Risky Business

Lead Vocalist (Phoebe)

Welcome & Announcements (Sterling)

Good morning family!

Ask guests to fill out connect card

____ announcements:

1) Announcement 1

What to do and how to respond

2) Announcement 2

What to do and how to respond

3) Offering

What to do and how to respond

Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Hebrews 11:1-2, 6)

Prayer of Praise (Mendi Keatts)

Living Hope

He Calls Me Friend

Prayer of Confession (Adam Hess), Laziness

Assurance of Pardon (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me

Gospel Doxology

Scripture Reading (Ruth 3)

Pastoral Prayer (Sterling)

Prayer for PBC—Fellowship Groups

Prayer for sister church—Carlos & Lily Llambes (IMB, Panama)

Prayer for US—Against sexualization

Prayer for the world—Sri Lanka

Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Valentine’s Day on twenty years ago was a big day for me.

Four months earlier I first met that girl named Holly.

By February, we had become best friends.

And my feelings for Holly had grown dramatically. Especially after she broke up with her longtime boyfriend.

We spent a lot of time together, we had flirted off and on for the past month or so, but we hadn’t yet defined the relationship.

So Valentine’s Day was going to be the day.

I had an elaborate plan.

I bought Holly a handful of little gifts. I would meet her for lunch at the Snack Shop on campus. And there I would ask her to be my girlfriend.

And since Valentine’s Day was a Saturday, neither of us had class.

Everything was going to work out perfectly.

Holly was supposed to message me when she woke up so we could schedule a time to meet.

But morning came and went with no message.

Eventually I called Holly, but no answer.

I was certain she was ghosting me—ignoring my calls so she could let me down easy.

I think it was about 2 PM before Holly finally answered. She had slept in the entire morning!

There’s a lot of parallels between that story and our text in Ruth 3.

Much like my story, Ruth 3 features a timid guy and a bold girl.

Like my story, there’s a bunch of questions about whether this guy and gal are going to become a couple.

And like my story, there’s a key moment when this couple “defines the relationship.”

And kind of like my story, somebody in this story is fast asleep.

But this story is much bigger than that!

It’s about much bigger things than the relationship between one couple.

It’s a story about God’s plan to rescue His people.

And it’s a rescue plan that will require great risk.

The Big idea I hope to communicate from God’s Word this morning is that Great faith in the providence of God leads to great risk for the purposes of God.

The characters in Ruth 3 take Five Risks that will make up the outline for today’s sermon:

First, after weeks mired in depression, Naomi cultivates A Risky HOPE.

She then gives Ruth instructions for A Risky PLAN.

Ruth improvises just a bit and approaches Boaz with A Risky REQUEST.

Together, Boaz and Ruth demonstrate A Risky PURITY,

Then Boaz responds with A Risky PROMISE.

Let’s begin by considering how Naomi had...

1) A Risky HOPE

Remember how grief had changed Naomi.

She returned to Bethlehem with nothing but a daughter-in-law she didn’t really want.

She told everyone to stop calling her “Naomi,” which means pleasant, and to call her “Mara,” which means “bitter.”

In chapter 2, when it came time to glean some food, Naomi stayed home.

All Naomi can see is the negative, and she cannot even muster the energy to get up and do anything.

But all that changed when Ruth returned from the fields of Boaz in chapter 2.

For the first time in a long time, Naomi can see the kindness of God.

Look at what Naomi says to Ruth in...

Ruth 2:20—"… May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

Remember in those days there were very few social programs to provide for poor, childless widows like Naomi and Ruth.

But God’s law provided a safety net for these women through something called Levirate Marriage.

SHOW LEVIRATE MARRIAGE SLIDE

The widow’s husband’s brother, if he was unmarried, would marry the widow and provide and protect her.

And although Boaz isn’t Naomi’s nephew, he is a relative and could marry Ruth if he was willing.

On the day Ruth met Boaz, it seemed as if Boaz might quickly propose.

He clearly had some level of attraction to Ruth, based on how lavishly he provided for her.

But now weeks have passed and nothing has happened.

Maybe like a lot of guys, Boaz was a little clueless around girls. Or maybe he was afraid of rejection. Maybe he just wanted things to be perfect before he made his first move. But whatever the reason, he appears to be dragging his feet!

Rather than giving in to hopelessness again, Naomi makes a different choice...

Ruth 3:1—Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?”

Do you see how Naomi’s depression is beginning to lift?

She is no longer paralyzed by inaction. She is choosing to hope.

And like all hope, this is risky hope.

Things could go wrong. Naomi could find herself disappointed and disillusioned.

But she chooses to hope anyways.

One lesson we can learn from Naomi here is that hope is a choice.

