about it. Just a brief
synopsis. Ruth, Elimelech
and his family, Elimelech and Naomi, are living
in Judah, and it says there is a famine in the land. And
so Elimelech decides to take his family to
Moab, and so Elimelech takes Naomi.
They leave the homeland, and while they are there, their sons,
Mahlon and Killian, marry two daughters, Ruth and
Orpah. Well, in the course of events, they're living in a strange
land. It isn't where it isn't their homeland. They've been forced to go there
by circumstances. Have circumstances ever taken you
somewhere that you really wish you didn't have to go? Yeah,
me too. Me too. And so there they are
in a strange land, but they've been there for a while, actually
about ten years, and Elimelech
passes, then Mahlon and Kilion both
pass, and so not only has this woman,
Naomi, lost her husband and lost both of her
sons, she now is charged with caring for two
daughters who she loves dearly. And
this is where we pick up the particular passage, if you would stand with
me for a moment. The Lord, she has made the
decision. She has heard. Naomi has heard. Help
has come to her homeland. People are being
blessed. It's not in famine anymore. Things are being taken care of.
So she makes a decision to go home, and this is
where we are. Look, said Naomi,
your sister-in-law is going back to her people and
her gods. Go back with her. But Ruth
replied, don't urge me to leave you or to
turn back from you. Where you go, I will
go, and where you stay, I will stay.
Your people will be my people, and your God,
my God. Father, thank you for the decisions, Lord, that we
make that put us right in the center of your hand. I pray, Father
God, that today you would teach us. Lord that we could glean from these
fields things that would serve us well, Lord, as we
traverse these pathways, Lord that are unexpected and sometimes
hard. Give us wisdom today, Father. I pray for
teachable hearts, for soft spirits today, Lord Jesus.
And I pray that my stuff would fall, and Your stand in Jesus'
name, amen. Amen. I think it's
kind of one of those cool things. There are four chapters in the book
of Ruth, and each chapter shares a
season that she has walked through. A couple of interesting things
about the book of Ruth, it is the only book in the Bible that is
named after a non Jew. Ruth was a
Moabite. And so I love that
this story is shared with someone who didn't have
original covenant. I love that the path that he is
getting ready to walk with Ruth is one that we
are invited into. So I also think
it was interesting that it actually most people think that it was a part of
the book of Judges, but this particular part got
told so many times, the story of Ruth and Boaz was
told so many times that it kind of got separated as a
separate story, so we went from Deborah in the book of Judges
into this story with Ruth. But here's the thing.
So often when we read about Ruth, what do we think about?
Boaz. We think about I mean, come on. Come on. Now
women, we have all seen the conferences finding
your Boaz. You know, the search for
Boaz. Do you have my Boaz? Preparing
for Boaz. And I was like, oh, come on. Give me a
break. Anyway, that's what we see.
That's what we see somehow. It's always the story of Ruth and Boaz,
and Ruth and Boaz are absolutely pivotal
in the story. But here's the thing. We so
love to jump to the good part, don't we? We don't like to go through
the messy part. Just tell us the outcome. Just tell us
the good part. Don't make us suffer with you.
Don't make us grieve with you. Don't ask us
to mourn with you or walk through hard places with
you. No. Jump to the ending. You will ruin
a book that way. You miss so much when you
just want to jump to the end because it's the story that makes
the ending so powerful. It is the
story that makes the ending so rich. I was
riding in the car with Nora June the other day. She's three, and
it had been cloudy all day. I mean, just clouds everywhere.
And all of a sudden, she yells from the back seat, Nana,
look. The sky is blue. It's peeping
right there. It's peeping right there and the rays of sun were coming through.
And she went, it is so blue.
Guys, the clouds are what show us how blue
the sky really is. When they begin to part, when these
things begin to happen, and the Lord just starts showing
up, and all of a sudden everything is more beautiful
because of what you've walked through, because of what you've come
through. See sometimes we don't want to know
the bad stuff. Here's the thing.
So often I've heard teachers pretty much most of my
life say, God can heal you without scars.
I pray not. I pray not because
every scar that I carry is a testimony of
his healing if I just let somebody touch it long enough
to hear the story. The scars that you carry
have purpose. They have meaning. The hard things that
you have walked through, your testimonies are right there
etched on your skin, etched on your heart, etched on those
places because God has brought you through those
clouds. These are the rays of sun
peeping through that we're supposed to be using to tell the
body of Christ you can make it. You can do it. This
is my mom's favorite thing, this too shall pass. And I'll be
like, no, it ain't. Yes, it will. No, it
won't. It doesn't feel like it sometimes, does it?
Sometimes those seasons feel like forever. Well, in our desire
to not deal with the scars and the broken places, we
miss the hand of God and so much. And we make it small.
