Valley Lights Church Podcast
A Story Only God Can Write- The Book of Ruth- Chapter 4- Redemption
We have been going through a book of the Bible in the Old Testament. We're in a message series called "A Story Only God Can Write." And what we're doing is we're reading one of, I think, one of the most delightful stories in the Bible. And we've been looking at the way that God is involved in the lives of really ordinary people, working through their joys and even through some devastating hardships. And so over the past four Sundays, we've been reading through the book of Ruth. And so far, we've read together here in service chapters 1, 2, and 3, and we get to fit, today's like the grand finale. You've made it for the end of the book, and I've been trying to tease like the big plot twist at the end. And if you've read ahead, or if you know the story, maybe you couldn't resist waiting till today. But today, we're going to see how things wrap up in this story. And really, when you watch Ruth's life unfold, you realize that it really is a story that only God can write. The things that happen in her life, and then it makes you realize things that happen in our lives, the life that you're living is a story that only God could write. So even though there were some terrible tragedies faced by the family, things that were so horrible in the moment, even those things are woven into God's much bigger story. And so let me give you a quick recap. If you haven't been here for the past three Sundays, if I just go right into chapter 4, you might be kind of confused about who some of the characters are or what's going on. So let me give you a recap, and then everyone will be caught up to speed. Alright, in chapter 1, we meet this lovely family, a limalic, and Naomi, the parents of two sons, and they moved to a different country out of Bethlehem. They're in the people of God, they were Israelites, but they move away from Bethlehem, and they go to a foreign country, Moab, and the reason that they did that is because there was a famine. But they were there for 10 years. In the time that they were there, there's three funerals. This happens like within the first couple of verses. Three funerals are a limalic, which is the father, and then the two sons die. And they all leave. These sons who are younger in this picture, but they eventually grew up and they marry two Moabite women, foreigner women. And so now we have three funerals that results in three widows, Naomi, and then her daughters-in-law. And Naomi decides she's going to return to her hometown of Bethlehem and leave this place where she found these daughters-in-law, and then she tells them it's better if you stay here in Moab. Your life is going to be pretty rough, probably. Should I switch to microphones again? Yeah. Okay. And so she, one daughter stays in Moab, and then Ruth is the one, she doesn't want to leave Naomi's side. And she tells Naomi, "Where you go? I will go. Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people." And she displays remarkable loyalty. Like you can't almost find that anywhere. And so what happens is these two travel back to Bethlehem together. And so chapter one, it really ends on a low note. You just feel really depressed about life when you're reading chapter one because Naomi is just spewing bitterness about God. She's so convinced that God is against her, that God is just ruining her life. And his hand is against her. And so that's that's how things result in chapter one. Chapter two things start to take a little bit more of a hopeful turn because a new character comes on the scene, the handsome Boaz. And he is a farmer in charge of an estate. And he happens to be eligible for marriage. He's from just the right family. He's a good man. He's got noble character. And Ruth and Boaz have definitely noticed each other out there in those hot barley fields. And they each like what they see. All right. And so chapter two, you're like, "Oh my goodness." So what might happen in chapter two, you realize Naomi brings her daughter-in-law with her. And if her daughter-in-law does marry a guy like this, this could solve a lot of financial hardships that these women are going to face. As widows, they're in a very vulnerable position. They really have probably no way to make ends meet. And so they've probably got no money or resources or food. But Boaz comes onto this scene and then in chapter three, one night, both Ruth and Boaz express their interest and marriage to each other in a late-night past midnight conversation. And to be totally honest, this was an opportunity for sexual compromise. But they don't. And they maintain the highest of standards. And they maintain their noble character and their reputations. And so in this late-night conversation, Boaz says he has the power to redeem Ruth. The power of redemption is a cultural right at that time. It's a privilege and an opportunity given to certain family members. So he could actually marry her and bring a lot of stability to his family. But he provides a shocking curveball that, and he says, "You know, Ruth, I do want to marry you. But there's a relative who's closer than me, who has the first right. He has redemption rights before I do." Particularly to the land that eliminated the original father who died, this land that he owned in Bethlehem. And then any family members that are attached to it, which would be Naomi Ruth, there's another kinsman, a family redeemer who could exercise his rights of redemption. And if he does, he will marry you. And basically, Boaz would be powerless to do