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00:00 We're gonna continue our study
00:01 through the book of Ruth today.
00:03 We are in chapter three, and like I promised you,
00:08 things are about to get weird.
00:11 Do you think you can handle some weird?
00:15 - Yeah.
00:15 - Online, just type it in the comment section.
00:18 I can handle some weird.
00:19 Let's look back and review where we've been
00:22 in case some of you are new.
00:23 We wanna catch you up on the context of the book of Ruth.
00:27 If you remember, Ruth was a poor widow
00:31 who just so happened, is what the text says,
00:35 according to the providence of God.
00:37 What is the providence of God?
00:38 That's when God uses natural circumstances
00:40 to accomplish his supernatural will.
00:43 She just so happened to work in a field
00:46 belonging to a godly landowner, a guy named Boaz,
00:50 a man of standing, who asked her on a date.
00:55 And if we look at the text on their first date,
00:58 I'm gonna read a little bit into it,
00:59 but it really looked like they connected.
01:02 They talked for a little while.
01:04 He offered her more than she needed.
01:07 The conversation looked good.
01:08 If I could kind of modernize it,
01:10 I would say the sparks were flying.
01:13 He made her laugh.
01:14 She made him feel special.
01:15 There was no awkward silence.
01:17 They started finishing each other's sentences,
01:19 and they both had butterflies.
01:21 - Amen.
01:22 (congregation laughing)
01:24 - Then, after a great first date, there was nothing.
01:29 Boaz ghosted her.
01:32 No follow-up call, no courtesy text.
01:36 Did you make it home okay?
01:38 He didn't even follow her on the 'gram.
01:40 She's confused.
01:42 Seven weeks of harvest go by,
01:47 and the harvest is almost over,
01:49 and now she's scratching her head going,
01:51 I think I read something into it that wasn't there.
01:54 Maybe I came on too strong.
01:56 Maybe I was too forward.
01:58 Maybe, ah, I didn't shower.
02:00 I was working in the field all day.
02:02 Maybe I gave him the ick.
02:03 I should've taken a shower.
02:05 I just kind of blew it all together.
02:07 What did I do wrong?
02:09 And so, her mother-in-law, Naomi,
02:12 who was always opinionated and not always wise,
02:15 steps into the conversation and says,
02:18 Ruth, it's time to DTR.
02:21 It's time to define the relationship.
02:25 Who knows what I'm talking about?
02:26 You know what I'm talking about, define the relationship?
02:28 If you don't know what I'm talking about,
02:29 this is the dreaded official talk
02:33 where a couple determines the level of commitment
02:37 in the relationship.
02:38 What are we?
02:39 Are we just friends?
02:42 Are we more than friends?
02:48 Are we casual dating?
02:51 Or are we dating exclusively?
02:53 Then, the very important follow-up question,
02:58 if we're dating exclusively,
03:00 do we go public on social media?
03:03 And if we do, is it a soft launch or a hard launch?
03:10 What is a soft launch?
03:11 A soft launch is a story with some flowers.
03:14 A hard launch is, here I am, I tag her,
03:17 and we are public, baby.
03:19 Then we just pray we don't break up
03:21 'cause then we gotta clean up our page later on
03:23 and delete all the photos.
03:25 DTR, you gotta define the relationship.
03:30 And every relationship hits that point,
03:33 the decision point.
03:35 And what I wanna do is show you through this story
03:38 how to navigate that season wisely.
03:42 We're gonna do it in chapter three, starting in verse one,
03:45 and here's how the story goes.
03:47 One day, Ruth's mother-in-law, Naomi, said to her,
03:51 "My daughter, I must find a home for you
03:55 "where you'll be provided for."
03:57 In other words, in Hebrew, that means
03:58 we gotta find you a man.
04:00 That's what it means, okay?
04:01 She said, "Now Boaz," this guy that provided for you,
04:06 "he's a relative of ours.
04:08 "Tonight, he'll be winnowing barley on the threshing floor."
04:12 I like that phrase.
04:12 Last night, I happened to be winnowing barley
04:15 on the threshing floor.
04:16 You never say that, right?
04:17 What in the world does it mean to winnow barley
04:20 on the threshing floor?
