Ruth's Devotion

So super excited when I heard we were doing the book of Ruth, and

not just because it's a love story, love that after

Leviticus, but because my wedding vows actually came from

this book for from some of the truths of this book.

I know. But two years ago my husband and

I were married and we were married on my family's farm.

So my dad is a farmer and a pastor and I'm fifth generation

on that property. And it wasn't a coincidence that

we decided to make our vows there.

So we got on a mountain, on a field and in front of some very,

very dear friends and family. I chose to make this part of my

vow to my to my darling love. And I said these words.

I said, my darling love, where you go, I will go.

And what you have faithful, I will find faithful.

And a whole 12 weeks later got in my car packed with my brand

new husband. We packed it to the brim.

And I'd felt like I was coming to a foreign land with a foreign

language. I crossed the great Berevorce

curtain. I came here, I traded some

mountains for Jacarandas. And I want to say to you, I came

to this beautiful city. I came to be with an incredibly

kind family, but I also came to be part of this exquisite part

of the bride called 3 CR. And I want to say thank you for

making it easy to make this place home.

Thank you for making brave decisions easy when you come and

see people like this. So I want to say thank you.

It's been our best decision. So my heart tonight when we read

the book of Ruth is that actually that that this

scripture that the scripture that says for where you go, I

will go where you lodge, I will lodge your people will become my

people. I'm losing things, but that's

fun and your God will be my God, my hearts and hearts is that the

scripture would be more than just wedding poetry, but it

would be more than just a dramatic mountain and a

beautiful dress in a moment that we'll go like, oh, about.

But I believe that this scripture is an invitation.

I believe that these words are an invitation to our heavenly

Bridegroom. I believe that in these words I

will go where you go. I will stay where you stay.

I will make your people my people God.

I will make your faith and your way and your Kingdom and your

wisdom my wisdom. I believe that there's a heart

posture that will lead us to our inheritance.

I believe that these words are a heart posture that leads us to

freedom. So that's the desire of my heart

tonight. That's where we're going.

So the one thing I love about Ruth is she is one brave auntie.

I'm telling you, she is one brave auntie.

When she says I'm going to go with Naomi, it sounds like we've

heard the story so many times. We just, like, glance over it.

But what she was actually saying is she was saying, I'm going to

leave my people, my culture, my faith, everything I know to be

comforting, unknown and safe. I'm going to lay it down.

And the next thing that we, we often don't realize about Ruth

is when we say that she was husbandless and childless.

It was more than just relationally traumatic.

You see, for a woman in the ancient in the ancient Middle

East, your husband or your father was your access to

resource. It was what kept you safe.

It's what gave you provision. It's what gave.

It's what gave you a future. Every part of security in that

life was linked to where you were in your dad's house or were

you in your husband's house. And secondly, for you to not

have children. It wasn't just walking through

the pain of infertility. It wasn't just that.

It wasn't just the fact that another month goes by and she's

still not a mom, another year goes by and she's still not a

mom. Another decade goes by and she's

still not a mom. It wasn't just that your

children were your future. Your children were the ones that

when you old and in your most vulnerable state, they would

take care of you without being funny.

They were your RA. It's like there was no Investec

back then. It was you had kids.

Your kids took care of you. So for Ruth and Naomi to have no

husband, to have no dad, to have no kids, she was incredibly

vulnerable. So when Naomi says so, when Ruth

says to Naomi with all of this context in mind, she says, I'll

go with you. And Naomi says to her, Ruth OPA,

my daughters, I think you must go to your mother's home.

I think you must go to your mother's household.

She was actually giving her really good advice.

She was saying go where you safe, go where there's actually

an obligation to take care of you.

Go where it's very likely your dad will be like this is really

tough, but but come home, my darling.

So for Ruth to turn back to Naomi and say I'm all in, I'm

with you. It is wild.

You see, Ruth risked everything on the rumor of a faithful and

good God. She risked everything,

everything she knew, every sort of network she had, every sort

of potential opportunity she had.

She risked everything and she laid it down and she said, you

know what? I've heard a rumor of a God, the

God of the Hebrews, and he calls himself faithful.

I've heard of this God and he calls himself kind.

