Ruth: Our Redeemer (3- He Redeems Our Courage)

I want to open up with me to Ruth, chapter two.

Man, we are in the series on the Redeemer and it's all about the story of Ruth.

And while you're getting all that together, getting your Bible notes out, your message notes out, all the good stuff if this is your first time joining us, I want to make sure you take a moment.

Look inside your worship guide and when I tell a dad joke you don't like, that is your cue to go ahead and fill out the connect card, because we would love to get to know you.

You can stop by the Welcome Center and give that to us.

We have a free gift for you and we just want to load you up with a whole bunch of stuff free Bible, free notebook, all the things that you can connect with God's word, with us.

Okay, and while you are getting all that, I do want to say one more time happy Mother's Day.

So one more time, look at your neighbor and say happy Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day.

Yeah, it's awkward if you're looking at a dude, but it's fine.

It's fine, happy Mother's Day.

They have a mom, so it works okay.

And I do want to say real quick thank you so much for everybody who is at our Mother's Day tea Saturday.

All you, ladies, man, you just had a wonderful opportunity to be spoilt as we say in Alabama, that is, with a T, not a D and just a wonderful chance just to celebrate all of you, and I just thought it was absolutely wonderful and beautiful.

And so I want to do one more thing for all of us before we move into this, and that is Mother's Day is a special day, but we also know that it comes with a lot of baggage for a lot of people, and so we are also praying for you today that God will be with you in this day.

But I do want to also tell some of you that it's possible that at least one of you, when we got started today and we said happy Mother's Day, a cold sweat started because you just realized I completely forgot.

Let's just say you thought it was next week.

Okay, let's just go with that.

We're going to give you the benefit of the doubt.

But listen, it's today and we got you, and that is, if you have completely forgot.

It is Mother's Day.

Out on the Welcome Center, we have got some blank cards and we want to give you an opportunity to connect with your mom, and can I say that you start at the top with saying I'm sorry, okay, start with that, and then go from there and listen.

I got no idea how you're going to get it to your mom between now and midnight tonight.

That's your problem, all right.

But we got you cars, we're going to get you started, but make sure you call your mom and make sure you tell her Happy Mother's Day and if you can get this to her, do that and start with I love you mom.

That's usually the best thing ever.

Okay, all right.

Well, if you have been me that Ruth is one of your favorite books of the Bible, I love that.

It's one of mine too.

For some of you.

I'm also excited that you have said you've never read the book of Ruth before, which is even more awesome because it's probably going to become one of your favorite books in the Bible.

It's just amazing, and for some of you, you're still looking for it.

It's okay, it's toward the front.

It's really small, it's just four chapters and we're going to get there together.

And the big idea of Ruth, if you're taking notes, is this, and that is that God uses ordinary faithfulness to redeem people in extraordinary ways.

God uses ordinary faithfulness to redeem people in extraordinary ways.

It's one of the things I love about the book of Ruth is it's a small book.

It only has four chapters.

If you were to read it end to end it might take you 30 minutes.

So it's a small book but it has a big idea, and that is that it's almost a challenge that if you will, god will, and that if we have just enough faith to do the everyday, god will do the extraordinary in our lives.

And I love this and I love what it speaks to, that it's good for any day of our life.

And so let's jump into chapter two.

We're going to read just about the whole chapter and we're going to break down from there what God's Word has to say to us.

God's Word says this.

It says now, there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz, who was a relative of Naomi's husband, elimelech.

Now, if you haven't been with us the past couple of weeks, who are these fools?

All right, first of all, they're awesome.

They're not fools, don't say that again.

All right.

But here's this Naomi and Elimelech.

Here's the deal is, what happened in chapter one is Naomi and Elimelech were living in Bethlehem and as they were living there, they had gotten married, and that was a good thing, but the two sons had.

But when tragedy struck, the father and the two sons passed away, and so they hear that the famine is now over.

Naomi does anyway, and her daughter-in-law, ruth.

They hear the famine is over and they decide to come back to the land of Israel, in Bethlehem.

But they are just destitute.

They have nothing.

And we end at chapter one with really just the worst thing ever, which is they come back as just everything's gone wrong.

But while that's happening now, there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem.

So if you watch the old shows, it's saying, while the bad's going on, something good is happening.

Other words, meanwhile back at the bat cape is what really the narrator is saying.

And so now we got that going on.

The next thing is one day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi let me go into the harvest fields to pick up stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it.

Now what she's talking about is there was a rule in the nation of Israel, and that is that when you went to harvest grain, what you had to do is you had to leave the edges for three different types of people the widow, the orphan and the destitute.

Well, she fits all three of those categories.

And so she's saying I'm going to go and do this.

And so she's going to do it, which, by the way, harvest time for the barley harvest was the first part of the month of May, so she would have been doing it about now in their cycle of life.

So Naomi replied all right, my daughter go on ahead.

In other words, you go ahead, I'm going to stay here and finish my coffee.

So that's what happens.

Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters.

As it happened, wink wink, that she found herself working in the field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father-in-law, elimelech.