04:21 I'll show you a photo of a threshing floor.
04:24 This would be a place that after the harvest,
04:27 you would go and you would take the harvest
04:30 and all that you had to a platform in the field,
04:33 and then you would take everything
04:35 and throw it up in the air,
04:37 and the westward wind, in this case,
04:39 would separate the wheat from the chaff.
04:42 This would basically determine
04:44 here's how much good stuff you have.
04:45 Here's what you can eat.
04:47 Here's what you can sell.
04:48 Essentially, they were determining the profit.
04:51 So you're at the end of harvest,
04:53 and you've got Boaz at the threshing floor
04:56 about to gather all of the workers,
04:58 and what are they gonna do?
04:59 They're actually gonna have a payday party.
05:01 Everybody gets paid.
05:02 It's gonna be a big party.
05:04 So Naomi is thinking they're gonna have a party tonight,
05:08 and she starts to strategize.
05:10 She's thinking, "Okay, Ruth,
05:12 "Boaz is gonna be there.
05:15 "He's going to be in a good mood,
05:18 "so here's what we're gonna do."
05:21 Verse three, watch this.
05:22 It's actually kind of funny.
05:24 She says, "Wash."
05:26 That is a very good place to start.
05:30 If you're wanting to have any kind of relationship whatsoever
05:35 you can just write that down.
05:37 Step number one, take a bath.
05:40 That's just, this is in the Bible.
05:42 Wash, put on perfume,
05:46 and get dressed in your best clothes.
05:49 What's she thinking?
05:49 She's thinking, "Last time I saw you, girl,
05:52 "you were a total mess.
05:54 "You had dirt in your fingernails.
05:55 "Your hair was all ratty.
05:57 "What I want you to do is I want you to show 'em
05:59 "your glow up.
06:00 "I want you to get on your best fit.
06:02 "I want you to get some Bethlehem bloom perfume.
06:05 "I want you to show up looking good.
06:06 "Take a bath and put on some perfume.
06:10 "Then go down to the threshing floor,
06:14 "but don't let 'em know you're there until," what?
06:18 Until he's finished eating and drinking.
06:20 This is kind of funny.
06:23 Let him finish his chicken wings.
06:26 Because we know all men are happier
06:29 after they finish eating.
06:32 You can see the strategy behind this.
06:35 All I want you to do is I want you to get all dressed up.
06:38 I want you to wait until he's had a few drinks,
06:42 and then here's what I want you to do.
06:45 Warning, this is where it starts to get weird.
06:49 Verse four says this.
06:52 This is in the Bible.
06:53 When he lies down.
06:55 Okay, Ruth, here's your strategy.
06:58 When he lies down, note the place where he's lying.
07:01 Now, why is he gonna lie down?
07:02 He's gonna actually do that
07:04 because he's gonna sleep by the prophets
07:06 'cause he don't want anybody to steal it.
07:07 So he's gonna sleep by the stuff.
07:09 And then when he's asleep,
07:11 go uncover his feet and lie down.
07:14 He will tell you what to do.
07:18 So Ruth is listening to her wise mother-in-law and says,
07:23 "I'll do whatever you say."
07:26 So she went down to the threshing floor
07:28 and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
07:34 One of my daughters is in the service right now,
07:37 and I just wanna tell you point blank
07:39 that I have never, ever given any
07:44 of my four daughters this advice.
07:47 (audience laughing)
07:50 All right, go to the party, wait for him to catch a buzz.
07:55 When he's in bed, sneak in and whisper,
07:58 tell me what you want me to do.
08:00 I have never, ever as a dad, ever given any such advice.
08:05 What in the world is Naomi doing?
08:12 What's she advising?
08:15 Sneak up by the bed, uncover his feet and wait for him.
08:19 So as your pastor, I did a lot of research on this text
08:29 to uncover the real spiritual meaning.
08:33 And what I found is there are differing opinions.
08:36 I'll give you some of the theories.
08:38 Do you want them?
08:40 One theory is when she said, "Uncover his feet,"
08:44 that was a euphemism saying, "Uncover more about him.
08:48 "Find out a little bit more about him.
08:50 "Find out some more about him."