And the only God she ever knew as as Steven spoke so

beautifully last week, he he actually demanded child

sacrifice. He demanded everything but this

God. He said, I'll take care of you.

She risked everything. And I think, I think the irony

of all of this, the irony of all of this is that she would have

heard about this good God from some faithless people.

She would have heard about this God.

Thank you. She would have heard about this

God from her family, her family that were actually descendants

of Princess of Israel. They should have known God's

kindness was woven into their very family line.

They should have known of from they should have known of God's

kindness. But they ran from from the

promised land to enemy tennis territory when there was a

famine. Those were the people, the

people that ran to enemy territory in trouble.

Those were the people that told her about this God and she still

believed. You see, if you asked somebody

in ancient in the ancient Middle East and you said this God of

the Hebrews, this, this great I am, who is he who is Elohim?

Who is who is this Yahweh they talk about.

It's very likely that there will be two things they'll mention.

Number one, they'll say, oh, oh, it's, oh, it's the God of

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's who it is.

And the second thing that's very likely is they would have read

from a section in an exodus, and it's very good.

So I'm going to go there. Oh, praise Jesus.

Thank you, Lord. OK, it's very good.

So I'm going to read it. It says this.

So this is the part in the Old Testament read.

Moses has just got the law. It's pretty wild.

And it says it says that the, the, the goodness of the Lord

passed before him. And it says that this is this is

the description of God. This is how God describes

himself. Early days, like in the

beginning, he says this the Lord, the Lord, a God, merciful

and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and

faithfulness, keeping steady love for thousands, forgiving

iniquity, transgressions and sin.

This mobile test refugee would have heard the Lord, the Lord, a

God merciful and gracious. Can I say tonight he is still

the Lord, the Lord merciful and gracious.

He I find it so incredible that the first word he uses to

describe himself is mercy. That's not how I would describe

myself first. So I'm going to be honest with

you giving it a good go. But that's not the first word

that comes to mind. But he says, when you think of

me, the first word that comes to mind is I am merciful towards

you. And then when he, when he

chooses to describe himself as the God of Abraham, Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob, what he's actually saying, it's not just

Old Testament branding. It's not just like the tagline

of like anything before Matthew. What he's actually saying is I'm

a God of generational faithfulness.

When when you hear the words I am the God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob, he's saying to you tonight, you can trust me not

just with your life, but your children's, children's life.

That's how good I am because my faithfulness is about me and my

character and has nothing to do with you.

My faithfulness, my ability to just to keep my word and my

promises to you has nothing to do with you.

It has everything to do with who I am.

It has everything to do with slow to anger.

It has everything to do with steadfast love to thousands.

That's the God that risk that the God Ruth risked on.

She risked on a rumour. If you hear tonight and you

don't come from a family of faith, you might feel like Ruth.

Maybe you don't come from 4 generations or I don't even know

how many 4 generations of believers.

Maybe you feeling like the foreigner that's been sitting in

these chairs hearing these rumours of can God really heal?

Is God really as powerful as we've heard in Romans?

Sheesh, is it true? Maybe you weren't raised in

Sunday school. Maybe you weren't raised with a

whole team of aunties praying over you and blessing you every

time you're chewed. Maybe that's not your story.

I want to tell you tonight. There is a destitute MO batist

in the Bible that had more faith then Princess of Israel and she

became the great grandmother of one of the greatest kings of all

time because she risked on God. You can risk on him tonight.

The reason, one of the reasons why I love Abraham so much is

because to be honest, sometimes he's like so full of grace and

faith, but he's such a hot mess at the same time.

Like if you read his story, it just gives me so much faithful

second chances. Like he risks so well and then

he has Wobblies. But to be honest with you, he's

still a good guy to follow. So I love when Ruth uses this

language with Naomi. She she goes, I'm going to go

where you go. I'm going to then I'm going to

actually choose to stay there. I'm going to make your people my

people. I'm going to make your faith my

faith. And then she goes on to say,

this radical land, she says, and where you die, I will die also.

And there I will be buried. If there was going to be a back

door, that was a great place to put it.

There is like no reservation in Ruth's language to Naomi.

She leaves nothing out. There's there's no space.

She leaves absolutely no room for her to like back out.