While she was there, boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters.

The Lord be with you, he said.

The Lord bless you.

The harvesters replied that's an Old Testament way of saying God is good.

Okay, that's basically what they were doing.

Okay, that was a kind of a God-inspired greeting.

All right, boaz asked his foreman who is that young woman over there and who does she belong to, in other words, what family is she part of?

And the foreman replied she is the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi.

She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters.

She has been hard at work ever since, except for a few minutes rest in the shelter.

Boaz went over to her and said went over and said to Ruth listen my daughter, stay right here with us when you gather grain.

Don't go to any of the other fields and stay right behind the young women working in my field, see which part of the field they are harvesting and then follow them.

I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly and when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water they have drawn from the well.

Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly.

What have I done to deserve such kindness, she asked.

I am only a foreigner.

Yes, I know, boaz replied, but I also know about everything you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband.

I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers.

May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.

And then she replied.

At mealtime Boaz called her and said Come on over here and help yourself to some food.

You can dip your bread in the sour wine.

Other words, have some chips and salsa, right?

She sat with the harvesters and Boaz gave her some of the roasted grain to eat.

She ate all she wanted and still had some left over.

When Ruth went back to work again, boaz ordered his young men let her gather grain right among the sheaves, without stopping her, and pull out some of the heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her.

It's like help her out, just go.

Oops, I dropped a whole bunch over here and let her pick it up and don't give her a hard time.

So she gathered barley there all day and when she beat out the grain that evening it filled an entire basket.

Wow, listen, there is so much there that we're not going to have a chance to get into.

So if you're interested in the rest of the story, you can scan that QR code or the QR code on your message notes, and I release a blog entry every Monday morning with the rest of the story because I'd love to tell you more about Boaz.

I'd love to tell you more about Harvest Cycles, which you'll be super excited about.

But the thing is, I want to focus on today, especially since it's Mother's Day, is we want to focus on the great grandmother of King David, which is Ruth, and what she did and how.

What she did actually is an amazing example to all of us Because, if you're taking notes, god redeems ordinary faithfulness in extraordinary ways and he is able to redeem those who, with the courage to take action.

God is able to redeem those who are willing to have the courage to take action.

God is able to redeem those who are willing to have the courage to take action, no matter what situation they face.

We're gonna be hard pressed to find ourselves in a more difficult place than her, but yet I love the fact that she was willing to take a next step, because the reality is is that God has a plan for all of our lives, but the also reality is is God wants us to be part of the plan that he has for all of our lives, and we can see how she had this amazing courage and how she had to have courage because of what came before.

So, like if you were with us in chapter one, we saw how they just absolutely hit bottom.

They lost everything in their life.

Ruth or Naomi went to Moab full.

She comes back empty, except she's got this daughter-in-law, ruth.

And what we've been talking about over the past couple of weeks is that God is able to redeem our suffering, and God is also able to redeem our sorrow.

But the reality is, god doesn't want us to stay in our suffering and in our sorrow.

So at some point, when we hit rock bottom, we have a choice to make, and the choice is what are we going to do?

And God wants to redeem what we do.

And so, if you're looking for kind of a definition for that, the definition for the word redeem is to restore, to restore something that was lost, broken or in need.

And what we're talking about today is that God wants to restore, to restore something that was lost, broken or in need.

And what we're talking about today is that God wants to restore, or he wants to redeem, to restore through our courage to take action.

Well, here's a definition of courage.

You may have a better definition than me, but if you take an extra notes, to me, the definition of courage is to feel fear but to move forward anyway.

Like if you don't feel any fear but you move forward, that's not courage, that's just taking a walk.

You know what I mean.

That's just moving forward.

Courage is not the absence of fear, it's looking fear in the eyes and saying I'm going to take action anyway.

And so what happens many times is we experience that rock bottom that we hit and then we have to make a decision what are we going to do?

And that's exactly what Mama Ruth does in our text today.

The Bible said that as they were at the bottom of everything.

I mean, just imagine they have nothing, they have no food, they have nothing, they have no one that's going to help them.

You got Naomi over here and if you remember from last week, she is just in a miserable state.

She even changed her name to Mara, which means bitterness.

Her name was sweetness, now it's bitterness.

So in other words, she's coffee without the cream and sugar, and so she's just there.

And then Ruth is like am I gonna join her or what else am I gonna do?

And the Bible said that one day Ruth the Moabite said harvest field and let me see what happens.

Now.

The reason why that was courageous is because, remember the time that she's living in.

She's living in the darkest time in Israel's history, during the time of the judges.

Have you read the book of Judges?

I mean, you just want to like, just stay in your house forever in the book of Judges, but she had to go out, remember, she is a widow for all intents and purposes, she's an orphan, she's destitute, and she's just going to go mosey around and see what happens.

That is absolutely dangerous for this time, but she's going to go and just see what God will do.

And what I love about this is, though, is the Bible says it's kind of giving us a little bit of a wink, because she doesn't know who Boaz is.