08:53 That is a theory in my seminary graduate opinion,
08:57 that one's dumb.
08:58 But nevertheless, that's a theory, my opinion.
09:01 Another theory suggests that Naomi
09:04 is actually telling Ruth to be aggressive,
09:07 to do whatever it takes to get his attention.
09:12 Not Ruth, no, no, like whatever it takes
09:15 to get his attention.
09:18 That's just a theory.
09:20 No one knows.
09:22 Maybe that was it.
09:25 Maybe it wasn't.
09:27 Other people would say that Naomi was saying,
09:29 "Hey, trust God's sovereignty
09:33 "and trust Boaz's integrity.
09:35 "We know he's a man of God.
09:36 "We know he's a man of standing.
09:38 "We know that he loves God.
09:39 "Just kind of put yourself in the right place
09:42 "at the right time, and the right God
09:45 "is gonna bring you the right man."
09:47 Those are essentially the theories we have to work with.
09:52 You can do with them what you will.
09:55 What we do know is that Naomi is suggesting
09:59 that Ruth be a little bit forward.
10:01 Because why?
10:04 Because this is her potential guardian redeemer.
10:09 This is potentially the man that can help provide for her
10:13 and protect her and be a spiritual covering.
10:17 And so her mother-in-law is saying,
10:18 "Hey, you might wanna kind of give him
10:21 "a little hint along the way."
10:24 And I will go ahead and say this
10:25 for the benefit of the ladies,
10:27 is that some men need a little encouragement.
10:32 Some of them need a lot of encouragement.
10:39 And the reason is, I'll let you in on a little secret.
10:42 The secret is that most of us as men are very insecure.
10:52 And some of you would say, "That ain't no secret.
10:56 "Let's just pretend like it is
10:58 "because it makes us feel better."
11:00 Some of us are insecure.
11:02 We need a little bit of help.
11:03 We need a little bit of signal.
11:05 And this might've been me when I was dating Amy.
11:08 We were about six weeks into our relationship
11:11 and I was like really insecure.
11:13 Like, does she like me?
11:14 Does she like me?
11:15 I don't know.
11:16 I mean, I can't believe it.
11:16 I mean, maybe she does, maybe she doesn't.
11:18 And I was completely unsure
11:21 until she gave me a graduation gift.
11:25 What do you think she gave me?
11:26 She actually gave me a puppy.
11:29 And the moment she gave me a puppy, I thought to myself,
11:34 a puppy is a long-term gift.
11:39 I looked up Cocker Spaniels.
11:42 They should live about 13 to 14 years.
11:44 I thought she is interested in me
11:47 for the next 13 or 14 years.
11:50 And that gives me some time to potentially,
11:53 I was so excited that that was a signal that she liked me.
11:57 At graduation, I carried the dog
11:59 across the stage at graduation.
12:01 Just so people would ask me, "Where'd you get the dog?"
12:05 I got it from the girl.
12:06 I got it from the girl.
12:07 I got it from, I think she might like me.
12:09 All that to say, ladies,
12:12 sometimes he needs a little bit of encouragement.
12:17 So Ruth goes and lies down at his feet
12:22 and she's waiting by his bed.
12:25 I wanna be very, very clear for a moment.
12:28 This is descriptive, not prescriptive.
12:33 In other words, this is what happened in the Bible.
12:39 This is not the Bible telling you to do the same thing.
12:43 In my pastoral opinion, this is not always the best plan.
12:49 But I actually like that it's in the Bible
12:53 because the Bible puts the real stuff in there.
12:56 The Bible puts the stuff in there
12:58 when people don't always get it right,
13:01 when sometimes they do dumb things
13:02 or really, really dumb things.
13:05 And I like that that's in there.
13:07 For example, I've told you a lot
13:10 about what Amy and I did that was right.
13:13 We prayed together.
13:15 We waited to have sex until we were married together.
13:18 We built a foundation around Jesus together.
13:21 Would you like for me to be transparent
13:24 and tell you something we didn't do right?
13:26 Good, I'm glad someone's excited about it.
13:28 (audience laughing)
13:31 And this is not something I'm proud of,
13:34 but when we were dating, she lived about 40 minutes away,
13:37 and one night, we had literally,
13:40 we were up talking and praying,
13:42 like really sincere, spiritual, God-honoring things,
13:45 and somehow we just fell asleep.
