The Book of Ruth Interim Pastor John Kane

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Faith Bible Church Sacramento, CA October 4, 2020 Morning Service The Book of Ruth - Interim Pastor John Kane

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Now, it's good to hear everyone having a little conversation with each other, because in this time and day, we're missing all that, are we not?
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Yes. So I think some of you might have known by now, but we let you know that Harold's mom passed away,
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I believe, Thursday. You want to be in prayer for he and his family, as all the family gather, probably have a house full off and on.
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So you need to be in prayer for Harold and Deb as they work their way through this week and taking care of all the things that need to be taken care of.
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So uphold them in prayer as you think about them. We want to welcome everyone here today.
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Good to see all of you again. And let's open with a word of prayer.
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Our Heavenly Father and our God, we come before your throne this morning, and we thank you that we can meet together and hear a word from you and to sing praises to you.
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Pray that you would be with each individual that has come today, that you might have a blessing for each one, and they can say when they went out today, that it's been good to be in the house of the
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Lord. And we thank you for that. Be with Pastor John as he brings your word today.
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We uphold him by your Holy Spirit. Give him liberty to say the things that you've laid on his heart.
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And we would thank you for that. We do pray for Harold and his family and the loss of his mother.
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Pray that you would give them the strength that they need to accomplish all the things that they need to this coming week.
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And we would thank you for that. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. If you will stand with me, we will sing,
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Al Firm, A Foundation. ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] And praise the
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Father, praise the Son. ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al Firm, A Foundation"] ["Al
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Firm, A Foundation"] Good morning, we turn to the book of Ruth, chapter 1, verses 1 through 16.
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Ruth 1, 1 through 16, Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife, and his two sons.
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And the name of the man was Elimenek, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons,
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Malon and Sheleon, Ephraites of Bethlehem, Judah.
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And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimenek, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left, and her two sons.
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And they took them wives of the women of Moab, the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other
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Ruth, and they dwelled there about ten years. And Malon and Sheleon died also, both of them, and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
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And she arose with her daughters in all, that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the
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Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in all with her, and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.
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And Naomi said unto her two daughters in all, Go, return each to her mother's house, the
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Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.
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The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.
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And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept. And they said unto her,
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Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said,
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Turn again, my daughters, why will ye go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
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Turn again, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.
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If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons, would ye tarry for them till they were grown?
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Would ye stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters, for it grieved me much for your sakes that the hand of the
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Lord is gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother in law, but Ruth claimed unto her, and she said,
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Behold, the sister -in -law is gone, back unto her people and unto her gods.
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Return thou after thy sister -in -law. And Ruth said,
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Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee.
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For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and I God my
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God. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. Well, praise the
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Lord. We want to go to the Lord in prayer at this time. Before we do that, though, is there anybody that has a need?
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We know that we're praying for Harold and his family, a very challenging two weeks of his life.
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Well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, how thankful we are to you,
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God, for this precious, precious gift of meeting together to worship. We know,
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God, that everything, every good and perfect gift comes down from you. You're the father of lights, James 1 says.
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There's no shadow or turning, God. We live in a day, Father, where every politician, we just wonder what's coming next.
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God, we look for a day, look back to a day when at least there was some measure of integrity in government,
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God, some care for the people and the days in which we live,
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God, anything but. But, Lord, we do pray for Kim and her need.
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You know the challenge, God, when you need caregivers, God. It's so vital to her and Kevin and David's emotional and mental well -being,
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God, and we pray for that. We ask, God, that you would intercede and be involved in that,
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God. I think of my own father -in -law and just the blessing that comes to our family, knowing that he's in a home where people care for him and watch over him,
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God. So we only can imagine when you have such needs as Kim and Kevin and David and others,
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God, we are asking so much for your care in that situation. And we think of Carolyn, God, with her laser surgery coming up,
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Elmer, open heart surgery, God. We pray for these needs,
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Father, in our church and in our families, God. Think of Harold and just there's so many details that not many of us know about.
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Maybe his family knows even more, God, that he would work so hard to have her moved and then literally within less than a day, you call her home.
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So God, thank you for your comfort. Only you can comfort. We think of the psalm that says, as I approach the hills of Jerusalem, where does my help come from?
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Our help only can come from you, God. It's not going to come from a new president,
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God, or a reelection. The hope for the United States of America, God, for the hope for Israel, the hope for any country, the hope for every man, woman, boy or girl born since the fall is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Abraham was not justified by his works, by his obedience. He was justified by faith.
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God, we as a church, not just faith Bible church, but across this country, we confess to you how sinful we have been.