anything about it. And so we're all, you know, at the end of chapter three, you're rooting for Boaz because he's exceedingly generous. He's loyal. He's really well known as an excellent noble man. And we don't know anything about that other guy. And Ruth is probably like, "Wait, there's another guy? Like, you mean to tell me that someone I don't even know is going to marry me tomorrow and I can't do anything about it?" And that brings us to chapter four, where we're going to start today. Chapter four, do you feel caught up, by the way? You know, I tried to provide pictures. Those are not actual pictures from the time, by the way, in case you were wondering. This was actually 3,000 years ago that this all took place. I think the camera, the iPhone had not really come out just yet. So, otherwise, I'm sure that there would have been people taking pictures all over the place, I'm sure. But chapter four, it opens with the business transaction that's going to decide Ruth's future. What's going to happen? Someone is going to marry Ruth today. And she doesn't know who it's going to be. Business transactions like this would happen at the gate in the town. It'd be in public where there were enough men to be present as witnesses. So, let's jump into this story. Chapter four, we're going to read this together. It says, "Boe as went to the gate of the town and sat down there. Soon the family redeemer, Boe as had spoken about, came by. Boe as said, 'Come over here and sit down.' And so, he went over and sat down. Then, Boe as took 10 men of the town's elders and said, 'Sit here.' And they sat down. He said to the -- oh, let's see. Yeah. He said to the Redeemer, Naomi, who has returned from the territory of Moab, is selling the portion of field that belonged to our brother, Olimalak. And so, since I wanted to make this fun and include some photos, you have on your handout the scripture that we're referring. If you want to read along, if you want to make any notes or circle any things that stand out to you, there's some real notable things here. But what's about to happen is this business deal. And this concept of family redeemers, it really was a wonderful protective part of Israel's context. Maybe it sounds weird and like kind of sterile that they're doing business in this way, but it really is a good thing because what happened is sometimes people would lose their land. Either somebody would die like this or they'd be forced to sell the property because of hard times. But if you had a relative that did want to invest and come in, they could -- they had the right to buy it back. Or someone became enslaved. And maybe they decided to step into slavery or they had to for some reason. A family redeemer could buy them back. Or, if there was justice needed, if somebody was murdered, a family redeemer could go get justice on their behalf. Or in this case, if a woman loses her husband and she has, at that point, no sons to provide for her. And really, these -- this woman would -- she would have relied on her sons to take care of her in old age because nobody else would do it. And so this really was an opportunity for someone to step in and really provide for and protect for this family. So this is a good thing. And so Boaz makes this known to the other redeemer, the man who's more close -- more closely related relative to Alimelec. And so Boaz says, "I thought I should inform you by it back, by the field, in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do it. But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know because there isn't anyone other than you to redeem it and I'm next, after you." And the guy says, "I want to redeem it." That was his answer. So Boaz says, "Okay, before you do, there's a little bit more information you need to know. There's more." Boaz said, "On the day that you buy the field from Naomi, you will acquire Ruth the Moabite Test, a foreigner." Moab was an enemy nation to Israel in the past. "You will acquire Ruth, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man's name on his property." And the redeemer replied, "I can't redeem it myself, or I will ruin my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption because I can't redeem it." So what would need to happen is, if this guy redeemed the land, whoever does it, the redeemer would need to have children with Ruth and then those children would carry on a limulex old family name and the inheritance rights would flow through that family line and not the man's own son and children. And so this really would have a pretty big financial impact. It's almost like you have a house with two family names going on, but it was so that a limulex family name would not get wiped out of history. So the guy says, "I can't do that. That's going to mess up my inheritance." Maybe he had field resources, then Boaz, don't know his situation exactly, but he gives up his rights of redemption. He wants the field, but he doesn't want the woman and the responsibility and the children that are going to go with it. So at verse 7 it says, "At an earlier period in Israel, a man removed his sandal and gave it to the other party in order to make any matter legally binding concerning the right of redemption or the exchange of property." This was a method of legally binding a transaction in Israel. So the Redeemer removed his sandal and said to Boaz, "Buy back the property yourself." So you got this sandal situation. This is interesting. Don't know if you'd want to hold someone else's sandal. It's, I guess maybe in a way it's like saying you take the right