Ruth: Our Redeemer (5- He Redeems our Surrender)

Well, I hope everybody has had an amazing time all the way through May.

We have had so much happening throughout RLC and here's what's really cool.

We had a bunch of graduates last week that we prayed over and we got to just witness some of them graduating high school.

Some of them have graduated college.

Can we give them just one more big round of applause as a congratulations, amen?

Well, my name is Chris.

I get to serve as the administrative pastor here at RLC and so if I haven't had the opportunity to meet you, I would love to meet you after service just to say hello and get to know somebody new.

But if you will, we're going to stay in our book of Ruth.

So if you have your Bible, which I expect you do go ahead and turn to the book of Ruth for me, and if you don't have a Bible, we have a free Bible waiting for you out front.

It looks just like this.

It's a nice leather, has a nice little cross on it.

But we're going to be back in the book of Ruth and if you've been with us for a while, then you've kind of walked through this book of Ruth, and if you've been with us for a while, then you've kind of walked through this book of Ruth.

It's been an amazing journey, getting to see that Christ is our Redeemer, and we're going to press in a little bit more to that this morning.

If you'll bear with me for just one second, I am having a quick technical glitch here.

I don't know what's going on.

Give me just one moment.

Sorry, guys, talk amongst thyselves for just a moment.

I, like the whisper sounds.

Thank you, that made me feel so much better about myself.

Awesome, let's see if this works.

Hey, look at that.

Okay, so we're back in the book of Ruth.

It's going to be in Ruth, chapter 3.

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

We're going to be verses 6 through 18, and if you have one of these Bibles, you have no idea where Ruth is.

That's okay, because it's page 217.

Make it nice and easy.

Okay, page 217 if you have one of our Bibles from out front, but Ruth, chapter 3, verses 6 through 18.

Ruth 3:6–18

We're going to jump straight into the Word of God here.

God's Word says Naomi said to Ruth, my daughter it's time that I find a permanent home for you so that you will be provided for.

Boaz is a close relative of ours and he's been very kind by letting you gather grain with his young women.

Tonight he will be winnowing barley at the thresh floor.

Now do as I tell you Take a bath and put on perfume and dress in your nicest clothes.

Then go to the threshing floor, but don't let Boaz see you until he has finished eating and drinking.

Be sure to notice where he lies down.

Then go and uncover his feet and lie down there.

He will tell you what to do.

I will do everything you say.

Ruth replied.

Now, if you were with us last week, you realize we went through all of chapter, these first five verses, and the reason we're covering them again this morning is because it makes perfect sense to where we're headed in verse six.

They really go together.

So if you missed last week, go check out our YouTube page, our Facebook page.

We have those posted because Pastor Brandon does an amazing job unpacking these first five verses here.

But we're going to start in verse six.

Here it says grain and went to sleep.

Then Ruth came quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.

Around midnight Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over.

He was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet.

Who are you, he asked?

I am your servant, ruth.

She replied.

Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.

The Lord bless you.

My daughter, boaz, exclaimed you are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before, for you have not gone after a younger man, whether rich or poor.

Now don't worry about a thing, my daughter, I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman.

But while it's true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am.

Stay here tonight and in the morning I will talk to him.

If he is willing to redeem you, very well, let him marry you, but if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself.

Now lie down here until morning.

Ruth lay at Boaz's feet until morning, but she got up before it was light enough for the people to recognize each other, for Boaz had said no one must know that a woman was here at the threshing floor.

Then Boaz said to her bring your cloak and spread it now.

He measured six scoops of barley into the cloak and placed it on her back.

Then he returned to town.

When Ruth went back to her mother-in-law, naomi asked what happened.

My daughter, ruth, told Naomi everything Boaz had done for her and she added he gave me these six scoops of barley and said don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.

Then Naomi said to her just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens.

The man won't rest until he has settled things.

Today, let's pray Our Father, god, thank you, thank you for this day, for this day that we can enter into your house to worship you.

Worship you through song now, worship you through word.

Now, holy Spirit, I give you all authority in this place Speak, move, do whatever it is that you would have to do in our lives.

Lord, use me as a vessel and if there's anything that puts anything ahead of us to make us look good, may that be pulled away.

Make us look foolish, that you may be made great in this place, god.

