Our theme this year is Hope Found Here, and this month we are considering the Hope of the Covenant.
To focus our thoughts this morning listen to the words of Romans 15:4 (NIV) says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
The Christian faith is based on an everlasting, unchangeable covenant with God. Our salvation is not based on us being ‘good enough’, or ticking the right boxes, or trying to ‘be better’ or ‘doing good works’.
I am saved, you are saved because of the covenant we have entered into with God.
This idea of covenant is seen throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
In non-Biblical terms, a covenant is a legal, binding agreement or contract. When you get married, take out a loan, rent a house, or sign a document, you enter into a type of covenant; an agreement in which both parties make certain promises to one another.
In Biblical terms, a covenant between God and His people has an even greater significance, it forms the foundation of how God interacts with His people.
The covenant most often referred to by Jesus as “The Law” is the Mosaic Covenant. Given to Moses at Mount Sinai, this covenant laid out the rules for how God’s chosen people would agree to live.
In Old Testament times God gave many rules, regulations and commandments that His people were meant to live by, probably the ones we know most are The Ten Commandments. The problem with the Old Testament covenant was that no matter how hard a person tried to live in the way God wanted them to live, no person was able to keep their side of the covenant!
The law gave the guidelines of how God wanted people to live and what a sinless life should look like, but for every human who has ever lived it was an impossible standard for us to ever reach on our own.
BUT God, had a plan. John 3:16-18 says, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in Him. But anyone who does not believe in Him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son.”
There is hope found here! Here is the truth of the Gospel, the good news of the new covenant established by God, a new covenant established with each of us when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
God in His love, in His mercy, gives us the opportunity to be saved, saved not by law but by the grace of God! The new covenant is established through what Jesus did on the cross, Jesus born the punishment we deserved, full atonement, Jesus paid the penalty for our sin in full.
By trusting in Jesus and in Jesus alone, we are saved and brought into the promises of the new covenant. This new, everlasting covenant is so different from the previous one. The laws of the old covenant were impossible to keep, the new covenant is based on our faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Jesus fulfilled the old covenant completely so that through faith in Him, our sins are forgiven and we are assured of a place in Heaven. Hallelujah!
The Hope we find here is God’s beautiful mercy to us in the new covenant is we are saved not by works, but by faith.
Praise God!
Well that was the introduction, let’s get into the main part of the message. We are only a few days away from Valentine’s Day, so this morning I want us to think about covenant love and covenant faith.
We are going to consider a love story that begins with despair and ends with delight, the Old Testament book of Ruth. Ruth is a story of love and loyalty and covenant, but we’re separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years from its setting.
The Book of Ruth is still very significant to the Jewish people. During the festival of “Shavuot,” the entire book is sung or read out loud. On the Thursday night of the festival, many people stay up all night to study the Book of Ruth. It’s also customary to eat dairy foods throughout the festival because the Torah is likened to the sweetness of milk and honey.
There is something special about stories where everything in life is falling apart, things look hopeless and broken, the situation is desperate, but then somehow it all comes together and there’s wholeness and a happy ending. I think the reason we like those kind of stories, is that, for all of us, things at times feel hopeless, things in our lives can feel like they’re falling apart.
We keep working at our marriages, but there are still both good days and bad, we try to be great parents, but perhaps our kids aren’t turning out like we thought they would, we may hope the right job will come along, so we can be fulfilled and happy in our work, but it hasn’t happened yet.
So we all have this inner hope, if we keep on keeping on, if we’re patient, if we do the right things, if the wind blows in the right direction, then maybe, just maybe, things will turn around, maybe we will have the fairy tale ending we hope for.
Real life never has a fairy tale ending, does it. Real life does not always turn out the way we hoped it would.
Actually, sometimes it does, maybe more often than we notice.
In the book of Ruth, we see a real account of where there is the fairy tale ending, the girl who seems to have lost everything, finds true love and ends up rich and famous. Ruth was also the great grandmother of King David, and a book of the Bible is written about her. I’d call that a fairy tale ending. It does sound like she lived happily ever after.
When we take the time to dig a little deeper, what we see is good things didn’t come into Ruth’s life by chance or by luck. The good things happened because she did several things right along the way, and God blessed her as a result.
There’s some principles we can learn from this story. There are things we can do in life that will bring God’s blessing on us IF we do them, but if we don’t do them we can prevent God from blessing us.
I want us to look at three things from Ruth’s life that we can apply to our own lives:
A Step of faith
A Commitment to God
A Humbling of Self
A Step of faith
In Ruth 1 we are told how Ruth’s Father-in-law, her husband and her husbands brother have all died, and there are three widows left all alone.
