INTRO: Video
* The Dark Knight is now the 2nd highest money maker grossing over 500 million
* Just beating the previous record holder Spider Man 3
* Perhaps there is such a draw (in an uncertain time.
* Because everyone really does want a hero
* And perhaps all of them deal with their own struggles and we relate to them
Maybe it's the question they are wrestling with because we wrestle with the same questions.
- The Church should be the world's hero.
Some questions...
1. What will we do with our hidden power?
ƒ{ Will you use your great gifts to help others or help yourself to money and power? In the Dark Knight, Batman and Gotham's Mob Bosses each chose the opposite answer to this all-important question.
ƒ{ But this question is not just for these fictional characters; this question confronts you every day. Will you lie, cheat and manipulate your way to becoming rich or will you work hard and trust the Lord for your prosperity?
2. Will you serve others or rule others?
ƒ{ Given their superior powers, every Superhero could instantly become a powerful ruler; but instead, each decides to fight the injustices in our wicked world.
ƒ{ Will you rescue people or ignore them as they cry out for help in your city? The reason Commissioner Gordon built the Bat Signal is because Batman was willing to respond when the city was in trouble.
3. Will you fight against evil or stand on the sidelines?
ƒ{ The superhero genre reminds us that the world will always have its nemesis..
ƒ{ Do we fight, or do we cower and hide in the safety and comfort of our homes or church bubble?
4. When trials become intense, will you give in or endure?
ƒ{ When the Joker devises a plan to murder one significant person in Gotham every day that Batman doesn't reveal his identity, Batman feels responsible for the deaths of good people. So Bruce Wayne decides to give in to evil in the clip "Endure".
ƒ{ Pastors quit all the time when they don't see growth or feel under-appreciated. Mission's leaders fold up their tents when the first few years of their enterprise doesn't yield fruit. (Tithing, Feed The Multitude, Living for God)
ƒ{ The rest of us stop ministering in the marketplace when we encounter pushback or rejection. But God challenges us to persevere and pray for the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers.
ƒ{ Endurance in the face of defeat is a great part of our legacy. "He never gave up" would be a worthy engraving on your headstone.
ƒ{ In a day when 1-10 Pastors, marriages, suicides, business
VIDEO: Wing Clips Endure
Real heroes are those who endure like a woman by the name of Ruth
Ruth 1:1 -- 16
* The events of Ruth happen during the days of the judges, what a contrast
* Judges --
„X Violence
„X Rebellion
„X Lawlessness
„X Famine
* In the midst of that Ruth (our hero)
* Obedience
* Faithfulness
* Loyalty
* Sacrifice
* Harvest
ƒ{ Let's consider Ruth's
* Tears
* Trust
* Testimony
I. Ruth's Tears
A. A Wrong Choice (vs. 1-5)
* It is tragic that there is a famine in Bethlehem
* Bethlehem = house of bread
* But Bethlehem is in a famine
* America is in a spiritual famine
* Instead of trusting God
* Elimelech took his family to Moab
* Elimelech = God is my King
* This is a wrong choice
* I've watched people leave church
EXCUSE
o Not being fed
o But the chef can only cook
* You've got to feed yourself
* The greatest tragedy is to starve in a grocery store
* This happens to thrill seekers
o They don't want a balanced diet
o The want the latest religious craze
o They don't want the banks...
o ...they just want the river
* They were only going to stay a while
* The never got out / only Naomi
* Most never get back from a backslidden state
* The names of their sons reflect
* The condition of their hearts
1. Mahlon = sickly
2. Chilion = pining
= to bind or make one powerless
* Understand that the Jews were not to mix with the Moabites (Deuteronomy 23:3)
B. A Wrong Call (Vs. 6-18)
* Backslidden Naomi
o Trying to get back
o Makes a call -- (decision)
o Telling her daughter-in-laws to stay back
* There will always be voices that are out of the will of God saying "Go back".
