Ruth: True Security

Ruth: A Story of Redemption  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  40:37
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In the second chapter of Ruth we see displayed for the security provided to us by God

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On Maslow’s triangle of basic needs the need for security is second only to our basic physiological needs (food, water, clothing, shelter) and is defined as the state of being safe, stable and free from fear or anxiety. The fact that it is listed on Maslow’s hierarchy suggests that as humans, in order to properly function, we need security. Without security we will descend into fear filled anxious people who, much like the famed Punxsutawney Phil, are terrified of their own shadow. So the question becomes, as creatures who will search to meet our basic needs, how and where do we find security. Some feel as though money and fame and power will meet their need for security. Steve Pavlina as much as makes this the point of an article in which he states that “Security comes from trusting in yourself — in your ability to think and to take action. As long as you have the ability to think and take action, you’re secure. Given this mindset you could be homeless and still feel secure… Your security is guaranteed. It cannot be turned off by external events.” Others take a road that is far less materialistic in nature and in the writing of Paul Dunion we find that most people confuse feeling secure with the reality of being secure and he posits that most people cover true security with experiences (or memory of experiences) that help them feel secure citing examples such as: · Milk and cookies at Grandma’s (assuming Grandma is a nurturing soul). · *Sitting around a crackling fire during a winter storm. · *Cuddling with a puppy. · *An education. · *A promotion. · *Financial investments doing well · *High on drugs or alcohol. · *Feeling loved by someone. · *Receiving positive notoriety. · *Being invited to a prestigious event. · *A smooth landing on the runway of your destination after a long flight. Then tells us that “None of the above frees us from danger, nor takes the sting out of possible danger. Let’s explore what it might mean to actually be secure” and gives us a list of five actions that WE can take to be more secure: 1. Accept Death 2. Make peace with suffering 3. Accept life on its own terms (search for depth and meaning instead of happiness) 4. Be the recipient of presence (have some real friends) 5. Learn to forgive ourselves in which he quips a. “Since self-forgiveness cannot be willed, WE must start by opening our hearts with compassion when we falter, acting in ways considerably less than ideal. The HOPE is that compassion yields a level of mercy that begins to release us from a demand of self-punishment” In other words, in all our humanity, our answer to the question is that we find security within the very flawed, broken beings that we are…. thank God that this is not His answer. This morning as we continue looking at the Redemptive Story in the book of Ruth we will find that security is provided in the hands of God. The necessary components of feeling secure are provision, the meeting of our basic needs, protection, being safe from harm, and finally the prospect of a brighter future, hope. As we pick up the story from last week I want to remind you of where we are, Naomi and her family traveled to Moab where her husband and two sons died, leaving Naomi and her two daughters-n-law without security, as they begin the return trip one daughter in law desserts while the other (Ruth) clings to her mother n law, and more importantly to God, and accepts the challenge of this new life. At the end of Chapter One we find the line “they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest” follow along with me in your copy of God’s Word as we read chapter 2 of Ruth. Provision As we previously discussed there are certain prerequisites needed in order for us as humans to be secure. If we look again to Maslow’s pyramid we need to understand that for the pyramid to function the underlying levels must be intact. So, for example in our situation, we must understand that the initial requirement of security is our basic physiological needs, food, clothing shelter. In our text we see that Ruth has determined to set out to furnish one of those needs. A requirement of Israelites at that time was that when they gathered grain they were to follow the Levitical teachings: Leviticus 19:9-10 (HCSB) 9 “When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am Yahweh your God. Leviticus 23:22 (HCSB) 22 When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am Yahweh your God.” As a result of this requirement, those who were poor or foreigners in the land were able to go behind those who were bailing the grain and collect the gleanings. Ruth sets out to take advantage of this God given provision, but as we will see and are reminded, God is able to do abundantly more than we could ever hope. (verses 8-9a, 9c, 14-18). God’s provision provided far more than gleanings. The out pouring of the provision of God’s life is a direct result of Ruth’s obedience to go. I know, I know, God doesn’t need us to do anything. He is more than capable of providing for us without our interaction BUT lets look at what scripture has to say. Malachi 3:10 (HCSB) 10  Bring the full tenth into the storehouse so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this way,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out a blessing for you without measure. Matthew 6:31-34 (HCSB) 31  So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32  For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34  Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. We could go on, but the point is made, the provision of God (both physical and spiritual) is activated out of our obedience, but what obedience… obedience in seeking His glory, His praise, His honor. Listen, in Malachi the conversation is that the people of God have begun to rely on themselves and take care of themselves and think that they don’t need the provision of God. In Matthew, Jesus is speaking in the sermon on the mount and he is talking to those listening about worry and anxiety, NATURAL results of insecurity and He tells them two things about the provision of God. First to SEEK the Kingdom of God and to SEEK the righteousness of God and he will provide for you…Do you know what the kingdom and righteousness of God is? Here is an answer for you, maybe you want to write this down, its profound, I assure you…JESUS. Seek Jesus, when you seek Jesus you will find Jesus and when you find Jesus…all these things will be provided for you and that bottom layer of your need triangle just got satisfied. Protection Another item that