Steadfast Love Willingly Embraces the Cost

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0:01Good morning again, everyone, and my name is Joel, and I'm happy to be serving you all here at New Creation. We are in a sermon series on the book of Ruth. It is good to be here with you all. I love to be with God's people. It's true, with brothers and sisters in Christ, and one of the reasons for that is that when I'm around God's people, I am influenced in a positive direction. It's the good kind of peer pressure, I guess you could say. It's a holy kind. The word contagious, it usually means something bad is spreading, right? But there's something else that's contagious, and that's love for God, right? Anybody here ever experience that? Being around someone who is just excited about who God is, about the gospel, about following him, and it makes you more excited. Someone who is following him in ways that you hadn't thought about, or you were on the sidelines about, and you're like, you know what? I want some of that too, and it gets you excited. It gets you in the game more. Wildfire spread, but so does the fire of the Holy Spirit, right? It spreads from one person to another. To be near someone who is laying down their life, in some way or another, serving others and loving the Lord and honoring him, it fires you up. Now that's what happened. That's what we see in today's passage in Ruth 4. Last week, Ruth took a huge risk. If you weren't here for it, go read Ruth 3 sometime.

1:49Ruth took a huge risk. She came to Boaz while he was sleeping at the threshing floor. It was scandalous to even go there and do that. With great courage and great vulnerability, she uncovered his feet. She laid down there, and when he awoke, she said to him, spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. She was saying, marry me, but she was saying something more. She was saying, join me, Boaz. Join me in showing steadfast love, or in Hebrew, hesed. Join me in showing hesed to Naomi. Do this with me, Boaz. Boaz was deeply moved by that. He praised her, and he told her, yes, I will. I want to, but there's someone who's closer. There's a redeemer.

2:48It's closer in line than I am. It wouldn't be right to just skip over him, but he said, tomorrow I will get things moving. You've gotten me excited, Ruth. Your love for the Lord, your service of Naomi has lit a fire in me, so I'm going to go tomorrow, and I'm going to get things moving. One way or another, redemption for you is coming, Ruth. It's coming tomorrow, so let's turn to Ruth 4 and find out what happens. This is God's holy word. It's completely reliable for us. We should listen to it. We should pay attention. We should build our lives upon it, so let's receive it as what it is today, the very word of God. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, turn aside, friend. Sit down here, and he turned aside and sat down, and he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. So they all sat down. Then he said to the redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know. For there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you. And he said, I will redeem it. Then Boaz said, the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. Then the redeemer

4:52said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. To confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. So when the redeemer said to Boaz, buy it for yourself, he drew off his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Malon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day. Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. Pray with me. Lord, as we sit under your word, I ask you to do the work that only you can do, which is to change us and renew us in the image of Christ our Savior. Show us the hope that we have in him and show us what it means

6:50to follow you today. Lord, give our eyes clarity of sight to behold your glory, to be compelled by the great love that has been shown to us, so that we follow you excitedly, Lord, eagerly, with great faith and looking for you to work and move among us. And we pray this, Jesus, in your name. Amen. So this is the second to last sermon in the Ruth series. The series is called The Shape of Steadfast Love. Today we see that Steadfast Love Willingly Embraces the Cost. Now I doubt that Boaz got much sleep that night, and not just because Ruth was at his feet. I imagine that he was lying there and he was planning what he was going to do the next day. He was, you ever been there? Something important's coming up the next day and all you can think about is you're rehearsing your steps, what you're going to do? I think that's what was happening probably, because Boaz wakes up and he is charged up. The morning dawns and Boaz follows through. Now this passage today, it's like the second half of a Law and Order episode. It's all legal stuff. It's all taking place in a courtroom. It's a legal proceeding. Boaz wants to be the Goel for Naomi. Goel is a Hebrew word. It's translated in some of your Bibles. It might read kinsman redeemer. In the ESV, they just render it redeemer. A Goel was a relative of a dead family member who had the legal right to rescue the family in crisis. They could do that by redeeming property. They could purchase someone out of slavery or they could replace heirs so that a family line could keep going. This is Israelite

9:07family law. Real exciting stuff, right? But you know, sometimes you go where God calls you to do the work that he calls you to do, even if it's in a courtroom, right? God can do amazing things in a lot of different places. Last week, it was a threshing floor in secret at night. This is in broad daylight with a lot of people around. God is still working. This is a legal thing. Boaz has got to act with integrity and transparency. There can't be any trickery here. This thing has got to be legally sound. But he is still shrewd. And he's got a plan. Look at this. He starts first thing in the morning.

