Hey, this is Levi,
and I wanted to thank you so much for watching this
message from Fresh Life Church. And before we get
into the teaching, I wanted to just
take a quick second and plug our Fresh
Life internship. I don't know your
plans after the summer, but I sure would love
for you to consider coming out and interning
with us May through August. All the information is at
freshlife.church/internship. We're also able to offer
three college credits for it, and we think it would
be amazing for you to come out and be with us. If you're between the
ages of 18 and 25, spend your summer serving
God with Fresh Life. It will be a blast. We would love to have you. Thank you so much. We are in the midst of
a series of messages that we have called
Pretty Ugly People, and we're talking
about basically how not to be fooled
by the curb appeal when we deal with
ourselves in the mirror and when we are making
decisions about who to date and who to allow into our lives. We're learning to do
better and to look deeper because charm is deceitful. This is where we
began four weeks ago. Charm is deceitful, and beauty,
humanly speaking, is fleeting. But where there is a
depth of character, and specifically a fear of God,
that's praiseworthy forever. To not be tricked into being
obsessed with things that are trivial, that's
really where we've been trying to get to hang out. And we've been talking
about how to develop our own inner beauty,
and this week we want to talk about the fact
that what's true in a life is also true in circumstances,
that we can't always judge what we see as an accurate
representation of what's really going on. Just like it would be a
mistake to see someone at a social event
or a school and fall for them because they're so good
looking without really taking some time to get to know
who they are on the inside, it's also a mistake to deal with
difficult circumstances in life and to make a snap judgment
about what's happening just because something is hard. What I want to talk
to you today about is how to remain pretty
even when life is ugly. What do we do when life hands
us bitter pills to swallow? And specifically, how
to not become bitter just because at that
moment the situation that we're dealing with is. Is it possible that we
could remain beautiful even in the midst
of things we're facing, that there's
no way to describe it except these things are ugly? The title of my message
is God Has a Plan. And sometimes at the end,
there's kind of a big twist. I was talking to our
college students today, and there was a Q&A. And one
of the questions they asked is, how do you figure out
your surprise endings? And I was like,
what do you mean? They're like, sometimes the
ending is like a big turn. And I was like,
oh, well, you want to try and find tension
and leave through the door you came in. And I try and keep people
interested and have something, maybe they didn't
see a connection at the end of the message. But let me just tell you
right now, at this one, there's nothing like that. So where I began is
where I want to end. I hope to, by the end of our
time together, help you to see and understand that there
is incredible life changing power unleashed on your life
when you simply, stubbornly, obstinately hold onto this
fact and never let it go. God has a plan. [APPLAUSE] And when you can look at life
and see pretty much everything that's not nailed down
blowing in the wind, and even some things that
used to be nailed down also blowing in the wind, and you
can still say, you know what? Even here, God has a plan. I'm telling you something. You will have tapped
into a life-changing kind of a faith and a
resolve, and that's where God wants you to be. So help me encourage
someone nearby you. Find someone, look him in the
eyes, tell him, God has a plan. God has a plan. Now, come on, your second
person, someone around you, tell them, God has a plan. And then eyes back up here,
together, let's say together. God has a plan. Am I encouraging anybody on a
Sunday morning at 11 o'clock? All right. And nowhere that I can
think of in scripture do we see this more vividly
than in the Old Testament book of Ruth. And I would encourage you
this week, take some time and read the whole book of Ruth. It is four chapters. It will take you five
minutes, and you'll see what I'm trying to show
you in miniature really blow up in your life in a beautiful
way, in a magnificent way, like a pop-up book. I spent all week-- because at
the beginning of the series, before we started,
actually, I began the series knowing I wanted
to end by talking about Ruth. And sometimes when I've
sketch out a series, it changes a lot by the
time we get to the end, and God shows me
something different. But this time it's
really been I knew I was supposed to
start with Jezebel, and we were going
to get to Absalom, we were going to
talk about David. And from the very beginning,
it was in my heart to really end by talking
about this princess story in scripture, this beautiful
book of the Bible, Ruth. She is the name of the
book, it's her name, although she didn't write it,
and we don't know who wrote it. Some people think Samuel
did, the prophet who anointed David to be King,
but we don't know for sure. We do know is written
roughly 1300 to 1000 BC, concurrently to
the Book of Judges. So the Old Testament
book of Judges plays out, and in the midst
