A Rescue Mission - Jody Destry

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, friends.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.

[SPEAKER_00]: How is everybody this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: Good to see you, good to see you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, it's a privilege to open the word together, and we're going to do that in just a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: But first, let me bring you official greetings in my role.

[SPEAKER_00]: So at the start of this year, many of you know, I stepped into a new state leadership role for our movement churches of Christ in Victoria and Tasmania.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I get the great privilege of stewarding the leadership of 138 churches and affiliates across those two states.

[SPEAKER_00]: So greetings from the movement.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are lots of exciting things happening around our movement, signs of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: signs of renewal, signs of revitalization, and also at the very same time, lots and lots of challenges.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've got lots of churches that are grappling with aging congregations, the struggle to raise and develop leaders to lead tomorrow's church.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I just am grateful for your prayers because I know that you've been praying for me and for our team as we lead.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I also just want to say how exciting it's been.

[SPEAKER_00]: to be part of Discovery Church, obviously Discovery continues to be my home church, but to see Discovery continue to go from strength to strength this year and a maths leadership.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that sometimes can happen when you're part of a local church is that you forget, we can become very easily over familiar with the blessings that we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for me this year it's been a great reminder as I'm traveling around our two states and seeing

[SPEAKER_00]: church and faith in community and leadership expressed in lots of different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to take him in it just to honor Matt.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is probably one of our nations, not probably.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is one of our nation's best leaders.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to say that it's not because of his leadership skills, while he has many, he's an excellent communicator, an amazing visionary leader, an amazing developer and releaseer of leaders.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I've had the privilege of having a front row seat.

[SPEAKER_00]: My our whole journey together no one has impacted my leadership more influence my leadership more than Matt has but it's they're not the reasons that he's one of our nation's greatest leaders it's it's actually because he leads with a deep humility and a deep love for the Lord and the time that he spends in the secret place you will never see him building his own brand or self-promoting he is a leader who leads from a place of prayer and from humility

[SPEAKER_00]: and they're the kinds of leaders who will shape the future of the church across our nation.

[SPEAKER_00]: So can we just take a minute just to honor Matt?

[SPEAKER_00]: And let me tell you, God is on the move across our nation.

[SPEAKER_00]: There, we're in a season over in you all.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are stories upon stories upon stories of people searching for something more in life, turning up to churches, looking for truth, looking for hope, looking for something to build their life upon.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's happening here at Discovery.

[SPEAKER_00]: it's happening right across the body of Christ and we're seeing such a new sense of unity amongst pastors and leaders and congregant different denominations coming together in prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the future is really bright friends and I'm excited to open the word with us this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're actually going to be looking at the story of Ruth.

[SPEAKER_00]: The title of the message today though is a rescue mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if anyone in the room this morning has ever been involved in a rescue mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, we have a lot of firefighters and ambulance officers in here, so many, we have a lot of people who are rescuing people every single day.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, but have you ever been on the receiving end of a rescue mission?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there's a few.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's always a few.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to tell you a really quick story.

[SPEAKER_00]: The story is nearly 30 years old because I'm getting old.

[SPEAKER_00]: But actually maybe not quite 30 years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Matt and I were about 19, we were still dating.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went on a surfing trip with our youth pastor.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a surfing lesson gone very wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were just learning at the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: We went surfing off the coast of South Coast of Sydney at a beach called Bolambi.

[SPEAKER_00]: And perfect learner waves.

[SPEAKER_00]: The day was perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perfect little three foot waves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent for a beginner surface, such as myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only hitch was we went in off the back of some rock pools.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whether or not that was a good idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure, but that's where the good learner waves were.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's where we were.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our youth pastor, Pastor Dave, took us out on this surfing adventure.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as sometimes happens in the ocean, how many people know the ocean can be unpredictable?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I told you what seemed like just a moment, these little three foot waves turned into eight foot monsters.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I got caught in the break zone between the back where you want to be to be able to get on to those waves nicely and the shore.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was right where those waves were dumping and they were coming thick and fast, set off to set getting bigger and bigger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the midst of that, I was trying, I'm actually really strong swimmer.