She doesn't know who Boaz is, she doesn't know anything about the area, but it says it just so happened that, when she had the courage to take action, that she happened to be in the place where Boaz actually was.

So God was doing something, but she had to do something first, and here's, if you're taking notes, this is the mentality that she had to have and that we have to have too, and that is that it may not be my fault, but it is my responsibility, like it's not her fault that her family died, it's not her fault that they're in this place, but it was.

She decided it is gonna be my responsibility to do something about it, and every mom in here knows what I'm talking about.

I mean ladies, I mean think about it.

When your toddler messes up their diaper, how many of you go?

Well, it's not my fault and it ain't my responsibility.

It's dad's, it's his turn.

I know what you're saying.

All right, and on Mother's Day that you get to do that, right, but the reality of it is is, how many times do you want it to be somebody else's responsibility?

I mean, it's like no, no, don't be sorry, like today's, the day we're going to have to potty trains.

What are we going to do?

But the reality is that it's not your fault, but it is your responsibility.

And can I tell you, one of the hardest things in the world is when you get to the bottom and have to make a decision.

What am I going to do?

And what I love about this is that God didn't ask her to do the impossible.

He asked her to do the hard but possible thing of being faithful.

And so what happens is is when we have the courage to take action and we start being faithful, do you know what starts to happen?

This is what I love is.

As we start to do this, we start to realize that we walk into the fact that God has a plan and that God is on the move.

Her job was to get up that morning and to say this is not my fault, but this is my responsibility, I'm gonna take the next step.

And she thought she was taking a next step into something invisible, something impossible.

We're just gonna see how this goes.

But the Bible quickly said she was taking a step out in faithfulness.

But what she didn't realize is, even before she moved there, god had raised up a guy named Boaz and he was already moving and already working.

Can I tell you, when you decide it may not be your fault, but it is your responsibility and you have the courage to take action you're not stepping out into nothing.

You're not stepping out into an impossible situation.

You're stepping out into something God has already been preparing for you, that God has no intention of leaving you out there on an island all by yourself.

He's going to make a way for you.

We don't have to do all of it, but we do have to do the possible thing, and that is to step out into all God has for us.

And so my hope for you today is to be an encouragement for somebody and to give you a promise for anybody who would say you feel like you're going through a weary season right now.

You feel like you're going through kind of that rock bottom stage where everything's going wrong, nothing's going right.

How about this one Maybe there's somebody in here who has a private battle that nobody else knows about.

Look at your neighbor and say he's always talking about you, not me.

I'm fine, okay, but let's just say and so here's the question of the day, and just saying so, here's the question of the day, and that is what promises are found in the book of Ruth for those trying to start over or move forward.

What promises are there?

Well, I want to give you three.

From what Ruth did that we can see how, when we hit rock bottom but we have the courage to take action and realize it may not be my fault, but it is my responsibility we can see what God can do.

So I want you to look at your neighbor and say what you gonna do can see what God can do.

So I want you to look at your neighbor and say what you gonna do Now you said that way too proper and say what you says, w-a-t-h-u, what you gonna do.

I count to three.

Try it again and make it as country as possible One, two, three what you gonna do.

And you got to look at yourself in the mirror every day and go what am I gonna do?

What am I going to do?

Here's three things that she did.

Here's the first one is to realize and here's the promise for you today is that God is at work and he redeems our fateful hard work so we can receive his blessing.

We've learned from her story.

Say, listen, it's not my fault, but it is my responsibility.

I can't do everything, but I can have enough courage to look this situation in the eye and take the next step.

And when I do, god is going to use my fateful hard work so we can receive his blessing.

Look what happened.

The Bible said this.

It said that Boaz asked them the question who is that woman?

Or, if you're from where I'm from, who that is?

They said who's her mom?

And him that's how we talk back where I'm from, who is that?

And the foreman said listen, it's that young woman.

She's not from around here.

I have no idea where her mom is, but I do know.

Her mother-in-law is Naomi, and she asked if she could gather grain.

But I'm going to tell you something, boaz, she has been working hard ever since she got here.

The only time she took a break was when it got real hot and she went and got some water cooled off and she got back at it again.

In other words, what Ruth is saying is I can't fix this, but what can I do?

I can't make everything better, but what can I do?

I can't make my family okay, what can I do?

I can't go and make somebody else hire me for the other job I want, but what can I do?

What next step can I take?

And as she began to work hard with and being faithful with what she had, look what the Bible said, that God prepared through Boaz.

It said that he said to her listen my daughter which, by the way, isn't that amazing that she was a foreigner, but yet he was already calling her part of the group.

He's like hey, listen, I see something more in you.

So I'm not going to call you the Moabite anymore, I'm going to call you one of us.

Hey, daughter, stay right here with us, stay right behind the young women.

I have warned a young man to leave you alone, because this is the time of the book of Judges and when you are thirsty, help yourself to some water.

Here's the thing the town of Bethlehem had no natural water source and so, anywhere you wanted to go get water, you had to go downhill somewhere to go get it and then bring it back up.

She didn't have any water with her, most likely.

And so he's saying if you get thirsty, I got you.

