Rich Wilkerson Jr. — Single and Secure

i want to draw your attention to ruth chapter one uh believe that the scripture is gonna lay some beautiful groundwork the scripture says in ruth chapter one starting in verse three 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 now after they had lived there about 10 years both mahalan and killian also died and naomi was left without her two sons and her husband when naomi heard in moab that the lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them she and her daughters-in-law were prepared to return home from there with her two 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 two daughters in law go back each of you to your mother's home may the lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and said to her 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 more sons who could become your husbands return home my daughters i'm 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 tonight 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 lord's hand has turned against me i'll take a few moments tonight and i want to preach a message entitled single and secure is possible single and secure would you pray lord thank you so much for your word we believe that it's sharper than any double-edged sword we believe that your word will learn it alone it does not return void and so we open up our hearts we allow you to do surgery on the inside of us god tonight we make ourselves available to you use this broken man lord to bring people to you we ask that every word lord it would not fall upon deaf ears or hard soil but rather lord it would produce fruit in our life we want to leave here looking more talking more behaving more like jesus we thank you in advance for what you're about to do and if you agree with that prayer all of god's people from the balcony to the ground floor all of god's people said all of god's people said and if you love jesus come on i want you to give me everything you got give god a big shout of praise [Music] the older i get the more and more i am convinced that people are borderline obsessed with what's next and don't get me wrong i think it's important that you have a vision for your life and i think it's important that you have an idea of where you're headed but if you're not careful you'll get so obsessed with what's next that you'll miss out on what is right now it doesn't take a lot of us to realize like if you're graduating from high school right now everyone's going where you going to college if you're in college everyone's like where are you going to work you work for a little while as a single person i was like when are you going to get married you get married everyone's like when are you going to have kids you have a kid everyone's like when you have more kids i'm like when are you gonna shut up people are always pushing us into the next season it's funny i've been in ministry now for close to 12 years i've got a chance to talk to a lot of people i am not a certified therapist or a counselor but i've had a lot of one-on-one talks with people and people over and over again they get so focused on what's next or another season or another space i'll sit with single people and i'll talk to them in confidence they're like pastor rich you know i just want to get married joe what they don't know is i talk to married people marry people like yo i just want to be single yo because there is this notion in this idea that somehow the grass is green over the fence on the other side but it takes a mature man of god it takes a wise woman of god to recognize the grass is not greener on the other side the grass is simply green where you choose to water the grass [Applause] tonight i believe that god has called you to be secure in whatever season you're in if we're not careful in the church world we'll create this idea that you need a spouse in order to be secure yet more and more i meet many many married people who are pretty insecure the foundation that we must all work with as children of god is this is that a spouse doesn't produce security but a savior does and all of us have access to the savior jesus christ and he is the starting point for security in our lives now i want to use tonight as a framework the story of ruth and maybe you're new to church and you never heard her story but ruth is an interesting case study because ruth is not single by choice but rather she is single by default she was married she was in love but her husband died and now she finds herself in this season of being single but as you study her life everything about her life shouts out that she was a secure woman of god i believe as we study the story there's four observations that i think we all need to take heed of and we must receive in our lives and believe the truth of them as we apply them to our lives i believe that whatever season you find yourself in married unmarried single divorced is complicated i believe you can walk in security story of ruth is interesting uh ruth has a mother-in-law her name is naomi and naomi was married to a guy by the name of elimelech and elimelech and naomi had two sons they moved to this region known as moab and when they moved there their two boys married these moabite women their names were ruth and then the other was orpah not to be confused with oprah oprah is the higher version of orpah and if you can believe it it's a tragedy we don't know the story but we know that over the course of 10 years elimelech the father dies and then both the sons die and naomi is left with her two daughter-in-laws