[SPEAKER_00]: I grew up playing a lot of water polo.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, you know, this can't be surfing, can't be so hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paddling my little heart out to try and get out of this break zone and back out the back, and I couldn't, and my, and my board snapped off my leg.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so then I had no board stuck just in the middle of this dump zone, eventually youth passed a day of managed to get to me and get me onto his board, and we got out the back, but we could not get in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matt was there as well, he tried to get in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Eventually, you actually, you went in and we didn't even know if you'd made it into sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were out there for seemed like hours and hours and I thought, man, this might be how it ends.

[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I mean, they're going to be sharp food.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or we just, like, no one even knows where he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Matt make it in, has anyone been able to raise the alarm.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then the best sound I've ever heard, the sound of the West Pat Kelly Copter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time I see that ad, I just say a prayer and thank the Lord because I have been on the receiving end of the West Pack helicopter and the guy in the full wet suits coming down off the bench, hooking me up and taking me into safety.

[SPEAKER_00]: So grateful, because I may otherwise may not have been here, but I'm not sure if you've ever been part of a rescue mission, but this story that we're looking at today in the Book of Ruth is a story about a great rescue mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, all through scripture, the Bible is not a disconnected set of stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: The story of scripture is actually one grand story of rescue.

[SPEAKER_00]: From Genesis onwards, we meet a God who refuses to abandon his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time they wander, even when they rebel, even when we lose hope, he continues to fight for our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And through this beautiful Old Testament story that we're going to look at today, we're going to see that God is always at work, rescuing, restoring and redeeming his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the book of Ruth, it's one of the shortest books in the Bible, just for chapters.

[SPEAKER_00]: four little chapters, three main characters, very big impact, and that's your homework for the week is to go home and read it in one sitting, even do it a couple of times, and you'll get the whole picture.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a story that begins in tragedy that ends with triumph.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a story that doesn't actually mention Jesus at all yet invites us to see and know a savior who meets us at our lowest points.

[SPEAKER_00]: who in his kindness and his generosity lifts us from our dark and broken places and carries out the most stunning rescue mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a story that invites us to see that even in seasons where God might feel absent or silent.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is always working and weaving his plans together for good for those he loves.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let me pray and then we're going to go on a little guided tour through the book of Ruth.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, Holy Spirit, would you meet us this morning?

[SPEAKER_00]: We just settle ourselves in your presence, Lord, we quiet our hearts, and we still our spirits, and we pray, come move, a fresh in our hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, as we open the words together, we thank you that your word is alive, and that every time we open it, you have something fresh to say to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so God, we pray, speak to us this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: renew us for store us in Jesus name.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we're going on a guided tour.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can't read the whole thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're kind of doing cooks tour.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to stop at all the major lookouts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're just going to strategically cherry-peak our way through.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so we're going to start with chapter one, the tragedy.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is when things fall apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to set the scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ruth chapter one, one to four.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the days when the judge is ruled.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was a famine in the land, so a man from Bethlehem in Judah together with his wife, and two sons went to live for a while in the country of Moab.

[SPEAKER_00]: The man's name was Elimalec, his wife's name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Marlon and Kilion.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were effrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they went to Moab and they lived there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Elimalec Naomi's husband died, and she was left with her two sons.

[SPEAKER_00]: They married mobile-by-women, one named Orpa and the other Ruth.

[SPEAKER_00]: And after they had lived there about 10 years, both Marlon and Kili on also died.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters in law prepared to return home from there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just four verses in and we're just met with overwhelming grief and tragedy.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is just the most bleak start to a story, is it not?

[SPEAKER_00]: This poor family, there's a famine in the land, they move in search of food, they get their Naomi's husband dies.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then just a few years later, her two sons die as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Such grief, such death.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to make a just draw a little point here, though, that it's actually, I was going to say it's really curious.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is curious, but it's also very intentional that we find out that Naomi's two sons married Moa by women.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is very unusual because the Moabites had a very shady origin story, and people from Israel should not have been marrying people from Moab.

[SPEAKER_00]: Their story of the Moabites actually traces all the way back to the story of lots of orders in Genesis 19.

[SPEAKER_00]: and you might be familiar with this story, but this is after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and lot and his two daughters have escaped to a cave, and his daughters think that there are probably no men left on Earth that could possibly help them continue on the human race.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they do the unthinkable, and they actually get their father drunk.

