The Church of Eleven22 - Saturated 2017 - Friday: Pastor Eric Mason

Episode Date: September 15, 2017

Thank you for that welcome. Glad to be here. Thankful to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to be with you guys yet again. And thank you, Pastor Jobi, for your leadership and your work that you guys are doing to support a lot of church plants that we're planning as well, as well as helping with thriving. And so let's give God a hand praise for this man's leadership and what God is doing through him and his wife, his family, and the leadership here. Give your leadership in general here. I hand praise for what God is doing.

Come on, come on, come on, come on. But then give the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords a big old shout of praise for saving your soul. Amen, amen, amen, amen. Glad to be with you and thankful to be here yet again. And I'm excited to be able to dive into this time that we have together. So we're going to get straight to the point. Let's dive in.

We're in Ruth chapter two, Ruth chapter two. We're going to be in Ruth chapter two verses one through about the 12th verse. When you get there, say amen. If you're not there yet, say hold up. All right, all right, all right. All right. Ruth chapter two. If you don't mind standing while I read this, that'll be great.

I'm a little old school when it comes to that. I like that standing during the reading of the scriptures. I'm not reading from the ESV tonight. I'm reading from the CSB, but there will be some similarities. Let's dig in. It says, now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. His name, he was a prominent man of noble character from a Lemonlex family. His name was Boaz.

Ruth the Moabites asked Naomi, will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone with whom I find favor. Naomi answered her, Go ahead, my daughter, so Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened, somebody say happened, to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from a Limelech's family. Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He sent to the harvesters, said to the harvesters, the Lord be with you.

The Lord bless you, they replied. Boas asked his servant, who was in charge of the harvesters? Whose young woman is this? The servant answered, she is the young Moab, who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. She asked, will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters? She came and has been on her feet. since early morning, except that she rested at a little while in the shelter.

Then Boaz said to Ruth, listen, my daughter, don't go or gather grain in another field, and don't leave this one. But stay here close to my female servants, see which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Heaven I ordered the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled. She fell face down, bowed to the ground, and said to him, why have I found favor in with you? And he said to her, after that, Boas said to her, everything you have done, your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me, how you left your father and mother and your native land and how you came to a people you didn't previously know. May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive full reward from the Lord God of Israel

under whose wings you have come for refuge. I want to talk about briefly, if I could take our text tonight. I'd love to talk about the subject of a supernatural response to tragedy. How to have a supernatural response to tragedy. God, I'm praying in the mighty name of Jesus, change lives. And I'm praying tonight that you'd be glorified in your faith. Others would be horrified. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray.

Everybody agree with that said? Amen, amen, amen. I don't care what phase of life you are in. When you become a believer, God schedules your life for checkups. Somebody say checkups. Or you could do better than that. Somebody say checkups.

Yes. Yeah, God will do checkups. And when those checkups happen, those checkups or hiccups are used by God as a mechanism to work on you and to help you to be more fashioned and conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. God uses different things, test and trials and struggles. But he also used tragedy. Somebody said tragedy. Over the last few weeks, if not a month, we've seen tragedy in Houston. Some of you here under the sound of my voice have experienced some tragedy. And you've gone through some things and you've experienced some challenges and you're going through that. Or you know someone in your sphere that has experienced some challenges. And you're wondering, why in the world the Lord allowed this to happen? How am I going to recover from this? And what in the world is the purpose of this chaos?

Well, let me explain something to you believe it tonight. there is nothing in your life that God doesn't use to grow you. Every single thing in your life, whether you know it or not, whether it's tragic or triumphal, God uses it as a mechanism to show you where you are and where you're not. Let me say it again. He likes to show you where you are and where you're not, whether you've lost a child, whether you've lost your home, whether you've lost your business, whether, no matter what you've lost in your life, even in those difficult times.

I've experienced it myself. I'm not talking up here as some dude on an ivory tower like nothing's ever happened to me. I know what it's like to lose your child. I know what it's like for your spouse to have cancer. I know what it's like for sickness to ravage your family and frustrations of loss and tragedy to hit you hard. But the question is, what are we made of in the midst of all of that? And one of the things I like about our book that we're going to dive in tonight is we see a story of God showing that no matter what goes on in our life, no matter what goes on in our life, he is always systematically active in our life, working and willing his good pleasure inside our lives to see us look more like the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're in a book.

I heard you already gone through it, but we'll still dig into this past a passage tonight. The Bible talks about in the first few verses that this was the time of the judges. Now, in setting the tone for this being the time of the judges, the point of the reality is, is if you go back to Judges chapter 17 around the sixth verse, it'll show you the fact that during the time of the judges, the Bible says that people did what they wanted. In other words, everyone did what was. right in their own eyes. I know that none of that's happening in our culture today where people just abandon God and do whatever in the heck they want to do. I know everybody in our country

have a lethal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. But for other countries, they got foolishness on. You understand what I'm saying? We're just trying to say, we're just trying to say in this time they did what was right in their own eyes. I mean, they were whiling out on steroids. So God's philosophy, God's way of thinking and God's way of doing things, who was nowhere in the vicinity of their passions and their thinking, and where did it start? It started with the Joshua generation, half doing God's will by not fully getting rid of the things that God called them to get rid of, which impacted how the generation after them viewed obedience to God.

