Early Christmas Decorating

Well, hello everyone. Welcome to the first service. How are you doing this morning? Yeah, I want to feel you. I want to feel Jesus in this room.

So, one of our core values is celebration, is know God, and our corporate services are about knowing God. So, let me just tell you, maybe some of you come from a Baptist tradition, maybe some of you come from a Methodist tradition. We are a, we don't really have a tradition, because we believe in what the Bible says, in celebration. So, you feel free to celebrate. You feel free to lift the name of Jesus.

That's what type of church is. Amen. Listen, listen, yeah, yeah. We are serving a God that's so good, so great. I love Jesus Christ, because all he's done in my life, and all, he can do something amazing in your life, too, if you're looking for that today.

He performs miracles. He's a, he's a wonder-working God, and he's amazing. So, why not worship him with all of our hearts, and all that he's doing, and all that he's done, and all he's going to do, all the promises that he's made. Amen. So, let me just say, just, just hit the turkey drop one more time before I begin the last message in our series here.

Guys, this is an awesome time to invite somebody. If you look to your left, and you look to your right, you'll see some empty seats here, right? Amen. We've gone to two services, and we're spread out a little more. I want to fill these seats.

Invite somebody that day. It's an awesome opportunity. We're able, we've had people that have found Christ through our turkey drop. We have people that have recommitted their lives to Christ through our turkey drop. It's an amazing way to support and celebrate our community, but it's an awesome way for you, as an individual, to invite somebody to church that day.

So, we, we, we would like you to do that. Invite somebody. Start telling people about the turkey drop. We're about three or four Sundays out from the turkey drop. It's, it's, it's, start telling people about it.

Get them to bring some ice cold turkeys to put in the back of our truck. We're going to have a jump house for the kids. We're going to have Dave's barbecue. We, we believe in doing it upright. When we, when we serve our community, we, we have fun doing it, okay?

And, uh, so we're going to have that. We're going to have face paintings. We're going to have the whole nine yards, some, some live DJ music outside. We're going to hook this, this theater up. And, and, uh, people are looking for something to do this season, guys.

I mean, it's, uh, there's always something that, that families are looking to do, especially, you know, with the close of, of, of summer and things like that here in Virginia Beach. So, invite somebody that weekend. I'm looking forward to it, guys. It's always awesome. It's going to be great.

So, we are in the last message of our series on, uh, right in the eye. And before I even hit the series, I want to mention this, too. Uh, if you're not, if you, if you're not planning on being here next week, change your plans. I'm going to have a guest speaker next week called Cliff Elrod. We are, um, and it will be Halloween, and he's going to share a message on deliverance.

He's been a part of Deliverance Ministries, and, and he knows a lot about this, and, and we know that there's things going on in the world. And, and, uh, we're, we're closing, we're closing this series today, and we're entering into that. And then we're going to go into another series called Be Generous. And we're going to have Michael Simone speak for us that first week. So, the next couple of weeks, we're going to have, and if you don't know who Michael Simone is, he's, he's, uh, he's one of the fathers here in this area in Hampton Roads of church planting, uh, Spring Branch Community Church.

He was the founder. He's going to be here in a couple of weeks as well. So, make plans to be here in the next couple of weeks. It's going to be awesome. Every week is an event, right?

Every week to be at church is an event. We want to, we, you know, just being here celebrating God is an event, and we don't want to miss out on that. So, we started this series with this horrible story, this sickening story. It was fascinating, but sickening at the same time. It was horrible, and, and, uh, of, of how Israel, you know, went, uh, just, if you haven't heard that story, you need to go back to, to message one.

You can go to saltchurch.org and hear that message. But, but, uh, it was just a very dark time. There was a lot of death. There was a lot of things.

There was a lot of rebellion that happened right at the end of Judges, because I started off at the end of Judges. And it ended up with, uh, with no hero and no king. And, and it, this, this last scripture, uh, that, that was there, and it's found in Judges 21, 25. In those days, there was no king. And everyone did what.

It was right in their own eyes. So God's chosen people did what they wanted, when they wanted, with whom they wanted, and it ended up in despair. Sounds a lot like our culture, right? We do what we want, when we want, with whom we want. But what we do is we add this little caveat.

As long as it doesn't hurt anybody, right? As long as it doesn't hurt anybody. And the tragedy was that ancient Israel began with this divine intervention, like God was their king, they were under this theocracy, and then the nation would have these judges that administered these laws. But they looked like everybody around them because they started wanting to be like everybody around them. And over and over again, God said, do not be like the people around you, but they were like the people around them anyway.