how about that word in-law nothing like the word in-law to really evoke love it's like the worst phrase ever i have to love you we're in law she's left with her two daughter-in-laws and she decides it's time for her to go back to bethlehem back to judah back to the place that she is from and before she goes she looks at her two daughter-in-laws and she says i want to relieve you of your responsibility i want you to relinquish your commitment yes you made a commitment to my sons into our family but i'm going back home and there is no future where i am going so let me relieve you of the responsibility you stay here in moab for even if i could have more kids it's going to take too long you're gonna be waiting too long there's no way it's gonna be good for you both the daughter-in-laws they play their part they're like no we love you we're gonna be with you but naomi continues to urge them and finally orpah's like all right cool i'm not going ruth chapter 1 verse 14 watch this as they wept aloud again then orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye peace have fun i'm staying here but ruth everyone say but ruth but ruth clung to her the first observation i make if you want to be single and secure is simply this be the minority because the majority is overrated [Applause] see society would suggest you ought to stay in moab culture would consider it a good idea not to go with naomi most people would say yo i would not go with naomi that is not going to be a bright future but how many of you know ruth is not like everybody else and news flash neither are you we're living in a day and age right now where so many people they bow down to the culture and there's people even in god's house that forsake their convictions out of convenience and we just start doing what the crowd is doing whatever the crowd says to do so many of us we're just doing things that we don't even agree with or believe in simply because our friends are doing it the only problem with that notion is is that your friends don't have the life that you want and you're gonna have to stop living in the crowd and be willing to be a part of the minority there's people in this room tonight and you continue you continue to forsake your purity and you give it away time and time again and when people ask you why are you lowering your standards why are you doing that the best answer you got is because everyone else is what there's people in this room right now that you love jesus and you're in a dating relationship that you know you should not be in for the person you're with doesn't even believe in the god you've given your life to and you're sitting here and you're so afraid to be alone and single that you're tolerating this toxic relationship and you're convincing yourself that it's all gonna be right let me just be honest with you if you have to convince yourself it's right before marriage you're gonna have to brainwash and lie to yourself after marriage [Music] you're called to come out of the crowd you're called to be counter culture you're not called to live in this world or be of this world you're called to come out news flash the crowd is stupid the crowd has no identity at all we just do what everybody else is doing i was talking this person today like i just want to get married so bad pastor rich i said why this because all my friends are married and i get the heart of it but i'm like really the best reason why you want to get married and spend your life with a person is because your friends are doing it this is not enough of a reason this is not wise i love ruth ruth is counter culture like listen to her words she's like nah nah nah watch what she says ruth chapter 1 verse 16. this is what she says in naomi she's like but ruth replied don't urge me to leave you or turn back from you where you go i will go where you stay i love that where you stay i will stay your people my people your god hello my god where you die i will die and there i will be buried listen to the drama of this may the lord deal with me be it ever so severely if even death separates you and me ruth is savage yo watch this when naomi realized that ruth was determined to go with her she stopped urging her i love this word urging her we live in a world today that everyone just obeys their urges just swayed by our feelings i can't control my feelings it's just who i am i just do what everyone else is doing this is just where we live today i just go with the crowd whatever my urges are that's what i do yeah at some point you got to define who you are you got to define what your standard is and what your values are at some point you got to start deciding you know what i'm not like everyone else i don't think like everyone else i'm not going with the crowd i'm not going with the culture listen to me when you decide you divide the enemy and his distractions and his tactics towards your life the moment that you actually conquer the urge all of a sudden you get stronger and the urges get weaker but it will never happen until you determine i am not like the crowd i'm coming out of the crowd i'm a part of the minority see this this is ruth ruth is determined determined to what rich she's determined to choose right over easy right over most of the time the right thing is not the easy thing that's why it's called the right thing you want to know what the right thing is the right thing is god's word and it's not about knowing god's word it's about applying god's word to your life see the moment you start applying god's word your life let me just be honest with