Will You Marry Me?

Hey, man, if you have your copy of God's Word, and I hope you

do, go and make your way to Ruth chapter 3, Ruth chapter 3 as we

Ruth 3 · chapter mention Ruth 3 · chapter mention

continue our series from this Old Testament book that we've

titled When God Writes Your Story.

And of course, what I mean by that is when we put ourselves by

faith into God's hands and say, God, I want you to have total

control of my life, but not that he doesn't already have total

control of your life in one way. All right.

But then when we willingly by faith, say God, I want you to do

with my life, but otherwise wouldn't happen if I didn't

entrust all of me to you so you can use all of me for all of

you. This is 100% surrender.

This is when we give God the pen.

Say, God, I want you to write the story of my life, the when,

where, what and how, the way you want to write it.

Not where I write it, but where you do it.

And where God, you do things that I couldn't do.

God, you lead me where I wouldn't know where to go.

God, you have your way and you get all the glory.

This is what we're talking about when we say when God writes your

story. Well, when it comes to stories,

one of the things that I enjoy most about being a pastor is

hearing the stories, your stories, the stories of what

God's doing in people's lives and our church.

And it's amazing to me and I'll never forget right and never get

tired of hearing the stories about God has worked in your

life. And how many of you have shared

that with me? And they, they never get old.

The power of God's grace and the goodness of the gospel and his

son Jesus Christ is, is overwhelming.

It's never, it's never tiring. I love hearing your stories and

of course, and I'm able to get to know you.

And maybe if you're married, I get to know you as a couple.

And sometimes hearing your story involves learning how you met

and maybe eating how you got engaged or how he proposed to

you, right? So proposal stories can be all

over the map. They can be really simple and

private. And you know that you never,

some people don't tell that story very much.

And, and sometimes that story can be as crazy and creative as

as you can get, right? I mean, sometimes guys have done

stuff like put it on a Jumbotron in front of 100,000 people, some

guys that they've been at the beach.

Next thing you know that Beach Plains got the banner behind it

that says those 4 words will you marry me right and drops to a

knee on the sand or whatever it might be.

So I mean some guys have gone so far as they faked their death

and they faked an arrest. They planned a drug raid.

Don't know why you want to do that.

Set themselves on fire. I don't know why she'd say yes

after that, but guys have done all sorts of stuff to pop the

question and say those 4 words. Will you marry me?

Well, why do I bring that up? Because our text today, Chapter

3, contains one of the most unusual proposals that you'll

read about. But the point really is not this

proposal. The point is a different

proposal that is the greatest beyond your wildest imagination

proposal you could ever, ever, ever dream up and it's towards

you. And I want you to be thinking

about that even as we read and process Ruth chapter 3.

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

But let's begin here. The first 5 verses of our text

today. The Bible says this.

Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, that's Ruth's mother-in-law,

said to her, My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it

may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative with

you, with whose young women you were?

See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

Wash therefore, and anoint yourself.

Put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not

make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and

drinking. When he lies down, observe the

place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and

lie down. He will tell you what to do.

And she replied, all that you say I will do when we pick up in

this story of Ruth, what you got to remember is after 10 years in

Moab, Ruth and Naomi after losing their husbands have moved

back to the promised land and to try to eke out in existence,

somebody's got to get up and go to work.

And so that means Ruth is spending all day, sun up to

sundown in the barley fields for the last several weeks, gleaning

so they can have food for her and her mother-in-law to eat.

Well, obviously, one of these days Naomi's home by herself,

and Ruth is off at work getting the groceries.

And no, Naomi begins to think to herself, she comes up and says,

My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be

well with you? Is not Boaz our relative with

whose women you were? First of all, what in the world

is happening? Well, we've already seen Ruth's

extraordinary kindness to Naomi. She's not abandoned her.

She's returned with her. She's committed herself to her.

She's out busting her day in and day out, not just for herself,

but for her mother-in-law. This is extraordinary kindness

and commitment that Ruth is shown to Naomi.

But now Naomi, we see is returning that kindness.

Now we see her being extraordinarily kind to Ruth.

How so? Well, here's what's happening.

One day Naomi's home and she's like, you know what?