[SPEAKER_00]: They both sleep with him and bear sons.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is where the tribe of Moab comes from.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is a family line born from incest.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me tell you, the Bible has got everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the bedtime story version, as the opener said.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is where this tribe comes from.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so the people of Israel should not be having anything to do with the people of Moab, let alone marrying them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's just an important thing to note that we have Ruth and Orpa in this story, who should not even be in this story from the very beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's into this grief, it's into this tragedy, it's into this very unusual family that the Lord intervenes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Naomi hears that there's food in Bethlehem.

[SPEAKER_00]: She tries to convince her two daughters in law to stay in Moab.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's going home.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's got nothing left.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her husband has died.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her two sons have died.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing left for her here.

[SPEAKER_00]: She wants to go home to Bethlehem, but she knows for her daughters.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's best if they stay in Moab.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they are the least of the least.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they go anywhere else, they're foreigners, but not just foreigners.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're the bottom.

[SPEAKER_00]: The bottom of the bottom of the bottom.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no future for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: All per one of the daughters in law decides to stay and she goes back to her family, but we have this really famous passage in the book of Ruth where Ruth decides that she wants to stay with Naomi and we read on, at this they went to loud then Orpacist her mother in law goodbye but Ruth clung to her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look, said Naomi, your sister in law is going back to her people and her guards go back with her but Ruth replied, don't urge me to leave you or turn back from you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your people will be my people, and your God, my God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.

[SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord deal with me be a devil so severely if even death separates you and me.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's significant this decision that Ruth makes here because she's leaving everything behind to go with Naomi.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's leaving behind her family, her heritage, her customs, her religion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that's familiar to go and be a refugee in Bethlehem, but not just a refugee, she's a widow, she's a foreigner, and she's a mower by it.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's absolutely no benefit to her to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: This loyalty that she displays to Naomi, her mother-in-law, and this courage, it had to be more than just about caring for Naomi.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm convinced that she must have known or that she must have sensed that there was something about Naomi's God, who had provided food in the midst of the famine that must be worth leaving everything for.

[SPEAKER_00]: Story goes on, so the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem, and when they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the women exclaimed, can this be Naomi?

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't call me Naomi, she told them, call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why call me Naomi?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has afflicted me.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you can hear it, but to me as I read this story, her grief is so palpable.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Naomi.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's returned home after losing her husband and her two sons.

[SPEAKER_00]: Times are desperate.

[SPEAKER_00]: The days of the when the judges ruled were dark days.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was the culture and the political climate was awful.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's grieving.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's lost everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's also destitute because women could not own land.

[SPEAKER_00]: She had no way of being able to provide for herself, no security.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as she comes back into town, her community barely recognised her.

[SPEAKER_00]: They say, can this be Naomi?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's happened to her?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's almost as though the grief, the weight of the grief upon her has changed

[SPEAKER_00]: to the pepper to her hometown.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, don't call me Naomi anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: Call me Mara because the Lord has made my life so bitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in Scripture, names were often very significant.

[SPEAKER_00]: The name Naomi means Pleasant.

[SPEAKER_00]: She says, don't call me Pleasant anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: My life is anything but Pleasant.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, call me Mara, which means bitter, because the Lord has made my life bitter.

[SPEAKER_00]: I went away for when I've come back empty.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she stands before her community and all she can see is the emptiness before her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Such grief, such tragedy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it just makes me wonder, for us today, what do we do with our emptiness and our grief?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we might not have walked a season exactly like Naomi and Ruth, but we sure have all walked seasons when it feels like life is falling apart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where perhaps things have not turned out, the way that you thought they would, when it feels like maybe the Lord has taken something away.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we feel that great emptiness, like Naomi feels, what do we do with that emptiness?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's fascinating about this moment though is that despite her grief and her emptiness, Naomi finds herself back in Bethlehem because she's heard that the Lord has provided food.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's this amazing invitation as the stage is being set for this story that even in seasons of great tragedy and emptiness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even in seasons where we feel like there is a famine going on in our lives, the Lord is still present and providing even if we don't realize that He's there.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want us to catch that this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this is how chapter one ends, and then we come into chapter two into this tragedy and loss with this little glimmer of hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's barley harvest time.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have no land of their own, so we have Naomi and Ruth very vulnerable, their destitute.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only option was for Ruth to glean in the fields, and there was a practice in Jewish law that meant that the workers in the field, anytime they drop something, rather than picking it up, they needed to leave it so that the orphans and the widows and the foreigners could come through and basically pick up the scraps.

