Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Here you'll find practical, relevant, biblical information.
The Bible will be broken down verse by verse so that you get the full context of the scripture to better grow in your relationship with Jesus.
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Alright. Well, good morning church. Thanks for coming out. Thanks for everybody watching online as well.
So, I don't know about you guys, this week was pretty tiring for me.
I think this week kind of wore on a lot of people. I love that we all get to come here.
My wife would be the first to tell you that when I leave, it really energizes me.
And I like to think of Sundays as really the beginning of my week. I know most of us are like, oh, it's the end of the weekend.
But really, we should always start with the Lord at the forefront of everything.
And really Sunday gives us a great opportunity to start our week just like that.
So maybe a little change of mindset there kind of picks us up a little bit.
So, last couple weeks we've been going through the book of Ruth.
Today is no different. We're going into Ruth chapter 3.
Before we get into it, we're going to recap a little bit before we dive in.
Just kind of refresh everybody's memory, what we've been looking at.
Ruth and Naomi, of course, they're in-laws. They've lost their husbands.
For Naomi, she lost her children. Ruth's husband.
They've basically turned everything around, gone back down the path, and returned to the promised land.
They're starting over. They're drawing back close to God.
It's never too late to turn around and go back.
And for them, there's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of insecurity.
It's a very dark time in their life.
Really, what they're looking at as far as a dark time, beyond that insecurity, they're looking at a life of poverty.
And really, when I say poverty, we're talking essentially being destitute.
They're scavenging for scraps.
So, moving forward, this leap of faith, starting anew, Ruth went out and started gleaning the fields.
And Boaz, who already had an idea of who she was from people talking in the community, shared kindness,
showed his godliness, his love towards her, blessed her in a process of doing it,
blessed Naomi as well as taking care of these people, as we all should.
And really, the result of this was rekindling that hope for both of these women for a bright future moving forward.
Second chances, right? We all deserve that second chance in life.
And Jesus came, so we have that. It's a beautiful thing.
So, a reminder as we go through this book, it refers to the guardian redeemer.
The guardian redeemer, this is a position of great importance because of inheritance.
When the husband would die, the guardian redeemer is somebody that usually the brother or cousin,
whoever that next closest in line is, has the option, if they're available, to marry the wife
in order to carry on the name and provide that first child for that inheritance to continue down.
It's very important because inheritance, it's not like how we live today where the man in the house dies
and everything goes to their wife or their daughters if they don't have a son or anything.
It was very specific that it went to the firstborn son.
So, in having this guardian redeemer law, this provided a way for there to be a son,
for the name to continue, and for that inheritance to pass down and to continue to take care of the family.
That inheritance isn't just money like we look at it now.
It was the farms, the animals, all the various properties that they owned.
So, things that we tend to take for granted sometimes.
It's part of why today having a home, having a car, certain things, certain types of ownership
still mean something because that's how it's been passed down for so many centuries.
Look at my mom's house. It's a house she grew up in, my grandfather's house.
They're the first ones who lived in it. There's generation after generation.
When she goes, it's going to pass to my son.
So, there's certain things there that we take for granted.
We need to remember that. We also need to remember that for us, we have a guardian redeemer in Jesus Christ.
God come to earth, born as a man, born to a virgin, went upon the cross, died for our sins,
paid the price for our freedom from sin and His blood so that we could be redeemed and reconnected with God.
It also secured our chance for that bright future as well, being adopted into the family of God.
So, with that said, we're going to start moving into the message.
With that, this week we're going to be looking at more so at planning and the importance of planning.
It's important to have a goal in life.
We can't just blindly go through hoping for the next great thing to pop down in front of us.
Remember, we talked about this last week.
Eleanor Roosevelt was quoted saying, it takes much energy to wish as it does to plan.
Remember, you have to pick yourself up and get to work.
Instead of waiting for a handout, you get to work knowing that eventually a handout is going to come.
The Lord's going to provide, right?
That's what Ruth has started doing as she's moving into this new future.