And that is Covenant language. That's language that actually

the father of faith, Abraham would have understood because he

made a covenant with God. He understood that thing.

The foreign mobotist, destitute Black Widow, not woman, she is a

woman, but the widow had more had had a greater understanding

of covenant relationship then actually the royal family.

She was a part of anyone If they put their faith in in Christ and

Jesus and God's character. Just watch what it'll do with

your life. But one of the things I love, I

love about I love about Abraham as he understands this thing of

covenants and it challenges me. It challenges me because so, so

often I'm reserved in my relationships.

We've all been there. We've been looking for a connect

group and they're really cool. You really think you connect

with them. They're the right age group.

You can see a future but they use box milk and you are just

not a box milk girly. And we genuinely sit there with

reservation in our hearts or maybe there's a gun.

We've been crying out to the Lord for a husband and he's

amazing and he makes you laugh and these things in there that

you didn't even know to pray for you like he is flippin awesome.

He loves the Lord, but you really thought you were going to

marry somebody in finance and like the future that you were

planning is not lining up with what's in front of you.

We like hard wired for like reservation.

We don't know what it is to be all in.

We don't know what it is to be like, you know what good and

bad. But actually I'm going for it

doesn't look great, but I know God's going to be kind on the

other side of it. You see, we taught this thing of

red flag, green flag, and we, we thought, we thought to diversify

our portfolio to mitigate risk. That was for the accountants out

there. We thought to diversify our

relational portfolio to mitzify risk.

That's not how my God works. That's not how he works.

It's not like, you know what, Lord, I'll take your salvation,

but my future's fine. I know where I'm going.

I'll take your fire insurance, but don't tell me what to do

with my money. I'll take your fire insurance.

I'll take your salvation. But actually there's a part of

my heart that is so sore I can't even talk to you about it.

That is not the God I save. It says it's, I think it's

Jesus. He speaks about this parable.

He says there's a man and he finds a treasure in a field.

And sometimes this gospel is like a treasure in a field.

So you've got to brush off a little bit of the dust.

I got to go looking for it. You got to go seeking it out.

But the man knows what he finds and he sells everything it says.

He sells everything that he has to his name.

There's nothing left. And he buys this field and he

gains this treasure. That is our king.

That is what Ruth did. Ruth risked everything on the

rumour of a good God. She didn't.

She didn't diversify her portfolio.

She was all in. I believe when we all in, we

invite God into our lives in a very unique way.

When we all in and there's nothing left, we invite the

ability of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob into our story.

Going back to Abraham, he's a cool guy.

I kind of started the intro for him a bit early.

I apologize, but he's kind of like the grandfather of our

faith. He's one of the first people

that God made a covenant with. And it's pretty wild because

laugh was going well for Abraham.

If you go back to his story, he was a man of standing.

He was a man of wealth. He actually pretty much had

everything. Small technicality.

He couldn't have kids. And God does this wild thing

where he says, will you trust me?

And will you leave all of this and come with me into the

wilderness and I'll make a covenant to you and I will be

your great reward. And I'm going to make a big

promise over your life. And and Abraham believes God and

he goes with him. And then God has this moment

with Abraham where he says, you know what?

I'm actually going to make you the father of many nations, not

just a son. I'm going to make you the father

of many nations because God knows the desire of our hearts.

And if you think your dreams for your life are big, meet the God

of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob. So he says to him, come follow

me, come risk with me, and I'm going to make you the father of

many nations. Long story short, Abraham was

about 100 when he had his son Isaac and his wife, the

beautiful wife, but old wife was 90.

So like if there was ever a picture of God's ability and

flesh and blood, it was Isaac. He was literally the the promise

wrapped in bones and flesh. He was the ability of God before

your very eyes. Because in almost a century, God

did with Isaac what what Abraham and Sarah weren't able to do.

He, he was everything. But then there's this wild

moment. To be honest with you, I still

struggle with it. It's still hard because I think

it's in the heart of all of us. There's this moment in the story

where God says to Abraham, Abraham, will you take your son,

the one that you love, your only son, remind you of anyone, and

will you put him at my feet? Will you give him back to me?

