Steadfast Love Gets Help

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0:02Good morning again everyone. My name is Joel and I serve you all as pastor here, the new creation. Happy to be gathering around the Word of God with you today. I do love the Word of God. So we're in the book of Ruth. This is not the first time I've done a deep dive myself into Ruth and it's, but it's still challenging me. Okay, so sports fans, let's see hands if you really are sports fans. Go ahead and put up your hands if you like sports of some kind. So keep your hand up if you're playing right now, if you feel like you're playing sports actively right now. Okay.

0:38So something I love about sports are the numbers. I like the action on the field too, don't get me wrong, but I'm a numbers guy and I like the numbers. I like all of the things that you track, all of the records you can look up, the trends you can see, the ways that you can compare things to each other and discuss them, debate them. Numbers are part of the game, I think. One stat I really like, it's tracked in basketball, hockey, soccer. I don't know if it's tracked in volleyball. You can tell me later, Abe. But the stat that I really love is assists. So who, let's hear from a teenager. Who's a teenager that can tell me tell me what an assist is? What's an assist? When you help someone score a goal.

1:28That's right. If you think about it, it's kind of fascinating that we track assists, right? A steal changes possession. A basket, a goal changes the score. Assists don't show up on the scoreboard anyway, do they? They're not up there. An assist is a pass, that's it. But it's a pass that, just like Elliott said, it leads to a score. Points on the scoreboard obviously define who wins the game, but without assists, fewer points are scored, right? So they don't show up there, but they matter a whole lot to the game. Some of the best players of whatever sport you're talking about don't score that many goals or points. Maybe they lead in assists. And so in that way, they are invaluable to their team. They see other people, their skill is to see other people in a good position and they give them the ball. Or they clear the lane for them and help them to score. Assists are unselfish.

2:33They're team-oriented. They're collaborative. They help others get to the goal that they're striving towards. I think in today's passage, we see the beginning of one of the great assists in the Old Testament. We're going to see it unfold in the next couple chapters, but what we see start today is an assist. That's what it is. Someone sees Ruth. She's practicing steadfast love. She's going for the goal. She's driving for the basket. And this other person comes in to give her the help that she needs to get there. That's what this passage is all about. So let's turn to Ruth 2, starting in verse 8, all the way to the end of the chapter. The pace of Ruth is going to pick up starting today. This is God's word for us. Let's pay attention. Let's receive it for what it is, the word of God coming to us today, July 21st, 2024. God's speaking to us right now. Then Boaz said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn. And she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? But Boaz answered her, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me and how you left your father and mother and your native land

4:20came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me, spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants. And at mealtime, Boaz said to her, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine.

4:53So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied and she had some left over. When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her. So she gleaned in the field until evening and then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley.

5:27And she took it up and went into the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.

6:07Naomi also said to her, this man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished my harvest. And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law. This is the word of the Lord. And please pray with me. God, thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for speaking and for giving us real people that had real lives. And those lives and their faithfulness were recorded for us to learn from. We learn what they did and we learn even more about what you were doing among them. Lord, would you please help us to pay attention to your word? Give us eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and soft hearts to receive it. And we pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen. Okay, so another rather ordinary passage. Remember how I told you at the beginning of the sermon series that Ruth is a very ordinary book. There's no religious authorities really. There's no kings and generals. There's no major world events happening. It's just ordinary life.

7:35The sermon series is called The Shape of Steadfast Love. What we learn about what the Bible calls hesed. Today we see that steadfast love gets help. That's what this passage is all about. Last week we saw Ruth do something simple and sacrificial. She went out into a glean, into a field to glean. She was doing it for her mother-in-law. She was going out to get food. She was going out and she was picking up dropped grain during a harvest. That's what gleaning is. And by the hidden guidance of God, Ruth ends up in Boaz's field. And then by another divine appointment, Boaz comes when Ruth is gleaning and they get to meet. And now Boaz shifts into the story and he plays a significant role from here forward. And here's what we see. Boaz gives real help. Boaz gives real help. There's a whole lot in this passage. There's a whole lot, a whole lot of verses here. But here's how Boaz helps her. It starts with this. Boaz spoke to her. It's such a simple thing that he spoke to her. He's rich and she's poor. He's a man. She's a woman. He's an Israelite. She's a Moabite. There were all kinds of reasons why he might not have chosen to speak to her. There were a lot of boundaries to cross, but he crossed them. He took the risk and he crossed them to speak to her, to honor her. And he has a message for her of kindness and of protection and provision. He says, now listen, my daughter, do not go and glean in another field. He says, stay here. Stay here. You're going to be safe here. He's already had a word with his

9:24reapers in case they have any ideas. Watch yourselves. Keep your hands to yourself. Do not harass her. Do not scold her. Do not rebuke her. She belongs here. Ruth is vulnerable and Boaz knows it. He makes his field a safe haven for her, a hedge of protection around her. This is amazing. Some men use the power that they have to become predators. Boaz uses the power he has to be a protector. And he uses the power he has to be a provider and a generous provider.