In verse 14 of Ruth chapter one we are told that Ruth’s sister-in-law Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi goodbye. But Ruth insisted on staying with her mother-in-law Naomi.
Why did Ruth stay, but Orpah went back home? We don’t really know, the Bible doesn’t tell us. Logically, Orpah did the less risky thing. Orpah decided to stay in her own country, with the people she knew.
Ruth chose to journey to Judah with Naomi. Ruth chose to take a step of faith, and when Naomi tried to discourage Ruth from taking that step of faith, Ruth made a covenant promise to Naomi and said, “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!” (Ruth 1:16-17)
Ruth chose to take a step of faith, and in our own lives, there are times when we also need to take a step of faith.
There are times when we need to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit on our lives, so that God can bless us, or so that we can be a blessing to others. If we are willing to do what God wants us to do, to be the people He has called us to be, then we need to be willing to step out in faith. For us, as disciples of Jesus, as followers of God, we need to continually step out in faith, trusting God’s will, God’s plan, God’s purpose for our lives.
If you have been a believer for 5 days or 50 years, if you’re not stepping out in faith, and taking risks for God somewhere in your life, then you’re not growing, you’re stagnating. Because the bible says, without faith it is impossible to please God.
Remember the story where the disciples are in the boat and Jesus comes walking to them on the water?
Peter says, Jesus, I want to walk on the water too. Jesus says, "get out of the boat". Faith is getting out of the boat. If you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat. If you want to follow Jesus, you have to get out of the boat, because Jesus isn’t in the boat, He’s out on the water.
Jesus is looking for people who will get out of the boat. The water may look dark and dangerous, but that’s where Jesus is, out on the water, He is not in the safety of the boat.
Maybe you’ve been huddling in the bottom of the boat for years, fearful of taking that first step of faith. God is calling you to take the step, and even if you start to sink, Jesus is there on the water, he’ll take your hand and hold you up.
Friends, faith is not a feeling, it’s a choice. You might get up tomorrow morning and say, "its Monday, I don’t feel like going to work". But you do it anyway, because it’s the right thing to do especially if you want to be able to pay the bills next month and put food on the table.
We can choose to do things we don’t feel like, just because it’s the right thing, and Jesus says, you get to choose, whether you want to act in faith.
Jesus always gives us a choice. He tells us things like “If you want to follow me, then deny yourself and take up your cross.” Jesus says “if”, if we have to choose to take a step of faith.
When was the last time you took a step of faith?
What step of faith is God prompting you to do right now?
Ruth took a step in faith and God blessed her life. In Ruth 2:11 Boaz is talking to Ruth and says, “I know about the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers. May the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully.”
Boaz says, Ruth I know how you turned to God for help, I know how you took refuge under his wings, and so I ask God to reward you fully for your faith. That is what God did. He rewarded Ruth fully, way beyond what she ever hoped for. God blessed her life, because of her faith.
Not only does Ruth step out in faith she goes further. She commits her life to God. In the covenant promise of Ruth to Naomi, there was also full commitment to God. "I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. I will die where you die and will be buried there. May the LORD punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!”
Ruth did not make a half-hearted commitment, Ruth did not say, “Naomi I’ll go with you because I don’t have anything better to do right now. I want to leave my options open, if I find something better later on then your on your own!”
Ruth said, I am leaving everyone and everything else behind, everything from my past, my country, my friends, I’m leaving everything behind because I want to go with you and serve the true God you serve, and nothing, not even death, is going to stop me. That is a step of faith and a real commitment, I don’t care if it kills me, I’m committed.
The story of Ruth is more than just a nice story about King David’s great-grandmother and how she was blessed by God. Everything in the Bible is there for a purpose, and this story is put there by God to give us hope.
Ruth Chapter 3 verse 9 it tells us a man called Boaz was Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. Redeemer is a word we don’t hear much, the word redeem in the bible is used to describe paying-off someone’s debt – or buying someone from slavery so they can be free.
At that time in Israel, every family owned some of the land and God gave the Israelites a kinsman redeemer law that did two things. First it protected poor families from losing their land and not being able to get it back. Second, the law protected widows from poverty.
If a man died and he left a widow with no sons and no means of support, then according to this kinsman redeemer law, his nearest relative had the responsibility to buy his land back, and marry his widow and support her. If the nearest relative refused, then the next closest kinsman would take on the role of the redeemer. There was a catch. The kinsman-redeemer couldn’t make the decision to redeem on his own. He had to be asked by the widow to buy back her husband’s land. So that’s what the widow Ruth did in this story. She asked to be redeemed.