you you become a part of the minority and when you live in the minority it's easier to notice you a lot of us in this room is like i cannot wait to meet mr wright yeah i just want mrs right yo i want that one in seven billion type of love but like cool but how they ever going to find you if you just look like everyone else [Applause] see when you come out of the crowd and when you say you know what the crowd is it's overcrowded here i'm going to be a part of the minority i'm going to let my commitment stand hey naomi you don't know me i made a commitment and my commitment matters you can tell me i'm relieved of my responsibility but my vow is my vow and i'm not going to be swayed just because the circumstances have changed woman of god some of you in this room today you need to decide are you a part of the crowd are you a part of the minority i love you i'm for you everyone is welcome in our church i don't care what you do outside of these walls you will always find welcome open arms here but listen to me loud and clear if you would not wear it around your friends at vu why on earth do you think it's okay to post it on instagram and and listen i'm serious like this is not a church that's gonna tell you what to wear we don't care i'm not married to you you're not my wife but i want you to understand that every time you leave this place and you go on instagram and you pucker your lips and you wear some outfit you just look like every other girl in miami [Applause] it's cool you're welcome here but if you keep fishing with your body don't be surprised when you catch body [Applause] snatchers [Music] some of you women of god you are giving away for free what one man should get the opportunity to get to work for [Applause] like you should make him work you should make him sweat that should be a gift i love you like i promise you this is come next week hebrews is it's going to be beautiful man of god it's really easy it's really easy how do you want your boy to date your sister somebody's like oh no i ain't gonna sister shut up you're killing me up here because i meet dudes in their 40s that are just like yo i just want to have some fun do you know what a reckless silly mantra that is and you can take it on like what's in you can come i'm just telling you that type of mantra leads to a life all alone laughing by yourself and you wanna you wanna walk in security you wanna walk in who you are you gotta decide who you are you gotta define who you are you got to put some value and some worth on who you are i love ruth ruth is like i am i am not a part of the majority i am part of the minority and where you go naomi guess what you about to find me everywhere because i trust god and some of you tonight you need to get a new revelation about god's word god's word does not want to harm you hurt you limit you but god's lord wants to help you wants to bless you wants to prosper you want you to step into a bright future come on if you believe it tonight can you go ahead and put your hands together and give god some praise in this place [Applause] you can be single and secure he's like i'm with you orpah can go i'm with you the scripture says in ruth chapter 1 verse 19 so the two women went on until they came to bethlehem when they arrived in bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them the woman exclaimed can this be naomi i was reading this and this little phrase went on stuck out to me went on because at some point you got you got to get on with it you got to move forward i wrote this observation down stay on the path because you don't know what lies ahead of you it's just the truth victory doesn't come to those that go the hardest the quickest the fastest victory usually comes to those that go the longest stay on the path because you don't know what lies ahead of you because you're not god you don't see the whole story you're caught in one little rut you're caught in one little ditch but god is the starter and the finisher of your faith he sees all of it and all he asks out of you and i is that we put one foot in front of the other and keep on moving keep on going commit to god's way and watch as god will make a way where there seems to be no way like we're in love with love that's not bad but it's just like it's just one-sided we just love love i just love linen pants and like rolling them up and like walking on the beach and holding hands and like sunsets and white wine i love it all nothing wrong with that but like there's a flip side to love and that is it's responsibility it's sacrifice it's hard work and it's submitting your will and it's preferring the other person in its service i'm all about marriage i love being married it's a beautiful gift but i think sometimes church just talks about marriage and wants everyone to get married and three tips on how to be married i'm not against any of those messages i just want to say to all the single people being single is awesome like it's awesome some creepy dude in the back you know it is like stop like you're freaking us out like it's awesome like i don't want to comp it's just there's beautiful things about being single you think you're busy wait till you're married and you have kids you think you're tired now get ready your target heart rate's going to be climbing like being singles off like you got to like you got to figure out the gold in the season that you're in like when you're single everything in your house you own all of it that's cool all the money in your bank account belongs to you the only debt you have is yours when you're