We make the suffering and the wounds and the pains and the isolation
of people so small because we just want to hear the good stuff.
Ruth was a widow.
Yeah, you've heard that a thousand times. No. Ruth was a
widow. She had been married to Killian for ten
years. Anybody in here been married for ten years?
Is your life just a little bit entwined with that person's?
You love them a little bit? You invested?
Is your heart there? So was Ruth.
So was Ruth. Malin had been her husband for
ten years. She loved this family that God had placed her
in the middle of. You know that she did. I mean, Naomi's calling
them daughters. Daughters. And they're weeping because they
don't want to leave her. That is not normally the the message that mother
in laws have. Guys, I
am so blessed. I have two of the best
daughter in laws in the world. In the world and God
so matched them to my sons. So I
understand that love that you have for
daughters that weren't born of you, but were sent to
you. And I'm so grateful for Kate. And I'm so grateful
for Rachel, because my sons needed
them. They complete our family. This is
what I see with Ruth and Orpah. This is her family. These are her
girls. And she tells them, she says, I don't have anything to offer you.
I don't have anything. I've lost my husband and I've lost my
sons. I don't have anything for you. Go
home. Go home to your parents. And they cry and they say,
we're not gonna leave. And eventually Orpah decides to go and be
with her family. And Ruth says, I will not leave you.
I will not leave you. And that's where we see that passage of scripture where
you go, I will go. Your people will be my people and
your God will be my God. And in that
moment, in that moment, in this first chapter,
this first season that we are learning about Ruth, I
believe what we see is she walks through pain and suffering
and loss and mourning. And God
sends her an ally. God places an ally in
her life. God will send you an unexpected
ally in those moments when you need them the
most, when you just need them. But I believe the whole
thing shifts with the words, your God
shall be my God. Because from that moment
forward, it went Ruth was no longer a Moabite.
She was a follower of Jehovah. And let me tell you something.
When you invite Jehovah onto the scene in your hard
places, when you decide to trust him in those
moments, everything changes. Everything
changes, but you've got to go, God, you will be my
God. Even in this hardest of place. Even in this
field that I don't want to be in. In my grief, in my mourning,
in my suffering, in my pain, with these wounds,
with these scars. You are still God.
You are God. And that is the season
so often we find ourselves in. Places that are hard and
unexpected and that we don't want to walk in. And I'll begin to go, Lord,
show me how she walked this out. Coming out of those
hard fields, out of those hard places. Lord, teach me so
that I know how to do this. And I think it is so
key that in that moment, the most wounded of them all, the one who
had lost her husband, lost her sons, makes
a decision to go home. Makes a decision
to go home.
Some of us have stayed in the field of
wounds too long. Some of us have stayed in the
lands of loss for too long, and it's
time to turn our heart toward home. Now I'm not talking
about Coalfield, because I ain't going back there. But I'm
talking about I'll drive by and
wave, but, I'm talking about a hard
place, a hard position, a community
that God has surrounded you with. See, because she had
community, Naomi had community back home. We know
that because when she goes back, she's got more than one relative. She's got
people, And we're going to see that unfold a little bit later. So she decides
to go home. Some of us need to decide to go home
and stop isolating. You know, you can be in the room, but
not of the room. You can be in the space and not
participate. If your heart is wounded and hard and hurt,
let your guard down. Let healing start. And so what we see,
which I think is wonderful, God starts a process
in Ruth's life. They move back to Bethlehem and
Judah and she begins to listen to
Naomi, this heart friend in this season.
You know, I just said God will send you allies, he will send friendships into
your life, and they are in your life for seasons.
I didn't understand that when I was young. I had friends and
close heart friends when I was young, or over
time. And I just knew, man, that Jan was going
to be my best friend until the day that I passed, and we would sit
on our front porch and we would watch our grandchildren grow up. Well that wasn't
the case. God sends people into your life with purpose,
and most of the time it's for a season.
In my life, in school season, Jan was
it. Jan kept me grounded. She made me
study. She made straight As and I couldn't let her beat
me. And so she challenged me academically, she
challenged me as a friend and grounded me. And in
that season that was wonderful, that season ended,
but I still love her. She's still a great friend. When
I was a young mom and was really, really, really, really, and
I should say that again, scattered, the Lord gave me Christine lockets.
And I tell you what, I don't know that my children would be here without
Christine. They she fed them. She took care of them,
she taught me how to be a better mother. In that
season, I needed to know how to navigate motherhood. And let me tell
you something, if you think your hands are full, go be with a
mom who's got three times the kids that you do. And you're like,
thank you God for three children. And she had
nine. She had nine. And she
was the most amazing mom, and she mommed my kids, and she
loved my kids, and she taught me about
parenting in that season. And I thought it would be forever.
