Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:00]:

Hey, good morning, everybody. Glad to see you guys. I did want to make a mention about Dr. Brian. I've met Dr. Brian Misaka when I was in seminary. His school of psychology was part of Biola's. It's called the Rosemead School of Psychology, which really believes that Jesus is the greatest soul doctor that we need and that as a man of God, he's also been on the board for New Hope Milalani or New Hope Central.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:00:28]:

So he's not just a psychologist, he's a man of God and speaks regularly, but he's going to kind of lead and guide us in most of that workshop time. So that's coming up. And I did also want to say thank you that a small team of us was able to represent you at our international convention in Anaheim. Just I left Sunday, came back Thursday. Our church family, the International Church of the Four Square Gospel, is a lot bigger than what's in Hawaii. We have like 52 churches in Hawaii, but we're in 156 countries. There's over 2000 churches in the US. Alone and multiply of tens of that around the world.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:01:10]:

But would you know that there's people all over who worship the same God, the God that says that, you know what? That God is not the God of history, although you find him in history, but he's the same God doing the same thing that whatever God did in here, god still can do today. You guys believe that, right? So I did want to say thank you for letting us do that. But this morning we're starting a new series and although we're saying that we're part of a big family, at the end, it always matters is the family that you connect with in face to face, right? And so bigger isn't always better. And yours truly, I'm an example of that, right? So sometimes good things come in small packages. And this morning I wanted to take a look at some of the shorter books or some of the shorter stories in the scripture that have a big message. A while back I did a series just called on the Minor Prophets. You guys may not have read some of those. And remember before when people actually used to bring their Bible to church, they actually used to bring us physical thing and it's so heavy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:15]:

I know sometimes we want to bring it, but you can still bring your Bible. But some of us that when we have these Bibles that kind of are meant to last for a long time, that you would see this gold kind of a coloring on the edge. And you know, what would happen is if you turned in some of these minor prophets, sometimes you would hear your pages go like this because that thing, that gold paint was getting everything stuck. So it's the sticky pages in your Bible. So one day we did a series because I didn't want us to have sticky pages in our Bible. So we done a series on that. So some of these may be minor prophets. Some of these will be other stories.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:02:52]:

Some of it will be New Testament books as well that all have a good news orientation. And so that's what we're beginning this morning. We're beginning from the book of Ruth. And the Book of Ruth takes place, it says, in the Time of Judges. And so, if you're not familiar, the time of Judges was after Moses and Joshua and those who actually went through slavery and went through Egypt and went through the Red Sea and went through the desert after that generation passed away. It says then there was this period before the kings came out, before guys like Saul and David came out, where everybody did what was right in their own eyes. And to be honest, it kind of reflects our culture today, doesn't it? That everybody has their own truth we talked about. And yet rather than seeking the truth and when you have an epistemology, which means how you know something is true or how you can know something, if all you have is your personal feeling is all you have is divorced from anything else objective, then sometimes it'll lead you to strange places.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:01]:

So if you ever read the Book of Judges, you'll see all this crazy stuff that happens, and people wonder. This is in the Bible. You know why? Because God doesn't only tell you the good things that people did. Sometimes he tells you all that people did. And so God is not afraid to show us that sometimes that what we can become if we're not living under his grace. We're not finding that place of direction. But the Book of Ruth is kind of a highlight. It's kind of a little oasis in the middle of that Time of Judges, where there's a lot of craziness, there's also good things happening, stories of redemption.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:04:39]:

And that's what we're going to look at this morning. And so I just want to ask this question that although the name is the Book of Ruth, I'm not going to be focusing so much on Ruth. I'm not going to teach the whole book. But we're going to just kind of look at a side story in some sense, where we're going to see a lot of the character of God and maybe a lot of us in it as well. But it's like this. How many of you guys remember this old TV series that says where everybody knows your name? You guys remember that? Cheers or somebody I saw you guys just say that line, right? Where everybody knows. Okay, so did you guys there was a side character. He wasn't like one of the main characters.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:05:21]:

He was a psychologist, right? Or psychiatrist, whatever he was. And it was Fraser, and he had this offshoot, right? More recent. Anybody here watch Breaking Bad? Right? Okay, there's a few more Breaking bad fans. I'm a Breaking Bad fan. But then out of that, there was this kind of a sleazy lawyer guy and they made a spin off that's called Better Call Saul, right? So you can get these interesting stories and interesting backstory, interesting things of the gospel sometimes on the side stories, even in the scripture. And so one of those characters, not the main character, but an important character is a person called Naomi. And she and her husband, her husband's name is Elimelek that they were kind of in this place where drought came on the land. And with drought comes famine, right? With famine comes hardship.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:06:15]:

And so we're finding that they're living in the Promised Land, but across the ocean or across the sea, the Sea of Galilee is this place called Moab. Now, God said the promises are tied to the land in the Old Testament, right? With Abraham, he says, leave the place where you're living to the place I will show you, and there I will bless you and you will be a blessing. Now, it didn't feel like a blessing. How many of you guys have ever been in that place where God says he's going to bless you, but it just doesn't feel like a blessing, right? So what happens that they're in this place is they're looking for greener pastures and literally they look across the sea and there's on that shore, greener pastures. Unfortunately, sometimes if you've ever chased greener pastures, sometimes you find, yeah, sometimes it could be greener and sometimes you find is it doesn't last, right? And so we find this greener pasture doesn't last. In fact, it's even worse than where they were. And it's because of what happens. And so that causes us maybe at times to wonder, right, that when you're in this place and all of a sudden you go through this whirlwind of trouble, maybe you start second guessing yourself.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:07:37]:

Have you ever second guessed yourself, did I make the right decision? Should I have taken that job? Did I really give my all in this relationship? Why did it turn so sour? Maybe you've even wondered, is God punishing me for my sin or cursing me or whatever it is that if you've ever wondered about anything along those lines, this book is for you, right? That this book answers and speaks to the things that sometimes our hearts cry out for. Although the answer may not always come in the form of the question that you ask. Because sometimes the question we ask is Why? Right? You guys ever ask why? So often that our hearts hunger for why? But God will see in the midst of this thing has a greater answer than why. And so we're going to start by reading in the Book of Ruth, chapter one, verses three to five, and would you be kind enough? Let's stand in reverence for God and his word. And we're going to read starting in verse three ready? Let's read. Then Elimelek died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. And the two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpa, and the other married a woman named Ruth.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:08:57]:

But about ten years later, both Mailon and Killian died. And this left Naomi alone without her two sons or her husband. So we see, right? This greener pastures is no longer green. It's more like a place of pain, right? It's more the sign of my loss than the sign of my promise. And so when we're in that situation, we can understand that sometimes maybe you ask questions. Maybe you've followed your dreams only for that to turn and morph into a nightmare. And so you might understand this concept that Ruth is I'm sorry that Manaomi is experiencing, but sometimes that's what we've experienced. And so would you know that God still has good news for you? Even if you can relate to Naomi, or if maybe you see someone who relates to Naomi, would you know there's still good news available to them.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:09:55]:

So before we're seated, turn to your neighbor and just says, don't worry, there's still good news. And then you can have a seat. Don't worry, there's still good news. Now sometimes we're asking why? And the Bible never says in the book, in this particular book, it never answers why specifically. It doesn't say definitively, this is why these things happened to Naomi. But we do know that the promises were tied to the land, and they left the land. And to be honest, they went from Israel, they went to a place called Moab, where they worshipped this God named Kemash. Some of you might have heard of that, because this was a God that was kind of a bloodthirsty God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:10:38]:

They would sacrifice children to them. They would actually, at times, they would heat up an idol that had arms extended like this and put live babies on it. So we're in this place where it's just a wild country. In fact, the scripture said to not go into places like that or not to adopt their practices, nor to intermarry. Now, the reason for not to intermarry wasn't racial in orientation. It was spiritual in orientation. Because how many of us that when you got married, you adopted practices that was strange to you? Anybody? You guys know what I'm talking about. It's like, wow, you guys do what at Christmas, you guys do what on their birthday.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:11:21]:

You guys don't do the things right, because we all will adopt the things from the people that we tie ourselves to. And so he's saying, if you're marrying into that, you're going to adopt these spiritual practices. So this is what I'm trying to protect you from. And so there is this sense that although they have left the place of promise and maybe feeling abandoned, that God has not abandoned them. And so even in the midst of this wondering, that what we'll find is that God is a covenant keeping God. And that though at times we may fail, that God never fails. Now, what we find, though, is in the midst of that time when Naomi goes through this kind of a loss, it changes you. I don't know if you guys have ever been through something, so it rocks your world, but it changes you.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:14]:

The name Naomi means pleasant and beautiful. Good. But when they return, she will make a journey from Moab after all of this, and she will go back to her homeland. She will go back to her ancestral land. And when she does, they see her and they go, is that Naomi? And this is what her response was in Ruth one nine and 21, don't call me Naomi. She responded, don't call me good or beautiful, right. Or pleasant. Instead, call me Mara.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:12:51]:

For the Almighty has made life very bitter. The word Mara might seem familiar to some of us, where Moses was leading the people through the Promised Land, through the desert to the Promised Land. And they came into this place that looked nice, but its waters were poisonous, and they called the waters bitter. And so they called the place guests mara. Yeah. So she's saying, I'm Mara. I'm bitter. I've been poisoned by my pain.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:23]:

And so I'm not the same person. God has made my life very bitter. She's saying, I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why call me good and pleasant, Naomi, when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me? And so, seeing that, you can tell she's not the same person as when she left. Right. And when you go through things like that, it distorts your vision at times. It distorts your vision of yourself. It can distort your vision of other people, can distort your vision of God.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:13:57]:

Right? And all of a sudden that you see the world very differently. And we can tell at this place that Naomi doesn't have a whole lot of hope. Right. She's pretty hopeless, but she's pragmatic. Right. Because they left because the other side looked greener. Right. But then there's some news about things that God is doing back in the Promised Land.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:14:19]:

And so it says this in Ruth one six to seven, it says, then the only heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. So she heard, right. She started hearing the news like, wow, maybe I need to leave this place, because this place just reminds me of my loss. Just reminds me of all my failures. Just reminds me of all of my pain. And so Naomi and her daughters in law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland with her two daughters in law. She set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah. Now, I said that it can distort our vision.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:02]:

And I believe that Naomi didn't think she just had a period of bad luck. We've all had a streak of bad luck, right? And so it just doesn't seem to be happening, right? But I think that she turned that she thought that she was cursed. I think she was thinking that God's against me. Right? I mean, she's pretty clear that she says that even though she's leaving with people who stand with her, right, they have a loss. These people are leaving with her, her daughters in law. Yeah. They lost husbands, right? They lost security. They lost all of their ability.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:15:41]:

There was no such thing as Social Security. Social Security was your children, and to be honest, your children's children, that kind of a thing that they would work and provide. And so without husbands, there's nobody to have more children. And so they're just kind of left destitute. And so we see this situation that when you get wounded like that and you don't see things clearly, it's very easy to push people away that are trying to help you, trying to stand with you, trying to pray for you, right? You ever get to that place, you're like, hey, can I pray for you? Like, don't pray, just leave me alone, right? Or you look at the phone and you just kind of go to voicemail, right? You see this other person sees, oh, the text is being read, that they see the little things and that's it. No response. This is what happens, right? So she gets like this. And so what she does is she starts to push away the very people that God has using to try to sustain her in this period.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:16:50]:

She have two daughters in law, and she says to them this, right? Basically, may the Lord bless you with security of another marriage. And then she kissed them goodbye and they all broke down and wept. And they said no. They said, we want to go with you to your people. And basically, Naomi says, I'm a bad investment. Don't hit your wagons with me, because, to be honest, it seems like everything I touch falls apart. And then she begins to explain this thing. She says that even if I went and I got married and I had kids, are you going to wait for them to grow up so that you could marry the sons? And what she's explaining is that in the Old Testament, there is this thing called the leverite marriage.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:17:36]:

In other words, that if you had a bunch of brothers and one of them gets married, he marries this woman and he passes away, that the relatives, the brothers, were responsible to marry the sister and take another wife. It's the Social Security, right? And so that there's provision for them and their children, and it allows the heritage of your brother who passed away to keep being cared for, the kids, right? So she's laying out this plan and she says, it's not going to work. Right? That makes sense. And so this happens. And so she's pushing away the very people God has called to stand with her. And, you know, what happens is one of them Orpa says, okay, if that's the case, you said not to come and to stay with it. And it doesn't say that she was like she was just being polite in the process of standing with mom. Right.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:18:38]:

It's really just the fact that she was pushed away. And because she refused, somebody left. So this brings me to the second point that you got to understand God's math. Sometimes two halves don't just make a whole, they make a community. God, I believe, was intending for Naomi to not be alone. And so he used even these Moabite women, her daughters in law, to stand with her. But she's pushing them away. Good news is this ruth was not pushable.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:12]:

Right? And we read some of the most memorable words that we find in this book where she says this. Ruth replied, don't ask me to leave you and turn back. And this is the part where we hear, wherever you go what I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people. Your god will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and I will be buried there. And may the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:19:48]:

And when Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more. Now, interesting, some people say, wow, how come Naomi didn't say anything? Like, thank you so much for going. Thank you for not leaving me. Thank you for why did she say that? Because she's wounded. She doesn't see the good that Naomi she cannot give. There's nothing left to give. She suffered so great a loss that she just says nothing. But they go together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:23]:

Now, she's not the only person, though, right, to suffer loss. Ruth lost. But, you know, the thing is, Ruth, even though she wasn't maybe born on the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, she was still a good woman, a woman of character. It doesn't matter where you're born, it doesn't matter what kind of your circumstances. You can be a good person or a person of character. It's possible. And she might not have started with great faith, but we'll see her faith develop and grow along the way. And all of a sudden, this character, if you have character, that it shows itself.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:20:58]:

Now, Naomi couldn't have really done this journey along by herself, right? She had no means of support. She had no means of provision. And so Ruth going with her was part of God's provision. Now, when you get into this place, it's easier to do stuff alone. Sometimes you just don't want to talk to people you don't want to see people. You don't want to put on a happy face or whatever it is. And so in that moment, we'll find that root sticking with Naomi was one of the greatest things that could happen to Naomi because there, when they get back to her ancestral lands, they get back to Judah, then they find that place. People remember Naomi, even though it's been many years, but what they really notice is Ruth.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:21:50]:

And it says in chapter two that there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz. Let's say Boaz, because Boaz is going to play a big role in this as well, though he's not the main character who was a relative of noi's husband. So he's a relative to them. Right, Elimelech? Now, what is he talked about is there's this thing in the Old Testament kind of a format that you would have a relative so this is a relative that he could marry Ruth and provide in that sense become they called it a Go l, which was a related person who would redeem you. They would pay your debt, they would take away your shame. They would bring you in and cover you and provide for you, right? So one day, Ruth, the MoBite, said to Naomi, let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stocks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it. And Naomi replied, all right, my daughter, go ahead. So Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters, and as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, the relative of her father in law.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:04]:

And it's sort of like, wow, what great luck. No, it was the hand of God, right? That God was guiding them, bringing them. Now, what does that mean, that when you move toward the promises of God, you'll begin to see the goodness of God. And all of us in there, when you get to this place and your world gets turned around, that if you start moving toward the promises of God, you'll start seeing the goodness of God. Bois has been watching her and asks about her. He asks his team, right? So you can read the whole book, by the way, later on. It's only four chapters. It's like a few pages.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:23:42]:

You can read it later. But what we find is he asks her, like, who's that girl there? And he go, oh, that's Naomi's daughter in law. And she's working and doing this thing called gleaning. Now, in the Old Testament, this was given by the law of Moses that they had a way for people who were on hard times. How did you get because there's no Social Security. You're not getting a COVID check, you're not getting unemployment. There's none of that. And so what they said was this if you had private landowners and they planted a crop, what you were supposed to do as a means of provision, social provision was don't just harvest, like, every single inch and pull everything out is like, not everything.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:24:28]:

Although things tend to ripen at one time, not everything ripens exactly the same time. Right? You guys notice that. So what they were said is that you walk through harvests, don't get all the corners. You leave some behind, some stuff is not right. And then let other people walk through and just harvest what's available, right? And that was the social provision. And so you never sat back and waited for your check. You still had to get involved. But even if it's not your land, even that, you did nothing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:00]:

You could glean. That was called gleaning. And so Boaz notices this this woman. She's a hard worker. She's serving her mother in law. She's left her country, come to this place where she's know she's seen as an outsider and known that she's seen as somebody who's like a foreign woman and kind of unclean and all of that. But wow, that's this lady, she's treating her mother in law, right? There's something about her. So he has a discussion with his team.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:25:28]:

He says, hey, don't bother her. Leave her alone. In fact, I want you to watch out for her. And when you guys are harvesting and maybe just drop a little bit on the side so she can pick it up and she won't know, but let's help her out a little bit, right? So he's being kind, right? Boaz has been kind, and he's noticing her sacrifice. And so he's understanding that, you know what? Because she's being a blessing, let's encourage that. Because you know why? Because that's what God tries to do in your life. When he sees us go through loss, he doesn't want you to be alone. And so he says, don't forsake those who are trying to stand with you, don't end up pushing away everybody who's trying to pray for you, support you, invite you over.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:26:21]:

He says this, let them do that. Because you're going to experience community. And that's part of God's way of providing for you. It's got what part of God's way to help you? And still, though still, you might have your wounds, you still might have your frustrations, you still might be maybe angry at God, or you still might be angry at your situation, you still might be bitter. But this brings me to the third point. Would you be reminded, though, that God wants to redeem you and your wounds, that you're not beyond redemption that Naomi has felt? I've been beyond help. I'm beyond hope. Right? I don't even have enough time.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:05]:

You might feel like it doesn't pencil out. There's no way I can make it. I'm too old to get a new career. I'm too old to get a new job. It's over for me. That's why he told her to not come, right? But this is what we find that in Psalm 30, 418 and 19, this is what it says the Lord is close to who the broken hearted, and he rescues those whose spirits are crushed. There's times even when you don't have enough faith to have hope, he says this, that he still rescues. He's not taken aback by that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:27:42]:

The righteous person faces how many troubles. Many troubles, right. But the Lord rescues them, comes to the rescue each time. Would you know that God says this being a person of faith doesn't make you immune to the problems of life. It just makes it available for God to come in the midst of those times and to help you through those times. Why? Because the Lord is good. This is what it says in Psalm 100, verse five. It's a very short psalm, only five verses.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:28:16]:

The last one says this. Let's read, for the Lord is good, and his love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations. There's not a season, there's not a generation that goes where God will forsake when it says that his love endures forever. The word love comes from the Hebrew word has said, and I talked about it a while back that has said is sometimes just translated love. In some other translations, it'll say his faithful love. And it ties itself to this, that God is that even when you're not loyal, god is loyal. Even when you're not faithful, God is faithful.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:00]:

And his love is faithful that he has a covenantal love, a kindness and a mercy. So this is a very rich kind of a thing. So it says this, for the Lord is good and he's faithful even when you're not faithful to love you, to care for you, to be kind to you. But there are times would Naomi have said this? Would she have said, this is my favorite verse? No, I don't think so. Even though God was always good, I don't think she experienced his goodness. Why is that? Because we always get for what we look for. We always see what we look for, right. So if you're looking for signs of how God has failed you, how he hasn't come through, you're looking for signs of God's absence, you know what you're going to find? You're going to see that written all over the place.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:29:52]:

But if you're looking for signs of God's faithfulness, signs of God's provision, signs of God's activity in your life, you know what you're going to find? You're going to start seeing it. Why? Is because our eyes get attuned there's this thing that happens. We find what we're looking for. And so God wants us to bring you know what, bring your stuff before God, you can come and you have all your baggage, right? Anybody here have baggage? We all got baggage. Some of you like that. That's my baggage right over there. No, but no, that's not what I'm talking about. Yeah, you can.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:30:32]:

Bring your baggage to that kind, but it says, bring yourself and bring your pain, bring your wounds, bring your disappointment, because God wants to redeem all of it. Now, when we say God wants to redeem all of it, might come to mind at the prophet Joel, where he says this and the Lord will restore to you the years, not like the weeks, not the days. It says the years that the locust is eaten. You might have been like, Naomi had a streak. Oh, my gosh, in the last ten years, I just lost everything, right? But you know what? God says, I can restore what the years have taken. Now, it doesn't mean this. It doesn't mean that if you lost a husband that he's going to get resurrected from the grave and so you can get remarried to that husband. That's not what it's saying.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:31:30]:

It is saying this, that I can bring let's say this, I can bring love into your life in such a way that, though it might not replace that person, you're going to have a sense of fullness experiencing the goodness in your life. If you got fired from a job unjustly because you were accused and all of a sudden, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to get that job specifically in that company again or that position again. But you know what? God can bring a different job, a different company in such a way that you're going to just see the goodness of God that you say, you know what, all that I've been through, I can see God's goodness. When I was in Anaheim, I called a friend that had had a really rough time. He'd been in the church probably for about ten years, and about a year and a half ago, he moved to the mainland. And while he was here, he got divorced, he lost jobs. He's had all these ups and downs. There were times he was just hard and he was there was there's something about this guy.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:32:44]:

I I stood with him, prayed with him. There were times he got great jobs, great opportunities, like literally could have made millions in his job. But he was cheated and he got basically taken advantage of. And to be honest, he was bitter. Right. And what we prayed over him and that we just said, can you let God into this thing? And sometimes what happens is the enemy. He's attracted to our pain, he's attracted to our failures, he's attracted to our sin. And he was a good friend of mine, but we still prayed.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:20]:

Just things broke through. There was a change in him, an attitude change, and he went when he moved, he got a great job, he's doing well. He came up from San Diego and we got to have dinner together, and I had an extra space in my room, so he slept and we just got able to hang out. And you know what? It was good. We went, had a great dinner. Because I said this. In a year or two, I don't know when it is, he says, we're going to have a dinner together. We're going to have a steak together.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:33:53]:

And you know what we're going to do? We're going to celebrate the goodness of God. And you know what? We did just that. Does it mean that it erased all the things that happened? No, but he sees the goodness of God in his life all over again. It's a new season in his life. Now, there's an implied lesson in that. The implied lesson is, don't just chase what your logic tells you. Don't just go by what things look right because they were, what, greener pastures? Let's just go there. Right? Instead, he's saying this part of this lesson implied is that trust God, even in the hard times.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:34:35]:

That's part of the implied lesson. Maybe proverbs three, five, and six says it like this. Let's read what it says. Trust in the Lord with what? All your heart. Let's say all your heart, right? All your heart. And do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. And so some might just call it, hey, it was good luck that I ran into Boaz's Field.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:04]:

It was good luck. It was like I just happened to do it right. No, it was God. God leading, god guiding. And so trust him, right? And so the series of events is really God's redemption at work. Interesting part of the story is that then one night in the midst of the harvest, that Ruth has been doing this for a few months, because it says she was gleaning through the wheat harvest and through the barley harvest, which takes a couple of months at least. So she's been doing this for a little while. And in the midst of that, she goes one night at the harvest where there's been a big celebration and everybody kind of works real hard, sleeps in this kind of place where they thresh all the wheat and they separate the heads of grain from the parts of the plant that had been pulled out.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:35:57]:

And Ruth approaches Boaz and says this. She uncovers his feet, and she lays at his feet, kind of like to keep his feet warm. Now he wakes up like, well, what's going on? Somebody's touching me and all this. And he sees at his feet this woman. It's in the dark. He cannot see. And he says, who are you? And says it's Ruth. And then she says this, basically, if you would choose to redeem me, I would like that.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:36:28]:

It's really kind of a proposal of marriage in some sense. And Boaz, rather than being taken aback, he's probably an older guy, because what he says is, you could have chased all the young bucks out there, but you didn't, and you kind of chose me like an old lion here. I'm honored. The only thing is, Ruth is there's somebody who's a closer relative than me, right? And he has kind of, like, the first right of refusal, right? So if he won't redeem you, I will. But we got to play this straight. So not only is Ruth a woman of character, boaz is a man of character, right. Because he's trusting in God's plan. And so they make this meeting, and there is a closer relative.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:15]:

In the beginning, he's excited. Why? Because Elimelech and Naomi had land. He just couldn't work the land. And so he's like, I'd take the land. And then he said this well, if you take the land, though, you got to take ruse. And if you have kids, by the way, that they're entitled to the things of the land. And then he said, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't know that was the deal.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:37:37]:

If that's the case, yeah, come me out. I'll pass. I'll pass. And Boaz is like you sure? He says, yeah, I'm sure. And Boaz steps up to the plate, and you know what? Because Boaz wasn't about what he could get out of Ruth. It was what he could do to cover Ruth. Right. It was the fact that he saw she was a woman of character, and he, being a man of character, said, I can see God's hand in this thing.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:38:08]:

And so they get married, and Boaz, being a man of means, I don't know how big his party was, but probably a sizable party in the Middle East that this marriage can take days for it to happen. And so they have a wedding, they get married, and then what we find is she has a child, right? And then it says this in Ruth four verses 14, it says this. Then the woman of the town said to Naomi, praise the Lord, who has now provided what a redeemer for your family, and may this child be famous in Israel. May he restore I'm sorry. May he restore your youth and care for you in your own age. That's the Social Security, right? For he is the son of your daughter in law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons. And Naomi took the baby and culled him to her breast, and she cared for him as if he were her own. Any grandparents in here? Right? You guys relate to this part of the story, right? And so here's the thing that there's fullness in her life again.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:17]:

There's goodness in her life again. And the picture is that she's beaming, she's restored, and all of a sudden, the bitterness is washed away. Why? Is it because she gets all the answers to all the questions she's had? No. She tastes and sees that the Lord truly is good right. In this provision in her life. And so what is the solution to when you think, was it me? And was I cursed or whatever? You know what? Move toward the promise of God. Let him redeem you. Let him redeem your wounds.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:39:56]:

And you know what you'll find? You should be able to see the goodness of God. And when that is poured out, this is what you'll know. I'm not cursed. I'm blessed, right? We sang a song, right? I am blessed. I am healed. I am whole. Do you always feel blessed? No. Do you always feel healed? No.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:14]:

Do you always feel whole? No. You don't. But you know what? If you press into it, you experience it. Move toward that place. Move toward that place. Now, here's the other thing, is that Naomi's redeemer and Ruth's redeemer points to your redeemer and my redeemer, right? This story is not just like, hey, good for Naomi, good for Ruth. It points to something more. It goes on.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:40:45]:

The very next verse says this now, at last, Naomi has a son again. And they name him Obed. And he became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David. Which David? The David that was a shepherd boy, the David that slayed the giant, the David that became the king, who brought renewal to Israel and becomes the one who threw him. The Messiah would come. And so Jesus, being called the Son of David, the blind man, says, oh, Son of David, have mercy on me. And the one who was the miracle worker, the one who was the miracle maker. And the prophet Isaiah talked about him like this.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:41:32]:

And so often we read at Christmas time, why? Because it's talking about a birth. But in Isaiah nine, it says this for a child is born to us, a son is given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders and he will be called what? Wonderful counselor? Mighty God everlasting Father Prince of Peace. You guys ever wondered, like, how is a child a wonderful counselor and a mighty God and an everlasting father? It's like different stuff, right? Because he's talking about that the God of the universe would become a man, become a child. He'll be born, right? And we see in this the Spirit. We see Jesus the Son. We see the Father in all of that description, and it goes on. And he says this his government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his what, ancestor? David? For how long? All of eternity? And the passionate commitment of the Lord of heaven's armies will make this happen.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:42:45]:

And so this morning, if you relate to Naomi in any way, maybe yours hasn't been as long as hers. Maybe yours has been a longer season than hers. Maybe you need a wonderful counselor. You know what the wonderful counselor is really? The Spirit of God. And would you know that the Spirit of God is not he's not repulsed by your brokenness and your sin. He is with you in the midst of all the disorder and all the craziness. Sometimes we get anybody here have crazy seasons in your life? This is what the Spirit of God comes in and he doesn't leave. And Jesus says, there will be one.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:43:34]:

When I leave, the counselor will come, the one your advocate, the One who defends you. And maybe you need to hear a word of encouragement. Maybe you need to know his presence in the midst of all the craziness that's happening. There's a spirit of God. He's still with you. And then it says this, but what is he? He's the mighty God. So if you felt like, I cannot move forward and it seems I cannot move backward, I'm stuck. Maybe you need somebody that it says in Romans who can create something out of nothing, right, who can open doors that no man can shut and can shut doors that no man can open.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:44:15]:

The God that you serve, he's a God that moves today. He's a mighty god. And so this is what says, maybe you need a father that when you're feeling alone, you're not alone. When my kids were really young, distinctly, I can picture different instances with each of my kids. I'd be sitting in the dark in the morning because when the kids are young, it's like craziness happens once everybody wakes up. So I would get up early and meet with the Lord. And I remember sitting on the sofa and, like, one would come and kind of like, Daddy, right? And what are you doing? They say, oh, just meeting with the Lord. And they just would come.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:45:08]:

And I would pick them up and sit them in my lap, and then they would just kind of fall asleep or maybe just be quiet and just look at what I'm doing. And I look at Him, and we just make that eye contact. It just filled me with such joy to embrace. And if he had fears, those fears were gone. Would you know that your Heavenly Father longs to embrace you? He doesn't want you to sit alone, isolated, pushing everything and everyone away. And then it says this, that if you have anxiety or stress about what the future holds or what today looks like, maybe you need peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. In other words, he says, I can give you a peace when it makes no sense to have peace.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:01]:

It doesn't mean that he just takes away all the problems, but he'll be with you through the problems, and he'll make a way for you. He's the Prince of Peace. And so whatever it is, your need is today, whether you're calling upon the Spirit that already lives within you to manifest his presence and his power, the mighty God to make a way for you, the Father to embrace you, or the Prince of Peace, Jesus, to give you his peace. He says it's all available. And how? Because there was a woman named Ruth who stood in the wade and kept tied to her mother in law till a redeemer came and changed Naomi's bitterness into joy. And he wants to do that for you. He wants to do that for me. Is that good news? Amen.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:46:55]:

That's why we have the no. Thank you. Yeah. The Lord's worthy of that right. That's the king. That's the God that we serve. And so this morning, can we bring ourselves and wherever you're at, we just bring ourselves before the Lord. Would you buy your heads? Let's pray.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:47:14]:

Father, we are thankful that even though we don't always understand everything that's happening in our life, and sometimes maybe we find ourselves caught up in maybe even the hard things, they can poison us and unknowingly. We start not seeing ourselves the way you see us. We start seeing people not really the way that we should, or we don't even see you the way that we should. So this morning, Lord, we're asking, would you come and be among Your people? And there are some who need to know that the Spirit of God doesn't abandon them in their chaos. But that, Lord, that you're still with us, bringing order out of this order. And, Lord, we're asking, would you if you're in a place of chaos this morning, would you ask God this morning? And would you just say, god, would you lead me so that you can bring order out of this thing? That I can't fix it, I can't bring order out of it, but I know you can. It says in the Book of Genesis when the world was created and the world was chaotic and disordered, it says that the Spirit of God was hovering over that and brought order in the chaos of the world. And he can bring the order in the chaos of Your world.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:48:33]:

This morning, father, thank you. Thank you. Spirit, thank you. And we're thankful, God that you are a mighty God And today, Lord, I thank you that some of us here may be full and some may feel like they have nothing. But you say you are the God that can bring something out of nothing. Just when you created the world, you brought the world out of nothing. It does not hinder you. And we declare for some of us this morning that you're bringing something and something good.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:08]:

Even though we don't deserve it, even though we didn't make it, we can receive it today. And Father. Thank you. For some of us, they need to know their Father hears them. And their father is compassionate. And he's not like some of us, the Fathers that we had that was distant or moody or angry. But, Lord, that we have a Father that's filled with compassion. And thank you, Lord, that you long to embrace your children.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:49:38]:

And that, Lord, when we do, we let you embrace us. Lord, there's a joy that happens in your heart and that connects in our heart today. Father, would you help our hearts connect with your heart this morning, Father? Give peace to those with anxiety and depression, Lord, that you're still with them. And maybe there's some roots out here. Maybe sometimes you're holding on to someone going through a rough time, and you've been a lifeline to that person, but you get a little weary sometimes. Maybe you're being pushed a little bit, that their lack of vision is pushing you away. Would you keep be refreshed and that you might love not with your love, that you can love with the love of Jesus today. Love them on credit, father, I pray that for the roots out there, would you just refresh them today? Sometimes they're taking care of kids.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:50:41]:

Sometimes they're taking care of parents. Sometimes they're taking care of friends. Sometimes they're standing for their company. Sometimes, Lord, they're standing for a cause, Lord, but we get a little weary. But, Lord, would there be a spirit of refreshment for us today? And if you're here this morning and you've never experienced this, you've never experienced this, ruth wasn't born into it. Most of us, we weren't born into this. I wasn't born into this faith. I was welcomed into his faith.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:16]:

I was welcomed into the family of God. And God wants to welcome you today. And like a father, he will pick you up and he'll sit you on his lap and he'll embrace you today. If you're here this morning and you're just saying, God, I'd like that. I need that today. And he sees the mess in your life, and he sees through the mess in your life. He sees you and he says, you're worth it. I died in your place.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:51:46]:

Just respond to me. Say yes to me. So if that's you this morning, I'd like to lead you in a simple prayer, and I'm going to ask you to join along this morning. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me and caring about me even in the chaos and disorder of my life, even in my bitterness and even in my loss. Thank you that you love me. Would you come and live inside me today? I need you today and I want you today I turn away from what I know is wrong. Would you lead me in the right path? Thank you that you're making the way not just for me today, but through all of my life.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:52:36]:

Thank you for Your forgiveness that Jesus died in my place and that I can have a relationship with you. Would you open my eyes to see what you're doing in this world and in my life? Open up my eyes to understand Your Word, lord, thank you for the scriptures that teach me about Your will and Your ways, Lord, that it builds my faith and speaks to me about life. And Father, I pray that you would bring people, a community that will stand with me in my ups and my downs, and I can stand with them, Lord, because you never made us to be alone. Thank you for hearing me today. Thank you, Jesus. You're my Savior, and I belong to you. In Jesus name. God's.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:53:32]:

People say amen. Hey, can we say congratulations to those folks? Hey, if you said yes to Jesus today, a Bible is really fundamental for each of us. And if you don't have a Bible, you can always download one in your phone. But we have free Bibles in the back. We want to give that to anybody here who would like one. It's called the yes packet. You can get one even if you've been a believer for a long time, but you don't have a Bible, we want to give one to you. It's in the back.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:00]:

If you're at home and you're online, we can't kind of send that through the thing. But there are some helpful things we can send you on the download and some helpful information to help you grow. Let us know. You can text us the word commit. There should be a number coming up, the 808-79-3565. And if you're here today and maybe just kind of surface some things that you've been going through and you just need some prayer, there'd be a prayer team in the corner at the end of the service, please. If you came with a burden, we never want you to leave with the same burden. And then we can leave it at the foot of the cross.

Pastor Glenn Yamaguchi [00:54:34]:

There'll some guys that will love to pray with you. God bless you guys. Thanks for joining us today.