The promise right before him, the promised land, the gift, the

thing that we want, the very desire of his heart, the only

thing he lacked, God says, will you give it back to me?

Will you trust me? And Abraham does.

He goes up the mountain, he brings wood, he does the things,

he ties up his son, he lays him down.

And the Scripture talks about this moment afterwards and it

says there was so much faith in Abraham's heart.

He thought if, if, if, if Isaac is the promise of God in my life

and he's promised that I'm going to be the father of many nations

through the sun, surely he's going to bring him back from the

dead. That's that's the only option.

So you put him on the altar. And the moment he put in there,

God said, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I know that you know that I'm God and you fear me in the most

beautiful way, and I can trust you, and I'm actually going to

provide the sacrifice because God always does.

And in the natural, it looked like his son was bound up.

But actually what God was doing in the spiritual was he was

reminding both Abraham and Isaac that the promise was still

reliant on God's shoulders, that it no longer rested on Isaac's

shoulders to make the rest happen.

Actually, it was still God's promise, and God was still going

to be the ones who fulfill it so that Abraham had Isaac and

freedom. Abraham had the promise and

freedom. You see, God is so jealous of

our hearts. He's so serious about our

freedom. He paid way too much for us to

be LAX with us because sometimes it's out of lack, like Ruth,

where we lay everything down and it feels like we've got no other

option but trusting God's kindness and trusting who He is.

And sometimes it feels like we've got absolutely everything,

but it doesn't change the heart posture of the Scripture God.

I will go where you go. I will stay where you stay.

I'm going to make your people, my people.

Look, God, you died first. You went first.

So when you ask me to die to self, I'll do it and trust

something good is going to come of it.

You see, when you see faith invites God's ability into our

story, when we have faith and when we lay it down and say, you

know what? It's not my cleverness, it's not

my resource, it's not my ability, it's not my strategy,

it's not my network. It's you.

You invite God's resource into your story.

You invite God's network into your story.

You invite God's dreaming into your roots.

Just like I just don't want to be widowed and abandoned and

destitute. And he's like, I'm going to make

you a woman of such standing that you will be written about

that for all of eternity. You will echo my faithfulness.

Faith invites God's ability into our story.

When we choose faith, when we choose safety, we rely on our

own ability. When we lay it all down, lay our

agenda down, we invite God. Maybe for you it's your deepest

desire has been a relationship. Maybe that's been the thing.

Maybe that's been your Isaac. It's just not come.

And then it comes and it's not what you thought it would look

like. I'm pretty sure Abraham would

have preferred a son way earlier, and then a spare, and

then maybe another spare. I'm pretty sure that would have

been the preferred picture. But we get our Isaac and then we

forget our first love. Maybe it's a job.

Maybe you're like, Lord, I just need this promotion.

And it's for really good reasons.

It's for my family. It's actually not even for me.

It's actually for my family. And it's good things.

It's good things. Sometimes we have to lay down

and we get the job and then our family never sees us again.

Maybe it's your dream home. I know for me, if I'm honest,

I'd love a home for like kids one day.

Maybe it's, it's maybe it's a dream home.

You're like, it doesn't have to be everything.

It just needs to be mine. And and before you before you

blink 80% of your time and 90% of your identity is wrapped up

in that address. It's good things and our God

wants to give us good things, but our hearts is too important

to him that he'll take us on journeys to give us freedom.

See, even Jesus modelled laying aside his agenda.

I love this. Jesus went first in John five.

He said I only do what I see the Father doing.

He was Jesus. He was literally the Christ and

he said, you know what, it's not about what I want Everything I'm

doing, every miracle, every prayer, every relationship,

every stopping for the one is actually only what I see my dad

doing. It's actually only about him.

In John 12, he's talking about, he's basically explaining the

Gospel. He's basically explaining like

why he came to planet Earth. And he sums it up like this.

He says I only say what the Father says in John 14, speaking

about the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit says, no,

no, no, I only go where the Father sends me.

I go where He sends me so I can help what he's already building.

You see, from Abraham to Ruth, from the Holy Spirit to Jesus,

everybody is about the Father's business.

We are Father pleasers, not pleasure seekers.

We are about our Father's business, not looking for

comfort because that is the safest place to be.