single you don't have to hide gift receipts gift cards poor purchases don tree i hope you're listening right now when you're single you go to a restaurant you just have to order the one meal every dude in this place who knows is in a relationship you sit down with your girl she looks at your food goes that looks good as soon as my wife takes a bite i know it's over get another plate get another plate you know i think one of the hardest things like that people don't talk about is like when you're single you get to decorate your whole house exactly how you want to do it when i first got married to don tree nobody prepared me for this but like we were getting we got into the first day of the house she's like oh i had this beautiful art piece she's like that's gotta go i'm like this is a this is a beautiful piece of art what are you talking about she goes no take it down it was the michael jordan wings poster [Applause] i was like girl you don't know good art when you see it singleness is not a stop sign singleness is not a period it's not a comma your life doesn't begin when you get married a boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't make your life start happening life is happening the question is are you happening you don't have to live bored and you certainly don't have to be boring when you're single for a life with jesus is one big great adventure it's full of spontaneity it's full of ups and downs and it's time for you to get on mission let me just be loud and clear and frank with it jesus is a better partner than any spouse could ever dream of being and maybe he's just waiting for you to figure that out before he blesses you with one on earth see i just believe you know i believe in the law of attraction the law of attraction that you attract not what you want but who you are isn't that a bummer and the truth is is that sometimes sitting on the path can be just as detrimental as getting off the path you're called to move forward you're called to grow you're called to become and who you are is what you attract so i mean i mean dudes are like yo i want a girl who's passionate ah i want a passionate girl but it's like bro you're the most apathetic dude i've ever met my entire life i meet girls like i wanna i want a man who's ambitious but sister you're the laziest girl i've ever met in my entire life you ain't never had a job you just look on instagram all day long like i want i want a man who's rich you understand that typically people that are rich know how to make good investments and the way you're living your life he's a look at you saying you look good on the outside but there's nothing to invest into i want somebody who's hilarious and super funny but you mope around all day long complaining about life you think that's going to attract just humor make me laugh you know i want a girl with a with a good body bro you haven't been to the gym in five years shut your mouth [Applause] i want a girl who's on fire for god homie you haven't even gone to the growth track yet what you project is what you get why not make a decision today to say you know what i'm going to stay on this path but i'm not going to sit i'm not going to wait i'm not going to wait for a spouse i'm going to move forward and i'm going to believe that i can become all that god's called me to become i don't know what awaits me in the future but i do know this everything about my future is not behind me the only way i'll get there is one foot in front of the other come on 7 15 go ahead and give god some praise in this place [Applause] you can be single and secure the scripture says that they went on towards bethlehem and when they arrived there this woman was like naomi and naomi responds 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 the third observation i make if you're gonna live single and secure is you have to know this that bitterness is ugly but faithfulness is always attractive see the story of ruth is not a story of one single girl it's a story of two single women and really to understand the full context you have to understand the background of naomi and her husband elimelech they are from the region of judah which means that they are god's people they were living under the law of god and they were in covenant with god they're from the town of bethlehem bethlehem had a severe famine and it forced elimelech and naomi when i say forced they chose to go to moab moab was a godless secular place they had no business living in moab you read the old testament you'll find story after story of the israelites fighting with the moabites it was their enemies and there they went and started a home and a future listen to me loud and clear it is much better to be hungry in the will of god than to be well fed outside of his will they had no business living over there and when they get there their sons end up marrying moabite women women that did not honor god they converted over to the god of israel but according to the timeline all three men end up dying this reminds me that you can run from a famine but you can't escape death and this family that they ran in the tough time and now she's there with her two daughters-in-law and she hears that bethlehem is now prospering again because you don't serve the god of seconds you serve the god of seasons there's ebbs and flows c.s lewis calls it peaks and troughs mountaintops and valleys he takes you from one mountaintop to the next mountaintop but the only way to get to that mountaintop is you have to go through the valley just because you're in the valley doesn't