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We have left our first love. When you look, Father God, at the church in America, the condemnation of the church at Ephesus that they had left their first love is the testimony of many of the churches in the
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United States today, God. We are guilty as believers across this land of neither being hot nor cold,
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God, being lukewarm. And despite the warnings to the churches in the book of Revelation, God, here we sit as a church in America, God, not sharing the gospel, not evangelizing the lost, not praying for the lost,
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God. And in so many respects, Father, our country is reaping what it's sown.
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And we're sorry, God, you know how hard it can be when we have a job, when we have family, when we have cars to wash, houses to clean, to think about doing more for you.
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It's beyond us, God. We're to be salt, we're to be light.
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I thank you, God, so much for the recent decision in Michigan, all the way to the
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Supreme Court of the state of Michigan, God, where they ruled in favor of the people that were saying the authority that the governor took, the emergency powers he took are unconstitutional,
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God, opening the way for that state to begin to return to normal. I pray for the lawsuit against Gavin Newsom and our state legislature,
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God, that you might prevail, that they might prevail, God, that your will would be done, God. I think of all the churches that have won and lost lawsuits,
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God, praying that they could meet like we're meeting, God. I thank you for that. And like Victor said, you know, we didn't want to start to worship because we are so glad to see one another.
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Pray, God, for your will for Faith Bible Church, for Victor and Harold, and for this church that's going to be voting very soon on the 18th,
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God, about a future chapter in the life of this church. So we pray for your will to be done in all these things,
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God. Pray for the glory of God to be first and foremost on people's mind, on our minds as a church family,
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God, that Christ would be exalted, the gospel would go forth. We give you praise, honor, and glory for this, in Jesus' name, amen.
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Our next song is I Stand in Awe. And I was thinking this week, I was watching these programs about how the universe, and you see all these things spread out, and they talked about the fact that these people just took a picture, and it has to be so many million miles away.
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And then I heard the verse that the Lord laid out the heavens, and I said, boy, when you think about that,
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I do stand in awe of my Lord. So stand with me as we praise our
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Lord. I stand in awe of my
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Lord. I stand, I stand in awe of you. I stand,
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I stand in awe of you.
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I stand in awe of you. I stand in awe of you.
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How great thou art, he certainly follows, I stand in awe of you. So, the book of Ruth, and many of you know the book of James, the theme or the main point of James, faith without works is what?
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Dead, right? Faith without works is dead. In fact, I actually heard an entire sermon series or part of a sermon series on the book of James, and they said,
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James is more faith in action, faith in action, and that's really the message of the book of Ruth.
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The book of Ruth is a story, it is a chronology, it is a history of faith in action, all right?
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Let's pray. God, I thank you so much for this time. Thank you for what the preaching of the
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Word of God does for us. It's not the preacher, it's the Holy Spirit of God.
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It's the holy inspired Word of God that is authoritative and sufficient. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, not out of the mouth of a preacher.
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God, the only effectiveness of this message and these times around your
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Word like this is when you empower it, and when you plant it in our heart that it produces fruit.
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So we commit the message now to you, praying for your glory, your honor, the exaltation of Christ in Jesus' name, amen?
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Amen. I think when you think about the Bible, it's always important to keep in mind that the
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Bible is not just another book. It is not just another book.
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The Bible, the Holy Scripture, is God's revelation of Himself to mankind.
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The Bible is, the revelation is the uncovering of Himself to man, and it was written with a purpose.
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It is God's message to mankind. It is inspired, it's authoritative, it's sufficient.
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It doesn't matter what's going on in a person's life, even what's going on in the United States of America at this time, the
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Bible is authoritative and sufficient. Nothing that's going on right now should surprise anyone that is a
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Christian, because the Bible tells us this is exactly, exactly what's going on in our country, is exactly what
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God said would go on. If you know your Bible at all, you know that's true. So the
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Bible is, it's complete, it's authoritative, it's
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God revealing Himself to man, it's closed. The Bible tells us multiple times that this is the complete canon of Scripture, the complete.
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When you see a book like the book of Thomas, the Gospel according to Thomas, it does not fit.
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The book of Mormon, it does not fit. When you look at these things through the lens of this book that we call our
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Bible, the 66 books, 39 in the old, 27 in the new, we understand that when we look at any of these writings, any writings of Hinduism, Buddhism, any of that, and we put it through the filter of this book, it does not stand the test.
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The litmus test comes back negative. And we have arrived in our study of the
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Old Testament at one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. There's only two books in the
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Bible named after a woman. One is the book of Esther, and that is an amazing book because God is not even mentioned.