So we got to see this very interesting kind of passage, if you will, here in the Bible of okay, naomi tells Ruth to go ahead.

Hey, make sure to take a bath, put the good perfume on.

And I was actually talking to a friend of mine who doesn't live here.

There's nobody in this church, okay, but he's down in Tennessee and we were talking this past week.

He's like you know, it's very interesting that Naomi tells Ruth to take a bath, put perfume on, and he was saying he's single.

He's like you know, I can't ever get a date with a girl.

I was like, well, have you taken a bath, dude?

So that was my response.

Like, first step, take a bath.

God's word tells us to you want to get to know somebody.

Take a bath, all those men out there.

If you're looking for a woman, first step, take a bath, all right.

So it's just very interesting that that's what Naomi tells Ruth to do Go perfume on and then go to Boaz from there.

And I love this idea that Ruth just says okay, no, we don't get some things inside the Bible, we don't get to see a full conversation.

I can guarantee you that Ruth and Naomi had more of a conversation than what we get to see here.

I would have been like, hey, you know, naomi, I get what you're trying to say here, but are you sure that's what I need to do?

Go to the threshing floor, wait till he parties some and then go to him, like that's really what I need to do.

I think I can actually talk to him when he's sober and feeling pretty good in that way, like all these different things.

But no, ruth says, okay, I'll do it, and so what's amazing that we get to see?

If I had to put an overarching theme on this passage, it would be that redemption comes through surrender.

Redemption comes through surrender.

If you were with us last week, pastor Brandon actually defined redemption for us, and the way that he defined it is to be restored or to be made clean.

To be restored or to be made clean.

You know that's an interesting thought as human beings that we need redemption, we need to be restored or we need to be made clean.

The other thing I want to define here is surrender, because a group this size, at any given time, whenever we say a phrase, we may actually have different conceptions or understandings of what a word might mean, and so I want to make sure we all understand here.

The way we're going to define surrender is to cease resistance to an enemy or an opponent and submit to their authority, to cease to resist an opponent or an authority and submit to their authority To cease to resist an opponent or an authority and submit to their authority.

That's going to be very key as we're looking at Ruth and how she kind of navigates this whole situation that she's in.

It's going to be a whole lot of fun.

So what I want to do, I'm going to go ahead and tell you I have two objectives.

If you do not know Christ as your Lord and Savior, objective number one is that you walk out today with Christ as your Lord and Savior.

I'm just going to let the cat out of the bag.

That is one of my goals for you, and I can tell you, if you're invited by somebody next to you and you are not saved, that is their motive, that's their objective here.

Okay.

So that's, that's goal number one.

Goal number two if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, but you're holding on to something and you refuse to let it go, my goal is that by the end of this you're walking out and the Holy Spirit is now letting you walk in freedom because you've released that.

Okay, so that's the two goals for today.

So what I want to do, look at three kind of observations, if you will, of this passage.

So the first thing we're going to look at is that we see Ruth understands that she has a need for redemption.

Ruth has a need for redemption.

Let's go back to Ruth, chapter 3, and that's great, that's a cool phrase, but where does that actually come out of this passage?

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

Let's start in verse 6.

So really quick, to kind of give you a picture of what's happening here there has just been a big harvest, and so Boaz and all of his workers that are within his household, they have now taken all the grain that they would have had and put it actually into a massive pile.

This would have been their pile of food essentially for all of the winter months coming.

So there's twofold here it would be their food and then also their income.

They could use it for trade, they could use it for financial gain, but a lot of this for Boaz's family would actually be for their food.

And so what happens whenever there's this big harvest is there's this big party.

You know, do we have any Jewish people that grew up Jewish in here?

If so, that would be awesome.

You would understand exactly what I'm saying.

Okay, so great.

What's amazing about the church of today is we are 2,000-ish give or take years away from being removed from culture.

Not only are we that far away, we live in the United States of America.

We have no understanding of actually what's happening here.

So what happens?

They have this huge harvest and they throw a party.

And I don't know about you, but Jewish people know how to party.

It's not like you and I party, all right, especially first century, early ancient Jews.

They knew how to party, and so when they're talking about eating and drinking, they're not talking about hamburgers and hot dogs and drinking some soda.

Okay, this is Old Testament.

So they are having massive amounts of food and they're drinking wine, typically at this party, amongst water and all these other things.