mean you should run and be afraid you should stand firm and watch that god will bring you into a glorious future so now bethlehem's all like it's it's vibing again and she's like i'm going home and what appears to be a very noble act in ruth chapter one is actually actually quite deceitful she says hey girls you stay here in moab i'm gonna go back to bethlehem why did she want the girls to stay there in moab it's because she wanted to shed the evidence of where she had been when she got back home you know that feeling right you met jesus you got on fire for him and somehow you got plugged into community and then somehow you wandered off like the prodigal and when it came time for you to come home what'd you try to do you tried to shed all the evidence i was talking to a guy not too long ago he's like bro i like coming to vu but everyone's always like where you been annoys me i said the only reason why it annoys you is because wherever you are at you're ashamed of and she was ashamed of where she had been so she said stay here which sounds noble but listen to how deceitful and how conniving it actually is for those women to stay there meant they were going to marry moabite men and if they married mo by men it means they were denouncing their faith or she actually makes this decision which solidifies her future but ruth she says oh no my faith is not in you naomi my faith is in god jehovah jireh my provider [Applause] she literally walks in and when she walks in they're like naomi she's like no don't call me naomi call me mara which literally means bitter it's one thing to get bitter it's another thing to be bitter call me by my name all right what up bitter that that's the state that she's in yet friend and hear me as your friend tonight bitterness is ugly bitterness literally deflects the blessing of god it deflects the opportunities that god brings your way some of you you're single in this place and you have a desire to have a spouse or to have a relationship and that's an awesome godly desire there is nothing wrong with that but hear me if you walk around bitter for too long the very thing that you're asking god for you're going to deter away from your life i don't care who you talk to nobody puts on their list of qualities number one get me a girl who's bitter yeah see her all bitter and all y'all i never met a girl in my life who's like oh yeah get me a man who's bitter give me a project like that girls don't think that way it's it's deflecting what you want the truth of the matter is is that maybe you have been waiting for a long time but maybe it's not just that you're waiting maybe it's a deeper situation that maybe you're wounded and we start talking about relationships it's not a laughing matter because it's very sensitive and there's people in this room tonight that are that are wounded and maybe you're wounded not because you did something wrong but maybe because someone did something wrong to you maybe someone hurt you maybe someone cheated on you left you betrayed you maybe someone abused you verbally or even at worse physically and you're carrying this wound around and the challenge with an open wound that never gets addressed is that wound will only fester and bitterness is the result maybe it's not what other people did let's be honest tonight when it comes to relationships maybe it's something that you did maybe you're having a hard time because you've wounded yourself that you know your actions have caused consequences in your life it's not popular preaching especially in miami florida in wynwood and little haiti but the scripture says that sexual sin is the only sin that we do against our own body it's a wild concept because you could be here tonight and you don't even believe this stuff like these people are crazy shouting and jumping this man up here i don't even there ain't no god and that's cool you can have your own ideas and you can think that way but what's wild is that you don't even believe in god you haven't even subscribed to jesus but here you are and you think about that thought you've had all the freedom you wanted you've done all the things that you thought would bring you joy you've had all sorts of experiences and pleasure yet somehow you're in this room and you are carrying shame guilt pain and the result is bitterness it's wild because did you see that that naomi she's actually blaming god for her stupidity and you gotta be careful there could be a lot of causes to your loneliness and there can be a lot of causes to your bitterness but i want to remind you that god is good that he has not brought harm upon your life god hasn't caused this suffering in your life god didn't force you in that toxic relationship god didn't cause you to lower your standard god didn't cause you to completely dismiss all of the counsel that was around you god didn't cause you to isolate and not go to people not go to community and now the result is that you have a bitter heart it's wild right because ruth like naomi has experienced something quite similar she too is a widow but unlike naomi she is a completely different perspective on the situation make no mistake about it it is not the faithfulness of naomi in the story but rather it's the faithfulness of ruth that turns the entire situation around ruth has this revelation and she makes this decision that i'm gonna almost stay faithful because faithfulness is always attractive and the only way to remove bitterness in your heart is to take responsibility through forgiveness and at the risk of being very very offensive to