And so she went and just tried to.

I don't have everything, I got something, I'm gonna do the very best I can.

And when she applied herself to do the best she could, god gave her provision and protection through somebody else.

He said stay right here.

In other words, here is a place.

Stay right behind us, be one of us.

I'm going to give you protection and I'm going to make sure you've got everything that you need.

What I've noticed so many times in the lives and the testimonies of people is when they decided just to be faithful, to have courage and to take the next step, god adds blessing to that faithfulness.

Because the thing is is that God uses ordinary faithfulness, everyday faithfulness, to do extraordinary things.

And we can see how.

When she was willing to say hey, listen, this is what I can do.

God did something amazing.

And what I love about this is it reminds us that God gives us the dignity of being part of his healing process, where we can put in our part and God does the rest.

It reminds me of the story of the nation of Israel.

I mean, you imagine how funny for us?

This would be not funny for them, but they have been in the wilderness for 40 years Okay, that's a long time, right, that is a really long time.

And they've been waiting to cross over the Jordan River to go into the promised land, and you imagine how many times they've been telling stories about this.

It's going to be awesome.

It's going to be amazing.

The reason why we're not there yet is God's getting it ready for us.

I'm sure there's going to be clean silk sheets and fresh pillows and little chocolates on the pillows, and the coffee's always gonna be hot, always caffeinated, not decaffeinated.

God's gonna get rid of all the cats in the land.

It's gonna be awesome.

I mean, for 40 years they were telling their kids and grandkids just wait, it's a place full of dogs.

It's gonna be amazing.

I mean just telling the stories of how God had been with them and they got out of Egypt and God's gonna be with them.

And then, finally, in the book of Deuteronomy, god is about to take them in, and so Moses is writing the covenant again to tell them how awesome it's gonna be.

And this is what they hear.

They hear look, I'm giving you this land.

Yes, silk sheets, fresh pillows.

Go in and take it over, for this is the land that I swore to give your ancestors.

You mean, like there's going to be a key at the door and I'm going to go in?

No, no, no, I'm going to give you the wood, but you're going to have to build the house.

I'm going to give you the land, but you're going to have to plant the crops.

Where's my silk sheets?

Wherever you're going to make them at?

My friend, the idea is yes, of course, but I want you to be part of the process.

I'm giving you the dignity of taking the next step, so that you can watch how I unfold in your life, and so can I give you a wonderful promise, and that is if you find yourself at rock bottom.

That's not where God intends for you to stay, but he wants you to take the next step.

He doesn't intend you to do the impossible.

He intends for you to be faithful in the possible and watch what he does, and that God will bless our fateful hard work.

And he says this.

He says, dear brothers and sisters, that means everybody, be strong and immovable, have courage.

Always work enthusiastically for the Lord.

For you know that nothing, somebody say nothing, nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

Nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

So in other words, you're saying, pastor, I don't know if I'm making that much of a difference in my life.

That's really not our responsibility.

Our responsibility is to do the best that we can and to know that God is doing the rest, that we can't, and to realize that whatever situation you're in in your life, maybe you can't fix it.

Realize that whatever situation you're in in your life, maybe you can't fix it.

But what can you do?

What's the next step?

And can you trust God to do all the things you can't do?

So here's a question I would ask you, and that is this where would you faithfully take action if you knew God was making a way?

Where in your life?

I don't know what pressure points may be in your life.

I don't know what's going on, I don't know what relationship situations are happening, but what I do know is there's a good question to say if you knew that if you took action in an area, you weren't stepping out into a disaster, but you were stepping into the plan of God in your life, and you knew that God was already preparing a Boaz who was going to help you, what would you do?

What you knew that God was already preparing a Boaz who is gonna help you, what would you do?

What next step would you take?

Because what I do know is is God will not do for you what he's already told you in his word and you know what he's told you.

Be faithful, be strong and immovable, always work enthusiastically for the Lord, because nothing you do for him is ever useless.

And I just wanna encourage you.

If you're in here and you're at that rock bottom and you're just sick and tired of being sick and tired, can I tell you God might work a miracle and, like spiritually, snap his fingers and you'll be out of it.

But many times what I've watched him do is I've watched him give us the courage to take a next step.

And as we take that next step, we see his faithfulness and we see his goodness.

And then we take another step and we see him even more.

And what it does is it increases our faith and it grows us.

And as it grows us, it's amazing what God continues to do.

And God can redeem anyone who is willing to have courage and take the next step.

You just got to figure out what you're going to do.

So look at your neighbor and say what you going to do.

Are you tired of sitting there?

Are you tired of being tired?

Are you ready to do something?

You don't have to do everything, but what is one step you can take?

And if you do it, god has a plan for your life.

Here's the second promise, and that is this that God is at work and he redeems our faithful humility so we can experience his faithfulness.

He redeems our faithful humility, our willingness to humble ourselves before him, and as we do, we can experience his faithfulness.

You imagine how hard that must have been for Ruth, because where Ruth was from, she wasn't in this space she's fine.

She still had her family over there.