we need for security is protection. As we look at the text we see that God provided for the physical protection of Ruth just as he provides for the spiritual protection of His people. First of all in a divine manner he places Ruth and Boaz together verse 3b. We also see that Boaz provides physical protection to Ruth verse 9b and verse 22, but then we see that Boaz recognizes that the protection is not just physical but spiritual and ultimately provided by God, verse 12. As people when we think about the protection piece of security we think immediately of our physical need of protection, the prevention of bodily harm, because well, lets be honest, we don’t like pain, we don’t like danger, and we do like life. We protect ourselves with locks, alarm systems, and guns. We stay away from places that will place us in physical danger and we seek to avoid pain and anquish at all costs. We learn self-defense, carry pepper spray and some even have an arsenal at their disposal to protect themselves. We worry and concern ourselves with our physical safety. I would contend however, that before we concern ourselves with our physical safety, we need to concern ourselves with our spiritual safety and there is no place I know more secure than in the hands of the almighty. John 10:27-30 (HCSB) 27 My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.” IT doesn’t matter how much protection you have for your physical safety, all the AR-15’s in the world WILL NOT protect you in eternity. Faith in Christ is the ONLY way to have that eternal protection and safety. When we run to Him our protection is eternal. When peter climed out of that boat his focus was on who would provide his protection, where his help would come from, where his security rested…it was only when that focus drifted from Christ that the realization of his current dilemma began to sink in and well, he began to sink. Who will you turn to for protection? Prospect For a Better Tomorrow In Ruth’s life, God has provided physical (and spiritual) provision, physical (and spiritual) protection and now we will see that he is also providing for her a prospect for a better tomorrow, both physically and spiritually. As the chapter winds to its conclusion we see the interaction with Ruth and Naomi as Ruth returns from the fields and begins to recount her day to Naomi. I imagine they were sitting around the kitchen table and Ruth had just brought in the bags of groceries and the leftovers from the lunch shared with Boaz. I can just hear the chattering conversation over a nice pumpkin spice latte now. Ruth just told Naomi whose field she had been working in and as the name sinks in and she realizes whose field this is a spark that has previously been missing from Naomi, ignites. For the first time, she sings praises to God and rejoices that He (God) has not forsaken the living or the dead. She then shares with Ruth what has her so excited…he is a family redeemer. This is important because under the Levitical Law the following was the requirement in a normal situation of a widow: Deuteronomy 25:5 (HCSB) 5 “When brothers live on the same property and one of them dies without a son, the wife of the dead man may not marry a stranger outside ⌊the family⌋. Her brother-in-law is to take her as his wife, However, since there was no brother in law there the only other option was a family redeemer. There was at last a true hope for not only Ruth, but because Boaz was of Elimelech’s family it would also redeem Naomi by protecting the land and inheritance that would have been her sons, inheritance could only pass from father to sons, so the inheritance could now pass to Boaz. Because Naomi understood these things the prospect for their future just became so much brighter. As people we need hope, earlier I read for you the “path” to self forgiveness mentioned in the article and it stated “The HOPE is that compassion yields a level of mercy that begins to release us from a demand of self-punishment.” You see even those who do not believe search for hope. People need hope to sustain them and drive them. Look at how drawn people are to verses and statements that proclaim a hope and a future to them and sadly we propagate that desire by sticking these verses on every mug, t-shirt and bumper sticker we can find and there is no explanation as to what that hope really means. You see, we see hope and as lost, broken, wretched people we call that hope, life goals and we expect that as we follow this path this hope will produce for us all the things we expect, all of the dream, ambitions and things that we want, that is our expectation of hope. So what is our real hope? John Piper defines it for us this way: Biblical hope not only desires something good for the future; it expects it to happen. And it not only expects it to happen; it is confident that it will happen. There is a moral certainty that the good we expect and desire will be done. What we must understand from this and the truth of hope is that we KNOW and BE CONFIDENT that the good we expect, and desire will be done. Let’s be clear, that is NOT a recipe for name it and claim it theology that states that if we want a new car, it will happen, a new house, here’s the key, to be rich, here is the check book…this is when our will aligns with the will of God, we can be confident that it will happen. One of the things that I desire to happen is the growth of God’s kingdom, will that happen? Am I confident? I desire and expect this church to grow, will that happen? Am I confident? I desire and expect my relationship with my wife to last until death do us part, will that happen? Am I confident? There is an old song that sums this up nicely for me: Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly rest on Jesus name. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand. If our hope is found in Christ Alone and He is the Good Shepherd then it stands to reason that we must be His sheep, are you among His flock today? I don’t mean have you walked the aisle and signed a card, I mean are you truly trusting in Him alone today? Is he alone your source for security? We have seen today that security in anything else is false security, that the only means of being truly secure are to rest in the finished work of Christ on the Cross. It is by that work of grace that faith in Christ alone can save to the uttermost and we Ephesians 1:13-14 (HCSB) 13 When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. 14 He is the down payment of our inheritance, for the redemption of the possession, to the praise of His glory. Where will you go for your security today? Anything other than the unwavering faithfulness of Jesus Christ is sand…allow him to take your hand, provide you with that security you are searching for, In Christ Alone.
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