9:54He goes out to the city gate. The city gate was like the courthouse of a place like Bethlehem. There was no courthouse. This was the courthouse, the city gate. There were alcoves around it. There were benches nearby. There were places set up to have meetings. That's where you would do business transactions. That's where you would have a court would meet there. Business would be done there, legal proceedings. Boaz goes and he sits and he waits for the other redeemer to come along because everybody passes through there as they're going out to their work and coming back. The other redeemer comes just as Boaz expects. And when he does, Boaz initiates. Hey, friend, turn aside here. Come sit down. The other guy knows that Boaz is not looking for a chat. He's not wanting to just chew the fat.

10:50Boaz has got business to do. That's what happens when you're sitting at the city gate and you call someone to come sit down. And then Boaz finds 10 elders from the city. He might have just looked around. You, you, you, you, come sit down here. He's getting a quorum together. He wants to do business. His first move is complete. He's got the people needed to make a legal transaction happen. Now his second move is to bring up the matter. Naomi is selling the land that belonged to her dead husband, Elimelech. This is, Elimelech is a mutual relative of the other guy and Boaz, probably a cousin or something. Land was of the utmost importance in Israel. It was a birthright.

11:38It was a heritage. Someone would only sell it in cases of emergency. When they did, those who were related had the first right of refusal or the right of first refusal. Part of the go well role in order to keep land in the family was to buy the property. They had the first right. The order was determined by how close of a relative you were. So Boaz says, I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it. If you will redeem it, which means if you will serve as kinsman redeemer, then do it. When this man hears that he is the first in line to buy the property, he is excited.

12:24You know, we drive around and you see for sale signs around land all the time, right? So it's hard for us to understand how excited he is to hear this. Land rarely comes up for sale in Israel. Remember, it's a birthright. It's a heritage. People don't let go of it. Now, it's going to take resources for this guy to manage the land, but it's going to enlarge his estate. And as kinsman redeemer, he's going to have to care for Naomi because she's a limilex widow. But here's the deal.

12:59Here's why this is such a sweet deal. There's no heir. That means that the land will stay his. Naomi dies. It goes to his heirs, his people. He keeps it. Basically, to redeem it means he's got to care. He's thinking, I've got to care for one widow. She's not going to eat that much. I get all this land, and then it's going to go to my heirs. This is a golden opportunity. It rarely happens. He's like, where do I sign? I will redeem it. Yes. You bet it. I'll do it right now. And now that he's interested, Boaz makes his next move. Verse five. Remember, this also obligates you to marry Ruth, the Moabite, and have a child in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.

14:02Now, Boaz, what he's doing here, he's flipped open to the law code, and he's reading the fine print. He's making sure the man does not overlook his responsibilities, either by accident or on purpose, right? Hey, pay attention. It also means this. Boaz has set up a take it or leave it moment for this guy. And the elders are all there as witnesses. So Boaz has integrity, but he's very clever to set it up like this. He's made it so that this guy is really forced to decide right now.

14:45And Boaz has made clear, this is what this actually means, and everyone's heard it. There's no getting out of it now. Now, Boaz doesn't know what the guy's going to do, but either way, Ruth and Naomi are taken care of, right? He's clarified it in front of everyone, including this guy. He wants to marry her, but he wants more than that for her and for Naomi to be provided for. And he's ensured that. What's the guy going to say? Well, he doesn't have to wait long to hear a reply.

15:19Just as quickly as the guy got excited, he backs out. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself. He's changed from a yes please to a no thanks, like that. Why? Well, because of the cost. Ruth changes the whole equation for him, the whole equation of this deal. First off, he's got to support her along with Naomi. She's going to live a lot longer than Naomi, so that now there's two mouths to feed. And then the child that he has with Ruth is going to be considered a limelax.

16:00So the land is only going to be his temporarily. He's basically a steward, a caretaker, until this heir that he produces with Ruth grows up and takes it. He's not going to be an owner of the land. He's going to be a steward, a caretaker. And if something happened to his heir or heirs, guess where his land is going to go? To a limelax heir. So even his own property now becomes questionable. What's going to happen to it? The whole thing has turned immediately in his eyes from a golden opportunity to a resource drain. It's not a good deal anymore. It's an act of charity, right? And he backs out. And who is there to step in to pick it up? Boaz, which is just what he wanted the whole time.