This only works if we know who we're trusting, only when we

know the one that is truly worthy or we even able to try to

lay everything all down. If we're going to risk

everything, every part of us, every part of our lives, and lay

it down at someone's feet, we've got to know that their character

is worthy and that their character is safe.

Otherwise, we're fooling ourselves and it doesn't work.

Father figures can be complicated.

And if you have a complicated father figure, I want to say to

us, I'm so sorry, but I want to tell you the story of a good,

good father. So my dad, my dad is a farmer

and pastor and a diesel mechanic.

And a few years ago I was leaving a meeting very similar

to this one on a Sunday night. It was about 10:00 and I was

driving my car and about to turn it into the garage and it like

it made sounds that I know are not healthy.

I'm going to be honest. Like shattered and it shook and

I was pretty sure there was like AI didn't even have hubcaps, but

it felt like a moment a hubcap would fly off.

So I stopped my car and it's a true farmer's daughter.

Like I got out and I started investigating and looking if

anything had fallen down, if there was any oil.

Like I didn't even know what any of that means, but I was looking

for it and gone on the phone with my dad.

And I'm telling you, we're doing like a diagnostic over the

phone. We are like checking all.

I'm feeling very special in this moment, like checking all sorts

of things. And in my investigation, I see

there's like a really orangey stuff on the floor coming from

my car. So it's all the mechanical

engineering students out there. ATF fluid automates auto

transmission fluid to the girls. It helps the steering wheel

move. It's really important.

It's why I couldn't like I tried my arms went, the car didn't, it

didn't turn. So I put the phone down and in

my own strength and ability and expertise, I'm trying to figure

out who I can get a lift with the next day because I work like

70 KS north. And I'm trying to figure out

complex life. If I can park the car without

turning the car and use someone else's parking and not get

clamped. And like it's a lot.

And I'm trying to sort all this stuff out And my dad phones me

and he says Mata, can you do me a favour?

Can you go borrow your roommate's car?

You should be able to get it at a petrol station.

But I think I'm going to need like 5 liters of ATF fluid and

I'll see you in 90 minutes. But what you don't realize about

this story is my dad had preached that morning.

He had done a leaders meeting. It was 10:00 at night and he was

over 100 kilometers away. But he got in his best car and

he met me and he gave me his car so that his precious daughter

could get safely to work the next day on the right road to

step into the identity that she was called to walk in in that

season. And then my dad took on my

burden and drove home at midnight, stopping every five KS

so that the steering wheel would turn on the highway.

He would stop every five KS and get out the car and put some

more ATF fluid in. And then it would drive and then

it would get stuck and he would stop and he would put more fluid

in. And I want to tell you tonight

that there is a good, good father that will come in the

dead of Knights to come and rescue you, to make sure that

you can be where you need to be and step into what you need to

step into. Because you see, the God that I

serve, he actually came in the dead of Knights to a teenage

girl in obscurity in the equivalent of a shade.

He was born as a baby. That was my plan to save the

world as black. Super risky and evolved on that

routes. I'm going to be honest out of

like come as a warrior, feels like I'm going to come as a baby

to the most random chick and I'm going to trust the process.

And he walked, he's raised, he's raised as a man.

So he can tell us I've walked that road as well.

This is the way to go. This is the way to do it.

I've had that struggle as well. You can actually, you can

actually, this is how you walk through it.

And then he died on a cross so that you can pick up the phone

and say hello, Jesus, help me. Lord Jesus, I'm not going to

rely on my expertise, my network, my ability to fix and

identify ATF fluid. Lord Dad, would you help me?

I want to say to you tonight that is the God that we serve

and there is an invitation. I said I said tonight that this

book is an invitation. So I heavenly bridegroom is an

invitations or covenants. I feel like for some of us

tonight. You've never picked up the

phone, You've never, you've never had that moment to his

head. I'm the foreigner brought in,

but I've never laid all of it down.

I've never actually said, I've never actually put it all on the

floor and said I'm going to be where you are, God.