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Did you know that? Trivia, trivia question, we're on Jeopardy, final answer, figure out how much you're going to bet.
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The only book of the Bible where God is not mentioned, even one, is the book of Esther who was
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Jewish, and now we have the book of Ruth, and this is the kind of stuff when you know scripture that blows your mind.
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Because the book of Ruth is not about a Jewish person, Old Testament is about who? Israel, right?
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Old Covenant people, New Testament, what? New Covenant, right? So we now have a book in the
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Old Testament in the history of God's chosen people under the Old Covenant, Israel, about a
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Gentile. What does that tell us? Come on, think about this. The Gospel is for everybody, even in the
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Old Testament. You just got to look for it, but it's for everybody.
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It's good news for everybody. So we have a pagan Gentile, a
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Moabite of all people. My word if I had the time to tell you about how bad the Moabites are, or were.
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And here she is, a woman who has a leading role in God's word.
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Now if you look in your notes, just to remind you, there's two, if you think about the
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Bible, summarizing it into one sentence, the message of the Bible is
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God's wonderful plan of salvation. That's true. You go to coffee with somebody tomorrow, what's the Bible all about?
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It's God's wonderful plan of salvation. Then you can open up into a Gospel conversation. What does salvation mean, so on and so forth.
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I prefer this one, the message of the Bible is a revelation of God's plan and purpose for the universe.
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I teach science, eighth grade science. I'm teaching on the atom this week. I can't even believe how,
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I mean, it's unbelievable how much they say they know about the atom, and they know nothing about the atom.
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Well, there's a neutron, a proton, electrons, and they draw them, you ever see a drawing of an atom?
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There are these electrons going around, right? Well, guess what, they don't go like that. That's an orbit, a satellite around the earth, you know how it's going.
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The electrons are orbital. That's what science, they say, well, we think this is what they're doing.
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We think, because they're going so fast, they can't even measure it. And then they have this big thing in Switzerland called the
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Lang -Haldron, I can't say it, it's
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Swiss, LCH, where they take the particles, because, right, if you can break something down to the size of an electron and a proton and a neutron, right, it makes some sense that maybe there's something smaller than an electron, neutron, and a proton, right?
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So they smash protons together in this thing, get them up to as fast as you can get in a vacuum tube on the planet earth, because they would go faster in space, because there's nothing to hit it, right?
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So anyway, it's amazing. Both these summaries of the
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Bible are good, okay? There's more than one way to cut up an apple pie, isn't there?
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So there's more than one way to express the message of the Bible. By the way, just as a sidebar, another free, not the atom this time, are you worried about climate change and global warming?
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Let me just put your fears at ease, right? I don't know if you, you know, we don't have to worry about the oceans rising and everything flooding, do we?
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Because what did God say in Genesis chapter six? He's never going to destroy the earth by flood again, right?
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What do we have to worry about? Fire and brimstone from heaven, like Sodom and Gomorrah, okay?
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Second Peter chapter three tells us the world's going to be destroyed by fire. It's going to be so hot, the elements are going to be burnt up.
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We're never going to know anything like it, and then a new heaven and a new earth, amen? So don't worry about climate change.
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There used to be global warming, now it's climate change, okay? Don't worry about it. So the book of Ruth, where does it fit into God's revelation and plan and purpose for the universe?
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Where does it fit and why did God include this book with his revelation to mankind?
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Now it's only four chapters, so I want to challenge you this week. I hope you'll accept this challenge.
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Read the book of Ruth this week. I'm introducing it to you, I'm giving you the overview, but read it.
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You'll connect a lot of dots of what I'm going to say today, okay? This book is so beautiful that the poet
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Keats alluded to it in his poem
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Ode to a Nightingale. A well -known preacher in the 1800s took the book of Ruth, took his
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Bible, printed out the pages of the book of Ruth, and read it to a literary club that he belonged to in the city of London.
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They were so enthralled with this book and said it has to be one of the most beautiful stories they've ever heard or read, until they found out it was from the
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Bible, which they despised. How about that? That's how beautiful the book of Ruth is, okay?
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There's two main characters, Boaz and Ruth. The author is unknown, although most traditions attribute it to Samuel, and as Dave so fitly read with such short notice, he was driving here, you're reading, okay?
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Thank you for that. It took place during the time of the judges, right?
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So it overlaps with the book we studied last week. The main storyline of the book of Ruth is a love story, a beautiful love story.
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And probably the best way to distill down the message of the book is that Ruth is a story of faith and action.
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Like I said, the book of James, faith without works is dead, meaning not real. True saving faith is faith in action.