16:59You are witnesses this day, he says. Boaz is ready. The other guy takes off the sandal and Boaz is ready to grab it. You are witnesses this day. He gets the property, he gets the girl, but he also gets the responsibility. Boaz has willingly embraced the cost. He is strategized to take on a burden. Let that sink in. Now let me talk about what the cost is for Boaz. He has married beneath his social standing. Now that's not a slam against Ruth. Ruth has proven to be every bit his equal in character and faithfulness and godliness. But she is not his equal socially. She's a foreigner, a Moabite. Marrying her does nothing that marriages in Israel usually do. It doesn't create any alliance with a powerful family. It doesn't open any doors. It doesn't give him any advancement opportunities in politics or in social circles. Many people assume, oh, well, he did it because she was beautiful. But go back and read the text and let me know if you find something in there that mentions Ruth's appearance because I don't see anything. That's unlike a lot of other women in the Old Testament, Sarah, Rachel, Rebecca, Esther. All of those women, their beauty is mentioned. Ruth, nothing. The other thing is that Boaz put his estate on the line. He's obligated to provide for two now, not just one, to take care of the land, to steward it, work at it, keep it profitable, keep it producing, all that it's so that it can be given to somebody else, someone that's not even technically related to him, even though he is biologically related to

19:08him. He puts his name on the line. Boaz doesn't have any other heir. He's about to produce an heir for someone else. He puts his name on the line. His firstborn child will be a Limelech's heir. These are all the reasons that turn the first guy from a yes please to a no thanks, right? It's the same thing. It's not like Boaz has some secret information that he's not revealing that really makes it an even better deal than the guy thought, and he's keeping it to himself. He has let everything out in the open. Everything about this that leads the other guy to say no and walk out of there as fast as he can. Boaz says, bring it on. In the courthouse, he states his intent to serve this family, to give up his resources, his time, his estate, even his own name to be a redeemer.

20:10Now, this is just amazing. This is a man who did not get here by himself. This is a man under the influence of God, led by the Lord. So let's talk about what God was doing in him that allowed him to do this, to do something remarkable. Let's talk about loving like Boaz. There's three things, I think, that you see here that Boaz has going on that show that God is working in his heart. First of all, he's got vision. Vision to imagine God's redemptive work.

20:56The man and Boaz looked at the same situation, but they had a much different vision. The man saw property, Boaz saw people. The man saw profit, Boaz saw need. The man saw a threat, Boaz saw an opportunity. What a difference the two of them have in how they view the same situation. The difference is how much God filled their vision. When God is small, I don't know about you, but I know what I do. I hoard my resources. I protect myself. I believe that people and stories won't ever change. When God is big, we remember that he can do anything, and we start to imagine what he might do in the people and the stories around us. Do you know who Boaz was descended from? Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute. That was either Boaz's mother or grandmother. Boaz knows that a family can be redeemed. It's part of his family story. Listen, friends, if your family tree has stories of abandonment, of alcoholism or other addictions, if it's pockmarked by emotional neglect, if you look back, people in your family that you're related to and you see anger, you need to know these things are not unavoidable destinies. You are not bound and chained by those things. Patterns can be disrupted.

22:52Anything is possible with God. Let him fill your vision. He can redeem. That's what Boaz sees. This family is not bound to disappear. Something can be done. God can do it. Don't look back at your story and feel like, oh, I'm just bound to repeat the same mistakes that I see before me. It can change. God can redeem. The second thing Boaz has is wisdom. Wisdom to recognize that love always has a cost. When's the last time you read the user agreement on your computer before you clicked I agree? Anybody ever? We are so quick to click that box when it comes to love. Yes, I will love you.

23:55I'm all in. I agree. Read and understood. Click. The real test comes when we don't get back as much as we give. That's when we really know whether or not we read and understood what love is. To endure, we need to recognize that all love is costly. All of it. It's unavoidable. It's baked in to love. New parents find that out within days of their child's birth. They give and they give and they give and that baby just takes. What a taker. It doesn't clean up after itself. It doesn't take a turn making dinner. It doesn't even say thank you. Right? Getting a lot of amens from this short of all that. The average cost of raising a child in this country from birth to age 18 is $250,000.