But then God moved her to the other side of the country
for other purposes. And then the Lord brought someone into my
life named Dawn Montgomery. And Dawn Montgomery hit my life
at exactly the moment that I needed Dawn Montgomery in my life. She
was nurturing me in I was writing and I was
singing and I was creating music and working in Nashville.
And Dawn, I don't know if you've ever heard her sing, but the girl can
sing. And she is anointed and she
would sit with me at the piano and she'd go, you know, well, have you
thought about this word? Have you thought about that? Or she would encourage me or
she would sing the harmony to it and I would get it. And in that
season of my life, I cannot imagine that season
of my life without Dawn Montgomery. She taught me
so much. And then the Lord brought Anna
Urias into my life. And Anna Urias is like
trying to run next to a thoroughbred. I have never
felt more donkeyish in my life
When trying to run by Anna, you know, and it wasn't
purposeful. She wasn't that's just who she was and God went in
my spirit went, you know, you can run like that. You know, you can
study like that. You know you can serve like that.
And man, she taught me so much in that season of my
life. And I pray that I blessed her in
that season.
And then the Lord brought Sue Cole into my life.
In the season where I needed an Aaron and a her and a
whole army, I needed somebody in
ministry just to encourage and to do the things that I couldn't
do and to tell me that it was gonna be okay. Anyway,
and so it's my desire. It's my hope.
And I mean my here's the thing, guys. Every
single one of those women who have ministered to me and walked
alongside me in my life, I could call them in a heartbeat and they
would be there. They would be there and I would be there for them.
It isn't that the love goes away. It's that the purpose of the season
has changed. And understand, God is going to
bring people in and out of your life with purpose for a season,
and respect that season. Love them the way that they deserve to
be loved. Allow them to pour into you and to teach you.
That's what Naomi did. Now listen, it's my prayer
that Sue Cole and I get to sit on the beach and watch the kids
play. Because there ain't a whole lot more seasons, you
know? And I I really don't have time to train another friend.
Actually, I think God is going, no. This is the last one you're getting. You
have worn the rest of them out. And but I'm just so
grateful. I'm so grateful for that. And Naomi
was that in this season for Ruth, and she began to
speak wisdom to her. And one of the things that she did, now listen, let
me tell you something. After a painful season, after
a suffering season, just like spring
follows winter, you will enter a season
of gleaning. You will enter a season of gleaning
just like she did. Naomi says, I want you to
go and glean in the fields of Boaz.
See, all it means to glean is to go and see what's left
over. When you come through a hard place, a broken place,
a a place that you did not even think you would survive,
sometimes, most of the time, it's time
to glean the field. See, when you glean a field, you really
are going, okay, this is devastated, Lord.
What's left? What's left? And when you glean a field, to
glean literally means to collect
information, to
extract knowledge, and
to obtain wisdom. To
collect, to extract, and to obtain
wisdom. When you've gone through a hard season that you don't really
understand and you're like, why, God? The best thing you can
do in that moment is is to begin to look at your situation
and go, okay, Lord. What is the
information, Lord, of this moment? What are you trying to teach me
in this moment, Lord? What can I extract?
What goodness can I extract from this? What can
I pull from this soil of of tears
that I've walked through? What can I obtain?
What is in my hands now that I didn't have before? What have
I obtained through this season of
pain? If you will collect information, if you
will extract the knowledge of the moment, and if you will take what you
have learned and what you've experienced and allow God to
turn it into wisdom, It will give you something
when you leave a hard season. It will put something in your hands that
you didn't have when you went in. See, so often we get so focused on
what was taken out of our hand that we can't see what he has put
in it as we've taken this journey.
So, from wounded places to places
of gleaning, Lord, what can you teach me here? What can you show me
here? What can I carry forward in this moment?
And the next thing we see her do, she does. She goes and she gleans
the field. And then Naomi tells her, I
want you to be provided for. I want you to be
taken care of. So I'm going to give you some wisdom here. I want
you to go to the threshing floor. She says, I want you to go wash
your face. Go wash your face.
Put on your best clothes, and then I want you to go to the threshing
floor. Boaz is going to be at the threshing floor tonight,
and he is I want you to watch where he is, and
after he goes and he lays down, I want you to go and I want
you to lay at his feet, lift the blanket, lay at his
feet, get up and wash your face. What does that remind
you of? Didn't David have to get up and go wash his
face? Didn't he have to get up when things didn't go the way
he had prayed, the way he had wanted, and his son dies?