Then it ended up in disaster. And what did they do? They cried out to God, and God came and saved them and delivered them. And then they did it again, right? They disobeyed God, they went in disaster, and it was over and over and over again.

And he rescued them every time. Because here's the deal, God had a plan for Israel. Although Israel didn't seem to want to be a part of that plan, God was going to have his plan anyway. He was like, you can work with me, or you can watch me work. God is still working.

God is still doing what he does. Even in darkness, he's always working. In that area, when people did what they did, with whom they want, when they wanted, how they wanted, God was actually doing something else. In this dark 300-year period between the time of Joshua and the time of the kings, God was actually doing something. He was preparing for Christmas.

He was an early decorator for Christmas. How many of you are early decorators? All right. How many of you are afraid to put up your hand because you're going to be judged because you're early Christmas decorators? Well, guess what?

You're off the hook today because God was an early decorator, and he began to decorate for Christmas during this time. And when it seemed that God was not there, when it seemed that the place was dark, there was a little light. The little light in that 300 years of God was doing something. When we don't see him, we don't feel him. When we don't know that he's there, when it seems so dark, he is doing something.

And he decided to use a woman that was disappointed with God, that didn't think that God was there, that didn't even know if God even existed anymore because she had faced so much tragedy. He chose to choose a woman like that and a Hebrew man that even though people thought it was dark, even though people thought that there was no hope, even though the old nation looked like it was going the wrong direction, this man chose to serve God. He chose to believe God that God was still working. He chose to believe God was doing something in this world, and he chose to go against the grain. In a time when people were saying that there is no God and Israel does not have a God, what was happening was God was preparing for Christmas.

And here's what happened. We're going to talk today about the story of Ruth and Boaz and a woman named Naomi. A woman named Naomi. So, if you're in the Bible app or Bible.com, you can go and find our event.

You can go there and follow along in your notes, or if you have your Bible with you, you can open up. And it says this, if you're following along with me, Ruth 1-1, in the days of the judges. So, what's happening here? Ruth is a separate book. It's not actually Judges, right?

But it happens during the Judges. It happens right in the middle of Judges. And this event was happening in that day. And it says, in that day, in those days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So, a man from Bethlehem.

Isn't that interesting? Bethlehem in Judah. Together with his wife in Judah. Two sons went to live for a while in the country of Moab. So Moab was this country, it was kind of across the Dead Sea, it was not an Israelite territory, it was another nation, so there was a famine, so they had to move on from where they were.

And the man's name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi, and the names, and the names of his two sons, and we don't know the names of his two, I mean I know the name of his two sons, I can't pronounce them very well, so I'm just going to skip that real quick, okay? And they're a small part of the story, but God was still working in this. So while they were there, they decided they were going to marry off their two sons, let's just marry off our two sons to the Moabite women. But this was forbidden by God, of course. God did not allow Israelites to marry in, not because they didn't believe, that he didn't believe in interracial marriage, but they brought their gods into the marriage.

But you know, we're among the Moabites, do as the Moabites, if you live among the Moabites, so let's just marry them off. So they marry them off, and then, interesting thing, Naomi's husband dies. And then, a few days, or a few years, or whatever time, they don't give us specifics, her son dies. And then, over a little bit of time, her other son dies. And then, Naomi is left with just her and two daughter-in-laws.

And Naomi's like, so bitter, and so upset about what's happened, she decides, I'm just going to leave, I'm going to go home, I'm going to go back to Bethlehem, where I'm from, my people, my place. And she tells the two daughter-in-laws, you know, you could stay here, why don't you remarry, you're young, I'm kind of older, and you can move on. But the interesting thing about this is, one of the daughter-in-laws says, no, I'm not going to leave you. And her name was Ruth. And Ruth was like, I am not going to leave you, I'm going to be with you.

She begged to stay with her, but Naomi's like, you can't stay with me, because it was a very dangerous age, in many places, even today, it's a very dangerous area for women. And this, in this particular time, a single woman, without children, without, and Naomi was older, and she was probably not going to live much longer, and she knew that. And she didn't want to bring Ruth over into this area of people she didn't even know, and she didn't, it was just a very dangerous thing. This was a very dangerous thing for her, so there's some context there of why Naomi's like, no, go and marry off to another Moabite man, and live your life, and be happy. But she says no, and she says this, but Ruth replied, where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay, and your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

She had no idea how powerful, and the meaning of that, and profound meaning of that statement was. And then she said this, where you die, I will die, and where you are buried, I will also be buried. So, Naomi gives in, she goes to Bethlehem, and the people are wondering, isn't that Naomi? Naomi, and Naomi, she's so upset, and she's so bitter, and she's so angry, she says, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, meaning bitter. And she's going around, and she's proclaiming that to her whole community.