of that somewhere, though we don't know exactly
where, is this book of Ruth. It's like a side stream,
a parallel stream, to what's happening
in the Book of Judges. So if before you want to read
it, if you want extra credit, read a little bit of Judges,
and then jump into Ruth. God will be really
excited about you if you can do that this
week, let me just tell you. Obviously, I'm joking. But it is one of two
books of the Bible that is named after a woman,
the other being, of course-- Esther. Queen Esther. And it is also
significant because it is the only book
of the Bible that is named after someone
who's a Gentile, and so it's significant, of
course, for all those reasons and many, many more. It's one of the most cherished,
beautiful books of the Bible. It just touches your
heart the same way that you watch a Disney movie,
and it touches your heart. You read one of those
Brothers Grimm fairy tales, and it hits you viscerally. I don't care how
strong a man you are. You catch half of Frozen
with your little girl, and you'll find yourself
a little bit choked up. Believe me, I'm an
expert in kids movies. I've seen Moana more
times than you have, let me just tell you something. It is a beautiful thing to
have little girls, though, and I've always loved it. Jen and I have
these four daughters that God blessed us
with, and I have always loved being a girl dad. I mean, it's been one
of the great privileges, and exists to this
moment of my entire life to be the dad of Lenya and
Livvy and Daisy and Clover. And I always
resented when I'd be out in public with my
daughters, and, well, a lot of things that are said
to a frustrated dad trying to manage life with
a bunch of kids. You know, you look like you're
in over your head there. You think? Thanks for pointing that out. Wow, you need some help. I need to punch you
in the nose, actually, is what I need to do
right now, actually. But the most frustrating
thing I've ever had a stranger say
to me in public when I would be out
with these four girls would be someone who would say,
nope, didn't get that boy yet, did you? And it's insinuating
that girls are just like a stepping stone
on the way to the boy that I surely must my
whole life have wanted. And I would always
kind of bristle at that and almost be like,
you don't even know how cool my daughters are. You wouldn't have any
idea what you're saying. But attacking strangers
is not a good look, nor is it a great example
for my four daughters. So I always kind of
bit my tongue there. But God did give us
the surprise ending. After we had given away
all of our baby stuff-- strollers and car
seats and cribs, and that stuff had some
miles on it anyway. It was like the
crib, the new kid gets in, it's like, why
are there teeth marks all over the top of this? I don't know. Your older sister's crazy. What do you want me to say? We had to get all the
new gear for Lennox because it was just
this big surprise ending having had this little boy. And it has been so
many twists and turns, the differences between
raising his sisters and him. He's so violent. I mean, he looked
peaceful up here, but don't let him trick you. He's tricky. Like, yesterday, I
said, I love you, buddy. I love you. And I kind of playfully
growled at his ear. And he grabbed my chin,
pushed my head up, and started punching
me in the throat, hard, over and over again. And I'm like, I couldn't
help but respect it. It was a great move,
just throw a punch. I've never had a single
daughter punch me in the throat. Just, love you. It was highly effective
and timed perfectly. I was gasping for air, anyhow. We're potty training Lennox. He decided-- one day, he
just took his diaper off, and just wouldn't
look at it again. So he's like, I'm
potty training. And so we're like, OK. So we're figuring this all out. And I had noticed that
all of his sisters and his mom and
his babysitters had been teaching him to go to the
bathroom sitting on a toilet. And I said, I have a
part to play in this. And I was like, this is
finally my time to shine. You guys need to quit sitting
him down on the toilet. This is now a parenting
moment for me to shine. And so I just said, son, one
of the great joys of life is peeing as a man standing up. There is nothing I
can give you that's a bigger gift, ultimately,
than this moment right here, right now. And so that's been-- for the first time he did
it, he looked up at me. He was like, why were they
holding out this on me? And it's just the
things kids say. Like, first time I took him to
the bathroom, he went number 1, and then indicated he needed to
also go number 2, which he did. And I was like, good job, son. And he goes, that made
my butt feel better. And I said, I understand. I get it. That is, in fact, one
of the best things that your butt will ever-- And so we write down some
of these funny things that he says because we've
done it with all of our kids. If you're a parent, you don't
write down the things your kids say, you think you'll
remember, but you won't. I always tell new
parents, write down every funny little thing in
the moment because you think, it's so vivid now. But it gets foggy quickly. And when we read back
to them the things that they've said
when they're older, it's also great material for
their high school graduation, I'm sure. But we were driving
in the car last night. And it was leap
day, and so we had gone to eat dinner as a family. And just thinking about it,