I'm getting old and I got somebody to care for me, but

who's going to care for the one caring for me?

Who's there for Ruth? I've have her giving me rest,

providing Wellness for me. But Oh my goodness, what's going

to happen when Ruth is in my shoes?

Who's going to care for her? Ruth?

Should I not seek rest? Should I not in kindness back to

you, seek that things should be well for you?

Who's going to provide for you? Well, Naomi's plan, if you

noticed it when we, when we read, is to play a little

matchmaker. Y'all see this, Ruth?

She says that Boaz is. I mean, he's he's pretty cute,

don't you think? Yeah, well, every Mama out there

has done that, whether she wants to admit it or not.

I've actually met couples in our church that the mom is the one

who set them up on a blind date. Amazing, right?

Praise God. Sometimes it works out,

sometimes it doesn't. All right, Mama's going to try

either way. All right, Naomi.

Then she says further. Ruth, listen, Boaz is not only

cute, he's a relative. Now that'll shut things down

right there in our day and time, if you discovered that, all

right. But in this day and time, this

is exactly what the doctor ordered, right?

Remember, part of God's welfare plan for his people when things

went wrong was when a widow was left after her husband passed.

The nearest male adult relative would have had the right

responsibility to step in and marry that widow in order to

provide for her to bring up off spring and continue the dead

husbands name and inheritance and family line.

This is part of God's plan, all right.

So this is what he's qualifying to be.

Not only is a cute, he's qualified because he's a

relative. He's a prime prospect.

All right, Naomi is hatching a plan for Ruth's rest, her good

and her future. And here's the plan.

All right, She knows that Boaz is at the threshing floor.

That's the location where they are separating all the barley

that's been gleaned and threshing it or winnowing it,

preparing it for grain so they can separate out what's not

edible from what it is edible. And here's the plan, right?

Number one, she gives Ruth three very specific things.

You notice this? Number one, take a bath.

By the way, that's great advice, teenage boys, especially when

I'm at camp with you next week, every day, take a shower.

All right, But you got to, you got to think, why would she say,

take a bath? Listen, the days before hot

running water, people didn't bathe that often, all right?

This was a day. This was a night for a bath, all

right? No matter what it took all day,

working in the barley fields before date night was not going

to be good without a bath. So take a bath #2 anoint

yourself, straighten, curl, fix your hair, whatever way, fix

your face, deodorant, perfume. The point is, make yourself look

as good and smell as good as you can.

All right #3 put on your cloak. Now, we don't know this for

sure, but lots of scholars think that it's probable that up until

this time, Ruth may have been continuing to wear the garments

that a widow would have worn after losing her husband that

showed she was in mourning. And perhaps this is Naomi's way

of saying to her, honey, it's time to take a bath.

It's time to anoint yourself. Fix your hair.

It's time. Not like we're not grieving

anymore. It's time to put on your cloak.

And actually, I hate to use the word, advertise that you're now

eligible. All right?

We're no longer in mourning. We're moving forward, she's

saying. And you're a prospect for

marriage. She says go down to the

threshing floor. Don't make yourself known.

When he lies down to sleep, uncover his feet and lie down.

He'll tell you what to do. Now, I don't know about you, but

my Mama told me that plan. If I was in Ruth's shoes, I'd

say you're crazy, right? I mean, who comes up with that

kind of stuff? Well, just keep following.

We get Naomi wanting to play matchmaker out of kindness.

But I mean, we're kind of thinking, right, Mama,

mother-in-law, you've gone too far at this point.

But this whole spy on him, pull the covers off, you know, lay

down sounds crazy and shady at the same time, but Ruth's got to

be thinking no way. But what does the text say?

Ruth says to the plant. You'd expect her to have some

questions maybe like Naomi, Are you sure?

What if this goes wrong? What does she say?

All that you say I will do. She got some faith in

mother-in-law, Amen. She's got some trust.

She's respecting her and she says I'll do it.

Now let me just stop right here and say let me be clear.

None of these actions right here in the Bible or for our modern

day application in dating or marriage or proposal, all right?

I mean, sometimes we preachers got to be clear what we said and

what we didn't say, all right? So what I'm not saying is that

anything literal here should apply to your dating life,

marriage life or thoughts about proposing, right?

