Christ Church at Grove Farm

Rev. Craig Gyergyo: Good morning everyone. The theme is the goodness of God. Raise your hand if you were present last Sunday for our big blowout celebration of God's goodness. Can we celebrate how good that was everyone? Put your hands together. I tell you what, I've been floating all week just thinking about it and basking in what the Lord did. To me, it's one of those milestone days in the life of Christ Church, which is really exciting.

The celebration of God's faithfulness is really what it was. We experienced the glory of God as we celebrated, and we see him working. We see God moving, and it makes us realize that he's not done with us. He's not done with you, and that's a great feeling. Let's celebrate God's goodness and give thanks to him again. It's worthy of it. Aren't you glad we didn't schedule it for today, by the way? Thank God for that grace. We would have been scrambling and trying to figure out where we were going to do this.

It all worked out to God's glory. If that's a milestone, then we know this: the milestones are always pointing us forward. It's like a starting line. I've been pondering that and thinking about it. What are the implications? What does this mean? We see this kind of thing play out in the Bible because God will meet his people with grace, and then he calls them to trust him in the next chapter of the story that he is writing. That is the way we see the scriptures working.

We have to pay attention to that. What is God doing? The Bible plays out this way, and certainly our stories will too. I think with all this, it's fitting that we begin the next leg of our journey together called "Life Together." You've heard Robbie up here talking with Markel and hearing the testimony of what life together has meant to him. We want that for everyone, and we're looking at life together deeply. Today, we begin looking at life together in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament.

The idea is this: I believe that even with last week in mind, what God is doing is he is forming us to be faithful people. Through all the journey of this life together, he desires to form us. One of the primary ways that God forms us is by making us people who trust him more and more. Do you want to trust Jesus? We're going to get into that today. The idea is this: even when you can't see what he's doing, even when you can't see where he's going and what he's preparing, you can trust him.

Let's go to wherever every good story begins in my opinion, and that's with a chapter that doesn't yet look like redemption. But let's first pray before we get into the book of Ruth this morning. Father, you are glorious, Lord. Thank you. Thank you for every evidence of your faithfulness among us. We are riding on clouds, so to speak, as we think about what took place here last week.

Today, as we turn to your word, we pray God you’d deepen our trust. God, strengthen our hope. Lord, prepare us for the next chapter that you're writing in our lives and in our church. All this we pray through Jesus Christ, our living Lord. Amen.

Some stories appear to be finished long before they actually are. I want you to think about that. I really enjoy learning about church history in a variety of ways. One of the aspects of church history that I enjoy are learning about missionaries. If you ever want to read some really thrilling, interesting, and inspiring stories, go dig up stories of missionaries over the past few hundred years. One missionary I’ll tell you about this morning, his name was Adoniram Judson.

Obviously, he lived so long ago we don't have a photograph of him. We have a rendering of him. But Adoniram Judson left everything behind to bring the gospel to Burma. That is where he served. When he shows up there in the years that follow, he really got hit hard as the world would see it. First of all, he and his wife buried a child. Then for months, he was imprisoned in a brutal place. Then Judson lost his wife; he buried his wife.

Not long after he buried his wife, he buried their little girl, their little daughter. This man who had left everything behind to bring the gospel to Burma experienced such profound grief that Judson, after all this had taken place, dug a grave beside the little hut that he was staying in. It said that he would spend long periods just sitting next to it, meditating on death. He was overwhelmed with so much pain.

If you had met Judson then, you would have probably thought that you knew how his story was going to end. Anyone would have thought that. I think this is how most of us process the happenings of our own lives. The story of your life takes a turn that you didn't expect, and all of a sudden, you feel like the future that you imagined is slipping away. That happens to us. Maybe you don't dig a grave next to your house, but you sure feel like you're sitting on one.

Then sometimes without even realizing it, you begin measuring God's faithfulness by the chapter you're living in. You start to see the world through the lens of that and you can't see beyond it. It's not necessarily that people stop believing in him, but I think what's more real is that you begin wondering where he is and why he's not helping you. If he's good, why is he not coming to the rescue in a way that you envision? You're wondering whether he's still writing anything good in your life.