You are going to be my God. I'm going to make your people my

people. And Lord Jesus, as you died on

the cross before the foundations of the world, I'm going to die

to self and trust. You're going to resurrect

something beautifully tonight. I'm going to say that Ruth is an

invitation for you. Ruth is an invitation for you to

come home. There's some of us here tonight

where it's like we've been driving a car on a highway in

traffic with like, I don't know, stuff happening in the back seat

and we haven't even realized it, but the steering wheel's locked.

It's like there's some stuff in our heart, though, without us

even noticing. It's just not going to be out of

speeds anymore. And there's an invitation from

the Holy Spirit to let to let him lubricate our steering

wheel. And in Psalms 23, the message

version so great, it says this, it says true to your word.

Ruth knew that God was true to his word.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, gracious and faithful, true to your word.

Here, let me catch my breath. Can I say to you tonight, God

knows what we need and you send me in the right direction?

Even when the way it goes through Death Valley, I'm not

afraid when you walk by my side, when it says you send me in the

right direction. God has the ability to do this

with us. He's gentle, He's kind, His

dreams for you are bigger than your dreams are for you, but he

just wants you free and he just wants your heart in the process.

It says Ruth just so happened to be in Boaz's field.

She came all the way from Moab and she said, God, I'm going to

trust you. I'm going to be faithful for

what with what you've put before me.

Because I know that even though the story right now doesn't look

like faithfulness, faithfulness sometimes takes a long time, but

it's worth it in the end. It's not easy, but it's worth it

every time. So as she's going, she just

finds herself in Boaz's field. Even when the way goes through

Death Valley, maybe it's not the loss of a husband tonight, maybe

a relationship, dad. Maybe there's divorce.

Maybe it's a dream that dad. But even when the way goes

through Death Valley, we don't camp there.

Even when it goes through Death Valley, I'm not afraid because

you're with me. The invitation tonight is to be

with God. So I'm going to close, but I, I

would love the opportunity to pray with you tonight.

If this has stirred your heart, if you sitting here tonight and

you think, yo, I'm not, I don't come from a family of faith.

I actually, I haven't had that moment where I've put everything

down. I've mitigated risk with God,

but actually I haven't had a moment where I've said God

today. I'm all in.

Today I'm going to let you be my dad.

That iPhone in the middle of the night to help me.

Today I'm going to let you be my dad.

That, that, that sets me on the right way.

Today I'm going to let you be the GPS that I trust, you be the

picture that I trust. I would love to pray with you.

You're welcome to stand and then, and then we'll pray.

He's so worth it. He's so worth it every time.

OK, Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for the book of Ruth.

Thank you that you wanted to make sure that we knew that you

are a faithful God that can turn any story around.

Thank you, God, that you are the God that makes the foreigner

part of part of the story, part of the lineage.

Thank you that you bring those that are far close.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you are the God that comes in the

dead of night to help us, to rescue us, to show us the way.

Lord God, and tonight, God, we give you everything.

Lord God, tonight we give you everything, every part of us,

every part of our lives. Lord God, tonight we say we will

go where you go, we will stay where you stay.

Your people will be our people and your and you God will be our

God. Amen.

Can I say to you tonight that this is the start of your

journey with Jesus and it's a beautiful start and he is

faithful to get you from Moab to Boaz's arms.

Just keep walking with him. Find God's people, find God's

faith, stay in community. There's one more group of people

I'd love to pay for tonight. And if, if, if, if you

potentially Naomi, you know, you know of God, you've heard his

stories, you even have testimonies of what he's done in

your life. But the busyness of life is life

has come. And before you realized that

it's like the steering wheel stuck.

It's like it's like you're holding on with dear life.

It's like you're just trying to get if I can, just if I can just

then, if that's you tonight and you want to invite Gods,

actually let your let your hands relax.

Remember that you can find your dad and ask him to help you.

If that's you tonight and you're actually saying Lord without

even realizing it's in the busyness of life.

Some things that I, I hadn't realized I've taken off, off off

the altar. I actually reserved them.

There's some stuff I haven't let you see.

I'd love to pray with you. OK.

Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for tonight.

Thank you for this book of Ruth. Thank you that you, you, you

bring us in close and you keep us safe.

Lord God, thank you that there is no part of our life that is

not safe at your feet. Lord Jesus, would we see you

more clearly. Thank you, Lord God.

Amen.