Just because something's done in the Bible does not mean it's for

our literal application. It often times is, but often

times is not. Now it's instructive for us, but

not to go and do this is not a take home and try, all right?

That's not what the Bible say. I'm just trying to be clear now

again, I, I want to be, I, I don't want to skip over

anything. You can read about this yourself

and your homework. I'm just going to face it

straight on. The term here for feet actually

does refer to the lower half or really the legs, if you will,

the lower half of the body. And I know maybe what you're

thinking. She's instructed to go and take

the covers off. And this is going from wild to

worse real quick. And don't, don't, don't go

there. All right, This is this is

provocative, but it is pure, all right.

This, as we see, is not a not a bad move, but it is a bold move,

all right? It's risky, but it's not risque.

There's nothing seductive in what she is attempting to do

here. That's going to become more

clear. Naomi is planning for Ruth's

good, as crazy as it sounds, right?

But the essence of the plan is this.

She knows she's got to get Ruth and Boaz together alone so they

can have a conversation. All right, right, threshing

floor at night. She's going to work this out.

She also knows Ruth has got to perform an action that

unmistakably says the message, which I'll tell you what that

message is in a moment. But she's got to unmistakably

communicate her intentions and #3 it's got to put the ball in

Boaz's court. And all all three of those check

marks are, are made by this plan that Naomi is hatched as

matchmaker. Naomi has a plan.

But what I really want you to see, if you're reading between

the lines, I know this might be hard to see right now, but when

you zoom out, you can see what's going on even in the 1st 5

verses of this chapter. Is this not just Naomi planning

for Ruth's good that I want you to see?

And what I want you to does apply to us is that God in a

much bigger way is planning not just for her good, but for our

good. God is planning.

God is behind the scenes. I love how somebody said like

God is plotting for our good even when we can't see it and we

don't feel like it. God is always behind the scenes,

even if it is a wild crazy idea or plan.

God's always planning for your good and for mine.

Here we see Naomi purposefully planning for Ruth's good.

Now Naomi is going to going out of her way to show kindness to

Ruth, but ultimately all the kindness of Naomi here is again,

the kindness of God on display. It's like, how?

Why would you say that? Because he's the one writing the

story. He's the one orchestrating these

things and you see the kindness of God in your life and mine

most often isn't going to come out of a dropped out of heaven

all the sudden didn't see it come in miraculous kind of way.

It's going to come through the small little ordinary actions

and words and thoughts and deeds of other people and

circumstances around you where God just, you can just see

little evidences here, sometimes big, but everywhere around you,

evidences of the kindness of God who's planning for your good.

And you look back and you see, man, I didn't see that coming.

I didn't know God would use it that way.

And yet hindsight's 2020. And you look back and see the

whole time God was planning for my, for your good.

And that's what's happening here.

Let's pick up in verse 6. So she went down to the

threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded

her. And when Boaz had eaten and

drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end

of the heap of grain. And then she came softly and

uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was

startled, turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet.

He said, Who are you? She answered, I am Ruth, your

servant. Spread your wings over your

servant, for you are a Redeemer, he said.

May you be blessed by the Lord. My daughter, you have made this

last kindness greater than the first, and that you've not gone

after young men, whether poor or rich.

And now, my daughter, do not fear.

I will do for you all that you ask for.

All my fellow townsmen know that you are, I don't miss this, a

worthy woman. Boaz has finished a long day's

work. He ate and he drank.

His stomach is full, his heart is happy.

He's ready to go to bed for a good night's rest.

He he lies down and goes to sleep totally undetected.

Ruth begins to make her move she sees exactly where he had lain

and she tip toes up, takes the bottom if you will off his

garment and removes it and uncovers his legs or lower half

and lays down beside him. At midnight, startled by the

cold of the middle of the night, Boaz awakes, and to his

amazement and shock, you know who that he doesn't know who is

yet, there's a woman lying laying at his feet right now.

Please, let me just say again, don't get any ideas, men.

Don't expect this to happen to you, all right?

And if it does for any reason, when you wake up, run, run.

