Extraordinary Consequence

Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 4 views
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
View more →

I - It’s Just...

It’s JUST english class
It’s JUST high school
It’s JUST My parents
It’s JUST north park
It’s JUST Ellsworth
It’s JUST today
“Oh ill do this when...”
Other: When I had my frist ministry treated it like a class. I was afraid that my work would have consequences. I was Just there a year and my goal was to not screw anything up. I was paralyzed by the thought that I might screw up.
Until half way through the year I got a preformance review that just wrecked me. it was bad. So bad I wanted to quit the internship then and there. So bad I seriously considered finding a differnt carrear.
Until a week later my boss took me out for my brithday and we talked about it more.
In that conversation he encouraged me to go for it. Hetold me I had to quit worrying so much about making mistakes and instead focus on following God now. It totatally changed how I saw my role that year
Instead of not acting to not screw up I took risks and follow God faithfully. I made tons of mistakes, but I had tons of succeses too.
My boss and mentor’s small gesture of taking me out to talk about it made all the diffrence. Had he not I may not be in ministry today.
The last time I told you all this story
The last time I told that story I ended it there, marveling at how God worked in that situatoin, but after church that Sunday Erin told me something.
She told me that she called my boss after seeing how devestaed I was by that review. She told him that he better give me a call and have a conversation with me about it again. That it had thrown me for a loop.
At first I thought that ruined the story. Oh it wasnt a god thing it was just a wife thing you know. But after reading ruth its clear that that is just how God works....

Y

Its just a job
they are just a friend
its just my parents
Does my life really matter? that is really what we are asking. What matters

G - Ordinary Times, People, Places, Faith, and ACTIONS have Extraordinary Consequence. Today counts, Your actions today have compounding interest. WAKE UP STOP SLEEPING THROUGH YOUR LIFE. (Your every day ordinairy life counts for FAR more than you realize.)

Refresh
Boaz Plans
Holding court at the City Gate

3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

Th

“I will redeem it,” he said.

5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”

The Men Bless

11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

If the story is about Boaz being rewarded for being a good person an saving the day it ends here.
but it doesn't.
A child is born
To Ruth and Boaz, but the story says its not about Ruth and Boaz, they vanish from the story after the birth.

13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

If it’s a Rom-Com it ends with the wedding. But perhaps if this story is about Ruth .
If its about Ruth being a good person and being rewarded by finding a husband and a son, it ends here.
The book is called Ruth after all.
but it doesn't end there. The story continues.
The Women Bless

14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

16 Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

If the story is about Naomi it ends here. The women say she is restored. Obed becomes like a son to Naomi
The woman who had and lost everything is not blessed and restored.
This is where most of us stop reading the story. And if we do we find its a story all about God not forgetting about Naomi and restoring to her what she lost.
Perhaps it reminds us that though we might lose things God hasnt forgotten about us,
But of course the story doesn't end here either.
We don’t usually read the next bit because its a little confusing, boring, and the names are hard to say, but here it is
The genealogy
the most least interesting part of Ruth.

18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

19 Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

21 Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

22 Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

It connects the story, it lets us know that the redemption that takes place is for more than Ruth, Boaz, and Even Naomi
It leads to DAVID
why does that matter?
It leads to jesus
it reminds us that we dont live and die to ourselves. That our lives are NOT ABOUT US, they are always about more. EVEN OUR ORDINARY INSIGNIFICANT LIVES
Illus: Colorado river
We have this crazy idea that our lives are about us and only us. We try and divorce ourselves from our PASTS and our FUTURE. AS if the today is really all that matters.
We say, Oh God is in charge anyway it doesnt matter. But God works with us
Ruth resists that. Our actions have consequences
There is grace but there still are consequences
Ruth places our LIVES in CONTEXT. because the significance of human life has a COMPOUNDING interest.
ILLUS: When Erin yelled at my boss
Bad review
Questioned ministry wanted to quit

Y

So maybe you are....
and you need to
maybe you are...
and you need to
maybe you are...
and you need to.
b/c final story.

W -

ILLUS: When Erin yelled at my boss
and you need to
Bad review
maybe you are...
and you need to
Questioned ministry wanted to quit
maybe you are...
and you need to.
b/c final story.

G-

May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me

May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

20 “The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.

These prayers for Ruth come true. In this passage. She has found rest in the home of another husband, not in the way Naomi intended. Ruth has been richly rewarded.

May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

Did their prayers come true?
Well the true ending of Ruth gets at that.

18 This, then, is the family line of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

19 Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

21 Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

22 Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

God’s faitfulness and their faithfulness in the story leads to them being saved yes. But it also leads to the saving of the whole nation. When David the faithful king takes the throne.
Ruth, Boaz, Naomi, and Obed would never know it but their lives had consequences far beyond that they could have imagined.
In the story faithful actions in the present + God's Hesed bring rescue to Everyone. That rescue echoes and multiplies leading to the rescue of a nation, and ultimately the whole WORLD. That is the gospel.
Illus: Like the Colorado River on the slide.
It turns out that the impacts of our ordinairy lives today are as Far reaching and earth shattering as they are unknowable.

Today counts, Your actions today have compounding interest. (Your every day ordinary life counts for FAR more than you realize.)

Because every person you touch goes on to touch someone else. What you do ripples and reverberates through the generations in ways you CANT POSSIBLY understand, for better and for worst.
When you think about it it is kind of obvious but...
We are always going around doing whatever we feel is right. But our actions have tremendous consequences. They help or hurt others
They make a difference.
Thats scary to me, because sometimes, Im super selfish. In fact ill expand that, often times I lean towards selfishness. My natural instinct is towards selfishness
So what do we do, how do we live out that ordinary faith?
Be forgiven, be set free, be transformed by Jesus And just wait to see what God does.
How do we make sure that our actions line up with what God is up too. How can we make sure that we are not filling the world and the future with more selfishness more chaos and more pain?
Well believe it or not the story of Ruth is picked up in the book of Matthew chapter 1:5.

5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse,

6 and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Abijah the father of Asa,

8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,

Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,

Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

9 Uzziah the father of Jotham,

Jotham the father of Ahaz,

Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,

Manasseh the father of Amon,

Amon the father of Josiah,

11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

12 After the exile to Babylon:

Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,

Abihud the father of Eliakim,

Eliakim the father of Azor,

14 Azor the father of Zadok,

Zadok the father of Akim,

Akim the father of Elihud,

15 Elihud the father of Eleazar,

Eleazar the father of Matthan,

Matthan the father of Jacob,

16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

Long after Ruth’s life and even their great grandson David’s came 28 more generations all leading to a rescue far bigger than anyone could possible imagine.
Because in Jesus God himself came to earth, lived a perfectly faithful life, died and rose again.
And because of that all people are invited to connect themselves with him. Accepting his sacrifice and calling him LORD. The bible says when we do that we are set free from the forces of sin and death that seem to pull us away from God and others and into ourselves..
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more