She could have married again that's what the other daughter-in-law did, but because she was willing to go and's what the other daughter-in-law did but because she was willing to go and to be with her mother-in-law because she knew her mother-in-law was gonna be destitute without anything.

Now she has to humble herself and realize what's going on.

The Bible said that when all of this happened, ruth fell at his feet to thank him.

But listen to what she said.

She said what have I done to deserve such kindness?

I am only a foreigner.

In other words, she had a very real focus on who she was, who she wasn't.

She realized that all of this is not because of her greatness, but it's because of God's greatness, and I love how he said yes, I know what you are, but I also know what God has been doing in your life.

I know about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law ever since the doing in your life.

I know about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law ever since the death of your husband.

I have learned how you left your father and your mother to your own land here with complete strangers, and I love this.

May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.

In other words, he's saying may what you have done.

In other words, he's saying may what you have done, may that hard work that you have put in, may that faithfulness that you have done, may that, and realizing where you are, may God show you his goodness.

What I love about this idea is humility is having a balanced view of yourself and a proper view of God.

Humility is having a balanced view of who we are.

It's not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less often and I don't know about you, but many times when I get to a rock bottom situation in my life, I tend to go one of two ways.

I tend to go one way where I'm like, man, I'm too good for this, I know what I'm worth, I need to get up out of this, somebody needs to deliver me.

Or, on the other side, I'm like, well, this is what I deserve.

I'm terrible, I'm horrible.

I'm surprised I'm not dead yet.

I mean, you ever been in one of those two camps?

It's like we don't ever get, we don't ever balance, really like bitter, or we like feel sorry for ourself.

And I love where she's going, to the point of listen.

I don't deserve this and he made sure to reframe it and go actually, this is what God is doing in your life, can I tell you?

It's so important when you're trying to take action that we don't get bitter and we don't get in a place where we think we deserve this or we don't think we deserve this, but rather we just say God, I'm just up for whatever it is you wanna do.

And when we do, it's amazing what God will show in his faithfulness, because he does amazing things through ordinary acts of faithfulness.

When we say, listen, this is not my fault, but it is my responsibility.

And when I turn it over to him, it's amazing what the Lord can do.

It reminds me of we're reading the book of Ezekiel together, and if you'd like to read the Bible with us, you can text RLCBIBLE to 94000 or scan the QR code.

And for some of you, it has been a 40-year journey to get through the book of Ezekiel.

But I'm telling you we are rounding third base.

We're going to finish it up pretty soon and it's going to get gooder and gooder from here on out.

Okay, it's going to get better, but in a couple of days, we're actually going to read one of the most famous chapters in the entire Old Testament you've probably heard of, and it's about a valley full of dry bones, and it is amazing how the Lord uses this to show exactly what we're talking about today.

The Bible says that the Lord took me, ezekiel, and he was carried by the Spirit of the Lord to the valley filled with bones and he led me all around and among the bones that cover the valley floor and they were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.

And then he asked me, son of man, can these bones become living people again?

And I replied I got no idea.

I have absolutely no idea.

I just know this is gross and I don't want to be here.

Okay, that's that's.

That's Brandon's unauthorized transit translation of what he just said.

Cause imagine this he has been talking about for years at this point that the Israelites are terrible and they're horrible and God's going to judge them.

And then God does judge them, and now they're just scattered and they're everywhere.

And then, and the poor, poor guy Ezekiel he's just so much fun, he's just always doing stuff he laid on one side for like 300 years and then he turned over and he's like this is what God's gonna do Like that's my job right there.

Okay, it's just to take a break for a little while.

But he has all these things and then God takes him to a valley full of bones.

It's, but he does, and then he's, and then, and then God challenges him hey, can I do anything with these bones?

And I love his answer God, I have no idea, only you know.

Good answer, when you humble yourself and you don't try to be anything other than what you are.

And let me lead.

Then the Bible says it was amazing.

It reminds me of that story, that song you know the hip bone connects to the shoulder bone or whatever it is.

I know, I know they're not connected unless something's really wrong.

But the thing is is they start connecting together.

And then what's amazing is that the Bible said the spirit of God came in and blew wind in them and they started off as a bunch of disconnected bones and they end as an arming.

And it was like God did pretty good, that's pretty good.

And then he's like God, why in the world did you show me this?

And he said son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel.

They are saying we have become old, dry bones and all hope is gone, Our nation is finished.

And if you've read the first half of Ezekiel, you're like, yeah, that's what happened.

He said, therefore, prophesy to them and say this is what the sovereign Lord says oh my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again.

Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel and when this happens, oh my people, you will know that I am the Lord, I will put my spirit in you and you will live again and return to your home, or return home to your own land.

In other words, he's saying if you will turn yourself over to me, if you'll humble yourself to me, you've got no idea what I can do.

I can show you my faithfulness in amazing ways and I can tell you.

It may not be our fault, but Ruth tells us that we take responsibility and we can't do everything, but we can do something.

And we can't do everything, but we can do something.

And the promises that God gives us is that if we'll do what we can, god will do what we can't.