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See, true saving faith was demonstrated by Abraham, right, when he obeyed God and took his son
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Isaac up onto the mount, right? True saving faith was demonstrated by Rahab the prostitute.
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Remember in the book of Joshua, right? We've heard about your people, we heard about the
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God of Israel, we're all afraid, and then by faith, what did she do? She hid the spies.
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True faith was demonstrated by Gideon. We didn't even have time last week because we were flying through it.
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But Gideon and Samson, Gideon to go after the Moabites with that few men? God kept saying, nope, nope, fewer, fewer, because the moment that you destroy the
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Moabites with so many, or Midianites, with so many people, you're gonna take credit and I get all the credit.
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God gets all the credit. Rahab, Ruth, a
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Gentile pagan woman turns from her many little gods to the one true
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God of Israel. The book of Ruth shows us, demonstrates faith in action.
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It shows saving faith in action. It shows decisions that faith requires.
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It shows the work of faith in people's lives as they trust God. It shows an appeal that is based on faith.
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It shows the rewards of faith in action. This book is literally just four chapters dripping with kingdom living truths that can help us in this day.
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If there's one thing we need today, it's faith. Not be afraid of what's gonna happen in November because we trust
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God, right? The attributes of God, His omniscience,
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His loving care, His interest over all aspects of His people's lives flow out of these verses.
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Insight into His direction and guidance and goodness and kindness, all kinds of observations about the kindness of God towards people who are seeking to honor
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Him, how God works through the circumstances of life, listen, both in life and death.
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God is at work. It shows us how we can trust
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God. It shows us how God is at work in both good and bad circumstances, even if we don't think
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He is. So at the molecular level, since this is why
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I brought up atoms, at the molecular level, at its core, the
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DNA of Ruth is a story and an account, a record of faith in action.
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So if you have your notes, how does this beautiful book paint this masterpiece work of faith in action?
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First of all, by depicting the decision of faith. The first aspect of faith that is encountered in Ruth is depicted and can be seen in her decision of faith.
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Now, when you trace the doctrine of faith, if you take, you know, you can go online now, but in my day, you had a
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Strong's Concordance. How many have ever heard of a Strong's Concordance? Right.
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The joke used to be you had to be strong, it was called strong because you carried. Then there was one called
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Young's, that was the other one, and it was a little one, and you could be young and carry young. So you carried your
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Strong's and your Young's, right? Now you just go online and type it in. But if you trace the word faith and the doctrine of faith, you'll find that it almost always requires a decision.
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A decision trusting God, okay? And her decision,
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Ruth's decision was to leave her home where everything that she ever knew was and leave
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Moab and go to Israel where her mother -in -law is from.
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Verse one, now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that's the historical setting, the chronology, that there was famine in the land.
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And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
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So he leaves Israel, crosses over to Moab. The name of the man was Elimelech.
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The name of his wife was Naomi. The name of his two sons was Mahalon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah.
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So what are they? Let's get the context. They're Jewish people, they're Israelites. And they went to the country of Moab and remained there.
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In the Great Depression, many, many people left the cities and moved west. Remember that? For those of you that are old enough, they left in order to what?
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Eat and survive. So this is a very common thing that people do. Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died and she was left and her two sons.
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Now these two sons took wives of the Moabites. They shouldn't have done that, by the way, right?
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Because he says don't intermarry. The name of one was Orphah and the name of the other
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Ruth. So here's these two Moabite women. And they dwelt there about ten years.
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Then her two sons died. So the woman survived her two sons and her husband.
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Now, an all -knowing and all -loving God is at work, time and time again in the story of Ruth.
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Complete in control of the circumstances and events. And he's leading
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Ruth to a strategic point. These circumstances are leading Ruth to a strategic point where she will make the most important decision of her life.
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Remain in Moab or go back with her mother -in -law
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Naomi and live in Israel. Go to the promised land with her mother -in -law trusting the
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God of Israel. So one of the key experiences that moves Ruth towards this strategic decision of faith is the dejection that she experiences in Moab.
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This is the scene of the book. This is why Dave read the first 16 verses, because this sets the scene and helps us to see this shift between moods of hope and despair.
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You know, oh, they get remarried, right, and then they die, right? She loses her husband, Naomi loses her husband, he dies.
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I mean, you got this shift back and forth, right? As soon as Elimelech moves to Moab, in order to survive, he dies.
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So the people involved are experiencing this double -edged sword. Hope in the form of, hey, there's food over in Moab, we don't have any food, we're going to starve to death, right?
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And then despair in the form of death. And then hope blossoms again with the marriage of his two sons, and then that hope is dashed again and despair sits in again as both of his daughter's husbands then die.