Wish I can parenthetically park right there, but I'll do that in a second. Then you see right after that, you'll see that right after that the Bible will begin to say that there became, in chapter two of judges, a generation that knew not the Lord. Let me explain something to you real quick, and this one for free, and I got to move on. There is no generation that's a product of its own devices. Every generation that comes after a generation is a product of the impact of the generation that came before them. So if a generation doesn't take seriously its role of investment, its role of being in the Word of God,

role in walking in the spirit, its role in being misiological in all of its glorious excellencies to show off the beauty and glory of God, it will impact the next generation and the next generation. So you in your span, you in your time, have to be committed to spitting the truth of the gospel to the next generation that comes after you. You have to do it. When I look at my four children, I'm laying my hands on them daily. begging God for change in their generation,

begging God for their souls to know him, for them to not know a day when they didn't know Jesus and his hand wasn't on them doing something in their life. Do I have anybody in here that's passionate about the generation after them to say, God, I want them not to seek the ship of your glory, but God, I want them to throw their sails up and see your glory in their generation.

But here in this passage, Here in this passage, here in the book of Ruth with this interesting, interestingly nestled between the time of the judges, which both of them are books nestled after the Pentateuch and in between there and the book of Samuel. We come here and a woman, of course, experiences some ferocious tragedy. she had to leave her area, her country, and go to Moab around the other side of the Dead Sea. I can just park right there. Oh, God, I got to move. I got to move.

It's just too much. I got to get to this text. It's just too much in the Bible. Anyway, they had to go around the Dead Sea, and when they got there, her husband and her sons were with her, her sons got married. Boom. They got them some Moabitist women. Boom. After that, husband died.

Then she loses her. her both of her sons, then all of a sudden she's experiencing all of this tragedy. God opens up the door where he shuts down the drought of the tragedy that the people of God were going on in the land of Judah. God begins to send them back. Ruth and Naomi get back to their land. And all the ladies was like, oh, my goodness, it's Ruth and Boaz. I mean, Naomi.

Hey, Naomi, I ain't seeing you in a minute, girl. How you been? Oh, my goodness, girl, it is Ney-Nay. We're trying to see us some Neney right now. And so she come on in and they're all excited. How you doing, girl? Nenay, how you doing, girl? We see you in a way?

Oh, my goodness, right? And they're going back and forth. And she says, girlfriends, I'm just going to tell y'all right now, I need y'all to fall back from calling me, nay, nay, Naomi, whatever derivative of the Hebrew idiom you want to call me, fall back from all of that. They're like, what's going on with you? He said, because God's allows,

some tragedy to happen to me. And my name means pleasant, but my life hasn't been present. And because my life hasn't been pleasant, I want to change my name, not to a nickname, I'm going down to City Hall the day and put in for a name change. I want my name to be changed tomorrow, bitter, because the Lord has dealt helliciously with me. And so what you see in the better, part of chapter one is a woman experienced tragedy, but then her response to tragedy is to shut down on God. How many of you have gone through something and you shut down on God? How many of you has the reactor of your soul shut down? The generator of your soul was like, I'm going to church, I'm going to go to small groups, I may go with one of these little church plants or whatever

you're going to do, and I'm going to act like I'm good, but really I'm not feeling God at all. Like, I know I'm a believer, but I'm going to live my life with sort of this chip on my shoulder because I'm frustrated that God has allowed this thing to happen to me. And because he's so sovereign, if he's so powerful, and if he's so mighty, how in the world with the sovereign law, with all that might and power have the careless gall to let this happen to me? And so when you come here and you see this reality, you see her reaction. Well, she wanted a name change, which brings us to our text. And our first point, if you're going to have a supernatural response to tragedy,

number one, you've got to know that hopefulness works. We say that again, hopefulness. Somebody say hopefulness. Hopefulness works. It's interesting that you saw a negative response to tragedy. now you're going to see a better response to tragedy. As we go through this, I don't want to front like tragedy isn't impactful, but tragedy should never have the last word in your life.

Look what it says, hopefulness work. Look what it says here. It says, now Naomi, I like that. It's stopped right there. It's so much exegetical significance in that. It's amazing. know what I like about this is that she just put in

and filed for a deposition for her name to be changed. Now there were times where people changed their names in the Bible and God thumbed it up. Saul changed his name to Paul. He's like, oh, I understand that because you were stripping back in the day,

so you know what I'm saying? We're going to switch you on over so people won't think you're trying to come in, infiltrate you're like an Asian and going to stab some Christians. So good. Change that jump, right? Boom. But Naomi, God, the spirit, in superintending the right of this passage, ignores her request.