I was emotional all day. Livvy's about to
graduate high school. It's, like, four years, Dad. Chill out. I know, but it's
coming quickly, and-- anyhow. So we were driving home and
we were talking boy, girl. And we were talking
because we're trying to help him understand
the pronouns and just the difference between his
sister and him, and our dog-- because we have a dog, too. You don't know. It's Tabasco. His name's Tabasco. It's a poodle who's neutered. It was before the boy. I said, I do want a boy dog. I want to have one
other boy in the house, and so we named him Tabasco. Really masculine. He's very strong. He's a poodle with a mohawk. He's a great dog. Anyhow, so we were going
through the family. Is Mom a boy or girl? Girl. Is Dad a boy or girl? Boy. But then he, of
course, thinks it's funny to get it
wrong on purpose. And so he was really funny
in the moment because we go, is Clover a boy or a girl? He goes, boy, but I'm a girl. And those trees are girls. And I go, well,
what about Tabasco? And he goes, he's a tree. And I said, very well played. So labeling things is
actually in the text. So that's where we're
going, Ruth, chapter 1. I want to read to you
just the first chapter. You'll read 2, 3,
and 4 this week. But it says, "in the days
when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the
land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with
his wife and two sons, went to live for a while
in the country of Moab. "The man's name was Elimelech. His wife's name was Naomi,
and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Killion. They were Ephrathites
from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to
Moab and lived there. Now, Elimelech,
Naomi's husband, died, and she was left
with her two sons. "They married Moabite women, one
named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived
there about 10 years, both Mahlon and
Killion died also, and Naomi was left without
her two sons and her husband. "When she heard in
Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people
by providing food for them, Naomi and her two
daughters-in-law prepared to return
home from there. With her daughters-in-law,
she left the place where she had been
living, and set out on the road that would take
them back to the land of Judah. "Then Naomi said to
her daughters-in-law, go back, each of you,
to your mother's home. May the Lord show
kindness to you as you have shown to
your dead and to me. May the Lord grant
that each of you will find rest in the
home of another husband. Then she kissed them, and they
wept aloud and said to her, no, we will go back
with you to your people. "But Naomi said, return
home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons
who could become your husbands? "Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have
another husband. Even if I thought there
was still hope for me, even if I had a husband
tonight and gave birth to sons, would you wait
until they grew up? Would you remain
unmarried for them? No. My daughters, it is more
bitter for me than for you because, notice, the Lord's
hand has gone out against me. "At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her
mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. Look, said Naomi,
your sister-in-law is going back to her
people and her gods. Go back with her. "But Ruth replied, don't
urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my
people, your God my God. Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried. "May the Lord deal
with me be it ever so severely if anything but
death separates you and me." Let's take a quick
second and just say-- "When Naomi realized that Ruth
was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. So the two women went on
until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem
the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women
exclaimed, can this be Naomi? "Don't call me
Naomi, she told them. Call me Mara
because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord
has brought me back empty. "Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought
misfortune upon me. So Naomi returned
from Moab accompanied by Ruth, the Moabitess,
her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the
barley harvest was beginning." Now, even just reading this, we
sense a severe emotional tone to all of it. It's stark, and we are
given a whole decade of pain and difficulty
before there's even one line of dialogue. We're just left, like,
staccato bursts of pain. Bam, this happened, bam, this
happened, bam, this happened, and we can feel it viscerally. We can read this in our guts. We know to be moved for them. We know to care about them. But it becomes all the
more powerful and potent when you understand something
of the culture, something of the history,
and, quite frankly, like Lennox saying that
Tabasco is a tree, something of the identity of each of
these different individuals. In the first place
the names themselves. All of these names that we've
read, they have meanings attached to them, like
Elimelech, the patriarch of the family, Naomi's husband. His name means, God is my King. God is the King. Now, that's ironic
and interesting because the idea of a
King is at the center of the Book of
Judges, for it ends with this idea of there
was no King in Israel, and everyone did whatever
was right in their own eyes. It was a time when the nation