Okay, so think of it this way Boaz is now eating and drinking, being filled up.

He's in good spirits.

That's the way that says it.

Now, I'm not condoning getting drunk God's Word says something different about that.

Okay, but he is feeling good about himself and he is going to the end of the pile to take a to sleep for the rest of the night.

Now, it's not uncommon for the owner of the actual grouping there, the farm or the land, for him to actually sit at the end of the pile, because what they would do is the owner would sit at the end of the pile to protect from any type of thieves or from any type of animals coming in and taking the grain.

Okay, so we have the stage set.

After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he laid down at the far end of the pile of grain and went to sleep.

Then Ruth came quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.

Around midnight Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over.

He was surprised to find a.

Now, this is a very interesting portion of the passage.

So there is a bunch of different conversations that happen within this phrasing and context.

So sometimes when we hear in the Bible that when somebody uncovers their feet and they lay down with them, we would think that there is some type of romantic intercourse that would happen there.

Right, that's what we hear, but it's actually very clear here in God's word that that is not what happens.

So what's happening here is actually, rather than some sort of romantic intercourse, it would actually be Ruth coming to Boaz and asking for him to take her into marriage.

The covering of feet is very important for us to remember this, because what's happening?

She uncovers the feet and then lays down next to it, meaning putting herself under him.

She's humbling herself before Boaz.

That's what's happening here.

So we don't want to get confused that any type of sexual intercourse happened or anything like that, because that also would not line up to who Boaz and Ruth are.

All the way through the book of Ruth, all through the book of Ruth, these two people are actually people of integrity.

So these people would be known in the community to actually have been walking in faith with the law of God, and the law of God would say no sex before marriage.

Therefore, they would not have done that.

That wouldn't have lined up as people of integrity and people of God.

Rather, she's laying literally at his feet as an act of humility.

Super important to understand.

Because then it says spread your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.

This idea, depending on what type of translation you're reading, that's the NLT.

It may say spread your garment or spread your wings over me, depending on the translation.

They all are saying the same thing.

It's the imagery of hey, take me, cover me in my wretchedness, my nakedness is essentially what Ruth is saying here Redeem me.

She understands her need for redemption.

It's incredibly important that we understand what this even means, because this would have been fairly countercultural.

If she's asking for marriage from Boaz, then that would be pretty countercultural in that world.

But she understands she is broken.

She cannot do this on her own.

She needs redemption.

Guys, that's you and I.

If you think that you are perfect, I'm going to challenge you to go back and read the 10 commandments, because you will fail all 10 of those, just as I do.

We have a need for redemption.

We have a need for redemption.

This is basic, simple gospel.

When I first read this I was like man, how in the world am I going to connect this to Jesus?

And I don't understand all these different contexts.

I'm not Jewish.

I didn't grow up in an agriculture world.

What is all this and the more?

I started kind of pulling one thread after another thread after another thread.

It all came back to.

This is simple gospel.

I am Ruth here.

Typically, I don't like to compare myself to somebody, but I'm Ruth here, meaning I need to be cleaned.

Somebody of perfect integrity which, I'll guarantee you, I'm not.

I do the best I can.

None of us are, but she is high integrity, yet she still understands her need to be made clean.

I always challenge people to be careful when you compare yourself to somebody in the Bible.

I'll give you a hint.

You're not David, okay.

You're not even Ruth, but there are some characteristics that can line up.

We are all dirty.

Romans, tells us, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Every single person in this room has sinned.

We all need to be made clean.

My favorite part of this portion of the passage is Ruth is very clear that she is not the point.

She points to Boaz as the purpose.

Right.

This is a great example of us with Christ.

We are not the point.

We are not the point of this book.

We are not the point of this earth.

Christ is.

Christ is the point, not us.

And so it's so important for us to take the focus off of us as self-focused idolatry and turn it towards Christ, the one who is the point, the one who does matter.

And can I tell you, when we start doing that, we actually get relieved from pressure, that we're trying to live a perfect life, we're trying to be the best father, we're trying to be the best mother, the best worker.

It takes all that pressure and allows the Holy Spirit to work through us when we take that focus off ourselves and put it on Christ.

That is what is important.

The second thing that we get to see here this second observation, if you will, is that the Lord redeems when we surrender.

The Lord redeems when we surrender.