I like that. No, why I like it, because some of us have renamed ourselves based on our circumstances, and God won't let what you went through and your feelings towards it get in the way of what he believes and has sanctioned and has ordained on your life. He said, he said, he said, Nane, you might be trying to call yourself some old crazy bitterness, but I'm not sovereignly going to mark you by what you went through. In other words, I want to let you know that you're more than what you went through because of who I am in your life. I want to let you know that you can be above what you went through because I've come into

your life. So when I write the scriptures, I'm going to write in there, Naomi, I'm not writing Mara because we're going to leave Mara behind and we're going to go pleasantly into the future. I don't know who's on the sound of my voice who has some bad stuff happened to you. You have some bitter stuff happened to you, but God said, I know you had a hard time. I know you had a difficult time, but I'm not going to let what happened to you be you. You understand what I'm saying? Like some of us in here, you might not have called yourself Mara or bitter. Some of you call yourself hopeless in your heart. You may not have put a deposition in, but your heart has. And you're marked by hopelessness. Some of you may be renaming yourself in your heart worthless.

I have absolutely no value. You've assigned yourself a new name, worthless, helpless. Maybe that's not you. Maybe you've renamed yourself loneliness. Maybe you've named yourself loneliness saying, you know, nobody's feeling me. Every time I try to build a relationship after my, I know I got some, because you know how to try to be sometime an affect. Nobody don't want to be around me, so I want to be around them.

So I'm a lonely person because nobody don't like me. Matter of fact, I don't feel God's presence on a regular basis. I come up here in 1122, they're singing them songs, bass is rolling, and people putting their hands up, coming up, bowing, getting all on carpets, being baptized. And I absolutely unadulteratedly, still feel lonely, and I feel like it's God's fault. We rename ourselves. But what the text is letting us know is that God is not going to let that mark us. And so it goes further.

It goes further. It says, now Naomi had a relative. On her husband's side, he was a prominent man of noble character from a Limelech's family. His name was Boaz. I like this. I like this. He says noble character. Somebody say noble character.

I like this idiomatic expression because it is an idiom that. has been Hebraically used in different forms and in the same form in very popular places in the Bible to express different things about character. Here it's Gabor Chayil, which means mighty man. You know what I'm saying? In other words, a person of character. Somebody say character. Oh, help me today. This is good right here. In other words, you got to look back and see the fact that not only did Naomi go through a tragedy, not only did Ruth go through a tragedy, but Boaz had been through a tragedy. And you're looking at me saying, what tragedy has he gone through? He experienced the famine. And then he experienced God's harvest after the famine. Oh God, I want to shout

right now, but I'm going to wait till later and say that a little bit for later. But I'm letting you know that Boaz somehow character doesn't happen overnight. Nobody is a self-made person. Let me say that one more again, because y'all getting it twisted. Some of y'all think that you made yourself who you are. Some of us think the good in my life I've developed, but let me explain something to you. Nobody that's truly good isn't good without Christ helping them to be good. Anything in your life that's up here, high echelon spirituality,

was done by Christ, it wasn't done by you, and you got to recognize that character and value and mightiness is developed by God and not by humanity. So this dude didn't just come out of nowhere, character doesn't come out of nowhere, you've got to go through some stuff, you've got to be developed in some stuff so that you can look more like the Lord Jesus Christ. You're a product of God, not yourself. You got to learn how to say anything good in my life. It comes from you, God.

So they set him up, kind of aliupin. him, if you will, into the passage to kind of throw a curveball to talk about someone that could be a redeemable figure in their life to do some things to help what God wants to do in their life. And so he's from a Lemuelx family there, and it says, like this next session, I love this. It says, Ruth, the Morbites us, is emphasizing that over and over and over again for some reason, says the Ruth, the mayor board asked Naomi, will you let me go into the fields and gather falling grain behind someone with whom I find favor? I love this. No, I love this. I love this for

several reasons, because Ruth refuses to remain in the pity party with Naomi. Okay. In other words, you ever had somebody in your life that's optimistic when you're fighting to be pessimistic? When you're fighting to be like, I'm really, this is going to be my time to stewing my anger, and I'm not feeling nary a person, all right? That's how I'm feeling right now. And then somebody skips into the room and they're all happy and they're having a good day. And then they come in and start speaking life until you're like, listen, save life for later. Let me stew a little bit.

But what I like about Ruth is they've been sitting around, showing them, we don't know what they've been doing, but nothing's been happening. And Ruth is like, listen, I'm not going to join you in there, girlfriend. I'm not going to join you in that party you're going through. You hanging out all up in there, doing your thing. Listen, we don't grieve. Listen, I went through it too. You went through a limelike's death.