had by and large turned away from God, and so therefore
they had no King. God was meant to be the King
of his people, be their leader. They were supposed
to follow him. It was a theocracy, different
from any other culture, any other kingdom on
the face of the Earth. They were led by God. But when they turned from
God, now there's no King. There's no rudder,
there's no moral compass. So everybody was just, this
is north, this is south. This is the way
we're going to go. This is what's right for me. It was this time of relativism
when it came to morals. When it came to what's
right, what's wrong, what's up, what's
down, people were turning to the different
idols that were worshipped by different people. So it was a time when
there was no King but here's a guy whose
name literally means, God is my King, I'm
going to follow God. And what's he doing? He's leaving Israel. He's turning away
from the place where they're meant to be walking
under God's blessings, developed as a people, a light
to the rest of the world. He's going to Moab, which
is the last place you want to go if you wanted to
follow God and live like he's your King. It was known for
sexual immorality. It was known as a
place full of women who were loose in standards. It was a whole red light
district kind of place. It was a corrupt place. And so here he is going there. Why is he going there? Because there's no bread. Now, the irony of
that is the text tells us they lived in
Bethlehem, which means, house of bread. Worst name ever for a place
where there's no bread. Who doesn't love
bread, by the way? Just side note, while
we're on the subject. Have you ever been in a
restaurant, and the waiter's like, do you want me
to bring you bread? I'm always like, stupidest
question you'll ask me today. Just like, do I want to
see the dessert menu? Or would I like a refill? Just, yeah, yeah. Keep it coming. Keep the bread-- just
rub the bread on my face. Is that weird? Too much? Back it off? Just a tiny bit? Just give me bread. Bethlehem, house of bread. There is no bread. So the guy leaves the house
of bread to go find bread. He turns away from
the place where God's King, even though
his name's God is my King. And he has two sons. Him and his wife, Naomi,
they have two boys, Mahlon and Killion. Now, these boys do
live up to their names because Mahlon and Killion
mean sickly and pining, and they both die
pretty quickly, which is a cautionary
tale, parents, what we speak over our kids. Their names were
sickly and pining, and they ended up
living up to them. Now, of course,
I'm not insinuating that that's why they died. But let me just say this. Be careful what you
speak over your kids. Be careful the way you
speak over other people. The Bible says your tongue
has life and death inside it. There's some truth to the
idea, like Mark Twain said, you could go a month
on a compliment. When someone says something
encouraging to you and speaks it to you,
it just really gets stuck in your heart. You think I'm good at that? You liked what I did there? That effort, the time it takes
to give someone something that can lift them up. Conversely, we can all
remember a time in our lives when someone spoke
death over us. And for years and
even decades, we just we just think that there's
some part of our anatomy that's weird or this or
that or the other, or we're dumb or ugly or
worthless or not talented because someone just-- they might not even
realize in the moment that they were saying. So take to heart the idea
that in the heart of every boy and girl there's a fool and
a king, a fool and a queen, and who you speak
to will rise up. Speak to the fool in your son's
heart, the fool will rise. Speak to the queen in
your daughter's heart, and the daughter will rise. We can speak over
things what then becomes of a self-fulfilling prophecy. And we can do the
same to ourselves. What you see when you look in
the mirror, and there's a power you have in your confession. And we find in Mahlon
and Killion names that they live up to. Elimelech, a name he
did not live up to. We have in Naomi
a name that means "pleasant" or "beautiful." It's lovely, it's good. Her name, Naomi, it's
a wonderful name. And after her husband dies,
her two sons, they marry. They marry Moabite women. Now, as the story would be read
and needed in any Jewish home, they would have sucked
in through their teeth. They married Moabite women. Oh, that's not--
that's terrible. That's not good. And their names were Orpah,
and then our heroine, Ruth. Orpah means "stubborn," and Ruth
means "friendly" or a friend, or friendship is the idea. And for 10 years they're
married to these boys, and things seem to be kind
of rebounding a little bit. They were able to work and
live in Moab for a whole decade and support Naomi. But then both of her
sons die, and now you have this odd family,
if there ever was one. You have these two daughters
who now technically aren't even related because
there's not the relationship to Naomi through their
husbands anymore, and that's what she sort of
insinuates to them on the road when she goes, hey, look, you
honored my boys all the way to the dead, to their deathbed. The marriage vows,
which, by the way, many of the lines
from our marriage vows, as are standardly
repeated in our culture today, were actually ripped and
framed from Ruth's confession that she made here