13:48 And we both woke up in the morning.
13:50 She was there, I was there, and we're like,
13:52 "Oh my God, we stayed the night together!"
13:55 And she said, "We can't ever let that happen again."
13:58 Like, "No, no, no, no, no, we can't, we can't.
14:00 We stayed the night together."
14:01 And we didn't mean to.
14:02 Well, about a week later, it was about two in the morning,
14:05 and she had to drive home, and I was thinking,
14:07 "Well, I don't really want you to drive home.
14:09 It's too far, and it's too late,
14:10 and nothing bad happened the last time."
14:13 And I said to myself, "Well, we're not sleeping together,
14:16 so why don't you just stay the night over again?"
14:19 And there were multiple times when I put ourselves
14:23 in a situation that one, didn't look good,
14:26 two, it wasn't wise.
14:27 That was not the best thing to do.
14:31 And I'm telling you that for multiple reasons.
14:33 One is just to say that we didn't always get it right,
14:36 but also to show you an encouraging truth
14:38 is also found in the book of Ruth, and that is this,
14:41 that even if you don't get it right,
14:44 God can still make it right.
14:46 Even if you don't do everything by the book all the time,
14:52 that our God is still working.
14:54 So some of you right now, if you're in a relationship,
14:56 and you're like all jacked up,
14:58 you serve a God who is a redemptive God.
15:01 He's a forgiving God.
15:02 He's a gracious God.
15:03 He works in all things,
15:05 and He can take the places that we break things,
15:08 and can actually make them better than new.
15:10 This doesn't give you permission to be dumb,
15:14 but it is an encouragement that God is still good.
15:18 Are you encouraged?
15:19 Online, are you encouraged?
15:21 Type in the comment section, I'm encouraged.
15:22 If you're encouraged, type it in there, I'm encouraged,
15:24 because the story's about to get weirder.
15:28 Here we go again, verse seven, eight, and nine.
15:31 "When Boaz has finished eating and drinking,
15:35 he was in good spirits."
15:37 What do you think that means?
15:39 He was in a really good mood.
15:42 Good chicken wings and good beer or whatever.
15:44 He's in good spirits.
15:45 "He went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile,
15:49 and Ruth,"
15:50 (congregation laughing)
15:54 smelling good and looking good,
15:56 (congregation laughing)
15:58 "uncovered his feet and lay down.
16:03 In the middle of the night, something startled the man,
16:08 probably a woman at the foot of his bed.
16:11 (congregation laughing)
16:13 He turned, and there she was, lying at his feet.
16:18 Right in the middle of this, he said, 'Who are you?'
16:22 And she said, 'I'm your servant, Ruth,' she said.
16:25 'Spread the corner of your garment over me,
16:28 since you're a guardian redeemer of our family.'
16:33 Spread a little bit over me,
16:35 since you are the guardian redeemer of our family."
16:39 What is a guardian redeemer or a kinsman redeemer?
16:42 One more time, it is a relative
16:44 who had the responsibility and privilege
16:47 to provide for a family member in time of need.
16:51 What would happen is, if there was a widow,
16:54 her husband, who would have died,
16:56 would typically have a brother,
16:59 and that brother would have the spiritual responsibility
17:02 to provide for and protect that widow
17:06 that was the guardian or the kinsman redeemer.
17:09 Who is Boaz?
17:10 Well, he is a potential guardian redeemer,
17:13 but this is very important,
17:14 he is a distant guardian redeemer.
17:18 He is not anywhere near the closest one
17:22 and did not have the legal right
17:24 or obligation to provide for her.
17:28 And so here we see what's going on.
17:30 She says, "Hey, would you cover me up?
17:34 Would you be my," what is she saying?
17:36 Many scholars would say she was saying,
17:37 "Would you be my spiritual covering?
17:40 Would you be my redeemer?"
17:42 Some people would say she's proposing.
17:44 Is she actually proposing to him?
17:46 I'm not sure if she's proposing, but she is being forward.
17:51 You could say she's encouraging him to propose
17:57 if she's not proposing.