I went through a limelike's death. You went through your son's death. I went through their death. Both of us then been through all of this together. Listen, I don't left a whole lot to be with you. Matter of fact, I don't clung to you. That's what, you understand what I'm saying? So I'm here with you.

I haven't, like, left and went over here. I could have went to my mom and daddy's house and been up on some fresh bread, some fresh steaks, some lamb ministry, and y'all don't even eat pork over here. I didn't give up pork and all kinds of stuff just to be in here with you. And now you're going to sit up in here and act like you're not going to come up out of what you're going through. Look, look, though. But know what I like about this, though?

It's not just the fit of rage, if you will. It's biblical. She throws Bible at her inferentially. She throws Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 24 inferentially at her. See, in Deuteronomy 24 and Leviticus 19 is another sort of Leviite law. And this law is you're not supposed to glean the edges of your land. And if you're grabbing some stuff, if it drops, you've got to leave you. it down for the sojourner and for the alien.

So what I like about what Ruth is doing is Ruth is trying to apply the scriptures in the midst of her tragedy. Oh my God. You missed your shout a moment. You should let, let me just tell you something, you should never let your tragedy make you forget God's word. You should never let how pressured you are make you forget about God's. truth as a matter of fact, the oil press of your Gisemite moment is the time to press into God.

In the midst of that difficulty is the time to spend time with knowing what in the world is your will in the midst of the... See, some of y'all need to stop talking to yourself. See, some of y'all just be blabber-mouthing in your brain. Some more stupidity. You need to open up your Bible and close your mouth and not open your mouth. Help me today, God, in Jesus' mighty name. I'm just letting you know, some of us, need to stop. It's a time to, you know, when it's vending the doggone book every now and then. When you go through your difficulty, God actually heightens your memory, soul, capacity, to snatch in what it's been barren of. And so as she begins to do this, Ruth, Ruth begins to

believe God by faith. Now, how do I know she's believing God by faith? She didn't say, and maybe when I go out there, I might find favor with her. She didn't pray the seminary, evangelical prayer. Maybe, Lord, if maybe, I used to hate them kind of prayers, you know what I'm saying? Like, don't pray for me like that. If you're going to pray somebody pray for you, pray for me, I'm going to give you. You know, Lord, maybe, um, if you might think about, roundabout in a kind of way where you, I need somebody to pull out some oil and go, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I need somebody who's going to believe God. Let God edit your prayers. You don't edit your prayers. You don't edit your Help me today.

See, see, I'm going to open my mouth and I'm going to believe. See, I want to push away. The prosperity arena can't have everything. Faith doesn't belong to them. Word of faith doesn't belong to that can. I'm taken back what the devil stole to use for false teaching to undergird it back under true teaching because we are supposed to be a people of faith.

Know what I like about this? and she says, I'm looking for an opportunity for God to show us some favor. You need a time in your life when you're saying, God, you know what? I'm looking, I don't been through a lot. I ain't saying you owe me nothing, but I'm just going to believe you that you're going to overturn things for me. I just believe it. It's not a me-centered philosophy.

This is actually gospel-centered because Jesus tells us to ask him things. And so what I like about this is Ruth is believing God. But know what I like about God? God always upgrades what you ask when you do it according to his word. He always, now under him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you ask or think, according to the power that's at work within you. What's that power in Ephesians 3? The gospel.

And according to the depths of how the gospel is working in you, the gospel nurtures your soul to be able to ask God for things that's based on truth, based on his heart, and based on his word. That's why the Bible says, delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. Because what? Some people are like, want to run it at. He won't give me the desires of your heart, and he knows my heart. Don't ever say that again.

Don't ever say God knows my heart. The heart is deceitful and the wicked. Who can know it? Boom. What you do is when you delight yourself in the Lord and spend time with him, the Holy Spirit nurtures and works on your heart. And when you begin to pray things to him, it's based on his will, not just your personal dreams. So look at what the text does, right?

Look what happens? So she said, I'm looking forward to fine favor. And what I like about this is Ruth's optimism deals with Naomi's pessimism. Let me say that again. Ruth's optimism engages and encourages Naomi to come out of her pessimism. Look what it says. Since Naomi said to her, go ahead, girl, go on, go on my daughter.

I know we don't say that. Eric Mason translated, go on girl. And she says, so Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvest. Now you got to understand this. This is a beautiful thing that we're seeing God do. Because normally, you would just go in to someone's yard and you glean on the edges and then you see stuff and then you go in and ask because you roll in. But what's interesting is she's asking God for something very, very unique.

She's asking God in the midst of tragedy. This is what hopefulness is about. is she begins to hope for an extreme opportunity to have a great opportunity to not only provide for herself, but also Naomi. Look at what happens. And it says, she happened to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from a Lemon Lex family. Now what I like about this is that no matter what you do, when you follow God's word, he orders your steps. Help me today. Let me say something.