It is not a feeling that ebbs and flows based on our circumstances. It is a decision to believe more than what our eyes can see.

Jeremiah the prophet was another Old Testament saint who, like Naomi, lived through incredibly hopeless times. He saw God’s people endure unimaginable suffering. He himself experienced persecution for preaching the truth God told him to preach. And in the midst of incredible hopelessness, Jeremiah wrote this:

Lamentations 3:21–23—But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Hope is a decision to believe God is good even when you can’t see it. It’s a decision to remember His mercy even when you don’t feel it. It’s a decision to consider His faithfulness when you feel faithless. It’s a decision to measure God’s love by the cross, not your circumstances. It’s a decision to measure God’s power by the empty tomb, not by your empty pockets or empty hands.

Great faith in the providence of God leads to great risk for the purposes of God.

And for Naomi, that began with a decision to have risky hope.

And that hope let her to recommend...

2) A Risky PLAN

Now that Naomi has a flicker of hope, she is able to come up with a plan...

Ruth 3:2–4—Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.”

Remember how we said during our study of the book of Judges that the Bible doesn’t recommend everything it reports?

Single ladies, this is one of those times you really need to remember that.

Here’s Naomi’s advice: “Alright Ruth, since Boaz is dragging his feet let’s take matters into our own hands. Take a bath, put on makeup and perfume, put your best outfit on, and head to where Boaz is working tonight. Don’t approach him until he’s had plenty to eat and drink. Then when he lays down for the night, sneak up to him and lay down beside him. Then do whatever he says.”

This advice is questionable in our English translations, but it is more questionable when you look at the original language.

The words for “uncover,” “feet,” and “lie down” in verse 4 all have questionable double meanings in the Hebrew.

Some commentators believe Naomi is actually encouraging her daughter-in-law to seduce Boaz.

Perhaps Naomi has been in Moab so long, she’s starting to think like a Moabite.

Whether or not that’s what Naomi is intended, this still seems like really unwise advice.

Since threshing floors were typically on the edge of town, Ruth could have been abducted and abused on her way to meet Boaz.

Since Boaz was an honorable man, he could have been offended by Ruth’s boldness in approaching him at night.

Since Boaz was a sinful man with normal temptations, he could have taken advantage of Ruth.

Since a single woman visiting a single man at night was a scandalous thing, both Ruth and Boaz’s reputations could have been tarnished.

So what practical lessons can we learn from Naomi’s risky plan?

Singles, don’t get your theology of dating from Ruth 3!

2 Timothy 2:22—So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

It is much easier to place guardrails on the edge of the cliff than to have an ambulance at the bottom.

It is far better to have clear, high boundaries for your interactions with the opposite sex than to flirt with temptation.

And that’s not only a lesson for singles, but for married people as well.

Do not cultivate emotional attachments to someone who is not your spouse.

Do not tolerate lustful thoughts or flirtatious conversations.

Do not deliberately put yourself in positions where temptation may increase.

In the middle of a host of warnings against sexual sin, Solomon writes this in...

Proverbs 6:27—Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?

Men and women, let's not be people who tiptoe around sexual sin!

But before we move on, we need to consider something about God from these verses.

God is able to take our sinful, foolish, and stupid plans and use them for good!

Years ago there was a popular program called The Daniel Plan for Christian dieting, but I’ve never seen something called The Naomi Plan for Christian dating. And with good reason!

But praise God He is able to draw straight lines with crooked sticks!

That doesn’t mean we should be content with foolish plans, but we don’t have to be crushed by them! Our God is sovereign, even over our bad ideas!

Great faith in the providence of God leads to great risk for the purposes of God.

For Naomi that meant recommending a risky plan.

And for Ruth, it will mean making...

3) A Risky REQUEST

I think it’s right for us to be a little uneasy about Naomi’s questionable plans for Ruth.

But since Ruth is new to the people of God, I think it’s okay to cut her a little slack for not knowing better.

Perhaps she just trusted that her mother-in-law knew what she was talking about, so...

Ruth 3:5—And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

And at first she does...

Ruth 3:6-7—So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down.

It was common in those days for a landowner to winnow his grain in the threshing floor until dark, then spend the night with the grain so he could guard his produce and be ready for an early start the following morning.

So after a long day’s work, Boaz eats and drinks, then lies down for the night beside his grain.

Ruth has cleaned herself up, put on her perfume and her best clothes, and now she tiptoes towards Boaz in the darkness and lays by his feet.

Ruth 3:8-9a—At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?”

At midnight, Boaz wakes up and there’s a woman at his feet!

It’s dark and Boaz can’t see, so he asks “Who’s there?”

Now remember, Naomi told Ruth in verse 4 to do whatever Boaz told her to do.