17:58 Believe it or not, and this is true,
18:01 you're gonna laugh, you're gonna think I'm making it up,
18:02 Amy actually did that to me.
18:05 She encouraged me to propose
18:08 because I was raised under the traditional mindset
18:10 that you have to graduate from college
18:12 before you get married.
18:12 I had just graduated and she had several more years left
18:17 because she was changing majors
18:19 and it would have been quite some time.
18:20 So I said, "Well, we'll get married when you graduate."
18:23 And she said, "Well, why do we have to wait?"
18:24 I said, "Because that's what you do.
18:27 It's in the Bible somewhere that you have to graduate
18:29 from college before you get married."
18:32 She's like, "Where is that in the Bible
18:33 and why do we have to wait?"
18:34 I said, "I think that you just have to."
18:37 And she said, "Well, why?"
18:39 And I said, "I don't know."
18:41 And she said, "Why don't we get married sooner?"
18:43 And I said, "Oh, are you wanting to get married sooner?"
18:45 So I said, "Sure, let's get married sooner.
18:47 Like how about tomorrow?"
18:48 You know, as fast as we can.
18:50 And so again, along the way,
18:53 sometimes you have to help each other out
18:56 to move things forward.
18:58 And so Boaz is in good spirits.
19:01 She's by his bed.
19:03 She grabs the covers.
19:05 And what does she do?
19:06 The same thing we did a few times,
19:08 and that is they stayed the night together.
19:12 So did they have sex that night?
19:17 And the answer is no, they did not.
19:19 And I'll show you why in a moment.
19:22 Which raises one of the most important questions
19:24 that people dating ask when it comes to physical interaction.
19:28 And the question is, how far is too far?
19:33 When I was a new Christian
19:34 and Amy was my first Christian relationship,
19:36 I asked my buddy, like, "Give me the rules.
19:38 I wanna know everything I can do, everything.
19:41 Don't hold anything back.
19:42 Can I smell her hair?
19:44 Can I lick her neck?
19:44 I mean, I wanna know everything.
19:46 What's legal, what's not legal?
19:47 I just wanna know everything."
19:50 And that's what people tend to ask.
19:53 And we wanna know how close we can get to the line.
19:56 How far is too far?
19:58 Where is the line?
19:59 I'll give you a verse in the Bible
20:01 that really gives us some good insight
20:03 to where the line actually falls.
20:06 Psalm of Solomon 8, 4 tells us this.
20:10 "Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, not to do," what?
20:14 Let's say it out loud.
20:15 "Not to awaken love," until what?
20:19 "Until the time is right.
20:21 Do not awaken love until the time is right."
20:25 Well, how far is too far?
20:28 If we can all pretend like we're adults here.
20:30 When your body awakens, right?
20:36 When your body prepares for sex.
20:38 If you look confused, I'm not gonna say any more.
20:41 Just ask the person sitting next to you.
20:44 But at that point, that's too far.
20:49 And so a wise person, if they want to honor God with purity,
20:55 isn't going to get as close to the line as possible.
21:00 But we're actually gonna give us some safety measures.
21:03 We're gonna stay away from the line.
21:06 We do this all the time.
21:07 I got my private pilot's license about two years ago.
21:10 And one of my top goals is to not crash.
21:13 It's just a goal.
21:16 And so never once have I said,
21:19 "Let me just see how close I can come to crashing
21:22 without crashing."
21:23 I don't do that.
21:24 I try to stay far away from it.
21:27 Where we live, we have poisonous snakes.
21:29 I saw a copperhead the other day, same thing.
21:32 I didn't say to myself,
21:34 "I wonder how close I can get
21:37 to this dangerous poisonous snake
21:39 without him striking me on the leg."
21:43 What did I do?
21:44 I stayed far away from it.
21:47 So if we're wise and we want to honor God with sexual purity,
21:52 instead of getting as close as we can to the line,
21:55 we wanna create some margin
21:57 and we want to stay away from the line.
22:00 To be clear, the Bible says that the time,
22:04 do not awaken love until the time is right,
22:06 the time for sex is in the covenant of marriage
22:10 between a man and a woman.