to walk on this property. This field is now going to be treaded on by your feet. And this is kind of strange. You know, it feels strange to get to read. The interesting thing about Ruth is chapter 3 had some weird stuff in it too. Chapter 2 has, you know, you dip things in vinegar sauce to make connections with people. There's all kinds of interesting cultural things that happen here. And it made me think though, how does sealing a deal compare to, you know, the modern way of doing it? What do we do today if you're going to, if you're going to sign paper, right? So, you know, I was thinking about it. This actually doesn't have to do with the message so much. But I was thinking, you know, scribbling your name illegibly on a piece of paper feels less secure than giving somebody your sandal honestly. So maybe they, maybe they had something going on here. It's amazing that a signature is something that will hold up in court, honestly. But back in those days you're like, "But I have the sandal." He gave it to me. Verse 9, here we go. Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to. Alimalec, also to his two sons, Gillian and Malon. I have also acquired Ruth, the Mo by Tess, Malon's widow as my wife, to perpetuate the deceased man's name on his property so that his name will not disappear among his relatives or from the gate of his hometown. You are witnesses today." So, here we go. It's official. Boaz buys it all. He redeems Ruth and Naomi. And in front of all these witnesses, this confirms a lawful marriage between Boaz and Ruth. It's right there at the city gate. I don't know. Maybe this may in some ways feel like a courthouse wedding. I don't know if there was another ceremony that they did later on perhaps as Ruth was there. Maybe she was watching this all happen in this big meeting with all the elders gathered. Maybe at this point she breathes a big sigh of relief that she's going to be married by Boaz. You know it, getting married at all, probably that was maybe somewhat of a desperate thought to begin with. And the fact that she was married by a generous kind noble man, I mean this is exceptionally good news. And the noble and worthy Boaz has redeemed her. So, it's beautiful. It really is a beautiful story. Verse 11, it says, "All the people who were at the city gate, including the elders, said, 'We are witnesses. May the Lord make the women who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah who together built the house of Israel.'" That's a really good blessing. What they're praying for right there and asking God to bless is you know Rachel and Leah their sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. And they built the nation. This is a good blessing. It says, "Also may your house become like the house of Perez, the son Tamar boarded Judah. Because of the offspring, the Lord will give you by this woman." And I love this part of the story too, because there's tremendous support for this union. The elders here not only affirm the marriage as just witnesses, but they speak a blessing over Boaz and Ruth. And it really is. If you ever go to a wedding where you see two people coming together and you are just rooting for them and you've been there you know in their lives and you're like, "This is a good thing. This is two godly people wanting to do things God's way." It is such a joy. You do want that to happen. In fact there's a wedding later today. We get to, this is a fun time. We get to experience the wedding. And for me in my life whenever I've seen or been a part of weddings where there's people coming together like that, it's really exciting. So the cool thing about this passage though is that there really is I think a high value of community. That there's other people involved in what's going on. And this marriage union is known by others and it's blessed by others. People are invested relationally. People knew who Ruth was. People knew who Naomi was. And there really seems to be maybe some evidence of a tight community. And we'll actually see that show up in a different way in a second. But in verse 13 it says Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. He slept with her and the Lord granted conception to her and she gave birth to a son. So this son that comes out of this union is a very significant child. I think in many ways the story has been building up to this, to this birth. The children that are born to any godly people are very, very glorifying to God. God really wants godly offspring. In fact in Malachi 2.15 it's one of the big purposes for a marriage. Why does God want people to get married? One of the big reasons is that he wants godly people to have godly offspring. And that's one of the things that he's really after. And this is one of God's big purposes in marriage. And what's fascinating about this verse 13 is it says the Lord granted conception to her. The word granted means to give or to gift. And so far in this series I have been saying that God is not mentioned by the narrator in this story. Which I missed this part right here actually. So there's a correction to what I said. This is a book that does say very, very little about directly about God's involvement. But here interestingly is one time that his involvement is explicitly mentioned. And it's to say that the Lord gave or granted conception. I believe in my whole heart that the conception of every child is God's work. Throughout the Bible time and time again we read it. You read it and you see that God decides when women conceive. Life begins at the moment of conception when a woman gets