Let's go back to God's word here, starting in verse 10.

It says about a thing my daughter, I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman, but while it is true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am.

Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him.

If he is willing to redeem you, very well let him marry you, but if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself.

Now lie down here until morning.

So we see this view of now, ruth going and laying down at the feet of Boaz.

She understands that she needs redemption.

She understands that she doesn't have any assets.

She is unable to function in everyday life without a family redeemer.

She understands that.

It's when she actually lays down, though, and says Cover me, boaz, that Boaz then says yes, the Lord bless you, my daughter, you are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before.

You have not gone after a young man, whether rich or poor.

Now, it's likely Ruth was a very attractive woman.

It's very clear all through the book of Ruth that likely would have been the case.

She could have had her pick of all of the men.

But out of loyalty to her family, out of loyalty to Naomi, her mother-in-law, who said, boaz, this is our family redeemer, she said okay, I'm going to put my own desires aside and I'm going to press into the other desires that I'm being called to.

In order for us to walk into redemption, in order for us to walk into freedom, we have to understand that the Lord redeems when we surrender, when we say I'm going to give this up for the Lord and allow him to work through those things.

That's when redemption can happen.

Because here's the thing the Holy Spirit does not go where he is not wanted.

It's why we have what's called free will.

We're not robots.

All my Calvinists out there, I would love to have a conversation with you if you're a five point Calvinist, because Calvinists would say you know well, we're predestined.

So God already knows and all those things God does know.

But he also presses into us.

He wants us to choose him.

We have a choice whether we choose Christ or not.

Meaning we have a choice whether we choose eternal life or we choose death.

We get that choice.

So if you're not saved when I say not saved, if you don't know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, your master and your Savior my challenge to you is to really think about what can I do in order to earn my salvation Right?

What is it that I can do in order to be clean before the God of the universe?

If all this is true, if every bit of the Bible is true, then there's nothing you or I can do.

You and I, as Christ followers, we are saved by faith, and faith alone.

The moment that we say Jesus, I make you the Lord and Savior.

Now, that's a very complex phrasing right.

My Lord, my master that's what the word Lord actually means is master, I'm going to live the way God designed, the way Christ designed, and when you say I'm going to make him my Lord and Savior, we are immediately wiped clean.

There's nothing you have to do at that point.

You don't have to take a specific type of communion, you don't have to live perfectly.

No, you are his right at that moment.

There's nothing you or I can do to earn that.

I love this.

That God's word, even in the New Testament actually talks about this, mark, chapter 10, and I'm going to read just a little bit here.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

This is a very familiar passage that you would likely have heard if you've been around the church world.

It's about the rich ruler.

Mark, chapter 10, starting, verse 17 says as Jesus was starting on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running to him, knelt down and asked good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Now, quick little caveat, there's a lot of things wrong with what must I do in order to inherit eternal life, and I love how Christ responds.

Give you a quick synopsis.

He tells him to go obey the Ten Commandments and the rich ruler says okay, great, I'm doing that.

He says okay, now go sell everything that you have and come follow me.

Now, this passage has a lot less to do with money.

It has a lot less to do that Christ knows this man's heart and his heart's in his own possessions, his own money, his own abilities.

And what happens is the rich ruler walks away and he's sad, he's down and depressed because he doesn't want to go, give up what he has.

And we don't know how this necessarily turns out, but because of the way the phrasing of the Bible says.

I would venture to guess he doesn't follow Christ.

But he says what must I do in order to inherit the eternal life?

Well, there's nothing you or I can do to earn that.

There's a flip side to this.

He actually uses the word inherit.

Well, in order to inherit something, you must be a son or a daughter, you must be in a family in order to inherit something, and so there's nothing you or I can do, but rather simply be his children.

And when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we enter into the family of God.

We get to inherit that eternal life.

We inherit right at that moment cleansing complete redemption from all of our sin Basic gospel.

It's such an interesting dynamic that we have to wrestle with, because we want to do right things right.

And you'll hear people say you know you can do this and you do all these things, you check all of these boxes, you'll enter into the kingdom of God.

Well, I think we just have it flip-flopped a little bit.

We walk with Christ and because our love for Christ and our desire to please him and our love for other people, then the good things come out of that.

It's not these things that save us.

It's rather Christ over here.

The Lord redeems when we surrender the rich ruler here.