That's probably the best thing I can tell you don't ask any

questions like Boaz. There's no need to ask any

questions. You can do that in the daylight.

Just run. All right, so Boaz asked the

most logical question he could ask.

Praise God, we know he's a worthy man.

He he doesn't jump to conclusions.

I mean, 99.9% of the time, a, a woman at your feet on the

threshing floor at night, it it probably be a shady thing.

All right, let's just just put that out there.

This is not so we ask a logical question.

Who? Who are you?

Boaz is asking this. And Ruth says I am Ruth, your

servant. Spread your wings over your

servant, for you are a Redeemer. Now, let me try to explain

what's going on. I told you that part of the plan

had to involve an action by Ruth that gave an unmistakable

message. All right, here it is.

You ready? The Hebrew word kanap is the

word we translate for wing or edge of 1's garment.

It's the same word for wing or edge of 1's garment.

Now listen closely. Remember what Boaz said to Ruth

in Ruth chapter 2 verse 12. Listen to this.

Ruth 2:12

He said, the Lord repay you. This is like a prayer of

blessing. The Lord repay you for what

you've done. A full reward be given to you by

the Lord the God of Israel. Under whose knap?

Under whose wing? Under whose edge of Yahweh's

garment you have taken refuge? What is he saying?

Ruth has taken refuge. Under whose garment first?

Under whose wings first? Yahweh's.

She's given her heart to Him. She's given her life to Him.

She's in faith decided to follow Him and to belong to Him.

Now Ruth not only has taken refuge under the wings or the

knap, the edge of Yahweh's garment if you will, but now

Ruth is taking refuge in an act that symbolically has removed

the edge of his garment, laid down beside him and say, Boaz,

spread your knap, spread your wings.

I'm seeking for refuge under the edge of your garment.

Boaz, he sees unmistakably saying, redeem me.

Be the answer to the prayer you prayed for me, Boaz.

She's saying she's proposing forward.

Say with me, will you? That's what she's unmistakably

saying, with a pure of heart and intentions as possible.

She has every right, even an unusual way, to seek redemption

that she's eligible for. Boaz, will you marry me now?

I don't know about you, but my mind just happens to go.

Can you just Fast forward a few years and they're married and in

conversation they get asked. Well, how'd y'all meet Barley

Field? You're trying to say as little

as possible. Barley Field?

Really. Tell me more about that.

Well, you know how How did you propose, Boaz?

Well, I I I did. I didn't.

What? Yes, she did.

Ruth, tell me how you propose. That's how unusual.

Well, it's my mother in law's idea.

The Lord bless her heart. And yeah, I mean, Can you

imagine how this went? You know, I mean, how unusual a

proposal in the story that they had.

Right. But what in the world does Boaz

say? He will he say yes.

Listen, Verse 10, may you be blessed by the Lord.

My daughter, You have made this last kindness greater than the

first. And that you've not gone after

other young men, whether rich or poor.

What is he saying there, Ruth? This this kindness is greater

than your first kind. What was Ruths first kindness?

That was her kindness to Naomi. That was her kindness to commit

to her and care for her and not leave and abandoned her.

This was her first kindness to her deceased husband and to her

father-in-law. And to do that which would care

for his relatives and perhaps even one day carry on his name.

Right. So now your first kindness was

to Naomi. But now, Ruth, you're showing an

even greater kindness to me. Ruth, you could have pursued

other men. Now, what does he mean by this?

Well, I think what he's talking about is this, Ruth, you could

have pursued marriage in a way that was selfishly all about

you, all about you, what you wanted, all about what you

desired. But you've not gone after other

men just to get what you would selfishly want.

You could go off and start a life of your own, a marriage of

your own, a new family of your own.

But what you've done is you've been kind of Naomi, and now

you're seeking marriage in a way that's further kind not just to

Naomi, but now to me. Because guess who Boaz was a

relative of the Limelux. Guess what?

She would be giving Boaz a chance to redeem that which

belonged to Elimelech and her husband.

You're doing for the family that which is bigger than just you,

Ruth. You're thinking more than just

you. You're not just being kind to

Naomi. Now you spread that kindness

even to me by pursuing one who's has the right to be Redeemer.