pregnant. And I really believe that God decides that every time. The man and woman of course are involved. When a woman gets pregnant of course there's human involvement. But God is the one who opens wombs. He closes them. He can open them again. And in the Bible there's many stories of people praying that God would let them conceive. And whenever says God listened is when the woman finally has a child. And this truth which has stated so explicitly in this verse it's really it can be a very difficult truth to believe when whenever you see people that want to have kids and are not able to. It's perhaps just as hard to believe whenever you see people who get pregnant and don't want a baby and even reject the pregnancy. And so this is really hard. This is something that God is very involved in with his purposes. But I believe that in this story the son that was born to Ruth was hand-selected by God for a reason as with every child. And so the last few verses it focuses on Naomi which is interesting. This Naomi is the mother in law. She's not even Ruth the woman who had the baby. But now it shifts to Naomi because now she's a grandmother for the very first time. Now this is... Wow she probably thought this would never happen. You know her son died many years ago and now she's a grandmother. This is amazing. So the women said to Naomi, verse 14, the woman said to Naomi, "Blessed be the Lord who has not left you." Man, circle that. This is what Naomi thought the whole time that God had left her. "Blessed be the Lord who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name be well-known in Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age." Man, those are things that she was probably desperate for. To be renewed, to be sustained, to be taken care of. So they say indeed your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons has given birth to him. Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and became his nanny. She became like a mother to him. And the neighbor woman said, "A son has been born to Naomi and they named him Obed." I love that this... It says that, Naomi. So it's so interesting. We bring the focus back to Naomi, which is how the story started. And in those days, grandsons and grandsons were like your retirement plan. So if you got older and you needed food on the table and you needed a house over your head, it was going to be either your husband or if he was gone, your sons, or if they were gone, your grandsons. And now she has that. And Boaz is in the picture too. But what they say, what they say is that, Ruth though, Ruth is better to you than seven sons. So, you know, you'd probably want... If you had seven sons, you're like, "That's the equivalent of having like an amazing retirement plan. You have put money in the bank and you are good to go." And they say, "No, listen, Ruth, the kind of woman that Ruth is and the relationship that you have to be with each other, it doesn't matter how much money you have in your retirement when you're thinking about these kinds of relationships. There is something that is better than money in the bank. And this thing with that God has been doing with Ruth and you and Boaz and his family is so good. The quality of relationships is astonishing. There's so much rich blessing that will flow out of these lives. It doesn't matter how much money there is at this point. So there's a new family line. There's something that God is doing that's powerful and it's really, really good. And it helps us to see that the incredibly deep lows that Naomi went through, God is responding to those and he's providing for her in ways that she would never have thought. And we have to remember that Naomi was brooding in bitterness for so long. She had gotten bitter at God and then she camped out there and she stayed there and she embraced it. And the when you brood over something you just think about it over and over again as you're going to sleep and the way you talk about it just spills out. It just oozes out. This is what was happening with her. She was convinced God was against her. And so even if you remember she said to these women she said don't call me Naomi because that name means pleasant. Don't call me that anymore. Call me Mara. That name means bitter. She's like I'm gonna my identity is different. God has ripped me off so bad you just might as well change my name to bitter. I went away full and the Lord has now made me empty is what she said. But here we see at the end of the story God is filling her back up. She did have to be empty for a while but God had plans to fill her up all along. God proved that he was not done writing the story yet. And even the women around her have rejected the idea of God's cruelty. They first of all nobody we don't see anybody calling her Mara. So nobody goes along with that plan. They're still calling her Naomi. And they say no Naomi the Lord has not left you with he has not left you hanging. As it turns out he has been good he has had good plans for you all along. So here again I think is another powerful demonstration of having community around you. First there was elders at the gate really affirming and blessing this union and then you have these women providing the perspective and the encouragement and the faith in God that was needed for her. And so the result is the baby's name is Obed. And I don't know if you caught it but it says the neighbor women said a son has been born to Naomi and they named him Obed. I don't know if they took it upon themselves to name this child. I don't know if you could imagine a