He never surrenders all of the things.

I was talking to another buddy of mine and if you've been around RLC for a little bit, you've heard me speak a couple of times and one of the biggest parts of my testimony is I had an addiction to pornography and so with that I get the privilege to walk with other men who are walking in that actively and by the grace of God I've been healed from that and walking in redemption through those things.

But I was talking to a buddy of mine who is walking through this just two weeks ago and eventually the conversation kind of came around Well, hey, man, why are you still struggling?

We've been walking this for over a year and a half.

Why are you still struggling?

Like what's going on?

Let's unpack this, let's pull it apart a little bit.

And eventually it came down to he's never truly surrendered it to the Lord and through conversation and just that hard truth.

If you know me, you know I'm a pretty blunt person.

If you haven't already figured out, it's like, dude, you just haven't given it up.

That's on you.

Like the Lord wants to redeem this thing, that's on you.

We have all the parameters in place that nothing can be accessed.

We have all these things.

We've taken you off of all of social medias.

All these things that's on you.

Are you in the word of God?

Well, no, are you praying?

Well, sometimes, what's prayer look like for you?

Well, I blessed the meal with my family before Great.

Are you really talking to the Lord?

Are we really pressing in and giving it up to the Lord, because until he is ready to surrender it, it can't be redeemed?

We have to be willing to say, okay, god, I give you my life, I need you to redeem this and then give it to him.

I've walked with so many different people and for some reason I don't know why, me and my wife that's Katie, right over there we somehow get connected with people with large families.

I don't know if it's because of like, that's who we are.

We have four kids, one more on the way and, yeah, that's five for all of you.

You can't count.

We're not in double duty, you don't have two hands yet, but we have five on the way, and so we're connected with these large families.

And I was talking to a father, a guy I respect.

He is head and shoulders a better Christian than I am.

He is an amazing, amazing man and I just asked him he has kids that are all I guess 18 plus at this point.

They're empty nesters with eight kids.

And I asked him hey, man, how in the world do you do this thing?

I'm like walking through.

We have a family vision statement.

I'm that weird guy.

We are a multi-generational family on mission to make disciples for Jesus Christ.

That is our goal as a family.

We have that stuff.

We have family values.

We're working on things like chore wheels.

We're those people and we're still like man Noah's about to go flying through a wall.

I don't know what's wrong with that child.

He needs Jesus is what he needs.

I don't know what else to do with this.

So we're trying all these disciplinary things and I'm talking to him and he finally tells me he's like man, what are you preaching on this week?

I told him.

He said man, I hear something there.

Have you given this over to the Lord?

It's like well, yeah, I have.

What do you think I did first?

He's like well, what did that look like?

I told him and he's like dude, you ain't getting that over to the Lord, you gave that over to your systems and structures is what you did.

No, you, by the grace of God, noah, is not going to torment his other two siblings, other three siblings.

It needs to be redeemed.

As Christ followers, we have to give up something.

If you're struggling with something, you feel like you have a stronghold in your life, you feel like you have an addiction.

You feel like your marriage is in shambles.

You feel like you're trusting for the Lord to send a single woman or a single man that has a pure heart, but you haven't given it over to the Lord.

What are you starting with?

You can do all the great things we can try for behavioral modification.

You can put all the systems in place that block things, but behavioral modification will not redeem you.

Only Christ can.

All those other things are super important.

Christ redeems you.

You give it over to him and out of obedience we walk in those ways, but it starts to surrender it to Christ.

We have to understand those things.

The very interesting part here too, starting in verse 12, but while it is true that one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am.

Verse 13 says stay here tonight and in the morning I will talk to him.

If he is willing to redeem you, very well let him marry you, but if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself.

Now lie down here until the morning.

Keep going to verse 14.

Verse 14 says so.

Ruth lay at Boaz's feet until the morning, but she got up before it was light enough for people to recognize each other, for Boaz said no one must know that a woman was here at the threshing floor.

We get an interesting image here, ruth and Boaz.

They end up staying into the wee hours of the night together, but to protect the integrity of each other and the integrity of their walk with the Lord, they did not want any type of negative perception.

That could have been, that wasn't, in order to protect themselves and the Lord.

Guys, perception matters, perception matters, it does.