God loves to order your steps. Now, you got understand how this works. What makes this so crazy? You got to understand that they were in town. They lived in town. So most of the houses in that time period were in town. The fields were outside of town. So basically, Ruth comes out with a basket on her arm and she walks out of the city and she looks at a pantheon of fields out there. As she began looking at fields, she sees one field and say, I'm going to go over there. When she gets to the field, not only is it. Because it didn't just say she was in the field that Boaz owned.

It was the field with the portion of the lot within the field that he owned. Which means that Boaz didn't own the whole field of that field. He only owned a portion of that field, which means that God micromanaged him ordering her steps. Some of you think you're just walking through life. And some of you think you're moving through life. But I'm just letting you know that Psalm 37 says, the steps of a good man or woman are ordered by the Lord. My Bible says, I don't know about your Bible, but my Bible says in Proverbs chapter 16,

many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord orders their steps. I don't know who in here you ever just went off on a journey and you were believing God, and God kind of made some stuff happen that wouldn't have happened. Listen, don't you let your tragedy ever make you believe that God is silent and he's not working in your life? You have to be careful of that. You have to be careful of making God be personified. your response to how you feel about what you went through. Because what happens is,

family God, when you do that and you personify God being what you went through, you actually worship what you went through versus the God who's with you in what you went through. It's very, very important. And what I like about this is that in the midst of this optimism and hope, in the midst of great tragedy, God orders the steps of Ruth right to the right place where she is. supposed to be. Let's look at some more of this. Look at what it says. It says later, Boaz arrived in Bethlehem. And it says, he said to the harvesters, Yahweh be with you. And then the harvesters

replied, Yahweh be with you. I like this. This is parenthetical. Shows you what kind of man this is. Who boss ever coming to you and say, Jesus Christ, be with you? And you say, what's up, boss? Jesus be with you too, right? But there's something deep here. Boas has experienced God in a rich, rich way. And he wants God post his tragedy to be interconnected in everything that he's doing. And so when he invokes the covenant name and the workers invoke the covenant name,

It shows you what type of person is being worked on here. It's a person that's saying, I want God fully saturated in every single thing that I do. And I want to invoke that type of presence on the environment that I'm in. Because know what Boaz knows is he says, nothing good that I have and nothing that I've received in this time of blessing of harvest and me getting all this stuff is of my capability. Because let me get you something for free. You can do what you want.

You can plant all you want. You can water all you want and you can till all you want. You can till, you can plant, you can water. But unless God sends rain, unless God sends the sun, there is nothing in your life that you can do. You can grind all you want. You can be on your big boss ministry like the culture says and do your boss thing all you want. But if God doesn't breathe on that particular thing, nothing will come of it. And he recognizes that something came of this, not because I'm a hard worker.

I do work hard. but he's saying, it came because of the Lord, and I'm asking and invoking God's continued presence. Know why I like this? Because this is after his tragedy. And he didn't let, what I like about this is he didn't let his tragedy make him selfish. So you have to be very, very careful. When you go through a tragedy and you may get up on an upswing and you get a bunch of stuff after the tragedy, that you begin to worship the stuff in the harvest versus. the God that gave it to you. Now watch what happens here. It says later when Boas, he came and did that in verse 5, it says, Boas asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, who was a young woman right

there? Now, come back. He's not trying to holl that roof, all right? I'm in hollering, my bad, I'm in a different environment. Um, dang, um, holler just means he's trying to talk to her for, future endeavors and relationship. There you go. There you go. Hope I did all right with that. All right. This ruins the romance theme.

This is not romantic. If somebody you don't know and you're all picking up your stuff, you'd want to know who they were too, right? It's real simple. It's not even that deep. Somebody said, oh, my goodness. He's about to tell me.

I'm about to get my husband tomorrow. No. No. I know you'd like to hear that he'd look for you and carrying on. Anyway, verse six. It says, the servant answered, she is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. She asked, this is, this is some good stuff right here, what he begins to say about her in this passage.

He says, she came back from the territory of Moab. She asked, will you let me gather falling grain among the bundles behind the harvesters? she came and has been on her feet since early morning and except that she rested a little in the shelter. Know what I like about this is you see her character and how God has developed her character. Because number one, she didn't come in there, y'all are talking about something. The Bible says that you're supposed to let me come in here and just grab some stuff. So are you going to be faithful to the scriptures in your ability to let me come in your yard and do this? No.