And if we will humble ourselves and say, god, I can't fix this, I don't know what to do, but I know you can.

It is amazing at the faithfulness that God will show us in our life.

And I don't know where you may be in your life right now, but can I tell you, god's with you more than you realize.

And for some of us, I wonder if what God is wanting us to do is that someone's like have you ever been in a turn?

And you're trying to hold on to that turn and it's just trying.

You're trying, it's getting harder and harder and sometimes what you got to do is you got to let go and just say God, I can't fix this, but I know you can.

And what's amazing is, when we let go of our control, we start to realize that he was in control the whole time and that maybe we weren't trying to pull against our situation.

We were actually pulling against the will of God, and so when we release it to him, it's amazing what he can do.

So my question for you is this where do you need to be faithful and humbly trust the Lord?

Humbly, just say God, I don't know, I have no idea what you're doing, but I trust you.

I trust that you are doing more than I can realize and I don't have a clue what to do.

But what I do know is is that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary acts of faithfulness and that God can redeem us when we take action and take the next step with courage.

When we take action and take the next step with courage, and when we do, god will faithfully honor what we put into his hand and he will bless us that then God will help us in every way so that we can humble ourselves and we can trust him.

But we have got to make the choice to take that next step.

So one more time, look at your neighbor and say so what you gonna do?

Are you tired of being tired?

Look at them.

Gonna do.

Are you tired of being tired?

Look at them and say are you tired of being tired?

To which I see some of them going.

Yeah, yeah, I am, I'm so tired of being tired.

Yes, absolutely.

But here's the promise.

Can I tell you the promise?

It gets worse before it gets better sometimes because we gotta take the next step when it's so easy just to sit.

But God doesn't want us to sit.

He wants healing for us and he promises that he'll bless our hard work.

He'll bless us when we trust in him.

And here's the last one, and that is that he redeems our fateful persistence so we can share his goodness.

That he will bless and he'll redeem, and he'll restore our fateful persistence, not giving up One more day so we can share his goodness with others.

I love how, after this was said, she said may I continue to please you, sir?

And then Ruth gathered barley there all day and when she beat out the grain and that evening it filled the entire basket.

Maybe this is not your story, but my story is.

The hardest thing is to keep going for a long time.

You ever decided you were going to run a 5k and the first day when your job is just to walk for 30 minutes, you got this.

But as soon as it says walk for 30 minutes and jog for 15 seconds, you wonder why the devil is on you and why God's not good and how, if I just make it home, I ain't never going to do this again.

I'm just going to marathon a Netflix series.

That's what I'm going to do, right?

You ever decided to do that.

You ever decided to go on a fast and by breakfast you're wondering where God's faithfulness is by the time that's over with.

It's so good to have a plan.

It's so hard to keep going with the plan.

Can I tell you what's even more difficult?

It's when you start going with the plan and then somebody tells you something good.

You decide you're going to do a 5k and you finish that first day of walking 30 minutes.

You come inside and that spouse goes man, I'm so proud of you, you're so good.

Well, I'm done.

That was good.

I got the accolades I wanted.

Thank you so much.

The hard thing is to go back out the next day and do it.

Well, he just got through saying it's going to be all right, god's going to be faithful.

You know how easy it would have been for her just to go home.

What is a good day at work?

Let's go on home.

But instead she went back out there and kept going, and then what she kept doing as she was going is, by the end of the day she took home to Naomi an entire basket.

Now the unit of measurement is an ephah and that is the amount of two weeks worth of food for her and Naomi, and it's actually an unheard of amount For people that were living at the time.

Who read this were like what?

Because normally they would have gotten about two days worth per worker, which is why they had to go back out every single day.

So for her to get two weeks worth immediately, they would have been well, god must've been in that.

Well, she kept working and look what the Lord did, can I tell you?

What's amazing for us is that when we keep working, it's amazing what the Lord does, but we got to keep on working.

And then what's amazing too is we got to realize that as we continue to take action, realize it may not be my fault, but it is my responsibility God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to somebody else.

God doesn't want to bless us just so we can celebrate our blessing, but he blesses us so we go okay, who needs this blessing?

Who is where I was yesterday?

So that I can encourage them and so that they can encourage somebody else.

The reason why God brings us out of difficult situations over time is so we can pick people up along the way and bring them with us to share in his goodness.

It reminds me of another woman in the Bible, kind of illustrate this is a lady named Hannah.

Not many people know her name.

And the Bible kind of illustrate this is a lady named Hannah.

Not many people know her name, but she was alive about the same time as Ruth, and Hannah desperately wanted a family.

Her bottom end was the fact that everybody around her was having a family, but she couldn't have one.

And the Bible said over years she would go to the house of God and she would beg and she would plead and she would cry out God, I need a family.

God, would you give me a family, god, would you give me a family?

And it was so bad that the high priest was walking by one day and I don't know what this looks like, but apparently she was just sitting there going God, I need a family.

Oh, god, I need a family.

Whatever it was, the priest looked at her and was like that girl's drunk.

Check it out in your Bible, okay, 1 Samuel, chapter 1.