on the road to Naomi. It's been called one of the
most powerful statements of love and commitment that's ever
been vocalized, what she had to say to her here on this day. And so it's actually amazing. We'll get to that
in just a minute. But here on the
road, Naomi says, you don't need to go with me. And she releases them from
their sense of commitment to her because life would be a lot
easier and better for them just to go back to Moab. Now, it would be a lot
worse and harder for Naomi to live at home alone without a
husband, to live at home alone without these kids. And in that day,
and in that culture, very different reality
than in our day. And so what she was doing-- I used to read it and
kind of almost think, that's kind of messed up of
you to just get rid of them. No, she was actually
serving them. The Bible says that the true
love does not seek its own. In Naomi, it would have
been a much easier life to have these two
girls to lean on still, but she was realizing there
was no prospects for them of a good life in Israel. So in sending them
back to Moab, she was setting her needs and
her interests behind theirs. And many commentators
actually point to that being the catalyst
in Ruth's conversion, for Ruth on the spot gave
her life to following and committed her whole life to
following the God of the Bible when? In response to Naomi
preferring them above herself. It wasn't her actual
words of evangelism. Those are terrible. Naomi literally, in verse
13, she says, God's hands got out against me. In verse 21, I went away
full, but God's brought me back empty. Don't call me Mara, pleasant. Instead call me-- don't
call me Naomi, pleasant. Instead call me Mara,
which means bitter. So her of her evangelistic
tendencies are really bad. I would not put her
on a microphone ever. Her words are terrible. I'm like, Ruth,
don't listen to her. It was her life
that was beautiful. Her life was-- I mean, honestly,
the way she is serving Ruth and the way she's
serving Orpah, it was that that caused
Ruth to be committed. Now, she had had a decade of
hearing what Naomi believed. But here in this
moment, it shows that when Naomi was willing to
love these girls selflessly, even though they didn't
believe what she believed, it was then that she
said, I want what you got. I want to follow
after the God who can enable you to love me
like you're loving me here in this moment. It's challenging and inspiring
to want to love like Naomi and to love people no
matter what they believe in, no matter where they're
from, no matter what's going on in their lives,
but to love that way and to want to seek
their best interests. And that's what Naomi does,
and it causes Ruth to really plant her flag of faith and to
throw down this gauntlet of, I want to follow God. This is her moment
of conversion. I want to follow
him all my days. That's what I'm going to do. But in contrast to Ruth,
who here at this moment is beginning a
faith journey, Naomi is having a dark chapter
of her faith journey. She's struggling to make sense
of why a good God would allow her to face what she's facing. She's having a chapter of doubt. It seems she's having a
moment of a little bit of a lapse of faith. You can't help but find
comedy in the scene, where the two girls at first
go, no, no, we're going to come with you. She's like, no, how is it
going to go good for you here? Orpah's like, you're right. Peace out. She just bounces. At the first sign of
resistance, she's like, OK, there's an open door. I tried, but see
you later, Ruth. Good luck with that. She's off with her clear
high heels back to Moab, and she's already downloading
Tinder as she turns. You know what I'm saying? Too soon? And Ruth is different. Ruth's like, actually, you
know, I think I'll go with you. I want to follow God. And Naomi's almost
like, are you sure? He's kind of sucky
at the moment. I don't know why you'd
want to follow him. And Ruth's like,
no, but for real. Now, I know you're having
a hard moment right now, but what you really
told me about him and how I've seen him change
your life, you really do care. I want what you've got. It's almost like there's
such big waves overtaking Naomi's ship, and Ruth can
see some waves are getting on the boat, and
it's getting you wet and it's ruffling
you a little bit. And so, yeah, you're
saying stuff you don't even hardly mean right now,
but I know deep down you have an anchor. And I don't have an anchor,
but I want an anchor. So I'm going to follow your
God, even though, yeah, there's going to be lapses and
moments of me spouting off and just like-- you're human. Naomi's human. But as she's following God, Ruth
goes, I want what you've got. And so here comes, in the midst
of just ugliness everywhere-- agreed? Famine is how it all
started, in case you forgot verse 1, famine in the land. OK, so we'll go here. This will work. Oh, now there's a death. But that's OK. Now there's a new beginning,
there's a new hope. The force starts to awaken. The things I say. And they die, too. And there, at the center
of all this atrocity, is Ruth rising up like
this beautiful flower, this gorgeous heart,
pretty in the face of ugly. And so how do we model
our lives after Ruth? Because anybody with me,
like, I want more of that? I want to respond
to the bitter pills that she's been asked
to swallow like that when I handle hardship. I see four things
on her journey. Number 1, I see a perspective. There is a great