10:09When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn. She has free access. She doesn't even have to draw the water. They draw it for her. She comes and gets it. And at mealtime, Boaz passed to her roasted grain. Boaz is the master of the house and he's the one serving her. It's amazing. Ruth the gleaner, Ruth the foreigner, the master of the house is serving her. And the word passed, it could be translated heaped or piled. He is just giving her more and more food. It's like she's being polite. And she said, no, that's enough. I'm fine. And he's like, no, no, nonsense. Have some more. Have some more. Just pouring it in front of her. So much more that she ate everything that she wanted. She was satisfied and she had some leftover. And she takes those with her. This reminds me of my mom. Whenever my family goes over to eat with my mom and stepdad, whatever we eat, whether she makes it or we order it, she boxes it up and she sends it with us.

11:18It feels like a tangible help to me because we come home and for the next day or two, we have leftovers to eat. She makes, prepares, and orders way more than we need and she sends us home with it. And then later when she goes out to glean some more, Boaz tells his reapers, let her glean even among the sheaves. See, the gleaning was supposed to happen from the stuff that dropped on the ground. But Boaz is saying, no, no, let her take even from the gathered bundles.

11:49Let her do it. Don't rebuke her. She has special permission to do what other gleaners couldn't do. And then he tells them, pull some out from the bundles and just drop them on the ground. So she has more to get. Boaz is giving her every advantage possible. He's literally multiplying her efforts for the day. Usually gleaners would be fortunate. Remember how last week I compared it to collecting cans, back when cans were worth something, and how you would hardly get anything.

12:22Gleaners would be lucky to get home at the end of the day and have enough to feed themselves and their family. She comes home with 30 pounds of barley. That's how much an ephah is. It's enough food for two weeks. That is just unheard of. An insane and unreasonable amount for someone who's gleaning to get. Two weeks of food. Boaz has been a provider for her. A generous provider. But the other help that Boaz gives is during the meal. And this is just as important. It's probably mid-afternoon, the hottest time of the day. You all know well what that's been like lately with our weather. The hottest part of the day, it's a good time to sit in the shade and eat. There would be a table for the master of the house and for the staff, the hired reapers and things, to sit and eat.

13:15But gleaners were outsiders. There's no table for them. They would sit under a tree or someplace else to eat. In fact, another master might have seen a gleaner and said, come over here and serve us. But Boaz gives her a seat at the table. Come here and have some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. This inclusion among his staff and his people immediately gives her social standing, which she had none of. She's been included. She's one of them. Breaking bread together, dipping your bread in the common wine. It meant fellowship. It meant community. It meant belonging. What Boaz did made her feel welcome and it told others, everyone who was there, it's a communication from Boaz to them.

14:07She is one of us. She belongs here. When I was in high school, I lifted weights. And I know what you're thinking. That explains the chiseled physique that you're looking at right now. I usually went to the Y to do it. But one day I decided to go to my school's weight room. I literally didn't know the school had a weight room. And I heard and I was like, oh, I want to go and do that. But the only thing was I wasn't on any of the teams. None of the teams. Those guys weren't my friends. I wasn't in that group. So I kind of took a risk one day and went to work out after school. When I walked in, I immediately thought, oh, this was a huge mistake. I didn't belong. I knew I didn't belong. It was pretty obvious I didn't belong. I tried to avoid eye contact like you do when you are someplace you don't feel like you should be. I started to do my workout and then a popular guy in my grade saw me and started walking over towards me. I thought, oh boy, here it comes. And I was bracing myself for being the butt of a joke. Because plenty of guys from the teams were around. To my surprise, he said, hey, Joel, it's good to see you. I didn't know you lifted. And I said, yeah, for a few months now. And he said, that's great. Well, I'm glad you're here. If you need any help, just let me know.