How many of you have been there? Don't call me happy, I'm sad today, I want to be miserable, and here's Naomi being miserable. And here's what she said, the Lord has afflicted me, and the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. And in a way, she was a microcosm of Israel. And God has abandoned our nation, God is not there, and she feels that thing.

But she had no idea that 3,500 years later, we would be talking about her today, because she was a part of a bigger picture, she was part of a bigger plan. God had something bigger, God had something greater for her. She had no idea that she was going to be the epicenter of a story that was beginning with her. Even though she felt like God wasn't there, God was there, and God was doing something, and God was working behind the scenes. So when they arrived in Bethlehem, in her home area, it was the harvest season, the barley harvest.

So the interesting thing about the barley harvest is it was a big industry in that area. And the owners of those fields, they owned acres of land, and they would send their servants in, and their servants would go through the field. But there was a law of Moses that said you could only harvest the field once, and you had to leave the rest for the poor and the widowed, so they could come in and collect barley, and it was a way to take care of the poor. So that's how they took care of the poor in that day. And interestingly enough, so Deborah, Naomi and Ruth were talking, and Naomi's like, you've got to go out and collect some barley because we've got to eat, because we're poor, and we're both widowed, or we've got to sell some stuff so that we can, you know, make it, because we don't have a lot.

So Ruth goes out to the field, and it so happens to be this man named Boaz. Now, Boaz, we don't know it at this point in the story, but Boaz is a distant relative of Naomi. And Boaz recognizes this woman. They're talking among themselves, and he looks, and he sees, and he sees all the Israelite, you know, the poor widows and different ones collecting barley out there, and he's like, who's that woman? And they start talking about it and says, that is the daughter-in-law of Naomi.

That's the daughter-in-law of Naomi. And she did this sacrificial thing. She did this thing of, she left her family. She left her home. She was faithful to Naomi to take care of Naomi.

She gave up everything, and she did this wild thing. And Boaz was impressed, and later he has this talk with her. And it says, Boaz replied, I've been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since today. The death of your husband. How you left your father and your mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before.

And this is what Boaz says. This is very profound, because this is a day where people did not believe in God, who felt like God was far away from them, who it was in a dark time. And he says this, may the Lord repay you for what you have done. Contrary to everything that's going on around them. Contrary to everything that's happening in that world, in that time, in that period of judges, where it seems like God is far away.

There is one man that knows that God is still faithful. That God is still working. Some of you need to hear that today. That God is still faithful, and God is still working. And he says, I am a man who's going to go against the grain.

Although everybody else has denied God, I am going to honor God, because I know God will repay her. And he says this, may you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. So Boaz tells his servants, he says, do not touch her, do not hurt her. She is under a safe keeping. Just leave her alone and take care of her.

And then she goes home and tells Naomi. And Naomi explains, you know, that's a distant relative of yours. And then, you know, weeks go by, months go by. And Naomi starts talking to Ruth about Boaz. And she says, you know what, you need to get married.

You need to get married. Because, you know, I'm not going to live much longer. And also, in the talk, there was this piece of land that her husband had owned. So, just to put this together, Boaz was a kinsman redeemer, okay? In that time, people called kinsman redeemers.

And a kinsman redeemer, if you don't, you can kind of see it like that. They're that rich family member that has more money than God, you know, that's always bailing everybody out and trying to help everybody. And... If somebody gets in trouble, you know, they just kind of come around. Some of you may have that family member, you know, maybe it's a distant cousin.

Maybe it's a distant relative. Maybe it's an uncle or something like that. And a kinsman redeemer was a wealthy person and the extended family that would help the family. And kinsman redeemer, another word for that was an avenger. They were an avenger of the family.

And here's what a kinsman redeemer did. If you want to watch the screen, you can write this down. You can follow this. They were to protect. They protect impoverished family members.

They repurchased lost property. They redeemed relatives that were sold into slavery because during that period of time, if you owed money to somebody, they could take you into slavery or they could take your children into slavery. So they would purchase them out of slavery. Or they would provide an heir, in some extreme cases, provide an heir for male relatives. So if the family ends there and they want to carry on the family name, then they would marry the widow.

The widow of the person who passed away in order to keep the heir going, keep the estate going. And Naomi tells Ruth, she needs to find her kinsman redeemer. And hello, we got Boaz over there that's paying a little bit of attention to you. And since Naomi's like, I'm just too old, you know, and I'm not going to be able to marry. So you need to marry to carry on the estate, to carry on the family name.