This kindness is greater than your first kindness.

This kindness includes more people than your first kindness.

Look at verse 11. And now, my daughter, do not

fear. I will do for you all that you

ask from my fellow townsmen. Know that you are.

Don't miss that word. A what?

A worthy woman. Yes, Ruth, I'll redeem you

because you are a worthy woman and everyone knows that you are

just the kind of woman that I've been waiting for.

Now here's what's fascinating to me.

Boaz has already been called a what kind of man?

Same word, a worthy man. Now we have a worthy woman.

But remember, what kind of days are they living in?

The days of the what? The judges.

You can read the book of Judges if you want to for homework.

Things get real shady there, like legit shady because they're

sinning and doing what's in right in their own eyes, not in

God's eyes. And it is, it is wicked.

Now you got two people living in a time and a culture and a world

where they're not doing what everybody else is doing.

They are swimming upstream. Can you see it?

Because they have trusted in the kindness of God and sought

refuge under his wings. And now they're living not

because they're worthy, because God is worthy.

And they're seeking to show that he's worthy.

And now and now they're they're living out that righteousness in

their own lives. What I also think just blows my

mind is this. If you were to pick up a Hebrew

Bible with the ordering that the Hebrews had, the books in it had

been divided into the three sections, the law, the prophets,

and the writings, right? And the book of Ruth follows the

book of Judges in our English ordering of the Bible.

But in the Hebrew ordering, the book of Ruth would have come

right after the book of Proverbs.

Now you say, Kyle, why is that significant?

Do you know anything about how the book of Proverbs ends?

The final chapter, a famous chapter called Proverbs 3031,

which is all about a what? A virtuous, A worthy woman that,

by the way, describes as a woman that Let her be praised in the

gates. Let The Town Talk of her virtue

and her worth. Guess what's happening in the

life of Ruth right now. They're Speaking of her worth in

the city gates. Now here's what's crazy.

Ruth would have been the farthest thing at one point in

her life from a worthy Proverbs virtuous 31 woman.

She'd have been a Moabite foreigner, a worshipper of false

little G gods outside the will of God, outside the land, the

promised land of God, cut off from the people of God.

And yet because of faith in God, she's gone from being one far

away from God to being called a virtuous, worthy Proverbs 31

woman. In the Hebrew Bible.

You read Proverbs 31 and then you read Ruth chapter 1.

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

Is that not amazing? It's like God just say, hey, let

me in the order, just show you an example of what I've just

described. By the way, if you want to

something that I hope you never forget, if you walked in the

doors today wondering about if you're far from God, if you

think that I'm far away from the will of God, I'm far away from

the people of God. I'm far away from being worthy,

walking worthy of the Lord, and with the Lord.

If you think you're too far away from God's mercy and compassion,

kindness and grace, the book of Ruth proves to you beyond a

shadow of a doubt that you're not.

If God could take her and now describe her as a worthy woman,

God could take you as a man, woman, boy or girl, if just by

faith in Him. Be willing to say God have your

way in my life. God take the pen, God write the

story. God do in me what only you can

do, and God would do the same for you.

The third the second thing I want you to see is not only is

God planning for our good, but God is proposing for our good.

I told you the point of chapter 3 is not really Ruth's proposal,

as crazy as it is the point of Ruth chapter 3 is actually the

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

fact in a much bigger way, God is proposing for our good.

You see, we saw the kindness of God on display through the

kindness of Naomi. We've seen the kindness of God

on display through the kindness of Ruth.

The kindness that they've shown is bold, It's risky, it's

shameless and provocative. But I want you to consider with

me how much more shameless God has shown his love.

How much more shameless has God, how much more boldly has God

shown us his of how much more provocatively has God shown us

his love in his Son Jesus Christ?

You say, what do you, what do you mean by that?

Here's what I mean. Let's let's just think through

it. How provocative, how bold, how

shameless number one, that God would send his one and only son

to be conceived in the womb of a virgin.

Y'all realize everyone else living at that time, they

thought as pure as that was and as perfect as that was, it was

scandalous in the moment. God shamelessly, boldly did it

in a way, a perfectly pure way, but nonetheless in a way that in

men and women's eyes that looked on, look scandalous, look

provocative, conceived of a virgin, He would send him to

take on human flesh and live among us.