If you've ever wrestled with those questions, whether in the past or if you're wrestling with such questions right now to any degree in your life, then this book of Ruth is for you. In fact, chapter one is for you specifically, which we're going to get into here now. Most people, when you think of the book of Ruth, if you know anything about it, you think of a love story. Ruth certainly does contain a love story, but before you ever meet Boaz and before we witness a remarkable faithfulness, we encounter a woman first here whose life has unraveled.

Her name is Naomi. We're going to look at Naomi here. Let's get into it. As we do, I want to encourage you to take some time during the next week or so to sit down for about 25 minutes and read the book of Ruth from chapter one through chapter four. Just four chapters. Take some time and read it. Get familiar with this. We're going to spend the next few weeks in this book. I think you will be thrilled, and I know God will speak to you and minister to you as you read through it. Take some time and mark some time out for that.

Let's begin now. We're going to read chapter one together today. I'm going to start in Ruth 1, verses 1 through 5: "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife's name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah, and they went to Moab and lived there. Now, Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. And after they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband."

Let's recap a little bit here. As we get into the book of Ruth, the opening words in these first five verses actually tell us a lot, and it's important to the entire book of Ruth. What we find out first of all is that this is all taking place in the days of the judges. In fact, Ruth is the Old Testament book that immediately comes after the book of Judges. Judges is a dark point of history in Israel. In fact, the final word in the book of Judges, if you just turn the page back, the very last word in the book of Judges is this: that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Those are literally the last words of Judges.

What this implies to us is that God's people had wandered from him, and that's not a good thing. The nation was experiencing the consequences of turning away from the God who had rescued them in such miraculous ways. This covenant unfaithfulness was hanging over Israel. Not only is that the context nationally, but the next detail is that there is famine in the land. This land that we're speaking of is not just any land; it is Bethlehem.

Bethlehem, which is actually translated "House of Bread." Yet, there is no bread. The house of bread is empty. With this, Elimelech and his family gather up and they leave for Moab. This is also interesting. If you were a Jewish listener and you heard that this man was leaving for Moab, this would immediately send up red flags because Moab had for a long time stood in opposition to God's people. All of this is the context of where the losses begin.

Elimelech dies, and then years pass. Then Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, and then those sons die. Now, there's not just one woman who's grieving; there are three women who are widows. They're all grieving, and all three of them are facing this uncertain future. Naomi is especially facing crippling loss and devastation because she's not only grieving the loss of a husband and her sons, she's mourning the loss of her future, the future that she thought that she would have. She's an aging widow, her security is gone, her family line seems to have ended, and every reason she had to hope seemed to have disappeared in this moment.

Why am I spending some time talking about this? Because some of you know what it's like when the story that you thought God was writing suddenly changes. It doesn't go in the direction that you thought it was going to go. Maybe given that you're listening to me right now, you still believe that God's faithful, but you're wondering why does my life look like this? Why are things this way? Does God care about me? Does he see me?

All these questions that come, listen, the book of Ruth begins where you live. I hope that you find comfort in this. I pray that you find peace because this book begins where it's hardest to see where the story's headed. That's where this begins. Let's get into it some more. Picking up in verse 6, you've got the context, you've got the setting, now let's hear some more of the story.

"When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your own mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’ She blesses them. Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud and they said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Return home. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons, would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No. It is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.’ At this they wept aloud. And then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. ‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’"

Naomi hears that the famine is ended. She begins her long journey home. She tells Ruth and Orpah to stay back, remain in Moab; this is where you're from. In Naomi’s mind, this was like the most selfless thing that she could do for them to release them from obligation to her. She says that she has nothing left to offer, and Orpah hears all this, and she says goodbye. That very much feels like a reasonable decision based on what she's been told by Naomi.