25:03Now listen, no parent of decent character gives their 18-year-old a bill when they leave the house. Right? Why don't they do that? Because they know. They know that everything they had been doing was a gift. It's not a transaction. It's a gift. What if we thought of love in that way more often? This is a gift, not a transaction. It has a cost to it. It's baked in. To try to avoid the cost means I'm trying to avoid love. Boaz did not know everything. He did not know everything this would cost him, but he knew that it would cost him something. He was sober-minded about what love takes because he knew, he knew that that's how God loved him. That's the love that I've experienced, Boaz says. And I want to be like him. Now here's the third thing. The third thing that Boaz has because God has been working in him, Boaz has purpose. Purpose is owning the role that God gives you.

26:29Owning it. Not grinding your teeth at it, but owning it. The same factors, again, the same factors that drove the other man away is what drives Boaz forward. Boaz is like a firefighter, right? He's running towards the fire while everybody else is running away. Boaz feels God calling him into this redemption story, and so he goes gladly because God is there with him. He's owning the role. Owning the role that God has given him. Not grinding his teeth. You might have heard of Johnny Erickson Tata. She is a Christian author and a speaker, a beautiful woman of God whose story is amazing. She's been a quadriplegic now for 57 years, since age 17. She's been married to her husband, Ken, for 42 of those years. There's a picture here of them. Ken has stepped into steadfast love over and over and over.

27:43Not just in her disability, but also the chronic pain that she experienced, two bouts of cancer that she experienced. In an interview, a recent interview, this is what he said. Ken said, how good of God to put me in this position that I could serve him through serving my wife. How good of God. To put me in this position that I could serve him through serving my wife. Now that is a man with a purpose. A holy purpose given to him by God. A man who has embraced his role. Who owns his role in God's redemption story in his dear wife. You see, friends, steadfast love is a mindset.

28:51It's one that says, I'm going to pour myself out for the sake of another. This is what God has called me to do. It's the mindset of Christ. It's the mindset of Jesus because Jesus redeems. Like Boaz, Jesus willingly accepted the cost. The plan of redemption, it was made a long time ago. Before the foundation of the foundation of the world, God tells us, the son of God knew that he would be sent on a mission. We heard this earlier from Philippians 2. Go back and read it. Philippians 2, 1-11. It syncs up perfectly with Ruth 4, 1-12. The son of God knew he was going to be sent on this, and though he was in the form of God, he did not count that as something to be held onto. Instead, he emptied himself and took on the form of a servant and was born like us. He came willingly. Dear ones, he came willingly. The father did not have to twist his arm. He came with a vision for our salvation. He came with wisdom about the cost, and he came with a purpose to accomplish it. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That's where he suffered the rejection of his father, as our sin was counted to him, as he died in our place, and he did it. He did not get down.

30:32He did not back off. He owned his role, and he did it. Redemption was accomplished, and like Boaz, his name is now lifted up. When Boaz became the redeemer, you read it in the story. People said, may you be renowned in Bethlehem. He put his name on the line, and we know now his name endured. His name was lifted up. Jesus laid down his life, and therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. He is the victorious one. He's the one who defeated death and sin. The great enemies that we had that we were powerless against. This is what Jesus has done for us. This is what Jesus has done for his people, and all who entrust themselves to him, who call on him in faith, even now, if that's you, you are being remade in his image. Paul says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours. Have it because it's yours. It's already happening in Christ Jesus.

31:55Like him, we can count others more significant than ourselves. Like him, we can look to the interests of others at great cost. We can practice steadfast love, and we can step into the redemptive work that God is doing all around us, and for one reason alone, because we have a Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, it's amazing to read about Boaz and what he did, but Lord, he was just an ordinary guy who had been transformed by you and made equipped to do incredible things because he was following you because he had experienced the love that is above all other loves, Lord, the love from you, your steadfast love. Lord, would you help us to rest in not our own effort, but to rest in you, the one who has redeemed us and called us. Lord, your name is lifted up high above every other name, and we worship you, and we want to follow. Lord, give us vision, give us wisdom, and give us purpose to step into the redemption stories that are all around us that you are working. Jesus, we love you, and we bow before you today, the one who took on our form and died as a humble servant, the name above every name. We worship you, Jesus.

33:47In your name we pray. Amen.