How provocative that God would take on human flesh and actually

be named Emmanuel. God with us living and

breathing, walking among us in our shoes by calling him to

suffer on a cross. And I want you to think of, we

don't talk about this a lot, but He's up there physically bearing

the physical shame, and not just the physical shame, but the

spiritual shame of all of our sin laid on Him becoming a curse

for us. I'm talking about between two

criminals. How much more scandalous that

the Son of God would lay there physically laid bare before the

world and laid bare and hanging there suffering to the point

that he would cry out, shedding His blood for us to the point it

was finished and gave His last, dying in our place, becoming a

curse for us, His blood shed for us.

Why? To redeem all who would call on

His name for salvation. To save those who would say yes

to his proposal of salvation. You see, here's the truth,

friends. We have not proposed to God.

God has proposed to us. And that's not the way you think

it would go. But he did it shamelessly.

He did it boldly. He did it more provocatively,

purely than you could ever imagine.

The question is, have you said yes?

Have you said yes? Let's pick up with where the

text where we left off, verse 12.

And now it is true that I am a Redeemer, Boaz says.

And yet there is a Redeemer nearer than I remain.

Tonight in the morning, if he will redeem you, good, let him

do it. If he is not willing to redeem

you, then as the Lord lives, I will redeem you.

Lie down until the morning. So she lay at his feet until the

morning, but arose before one could recognize another.

And he said, Let it not be known that the woman came to the

threshing floor. And he said, Bring the garment

you are wearing and hold it out. So she held it, and he measured

out six measures of barley and put it on her.

Then she went into the city and when she came to her

mother-in-law, she said, how did you fare my daughter?

And then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying

these six measures of barley he gave to me.

For he said to me, you must not go back empty handed to your

mother-in-law. That's a smart man right there,

she replied wait my daughter until you learn how the matter

turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter

today. Boaz said yes, but he can't act

on that. Yes, unless someone else says

no. Now I just want you to think

about this. How awkward would this be guys?

If you know you're thinking about how you're going to

propose to your wife and got the plan together.

You got the ring, you're in the moment.

You drop to one knee and she's like, yes, as long as somebody

else says no. I mean, how weird would that be,

right? But the deal is, yes, Elimelech

is a Redeemer, but he's not the closest male relative.

There is one closer in Elimelech's family that ought to

have the right, the right first, the right of refusal first, if

you will, to redeem. So Boaz is not up to the plate

yet. He's on deck.

They got to check and do this right with the first Redeemer.

In the meantime, right, To send Ruth home in the middle of the

night would have been unkind and unwise.

So she continues to stay there under his protection.

They just set their alarms early enough to get up before

daylight. Y'all notice that?

They're like, listen, we don't want people.

We don't want to give the appearance of evil.

This has been pure and virtuous. And yet we need to take care of

this in a way that would be wise.

And so Ruth makes it home. But Boaz doesn't leave Ruth.

And she he doesn't send her home empty handed.

I love the way one preacher put this.

He said, you know, Ruth kind of catches Boaz off guard, like he

caught, she caught him by surprise.

So he didn't really have the ring ready right, but he did the

next best thing he could, which was six months supply biscuits

to take home the mother-in-law. So he's like hey, I'm going to

load you up with bread. Y'all going to eat good for a

while. This is I'm going to make good

on my promise. And this is seriously a

significant act, right? Because it's a continuation of

Naomi's reversal where she again blamed God when she came back to

Bethlehem. Remember what she said, Don't

call me Naomi, Don't call me sweet.

Don't call me pleasant. Call me what?

Call me bitter. And you know why?

Because she was bitter, because she was blaming God.

That's what happens. We get bitter is when we're

blaming God. And what she said was, you know,

I was full. But guess who emptied me?

Guess whose fault it is? God emptied me.

But guess who is refilling Naomi?

Guess who's renewing her? Guess who's providing for her?

God is. You know, the third thing I want

you to see? Not only is God planning for our

good, not only has God actually proposed for our good, but God

is in heathen, the here and now, providing for our good here and

now and forever. God is providing for our good

now and forever. Y'all, the point of Ruth 3 is

not Mama. You ought to play matchmaker.