But Ruth has a different response. Look at Ruth's response to all this. Naomi says, "Hey, stay here. You go back to your people, you go back to living your lives. I'm going back to Bethlehem." And here's what Ruth replies with. She says, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I'll die, and there I'll be buried. May the Lord deal with me ever so severely, if even death separates you and me."

When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. Those words I just read, you've heard those in weddings before. We often hear that in weddings. It's interesting though; they're not spoken to a husband here. They're spoken to a widow. They're spoken to a grieving mother-in-law. Ruth isn't promising romance here; she is promising that she won't walk away. She's saying, "I'm here to stay. I'm connected to you forever." She is binding her life to Naomi’s life. This is a lifelong commitment.

This is what covenant faithfulness looks like. This is probably why we do read it at weddings. And so she leaves behind her homeland, she leaves behind her family, she even leaves behind, and we have evidence of this in the text, the gods that she had grown up with. In fact, what does she say? She says, "Your God Naomi, the God of Israel, will be my God." This is like her confession of faith. This is her conversion. She says, "I'm with the God of Israel. I'm riding with you."

I want to point this out to you. I think this is important to understand this concept in the midst of this story of Ruth, and that's this: in the book of Ruth, there is a little Hebrew word that appears three times by my count. The very first time it appears is in verse 8, and the word is "hesed." Hesed is more than just a word with a definition; it's a concept. Hesed is God's steadfast, unchanging covenant love. This is hesed.

It's bigger than a definition, but that's hesed. And this is love that refuses to walk away. It refuses to walk away even when walking away would be easier. That's hesed. And Ruth becomes a living illustration of that kind of love. Her words, what she says, and here's what happens: Ruth entrusts her life, everything she is, to the covenant God of Israel. That's big. She commits herself to God. And then what happens? Her life begins to reflect his character.

Before she knows there's a man named Boaz, before she sees the harvest or where God's taking the story, Ruth chooses faithfulness in the midst of great hardship. The idea here is this: that God's hesed, his steadfast love, is already at work even when you cannot yet see it. Do you hear this? His love, his steadfast love for you is at work, for us.

Our instinct is to say, "Well, give me the whole story. I want to see the whole story. I want to know everything that's going to happen. I want to see the whole plan. Lord, where is this going? Show me where this is going." We want the whole map. We don't just want the next turn; we want the next ten turns. But God gives us something different.

Here's what he does: he places in front of you just the next faithful step, right in front of you. Rarely does he give you the big picture, the whole map. Instead what he gives you is the next faithful step. And then what happens is this: this is the process of sanctification because faithfulness then is formed one act of trust at a time. What's your next act of trust? Maybe instead of asking God what's the big picture, like God what do you want me to do right now? Because this is one of the ways that the Holy Spirit forms us into the likeness of Christ: through one simple act of trust, one act of faith, one step at a time.

The story continues after Ruth's big declaration, verse 19: "So these women went on until they came to Bethlehem. They made the journey, Ruth and Naomi. And when they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. They're back. And the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi?’" In other words, what happened to her? She doesn't look as good as she used to look. What took place? It's not that they don't recognize her. What they're saying is, "Whoa, did you see Naomi? She looks a lot different. What happened?"

Well, what happened is she was going through the grind. She has been stripped bare down to the soul. Her response when they say, "Can this be Naomi? Is this her? What happened to her?" Her response is heavy. Listen to what she says, verse 20: "She said, ‘Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.’ Mara means bitter. ‘I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me and the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’"

These are tough words to hear, very tough words to hear. They're honest words. I think for Naomi, it was probably freeing to be that honest with people. We probably need more of that. Maybe it's freeing for us too because Naomi is real. She's real. You hear Robbie up here talking with Markel and they're talking about some real relationships where we can talk about real stuff. We need that.

And so what she does is this: Naomi brings her broken heart before the God that she still believes rules over everything. I don't hear a lack of faith; I just hear a bitterness and an emptiness. What she's expressing is what we see in the Bible if you read the book of Psalms; it's lament. She's lamenting. Lament is not incongruous with faith. Lament is not the opposite of faith. Lament is actually refusing to let go of God even when nothing else makes sense.