22:12 And some of you will say,
22:13 "But Craig, that's so old fashioned
22:15 and that's so out of touch."
22:18 Maybe it's old fashioned,
22:19 but we have to understand that sex represents the union.
22:23 When two people become one flesh,
22:27 not to be separated because of the covenant
22:30 that God has created.
22:33 So if you want to do what everyone else does,
22:36 do what everyone else does.
22:38 And if you do what everyone else does,
22:41 you'll likely have what everyone else has.
22:44 But if you want something better,
22:46 you might do something different.
22:48 What does Boaz do?
22:50 Thank you.
22:51 (audience applauding)
22:52 Boaz treats Ruth honorably.
22:57 She's at the foot of his bed
23:00 and he doesn't push her to have sex.
23:02 He respects her purity and I'll show you why.
23:07 Verse 11 says this,
23:08 "And now my daughter, don't be afraid.
23:11 I will do for you all that you ask.
23:13 You want me to be your kinsman redeemer?
23:15 My answer is yes, I'll do this.
23:17 And all the people of my town will know
23:19 that you are a woman of noble character."
23:23 I'm gonna let them know you've done the right thing,
23:26 I've done the right thing and we're honoring God.
23:29 So this is good news.
23:30 Ruth has hinted or more than hinted
23:34 that she's available and declares her love for Boaz.
23:38 And Boaz is all in, he has full sinned, he's ready to go.
23:41 So what can they do now?
23:42 That now they can get married
23:44 and now they can live happily ever after.
23:47 Unfortunately, not yet.
23:50 And the problem we find is in Ruth chapter three, verse 12.
23:55 Here's what we see.
23:56 "Although it's true,
23:57 I'm a guardian redeemer of our family."
24:01 Boaz says, "There is another
24:03 who is more closely related than I."
24:06 In other words, I'm not legally the closest one
24:10 and therefore there's someone else.
24:11 So he says, "Stay here for the night
24:12 and in the morning, if this other guy wants to do his duty
24:16 as your guardian redeemer,
24:17 then we're gonna let him redeem you.
24:19 But if he's not willing, as sure as the Lord lives,
24:23 I will do it."
24:25 What do we have?
24:26 There's an obstacle, there's another relative
24:30 who has the legal right to be her guardian redeemer.
24:33 Now, we're gonna foreshadow what we're gonna talk about
24:35 in the next message in this series
24:38 and it gets really, really fun.
24:40 This week's weird, next week's fun.
24:42 We're gonna watch as Boaz schemes very wisely
24:47 and very shrewdly to overcome this obstacle.
24:51 And we're gonna see the principle that I love, ladies,
24:54 if he'll do what it takes to get you,
24:56 he'll do what it takes to keep you.
24:58 And we're gonna watch him do what it takes to win her
25:03 and it's really, really fun.
25:04 I can't wait to share it with you.
25:06 Let's summarize what we've seen this week.
25:10 Let's bring our big thoughts into manageable summary points
25:14 and then what we're gonna do
25:15 is we're gonna bring this text home.
25:19 Five big lessons that we're learning this week.
25:21 Let's look at them.
25:22 The first one is this.
25:24 It's often wise to put yourself in the right place
25:28 to increase the odds of meeting the right person.
25:32 In other words, if you're a follower of Jesus
25:33 and you wanna meet someone who's a follower of Jesus,
25:36 it's probably better to go to Life Group
25:38 than to the pot party that your friends are having.
25:41 Right?
25:42 Use your brain.
25:43 Let's be at the places where the godly people will be
25:46 in order to increase the odds
25:48 of being with the right kind of person.
25:50 Next one might change someone's life
25:53 because you're sitting by someone kind of special.
25:56 Don't overlook those who are right in front of you.
26:00 Oftentimes, there's someone right in front of you
26:05 that God may do something special
26:07 if you open up your eyes and see who's there.
26:10 We saw that in Ruth in Boaz's case.
26:12 Another principle is this.
26:13 Sometimes you may have to go after what you want.
26:17 I'm so glad, Amy, that you went after what you wanted
26:22 because it works.
26:23 And she just pointed at me like I went too far.
26:26 Let's go on to the next thought.
26:28 (laughing)
26:30 I always like to see how I did afterwards.