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So dejection and gloom, loss and sadness, that's the setting. Naomi buries her husband, then she buries her two sons, and where does she bury them?
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In Moab, where these pagans live. Come on, talk about a traumatic event.
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The opening verses set the background, we get the characters, we get this mood of despondency and dejection, and we also see how this true, loving, sovereign
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God who brought Ruth, right, who was a Gentile person outside of the covenant people of God to become the heroine, heroine of the story, like Rahab before her, she had to make a strategic decision of faith.
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So these opening verses show us how God uses these circumstances to bring this woman to this place in this center, the laser center of his will and plan for human history because it doesn't stop there, right?
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See, her loss created a need, and that loss prepared her for her decision of faith.
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Now think about your own lives for a moment. What happened in your life that made you thinking about God for the first time?
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I mean, I know what happened to me. I know the kind of life I was living. I was living the dream for a 21 -year -old man traveling all over the country with an expense account at 21 years of age, making a lot of money, a credit card
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I could fly anywhere in the United States, another one I could rent a car anywhere in the United States and my life miserable at 21.
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So there's this famine, people die. You have an older woman, a younger widow stricken with poverty, and now they face this difficult journey back to Israel.
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It's a difficult journey through rugged and mountainous terrain, I wish I could show you the topography, okay?
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But when we talk about their decision to go back to Israel, right, where there was a famine, remember that?
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So you're going back to the bad news? From the Gentile place where there's food to home where people are starving to death?
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And we're not talking about walking from here over to Chipotle on Folsom Boulevard, okay?
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We're talking about Moab is about 3 ,000 feet above sea level.
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When you go from Moab back over to Israel to Bethlehem, you go through some mountains that could be as high as 4 ,000 feet.
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You go down towards the Dead Sea, which is 1 ,400 feet below sea level.
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So if you have ever done any kind of hiking, and you know anything about hiking, what you always look for is how much elevation is involved.
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Because it's one thing to hike on level ground. It's another thing to hike when you have to go up 1 ,000 feet or 15, and why is it that the hikes always start downhill, and then you walk back uphill?
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See, I always try to get them to where we can start uphill and come back downhill.
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I love to hike, me and my daughters took one day up by Colfax, and it was so funny because as we're walking back up out of the
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American River Valley, one of my daughters said, couldn't we have started down there?
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And done this first instead of last? As we're coming back.
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So Bethlehem is 2 ,600 feet above sea level. So they're gonna go up, and they're gonna go down, and then they're gonna go back up.
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It's 90 miles from here to Lake Tahoe, about. So think about this kind of trip for two women, one very old, and you have this picture of gloom.
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Look at verse 19. Now, the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem, and it happened when they had come to Bethlehem that all the city was excited because of them, and the woman said, is this
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Naomi? But she said, don't call me Naomi, call me
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Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the
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Lord has brought me home again empty, why do you call me Naomi? Since the Lord has testified against me, and the
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Almighty has afflicted me. And now we have this backdrop of gloom.
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This is how, can you imagine walking from Moab back to Bethlehem with a lady who's feeling like this, who's gone through this much loss, on a walk like that?
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And Luth says to her in verse 16, well, verse 15,
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Naomi's telling, go back to your people, go back, Ruth says, entreat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you.
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For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your
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God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.
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Do you understand what we just read? The very verses that we just read set the course of human history.
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They impact us in so many ways. Ruth's decision continued God's prescribed genealogy of Jesus Christ.
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Read Matthew chapter one sometime. Ruth is in the line of David.
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Who is in the line of who? Jesus Christ. Her decision demonstrates many aspects of saving faith, and there's no in between.
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Ruth tells Naomi that her God will be, that Naomi's God will be her God under the penalty of death.
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So we can see this theme virtually in every book of the Bible we've studied so far.
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So often, listen, this is for us. It's all or nothing with God. We are to put our hand to the plow and not look back, right?
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We are to take up our cross daily. We are to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength.
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There's no wiggle room with God. True saving faith requires complete obedience.
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It requires complete separation from sin. She's leaving the Gentile, pagan, idolatrous home.
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That's all she ever knew. And this kind of commitment of true saving faith is personified in the life of Ruth.
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So this beautiful love story, we see the decision of faith. Number two, we see the work of faith.
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We see the work of faith. That's all of chapter two. Once Ruth steps out in faith, once she decides to turn from a pagan life and the gods of the
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Moabites to faith in the God of Israel, like anyone else that steps out in faith, her faith begins to flesh out, her faith begins to work out in her life.
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And the first way that we see this is how
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God guides her. Look at chapter two. By the way, they returned at the beginning of the barley harvest.