Lament is a crying out to God: "God, why is it this way?" And so here we have the bitterness and the pain of Naomi. Look at verse 22 though: "So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning." If this was a movie, this is where the music would change. Naomi doesn't hear the music change. She's still Mara; she's still bitter; she's still empty at this point. She has no idea what or who awaits her in Bethlehem.

But the narrator knows. And what's the narrator tell us? I love it: the harvest had just begun. Here comes the harvest. The harvest has begun. And God's steadfast love never stopped working. You never stop, you never stop working. You never stop, you never stop working. The reason that's so powerful is because there's hope in it. And there's this belief that even when we can't see it, even when we don't know it, even when it's hard to believe that God is still working.

He's still working all things together for the good of those who love him. Beneath the surface, God's already doing what his people can't see that he is doing, and his providence is active before it can be perceived. And his hesed love, it is preceding. It is making a way for redemption underneath the surface. Naomi couldn't see it. Maybe you can't see it. But listen, God's covenant faithfulness is making a way for redemption. He never, never stops working. This is who he is.

God is at work. And if you find yourself today sitting there thinking, "Man, my story feels like it's at an end. It's at a point where I don't know that I can hang on much longer." You remember the story of Ruth because it speaks to us. And here's the thing: it's way bigger than your life. It's way bigger than my life. The entire book of Ruth is pointing us forward towards another story.

Naomi, she returns to Bethlehem so empty. She could never have imagined that centuries later from that very town Bethlehem, God would send who? The True Bread of Life. The True Bread of Life came from Bethlehem. And on Friday, Good Friday, his story would seem like it would end in darkness. Oh, that story seemed like it was over, didn't it? A dark day in history.

But on the cross when it looked like it was the final chapter, even when Jesus' followers believed the story was over, the author wasn't finished writing, was he? He was not finished writing. Sunday was coming, and the resurrection revealed that God's covenant love had never, ever stopped working. Let this story speak to you. If it's speaking to you, celebrate it. Amen.

Christ's story didn't end at the cross. And so we should never assume that the chapter we're living is the final word of God's grace. He never stops working. He is not done in this world, and he's not done in your life either. He's not done in your family.

Do you remember where we left off with old Adoniram Judson? Remember that this guy sitting next to his grave, wondering whether his life had accomplished anything? I like this rendering because the rest of the story is that Judson translated the scriptures, he established the church in Burma, and he had influence on generations of believers. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands—some people think it's over a million people—a million Christians in Burma today who can trace their spiritual heritage directly to Judson and his ministry.

It's amazing. God never stopped working. And when Judson thought the story was over, when he thought there couldn't be a good ending to it, God was at work even beyond his lifetime. And maybe you're like Judson. Maybe you're like Naomi. You can't see it. You can't see beyond the famine in your life. You can't see beyond a chapter that feels empty. You're walking around in a way calling yourself Mara because you cannot imagine joy returning to your life.

Well, when you feel that way, look to the book of Ruth, look to the word of God, because God does his greatest work in the chapters that appear to be the end. It's not the end. We serve a God who is filled with power and hope, and he is redemptive. And his glory is to work out that redemption in this world and in our lives. Sometimes, God is preparing the harvest while you're still grieving the famine in the land. I speak that over you today.

Everyone of us today, I think, one way or another, you could see yourself in the story. You all arrive here today. You're all listening to this arriving somewhere in Ruth's story. Some of you, you know what it feels like to be Naomi. You know what it feels like to be her. Life has taken more than you could ever imagine. I just did a funeral yesterday here, a man who suddenly died, a brother Ray Tyson, and he's left with grieving kids and a grieving wife and all the pain.

You're carrying grief like Ray's family that others can't even imagine, that people don't see. And you might wonder, "Is God still writing a good story?" You might be like Naomi. On the other hand, there are people who are here and you're in a place of Ruth. And if you're in that place of Ruth, I want to point this out to you: the steadfast love that God is showing to you, that he's revealing to you, is meant to become the steadfast love that you show others.