26:32 I either did really good or maybe not.
26:34 I don't know.
26:35 Okay, even if you don't get it right,
26:37 God can still make it right.
26:39 For some of you, this is his word for you right now.
26:42 Even in your marriage right now,
26:44 there are some things that are not where they should be.
26:46 And maybe you built it on a foundation
26:48 that wasn't as strong as it could have been.
26:50 And even if you didn't do it all right,
26:53 God is a redemptive God.
26:54 He is a forgiving God.
26:56 He is a gracious God.
26:57 He's working in all things to bring them together for good
27:00 to those who love him
27:01 and are called according to his purpose.
27:02 He can still make things right.
27:05 And finally, if you want a marriage
27:07 that honors God in the future,
27:10 live a life that honors God today.
27:13 Don't wait until later.
27:15 Yeah, one day when we're married, have kids,
27:17 then we're gonna serve Jesus.
27:18 No, be faithful to him today.
27:22 So let's summarize and bring this home.
27:26 Spiritually, we see Boaz wants to be her guardian redeemer,
27:30 her kinsman redeemer.
27:32 But he was not obligated to care for Ruth in that fashion.
27:36 Why?
27:37 Because he wasn't a brother to her husband
27:40 and she was a Moabite, not even from Bethlehem.
27:45 But because he loved her, what did he do?
27:53 He chose to make a sacrifice for her.
27:57 And here's what's incredibly powerful.
27:59 I want you to notice this.
28:00 Because of Ruth's one decision, week one,
28:04 to leave Moab and return to Bethlehem,
28:09 because of her one decision
28:12 and because of Boaz's one decision to commit,
28:16 to pursue her, to provide for her,
28:19 to protect her as her guardian redeemer,
28:23 because of her one decision
28:25 and because of his one decision
28:28 that led to a covenant of marriage
28:30 that resulted in a son named Obed.
28:34 And from the lineage of Obed came our guardian redeemer,
28:39 Jesus, the Son of God, who is our saviour,
28:43 our king and our Lord.
28:45 And in the same way, Jesus wasn't obligated
28:52 to give his life for you.
28:54 Because of his love, he chose
28:58 to be stripped of heavenly glory
29:03 and become a lamb of God who shed his blood
29:07 and was slain for the forgiveness of your sins and my sins.
29:12 And after he gave his life, he did not stay dead,
29:16 but God raised him from the dead
29:17 so that anyone, and this includes you,
29:20 and it doesn't matter what you've done,
29:21 anyone who calls on him would be saved.
29:25 Jesus, your guardian redeemer, his door is open.
29:30 His heart is for you, telling you, "Come to him now."
29:35 And so it's time, little DTR,
29:42 it's time to define the relationship.
29:46 (gentle music)
29:49 Who is Jesus to you?
29:52 Who is he?
29:56 Like really?
29:58 This cool historical figure?
30:01 Some guy you kind of read about?
30:05 You got a casual commitment?
30:09 Come to church when you can,
30:13 when the weather's not too good
30:14 and the weather's not too bad and the game's not on?
30:16 Or is he your Lord,
30:23 your savior, your redeemer, your king?
30:30 My fear, and I don't know how else to say this,
30:34 but my fear is that there are many of you
30:37 that are just like me, that I was going to church,
30:39 but he was not first.
30:43 We were not in a relationship.
30:45 He was not my Lord.
30:47 He was just some guy, the guy up there talked about.
30:50 I'm afraid that some of you are missing him
30:52 by about this much, 18 inches.
30:55 You know about him in your head,
30:57 but you don't know him in your heart.
30:59 Because he didn't just come to make you religious,
31:04 he came to have a relationship with you.
31:06 He didn't come to get you to join a church,
31:09 he came to set you free.
31:12 He didn't come to make you follow a bunch of rules,
31:15 he came to give you life and life to the full.
31:18 His name is Jesus, his name is above every name.
31:22 He is king, he is savior, he is redeemer, he is Lord,
31:27 he is the Lamb of God,
31:29 and he's the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
31:31 He's coming back one day and he wants to know you,
31:33 he wants you to know him.
31:36 Who is he to you?
31:37 Who is he to you?