Bible says she humbly axed, which means she has character to not be a person that's entitled. because sometime when you go through tragedy, you become an entitled person. In other words, when you go through tragedy, sometimes you think God and everybody else owe you something. One of the things that my father, he will admit he just passed away this year. He was in World War II, Buffalo Soldier, Infantry, New Tuskegee Airmen, all that type of stuff. He's a decorated sergeant, whole nine, two purple hearts, a metal, of valor, all of that, right? Decorated dude. But my father went through so much through Jim Crow, post-slavery aesthetic, and, and, and,

what he went through and he, one of the things that he had to work through over the years was what was, was how entitled he was to think, because I did this for the country and because I went through, everybody owes everything to me. And one of the things that God worked on him in, and I see this beautiful in Roots life, is there was a disposition of humility post-her tragedy. You got to be careful of saying, God, you let me go through this. These are my list of demand. You better watch out how you talk to Big Pop in the glory because you can't just be bumping your gums and running some crazy stuff just because you went through something difficult. You still have to come before that holy God with humility because of the mercy and grace that comes behind it as you follow his word.

Look what he says. It says she followed the bundles. She went down and did that end and she was working hard. Then Boas said to Ruth, said, listen, my daughter, don't go and gather in another field. I love this. and don't leave this one, but stay here close to my female service. There it is. She went out believing that God would bring favor. God answers her prayer by giving her favor with Boas. I love that. He answers her.

And then he upgrades it, though. He says, you can be with my female service. As a matter of fact, you stick closer. Don't just be with everybody else harvesting. I'm going to give you special position. In other words, when God bless you, he liked to flagrantly do some more crazy off the wall above your comprehension type stuff. And what he does is he gives her a deep access as a Gentile harvester. Now you got to remember, this is the time of the judges. So people weren't really

giving stuff away around this time. You know what I said? They were tripping and they weren't following God's word. But somehow in the midst of people not following God's word, that God was able in his sovereignty and providence to override the brokenness of the environment to find favor in the midst of a place and a people that weren't following God's work. Don't ever let your obstacles make you think that God's too big to override it. I was just telling this planter recently, he's telling me, man, it's so hard, and it's hard, and it's hard. And I, I ain't had no empathy because I heard hard for eight conversations. And I said, let me explain something to you. He said, everybody says, you know, I said, man, you never base your going and commitment to God based

on how hard things are. Don't let everybody else transact their story onto yours because that may not be your testimony. So be careful who you let nibble on your ears with information of foolishness to downgrade your expectations of God because of the normal. When in the world has God ever done stuff normal. God specializes in abnormalities through his people. Tragedy is a perfect opportunity for God to show abnormalities because look, when you go through something and people know how much pain you went through, know how much struggle you went through, and then they begin to see the inner workings of the Holy Spirit through the might of the gospel you're running with the wind in your face and you're willing to get up, wash your face, anoint yourself, and go on out there and they begin to see the glow

and the glory of God on your life because of your commitment to God in the midst of your tragedy, despite your tragedy. Let me tell you this for free. God doesn't have to answer all of your tragedy questions for you to be faithful to him. He doesn't have to. Be careful to say, God, to you, ask you, no, God doesn't have to answer any questions. Look at what it says. Then it says, then he goes upgrades it.

He says, heaven, I ordered the young men to leave you alone, don't touch you. In other words, he gives her security. She got alma bears following her around and carrying her as she's doing her thing. Boom. You understand what I'm saying? So don't touch her. Why? Because people would bother young ladies and take their stuff.

And so what God does is he does above what she could ask her thing. Look at what she does next. It says, she fell face down, bowed to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor with you so that you noticed, although I am a foreigner. Boy, I said to her everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me how you left your father and mother, which was a big deal back then and your native land and how you came to a people you didn't previously know. May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive full reward from the God of Israel

under whose wings you have come to seek refuge. He speaks a blessing over her, a strong blessing over her, saying you could have gone back. It's some decisions that you could have made. But God has giving you favor. Somebody say favor. Favor isn't just what God gives to you. Favor is also what God does in you.

Let me say that again. Favor is not just what God. The word here for favor is an interesting word for favor. It's different than the normal word of favor. It's not Chesed. It's a different word. It's a word that means. God is sovereignly and providentially working things out in your life.

And what he does is he prepares your character for open doors. Help me today. In other words, there are some doors God can't send you through because your character will destroy what he's opening up. So before you go through the door, God works on your character by his favor. That's why he points to her works. and really he's pointing to God working in her, and because of God working in her, he noticed

that God was working in her and that God had did something in her, which could look like personal human activity of character and commitment and competency and compatibility could look like a human activity. But no, he acknowledges divinely orchestrated God activity based on that, and then he's willing to trust her in his stuff. because God had done some stuff in her. When you go through tragedy, God wants to do some stuff in you through Jesus Christ.

And as he does some stuff in you, he's working some things out. I'm not the one to believe that your future is going to all be better. No, I believe that God has stuff for you, open doors for you, but he has to put stuff in you before he can give you stuff, opportunity and ministry and resources to bless.