perspective that Ruth has, and it comes from what has been
written down by Stephen Covey, in his Seven Habits of
Highly Effective People, as this idea of habit number 2,
beginning with the end in mind. If we want to be a
great leader and we want to live beautifully
and live well, we don't just live
in the moment. We go to the end we want, and
we reverse engineer our life. And if you've read that
book by Stephen Covey, he talks about actually
going so far as to plan your funeral
service in your head. OK, you're there at the funeral
service, because it's coming. It's barreling like a
freight train towards you. You never stop moving towards it
from the second you were born. But today, there's less
life in front of you than there was yesterday. So your funeral
is coming closer, and yes, it could
be 60 or 70 years from now or later, but
ladies and gentlemen, it could also be 20 years
or 20 days from now. So when that day comes and
the text message goes out and everyone gets
over the shock enough to actually ask the question,
well, when's the service? Where's it going to be? What time can I show
up to pay my respects? And someone in your family
or your social circle is given the task of
speaking a eulogy, and a eulogy means
to speak well of. That's literally what it
means to eulogize someone. If you ever get asked to give
a eulogy, they're asking you, could you get up on the platform
for a minute or two or 10, and speak well of
that person's life? So now they lived it. It's come, it's gone, and
you are up on the platform to speak something well
out of whatever material was given to you by your life. So here's my question. When your uncle or your
sister or your husband or your dad or your son
stands on that platform, what are you doing
now to cause him to feel like he has
an abundance or she has an abundance of
material to work with? That's living with
the end in mind. You're wanting to
live in such a way where when they sit down
to write, they're like, I could write 100 pages
just from the last year. Character, integrity,
responsibility, just a heart of compassion. That they're just like
not seen they're going, wow, three minutes. You know, I think Dad always
loved cousin Fred best. Cousin, would you do it? That you're not giving them so
little material to speak about. Dad really loves his boat. And God, he loved
to golf so much. Wasn't really at my games much,
but sure did love to golf. Always busy, Dad was,
temper on him, too. And man, five drinks in-- you see what I'm saying? We are right now
informing our eulogies through the way we live today. And Ruth lived beautifully how? She clearly had the end
in mind, didn't she? Where you go, I go. Your God, my God. Where you die, that's
where I'll be buried. There is a wisdom that comes
from remembering your end and reverse engineering a life
to get to the end that God and that you, yourself,
want you to have. And you don't have to fear it
when you're prepared for it. That's one of the
great revelations. In fact, now transitioning
back to pretty ugly people and this idea of, as we
choose the person to date, single people that we're
going to date and marry, the Book of Proverbs
holds up what should be the
characteristics that we're looking for, of a wife,
specifically, in Proverbs 31, but really, these attributes
can be applied back and forth. And there's a
downplaying of the beauty that we see that we might
just be all about, that, of course, is
important, but it's not the most important thing
because charm is deceitful. What did we say week 1? And beauty is fleeting. But someone who
fears God, that's praiseworthy for a lifetime. One of the things that's held
up about this spouse that we should be looking for is that
she has-- this is Proverbs 31, verse 21-- she is not afraid of
snow for her household, for all her household
is clothed with scarlet. This has always been one of my
favorite texts in scripture, and I've preached it
all over the country. I actually use a Game of
Thrones inspired title. I call it Winter's Coming, and
I've preached it 100 times, probably. Right, Jennie, I mean, just
everywhere, Winter Is Coming. Winter Is Coming,
and just this idea of living in light of eternity,
living in light of death, living in light. The Bible says, prepare
to meet your maker. And only those who are ready
to die are truly ready to live. And so what Esther gives for us
is the perspective of backing up for a minute because
when we're in a trial, it just feels like we're never
not going to be in that trial, and there's no way through it. And no one's ever suffered
like I've suffered and God must not care. It's easy to get Naomi and turn
ourselves into a bitter person. It's easy to just
see, there's no way we're going to make
it through this. And then we make foolish
decisions, and those things compound. But to instead be like Ruth
and go, hold on a second. Great perspective comes
from remembering the end, and that end is not here yet. So we're still alive. Oh, OK, right. We could still do
something about it. We can still take action. If it's not over, then God
still is up to something, and God still has a plan. And so we learn from Ruth
the power of perspective. Number 2, I see in her a
great example of loyalty, loyalty that's just stunning. I mean, her name is friendship,
and she lived up to it. And she did not change
her name from loyalty to disloyalty in
