Today with Jeff Vines

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Finds, we are taking
the Gospel to the world pasta apologist and Bible Tea Jack,
bringing people far from God near to God. We believe
in one truth that will be delivered in love and
compassion passion, connecting every one person to all that God

(00:22):
has promised them. You make.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
With everything Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Finds.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Welcome back to Today with Jeff Finds. My name is
Aaron and in this episode, we're continuing Pastor Jeff's message
on courageous love. He's in the Book of Ruth and
we're looking at the story of Ruth's mother in law, Naomi,
and Boaz, the kinsman redeemer who ensures they were safe
in Bethlehem. Ruth loved Naomi, but she also trusted Naomi's God, Yahweh.

(01:16):
This is the second half of this message, and if
you missed the first part, you can find it by
searching for Today with Jeff Findes wherever you listen to
your podcasts. Here's Pastor Jeff now with the rest of
the message.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Now, the truth is the name of this book, though
is not the Book of Boas the name of the
book is the Book of Ruth. Now go back for
a moment. Why did Ruth come with Naomi? Naomi tried
to get Ruth to turn back, said, Ruth, you can
have a husband there, you could raise a family there,
you could gain an inheritance. In Moab, you've got a
foightdy chance. If you come to me and with me,
you're probably gonna have nothing. Ruth's response to her mother

(01:54):
in law is, don't urge me to leave you or
turn back from you. Where will I go? Where you go,
I'll go, where you stay, I'll stay. Your people will
going to be my people, your God, my God. Now
there's two amazing things here. Ruth is saying, I'm coming
with you, and I expect a worse life. That's how

(02:15):
much she loves her mother in law, Naomi. She offers
a sacrificial love. And here's why we're told in verse
sixteen to seventeen, she saw something in Naomi's God may
the Lord, and she uses the relational covenant name, not
the generic name for God, not elo Hean, but Yahweh.
May May Yahweh, the God of relationship, deal with me.

(02:36):
Be it ever so severely, if even death separates you
from me, Ruth says, Naomi, I've seen something in you
that inspires me. I cannot turn back. Now, something about
your God and your people rescue me out of the
hellhole of Moab. Now, I want you to understand the
choices that she has. Ruth says to herself, you know what,

(02:56):
I can stay in Moab, have my physical needs met game,
material wealth and stability, but most probably lose my soul. See,
she's not living in denial. She knows that her people
and her culture have a demonic, dramatic negative impact on her.
Because she has seen the good in Naomi's God, she
recognizes the evil in Moab, and she's well aware that

(03:18):
the evil is too strong in Moab and that her
resistance is too weak. So she can either stay in
Moab and perhaps physically survive, but spiritually speaking, she will
be annihilated. Or she can leave Moab and lose material
wealth and a family name and a husband, but ultimately
save her soul. Now, can I say to you, some

(03:41):
of you have got to get out of Moab. You
have got to get out. What are you doing this club,
that you're in, this relationship, that you're in, this job,
that you're in, this career, that you're in this pursuit,
this thing that you're after. Yeah, okay, it's feeding you.
You're making some money. There's a monetary gain. You're gaining influence,

(04:04):
your peers are looking up to you. But the cost
is too great. You're losing your soul. Run away, Jesus said,
what will it profit a man if he gains the
whole world and loses his own soul? This crowd you're
involved with, this thing that you've got, You don't got it.
It's got you, and it's destroying you. You know you're

(04:24):
not strong enough. The temptations are in, the lure is
too great. You're too weak, and there's only one possible
of a solution. You got to run. You got to
get out a moad. Faith and status are two things
Christians have had to choose between since Christ gave up
his status in heaven to come to earth to save us. So, okay, yeah,
you're getting a little extra money. Yeah, it's meaning some

(04:46):
kind of need of yours, But ultimately you're killing yourself
the disintegration of your soul. Jesus said, no one can
serve two masters. Either you'll hate the one and love
the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and
despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mind.
You have to make your mind up. What are you
going to ultimately live for? And you're not strong enough

(05:09):
to stay in Moab, get out, Get out before it's
too late, before you quench the fire of the spirit.
You can't even feel the conviction of God, and it
sucks the life right out of you. But there's more.
Go back to Ruth. She knows that if she goes
with Naomi, there's a chance that Naomi will not die.
But if Ruth does not leave Moab and the comfort

(05:30):
of her own home and the chance of having a family,
then Naomi will certainly perish. If Naomi's going to have
a life, Ruth will have to lose her. If Naomi
is going to have a name, a land, and a progeny,
Ruth will have to give hers up. Ruth will have
to give up her own name, her wealth, her family,
if Naomi is to ever have a chance at survival
and a chance to really live. That's what Ruth does,