Alan Lakin put it this way, planning is bringing the future into the present so you can do something about it now.
And Warren Buffett summed it up like this.
Someone's sitting in shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
When it comes to the future, we have to lay the foundation, right?
The Bible talks about Jesus being our rock, our firm foundation.
Our future is no different.
We need God right there as our foundation to build upon.
Another way of doing it, a tool that we have today, of course, we get to write things down.
We have technology at our fingerprints.
Diamond Dallas Page, wrestler from the 90s, he put it up like this.
Once you have a goal, don't just ink it.
Write it down.
Do something because once you've settled on a goal, you need to do something to keep it right there at the forefront.
Never let it fall to the back.
You need to remember the struggles that you're going through, the hardships that you're seeing, the sacrifices that you're making, they're all amounting to something.
God's working on your character and building you and working on you now so that you can get to where you need to be.
And you need to keep that in sight.
You need to keep Jesus in sight and not focus on the storm that's going on around you.
So let's go ahead.
Let's open our Bibles, your Bible app, whatever it is you're using.
We're going to go to Ruth, chapter three, and we're going to start off with verses one through four.
And the word says this, that Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you?
Security meaning rest, that it may be well with you.
Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative?
In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.
Therefore, wash yourself and anoint yourself.
Put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor.
But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
Then it shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies,
and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down, and he will tell you what you should do.
So Naomi being ever vigilant, she's still looking out for Ruth's future, right?
She's still putting her daughter-in-law before herself.
She's still showing love.
She's still acting in action for love, right?
Love is an action.
And she sees a vision with Boaz starting to emerge.
Boaz, you know, currently he's on the threshing floor.
Now the threshing floor it's referring to, this is a place that was put up, it was an elevated area, typically outside.
It's really hard soil or sometimes they lay rocks and everything,
and this is where they would take their wheat and their barley and they either use oxen or they do it by hand
and basically they'd be crushing it down to separate the grains from the rest, right?
And the winnowing that it's referring to is basically they would take this empty husk that the grains come through
and they're throwing it in the air on a breeze where it wouldn't come through
and would blow out all the worthless stuff, right?
It's like Jesus working in our lives, shaping us, molding us,
helping us to work to get over the addictions and the various things that we're going through, right?
The poor choices that we make in life and helping us so we can see the right things and we can move forward,
bring out the best that's in us, right?
So every day, piece by piece, we're better every day than we were the day prior.
Some places they say, you know, beating your clone, but the goal is to always leave better than you were.
And it's something that we can do no matter where we're at in life.
You know, this chaff would get blown away, like I said, that was called winnowing,
and Boaz, he would spend the night there and it was for a couple of reasons.
And the first one would seem fairly obvious to prevent people from going in and stealing the grain.
The other part was because he, even though he owned the land, right, and he had all these people working for him,
he didn't separate himself from it.
He was a leader and he was leading from the front.
So he put himself in line and he was waiting for his turn on the threshing floor as well.
You know, it wasn't just do as I say, it was do as I do.
He was showing the example.
That's what leaders do.
They set that example by doing it themselves, right?
They embody it so other people can see it.
These are the people, when we see them out there, whether it's in work or some other aspect of our lives,
these are the people that really we respect the most because they're not just talking the talk, they're walking the walk.
Now, at first glance, Naomi's advice to Ruth here as well, this could seem a little bit alarming, right?
It's like, oh, you know, go get dressed up.
Put on your lotions, put on your perfume, right?
Make sure you're smelling real good, looking real good.
At first glance, we read this, it's like, oh, hold on a second.
The thing here, though, is she's not actually doing anything seductive.
What Naomi is instructing her on and encouraging her to do is to actually follow through on an Israelite custom, right?
By uncovering Boaz's feet, lying down at his feet, you know, underneath and basically pulling what he is covering over herself,
she's putting herself in a place of submission.
She's making an outward proclamation to him, letting him know that she's ready for him to step up and become her guardian redeemer, right?