difficult moments. There's nothing
Naomi can do for her, no blessing Naomi has for her. But she's in it to see what
she can bring to Naomi, not get from her. So she was loyal to her friend. And really in life, the
friendships that you foster are some of the most
important things, of course, with your spouse. And I think some of the best
marriage advice I could ever give you is, would be to
work on the friendship aspect of your marriage. So those of you who are not yet
at that place of being married, you would say, what do I do? I would say, down the road,
build great friendships. Build great friendships that out
of which will spring romance. The romance side of it
really takes care of itself. The friendship
aspect takes work. When you feel swept off
your feet, that's amazing, but that's not powerful
enough to build a life on. So to build a church try and
build a marriage on a crushes to guarantee down the road the
relationship will be crushed. There has to be the weight
of friendship under it. At the end of it,
what makes sex great, what makes life together great
is that power of friendship, the ability to laugh
together and the ability to remain loyal even
in the most trying of circumstances and the
most painful situations you can face. So Ruth was loyal
to Naomi, and then, even though she's been a
Christian for 15 minutes, loyal to God. She made her
decision, that's it. She's not getting talked
out of this thing. Naomi tried to she tried to. And some of the worst
evangelism I've ever seen in my entire life, Naomi. She's like, God's
been terrible to me. Ruth's like, I
want to follow him. You probably shouldn't. I'm changing my name to bitter
because that's all God does. You follow him, you'll
get bitter, too. Don't make her a greeter. You know what I'm saying? It's like we're going to put
you in the back office to serve. You know what I'm saying? Seems like you have the
gift of administration. I don't know. We're not putting you
on the front lines. Loyal. And by the way--
spoiler alert-- you should read the whole
Book of Ruth this week. When God brings a surprise
ending for Ruth and this husband and all the rest, one
of the things he says about her as he was watching her was--
this is verse 10 of chapter 3-- you could have had your
pick of all the young men, whether rich or poor. But you didn't go
after any of them. Before Boaz came in and dated
her and eventually ended up being her husband,
he watched her. He was watching to
see, was this girl-- we knew she was pretty. But was she pretty
on the inside? Are you going to
go after someone just for that what they could
do for you in the situation? So she was loyal to herself,
she was loyal to God, she would be loyal
to Boaz as well. All right. Third thing I see in Ruth
that I love is ambition. There's ambition, there's
some drive in her. I mean, there's some
truth to that statement that fortune favors
the bold, and there was a boldness to Ruth. There was a gutsy
faith to Ruth, that she was willing to take difficult
steps to do things, to just keep showing up, so to speak. For example, they get back home. Naomi is like, now I'm bitter
and everything's horrible. Let's go cry somewhere. What does she say, Ruth 2:2? Ruth [INAUDIBLE] said, hey,
let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover
grain left behind. And anyone whose eyes I find-- what does she find? Favor. I'm going to go out there
and look for something. I'm going to go
out there and try. I'm going to go out there
and try and get a job. I'm going to go out there and
put myself out there and see what could happen. She wasn't willing to
just sit back at home and hope someone
brings blessing to her, that someone shows
up and rescues them. I'm praying for this, but you
know what I'm going to do? If my prayer is
answered, it's going to find me out there trying. It's going to find
me taking initiative. And then it says,
"as it turned out, she found herself working
in a field belonging to Boaz, who is basically the
perfect person in every way to own the field she
would end up in." So how did it turn
out as it turned out she was in the perfect field? She woke up and said, I'm
going to go out there and try. I'm going to go out there. Everything you've
ever tried has died. Everything you've
ever tried has failed. Famine's probably going to come. You know what? I'm going to get up and try,
and maybe I'll find favor. Oftentimes, we find favor
when we go out looking for it. Let's go out looking
tomorrow for a favor. Let's believe God has a plan. Let's try. Come on. Let's have some
ambition to try again. The last couple of times
you tried a business or to apply for a job or
to get into that school, it didn't work out. Let's not get bitter. Let's not get jaded. Let's try again. Let's get out there
into the field. Let's mix it up. Let's try again, and let's
believe we'll find favor. She takes initiative. I love the writing
advice because a lot of times creative
people are like, I only get creative at 3:00 AM. It's when I get
creative, at 3:00 AM. I have to feel
creative to create. It has to be just write
for the muse to come. And I like the idea
that says, hey, look, if inspiration does
strike, it's going to find me at my desk from 8 to
9 AM when I write for an hour. Whether I feel or not, I'm
going to show up and put the hours in. And the inspiration,
if it does strike, it's going to know