people that have gone through tragic horrible awful things the only way that you're ever gonna release and get back to a heart of faithfulness and remove the bitterness is when you forgive those that have caused you harm hurt and who have completely done unjust things to you yet what i've learned on this journey of faith is sometimes the hardest people to forgive are not others but just simply forgiving ourselves but can i encourage you today let it go that you are not defined by your mistakes you are not defined by your habits you're not defined even by your decisions but rather you are a child of god and his grace is bigger than any mistake that you could ever commit past present or future and today you gotta forgive yourself so that you can move into the future that he has for you whether you're married or single in a relationship questioning relationship you can be secure in the season that you are in bitterness it's always ugly faithfulness it's always attractive scripture says that they go to bethlehem and naomi's bitter but not rush she's faithful and look what happens in ruth chapter two and ruth the moabite said to naomi let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes i find favor naomi said to her go ahead my daughter notice it's no more daughter-in-law but you my daughter now so she went out entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters as it turned out she was working in the field belonging to boaz who was from the clan of elimelech that little phrase that sticks out to me is as it turned out has it just so happened as it turned out she was in boaz's field not broke as not cheap as not crazy as lazy as scared as any other as you're dealing with don't get all religious you came to church at 7 15 p.m to voo you're fine you'll be as it turned out she was working in a field belonging to boaz basic observation that you're gonna have to realize if you're gonna be single and secure is simply this when you turn up things turn out [Applause] not super deep but still pretty true do you understand what it was that ruth went and did naomi full of bitterness hurt pain can't move into the future but here's this girl i'm not like everybody else i've been called out i'm staying on this path i'm not going to sit up i'm going to move forward in the past and i'm going to be faithful and i'm going to turn up guess what she turned up dude she turned up in a field as a servant as a peasant taking not the leftovers but like second like third best picking up what the harvester was left behind said i could use this and i can use that and i'm gonna be found serving i'm gonna turn i'm gonna do what i can do she got herself into the right environment your environment matters i love that scripture jesus says what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but he forfeits his soul and i was thinking about forfeiting the other day and there's lots of ways that you can forfeit but when it comes to the realm of athletics one of the easiest ways to forfeit is that you your team simply doesn't turn up and what a dumb way to lose didn't even get in the game didn't even try didn't even throw a pass didn't even try to shoot a basket and that's what happens to so many of us so many of us we just failed to even turn up because we've been waiting for too long or we've been wounded too bad and so we don't even turn up and god has got nothing to actually turn out in our life half the battle is just showing up i'm telling you if you're a follower of jesus and you call this place vue church your home i'm just be honest with you you're single and you desire a spouse or a relationship you're like yeah i would love to like meet someone one day if i were you i'd be up in this mug every minute the doors are open i'd be like okay hold on they got how many how many locations how many services like what's the drive time oh maybe i could hit all of them you know i'ma be found just turn it up you know how many crews they got because your environment matters i'm not against bars but is that really where you want to meet your spouse i'm not even against clubs but is that really where you want to meet your partner for life not ruth ruth's like you know what i'm gonna do what i can do and i'm gonna trust that there's something bigger out there god who'll do what i can't do i'm just gonna keep turning up if i just keep turning up i got a feeling things will turn out amen you know all we got is our stories and my story it's just my story and it it might annoy you because you might go oh your life is perfect and easy but like the scripture says that we overcome with the blood of lamb and the word of our testimony and i'm trying to do a better job at life to just owning what god has done in my life and who i am i can't make any apologies about it but my life at 17 years of age i was running from god and to be more clear i was just doing whatever i wanted to do i believed in god but i was running intentionally and i had lots of experiences with girls and did lots of things out of lust there's things that i have done that i will regret till the day i meet jesus it's just it was wrong it wasn't right and although i was a teenage boy i had my fair share of experiences and i found myself in adelaide australia at a church service kind of like this and a lot of you've heard me share my testimony before but on the second row god rocked my life and i said god i'm i'm tired of running and i'm going to give my life over to you and i'm going to obey the calling you have for my life it doesn't mean i didn't sin again or