There comes a point in time where he had to get up and go wash
his face and move forward. And that is exactly what
Ruth does out of this season of loss and lack and hurt and
wounds. But here's the cool thing, guys. Do you know
that when she goes and she lays down at the feet
of Boaz, she is calling for the kinsman
redeemer. She is calling for the kinsman
redeemer. And you know what's cool about that? For all reasonable purposes
according to this culture, Ruth just asked Boaz to marry her.
So there you go, women. Don't do it. Anyway.
No. God will send him you you are to be pursued. Let
me back up a minute, women. God will send one that will
pursue you and love you with your whole heart, and if they win
you, then go. But, I'm just gonna put
that out there.
The kinsman redeemer. You know that that's the type and shadow
of Jesus. Right? The kinsman redeemer is the closest
relative, and that's who Boaz wasn't the closest relative. There
was one that was closer, but Naomi had said go and do
this, and Boaz will take care of it. He will see that the
matter is settled. He goes to the gate and he invites the the gate
of the city. The man comes who is the other that's closest, and he's like,
I really want the field. And Boaz says, I really want the
woman. In other words, he says, I want
what she has. And Boaz says, I want her and
everything that has to do with her. Everything.
You have a kinsman redeemer who loves you, who
wants everything that you are,
everything that you possess. You know what's wonderful about that? A kinsman
redeemer couldn't be a true kinsman redeemer if he could only afford
half of her. If he could only afford to redeem a part of her
debt, if he could only afford to do a little bit, he was
it was invalid. He couldn't do it. The kinsman redeemer
had to buy it all. The kinsman
redeemer had to redeem it all.
It all. Every debt, every
loss, everything returning her name to her, her
reputation, everything came through the
kinsman redeemer. Guys, you have a
kinsman redeemer. You have a kinsman
redeemer. And it could have stopped there. Guys, come on out if the
worship people. Come on out.
Worship people. That's the technical term.
Musicians and minstrels. Levitical
priesthood, come forth.
Better? Better? Oh, thou that art anointed by the
Lord.
It's getting more and more difficult to call them out.
Sheesh. I'm so
grateful for them. So we watch Ruth go through three seasons.
We watch her go through brokenness, through pain, through tears, through
mourning, through loss. Then we watch her go into a gleaning
season where she makes the decision to place
herself in a field that is in right proximity to the
master of the field. And she begins to glean, she
begins to gather information, she begins to gather
wisdom, and she begins to move in those things. And
in her third season, guys, when you have been through this,
find you a place at His feet. Male or female, this isn't a
male or female thing, this is a heart posture. Find a
place. When the Lord is revealing things to you about what you just went
through, go sit at His feet and go, God, show
me what to do with this. I'm still broken and I'm still wounded and
I'm still healing. But God, I know that you can change this.
Find some time at his feet. And he will show
you what to do with what you've been through. And see,
not only does Boaz redeem this, not only does God
redeem this time, that would have been enough. It would
have been enough for him to redeem Ruth and to redeem,
Naomi. But God always does exceedingly abundantly
above, doesn't he? He always adds more. And so you wanna
see something beautiful here.
Boaz marries Ruth. And
then God gives Ruth and Boaz
a son. And this son,
the whole community rejoices. Because
Naomi went away broken and she came back full.
And this community, these people that God took her
back to, helped her name her son. Name this
grandson, and they named him Obed. And
Obed means worship. Obed means worship.
When you've been through the fields, when you've been through the gleaning, when you've
been at his feet, it just might be time to worship. It
just might be time to go thank you God for what you brought me
through in this. And that would have been enough, right?
Obed is born. But then there's God. And so you know what
happens next? Obed gives birth to
Jesse. He and his wife have a son. They name him
Jesse. And then Jesse and his wife have a
son and they name him David. And we
are singing the songs of worship
that the grandson of Ruth, the grandson
was birthed into this place. You serve
a God who does exceedingly, abundantly above
what you can think or ask. If you will take those hard places,
those changing seasons that you do not understand. If you will glean
and learn the wisdom of those moments and then take them and
lay them at His feet and entrust Him to do what only He can
do. Worship Him. And
generations, generations,
generations will be changed, will be
affected. That's the opportunity
we have when our seasons are in
the hand of our kinsman redeemer.
Amen? You wanna hear a really cool little fact?
David, this grandson, because of the
Bibles that have been published, the hymns that have been written, all
of these things. He is the top selling
musician and artist of all time.
Still today. So we're we're gonna take an opportunity if you would
stand. I'm gonna
invite some elders and leaders to come down and
be available for prayer. But even more than
that, if you are one of the ones in this room
that I know are in here. And the beginning of this song
says, this is where I lay it down. This is where I lay it
down. Can you come lay it down?
The season you're in, the place you've been stuck,
the hope that you're waiting for. Your time is
now. It's time to worship. Father, give us wisdom.
Encourage in Jesus name. Amen.