[SPEAKER_00]: This was part of Jewish law, and so roots only option.

[SPEAKER_00]: Naomi's too old to work.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're only option for food is for roots to go and glean in the fields.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a dangerous place to be for a young woman.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just say, many bad things could have possibly happened to Ruth out in the fields like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we have this scripture that story goes on as it turns out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody say, as it turned out, as it turned out,

[SPEAKER_00]: She was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Alimalek.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 10, she bowed down with her face to the ground, and she asked him, why have I so found such favor in your eyes that you noticed me, a foreigner?

[SPEAKER_00]: Boaz replied, I've been told all about all that you've done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother, your homeland, and you came to live with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: People you did not know before.

[SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord repay you for what you've done and may you be richly rewarded by the Lord the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it random?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it luck?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do we believe in luck?

[SPEAKER_00]: Of all the fields that she could have ended up in, Ruth ends up in Bowaz's field.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Bowaz is a relative of a limelette Naomi's husband, but Ruth doesn't know this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Bowaz is well-respected, he's wealthy, and Ruth catches his eye and finds favor.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's heard all about what she's done for Naomi.

[SPEAKER_00]: This her character has gone before her.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, you can glean in my field freely and in safety.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an amazing provision that happens in this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he sends her home loaded up with barley to go back to her mother-in-law Naomi.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Naomi hears,

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, when Ruth rolls in the door with all the barley, she says, where did she get this from?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Ruth tells her the story, I just happen to be in a field named owned by this lovely man named Boaz.

[SPEAKER_00]: Naomi's eyes light up because she's heard of Boaz before.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knows that Boaz is a distant relative of her husband.

[SPEAKER_00]: And also she knows that in Jewish law, there was another practice that when someone in your family is in trouble, if there's another living relative, it is his responsibility to step up and take care of that family member that was in trouble and they had a term for it called a Kinsman Redeemer.

[SPEAKER_00]: or a guardian redeemer and Naomi can't believe what is unfolding here because she knows that Boaz is a kinsman redeemer for this family and all of a sudden into this tragedy.

[SPEAKER_00]: She sees this little glimmer of hope because Boaz might just be their ticket to survival.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as chapter two comes to a close that there's this beautiful invitation to see what often looks like a random

[SPEAKER_00]: God is always moving and orchestrating things in the unseen on our behalf.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a word for somebody today.

[SPEAKER_00]: What might seem random to you right now is so often a holy coincidence, the Lord moving and working.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so with this Naomi begins to hatch a plan and we meet Naomi the matchmaker.

[SPEAKER_00]: Story goes on, Ruth chapter 3, one day Ruth's mother-in-law Naomi said to her, my daughter, I must find a home for you where you will be well-provided for.

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Bo, as with whose women you have worked is a relative of ours.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight, he will be winnowing barley on the Threshing floor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wash, put on perfume and get dressed in your best clothes, then go down to the thrashing floor, but don't let him know that you're there until he's finished eating and drinking.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he lies down, note the place where he is lying, and then go and uncover his feet and lie down.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will tell you what to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are these not the most weirdest first date instructions you've ever heard?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're knowing barley on the threshing floor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of sounds romantic, but is not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just for a minute tell you what the threshing floor is like.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to imagine clouds of dust, stinky animals circling around, piles of straw everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: People shouting instructions, the smell of grain and livestock, sweaty men.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the threshing floor is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the place where they go

[SPEAKER_00]: We know the barley, which is basically when they bash it all out and it separates the grain, the stuff that's really valuable that they can sell from the chaf, which flows away.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the thrashing floor's normally on the top of a mountain where there's wind that can blow all the scraps away.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not the place that you advise somebody to put on your best clothes and your nicest perfume to visit.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a work site.

[SPEAKER_00]: The thrashing floor is a work site.

[SPEAKER_00]: Story goes on when Boears had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits.