It's a hard truth, but as Christ followers in this world, this world is trying to do everything it can to pull Christianity out, put it on the spotlight and say this is not right and they're a bunch of hypocrites.

First I'll tell you yeah, you're right, we are a bunch of hypocrites.

We're a bunch of broken people doing broken things, but we have a Savior that makes us whole.

But perception matters.

We don't just get to do whatever we please.

Actually, this past Wednesday, where's my student life?

Do we have any student life people in here?

We have a couple, so they're walking through what's called TikTok theology.

Every now and then, pastor Derek, he walks through something called TikTok theology.

Basically, he throws a TikTok video up on the screen.

They watch it and start picking it apart.

Like theologically, is this correct, is this incorrect?

And everything in between.

Well, this past week he showed one of a pastor getting on stage in a group much like this, getting on stage pulling out a vape pen, puffing a vape pen and use that as a sermon analogy for his sermon.

I can see somebody else's face is like what are we doing Now?

This is not a conversation whether vaping is right or wrong.

You want to know that.

You want to have that conversation?

Great, come find me after.

I would love to have a conversation with you, but it's more of perception matters.

What we don't know is everybody out in that crowd what they're struggling with.

They may be struggling with some type of addiction that they're trying to break, but then there's this pastor up on stage and he's got a vape pen and don't know what's in it, don't know if there's anything addictive in it, but he's got a vape pen, he's puffing it and he's just keep going.

The whole idea was hey, just because we can do something doesn't mean we should do something.

If your students aren't in student life, I implore you, get them here on Wednesdays.

They're learning God's word, whether through TikTok theology or they're walking through a book of the Bible.

Get them here, because they're dealing with things that you and I never had to deal with.

But just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

We have to be very careful about what people perceive as Christ followers, what they perceive that to be.

We have to be careful.

So we see that there's a need for redemption and the Lord redeems when we surrender.

And thirdly, the Lord provides when we surrender.

Let's pick up in verse 14.

It says so.

Ruth lay at Boaz's feet until the morning, but she got up before it was light enough for people to recognize each other, for Boaz had said no one must know.

You are the woman here at the threshing hold Verse 15,.

Then Boaz said to her Bring your cloak and spread it out.

He measured six scoops of barley into the cloak and placed it on her back.

Then he returned to the town.

When Ruth went back to her mother-in-law, naomi asked what happened to my daughter.

Ruth told Naomi everything Boaz had done for her, and she added he gave me these six scoops of barley and said don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.

Then Naomi said to her just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens, this man will not rest until he has settled things today.

Now a couple of things to note here.

It says then Boaz said to her bring your cloak and spread it out.

He measured six scoops.

Now we don't really know how much that six scoops would have been.

It was plenty, though, and it was very generous.

We know that much.

So there's that little note.

And then something else to note.

At the very end of verse 15, it says then he returned to town.

Now, depending on the translation, that may say he or that may say she.

This is actually a semantical thing.

It's not going to change anything in the Bible, but based off the translation and the scrolls that they would have used and the different ancient texts that they would have used, some would say he, some would say she Doesn't change anything, it doesn't make the Bible not true.

Nothing along those lines.

So the third thing we see, though, though, is that when Ruth is saying I will surrender to your will, the Lord provides.

Boaz takes up six heavy scoops of wheat, puts it in her cloak for her to take back to Naomi.

What better picture of that.

When we submit, we surrender to the will of God.

When we do that, what better picture that the Lord always provides?

You know my family.

We've done some interesting and crazy things.

I know I drive my wife absolutely nuts sometimes, and for that, publicly, I apologize.

But with that, about a year, two and a half years ago now, me and Katie started talking through some things and wrestling through some things, and we made one of the biggest pivots in our entire life at that moment.

We decided we answered a call to a different type of ministry.

At that time it was a pastor role in Mountain Grove, missouri.

Mountain Grove Missouri, mind you, is 4,500 people in the middle of Missouri that we don't know anybody, and Katie, as an amazing woman of God, she's like okay, well, let's pray about this.

So we started praying about it and just kind of wrestling with it a little bit and it came to find out that we had no idea what this was going to look like.

We didn't know where we were going to live, we didn't know if we were going to find friends, we didn't know necessarily what the job was going to look like.

But at some point in time we have to do something.

Because what happens when there's a calling from God is the Lord doesn't leave you alone.