This is life together, not because you can solve every problem—of course you can't. We're not asking you to do that; no one's asking you to do that. It's because his covenant love refuses to walk away. And that's what people need. Someone here needs a Ruth in their life, someone to say, "I'm going where you go. I'm with you. I'm not leaving even when times get tough." And this is what life together looks like in the kingdom.

Whatever chapter you find yourself living, the invitation is the same today. When Ruth said, "Your people will be my people, your God will be my God," she is entrusting herself to God without knowing what that obedience would look like. So what do you do? You do what Ruth did. You entrust yourself to God, whose steadfast love will never let you go. Do what Ruth did. You trust God because the cross wasn't the final chapter, the tomb wasn't the final chapter, Christ is risen, and because he lives, you can trust him with the chapter that you are living today. You can trust him.

In a moment, we are going to come to the Lord's table, which is a real privilege every time we have the opportunity to do so. And I want to remind you of something as you prepare to come to the table. When we come to the table, we are not celebrating our commitment to God. Our hope does not lie in our strength or the strength of our commitment to God. No, that's not it at all.

What we are remembering, what we are submitting ourselves to, the reason we kneel, is because we are trusting in the steadfast covenant commitment that God has made to us through Jesus Christ. In fact, on the night before he went to the cross, Jesus took a cup—we're going to remember this—and he said this, "This cup is the new covenant. This is a new covenant in my blood."

At the table, we remember that God has bound himself to his people through his sacrificial love. He did what Ruth did but at a whole other level. And so by his spirit, the Spirit of God, he meets us. When we come to the table, when you come and kneel and you receive the bread and the cup, he meets us again and again and again with the grace that we need to live out whatever chapter in our lives comes next.

Remember that when you come forward today. In fact, let's do this: let's all just take a moment before the Lord right now, thirty seconds, just between you and God. Have some time to pray, to sit in the silence, to listen to him. Block out the distractions because his promise is stronger than your fear. And his faithfulness is greater than your failures. His grace reaches beyond your emptiness right now. Listen to the Lord, just spend time with him. What do you need to say to him? Perhaps you just need to listen. We're listening, God.

Thank you, Father. We are listening to you, God. Thank you, Lord, that your promises are stronger than our fears. Thank you, Lord, that your faithfulness is greater than our failures. Thank you, Lord, that your grace reaches beyond our emptiness. Lord, meet us here. Whether you're feeling like Naomi today, or if you're longing to live with the faithfulness of Ruth, come and receive. Come and receive again the covenant love of Christ.

We always say this: this table is for anyone who knows and loves Jesus. We say that because it's important. If you don't know and love Jesus, then this wouldn't be for you; this wouldn't mean anything to you. But if you know and love Jesus, you come forward. Perhaps today is your day to say, "I'm going to express my faith. I'm going to connect myself to Jesus. I'm going to bind myself to him by coming forward and receiving the bread and the cup and saying, ‘God, you are my God, and your people are my people, and I'm going to go where you want me to go, Lord.’"

That may be your opportunity today to come and receive of the love that refuses to walk away, the love that endures famine in our lives, the love that bore our sin, conquered the grave, the love that the scriptures describe as hesed, steadfast, unchanging love. You come and receive that. Because listen to this: the chapter you are living is not the whole story God is writing. It is not. The redeemer has come, Jesus, and because he lives, the harvest has already begun. And you trust in him. Come and receive his grace again and again today.

Let's pray. Merciful Father, Lord, we thank you for the new covenant that is sealed by the blood of your Son, Jesus. Oh Lord, by your Holy Spirit even now, nourish our faith, Lord. Strengthen our hope, God. Form us into the likeness of your Son, Jesus, that we may walk in the next faithful step that you place before us. All this we pray through our living Lord, Jesus Christ. And together we say, Amen.