[SPEAKER_00]: He went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ruth approached quietly and uncovered his feet and laid down.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the middle of the night something startled the man and he turned and there was a woman lying at his feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Who are you he asked?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your servant Ruth she said.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a Kinsman Redeemer of our family.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord bless you, my daughter, he replied, this kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor, and now my daughter don't be afraid for I will do for you all at you ask.

[SPEAKER_00]: All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character, and although it's true that I'm a Kinsman Redeemer of our family, there's another who is more closely related than I.

[SPEAKER_00]: So stay here for the night, and in the morning, if he wants to do his duty as your Kinsman Redeemer, good, let him redeem you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if he's not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: lie here until morning, and so she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone recognized, and he said, no one must know that a woman came to the thrashing floor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Scandal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lucy, story, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But what is actually happening here?

[SPEAKER_00]: She's got her best clothes on in this stinky work site.

[SPEAKER_00]: She is sending a very clear signal.

[SPEAKER_00]: She uses this phrase, spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a Kinsman Redeemer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me just tell you, friend, she's not saying I'm cold.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is covenant language.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's saying, can I come under your covering?

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you redeem me?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is like a marriage proposal in reverse.

[SPEAKER_00]: very unusual.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know whether you noticed, but earlier in chapter two, we read that Boaz prayed that Ruth would find refuge under the wings of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Hebrew word for wings is a word called canaf, and it's the very same word used for corner of your garment.

[SPEAKER_00]: The shelter of God's

[SPEAKER_00]: Ruth is essentially saying to Bowers in this moment, you prayed that God would shelter me beneath His wings, but perhaps God intends to answer that prayer through you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Bowaz's response is just beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: His kindness, his generosity, just reveals this righteous character that Bowaz has.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the chapter ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is like a, will they get together?

[SPEAKER_00]: Won't they get together?

[SPEAKER_00]: The two be continued in the days when you had to wait a whole week for the next episode of Dawson's Creek to come out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you grew up watching, team, you can come and join me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this comes to the end of chapter three.

[SPEAKER_00]: the next morning, who loves the happily and ever after story?

[SPEAKER_00]: Few?

[SPEAKER_00]: I love the happily.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love a movie that ties up in a neat little bow at the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not into movies that end with all these questions and what happened and will never know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like closure.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm a closure girl.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love this story because there's really good closure in this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have chapter four in the morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ruth's at home waiting for Boast to text to say how it all went.

[SPEAKER_00]: Boast goes to the town gate, three little dots.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's just got three little dots.

[SPEAKER_00]: going over and over and over.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's he going to say?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's he going to say?

[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, Bowers goes to the town gate to meet the other guy who's the closer relative.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have a chat.

[SPEAKER_00]: The other guy doesn't want the responsibility or the cost that comes with buying a limo-lex field because that means he has to take on Naomi and Ruth and that's expensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't want to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they do a hand-shake deal, which in those days was taking off your sandal and giving it to the other person, and the story goes, Ruth's chapter four.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Boe has announced to the elders and all the people, today you are witnesses that I've brought from Naomi, all the property of a limelette, Killian and Marlon.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've also acquired Ruth the Mollabite Mullins Widow as my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead and his property so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today you are witnesses.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and when he made love to her the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to her son.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the women said to Naomi, praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a Kinsman Redeemer.

[SPEAKER_00]: May he become famous throughout Israel.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.

[SPEAKER_00]: For your daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Naomi took the child in her arms and she cared for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the women living there said, Naomi has a son and they named him Obed and he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have this beautiful grand reversal, this story that began in absolute grief and tragedy, ends with such joy and celebration.

[SPEAKER_00]: What began with funerals and with a wedding,

[SPEAKER_00]: A story that began in mourning ends in feasting this story that began with Naomi's empty hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see end with Naomi with a precious grandson, celebrating with the whole community.

[SPEAKER_00]: A story that began with Naomi as Mara, just shrouded in bitterness and grief, ends with Naomi, Pleasant and rejoicing once again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the whole community get to witness this, the whole community get to see this happily ever after moment, happen, and the final verse reminds us that redemption always reaches further than we can imagine.

[SPEAKER_00]: This little cheeky nod in the final verse that says Naomi has a son and they named him Obed and he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

[SPEAKER_00]: This genealogy we find in the first chapter of Matthew and we see that Ruth Femologite, the one that should never have been inside of this story, actually finds herself inside the genealogy of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that so beautiful?

