(Audio and Text Available)
Title: Giving as Inspiration
Intro:
Some of you may be surprised that we not having a traditional Christmas message this morning. (For the traditional message, we need to see you here on Christmas Eve tomorrow night, hint..hint…)
But I honestly do think todays passage in Ruth is so genuinely Christmas-y in this regard: We talk about gifts and giving at the Christmas holiday, correct?
We talk about generosity of God in sending the ultimate gift, Jesus, to begin his earthly ministry that we might gather here and have full fellowship with the Father through the life, ministry, death, and sacrifice of the son, Jesus, correct?
In that vein of giving, this message is highly appropriate for the Christmas holiday. Let’s read!
(read/pray)
Boaz’s generosity stuns Ruth
(read verse 10)
Have you ever been in a situation where someone else’s generosity stunned you? (Take answers)
(Story of being in line at Wal-Mart when young mother had her WIC card denied, and I decided to pay half as well.)
POINT:
Generosity (Truly good works) INSPIRE others to imitate good works.
“since I am a foreigner…”
Ruth knew what she was. She was not stupid. She was not culturally unaware. This, to me, makes her decision to follow Naomi back to Israel all the more amazing, because she knew that being faithful to her mother-in-law would me sacrificing any default good will and favor that she might have if she had stayed in Moab.
(Ironically, it was just this sacrifice that ends up garnering her The Lord’s and Boaz’s favor.)
Have any of you ever been a minority?
Culturally, have any of you ever lived in a situation where you were a second class citizen?
In all honesty, I racked my brain trying to think of a situation, and the best I could come up with was playing basketball in East Cleveland and inherently being picked last every time because I was the only white guy on the court. That’s it, that’s nothing, and that was for an afternoon.
Boaz Connects the Dots
Verse 11 (read)
The way the language plays out here, we get the sense that Boaz has already heard of Ruth’s faithfulness, much more so than what plays out in verse 6 when Boaz asks his head reaper “Who is this young woman?”
What the servant does in verse 6 is connect the dots for Boaz. When Boaz hears the servant reports it’s like Boaz says, “Oh, this is her? This is Moabites I’ve heard so much about?”
How do we know this?
- “It has been FULLY reported to me.”
- The detail Boaz goes into (that she left her family and home county after her husband’s death to come to foreign Israel). These things were not accounted for by the servant in verse 6.
POINT:
So, at first Boaz’s generosity stuns Ruth, but now, we see that his generosity was in RESPONSE to his heart being moved by Ruth’s generosity and faithfulness to literally uproot her life, move to a foreign land, and willfully become a second class citizen, all so she could remain faithful to her Mother-in-law. (WOW).
Boaz blesses Ruth
Question: Who does Boaz give the credit to in the blessing of Ruth?
Boaz does not reference himself at all. He says “The Lord repay…”
POINT: Boaz is acknowledging that HE is but a vessel of the Lord’s work. (He does not own, he is only a steward of the Lord’s blessing.)
Boaz also acknowledges that Ruth has not come under HIS protection (even though Boaz could easily make that claim. It was his land, his field, his reapers, his workers, his crops…) But rather states that, in coming to Israel to serve her mother-in-law Ruth has come under the wings of God for refuge.
Conclusion/Application:
- Never underestimate the power of YOUR good works to inspire OTHERS to do good works.
- Living a sacrificial life unto Christ often means leaving behind BOTH comfort and FAMILIARITY…but a greater reward awaits those who make such sacrifices.
- We don’t OWN anything. We are STEWARDS of God’s provision. The choices we make with “our” stuff, can either bring glory to God, or glory to self. To what do you REALLY want to bring glory?