That's not the point. That may work out, it may not.

Y'all. The point is not ladies, If he

doesn't propose, then take things into your own hands and

sneak up on him at night and lie down.

See what happens. Don't do that.

The point is not, guys, if you don't have a ring, you know,

give barley instead that. I mean, none of those are the

point, right? What, what, what is the point?

The point is that we see the kindness of God on display

through the craziest of proposals that we couldn't

imagine. But actually the point is

there's a much greater proposal that's much crazier, that's much

Wilder. It's quite honestly much more

scandalous, this much bolder, much bolder, much more shameless

that God has done for us, planning for our good, proposing

for our good through his Son and providing for our good through

his Son as well. There, there is a lesson here

too I don't want to overlook. You've heard it said that, and

often times it's attributed to Scripture.

You've heard this saying God helps those who help themselves.

That's nowhere in the Bible, by the way.

The book of Ruth seems to say the exact opposite of that.

The book of Ruth seems to say, you know who God is kind to and

shows kindness to and goes out of his way to be kind to those

who first think of others and are kind to them.

Ruth to Naomi, Naomi to Ruth, Ruth to Boaz, Boaz to Ruth and

Naomi. Don't you see the kindness going

around and God behind it orchestrating at all, being kind

to those who show kindness? But it's even deeper than that.

Because if we stop there, that'd be wonderful, but it wouldn't be

merciful and gracious. God is kind even to those who

are not kind, because we've certainly not all been kind to

Him. Every one of us have sinned and

gone our own way, turned our backs on Him.

God has been kind to us. God has proposed to us even in

our know, even in our sin, even in our rebellion.

God's been kind to us and proposed to us anyway to His

Son, Jesus Christ. Look at the kindness of God.

You know, I want to finish and land the plane this way.

I want to kind of go up to just 40,000 feet and connect some

dots. The book of Ruth is so amazing

for so many different reasons. One of the ways is just how it

connects with the overarching story of the Bible.

I want you to think about it like this.

Israel, the people of Israel would have been reading the book

of Ruth while they were in exile.

Now, if that doesn't mean anything to you, that means,

right, that what happened is what God said would happen is

that things would go from bad to worse if His people did not obey

him. So God would not just shut up to

heaven. So there was no rain and no

food. If they kept on the trajectory

of sin and unfaithfulness, God was one day going to give them

the boot from the promised land. He was going to evict them

through foreign people's coming in, conquering and hauling them

off into exile. That's what's happened.

And that's where Israel is. When they get the book of Ruth

and they're reading it. I just want you to think big

picture, Who else was exiled? Could I put it like this?

Was evicted from their promised place of living after they

sinned all the way back in the beginning, Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve sinned and they got the boot.

They had to leave the promised land.

They were exiled, if you will. Now, they weren't exactly forced

to leave, but they chosen their sin to leave.

And under God's consequences, guess who else had to leave the

promised land or who chose to leave the promised Land here

described in the book of Ruth, Elimelech and Naomi?

And their two sons left again. That was not a wise decision to

leave the place God had promised to provide for them.

All right, so Israel's, we've got to be reading this,

identifying with Naomi. We've been evicted.

Will God be kind to us again? Will we ever be able to return

to the place and provision of God and his promises for us?

What's going to, what's God going to do?

Right? And furthermore, there was a

promise that God gave back in the very beginning, after that

first eviction from the garden. Adam and Eve sinned.

God evicts him, but God gives them a promise, whereas mercy

and grace is all over. And it's in Genesis 315 where

one day one would be born. The Bible says a seed and

offspring of the woman that would actually one day bring

success, bring a conquering of sin, bring a restoration By

doing what? Crushing the head of the

serpent, the enemy that tempted mankind to sin.

Now, what they don't know right now is that the one to be born,

the promised one of that line is going to be born in the line of

who? Ruth.

But guess what? So far in the story, there's no

offspring. There is no son.

And if there's no son, the line of Genesis 315, the promise is

in jeopardy. Right now.