[SPEAKER_00]: The outsider finds herself on the inside in such a significant way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what's stunning about this rescue story, not just that it ends happily ever after for Ruth and Naomi, but this is our story too.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's our story too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And ultimately, this is Jesus' story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because in this story, it's not just about Boaz and Ruth and Naomi.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this story, Boaz is actually a foreshadowing of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our true and eternal Kinsman Redeemer, the one who came to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, who every day meets us, looking to redeem and to restore and to renew us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Ruth, in this story, a beautiful symbol of the bride, the church of you and I, the ones always in need of redemption.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like Boast does for Ruth, we encounter a Jesus who is the one who steps into our story, who takes on our grief, who takes on our poverty, our brokenness, paid that price that we could never pay for ourselves, restores what's been lost, fills the places that have been emptied.

[SPEAKER_00]: and invites us into a new story inside his family.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as we close today, just maybe you can stand, let's stand together, soon by the Lord, to meet us in this moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does this story mean for you today?

[SPEAKER_00]: For some, this might be your day to get rescued.

[SPEAKER_00]: Today it might be the rescue mission in your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you've come today and, you know, it just feels like everything's falling apart for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Life's a mess, maybe there's emptiness there, just longing for something to change and the good news about this story and the good news about the person of Jesus is that there's always an invitation to a second chance in the new future.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so that might be the invitation to you today to meet the one who promises to redeem us by his grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as I've been preparing over the last couple of weeks, there's part of this story that just keeps coming back to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I just wonder if Holy Spirit might be wanting to do some restoration work in some this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wonder what needs redeeming in you today, because I just have it in my spirit that's some are living under the name of Mara in this season.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe this season for you has been one that has been marked by deep grief.

[SPEAKER_00]: There might be lots of reasons for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It might have had a season where you have felt like the Lord has taken something very precious away from you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you have been upset with the Lord about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I love the vulnerability of Naomi's story because she's not backwards about saying how upset she is with the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: She says, call me Mara because the Lord has made my life better.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's upset.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she's open about that grief and my sense is that for some that there's a bitterness there's a weight of bitterness that has taken root because of some really hard things that you've had to journey through in life might be recently might be over a long time in your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I felt the Lord say that he's replacing that name Mara with the word Naomi again today for people and that for those of you who've been walking around under the weight of grief and under the weight of bitterness that there is a season of pleasantness coming for you again.

[SPEAKER_00]: that our God, who is in the business of restoring what's been broken and filling up what's been empty, is pouring out something fresh over you this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I wonder if just where you stand this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you, I'd love to be able to pray for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you just raise your hand for me so I can see how I'm praying for an amazing year?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to speak these words.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pray for us in just a moment, but I just want to speak these words over you this morning for those of you that perhaps feel like there's that emptiness there.

[SPEAKER_00]: These are the words of King David in Psalm 18.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, he's speaking at the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, he reached down from on high and he took hold of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He drew me out of deep waters.

[SPEAKER_00]: He rescued me from my powerful enemy from my foes who were too strong for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support.

[SPEAKER_00]: He brought me out into a spacious place and he rescued me because he delighted in me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, Father God, I just pray this morning that He would meet us, a fresh look God, that wherever we find ourselves this morning, that your great hand might reach down and rescue us.

[SPEAKER_00]: from our brokenness guide for those of us that have been struggling in a place of emptiness, a place of grief, a place of bitterness, Lord wondering why it's all gone the way that it has Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just thank you that in the midst of that you remind us that you are a guide who is present and continues to provide, that you are a guide of comfort who invites us to be sheltered under your wings.

[SPEAKER_00]: and God I pray that you would lift us this morning and put our feet into a spacious place.

[SPEAKER_00]: A spacious place that's full of your presence, of your provision, of your grace, of your mercy, of your comfort, and of your peace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God, we just thank you for this beautiful story of redemption, this beautiful tale of rescue that we get swept up here and God I pray, that you would just continue to redeem in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those things that need redeeming Lord,

[SPEAKER_00]: in worship this morning, Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you minister to our hearts of fresh and draw us near to you again in Jesus' name?

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody said together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.