where to find me because I'm doing the hard
yards of actually showing up to continue to create. I don't have to feel
creative in order to create. That was Ruth's spirit. I'm going to go
out to the field. Are you praying for
God to bless me? Yep, and if he
wants to bless me, he's going to find me hustling,
y'all, out there doing the hard things that it takes
to get some crap done. [APPLAUSE] As a result-- and worship
team, you can come on up here-- Ruth's story became one
of nobility, nobility. What do you mean? I mean, when Boaz and Ruth
get married, they have a baby. This is Ruth 4, verse 13. They get to become man and wife. "He went to her. The Lord enabled
her to conceive. She gives birth to a son." And verse 17, they
named him Obed, who, side note, had
a son named Jesse, who, side note, had
a son named David, who the prophet Samuel didn't
think looked like much. But God said, I think
I'll go ahead and pick David to be King. The world said, eh, he's ugly. God said, in his
heart, I've seen it. It's a pretty beautiful thing. And so now here's King
David, who, anytime he would talk about his
great-great-grandma, we're talking about Naomi,
we're talking about Ruth. But that's not all
because David has sons, and David's sons have sons, and
David's sons' sons have sons, and David's sons'
sons' have sons. In Matthew, chapter 1, we get
to this beautiful little list in the New Testament. It's a record of the
genealogy of Jesus Christ, who is the son of David, for sure,
and also the son of Abraham. But notice, when it's
telling all the records, verse 5 says, "Salmon
was the father of Boaz, whose mother was
Rahab, Boaz, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,
Obed, the father of Jesse." So Jesus Christ himself,
while he walked this Earth, thought back lovingly to his
great great great great great great great great grandma Ruth. For all of history,
in all of eternity, Ruth will be revered as a
part of the royal dynasty that God used in
his rescue mission to get his son to this world. Famine to funerals, funerals
looking for, hoping for, dreaming for,
clenching at anything. But in the midst of all of
it, God was building a family. And in that family,
there's room for us all. And in that family, we
can have the confidence to look at the hardest
things we face in this world and to believe He's
going somewhere, He's up to something. So we can just have perspective,
stay committed, loyalty, and then just be ambitious,
and never give up and not get discouraged,
and know that we too are part of this royal
thing, this nobility thing. In other words, God has a plan. He has a plan. He's up to something. He's working. Just give him space. Just give him time. Just don't rush him. Just don't be in a hurry. He's really good at setting
things up in such a way that we feel like there's
no way you can do this, and then he does. One of the most
striking things to me is when Naomi gets back
home, and the girls go, hey, Naomi, she
goes, no, no, I'm bitter. Life's bitter. She says, because I've
come empty-handed. She said, I left full,
but I've come home empty. I left full, but I
came home with nothing because I left Elimelech
and Mahlon and Killion, but I've come home with nothing. And I love that Ruth
doesn't get offended. But if I'm Ruth, I'm like, what? You came home with me. And by the end of Naomi's story,
they are putting her grandson on her breast, and she is
holding a grandbaby she never thought she would have. And look what her
girlfriends say to her. They say to her, Naomi-- this is Ruth,
chapter 4, verse 14-- praise be to the
Lord who has not left you, your
daughter-in-law who loves you and who is better to
you than seven sons. Her girlfriends
are like, man, it's amazing that God brought you
back here not empty-handed. He didn't forget about you. He gave you a daughter who's
better than seven boys, y'all. This girl was something special. And I love that
because the Bible says any time the thief
takes something, he has to restore it seven-fold. And I dare you to
believe that anything that has left your
hands or left your life has not been unseen by God, and
he has a plan to restore it all and bring it back to
you, but seven-fold. She left empty, but she
came back with Ruth, a woman worth more than seven sons. God used Ruth to bring
a baby to her breast that she didn't
know it at the time, but would be a part of bringing
her Savior to this world. So can we be a people who
will trust God no matter what? And for Pete's sake, put
the label maker down. I came with an announcement. Cancel the name change because
you don't know what's going on. Tabasco is not a tree, and
you don't need to be bitter just because life is bitter. God is good. God has a plan. He's up to something
in your life. I want to end this series by
us confessing what Paul told us to confess about our lives. And I want to put
it up on the screen. I want us to say it out loud. It will give us freedom. It will give us permission. It will give us power, no
matter what we're facing today. Come on, say it out loud with
me, all across the church. "I have learned in whatever
a state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased,
and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things
I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to
abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through
Christ, who strengthens me." In Jesus' name.