Now what I like about this is that, is that Boaz opened up his resources in such a powerful way. And what I love about it is that Ruth was willing to give her heart and commitment to this. But this is not the end of the story. Because the beauty of this is she ultimately reflects Jesus. She points ultimately to Jesus Christ, how? There's nobody in the history of creation that has experienced tragedy like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, being flogged by canonine whips, having the skin tore off of him, was a tragedy because he's God in the flesh.

He goes through a cross and they hang him high, stretch him wide, for crimes he didn't commit. I call that a tragedy. I call it a great tragedy. But know what I love about the Lord Jesus Christ? is he perfectly exemplifies what it looks like not to lose your focus in the midst of tragedy. Because on the cross, you have to understand this. Jesus remembers scripture. Hold on.

Hold on. I don't know if that, like, sunk in yet. Jesus had skin torn off of him where his veins and bones were exposed. Now I'm going to just tell you, I don't know what I'd have done. I'd have been all out. I wouldn't say none to nobody. They put him on the cross. He's being exfixated and he's breathing and he's weasen and his blood is dripping and his vital arteries are in much pain and bleeding profusely.

But he had the fault of mind to say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. In other words, tragedy in Jesus' mind wasn't, listen, a destruction of his purpose. it was a part of the direction of its purpose. And there's some of you under the sound of my voice that feel that way. But Jesus, guess what? The Bible says he was perfected in its humanity in Hebrews because of the things that he suffered. Jesus grew spiritually, not in his deity, but its humanity.

Through the things that he suffered. I don't even know how to wrap my mind around that. But the Bible says that in Hebrews. And the Bible says that on the third day, he cut up from the grave with all power in his hands. The Bible says that one day, one day, tatted on his thigh is going to be a name that only he and his pop's nose. But there will be a name that all of us will call him that he exalted above every name, even the covenant name Yahweh. He exalts the name of Yahshua Hamachia. He exalts Jesus' name above every name as a reward for how he dealt with his tragedy.

Many of you in here don't recognize that just like in this passage says, may the Lord reward you. I'm praying that God would flagrantly reward your soul as you work through tragedy and work on you. Every head by, every eye close. If you're here today and you've never placed your confidence in Jesus Christ, Maybe you're here and you never placed your faith in Jesus so that God's anger towards your sin, just like the rest of us. None of us are special. All of us had to come in contact with God the same way.

Jesus' cross tragedy on the cross was a tragedy to some, but it was a triumph for those who believe. And if you're here today and you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you've never said yes to the Lord Jesus Christ about faith that you say I want your death to apply to me so that I won't spend eternity separated from God because the Bible said this is eternal life that you know God and his only son who he said if you're here today and you want to place your confidence in Jesus. It's not rededication. Let me do this again. This is initially saying I've never put my confidence in Jesus Christ by faith for real. And I want to today say yes. Yes to Jesus. His death and resurrection has applied to me so that I can go from spiritual death, spiritual separation to spiritual connection. Come forward real quick and some folks want to talk to you. Anyone, just stand to your feet and come forward. We love to talk to you. Nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing going to be ashamed of. Anyone that says, yes, I want to say yes to the Lord Jesus Christ today. And I want to put my confidence in him. For the pardon of my sins.

I want my sins to be pardoned. Amen. Well, maybe you're here today and you've gone through some stuff. And as a believer, and you've allowed it to negatively affect you in such a way where it's sort of short-circuited how you view God, how you view the church, how you view yourself. And you're saying, I know God hit me up about me not having a supernatural response. It's not natural to respond to tragedy like this young lady did. It's not natural to respond to tragedy like Jesus Christ did. But I need some help because I've had some tragedies happen to me.

I need some prayer about this. Come forward. We'd love to chop it up with you. We'll love to pray for you. Anyone that says yes, I've shut down the Lord and I'd love some prayer on this. Anyone. Anyone? I see you coming.

Thank you for your boldness. Thank you for being honest. I see your coming. Yeah. Anyone else? says yes I want I want God to re-ochestrate my life in the midst of these difficulties

and how my heart is responded I see y'all coming anyone else that says yes I want I want the Lord to strengthen my heart I want the Lord to strengthen my mind and I want him to reorder me I see you coming thank you for your boldness I see y'all coming thank you for your boldness love to pray for anyone else I see y'all coming

see y'all coming you're in three phases of life you have a you have you're either having had gone through something you're in something or about to go through it and some of you have been through some stuff and some of y'all maybe they're wrestling and you're saying man I do have some beef with God about some things that I've allowed to happen to me and my response to him hasn't been pushing towards him and drawing near to him actually I'm extremely bitter what is bitterness bitterness is fermented anger and unforgiveness but God wants to resurrect you out of that I see you coming thank you for being honest thank you for being bold anyone else that says yes I want God to take me to