(05:53):
which leads me to believe that if you ever hope
to save someone, you got to lose something. Really hope
to save someone, including yourself, you've got to lose something.
And we talk around here about our one life helping
people far from God come near. And if you ever
hope to bring one life who's far from God near
to God, it's going to cost you something. It's going

(06:15):
to cost you time, sometimes money. It's going to cost
you something sometimes to bear their burdens. There's always a cost.
That's why Ruth impoverishes herself so that Naomi can become rich.
Ruth loses herself that Naomi find herself. Ruth suffers outside

(06:36):
the gate so that Naomi can be welcomed back in.
Ruth becomes an alien and a stranger and an unknown land,
so that Naomi can find her ultimate home. Naomi has
been redeemed. Can you see any pattern yet? Have you
seen it yet? Bo as the bridegroom. He marries Naomi,
and his wealth becomes hers. He pays her debt and

(06:57):
offers her new life. Does that sound like anybody else?
And then there's Ruth, the suffering servant. She goes outside
the gate, she leaves her home, She becomes an alien, marginalized,
so that Naomi can be found and restored. Does that
sound like anybody? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of years before Jesus shows up. But then, the real

(07:18):
point of the story and the narrative is in chapter four,
verse thirteen through seventeen, that you've been waiting for a while.
So Bo asked, took Ruth. She became his wife. When
he made love to her. The Lord enabled her to conceive,
and she gave birth to a son. The women said
to Naomi, praise be to the Lord, who this day
has not left you without a guardian redeemon. May he

(07:39):
become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and
sustain you in your old age. For your daughter in law,
who loves you and it is better to you than
seven sons, has given him birth. Then Naomi took the
child in her arms and cared for him. The women
living there said, Naomi has a son, and they named
him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father

(07:59):
of David. Really, a daughter in law can be better
than seven sons. How's that possible? Well, seven sons represents
the perfect family. Seven sons to give you a family
and a hope and a future, and property in land
and labor and heirs. So the Bible's saying in a
very very appropriate time, that there's something that comes into

(08:24):
a person's life that is more satisfying, more fulfilling, more
transforming than the perfect family, something that is more precious
than family and wealth and status, more valuable than the
perfect relationship, perfect career, perfect social group, something that will
give an internal peace that far exceeds any external wealth.

(08:47):
There's going one day to be the ultimate kinsman Redeemer,
and he's going to be born in Bethlehem, the city
of David. And there is an amazing similarity between the
Redeemer that will come and the ancient family of Ruth
and Boaz. Like Ruth, he will leave his father's home
and thrown above to go to a foreign land, expecting

(09:09):
things to be worse. Like bo As, he'll not only
pay your debt, he reaches out and unites with you
so that all his wealth becomes yours. Like bo As,
he's your flesh and blood, your kinsman redeemer, the first
born among many brethren. Like Ruth, he loves you and
pursues you to the degree that he refuses to allow

(09:30):
even death to separate the two of you. Who is
he Jesus born in the City of David, the grandson
of Obed, the son of Ruth, and Boaz, the kinsman,
redeemer of Naomi. Now now you did the hard work,

(09:51):
so let's chat just a second. You know, down deep
inside that God exists, You know that he does. When
I was in the UK doing radio interviews, somebody suggested
I read a book how Nothing rolled over into something.

(10:13):
Don't bother. You can say what you want and talk
as long as you want, But no matter how smart
a scientist you are, you're never going to be able
to explain how something can come from nothing, no matter
how hard you try. Down deep inside, you know there
is a beginner. Now, just because you know that God

(10:33):
exists doesn't mean you know what he's like. See that's
the point. What is God like? Okay? God is just?
But what is he like? And the only way you're
going to know what God is like is if he's
chosen to reveal himself. That is the ultimate question. Has
God chosen to reveal himself? I was reading another book
written by Hindu in India and it was written by

(10:54):
a lawyer, a politician. It was well written, so I
picked it up. I thought, I'm going to read this
and I got into the early lines of the book,
and he says, I'm happy to describe myself as Hindu
for a string of reasons, though faith requires no reason.
That is not the message of Jesus. He says, I
am the way the truth in the life. Nobody enters
the Father into the relationship with the Brother except through me.

(11:16):
And then he says, you need to test me in
this Where does the evidence point? Does the evidence point
that God exist? And He's revealed himself in the person
of Jesus Christ, And the answer is yes. To the
historicity of the resurrection, that's an entirely new sermon. But
Jesus says, I am the way the truth in the life.
I have validated this by my resurrection. Nobody else came

(11:39):
back from the dead. Kind of if you do that,
you kind of have a voice. But then the rest
of scripture is to reveal to you what God is like.
I'd delight greatly in the Lord, says Isaiah. My soul
rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me with
garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.