He's going to sit there, he's going to wrestle with you, he's going to pull on you, he's going to tell you to do these things and he's going to make essentially your life miserable until you say fine, you don't believe me.

Go read the story of Abraham, go read the story of Moses, go read the story of Jacob, go read the story, story after story after story, in the word of God.

But every time that happens, when we take a step into faith, the Lord provides.

We may not see it, but the Lord provides.

I told y'all a little bit earlier I am a planner.

Okay, I'm a planner by nature, meaning I have like 5, 10, 15, 35 year goals in my head, like this is where we're going, this is where we need to end up, so this is what we're going to do each step along the way.

I'm wired that way.

That's why I am an administrative pastor.

Great, you give me a vision.

Okay, now here's all the systems and structures we got to do to get there.

You don't like it?

Okay, we're going to drag you along.

That's okay, we're going to be all right.

5, 10-year goals those are amazing things to have, but sometimes we don't have that 5, 10, 15, 35-year view in place.

Sometimes we have that view in place and then the Lord says, hey, yeah, that's cute, let's go this way.

You want to be fulfilled.

You want to live a life that I have called you to you go this way, fulfilled.

You want to live a life that I've called you to, you go this way.

And at some point we have to say, okay, lord, or no.

We have a choice.

We have a choice which direction we're going to go.

Can I tell you it's better.

God's way Doesn't mean it's going to be easy, doesn't mean there's not going to be heart-wrenching times, but his way is better, his way makes more sense, his way will lead us the direction that he wants us to go.

So sometimes it's good to have a plan, guys, it really is.

But sometimes we have to see that plan and understand that God's gonna call us this way and sometimes we just have to take a step.

Maybe God's calling you to just take a step.

Maybe God's wrestling with you a little bit, that you've been struggling for so many things because you're trying to do it on your own.

Maybe your next step is to say, yes, lord, we'll go this way.

Maybe your next step, maybe you gave your life to Christ but you haven't walked in the amazing thing of what's called baptism.

If you've accepted Christ and you've never been baptized, can I challenge you?

That's your next step.

Baptism is this amazing thing that we have our public profession, meaning we will dunk you in a bunch of water, fully submerged.

Pull back up.

And it's this image that when you go down, that is your old self going down and you are raised to life with Christ.

You are a new creation.

At that point I challenge you go back and look in the book of Matthew.

There's this interaction with Jesus and a guy named Nicodemus.

And Jesus says well, in order to receive eternal life, you must be born again.

And Nicodemus is like what?

You want me to go back in my mom's womb?

This don't work physically.

I don't understand physics here, no anatomy major, but I can't do that.

No, no, no.

It's the idea of when you go down, you come back and you are a new person.

When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we are made new because the Holy Spirit is inside of us.

So that means we can overcome any addiction, we can overcome any anxiety, we can overcome any familial problem.

These things can be done, all because of the power of the Holy Spirit.

That's what we get to be a part of.

So maybe you need to take that next step.

What is that next step for you?

Is it joining a life group to be able to do life together, so you're not secluded anymore?

I'm an introvert by nature, guys, but can I tell you, one of the best things for me is to be in a life group, because it requires me to walk in life with other people and actually tell them about my life.

Maybe that's your next step.

Fathers, maybe you're let's just be honest maybe you're just a terrible dad and you don't spend any time with your kids.

You work your tail off.

That's amazing, but maybe you need to spend more time with your kids.

Guys, we have a fishing tournament coming up on June 14th.

What better opportunity to go out?

Even if you don't know how to fish, get out there and start throwing a string around trying to catch some fish, just to spend time with your kids.

Maybe it's to get involved around here with Change for Change.

That's a big fundraiser that we're doing to connect us with the pregnancy center here in town.

That all the money that we fill those little bottles up you saw the baby bottles out front.

Maybe it's to fill that with change or money or checks, whatever you want to do, and that's a way to partner with them.

Hey, maybe it's.

You just need to get in the word of God.

Prayer and getting in the word of God two of the best ways to start your walk with salvation.

What's your next step?

As we get ready to land the plane here, we're getting to this time that is just very, very hard in life.

Maybe you just graduated high school or you graduated college and you're about to start this next step.

Can I tell you it's scary.

You're going to be faced with all kinds of different things that you didn't realize.