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See verse 22? Okay? Now, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech.
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His name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight
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I may find favor. And she said to her, go, my daughter. Then she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers.
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And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Moab, who was of the family of Elimelech.
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Now, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, the
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Lord be with you. Now, the word behold calls our attention to a chain of circumstances and directs us to the activity of a sovereign and faithful loving
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God that is at work behind, of all the fields that she could have gone to, whose field did she go to? Of all the days that she could have gone there, who shows up?
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Her relative, Boaz. I'm sorry, Naomi's relative.
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This book is a record of the testimony of God, his all -knowing activity and direction in Ruth's life. Ruth just happens to go to Boaz's field to glean.
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There's many fields. In verse four, Boaz just happens to come to that particular field on that particular day.
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He just happens to notice Ruth, who just happens to be in the house. By the way, they had shelters.
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Look at verse five. Boaz said to his servant, who was in charge of the reapers, whose young woman is this?
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So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, said it's a young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
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Now, we have text messaging today, right? And I know kids and myself included, there's an app called
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Discord. So like if you're in a class or something, you have a Discord and all these messages show up, like a
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Twitter feed, you can really keep up. If you have a Twitter account on your phone, boy, you can know what's going on.
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Well, in those days, they didn't need that because word of mouth traveled like that. You're not talking about big cities like this, right?
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So everybody knew about Naomi had come back, right? And these workers in Boaz's field knew about who this woman was.
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Oh, that's Ruth, that Gentile pagan that came back with Naomi. And you understand that what you see when
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Boaz looks over at Ruth, what you see, God has just introduced to us two of the relatives of the
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Lord Jesus Christ in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We're introduced to back in the book of Judges, thousands of years before Christ was ever born.
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So the first way we see Ruth's faith at work is by how God guides her. The second way is by God how protects her.
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And he protects her, it's seen throughout, but look at verse eight. So Boaz says to Ruth, will you listen, my daughter?
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Will you not? Don't go glean in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women.
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Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you?
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And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn. So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground and said to him, why have
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I found favor in your sight? That you should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner.
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And Boaz answered and said to her, it has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother -in -law since the death of your husband and how you have left your father and your mother in the land of your birth and have come to a people who did not know, you did not know before.
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This is before smartphones and instant messaging and Twitter, he's heard it all.
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The Lord repay your work and a full reward will be given to you by the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge.
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Then she said, let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your maidservant though I am not like one of your maidservants.
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You see, gleaners could come and go as they pleased in exercise of their God -given rights which was under the law, you could glean what was left from the harvest but they couldn't expect protection from the landowners.
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The gleaners were often the dregs of society like the homeless people on a corner, we'll work for food and then you say, hey, come mow my lawn and they say, oh,
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I can't, I have a bad back. You ever done that? Yeah, good luck trying to get them to work.
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Now it's just homeless, God bless, they change the sign all the time but it used to be we'll work for food, remember those days?
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The gleaners were often the dregs of society. Boaz's offer of protection was unusual in part because she was a
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Moabite, deeply disliked by the Israelites. Nevertheless, God protects
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Ruth as Moab tells the young men not to molest her and then a third way we see faith at work is the way
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God provides for Ruth, look at verse 14. After giving her protection,
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God provides for Ruth in verse 14, Boaz said to her at mealtime, come here and eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.
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So she sat beside the reapers and he passed parched grain to her and she ate, was satisfied, she kept some back.
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See, it wasn't normal for gleaners to be included in the meal given to the hired laborer and the bread that Boaz offers was most likely bread made from the roasted grain that had just been harvested, it was a delicacy.
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So the work of faith, dear friends, Jesus told us not to worry, right?
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I talk to a lot of people now that are worried. This chapter unmistakably teaches that God guides people even when they don't recognize it.
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It shows us that God protects believers in all aspects even when they don't understand or recognize those aspects.
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This chapter, chapter two, shows us that God will faithfully provide what we need. So how does the book of Ruth demonstrate faith in action?
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The third way is by showing an appeal based on faith. So what have we seen?
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The decision of faith, right? We've seen the work of faith. Now third, we see an appeal that is made on the basis of faith, chapter three.
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Then Naomi, her mother -in -law, said to her, my daughter, shall
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I not seek security for you that it may be well with you? Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative?
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In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Therefore, wash yourself and anoint yourself.
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Put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he is finished eating and drinking.
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Then it shall be when he lies down that you shall notice a place where he lies. And you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down.
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And he will tell you what you should do. And she said to her, all that you say to me I will do. Now, there's two significant pillars that hold up the story of Ruth.