another place thank you for coming thank you for coming I know it's a difficult thing to admit that I'm bitter with the Lord and I'm angry with the Lord about what he's allowed me to go through let go today thank you for coming thank you for being honest thank you for that thank you for that best decisions you can make, best decisions you can make. Let God deal with. Let Christ deal with today. Thank you for coming. I see you. I see you coming. I see you coming. Anyone else that says, yes, I want God to take me to a different place and I've been stagnant in my walk because I'm frustrated at how he's allowed my life to go. I see you coming. I see you coming. Anyone else? I see you coming from the back. I see you coming. Anyone else? Anyone else? It says, yes, I want God to deal

with this and I want perspective in what I'm going through. Maybe you're smack dab in the midst of a tragedy. You said, I don't even know how I'm responding yet, but I know I need some prayer about it because I know that I can get to a really bad place. I'm going through something right now. I'm going through something right now. And I want to be faithful in the midst of this because this could take a wrong turn because my heart goes some weird places.

I see y'all coming. My heart goes some weird places sometimes. and in it going some weird places sometimes I need the Lord to align me with His will I want to be aligned with His will And some of you said no I'm going to sit here and I'm going to hold on to how I feel about God I don't care I'm not I'm not ready for all that that's the enemy let it go I see you coming let it go I see you coming thank you I see y'all coming I'm going let it go I'm going let it go some of you and I don't know if I'm bitter, but I do know I feel some type of way, just about some people and some experiences. And I don't, I can't really put my finger fully on it, but I know it's

connected to these groups of things or this one thing. I see y'all coming. God wants to give you freedom and release today. He wants to give you freedom and release. He wants to break the yoke of bondage. He wants to break the shackles. Anyone else? Anyone else to say, yes, that's me. I see you coming. I know this is a bit interesting. That's what some of you are wrestling. I see y'all coming because you're thinking about this, wondering, am I really in that place? If you're wondering about whether or not you're in that place,

you should probably just come. If you're wondering like, yeah, if you have to ask the question, it doesn't hurt to get with God about it. Let's do it. Let's do heavenly business. I see y'all coming. The Bible talks about greater heat is in you than heat is in the world. Don't let your situation mark your reality.

don't rename yourself some foolish identity that has nothing to do with the heart of the God. One of the greatest things in revival is confessing and dealing with brokenness in our own souls. And like God isn't afraid to deal with what you're going through. God still loves you even in the midst of how you feel and think about him. That doesn't end his commitment to you. He's still committed to you even in the midst of how you're feeling, what you're going through all of your frustrations. Don't let the enemy place a stronghold in your life that gives you stinking, thinking about

how God feels and what he thinks about you because of Jesus Christ. Anyone else? Lord God Almighty, being a believer can be confusing sometimes. It can be confusing because when we hear about you being a God of grace and a God of love, it's confusing sometimes to us when you allow this fallen world to hit us. And when this fallen world hits us sometimes, Lord God, it's extremely painful. And the first thing we're experiencing this pain, God, and then many of us ask the question, where are you?

God, I'm not trying to oversimplify anybody's tragedy. anybody's difficulty. I've been through my share of it. But all I know, God, is you've always been faithful to make sense out of it. No, you don't give all the answers. I still don't know why my daughter died at six months. I don't know.

I don't know why my wife's last bout what cancer was this year for the fourth time. I don't know. But all I do know, I know this, God. I don't know why my wife, she may have to have another transplant, another liver transplant. I don't know. I just know that somehow you work things out and you work things in us. Yes, we believe you for healing.

Yes, we believe you for release. But we also believe you for a renewed spirit. we're believing you to help us to be drawn in to see that our tragedies are not our identity, you are. And so God, in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray that you would touch every person up here and uniquely minister to them

in ways that only reflect your heart that reflect your way in your will and your purpose, God. Break the strongholds on their mind that tempt them to leave. commit apostasy, leave from around community and church and not read the scriptures and not pray that would say this Christianity thing is a bunk. No, God. Work your works.

Draw them to you. Make some kind of sense of the pain and bring the shalom. The shalom that only you can bring God. I rebuke the enemy in the mighty name of Jesus. Holy Spirit, we invite you into the places in our life where we have some crooked thinking about you. We need you to work your works and to bring comprehensive change to our life. God, we trust you.

We're going to cling to you. We're going to cling to you. We need help to cling to you, but we're going to cling to you, God. And God, I'm praying for every tragedy, every frustration, every pain with a past, present that you would touch. And the greatest thing about this story of Ruth is you redeem tragedy. You redeem us from our tragedy. Redeem, help them to see it clearly. We know you justified us.

We need to see practical points of redemption. that flow out of the gospel in every single area of our life, particularly in these areas of tragedy. Show us that it wasn't for nothing. Show us that our pain matters. Show us that, yes, there is another side to this mess. And we'll give you all the honor and the glory and praise. In Jesus, mighty name we pray.

Amen.