* We must be aware of these voices:
o Don't give - - - go back
o Don't build - - - go back
o Don't work - - - go back
* These voices always persuade some
* Orpah went back to her old life...
o Worshiping heathen idols
* We must make our own call
o I will not go back
o Your God will be my God
o I will not back down
o I will not give in or give up
o I refuse to go back to the way it was
o I will go forward
o It is not comfortable or convenient
o But if I am not going forward
o I am moving backward . . .
o And, I don't like it back there either
C. A Wrong Character (Vs 19-22)
* When you are out of the will of God . . .
o It makes you bitter
* Naomi had gone through a tough thing
o Tough things can make you bitter or better
o Better if you have and trust God
o Bitter if you don't
* Naomi = Pleasantness
* Mara = Bitterness
* Now let's watch how Ruth changes her mother-in-law
II. RUTH'S TENACITY - (Chapter 2)
Tenacity is holding on through tough times
Vs. 2 Let me go to the harvest field
Naomi didn't go
o Old bitter Christian
* Ruth could have stayed back
* She could have gone back
* She could have sat back
* But she pressed on
* Ruth could have stayed in a country where things were familiar
* She could have sat and waited for her blessing
* Because of Ruth's tenacity we begin to see a change in Naomi (bitter old Christian)
o Who once left the House of Bread
o Is now being fed bread by an outsider
* Vs. 11 Boaz (A type of Christ)
o I've been told all about what you've done
o He's keeping record
o When you help someone...
...God will help you
o When you are faithful in the field
Field = harvest
= job
o I'll leave some handfuls on purpose
VERSE 16
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
* Boaz beckoned for her
A. When you respond to the beckoning of God
B. Help someone else
C. Work faithful in your field
- God will leave:
o handfuls = blessing
o purpose = for a reason
* There is a correlation between blessing and handful
* We are blessed for a purpose
„X For the Glory of God
EXAMPLE: Leadership speech in Philly
* If you pick up the blessing and lose the purpose, you lose the testimony
* She could have got good and missed best
* She could have got the wheat but Boaz was going to give her the whole field
* God will drop blessings all around us
o Blessings are falling
o Ruth helped Naomi get to where she was going
o Now blessing -- handfuls are bring dropped just for her
III. RUTH'S TRUST -- (chapter 3)
* The time has come for Ruth to present herself to Boaz
* In hopes that he will become her Kinsman Redeemer
* The Old Testament Law said that a Kinsman could buy back an estate lost through poverty
* If Boaz was to redeem her dead husband's estate he must be willing to marry her
* Jesus was willing to redeem us
* We lost everything through the poverty of sin
* He was willing to marry us (become one)
* What a picture if we want fellowship with Jesus
* We must be washed, anointed, and clothed
* At his feet - - - during this night of life
* When morning comes he will claim us as his bride
5 Steps to Blessing
Naomi is teaching Ruth how to reach her abundance
1. Know What You Are Going After (verse 1)
- Most people don't know what they're after
- Most people ask for things
- Then see if they want it
o Charlie Brown and the bulls-eye
o Marriage
o What kind of children
o What kind of career
- Only go after what you want
- Now you have a reason to...
o Get up
o Pray
o Dream
2. Wash
- Get the dirt of the past off
- Don't let your past pollute your present
- Ruth had a past
- You won't be ready to meet Boaz
o Your vehicle of your future
- I shouldn't be able to look at you and see what you've done
EXAMPLE: cookie crumbs
3. Perfume Yourself
- Speaks of:
o Anointing
o Attitude (altitude)
o Countenance
- When you walk in a room people should notice you
- You can't see perfume
o But you notice it
o It is immeasurable
- Too many people have the right talent but they smell bad
o This is personality
(enter His gate with thanksgiving)
4. Best Clothes
- Prepare for something great
- Get dressed for where you are going
- Pre-pared
o Pre = before
o Pare = paring knife -- cut -- tailor
Cut into shape
- You can stay in your PJ's if you're not going anywhere
„X Preparation -- Destination
o Have you ever been in a place not dressed right?