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And both are constantly working in the background of this story. One of them, one of the pillars, is an all -knowing, omniscient
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God at work in all these circumstances and details. Because he knows everything, right? He's all -powerful.
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And he's guiding and directing the events. And he's working in concert with the people's choices.
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Because she could say, no, I won't go to the field. I mean, they're hungry, so I'll go glean. You know, she could have been at any field.
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So he's working in concert with their choices. The other, in the book of Ruth, is something called the law of the kinsman redeemer.
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Now, the Old Testament law provided for widows in the form of a kinsman redeemer.
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This man had to be related, had to be a blood relative. He had to have the redemption price or money to pay for the land or the possessions owned by the widow's husband.
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And he had to be willing to redeem. So one of the things that the law of the kinsman redeemer does is point us to Christ.
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You see, ever since the fall of man, everybody ever born is born a sinner, correct?
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Everyone ever born since the fall has a need, like the widow.
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And the purchase price that God stipulated for redemption is sinless blood,
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Hebrews 9 .22. Without the shedding of blood, there is no, what, remission of sin, right?
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And God, in his gracious mercy, has fulfilled the law of the kinsman redeemer.
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And the kinsman redeemer is identified in Isaiah 59 as the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have Ruth, the law of the kinsman redeemer, and it travels all the way through to Jesus Christ in the
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New Testament. Now, in Ruth's case, Boaz did not have the first position or first rights.
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But it turns out that the near, I don't have time to read all the scriptures. There's so many. That's why I'm asking you to read this because you'll connect the dots.
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Four chapters, can you do it? Shake your head yes. Mahalo. Okay, good.
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I'm gonna write you. Jim, I'm gonna call you.
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Four chapters. You're gonna do it? All right, give me a thumb. Come on, give me a thumb. Thank you.
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Four chapters. And then you'll go, oh, he said that, and he didn't say that, but then he said that, and it'll all kind of flow together for you.
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Hopefully. Hopefully. So he didn't have the first position. But the near kinsman was not willing to redeem.
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The near kinsman had the first two requirements, but he didn't meet the third. Remember I mentioned the word appeal?
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Look at verse nine. Actually, look at verse eight. Now it happened at midnight that the man,
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Boaz, was startled and turned himself, and there a woman was lying at his feet. So don't think she was doing anything else except what her mother -in -law said, which was to just lay at his feet.
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And he said, who are you? It's dark. She said, I'm Ruth, your maidservant.
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Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative. And he said, blessed are you of the
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Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning. You did not go after the young men whether poor or rich, and now, my daughter, do not fear.
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I will do for you all that you request. For all the people of my town without smartphones know that you are a virtuous woman.
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Wow. One of the lessons here in this chapter is that we need to remember that God often uses various means in letting his will be made known.
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On this occasion, he used another human, Naomi, to make his will known to Ruth, who in turn made it known to Boaz.
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Ruth was again left with this choice of obeying or disobeying her mother -in -law and going to this elderly man's bed where he was sleeping in the fields that night and obey or disobey.
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Boaz, too, had a choice of complying with God's will.
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See, every time God's will is revealed to us, we have the same choice, don't we?
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I had a very interesting conversation with one of my daughters on the way here, and she brought up some very interesting points, and I had a choice.
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Come on. Do you follow me? I had a choice. She was speaking to me biblically.
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I had a choice to obey or what? Disobey. It's significant that Naomi and Boaz both displayed knowledge of the
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Levitical law, the law of the kinsman -redeemer, and acted according. We have this fundamental principle in responding to our perception or what we think is
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God's will in a matter. In other words, this was not in a vacuum. This was according to God's word.
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This was according to the law of the kinsman -redeemer. Check what we're doing against the scripture.
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Check what we're doing against the authority of scripture. If what we're thinking and praying about doing does not line up with scripture, may
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I just suggest to you that it may not be God's will? You know that this church has an important decision coming up.
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We need to be praying for Harold and Victor, that God gives them wisdom, and that the decisions that are made, which you will vote on, are consistent with what?
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Can I just tell you something? God never, never, never, never, ever, ever, ever, never, never, never, never, ever, ever, ever leads his people contrary to his word.
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Did you hear what I said, never, ever, ever? Can you do that 10 times really fast? Never, ever, ever, never, never, never.
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So how does the book of Ruth tell the story of faith in action? Number four, by showing the rewards of faith.
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Chapter four. So you've got each chapter, you have the outline, you can read this thing quickly, you can see the rewards of faith in chapter four, because it records the ultimate enduring reward that God conferred on Ruth.
