Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Part of being a human is facing and dealing with problems.

Some of us attack our problems and others more often than not allow their problems to consume them.

Some of our problems are people problems, other problems are personal problems.

Some of our problems are big and others are small.

Regardless of the problem you face, each and every problem requires a solution.

Some solutions to problems come to us pretty easily.

What is the solution to the math problem 2 +2? Well we know that the solution to the problem is the number 4. Sometimes the solution is simple!

Other times, though, the solution is much more complex… and expensive!

Several years ago there was a person in Seattle who happened to be deathly afraid of spiders who happened to see a spider in his laundry room and he was trying to come up with a solution to that problem… after several minutes he arrived at a conclusion: He was going to make a create a homemade blow torch and burn the spider.

He grabbed a can of spray paint and a lighter and attempted to light the spider on fire and he certainly succeeded at eliminating that problem in his life!

The issue with this solution, though, was that it also caught his house on fire and by the time all was said and done, he was left with over $60,000 in damages and repairs to his house and things inside of it!

He solved the problem but his solution wasn’t very helpful because it caused more problems than it actually solved.

In our life, we face problems.

Sometimes as we attempt to solve them it seems like we create more problems than we initially had!

In our study through the book of Ruth we have seen problem after problem after problem.

Specifically, we’ve seen 2 key problems.

Ruth had a lack of Food and a lack of Family.

These are genuine problems that require significant solutions.

As we’ve made our way through this book in the month of December, we’ve been reminded that God provides for His people as they face problems.

This has been demonstrated clearly in this book.

God has provided for Ruth as Boaz has given her food and protection.

Yet, we leave off in chapter 3 of Ruth and Ruth has yet to have her family problem be solved.

Boaz has promised to redeem her if another relative does not do so.

How will this resolve?

How do our problems resolve?

How can you and I have peace in the middle of waiting on our problems to resolve?

We trust in the goodness and provision of our faithful God.

He is the prince of peace who provides.

Let’s see how He provides for Ruth and how He continues to provide for His people today

As we conclude the book of Ruth today, we see that their waiting has found its end.

Darkness has been replaced with light.

Fear with Hope.

Famine with food.

Loss with love.

From cover to cover, this book demonstrates that our God provides for his children, even those who didn’t grow up knowing him.

In the middle of this Advent season of busyness, do you know the peace that God alone can bring to your life?

Do you trust that He still provides today?

This morning, let’s pray that God would help us to always remember the peace that is found in Jesus Christ.

God Provides Redemption (1-6)

What does the word redemption mean?

This is a word we see in our Bibles often but we often struggle to fully understand what it means in the Bible and its implication in our lives today.

We sing songs that talk about how we are redeemed and how we love to proclaim it but what are we truly proclaiming?

What is the good news of redemption?

What does it mean?

Maybe you think of redemption in terms of finance as you redeem a gift card or coupon and that is appropriate in our world but Biblically redemption is so much greater than simply getting a free pizza or discounted roll of toilet paper.

Biblically, redemption is the process and practice of reclaiming someone or something by purchase.

See, redemption is costly - it isn’t a coupon that you collect out of your mailbox.

This will be expensive more times than not.

We see this process in the New Testament often in reference to our salvation - how we are redeemed from the punishment and penalty of our sins.

Look at how the New Testament talks about redemption

God, through Jesus Christ, has rescued us (Christians) from the domain of darkness and into His Kingdom.

This is adoption language!

This is all because Jesus has redeemed and forgiven us.

How was Jesus able to do this, though?

There was a cost to our redemption, wasn’t there?

The cost for Jesus to redeem sinners like you and me was His own life!

Redemption is always costly and in our text this morning we see a person willing to redeem and we see another who is not willing to do so.

Chapter 3 left us off with Naomi saying that Boaz will resolve this situation ASAP because marriage is a big deal and this man is in love with this woman!

Boaz goes out to the town gate and has a conversation with this other family redeemer along with several men of the town and they discuss what to do with Ruth and the territory of land that used to belong to Naomi’s husband, Elimelech.

What is happening here is Boaz is setting the stage for a legal declaration.

Every quarter here at FBC Salem, we have a business meeting and we have to have a certain number of people to constitute what is called a quorum - the number needed in Old Testament times was 10 so basically you have an old school Baptist business meeting happening here and the New Business being discussed was this land and this woman.

Elimelech’s land belonged to his family, but his children were gone.

Therefore in this culture this family redeemer or relative had the opportunity to buy it or redeem it.

At first this other man who is not named by the author is willing to do this!

He likely thought that it makes sense to redeem this land.

There was just a great harvest after a famine about 10 years before.

More land = more harvest = more money = more power to leave to your children.

This seems like a no-brainer situation for this person!

But there’s a problem here… Ruth.

Boaz shares that not only must the man buy the field from Naomi but he must also take Ruth as his wife and their firstborn son legally would be Elimelech’s grandson, and the inheritor of this field of land.

The man immediately sings a different tune in verse 6 as he shares that suddenly “I can’t redeem it myself… or I will ruin my own inheritance.”

What does this mean?

Some believe that he refuses to redeem the land and Ruth because he doesn’t want part of his inheritance going to a son who is legally not his own.

Others believe, though, that he refuses to redeem this land and Ruth because Ruth happens to be a Moabite woman.

The Moabites were bitter enemies of the Israelites.

They had defeated the Israelites several times.

They didn’t get along.

You can imagine why a wealthy Israelite man wouldn’t necessarily want to marry a Moabite woman.

Aren’t you thankful that God doesn’t play this game when it comes to redeeming sinners?

Aren’t you thankful that He doesn’t just look down the list and check it twice to find out whose been good and whose been bad?

Aren’t you thankful that He doesn’t do what makes sense in our eyes?

If God only redeemed people who checked all the right boxes, no one would ever be redeemed!

After all, this is why the Bible tells us in Romans 5:8 that

Jesus redeems sinners - this is the best news of all because we’re all sinners!

This doesn’t make sense to some people because they’re too busy looking at all of the boxes they check and they can’t imagine God’s grace reaching down to the gutter post like a random Moabite woman.

This is the problem that this other family redeemer has, but thankfully this isn’t the perspective of Boaz.

Boaz is willing to redeem and now, he is the one with the legal right to do so.

God Provides Life (7-17)

Counting the cost - the other man was only willing to go through with this if it didn’t cost him anything (just like us today) but Boaz was willing to go through with this even though it would be costly.

We must count the cost when it comes to following Jesus.

See, God provides life, peace, joy, and hope unlike anything this world can offer.

We talk a lot about how it’s all free!

To a point that’s true because we know that we can’t buy it… but salvation is costly.

God’s peace came at a great cost.

It cost Jesus His life and it costs us our throne.

In order for you to be redeemed, the Bible shares that you must be born again.

In order to be born again, that means that your old self must die.

This probably doesn’t sound very positive or encouraging, but it’s the truth.

In order to be saved and born again, your old self must die and Jesus alone must sit atop your throne.