5. Go
- Get to the place
- It's dangerous to be dressed in the wrong place
- Down = humility, pray
- Threshing floor = separation
- Go the direction you want your destination to be
- I want to help pastors
- So I am moving to that place
- Get some practical steps in place to where you're trying to be
EXAMPLE:
o Don't say you want to be in shape
o And never go to the Gym
IV. RUTH'S TESTIMONY -- (chapter 4)
* Another man had claims to the estate
* But didn't want Ruth
* Any sons Ruth bore would carry her dead husband's name, not his (vs. 5)
* Eventually, he would lose the estate to the son
* This is a bad business deal
* Boaz - - - (a picture of Jesus)
* Was willing to pay any price to redeem her because he loved her
* What a wonderful picture of Christ and his love for the church
* Relationship is give and take
Matthew 1:3-6
* We now discover another outsider in the family tree of Jesus
* Because she would not go back
ƒ{ This book begins with a funeral
ƒ{ It ends with a wedding
ƒ{ It opens in famine
ƒ{ It ends in fullness
So if you want to quit - - - - - -QUIT
"Righteous Resignation"
Coming out or Going in
A Average, Apathy and Antique Activity
B Business as usual
C Conservativeness
D Dead dreams, dusty devotions
E Ecclesiastical exercise, empty living
F Faulty fanfares, the fervor of fear, fatigue and fumbling frill
G Ghetto of Gossip, the grenade of grudge
H The Hold of Homiletic Perfection, Hermit Christianity, Hindered Hope, Hurtfulness, hallucinations.
I Idolatry of Importance (will never be significant) (2nd son)
J Juggling of Juvenile issues, judging myself through the eyes of men
K Ken from knowing about God and not kissing the presence of God
L Low living, lamenting liturgy, leading the followers to following the leaders, the leprosy of legalism
M Malnourishment, majoring in the minors, menial mechanics, manicured mail order, mundane service and madness of money
N Noise of newness, nuisance of negativism.
O Opposition of offense, obligated order.
P Powerless, Poetic pablem
Q Questioning the Spirit, quarreling, quicksand of quick fixes
R Religious routine, refuge of rhetoric, rusting to running, ruin to reigning, robbed reins out of the hands of God.
S Second place, self, small success, shallow skeptics
T Tearless eyes, thankless living, tattered trust, trampled treasure, trivial traditions.
U Unbelief, ungratefulness, under cover
V Valley of vipers, vegetable vision, vultures of vagueness
W Wilderness of weariness, winds of work to the wonders of worship
X (X) out to addition (+)
Y Yoke of yesterdays, the yardstick of you
Z Zombie to zeal
I am taking a new position:
A Aggressiveness
B Building the kingdom
C Courage
D Devil's destroyed
E Eagles soar, earthquake
F Fulfilled dreams
G Goliath die
H Heart of God, Not hand of God
I Intimacy, revival is birthed out of intimacy
J Jericho's fall
K Kingdoms fall, Kiss my King
L Lions sleep
M Mountains melt
N Nobody's becoming somebody
O Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient God fills the open heart
P Primary purpose, powerful Pentecost
Q Quench
R River of Revival, Renewal, Retention, Radical
S Salvation, Strength, Pauls becoming Sauls, Servanthood, Shouting
T Triumph, not just a Tip but a Tithe, Treasure, Testimony
U Unbelievable, saved from the gutter most the Uttermost
V Victory, Visitation, Vision, Vine
W Wealth and Worship, wonder
X X=multiplication
Y Yell at mediocrity, yield to God
Z Zion
CONCLUSION
The reason that these themes resonate with us is because they are also the great themes of the Bible.
Our creator placed in our DNA the need for a hero. Just as our thirst proves the existence of water, our hunger for the hero proves, in a small way, the existence of Jesus.
People all around the world, since the beginning of story, have told of a hero who fought dragons, monsters or some giant evil force. We want, at the core level, a Superhero who fights on the side of good. We need someone who has the power to stand against the powerful evil opponent who threatens our lives.
We too have a superhero that came to rescue us from evil and an eternity apart from Him. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