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Two very important events happen in this chapter. Write them down, because I don't think
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I put them in your notes. Number one, before the rewards, there's the rejection by the man who had first rights to Elimelech's inheritance.
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That's verses one through six, which I don't have the time to read, okay? Now, think about this.
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In Boaz's time, all legal matters were transacted in public in the city gates.
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The gate of the city invariably opened into an open space and formed a natural civic area that functioned something like a city hall or a courthouse.
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They still have this in the Middle East. They still have these, like even in Italy, when you go to Rome and you walk the streets of Rome, they have piazzas and another one, the big ones and then the small ones, and everybody gathers there, and you see the elderly people drinking their coffee, and they talk about the things of life.
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That's a cultural thing. So in Boaz's day, by the city gates, there's an open area, and the elders of the city were there to hear people's problems and make decisions, okay?
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So Boaz goes to the city gate to transact his business. It's a legal matter. Remember, Boaz is not in first position to be
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Ruth's kinsman redeemer. In verse four, the relative that had first rights,
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I thought to inform you, saying, buy it back in the presence of the inhabitants and the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it, but if you will not redeem it, then tell me that I may know, for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.
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And the guy says, I can't do it. Boaz announces that Ruth was an inseparable part of the deal.
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Boaz said, on the day that you buy the field, verse five, from the hand of Naomi, you must also buy it from Ruth the
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Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to perpetuate the name of the dead through this inheritance. I just don't have time.
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There's so much here. It's possible that Boaz knew this man. When you read it, you've gotta read, and I don't have time, in chapter five, verses one through six, seven, to see how
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Boaz works this out. The relative says, I cannot redeem it, making way for Boaz to marry
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Ruth, and the witnesses rejoice in this event. Ruth has been awarded, rewarded throughout the book.
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God had taken care of her at every term, but the ultimate reward was marriage, and then the incredible gift of a son with Boab.
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God's participation in this love story has basically been hidden so far. He's not been mentioned.
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No specific acts are attributed to him until you get to verse 13. Take a look. So Boaz took
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Ruth, and she became his wife, and when he went into her, the
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Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. God has been the source of all the protection and provision.
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Ruth's temporal rewards had been obvious, but the blessings God confirmed did not end, for in the long term, this union produced
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Ruth's greater son, David, and in the longer term, the matchless son,
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Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? I mean, we think nothing.
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We go to the store, right? And something happens. Ruth's faith in God has assured her a permanent place in history until the end of time.
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The final verses of the book, you can see the genealogy. I don't have time to read it.
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Beginning at verse 18. Verse 22, Obed begot Jesse, Jesse begot David.
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Ruth is listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter one. This is an amazing history.
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In the names of the genealogy that Ruth belongs to, one of them is a prostitute. She's in the line of Rahab.
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The second is her son, Boaz. Boaz is his father. Nashon married
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Rahab the prostitute, the third player in the story. Ruth, this foreign widow in a clannish culture.
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Everything about her is different. She speaks with an accent. She has a different name. She eats different food.
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Her only friend is her mother -in -law, who happens to be a widow, who happens to be the fourth character in the story.
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She's older than the first widow, so she's too old to have kids. Four people rejected in their own way, each alone.
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Four frazzled strings in the bottom of a knitting basket left untouched, awaiting the toss of the master weaver, and he doesn't discard them.
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God picks up the useless pieces that you would never think, and puts them together with the other pieces into a beautiful body, and such is the story of Ruth, and such is the story of the
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Bible, and the good news of Jesus Christ. Amen? Faith in action.
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Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much for this amazing book.
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It's so easy for us, God, to think,
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I don't have an incredible story like that. Well, either do
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Ruth. I never went to a field and gleaned, and all of a sudden,
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God put all these things together. Well, God, sometimes it's a matter of perspective, isn't it?
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Here is this Gentile woman, pagan, that you used in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and who would have thought?
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God, we're here, we're all ages, ethnicities, backgrounds.
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You know our background, you know our story, you know everything. You knew that we would be here this morning, and hear this message.
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We weren't here last week. I mean, you know all these things. I pray,
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God, that this incredible truth about your love, and your care, and your working in all things might produce fruit in our lives this coming week,
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God. We pray these things, and commit these things to you, in Jesus' name, amen?
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Victor, would you come? Jesus Christ, our
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Redeemer, is worthy to be praised. So let's stand together, and sing,
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Thou art worthy. Thou art worthy. ♪
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Thou receive glory in us, all things created ♪ ♪
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Thou hast created all things ♪ ♪
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And for their pleasure, they are created for Thou alone ♪
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Thank you, and you are dismissed.