You know, he, you know, and by being the guardian redeemer, he has the option to either marry her himself or to find her a husband, right?
So it's these two choices that he can choose from, and she's entrusting him essentially with her life,
saying, you know what, hey, I'm doing this and I trust you to make the best decision for me.
You know, and it's not a small act, just like it's not a small act when we put ourselves at the feet of Jesus and we truly give ourselves over to him.
We have to trust in him because he knows what's best in our lives.
He's going to guide us where we need to be.
It's not all going to be roses. It's not all going to be candy and cake and fluffy things.
You know, it's going to be trial. There's going to be tribulation, but he's going to get us through it.
He's going to guide us through and provide us a way through, and that way that he's providing is through him.
We have to remember this. It's no small act.
It's not something that we go into blindly either.
Here, Ruth is going blindly, but in faith that the best is going to happen.
That's the beauty with us. When we go and we put ourselves down at the feet of Christ, we already know there is no doubt that the best thing is to come,
that he is going to take care of us and our future is very bright indeed, and it is a sure thing.
By putting herself down here in this advice, it's actually a reference to 2 Samuel 12, verse 20.
So in 2 Samuel 12, verse 20, the word says,
Then David got up from the ground, after he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes.
He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.
Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food and he ate.
You see here, David, he had been told of his son's death.
Not too much similar to what Naomi and Ruth had gone through, the death of a loved one.
What did he do? He got up, he got cleaned up, he got dressed, and then he went to worship and spend time with the Lord.
Exactly what we should all do when we are going through our tough times.
Our good times too, but especially our tough times.
When he was done, he returned home and essentially he had a feast.
He had a little wake.
And the reason why this stuck out, everybody who was there, they were very taken back by it.
Like, whoa, what are you doing? You should be mourning.
But by doing this, he was signaling that his time of mourning was done.
He was done mourning his son. Yes, he was going to miss him, but he was ready to start moving forward again in a normal life with the Lord.
Similarly, Naomi was telling Ruth that it was time for her mourning to stop and to start moving forward in a normal life.
Because changing her clothes, as well, this was part of it.
This was part of that change, part of that signal, that outward proclamation.
If we go to Genesis chapter 38 verse 14, so Genesis 38 verse 14, the word tells us,
Ruth took off her widow's garments, covered herself with the veil, and wrapped herself,
and sat in the open place which was on the way to Timnah, for she saw what Shella had, was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife.
See, she, you know, here, Ruth is no different.
She continued to dress as a widow.
So she wasn't just out doing the things expected of a widow.
She had a dressing as well.
You know, in other parts of the Bible, they talk about how people would put on essentially what's a burlap sack, right?
This itchy kind of thing when they're repenting and everything.
And it's no different.
She was wearing specific clothes that let everybody know, hey, I'm still in mourning.
I'm still going through hardship.
So in changing her clothes, it was also an outward signal to let people know, hey, it's time for a new chapter.
It's time to move forward.
I'm not going to be stuck here anymore.
You know, and this outward declaration not only meant that she was ready to normalize her life again,
but she was also ready for the possibility of marriage if that were to come as well.
Continuing on, back at Ruth chapter 3, verses 5 through 9.
So, Ruth 3, verses 5 through 9, the word says, And he said to her, All that you say to me I will do.
So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law instructed her.
And after Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was cheerful, she went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain.
And she came softly, uncovered his feet and lay down.
Now it happened at midnight and the man was startled and turned himself.
And there a woman was lying at his feet.
And he said, Who are you?
So she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant.
Take your maidservant under your wing, meaning to spread the corner of your garment over her.
For you are a close relative.
The Hebrew for close relative here meaning redeemer, right?
So this is also tying into that whole guardian redeemer piece.
Now, as a foreigner, of course, Ruth, she wasn't obligated to do this.
Matter of fact, for locals and with a local custom, she wouldn't even be expected to, right?
Here these days we expect things different.
Like you're coming to my country, you're going to do what we do.
You're going to speak my language.
You're going to dress how we dress.