There's only two dead sons. And by the way, Ruth has been

barren for 10 years. What's God going to do to

fulfill his promise? Well, to jump forward in the

book of Ruth, we want today, but I'll go ahead and tell you, a

son is going to be born. Guess where he's born?

Where are they living right now? Bethlehem.

Guess where else the Son would be born to fulfill the promise

that God was not going to drop in Ruth.

He wasn't going to drop from the moment he said it in Genesis

315, where Jesus the Son of God would be born in Bethlehem, a

far better, much greater Redeemer than Boaz, a Redeemer

for all who would trust him by faith to forgive them of their

sin and offer them life and eternity.

You know, our Redeemer had to have three things, a Redeemer

here and for US. Number one, had to be a

relative, had to be related by blood.

Aren't you glad Jesus Christ was related by blood to us?

By taking on human flesh, He qualified as a relative.

But then a Redeemer also had to have the resources.

He had to have the ability to purchase.

He had to have purchasing power. What gave Jesus the purchasing

power to buy back and redeem sinners from the enemy?

Why Him? What qualified Him?

His sinless, innocent perfection.

The reason why He qualified in your place and mine is because

He never did what we did, and that's sin against God.

He had the purchasing power by His innocent blood to buy

sinners, if they would trust Him by faith.

He was a relative by blood. His blood was the purchasing

power and He shed His blood because He thirdly had the

resolve, our resolve to redeem. And what I mean by resolve, what

drove Jesus to be our Redeemer for God?

So His love for you, His love for me gave him the resolve, the

right, the resources and the resolve to redeem you and me.

Y'all, we have not proposed to God, but God has proposed to

you. And by the way, I could have

told you stories of wild proposals, the most creative

ideas, but no proposal will ever top God's proposal to mankind,

to his Son. The question is, have you said

yes? John and praised him are going

to come. And here's what I want to ask

you. If you've not said yes to Jesus

Christ, I will follow you. I will follow you.

Only give my heart and my life to you.

Then the decision that God is leading you and longs for you to

make today is to trust Him simply to say yes.

I'm going to stand here as we sing and would love to have you

step out from where you are. Say, Pastor Kyle, I need to say

yes to Jesus. I need to say yes to Him.

I want to today. Maybe you think you or you have

said yes, but maybe you feel like you've walked away.

Maybe you felt like you're a long way from the will and the

kindness of God. Maybe you feel unqualified to be

back in the kindness of God. Can I remind you again that if

God can take Ruth from a Moabite Pagan foreigner to a worthy

woman walking in his will, God can do the same in your life?

Maybe you seem to come and get on your knees or come to this

altar and say, God, listen, you know where I am and I want to

thank you that your kindness has not given up on me.

Maybe you just need to pray and you're going through a difficult

time and right now you're struggling to see the kindness

of God in your life in any way. Maybe been looking for God to do

something out of heaven, Drop it on you, a miracle inexplicable

way other than, Oh my goodness, that was God.

When you know what, God's probably just dropping you

little bread crumbs every single day to remind you he's with you.

He's not forsaking you. He's got a plan for you if

you'll just keep your eyes on him and trust him.

And maybe you just need to ask God.

God, help me to see and open my eyes to your kindness and help

me to be an instrument and a conduit for it, the lives in the

lives of other people so they can see your kindness and

respond to him. Heavenly Father, I want to pray

right now that you would allow us to say yes to your kindness

to your proposal, the greatest proposals that man could never

top that you would leave heaven and take on human flesh and step

in our shoes and hang on a criminal's cross and shed

innocent blood for sinful men and women who've said no to you

who often times continue to say no to you and yet you hold out

your arms to us and Jesus saying would you say yes in faith to

me? God, I pray that somebody here

today would say yes to you. God, I pray that somebody here

today would come from far away thinking there so far and

perhaps never able to get back to your kindness.

And yet today show prove to them by what they've heard today that

they can step back into your will by faith, repenting of

where they've been, trusting you for where they are and asking

you to write the directions forward.

God, I pray that we wouldn't. We would just say yes.

We'd say yes to you in Jesus name.

I pray all God's people said Amen.

Would you stand with me? I'm going to be here.

I encourage this will be close. Would you come as we sing and

worship together?