1 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

She prayed so oddly that she looked like she'd been sauced for a while.

Okay, she had a little too much.

So literally the priest said lady, don't bring the alcohol into the house of God.

He's like oh, no, no, no, no, no, I am not drunk, as you suppose.

I really, really, really really want a family.

He's like well, you want that bad, the Lord's gonna give it to you, and he did.

She went back home.

Nine months later she had a baby.

But what I love is is when she realized that God had blessed her with what she wanted.

She didn't say well, this is my blessing, I'm gonna keep this.

I ain't ever going back to the house of God.

Somebody might steal, wasn't that at all?

Otherwise, she said, man, god bless me.

I want to use the blessing of this wonderful boy to be a blessing to everybody else.

And so the Bible said that after he got old enough so he could do it, that she went and told that same priest and say remember me drunk lady, I'm not actually.

I wasn't actually drunk, but the Lord.

But I asked the Lord to give me this boy and he granted my request.

Now I am giving him to the Lord and he will belong to the Lord his whole life.

And they worshiped the Lord there.

She realized God blessed me so that I could be a blessing to everybody else.

And I'm so glad that she did, because this young man grew up in the house of God and he became the greatest judge during the time of the judges, and he was actually the judge that started pulling them out of that darkness and God used him to anoint the first two kings of Israel.

His name is Samuel.

He's one of the most famous people in world history, especially biblical history, and it was because when God blessed this mom, she realized the blessing wasn't just for her, but it was to be shared with everybody else.

So my question for you is this how can you focus on being a blessing to someone else during your difficult season?

How is it you can take what God is doing in your life to make a difference in the lives of somebody else?

Because the reality of it is God has a promise for you, and here's that promise Galatians 6, 9 says let us not get tired of doing what is good, for at just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up.

You know I am not a math person, but if I were to look at this, I see I see kind of an equation happening here where God is saying, kind of like the premise of the book of Ruth, which is, if you will, watch what I can do, if you will, I will.

And what he's saying is is he's saying, hey, listen, you've got.

You've got one job, and that is don't let the tiredness get to you At just the right time.

I'm going to do something in your life.

That's's gonna be like a harvest of blessing, much like what Ruth experienced today.

But you got one job.

Don't give up.

What an amazing promise In this.

God's not asking us to do anything impossible.

He's not asking us to split the sky, to walk on water, to feed 5,000.

He's saying just don't give up one more day, keep going one more day, because what God knows and what we need to know is that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary acts of faithfulness.

A legacy of faithfulness is built on daily, not giving up.

It's built on daily not giving up.

And so I don't know where you are in your life right now.

My prayer for you is that on this Mother's Day, you are experiencing the joy of the Lord like never before.

All of the fruit of the Spirit is growing in your life.

Great things are happening.

It's just getting gooder and gooder all the time.

I am too blessed to be stressed, packed down, shaken, running over all the good things.

And if that's you, this message isn't for you, it's for your neighbors.

You start praying for them.

But I think it's possible that maybe there's somebody in here today that you're tired, you're weary, you're broken hearted.

You have been at the end of your rope for so long.

You tied a knot in that thing and you've been hanging on.

But even now that thing's starting to fray and you're like I don't know how long it's longer this thing's going to hold.

I tell you, God's not asking you to work a miracle.

He's asking you if you can trust Him to work a miracle and to realize that God can do extraordinary things through ordinary acts of faithfulness.

So what do we do?

We take the courage, or we take courage to take the next step, and as we do, god's promise for us is that every step we take, he takes a step with us and we're not walking into an unknown place where he's not there.

We're actually walking into what he's already prepared for us.

And that when we humble ourselves and say, god, I can't fix this, but I know that you can, and then we just refuse to ever give up and bring everybody with us as we can, I'm gonna tell you he says a harvest of blessing is coming if we don't give up.

I just want to encourage you to don't give up.

You're probably doing better than you realize You're probably closer than you realize, you just don't see it yet.

It reminds me of a story I've heard before, but I heard it again this past week.

It's about a lady named Florence Chadwick.

If you know her, her heyday was in the 1950s and in 1952, she attempted to swim 26 miles from the Catalina Island to the California coast 26 miles, I don't even want to drive that far.

But after 15 hours of swimming due to the cold of swimming, due to the cold, the pain and intense just big time fog that came in, she asked to be pulled out of the water.

She quit, she couldn't see anything in front of her and she just, she just gave up.

What was amazing is, as they put her in the boat, as they started going towards shore and the fog started to lift, she was less than a mile from the shore, which would have meant if she'd looked up she could have seen the shoreline from where she was.

Later that day she said I'm not excusing myself, but if I could have seen the land, I might've made it.

I wonder how many of us, if we could see how close we are to God, answering the prayers that we've been praying for a long time, would we quit or would we double our efforts.

So my encouragement to you is to do exactly what Florence did, and that is that it aided her so much that two months later she tried again.

The same thick fog rolled in, but she said this time she kept her mind on the shoreline, not the fog, and she succeeded.