And with this piece of property, I don't want to lose it. And I don't know how they lost it. Maybe her husband sold it or it got taken away. But the kinsman redeemer could redeem back that property. So she needed that property because that was basically her living.

That's the rest of her life, you know. So we need a kinsman redeemer. And when we think about this, we think, in our culture, we think of Boaz, you know, this probably 60, 70 year old man or whatever he is. Maybe he's 40, 50, and then this young, like, Ruth, you know, and it's almost like, oh, yeah, look at him. You know, he's going after this.

But it wasn't, in this culture, it wasn't seen that way. This older man and this really young, you know, woman, and it's like a trophy wife or whatever. It wasn't seen that way because this was very risky for Boaz, okay? Because when you married somebody, you brought everything in. You brought their family in.

And she was a Moabite woman, okay? So he didn't know anything about that side of the family. He didn't know what risks were involved. And to become a part of, and she would become automatically a part of that estate, you know. Ruth was a Moabite, and who knows what they would bring into that particular situation.

So it's a big deal. It's one that's bigger than just allowing her to go into the fields and collect barley and protect her. It was like a big, big commitment. So she goes, and she asked him to marry her. And he says, yes, I will.

But there's one hitch. You have a closer relative. So if that closer relative, which the kinsman redeemer was usually the closest relative to the family. So he actually was an honorable man. He followed the law of the Lord, even though nobody else did.

He wanted to do the right thing because Boaz is a man of God. And he says, we're going to do the right thing, and we're going to talk to the other kinsman redeemer. And we're going to make sure that he's okay with it. And then I will marry you. I will take you in.

I will take care of you. And I'll take care of your family. I'll take care of Naomi. And he says, okay, let's go talk to him. But he's got to understand this.

Like, the property's a good deal, you know. But somebody comes with it, and that's Ruth, the Noavite woman. So he goes to the fence of the city, the gate of the city, and that's where they talk and make deals. And he starts talking to this other man. And he tells him, he says, hey, listen, the land's a good deal.

All that's a good deal, but you've got other stuff that comes along with this. And here's Ruth. And Ruth comes with this land. And you've got to take Ruth in. And the guy's like, no way, Jose.

She's a Moabite woman. I don't know what she's going to bring in. I don't know what family member's going to show up on the door one day knocking while you, you know, give me some money. Help me out. I don't know that it's too.

It's too risky. You marry her. You have her. It's yours. She's yours.

The land's yours. Take it. It's just too risky for me. And here's what it says in Scripture, and the day you buy the land for Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite and the dead man's widow in order to maintain the property of the dead. Here's what it said.

At this, the guardian redeemer said, which is another word for kinsman redeemer, then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeemed it yourself, and I cannot do it. So there you go. So Boaz does this deal, and he marries Ruth. And they have a son.

And the story could end here. I mean, Naomi sees the faithfulness of God, and there's one point in the story where Naomi's holding the child. And she says, you know, God is faithful. God has come through. God actually is there.

I lost everything, but here I see I have this child. It could end there. We see Boaz, this faithful man of God, who has done the right thing. And we see Ruth is taken care of because she was faithful and she did the right thing. And we could learn a lot from this.

But here's the thing. God wasn't through because God made a promise to Israel and God stands by his promises. His promises are firm and God will redeem his promises. God will fulfill his promises. He always fulfills his promise.

So Boaz and Ruth have a child named Obed. And Obed has a child named Jesse. And Jesse has a whole lot of boys in Bethlehem. And years go by and one day God speaks to the prophet Samuel and he says, Samuel, I'm getting ready to do something in Israel that nobody's ever seen. I'm getting ready to do something in Israel that nobody will ever.

It will have ramifications for thousands and thousands of years until 2021, 2022 and beyond. It will have it will have such great impact. I need you, Samuel, to go to the house of Jesse and find him. He's there. So Jesse.

So Samuel goes to the house of Jesse and he lines up. Jesse lines up all of his sons and they're all there and he's going through and says, surely this has got to be king. Look at this guy. He's handsome. He's strong.

He's this. And God says, no, no, no. All the way down the line, he says, no. And then Samuel looks at Jesse and says, Jesse. I know I got the right house.

Do you have another son? He says, well, yeah, I got one out in the field. But I'm telling you, Samuel, he's not the king. OK, I'm just telling you. Samuel says, I will not sit down till you bring him to me.

And he brings in David and he anoints him and in walks the second king of Israel. And David would have a son. And let me just step back for a second. Years later, the prophet. Nathan would speak to David.

Second Samuel 716, your house and your kingdom. Will endure before me. Your throne will be established forever. And thus it was established that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David. David and 25 begats later, 25 pregnancies later.