The amazing thing is, this is an old testament picture of exactly what Jesus does for us today. Jesus is our redeemer, just like Boaz was Ruth’s redeemer. Ruth’s redeemer had to be a relative related by blood. Jesus came to earth as a human being and took on flesh and blood so He could redeem us. Ephesians 1:7 (NIV) In Jesus we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. Jesus redeems us through His death on the cross, where He paid for all our sins, and bought us with the price of His death.
Just as Ruth had to ask Boaz to redeem her, we have to ask Jesus to redeem us, He doesn’t do it unless we ask.
There is hope found here for us in the story of Ruth, God has shown us how we can be redeemed by Jesus,how we can be made whole, how we can be saved. No matter where we are in life, even when we feel all hope has gone, when we feel guilty or ashamed of what we have done, there is hope found here.
Maybe other people have hurt you or let you down, maybe you are stressed out and frustrated with life, there is hope found here. No matter what’s is happened in your life, Jesus is willing to redeem you and bring blessing into your life just as Boaz redeemed Ruth and brought blessing to her life.
Ruth married Boaz. Our relationship with Jesus is like a loving marriage. The church is called the bride of Christ. All of us in the church are married to Christ. just like Ruth got married to Boaz.
Ruth was the one asking to get married, and it’s the same with you and me. Jesus won’t force us to be His bride, part of His church, He won’t make us a Christian, unless we ask Him. To be redeemed, Ruth had to ask Boaz, for us to be redeemed we need to ask Jesus into our lives.
When you get married to somebody, you commit your life to them, you leave everyone else behind, the person you marry is meant to become the most important person alive, to you. Same thing with your relationship to Jesus, you commit your life to Him, He becomes the most important person alive, to you, and nothing else should come between you and Jesus. It’s a covenant commitment between you and God.
Remember at the start of the story there were three widows Naomi, Ruth and Orpah. Boaz could have been the redeemer of Orpah as well. Orpah could have had what Ruth had, Orpah could have also been blessed by God. Orpah turned and went back to her own people and to her own gods, she is never heard from again – she has no part in the inheritance. Orpah didn’t get blessed by God because Orpah didn’t step out in faith, Orpah didn’t make a commitment to God. Orpah didn’t asked to be redeemed by her redeemer.
Are you living your life like Orpah? Do you look around and see other people’s lives being blessed by God, but not yours?
You have a redeemer who wants to bring blessings into your life. Your redeemer, Jesus, wants you to be blessed, wants you to experience wholeness, wants you to be happy and fulfilled. He wants you to find your hope in Him
God wants you to live a life of faith, God wants you to be committed to Him so that he can bless you.
The final thing we see in Ruth is she was willing to Humble herself. Over and over again in the Bible God says things like, If you humble yourself, then I’ll exalt you, God hates pride, but He loves humility.
We can see the evidence of how humble Ruth was willing to humble herself. Ruth said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the fields to gather leftover grain behind anyone who will let me do it.” Ruth was willing to be like a beggar, by gathering leftovers from the harvest. In doing that she was letting the whole world know, I don’t have enough food to eat, she was humbling herself. She didn’t have to do this. Ruth was humble in her words, speaking to Boaz she told him, “I hope I continue to please you, sir,” she replied. “You have comforted me by speaking so kindly to me, even though I am not as worthy as your workers.”
Ruth was also humble in her obedience. Ruth willingly obeyed Naomi’s instructions to her, Naomi told Ruth how to ask Boaz to redeem her. We know that Boaz was older than Ruth, Ruth could have sought out one of the younger men who worked the grain fields, instead she humbly obeyed Naomi. Ruth 3:10 says, “The LORD bless you, my daughter!” Boaz exclaimed. “You are showing more family loyalty now than ever by not running after a younger man.
If she hadn’t humbled herself to obey Naomi, Ruth wouldn’t have been blessed by God. The problem is pride is an area we can all be blind to. We don’t think we have a problem with pride, but pride can stop us from humbling ourselves.
The story of Ruth doesn’t end with Ruth and Boaz. They had a son named Obed, who has a son named Jesse, who has a son named David, who becomes the greatest king of Israel.
The story doesn’t end there either, because David had children, and they had children, and then one day, one of David’s descendants named Mary has a son named Jesus, who becomes the kinsman redeemer for everyone who asks Him into their lives. Jesus was willing to humble Himself, He gave His life that you and I might be forgiven of our sins. At the cross He bore our punishment, He paid the price for our sin.His blood was shed to give us life. Eternal life.
The story of Ruth is an important story of covenant love and covenant faith. A step of faith, a commitment to God and a humbling of self. The hope found here is we were all born just like Ruth, an outsider, a foreigner to God’s family. But, Jesus is willing to redeem you IF you ask Him.
AMEN