15:46I was shocked. I was completely surprised. Totally floored. I just said, okay, thanks. I was an outsider. I was an easy target. Believe me. An easy target. But with that small interaction, he included me. He was someone that other guys looked up to. He included me and I felt like I belonged all of a sudden. And I did the rest of my workout with a little bit more confidence. Like, okay, I'm, this is okay. It's going to work out. Ruth was an outsider and Boaz made her feel like an insider. In fact, he made her an insider. He brought her in. He treated her like she belonged. For the first time since she left Moab, she's got people. She's got a community. She's been included.

16:48That is a significant thing that Boaz did for her. So Boaz is helping her with protection, with provision, with community. But why? Why is he doing it? That's what Ruth is asking. Why have I found favor in your eyes? I'm a foreigner, she says. I don't deserve this. You don't owe me this. And Boaz says this. If I were to sum up what he said, I would say that Boaz says to her, daughter, it's because you're practicing steadfast love. And I see it. He's done his homework about her. All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me. He knows what it's cost her. You left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people you did not know before. And Boaz sees that what drives all of it, everything she's done comes down to one thing, her relationship with the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. The steadfast love of God is what fuels her and sustains her. She's doing this because she loves Naomi. But even more than that, because the Lord loves her. And Boaz sees that and he is delighted.

18:19He's excited. He's saying, I've got to get in there and help. I've got to help this woman. She's doing an amazing thing. He's saying, daughter, you are loving in a remarkable way for a remarkable reason. It's my honor to come in and help you do it. And when Ruth hears this, she says, I have found favor for you have comforted me and spoken kindly. He didn't have to do any of that. Last week, we saw that the passage said that he's a worthy man, part of which means his ethical purity, his righteousness.

19:01And we see that here. Game recognizes game. He's a righteous man and he sees in her a righteous woman. And he says, I want to help. I want to come alongside what you're doing. Loving sacrificially can leave you feeling unseen, invisible. That's the nature of it. It goes with the territory. But when a person like Boaz comes along, oh, it is sweet relief. Someone notices me. I'm not in this by myself. And so that's what I want to talk about for a minute. The call to help. Let's try to apply this passage to us today. In any situation when there is a great need, there are usually three people.

19:55There is the person who has the need, the person in need. In this story, that's Naomi, right? She is in deep need. Then there's the person on the front lines of serving that need. The front lines, the person committed to practicing steadfast love to the person in need. And that's Ruth. That's Ruth here. She's on the front lines. She is in deep. She is in up to her eyeballs on loving Naomi. It is impacting her entire life. Boaz is the third person in the story. He's not on the front lines. Not yet. Let's see where the story goes. But right now, he's not on the front lines. But he is still engaged in the overall effort.

20:45The call of a Boaz is to help someone in the middle who is pouring out their life on the front lines for someone else. Do you see that? There's the person in need who has nothing to offer, who is nothing but a recipient of help. There's the person who has pledged everything on the front lines to help that person. And then there's the person, and I would say it could be people, who are engaged helping the person who is practicing steadfast love. There are Boaz's helping Ruth. This is really important. I've been saying that Ruth is an immensely practical book. It's very practical. And here's another reason why. Church, you may not be on the front lines of sacrificial service. You may not be right now. But you are probably near someone who is. You may not be on the front lines, but you are probably near someone who is, which means you can be a Boaz. You can help. Now, the Boaz role, it's got three elements to it that we see here. I'm going to quickly summarize what we saw Boaz do.

22:01It starts with learning about the situation, asking questions, listening. Boaz did his homework. He didn't make assumptions. Trying to understand the background, the needs that are being served, and why the person in doing it, this is all really important. Listening is a very meaningful way to care for someone. It's huge. Just listening to someone who is trying to be like Ruth is itself a way to serve them and love them and help them. And once you've learned about the situation, the second step is encouraging.