situation where you're in the hospital and you give birth to a child and they come in with the birth certificate and they're like all right you can fill this out and you go to fill out there's like already a name written here. They're like oh yeah some people from your church came over and they put a name in there for you. They're like okay that's what we're going with. They picked a good name though because Obed means servant of God or worshiper. That really is the tone of the story now. That is the tone of Naomi's life now. That is the answer to worship and serve God with everything you've got. That's the answer to the pain and the bitterness that tries to take over us. In the pain we worship God. We trust Him and we serve Him with everything we have. So Ruth this book, this book of the Bible that opens with tragedy and death concludes with joy and life, new life. It's a total flip. It does take a long time in between those things though. There's a long time of enduring the pain and the emptiness before the joy comes and what I think is for me a takeaway that I've gotten from this book of the Bible is this. Your life is a story that only God can write. There's going to be things that happen you would never have thought. In fact that has probably already happened. There's things that have happened in your life. I would have never thought this would have happened. I could have never written this. I could have never guessed that God would have provided in this way or I would have met that person. But if you're living with pain right now or if you're living with certain confusion or you know there's this bitterness tugging and nagging at you about God it's because God's not done writing your story yet. If you have unanswered prayer or if things in your life are unresolved, if you're just waiting and waiting and waiting you're not alone. This is often the experience of Christ followers. God decides when everything will all come together. And I believe if you if you really do trust Him there's going to be a lot of things that come together in your life in this life. There's chapters and decades perhaps of your life that has yet to be written so a lot of things will come together but still even then not even everything will come together in this life. Everything totally will come together in eternity. God will write all the wrongs. He will fill you back up with everything that's been taken away and exceeding amounts. You just have to just have to wait for quite a while. So let's read there's the final few verses and we're going to understand now we're going to get to this surprise ending that God was writing all along. So it says there's this little genealogy here at the very end. Obed, this new baby boy. Here's what it says. Now these are the family records of Perez. Perez fathered, Hezeron, Hezeron fathered, Ram. Ram fathered, a minnadab, a minnadab fathered nation. Nation fathered, salmon fathered, Boaz. Okay that's the name we know now. Boaz fathered, Obed, Obed fathered, Jesse and Jesse fathered David. David here we go. This is the King David. They didn't know who he was going to be yet in the story but we know that King David is the incredible leader who would usher in the golden years in the history of Israel. This David was the man after God's own heart. I mean what's fascinating about the placement of this story in the Bible. If you read Ruth go to the book just before it's the book of Judges and the last verse of Judges it ends this way. It says everyone did what was right in their own eyes which is not good and Israel needs a king and judges is over and then we have Ruth and this is the story of how we get a king that is needed for Israel. The nation of Israel is being healed and so are Ruth and Naomi. On a huge scale and a small scale God is doing some incredible things. So the arrival of David which would come later was surprising but then here comes the biggest shock of all. After David generations later from this same family line comes the Messiah Jesus Christ. The descendants in this Davidic line produced the Savior of the world. Now this is a privilege that nobody saw coming. Nobody had any idea that they would be a part of this family. So if you were to skip ahead into the New Testament and you read in Matthew chapter 1 there's a genealogy of Jesus listed there and it's mostly men. It's mostly like the fathers but getting the sons, the father's son but Ruth shows up there in Matthew chapter 1 and she is mentioned by name and this is a thousand years later from Ruth to Jesus is a thousand years and she shows up in the New Testament and in her day everyone would have saw her as a nobody because she was a mobite person, an enemy to Israel. She was, man how did she even show up in this land? But Ruth is one of the people who brought Jesus into the world. She was racially, ethnically and outsider. She was not part of the people of God but she was brought in and she becomes a part of Jesus's lineage and she's kind of like a great great great grandmother to Jesus. This is a privilege and to make it even more incredible there's even more. There's another woman mentioned by name there in Matthew chapter 1, Rahab. Rahab is a woman that is the mother of Boaz. So this is interesting. Boaz, which by the way it could be, could have been his mother or grandmother or great grandmother. Sometimes they telescope genealogies but Rahab was one of the women that brought Boaz into the world. She also was an outsider. She was also from an enemy nation and a nation that Israel had to wipe out but Rahab secretly helped