You're going to be faced with real life choices that you don't learn how to do laundry.

I hope that's the smallest decision you got to learn how to do.

Do I use Tide or do I use the powder stuff?

Hopefully that's your biggest decision.

But reality or do I use the powder stuff?

Hopefully that's your biggest decision.

But reality, reality is you gotta make real decisions.

Who are you gonna spend your time with?

If you ever wanna know who really who you are, look at your five closest friends.

That's really who you are.

You gotta decide if you're gonna go to church or sleep in.

Go to Bed Springs Baptist on Sunday.

A couple of y'all got that one.

Some of y'all are no.

There's decisions that we have to make in life.

So if you just graduated, can I tell you I love you, I am for you.

It's hard but it's awesome.

Your best days are not in high school.

I don't care what anybody told you.

Your best days are not in high school.

I don't care what anybody told you.

Your best days are not there, because what God's going to do in your lives is incredible and what you get to see.

If you don't believe me, find the oldest person in this room and ask them about their life.

Maybe you just said okay, god, I accept you, but I don't know how to make any of these decisions.

I want to be redeemed.

I want to surrender to you.

I don't know how to Get in the word.

God's word tells us how to, as we really press into the Lord.

Here in just a moment, we're going to have a time back in worship and song, and that's a great opportunity.

Maybe you need to come before you this isn't really an altar by any means but maybe you just need to come right here as an image of just laying down whatever it is that you need to lay down before the Lord.

Maybe you need somebody to walk with you and give you some counseling.

If you need that, go to the prayer table.

We have some awesome prayer warriors that if they don't know the answer, they'll find somebody who does, and when you come up with a question that we don't know, we're going to find out together.

Don't do that alone.

If you decide that, hey, I want to give my life to Christ today, I tell you we're going to celebrate, that we're going to be so happy for you, because the moment that you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I firmly believe all the angels in heaven is shouting praise to the Lord because somebody else is not going to hell.

Rather, they're going to live in eternity with Christ.

I want to leave this with you.

In Deuteronomy, chapter 6.

Deuteronomy 6 · chapter mention

In verse 4, there's this part of what's called the Shema, which is a Jewish prayer, but it's a prayer of promise and we're not Jewish by any means.

Okay, but it's a prayer of promise.

Verse four says listen, o Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, and you must love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength, and you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.

Repeat them again and again to your children, talk about them when you're at home and when you're on the road, and when you're going to bed and when you're getting up.

Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders.

Write them on your doorsteps of your house and on your gates.

The Lord, your God, will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors, abraham, isaac and Jacob.

It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build.

The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce.

You will draw water from the cisterns you did not dig and you will eat from the vineyards and olive trees you did not plant.

When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful, but do not forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.

You must fear the Lord, your God, and serve him.

Can I tell you, this prayer gets fulfilled for us when we accept Christ as our King.

We get to enter into that land of plenty.

We get to enter into that land of freedom.

We get to enter into the things that we don't have to work for because of what Christ already did.

So what is it today that you are holding on to?

What is it today that you want to walk in redemption?

You want to walk in freedom.

You want to walk in cleanliness that you need to lay down.

We say it here often everybody has a private battle that nobody else knows about.

Can I tell you, invite somebody else into that private battle.

Bring Christ into that, bring a friend into that, somebody you trust.

Here, in just a moment, you're going to have an opportunity to do that.

Don't leave today the way that you came in.

If you go all across, come on and stand with us as we enter into a time of prayer and back into a time of worship.

Our Father, god, we thank you.

We thank you for this place.

We thank you for your love, god, we worship you for who you are and who you are alone.

It's nothing that you have done that has earned that worship.

Rather than just being you, god, I thank you for each and every person that is under my voice.

I pray, blessing upon blessing in their lives.

Holy Spirit, as you're wrestling with people right now, may we have softened hearts, softened minds.

May we say, god, I give it to you and you alone, because you alone are the one that can redeem this, the one that can save us.

Holy Spirit, may we, as a church, just look different.

May we walk in freedom out of this place into the world that is chaos, that others will see you and see you alone and ask us what do you have, what are our desires, to be used by you.

May we love as you love.

May we see others as you see others.

God, we trust you in all things.

We trust in ways that you are going to provide, in the holy and powerful name of Jesus Christ.

Amen, amen, let's worship.