You're going to work how we work.
It's not a very good expectation.
The expectation here is actually much better.
Because instead of putting people in a hostile place, like, hey, you know what?
Let's make you comfortable.
If you stay, you stay.
Things will work out.
But we're not going to force things on you.
Much like when we talk to others about our faith.
We need to remember that we can't chase them away by trying to force our faith on them.
It's our responsibility to share the gospel, to tell them about it, right?
As the verbiage goes, to plant the seed.
But then the Holy Spirit will work in them and convict them.
And it's at that point that they'll start to develop that relationship.
We can't force it.
Just like I can't force you to be my friend, right?
If you don't like me, you don't like me, and vice versa.
Our sharing of the gospel is no different.
All we do is share it, and the truth will speak for itself.
However, in the case of Ruth, you know, this advice that she was given, while it was probably odd to hear,
you know, she was hearing it from somebody that she absolutely revered.
Somebody she adored, loved, and trusted with her best interest.
So it was very easy at that point to already start doing it.
And it was made easy here because as we saw in chapter 2, she had actually been out there.
She had interacted with Boaz.
He had seen just how godly he was, how kind he was to strangers and widows and children,
how much loving he was, how, you know, how he would go above and beyond what was required of him.
And this meant a lot.
It carried weight.
So even at that point, it's like, okay, this is a good man.
I have no problem doing this.
You know, she's a first-hand witness to the love of God and the compassion of others that was working through Boaz.
You know, it's that character that stands at that test of time.
Naomi, she's acting very much as a parent should.
You know, we all have those people in our lives, whether it's a parent, some other relative,
a close friend that's willing to work with us, talk to us, mentor us, telling when we're messing up, right,
giving us those reality checks that we all need from time to time.
You know, sometimes those bitter truths are much better, although harder to swallow,
than those easy lies we like to tell ourselves, right?
So, you know, these are people who influence us.
When it comes to the older people in our lives, these are people that we really need to listen to.
These are the people who have the life experiences to share.
They've been there.
They've done that.
And when they're trying to tell us about things, it's not because, oh, I'm better than you.
That's not their intent at all.
They're trying to share so that we don't make the same mistakes that they did.
They're trying to help us so that we have an easier life.
So we're already going to make our mistakes.
And unfortunately, some of the stuff we're just, we're not going to hear,
we're going to make those same mistakes ourselves.
You know, I'm the first to say there's a many a lesson I had to learn the hard way.
A lot of us are there, right?
We've all had certain things that we had to learn the hard way.
But there's certain things when we listen and we pick up what they're saying,
and it makes our lives just a little bit easier.
You know, sometimes it's just our best interest to just close our mouths and to listen, though.
Sometimes it's not the easiest.
Instead of, you know, listening to respond, we need to listen to what's actually being said to learn and take it in.
You know, like Ruth laying submissively at Boaz's feet and waiting for instruction,
going back to Jesus, it's the same thing for us.
Remember I talked earlier, we lay ourselves down at his feet.
It's the same thing.
We need to sit there and we need to listen.
Sometimes it takes a while, kind of like Habakkuk.
When he prayed, he voiced his concern and then he went and he sat in the ramparts waiting for God to answer him.
Sometimes it's hard for us to hear over our own voice when we're trying to tell God what we want the answer to be,
even though we're not necessarily prepared for what the answer will be.
Picking back up, verses 10 through 15, the word says,
Then he said, Blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning,
and that you did not go after young men, whether rich or poor.
And now, my daughter, do not fear.
I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman.
Now, it is true that I am a close relative.
However, there is a relative closer than I.
Stay this night, and in the morning it shall be, excuse me,
Stay this night, and in the morning it shall be, that if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you, good, let him do it.
But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you, as the Lord lives.
Lie down until morning.
So she laid his feet until morning, and she arose before one could recognize another.
Then he said, Do not let it be known that the woman who came to the, do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.
Also he said, Bring the shawl that is on you and hold it.
And when she held it, he measured six ephahs of barley and laid it on her.