Matthew. Would say this. Eleazar, the father of Mathen and Mathen, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Joseph and Joseph, the husband of Mary. And Mary was the mother of Jesus. He's called the Messiah.

He's called the Messiah. And throughout Jesus's ministry, he would be called the son of David, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, who is the son of Boaz, Ruth his mother. And many years later, Jesus would be born. And in some respects, Boaz and Ruth saved Christmas. They saved Christmas.

Boaz didn't save Christmas. Boaz and Ruth saved Christmas, right? And Boaz and Ruth, they never knew. They never knew just that one small decision could have changed everything. Like that one small decision.

They had no idea that thousands of years later, their relatives and many generations down the line that this pregnant fiance that was born and seated by the Holy Spirit would be the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Savior, the Savior of the world. They would be a bigger part. They would be a small part of a bigger story. They didn't know that. And here's the amazing thing.

When when Jesus was born, wise man sought him out. And they believed him not to be just a baby. But he was a king. But he was a king. A king was born.

And this this man named Herod, he was the king. He was the ruler over that region. He was the ruler over that area. He believed him to be a king. He believed him to be a king.

And sought to slay him. And years later, this king would stare into the eyes of the Roman government. A man named Pontius Pilate. As Pontius asked, are you a king? And he said, that I am.

That I am. I am a king. And I was born for this. I was born for this. But don't get it wrong, Pontius.

Don't get it wrong, Pilate. I'm not the kind of king you suppose I am. Because as John 18 says, my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is of the heart.

My kingdom is of the conscience. I have come to reign and rule over men and women in the heart. I have run the reign from the inside out. And Pontius Pilate would just become a footnote in the history of King Jesus. Of King Jesus.

And this king would be more than a mortal king. This king would leverage his power for the powerless. He would teach us how to treat others. This king would not demand his followers to die for him. But demand to be put to death for his followers.

He laid down his life for his friends. He laid his life down for his enemies. And those he had every right to rule, he laid down his life for. And in doing so, he removed all doubt as to whether he was to be trusted. Because he was God.

And God can be trusted. And he is the king that invites every single one of us today. Invites us to call him king. And call him Lord. And to ask him to come and reign and rule over our hearts.

So my question is today as we close. It took God hundreds of years to prepare for the first Christmas. He decorated early. He had it going on. It took him hundreds of years.

But a simple decision can be a part of your story. You can be a part of this story today. A simple decision can be a part of this story. And hundreds and hundreds of years in a single decision could be personal for you today. It could be personal for you today.

That this king, this Lord. And when you yield to your heart, your creator, the king, the savior, king Jesus, son of David, the Lord, the Messiah. Amen. Amen. You make a decision that can personally, that that greater story personally has power to change your life, to change your history, to change your hope in the midst of darkness.

Maybe you're here and you have bitterness in your life and bitterness in your heart. You maybe you're a Naomi, but but as we conclude and enter into this season, we're getting ready to come up on Christmas and Thanksgiving and all this stuff. And as we celebrate this great, this great, this great moment, I want to I want you to consider something today. I want you to consider something today if you're here with me and you have have not considered Jesus Christ. I want you to consider doing something and say, God, God, instead of sitting at the throne of my heart, my own heart, would you sit on the throne of my heart?

Would you work in me and out of me rather than the outside in? Would you would you do that, Jesus? Would you do that today? No longer from the outside in, but the inside out. And if you learn this and if you grab on to this, Jesus Christ will revolutionize your life.

He will revolutionize you from the inside and ultimately your lifestyle on the outside. He can do that for you. He but but here's the thing. He is not a king of this world and he will not force you. He's a king of freedom.

He gives you the ability to receive him. And he said in the New Testament, as as you look in the book of Revelation, behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if you hear my voice and open the door of your heart, I will come in. There's no better offer than that. Would you make that decision for him today?

Would you make that decision for him today? Let's let's close our eyes and let's bow our heads. If that's you today and maybe maybe you're somebody who's not ever known God or maybe you walked away from God. And maybe it's time that maybe God's calling you back to him. Make that decision today that he would rule over your heart.

God, today I make the decision coming to my heart. I believe that you are the God. I believe that you are Jesus Christ, that you died on the cross for my sin, for my bitterness, for my anger, for my hopelessness, Lord. So come into my life today. No longer will I rule from the inside, from the outside in, but I'm going to allow you to rule from the inside out.

I declare that because I no longer want to do what's right in my own eyes. I'm ready to do what's right in your eyes. I'm ready to do what's right in your eyes. So change me and transform me in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.