the Israelites spies when the people of God needed some intelligence, military intelligence. And so I think maybe this is just speculation but maybe since Boaz's mother or grandmother was you know an outsider maybe that explains why he had such tender care for Ruth also an outsider and open to bringing people in. Rahab was a prostitute by the way not you know in contrast to Ruth who was a very virtuous woman and Ruth when it when it describes her it uses the same Hebrew word as the Proverbs 31 woman a noble virtuous excellent woman who can find and then you have Rahab shady background but she eventually put her faith in God the God of Israel and she was saved. She was brought into the family of God and so then you read you bring all these pieces together and you read this family tree that brought Jesus into the world and you realize there's all kinds of people mixed up in there. This is amazing. It makes me think this anyone can be brought into God's family. Anybody doesn't matter your race, your ethnicity, it doesn't matter your record, what you've gotten yourself into and those post midnight conversations and interactions. It doesn't matter if you put your faith in Jesus and follow him as Lord God can work through you and you can be a part of God's family. God will redeem you. That word redeemer it appears more than any other significant word in the book of Ruth and it's because it's pointing to our ultimate redeemer. I think that's really the heart of the book of Ruth. It's it's pointing ahead. It's really a setup to bring Jesus into the world to save us from our sins and I think this was all part of God's plan obviously and if so could it be that while God was bringing together Ruth and Boas in those barley fields and they were sparks were beginning to fly and they were getting to notice each other and God was working all that even back then in those barley fields was God thinking about us. Was he thinking ahead planning, anticipating, knowing all of these generations that would be coming through. Maybe God even then was thinking about the people like us that he would be delighted to redeem. And if you if you take all that time into account it's a thousand years from Ruth to Jesus and then two thousand years from Jesus to now. So we're talking three thousand years. Can you even comprehend that much time? Could you even just like it's your mind around that much planning that God all along knew what he was doing and this this is this is what I've concluded. God has been designing the flow of history for thousands of years to make redemption available to you. God has been designing the flow of history for thousands of years to make redemption available to you. This should make you feel pretty small. This you think about the enormity of this scale of God's planning and his providence. It's like if you it's almost impossible to take in that he's been working this far back for our benefit to bring us in. Man God has never once taken his hands off the wheel. God guides both the really big events in human history and then also the really small things the decisions that we make the choices that we the daily stuff. Every move that you make has been guided by the invisible hands of God which means at this moment you are right where you need to be. You're right where God has placed you. You're in the perfect place to turn to God. He's been working through all the events in your life. He's been working through the really painful stuff like Naomi. She had a husband and both sons die. She was caught up in the middle of a really rough life story and she could have never known her pain was a part of a story this big. Man God was doing something really big through all that pain and I think God gave us the book of Ruth partly because he wants us to know how intricately involved he is in the details of our everyday life. So we have now read the entire book of Ruth. This is exciting. We've we have enjoyed this story together. It is wonderful and delightful and I think the weight of this story now in summary I think it can lead us to respond in a couple ways. I have three suggested ways that you might respond. One is gratitude. Praise God because he cares for you. He loves you. And to think that God has been designing the flow of history while keeping us in mind is astonishing. It makes me want to fall on my knees in awe and gratitude like we just sang in that song a few minutes ago. We have there's nothing we can do or contribute. We could have we were never a part of this 3,000 year planning process. He was doing it all out of his own initiative and kindness and his powerful sovereignty. His plans that he had nobody could mess them up. The things that he had intended for you and me have are they're unaffordable. God is going to do what he's going to do and nobody can stop it. God is so big and we are so small. We're nothing but he loves us and he died for us. I think it would be very foolish to think that we could write our own destiny. It's a hot topic. It's a hot idea. Chase your dreams. Write your own story. Pick your destiny. That's foolish. It's foolish to think that God owes us anything. So after a story like this, give up your foolish arrogance and independence and admit God owns me. He made me. He is the divine writer of history and he he is the one giving my heart beats and my lungs breath right now. He writes my story the way he wants to and I will be so grateful. A second thing that another way you might respond to this whole story is allegiance. This story compels me to demonstrate my allegiance to