Then she went into the city.
So you remember when Ruth first went out and she first set foot on these fields, it was all business, right?
It was just looking for survival, looking for something for her and her mother-in-law to eat.
Very quickly they learned it wasn't just business, it was a family business.
Family business means a little bit more for us in our lives, doesn't it?
Wasn't waiting for that hand out, it was getting to work and working towards that hand up, which surely came.
You know, it's making the best of that hard situation.
And now we're starting to see things change.
She's taken notice of Boaz. Boaz has taken notice of her.
A relationship is forming.
Boaz is also recognizing what Ruth is suggesting to him.
You know, she didn't have to do any of the things that she's been doing.
She didn't have to submit herself in the way that she has submitted herself.
She could have gone back home.
She could have gone back to Moah, back to her family.
And it would have been a much easier restart, right? A reboot in her life.
But she didn't do that. Instead she chose the harder path, that narrow path that we all take to Jesus, right?
You know, it wasn't the customs she was from, it wasn't the stuff that she knew.
And when it comes to these customs, you know, a lot of us, when it comes to customs that are foreign to us,
we're not really willing to bend, are we?
We get very stiff.
Something as simple as going to someone's house and right there at their front door,
they have a place where they expect everyone to take off their shoes, regardless of the reason.
The reason doesn't matter.
But some of us are like, no, I'm not taking off my shoes. Are you crazy?
Do you smell my feet? Do you smell my kids? No.
But we become very rigid, like, I don't want to do it.
Sometimes we need to be willing to bend. We don't know what's going on, right?
You go to that person's house, they're having you take off those shoes for a reason.
You've been outside, you've been trudging through stuff, you've been in and out of buildings,
maybe in and out of a hospital.
They have a loved one or an elderly person who's very frail in the back,
and they're trying to keep germs out of the house.
You don't know this, and that's why they're having people take off their shoes,
trying to keep germs away from them.
But in our own rigidity, we could be infecting somebody, not even know it.
The same comes with how we treat each other.
You treat people with love, you treat strangers with love, and they remember it.
If you're a cold, nasty, bitter person, they're going to be like, haha, I remember this guy's a jerk.
Right? It's the same thing.
Our own actions, we inject either love or poison into whatever situation we're in.
You know, Ruth could have looked to anybody to secure her future.
Like I said, she could have returned home and married a local there,
stayed with the customs and the stuff that she knew, the stuff she'd grown up with,
but instead, she was following a new norm, new customs.
She was getting out and showing that she was a woman of substance.
You know, as Boaz said, a woman of virtue, a very respectable person.
And because of what they're seeing in each other,
and what they've seen from the start, what they already were hearing of each other as well,
this is all influencing, and now they're starting to develop a deep respect for each other and genuine love.
True love is an unselfish love, right?
And Boaz has truly been unselfish, just as her.
You know, he gave her an inch, she didn't try to take a mile, she said, thank you.
And she put a little bit to take home to her mother-in-law.
You know, life's hard. We know it's going to be hard.
Jesus warned us it was going to be hard, and that was going to stay this way.
Life, walking this earth, wasn't any easier for him, was it?
However, he uses these difficulties to shape us, to mold us, to develop us into better people.
Like Winnowing the Chaff, I was talking about earlier.
You know, those hardships, they clear up that false image that we try to put up, that fake front, right?
It removes that second face that's in front of us, and these are the things that reveal who we really are,
the things that break us down, the things that bring us down emotionally.
It's one of the beauties of being in the military is when you're there and you see people are broken,
and you see that they're broken the same way that you are.
You see that humanity, not the statue, but the person, and they become so much easier to love.
And that's what's happening to us.
Things are being broken down in us so that we can be built up better, right?
Taking out those weak points and putting in strong points.
You know, Ruth and Naomi, these past few weeks, we've been looking at it.
We've been going over all those hardships, you know, having time to meditate it for the last few weeks.
You know, this is a good time to ask yourself questions and be honest in how you answer yourself, right?