make a mistake again doesn't mean that i was perfect doesn't mean i didn't fall down lots of times the only difference now is that when i fell down i realized i can't lose the grip of grace i'ma get back up keep moving forward [Applause] and and when i when i got home to miami from australia i had to make all these decisions i was like i can't it's not these people are bad it's just they're bad for me right now i am not in a place to help them to serve them they're only bringing me down so i had to get rid of my group of friends i decided that i needed to change my environment i said i'm gonna be in church whenever the doors are open and this whole relationship stuff with girls i am just very very immature and i don't really have much self-control and i'm not led by love i'm led by lust as i was like i'm gonna take me a break and i made a decision i'm not i'm not focused on like girls right now like i'm focused on me and jesus i just kept turning up and can you believe like two months later i'm in nashville tennessee and i'm visiting my brother who was making music at the time and he was doing this concert and as i'm sitting in asheville tennessee i look up and there comes the most beautiful blonde bombshell of a girl i've ever seen in my entire life her name was don cheri lynnae duron i was like i'm just being like i've never seen a girl like this i never talked to a girl like this i never felt quickly about a girl like this i was overwhelmed i didn't know it at the time but god was literally introducing me to who my wife was going to be it's just my story that i met my wife at 17 we dated we courted and we got married and i love being married she's the greatest gift god has ever given me on earth somebody like yo shoot man i'm not all right i'm with you too man i ain't gonna miss one week of hebrews i've given you eight weeks god let's go i'm down for that sounds like a deal it don't work like that that's not the heart of what i'm trying to say the what i'm trying to say is that when you quit prioritizing falling in love falling in love will prioritize you because this is this is this is ruth ruth's like let me get in let me serve let me be found doing something i'm active i'm not waiting for a mission i got a mission i'm not waiting for a husband to get to work i can work right now and it it just turns out the scripture says that she was gleaning in in boaz's field boaz just happened to be from the same clan as her father-in-law which made him actually a person who could actually make her his wife just happened you can say this is coincidence i don't think anything's coincidence and the scripture says that the boaz he sees her in the field one day and he actually decides to go and pay for her freedom he has to buy her and not only that he ends up making her his bride they end up having children and it's a beautiful love story because when you turn up i believe eventually things will turn out this story of ruth is not in the bible to give you and i hope for our love life here on earth and the story of ruth like all of our sermons here at vu are not actually about ruth and boaz but rather about a greater love story and they're about something much bigger than just you and i but rather it's a foreshadow of good news to come you see ruth and boaz they get married and they actually have a boy and the boy's name is obed obed grows up and he actually has a son his son's name is jesse jesse grows up and he has some sons and one of his son's name is david and it's from the house of david that our lord and savior jesus christ came into the earth that literally it was through their seed that the legacy and the lineage you can trace all the way to jesus christ but how many of you know that their stories not just in the bible because they help bring jesus into the earth their is in the bible because jesus christ is the true and better boaz you know boaz and jesus are both are both born in bethlehem that's interesting boaz is known as the kinsmen redeemer but that's one of the titles of jesus that jesus christ is our kinsmen redeemer you see boaz came by on his high horse and he saw this peasant girl if you will in the field picking up the scraps and he got off of his high horse got down into the dirt went to this girl decided i'm gonna pay for your future that in itself is pretty radical but it gets even more scandalous because he says i'm not just gonna pay for your freedom but rather i'm gonna put a ring on your finger and i'm gonna give you my name and i'm gonna make you my bride and my spouse oh this story happened long before jesus showed up but it was giving you and i hope and it was tracing an outline of another kinsman redeemer who would not ride on a high horse but rather he would step out of the highest heavens and he would touch down into the dirt into the soil and he would get as low as my sin and as low as my transgressions and there from the muck in the mire he would lift me up and he would buy back my freedom but he didn't stop there because the scandal of grace is that he chooses to say you are my bride and no matter what season you're walking through i am your savior and i provide security i satisfy i complete i walk with you come on if you're thankful for jesus can you go ahead and give him a shout of praise

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 461,110

Rating: 4.9559822 out of 5

Keywords: single, dating, insecure, rich wilkerson jr, vous church, vous, secure

Id: 1NrdPw5vj7I

Length: 44min 18sec (2658 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 01 2019