And when they asked her, she said I didn't focus on the fog, I focused on the shore.

Can I tell you, I don't know what difficult season you're going through right now, but as I was praying for you and thinking about you this week, this is the sentence that God put in my thinking about you this week.

This is the sentence that God put in my heart this week, and maybe this is the whole reason why you came to church, and that is this.

I know it hurts, but God did not bring you this far, to only bring you this far.

I don't know who that's for.

Maybe it's for me.

I'll take it in Jesus' name, but I know it hurts.

I know you're weary, I know you're tired.

You've got 99 issues, but can I tell you Jesus is not one of them.

Maybe your issues is the stuff that's going on with our world right now, stuff that's going on in our nation right now, stuff that's going on in your home, or maybe stuff that's going on inside of your own heart.

Can I tell you God's faithful, he didn't bring you this far just to leave you right here, but I love the series.

We just finished that.

It said, though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid.

Why?

Because you walk close beside me and God can do extraordinary things through your willingness to get up one more day and not give up.

I don't know what you need to bring to the Lord today, but can I tell you he's here.

He wants to fill you with his love, fill you with his encouragement, and in just a moment the band is going to lead us in a song of worship and it's your opportunity to maybe give something to the Lord.

Maybe you feel a sense of shame today because you've come this close to giving up.

Don't feel ashamed.

You haven't.

You haven't given up.

That's good enough.

Maybe you have given up.

That's why God's got you here this morning is to get you back in the game again.

Don't be ashamed.

Don't let the enemy lie to you and tell you it's over.

If you're not dead, god's not finished, god's still moving.

And so, as we have our time of worship, maybe you just need to lay something down spiritually to the Lord and say God, I give up all of my rights and I take on all of yours.

I'm not going to give up, I'm going to give my life over to you a little bit more.

I don't know, maybe you just need to have a conversation with God and just be honest with him, tell him what hurts, tell him what's difficult, and the Bible said it's in his presence that we find fullness of joy.

Maybe you just want to find a quiet place up here, just symbolically laying something down before the Lord.

Maybe you want to go back to the prayer table and say would you pray with me?

I'm in that difficult valley on chapter two or chapter one.

I feel like God wants me to make a decision for chapter two, but I need you to pray for me.

Can I tell you, courage takes courage and we want to be with you here together.

Our rally cry this year is that we grow together.

That means we laugh together, we cry together, we pray for one another.

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with God.

Can I tell you, life is hard with Jesus.

It's impossible without him.

I don't know how you make it without Jesus in this life.

Because when I don't know how you make it without Jesus in this life, because when we have Jesus, we have hope for tomorrow.

And if you're here, you know what God's word says.

It says God did not go through all the trouble of sending his son into this world to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was.

He came to help and to put the world right again.

If you're in here and you don't know Jesus, you don't have a relationship with him.

He's not mad at you.

You've never been loved more than you are right now.

In just a moment, as we pray, your next step, your act of worship, is on the back of that connect card.

It's the plan of salvation, and we'd love for you to step out of your seat, go back to our prayer table and say I want to receive Jesus today, and they would love to lead you in that prayer.

So Jesus said himself the best way.

I can describe it to you it's like being born again.

And if that's your next step, if you give everything you have over to him, then you can experience the love of God today.

Can we pray together right now?

God?

Thank you so much for today.

Thank you, god, that you're with us and that you're for us in every way.

Thank you, god, that you see us and that you know us.

God, I'm so thankful that in this room and in this moment, as many people that are in here are the many different things that you are doing, the many different ways that you are speaking.

God, you are for us and not against us.

God, I pray for maybe the person who is here right now and they're broken and they're hurting.

They feel like they're all alone and that nobody understands and that nobody cares.

Honestly, the truth is that in this life, maybe they are in that place, but, god, you know, you care, you understand and, god, they have thought they have been alone, but you've never been far from them.

You've been close, you've been right there waiting for them and then, even when they didn't cry out for you, you were still orchestrating and moving things in their life.

I pray, holy Spirit, you'll open our eyes to be able to see how you've been moving in our life, to give us the courage to keep going, to see the shoreline of your faithfulness and to know that you are still on the throne.

God, I pray for maybe somebody in here that doesn't have a relationship with you.

God, the enemy would lie to them and say they are not welcome.

He would lie to them and say that they've gone too far, they've done too much.

I just bind that in the name of Jesus and I ask you, holy Spirit, to silence the voice of the enemy and help them to realize, god, that you love them.

It's the reason why they're here, so they can hear someone tell them you've not given up on them and that today is the day of their salvation.

And, god, as we worship you, we ask you to set us free in every way.

In Jesus' name, we pray amen, amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us through a song of worship.

I don't know how you need to connect with the Lord this morning.

Maybe you just need to be right where you are with your hands lifted, just giving your voice to him and worshiping him.

Maybe you want to find a quiet place down here and just hand something over to the Lord.

Maybe you'd like to receive salvation today.

We'd love to pray with you help you know what that next step is.

But whatever you need to do, let's not waste this opportunity, but let's give the Lord our worship this morning.