You know, the difficulties, the struggles in your life, you know, how are these things winnowed you?
How are they showing your true character, your true nature?
You know, how are they showing you the very things that you need to work on?
Because we all have things that we need to work on.
You know, in the Marine Corps, we have a leadership principle, know yourself and seek self-improvement.
And it's the exact same thing that the Bible is telling us here.
You know, find your weaknesses and then find the solution to improve them.
Whether it's removing a weakness from your life entirely or changing it into a strength.
You know, how do you treat others?
How have your life experiences built you with how you treat others?
Have they hardened you? Have they made you soft?
Have they made you, as we saw in Chapter 1 with Naomi, have they made you, Naomi or Mara, pleasant or bitter?
You know, it's not uncommon for us to use the hardships and the struggles and the pain in life to build up walls,
to keep people out and to be nasty to other people.
But it's not the right way.
You know, we use these things to justify our biases, our prejudices, our ugliness.
And it shouldn't be that way.
We see these things about ourselves and we should say, hey, this is what I need to fix.
This is when we should be turning to the Lord and praying, asking for guidance, asking for help,
asking for those other people to be put into our lives that can help us to fix these things.
Right? It's kind of like you break a bone.
Do you get to break a bone by yourself? No.
The Lord's given us doctors to help with that.
And it's no different with all these other things that we experience in life.
There are certain things here we can all go to each other here in our church family and help each other with.
We all have struggles.
So we need to take those lessons that we learn and build up.
Use them to learn for ourselves, use them to teach others.
You know, we take these experience and when we come through the other side, that's our testimony.
That's how Jesus has given us our testimony so we can talk to others, we can share that with them.
Hey, you're not alone. You're never alone.
Jesus is always with you. And guess what?
I've gone through the same thing. So even if you just need a shoulder to cry on right now,
and when you're willing and you're ready to talk, I'll be here and we can talk.
But it's reflecting that light of God for others to see.
You know, are you the person who flows in negativity and the discontent around you?
Excuse me, the discontent?
Or are you the person who goes in and always has that smile, that positivity that just lifts people up and cheers them up?
It's like, oh, I love this person when they come.
Right? Because we all have those people that come in and out of our lives.
We're like, oh, this guy again.
You know, that friend, we're like, oh, it's going to be a good day.
I got my partner over here. Right?
Now, Naomi and Ruth, they probably made the assumption that Boaz was their closest relative.
And we can get this also, you know, based on the response of Boaz that likely, you know, he's already kind of thinking like, oh,
Ruth just made herself available to me. Sweet. Right?
That's kind of how us guys are. Right?
It's one of those moments where we're all kind of like dogs.
A little bit.
But he did the right thing. He did the honorable thing.
He's like, you know what? This is great. Thank you for trusting me.
However, there's another person who's closer. Right?
So there's some people that would have skipped over that.
They were showing that flaw in their own character and just going, you know what? Hey, let's do this. Sweet.
But he wasn't doing that. He wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to do the, you know, the godly thing.
The godly thing isn't always the easy thing.
So even though this might have been a tough pill for him to swallow, might not have been.
He might have already had an idea what the answer was going to be. Sometimes it happens. Right?
But he did the right thing and he was going to go to this other relative and be like, hey, guess what?
We had this coming up. You have for, you know, first dibs basically. Right?
Do you want to do this or not?
So Boaz went and referred to him first. The nice thing for Boaz though is that this guy wasn't interested,
which we learned he isn't, he's able to marry Ruth.
You know, spoiler alert, we know that's exactly what happens. Right?
Because through that lineage, eventually Jesus comes.
You know, this is probably one of those cases and making the right decision, doing the right thing, you know,
it's a prime example that when we do these things, these are the things that bring us closer to God.
You know, and it's really easy to see how it brings us closer to God because in doing the right thing,
this brings God joy. And that reflects in the joy in our own lives, our own happiness that we get to see.