Jesus Christ. Meaning like to proof I'm all in. I'm totally surrendered. That's what that means. If God has been working out such a big plan to redeem us through the blood of Jesus boy we ought to surrender everything. To him. So I'd encourage you make him the Lord of your life. To make Jesus the Lord says everything in my life you're in charge of now. I hold nothing back. There's no part of my life that I'm going to do my own way. There's no part of my life where I'm going to read the Bible and say I'm not going to quite do it that way. No it's like God you're in charge you own me and that's something that's that that decision to make him Lord is something we all need to do one time initially. Like one big decision to surrender at all. If you've already done that you'll have a lot of other ongoing opportunities to keep surrendering and keep realizing whoop you know I'm realizing I'm sort of doing life my way and I need to surrender that again. There may be something in your life that maybe you've been holding on to you and maybe resistant to letting God be in charge of surrender that prove prove your allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ who died for you. Then the third thing third response from the story is community. Gratitude, allegiance, and community. The very significant events in the story of Ruth happen in the context of community. The people that God brings into our lives are very significant and God he'll do that he'll do that he'll bring people into your life and sometimes out of your life but we planted Valley Lights Church so that other people could experience a very different kind of community very different from the typical community that you might find out and about in your life and to provide relationships of a really rich quality and so we believe here that you are not meant to live life alone. This church is a place where life is lived side by side, arm and arm, shoulder to shoulder so how would you answer this question right now? Who is your community? Who is your community currently? Who in your life has this say? Who has a voice? Who is somebody that could give you advice? Maybe even somebody that could challenge you. Is there anybody that holds you accountable or who is it you call when it comes to celebrations and times to to get excited or times when you're going through sadness? Who is it? Who are you sharing life with? Who is your community and there's always going to be things that tug at us and pull us away from making deep investments. It could be busyness, it could be priorities, it could be pride, there's all kinds of things and there's always going to be relational damage that needs to be carefully worked through and God has given us the instructions for them. But the relationships here at this church are very very special and very worth the investment and you've been hearing you've started to hear hopefully about a few different ways you can maybe take a step towards community. We're going to be doing family-style dinners throughout the fall. Those are monthly gatherings where you're going to get put together with different groupings of people. It'll be like maybe about four households, household meaning like a single or a couple or family with kids. A bunch of people put together and you'll get to rotate through and experience dinner with different people from church and get to know who is in this community. There's going to be some men's and women's gatherings that are going to really help target some important perspective as we demonstrate our allegiance to the Christ. But those men's and women's gatherings are a really great way to have your heart start connecting with others as well. And so we provided all the dates for those throughout the fall and so I hope that you can take that and begin to prioritize in your calendar those times and mark those off. Might even involve pushing some other things out of your calendar to make time for those times. But I really hope you take seriously those opportunities and show up with a mindset to deepen relationships and to really invest in the community. Membership is another way. We'll be talking a little bit more about membership over the next couple weeks. If you're newer to valley lights you can take your time to investigate. But after a while if you attend a church like ours and then you never really make a commitment and say I'm in. You can count on me. People usually just tend to drift. It's just sort of the inevitable sequence you know we watched over time and so membership provides a step of commitment that really helps bind us together. So in light of all of these things what would it look like for you to take a step closer to community. Let's respond with gratitude allegiance allegiance to Christ and to his body. Let's pray together. Father I thank you for this time that we've had and the story of Ruth which is in some ways it feels like a very different book of the Bible and there's just romance and tragedy and marriage and death and and all kinds of things that really are very easy to relate to. So I thank you for providing just beautiful and rich kinds of scripture in the Bible that we can learn from and I thank you so much for the the multi-thousand year plan that you've been working out and it may still actually go for thousands of years and it'll all happen according exactly the way that you want it to. And so we acknowledge you as the sovereign ruler over all and Lord would you help each one of us to establish you in our own hearts as the sovereign ruler and Lord. In Jesus name we pray amen.