But Ruth has a different idea. Instead of leaving the situation ambiguous, she makes a risky request...

Ruth 3:9b—And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

What is Ruth asking?

In his commentary on Ruth, Iain Duguid explains: “Here is where Ruth’s actions diverged from her mother-in-law’s instructions. Instead of leaving the situation dangerously ambiguous, as a woman of character Ruth wanted to make her intentions clear right from the outset. Her goal was a commitment to marriage, not a single night of passion. In the ancient world, such a commitment was symbolized by the gesture of covering someone with the corner of one’s robe, roughly equivalent to the giving of an engagement ring in our culture (compare Ezek. 16:8).” [1]

So essentially Ruth is proposing to Boaz.

On May 26, 2005, I proposed to Holly. I bought her a new dress, took her out to a fancy restaurant in downtown Atlanta, played the piano for her and sung her a song, then got one one knee and asked her to marry me.

The first thing she said was “Did my dad say yes?” And then, after I assured her he had, “She finally said yes!”

I am a firm believer in a man taking the initiative in romancing and pursuing a girl.

Single guys: I believe you should sweep a girl off her feet. You should win her heart, you should win the heart of her family, you should pursue her, you should propose, you should lead.

Single ladies: I think it’s right and good for you to want this in a man.

I can point to a bunch of biblical principles for why I think it should be this way, and yet I cannot say it always must be this way.

There is no question Ruth is the one taking the initiative here.

Perhaps it’s because Boaz was a bit insecure.

We get a hint of this in how Boaz replies to Ruth’s proposal...

Ruth 3:10—And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.”

Apparently Boaz was an older guy, and he hadn’t pursued Ruth up to this point because he thought for sure she would’ve preferred a younger man.

Single ladies, sometimes you may run into a guy like Boaz. He’s a godly man of character, but for one reason or another he’s a bit timid. You shouldn’t lay down by his feet while he’s sleeping, but perhaps you could give him a bit of a nudge.

When I first started developing real feelings for Holly, I was afraid to ask her out. So I asked her college roommate—a girl that Holly had once tried to match with me, but that’s a different story. I asked Laura, “Will Holly say yes if I ask her out?” It was the morning of a college ski trip. Laura told me, “Hopson, I don’t think she’s ready.”

Well, Holly and I sat together on the bus on that trip and at one point Holly reached over and held my hand. By the end of the day, Laura told me, “She’s ready!”

Sometimes a timid guy needs a little push!

But again, this story is not primarily given to give single people dating advice.

Through all these little details we are seeing God’s purposes unfold. He is using Ruth’s risky request to prepare the way for an incredible rescue!

Great faith in the providence of God leads to great risk for the purposes of God.

For Ruth that meant making a risky request.

And for both Boaz and Ruth, it will mean cultivating...

4) A Risky PURITY

Men, try to imagine what it might have been like to be Boaz in this moment.

You’ve just been woken up by a single woman laying down at your feet.

This woman is clearly interested in you. She could have pursued any number of younger men, but she wants you!

It’s dark. Nobody else is around.

What would you do?

It’s moments like these that truly reveal our character.

Surprisingly, there isn’t even a hint of immorality in either Boaz or Ruth.

Sure, they have found themselves in a highly compromised situation.

But there is zero indication that Boaz or Ruth gave into temptation here.

Ruth 3:14—So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”

Not only does Ruth remain at Boaz’s feet for the rest of the night, but Boaz works to protect Ruth’s reputation.

In verses 15-17 he even sends Ruth home with a bunch more food for Naomi.

Boaz is not a man who’s thinking about his own lusts. He’s thinking about others!

Men, this is an incredible example of risky purity.

Boaz finds himself in a scenario fraught with temptation. A scenario he did not pursue or ask for.

And yet, he exercises extreme willpower to love Ruth more than he loves himself. To care more about her person than his passions.

John Piper writes, this: “Perhaps you are there in the seeming seclusion and safety of your apartment or on the road where no one knows you. Perhaps she seems so willing. She may already be in your bed. At that moment, a magnificent act of righteous manhood is possible. Say to her, “Because I love you, and because I love God, and because I have seen the connection between high purity and historic purposes, we will wait. I promise you, God will honor that. He will honor it more vastly than you can imagine. . . . Let Boaz’s massive willpower . . . stir up in you a great, noble vision of sexual life: ‘We will wait. We will wait till all is made righteous according to the word of God.” [3]

What about you singles?

Are you willing to love others enough to wait?

Do you love your boyfriend or girlfriend enough to say no to what you want in the moment so you can say yes to what God wants?

Are you willing—if the Lord wills—to spend a lifetime of celibacy so that you might please the Lord with your body?