Right? Sometimes it's not always the thing that we look forward to doing, but we should still do these things,
knowing in our hearts that, you know, this is the better way. This is the high ground.
You know, we look at Jesus. Jesus wasn't looking forward to the cross. He knew what was coming.
When we go to Luke chapter 22, verses 42 through 44, we can see exactly how Jesus responds.
He prayed and he says, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.
An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him, and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly.
And his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. You know, Jesus, he knew what was about to come.
He knew it was going to be absolute horror. He wasn't looking forward to it.
Let's face it, he had the power where he could have changed things if, like that, right?
But he didn't do that. You know, he marched forward with the knowledge of what was to come.
And he did it knowing that it was for our best interest, his love for us.
A prime example of what we need to do in our lives when we're facing these hardships.
The right thing isn't always going to be the easy thing. Sometimes it's going to hurt.
Sometimes it's going to hurt a lot. Some of those tough decisions really are painful.
But we still need to do them. Let's go to these last couple of verses of Ruth here.
Ruth chapter 3, verses 16 through 18. The word says, when she came to her mother-in-law, she said,
and depending on your translation, it'll either say, how are you? Or is that you, my daughter?
Then she told her all that the man had done for her, and she said, these six ephos of barley he gave me.
For he said to me, do not go empty-handed to your mother-in-law.
Then she said, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out.
For the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.
So Naomi, she's being very reassuring to Ruth here, right?
You know, Boaz is going to do the right thing. You know, he's going to follow through on his promises.
In Isaiah 66, verse 13, the word says, as a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you,
and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.
And in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, maybe, there we go.
2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 4, the word tells us, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
So just as Naomi is comforting Ruth here, we need to comfort each other, right?
One of the greatest ways that we can do this is to share the gospel and to share our testimony of Jesus in our lives.
You know, we need to be willing to share with people that Jesus came to redeem those who accept him,
that he wants relationship with them.
You know, from this passage, we can assume that Boaz likely had a reputation,
not only for just following through on his word, but also being tenacious in doing so, right?
You know, the kind of person who gets that mission and just becomes fixated on it, very hyper-focused.
Anybody in here have that thing where something comes up in front of them and you just kind of hyper-focus,
like everything kind of goes to the side, it's like I'm on a mission, let's get this done?
My wife's pointing at me because she knows I do that a lot.
She's looking for something, have you seen this? And I drop it, let's find it, and I'll spend two hours looking for it, right?
But we all kind of get hyper-focused on different things in our lives, you know,
especially the things that we're really passionate about or the things that we really want.
We just, right there, everything else goes to the side or just kind of blurs out.
That one thing is all that we're looking at.
You know, so likely Boaz was the same kind of person, and these are the types of person, you know,
that we have in our lives, the type of people that we see as very reliable.
These are the people that, you know, we go to when we need something, you know.
This is another one of those character traits that stands the test of time
and that people look forward to seeing and get excited about, you know.
We all want to have that reputation that we're someone that people could come to in their time of need
or it could depend on to have certain things done.
But I'll remind you that this is one of those character traits, this is the type of reputation while we all want it,
it doesn't just come at the snap of a finger.
People don't just look at it and go, oh, that's the guy, he's going to do it.
This is one of those things that we have to go and that reputation is built piece by piece, action by action, right.
Conversation by conversation, it takes time.
And after a while, people come to see, okay, he wasn't just doing it, this wasn't, he wasn't just acting.
This is him, this is part of him, this is part of her.
You know, this is the person that I know I could go to for these things,
and they're going to get things taken care of, you know.
Psalm 37 verse 5, the word says, commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass.
You know, the same way as Boaz had that reputation for following through, Jesus keeps his promises to us.
You know, step by step, he's shown us the way he set the example.
He didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk.
You know, it's an example to each and every one of us, you know, of what can be achieved
and what we should strive towards.
You know, we're all imperfect, we're never going to be perfect while we're here,
but it's all something that we can work towards,
and it's something he will help us with in our relationship with him, right.
Like I said earlier, better today than yesterday, better tomorrow than today.