22:42People who are serving like Ruth, who are pouring out their life for someone else, they need encouragement. They need to be reminded that their actions are a beautiful reflection of Christ and a sweet offering of worship to God. They need to be told that because they forget. And if you've been in a Ruth role, you know that it's easy to forget when you're serving. Boaz affirmed the righteousness of what Ruth was doing. He talked to her about it. He prayed for her. He asked God to bless her. That was the content of what he was speaking to her. And then Boaz answered his own prayer. And that's the third element is supporting. Boaz said, the Lord repay you for what you have done. And then he walked away. No, he didn't. He said, the Lord repay you for what you have done. And then he said, here, have a whole bunch of barley. Take more. Take more. Take more. He talked to his reapers. Leave out more for her. He brought all of his resources forward and he said, what do I have? What do I have that can help this woman do what she's doing right now? She needs protection. I'll give it to her. She needs provision. She needs food. I'll give it to her. She needs, oh, she needs community. I'll give her that too. He brought forward everything he could generously. He multiplied what little she had. Listen, you don't have to have as much as Boaz to give someone support. Just bring forward what you have. It may be time. It may be a bed.

24:28It may be conversations. It may be relationships. It may be food. It may be money. Whatever you have, do you like Boaz, bring it forward for the sake of someone who is practicing love like Ruth, who is in deep on loving someone. So friends, this is for you to think about as we go from here today. Who are the Ruths around you? Who are the people who are in really deep, who are depleting themselves? Who do you know that's doing the heavy lifting of sacrificial steadfast love, where it's ongoing?

25:13It's day after day. And how could you help them? This passage teaches us how to be a Boaz in our community, in our church, in our family. But we can't leave without saying this. Here is the most important takeaway. Boaz reminds us of the help that God gives us. Because the times when we're Ruth, we have a greater Boaz. We have someone who helps us even more. When Ruth comes home with 30 pounds of barley, Naomi is stunned. This is unbelievable. She might have thought that Ruth robbed somebody.

25:54How did this even happen? And then Ruth takes out her to-go box from lunch. And she's just blown away. Naomi says, where did you glean today? Where have you worked? Ruth says, in a beautiful, poetic, drawn-out sentence, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. Now, she doesn't know what this means, but when Naomi hears the name Boaz, her whole world lights up. Because she knows that name. She knows who that is. She says, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead. Look carefully at that sentence. It's a blessing on Boaz, but the credit goes to God, right? Through Boaz, God has shown them kindness. And the word kindness, do you know what it is? It's chesed, steadfast love. Remember, this is Naomi talking, lamenting Naomi.

27:08Call me bitter, Naomi. But now her hope is getting revived. It's coming to life again. It's been rekindled because she sees God is working in this story. He's on the move. He's doing something. And here's the best part. Ruth, this man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. She's talking about a goel, someone who has the power to rescue family from crisis by reclaiming property, by freeing from slavery, or by replacing an heir. The help that Ruth has received is only the beginning, and Naomi knows it.

27:57She says, daughter, it's good. Stay in that field. Stay close to him. More is coming. Stay true to him. Don't go anywhere else. A redeemer has come into their story, and it was God who brought him. And church, a redeemer has come into our story, right? His name isn't Boaz. His name is Jesus, the Son of God, who took notice of us, just like Boaz took notice of Ruth. He took notice of us. He came to us in the field, and he said, take refuge under my wings. Friends, you can love like Ruth because God helps you like Boaz. If you take one thing away from today's passage, it's that. You can love like Ruth because God helps you like Boaz. He says, stay close by. Stay in my field.

29:00His kindness, his steadfast love will never forsake you. You can pour yourself out in loving service of other people, knowing that he will always protect you, always provide for you. In Romans 8, Paul asks, if God is for us, who can be against us? No one, right? No one. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for you. Will he not also with him graciously give us all things? And Ephah of Berkeley is just the beginning. There is more provision coming for Ruth, for Naomi, and for us. The same God that helped Ruth will help you. Walk in faithfulness to him. Stay by his side.

29:57Receive his help. Dwell in his field. As you practice steadfast love, God is helping you every day, and he will continue to as you fulfill the calling that you have, as you walk the path that you're on. Give yourself to steadfast love because God has and will help you. He's the redeemer. Amen? Let's pray. Lord, we praise you because Boaz was great, but oh, you are greater. So much greater. We thank you that we have you, Jesus. You will never leave us or forsake us.

30:44You provide for us. Lord, we read about how Ruth had all the food that she wanted. She was satisfied and had some left over. Lord, we think about how you did that for the 5,000 who gathered in that field. And we know that that points to the eternal provision you have for us. You are the bread of life. Would you help us today? Lift our eyes, rekindle our hope. Whatever level of steadfast love we are trying to practice towards others, would you please give us a reminder today of the hope that we have in Christ. Supply our needs, protect us, provide for us, and help us to keep walking. Jesus, we love you and we pray this in your name. Amen.