31:42 It's time to define that relationship.
31:45 So God do a work today in a way that only you can do.
31:49 As you're praying, let's start here, nobody looking around.
31:54 I wonder how many of you, it's for your relationship,
31:57 it's for your parents' relationship,
32:00 it's for a potential relationship, it's for healing.
32:04 I wonder how many of you would like to pray
32:07 for a relationship today,
32:08 some significant relationship in your life.
32:10 Would you lift up your hands right now?
32:12 Lift up your hands online, you can just type,
32:13 I wanna pray for a relationship.
32:15 Here's what I want you to recognize before we pray
32:18 is you could be one decision away from seeing it change.
32:21 One decision, confessing a sin,
32:25 deciding to apologize,
32:29 deciding to start praying together,
32:34 deciding to make church not something you do occasionally,
32:39 but something you commit to,
32:42 deciding to get counseling,
32:45 deciding to break up if your dating relationship
32:50 is not honoring God or change it and make it honor God,
32:54 one decision.
32:55 Father, I pray today for the relationships
32:59 that need your touch, your power, your healing.
33:02 I pray for marriages, God,
33:03 that are broken and need healing.
33:06 We thank you that you're a healing God.
33:09 God, I pray for those longing for a godly relationship.
33:11 I pray for those that are dating
33:12 and need your help, your direction.
33:14 Give us the wisdom to make the decisions
33:17 that would honor you.
33:19 And we thank you that you're a good God.
33:20 You care more about our relationships
33:22 than we could ever imagine.
33:23 We submit them to you.
33:26 As you keep praying today, some of you,
33:29 this is your most important decision.
33:31 You gotta define the relationship.
33:34 Who is Jesus?
33:38 If he says, if he is who he says he is in Scripture,
33:42 the Son of God who gave his life so you could know him,
33:45 you gotta deal with that.
33:47 Your only reasonable response is to say, take all of me.
33:52 Be first, be everything, be my Lord, be my Savior.
33:56 Anything else is lukewarm, and he spits that out.
34:01 Today, some of you may say, you know, I've messed up,
34:06 I've been in a bad place.
34:07 You just come right as you are, come to him as you are.
34:09 You don't clean up first, you come to him.
34:12 Jesus, the Lamb of God, who died and rose again
34:16 so you could be forgiven.
34:17 It doesn't matter what you've done.
34:18 When you call on him, he hears your prayers,
34:20 he forgives your sins, he'll make you brand new.
34:22 Today, wherever you're watching from,
34:23 those who say, no more playing around, no more halfway.
34:26 Today, by faith, I declare, he's my King, he's my Savior.
34:29 I need him, would you forgive me?
34:30 Would you be the Lord of my life?
34:32 No more playing, no more halfway.
34:34 You're stepping away from your sin.
34:35 You are surrendering your life to Jesus.
34:38 That's your prayer today.
34:38 I need him, be my Savior, be my Lord.
34:41 That's your prayer, lift your hands high right now.
34:42 All over the place and say, yes, that's my prayer.
34:44 Right back here and over here.
34:45 Praise God for you, back over here.
34:47 Oh my gosh, up there, others in the audience say,
34:49 yes, Jesus, I surrender.
34:50 Lift your hands high and say, yes.
34:52 Right back here, I surrender to him, be the Lord of my life.
34:55 Right back over here, praise God for you as well.
34:57 Others today, right back up, come on church.
34:59 Somebody tell God, thank you, worship him.
35:01 Others today say, I surrender, Jesus,
35:04 be the Lord of my life.
35:05 Online, you type it in the comment section.
35:07 I am surrendering my life to Jesus.
35:09 Type it in the comment section, pray aloud.
35:11 Pray, heavenly Father, forgive my sins.
35:15 Today, I put you first.
35:18 Save me, change me, fill me with your Spirit.
35:23 My life is not my own.
35:25 I give it all to you.
35:26 You're my Lord, my Savior, my King.
35:30 Thank you for new life.
35:32 I give you all of mine.
35:33 In Jesus' name, I pray.
35:35 Church, would you worship God today?
35:37 Would you give him thanks?
35:38 Would you give him praise for new life in Christ?
35:41 (audience applauding)