You know, and just like, you know, I was talking about the responsibility of being reliable,
we need to be willing to do things when people come to us, not to say,
hey, that's not my part of my job, that's not my scope of practice, you know,
that's not what I'm paid for or anything like that.
They're coming to you for a reason.
They're seeing you as a person to get the job done.
So you should take that with a happy heart.
Say, hey, you know what, I can do this.
Let's do it.
Not bicker about it, not argue about it, not complain about it.
Just go and do it.
Be happy that someone trusts you enough to look to you to do it
and to place that responsibility upon you.
You know, it's one of the ways that we show our own love.
You know, sometimes we get asked to do something and we go and do it,
and we fail miserably.
No one likes to fail, right.
It can be a little embarrassing.
Sometimes it can be very embarrassing.
But you know what, sometimes that's part of the process.
Sometimes they're like, hey, I'd like for you to do this,
and you go and do it, and you fail miserably,
and you come back and be like, you know what, I tried.
This is what I did, and this was the outcome.
It was the best I could do.
And people respect that.
This doesn't become that one time you did something bad
because you had the integrity, that fortitude to go forward
and be like, you know what, I did my best and I failed.
And that actually improves how people look at you in the long run.
That little piece of embarrassment was worth it
because you're honest and you did what God has told us to do.
You know, we're all going to have hardships,
we're all going to have struggles.
Like Ruth and Naomi, we're all going to lose people in our lives.
But we need to take these things, learn the lessons that are from it,
let God's love build up in us and guide us through it,
you know, and not get wrapped up in these things.
Not let these hard things be the end-all, be-all of who we are.
Let's face it, we all know people that are very much like that,
that one thing happened and that's what they get hung up on
is that point where they walked away from their faith
and they become very angry and very bitter with God.
That's very much the time that we should be turning to Him.
You know, Ruth and Naomi, they didn't let these things become their end-all, be-all.
This wasn't who they were, it was just something that happened.
And then they started moving forward.
They started moving towards God and doing the right thing.
An example for all of us, you know, a final quote here today,
from Anne Frank.
She said, I don't think of all the misery,
but all the beauty that still remains.
We can have part of that beauty as well.
When we go to Jesus on the threshing floor,
we entrust in Him as our guardian, redeemer.
You know, let Him be that voice, that wind of change that comes through our lives
and blows out all the chaff, blows away all the meaningless, bitter, hard, ugly parts of us
to show the parts that truly matter, who we truly are for Him and His kingdom.
That lets the world know just how much He loves each and every one of us
and how much He will love each and every one of them
and how they come to a relationship with Him as well.
You know, we can rest in Him and we can find that comfort, you know,
especially in our times of pain.
And later on down the line, you know, while we're going through these hardships,
it doesn't always click right away that this is only for a moment.
But afterwards, we can realize it was just for a moment.
And we have a very tremendous, a very bright future with Jesus and in God's kingdom.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You for today.
We thank You for bringing us together, our time in fellowship together, our time in worship.
We ask that You help us to take all these things that we've covered in Your Word,
apply them in our lives to go out,
and remember that we need to lean on You, but not just lean on You,
but to share our love of You and Your love with us, our relationships with others
so they can see exactly what we're working towards and what we're talking about.
To break the stereotypes and to break through the boundaries, the bias, the prejudices,
and to show Your hope.
Because we know Your hope is really the true light, the only light
in this world of darkness that we're in right now.
And in our own struggles and the struggles that are unspoken of those that we know and love,
we ask for Your peace and Your comfort in our hearts, our minds, our very lives,
that when we walk with You, when we talk with You,
that not only do we gain knowledge, but we gain understanding.
That it's not just for this day, but so that we can be better each and every day,
better tomorrow than we are today,
and to become the people that You need us to be for others to come to Your kingdom as well.
In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.
Alright, thank you everybody for coming today.
Thank you all for joining us here today at Healing Scars with Pastor Burton.
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We look forward to hearing from you all. God bless.