For some of you it feels too late. You’ve already fallen.

You can find forgiveness and a new start in Jesus Christ, the descendant of Ruth and Boaz.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11—Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

If you haven’t fallen here, would you commit yourself today to a risky purity—even if you are mocked or mistreated for it—for the sake of Jesus Christ and His glory!

And if you have fallen, will you commit yourself to risky purity from here on out? Even if that means making massive changes to your life so that you can faithfully follow Jesus?

Great faith in the providence of God leads to great risk for the purposes of God.

For both Boaz and Ruth that meant cultivating risky purity.

And finally, it means trusting in...

5) A Risky PROMISE

One of the reasons I’m so confident that Boaz was pure and noble that night is the way he responds to Ruth’s request.

Remember, he’s just been awakened from a deep slumber by a woman laying down at his feet, proposing marriage.

But this wasn’t any ordinary marriage proposal.

When Ruth calls Boaz “a redeemer” in verse 9, she’s referring to the Levirate marriage we talked about earlier.

Remember, the laws for these marriages were given in Deuteronomy 25, which only mentioned the brother of the deceased.

Which means technically Boaz isn’t bound by law to marry Ruth.

But look at how he responds to Ruth’s proposal...

Ruth 3:11–13—“And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

Boaz promises Ruth, “Listen, I am a redeemer but I’m not the first in line. There’s another man who is a nearer relation to Mahlon than I am. If he wants to marry you, I’ll let him. But if he doesn’t I will. Either way, I’ll take care of this.”

Once again Iain Duguid is helpful here: "Clearly, there was no legal obligation on Boaz to act in this way. Otherwise, this kind of elaborate strategy would not have been necessary. Ruth could simply have walked up to Boaz in the marketplace and said, “You are my kinsman redeemer; do what you are supposed to do.” Boaz was a man of character; surely he would have followed through on his obligations in spite of the personal and social cost. What Ruth was asking Boaz to do, though, was to act according to the spirit of the law of the kinsman redeemer, even though he was not under any legal obligation. She appealed to him to be the family member who, at his own cost, would act to rescue those whose future had been blighted, even though he didn’t have to do so.” [3]

This means that Boaz is not motivated by law. He is motivated by grace.

Even though redeeming Ruth will cost him—something we’ll explain in more detail next week—Boaz is willing to pay the price. Not because he has to but because he wants to.

Thankfully Holly eventually answered my phone call. And we eventually met for dinner (instead of lunch). And she eventually said yes when I eventually asked her to be my girlfriend.

Like so many stories in our lives, it’s hard to see how all the pieces fit together unless we look in the rear-view mirror.

And that’s exactly what we need to do with our own stories. We need to look backwards to understand them.

Not back to a little college snack shop twenty years ago, but to the little town of Bethlehem two thousand years ago.

Like Boaz, Jesus was also from the tribe of Judah.

Like Boaz, Jesus also had to pay the price of redemption.

Like Boaz, Jesus paid the price gladly.

Hebrews 12:2—looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

It was not mere duty that led Jesus to the cross. It was delight. It was His joy to redeem us!

Christian, you were so sinful Jesus had to die to redeem you. But you are so loved Jesus was glad to die to redeem you.

If we’ll let it, this is powerful enough to change your entire life.

It’s far easier to hope when you look to the cross and see a Savior gladly suffering on your behalf.

It’s far easier to trust God can draw straight lines with crooked sticks when you understand how He did that on an old rugged cross.

It’s far easier to remain pure when you really believe your body was bought with a price!

Our job is to follow in the footsteps of Ruth and Naomi. To believe Jesus will keep His promises and complete the redemption He began on the cross 2000 years ago.

Look at what Naomi says when Ruth returns home and shows her all the food Boaz had given her...

Ruth 3:18—She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”

Redemption had been promised. But it had not yet been fully experienced.

We’re in a similar position.

God’s Word promises us Jesus redeems whoever repents and believes in Him.

Colossians 1:13–14—He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We have a rock-solid promise that our redemption was accomplished at the cross.

We HAVE redemption.

Jesus cried out from the cross, “It IS finished!”

Our redemption was fully accomplished at the cross!

And yet, the fullness of that redemption hasn’t been applied to us yet.

Our names have been transferred to an eternal Kingdom, but we’re still living here.

We’re still living in a world with temptation, with suffering, with pain.

Like Ruth waited for her redeemer to return and settle the matter, we are waiting for our Redeemer to return and make all things new.

What about you, friend? Have you trusted in this Jesus? Repent and believe today!

If you have, then let’s take great risks for the purposes of God because we have great faith in the providence of God.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

It Was Finished Upon That Cross

Benediction (Ephesians 3:17-19)