(12:00):
So to become a Christianist, to say there is one
who truly went outside the gate for me. There is
one who descended into greatness. There is one who truly
became alien, cosmically alien, the God of Heaven, born in
a manger. There is one who is my go well,
my kinsman redeemer. He bought and paid my debts. He

(12:22):
made me an air of all his riches. He gave
me a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Jesus Christ did
not merely say I'm gonna throw my life away so
you can have yours. He says, no, I'm not going
to allow even death it self to separate us. I
will die so that I will never be separated from you.
I will separate from my father before I separate from you.

(12:44):
And here's the clincher, folks, it all comes down to
this one statement. Only when you see Jesus for who
he truly is, will you leave Boab behind. Until then,
you're not gonna do it. You're gonna have one foot
in both worlds. Only when you truly see that God

(13:07):
is revealing himself in Christ as your kinsman redeemer, and
you begin to understand what God really has done for
you and what God is truly like, will you ever
trust him enough to come all the way out of
Moab into the Land of Promise. And the reason that
some of you have one foot in both worlds is
because you've never really left what has been familiar to you.

(13:29):
And the sad thing is, if you know anything about
this story, Naomi and Ruth experience far more than they
ever thought possible. And that's what God calls each of
you to do. Only when you see Jesus for who
he truly is, will you leave this life behind expecting
things to be worse? If I become a Christian, there's
this conviction and life change that has to happen. But

(13:52):
what you don't understand is when you engage in that,
you think you're gonna get a worse life, you end
up getting a far better life than you ever hope,
dreamt or imagine. And when you're truly living for Christ
and you've left Moab and come into the New Land,
everything you have, all of His wealth has become yours,

(14:13):
and you know you're a citizen of a kingdom that
will never perish or be shaken. And you've got to
trust the apostle Paul's words when he says, and my
God will meet all your needs according to his riches
in glory and Christ Jesus. Naomi, by trusting God experience
more wealth than she ever thought possible. And I'm telling
you there are things in your life that you're holding

(14:33):
on to because you don't trust God's way and you
don't trust his precepts, and those things are disintegrating your soul.
And until you get completely out of Moab and trust
God's precepts with the way you should be living your life.
You want a good life. He's trying to give you
a great one. You have to decide only when you
see Jesus for who he truly is. Where you leave
the life you had, expecting things to be worse, but

(14:54):
experiencing a far better life than you ever imagine. Do
you see that the whole Bible is written to tell
you there's more to tell you that you want to
know who God is? The whole Bible. It's not just
the Gospel of Matthew. It's the whole Bible, from Genesis
to Revelation, to show you this is what God is like.
He is your kinsman, redeemer. He rescued you out of
the land of Moab. He's covered you with his love

(15:16):
and protection. He's left his home and stepped in a
land far worse than you could ever imagine to give
you a life far greater than you could ever imagine,
which means you can trust him. So the Bible's trying
to tell you a story. You can trust him. His
way is the best way. And even though you're afraid
that you commit this part of your life to him,
you're scared, if you move forward in faith, you will

(15:37):
actually bring life and vitality into your life of which
you've never hoped or dreamed. I want to give you,
I want to give you an illustration of this. And
I've told the story before, so I'm going to tell
you the short version. I don't care when anybody tells
me when, even when I was thirteen or fourteen, I
heard the voice of God. It wasn't audible, but God
was working in me at a very young age. A
lot of that has to do because my mother read

(15:59):
the Bible to me from at the time I was
like four years old. I could recognize it. I can
tell you my first real girlfriend, when I first laid
eyes on her. I'm telling you God's saying, Nope, not
the one, not the one. But she was so pretty.
But I knew it. I'm telling you I knew God
said no, this is not the one now, just to

(16:20):
show you how he tried to get my attention early
in the game. When I first met her, we locked
eyes at a basketball game. There were about four thousand
people in the stands, and it was East Tennessee State
University's first game of the year, and I'd gone out
to get popcorn and coke and I was carrying this
tray back in and we locked eyes, and I recognize
her look, and every guy knows it. It's the look

(16:41):
I'm interested in you. We don't get it very often
in life, so when it does come, we are familiar.
And so I'm looking over there and she's looking at me,
and I kind of lose you know, when you're that
age and the hormones are flying. I kind of lost
sight of what I was doing. And by the time
I realized where I was, I was actually on the
basketball court at the free throw line. I was still
looking at her walking away, and there was a striped shirt.

(17:04):
That's the last thing I saw in my peripheral vision.
It was the shirt of the official who was running
down with his head turned to get ahead of the play.
And we collided and there was a cloud, a popcorn
and coke went up in the air, and four thousand
people on their feet laughing at me. And I gained
a nickname that day that I will never tell you,

(17:26):
and I never have and I never will. But the
point I'm making is, could there have been a bigger
sign from God? This is not the one God, let
me show you the death and devastation. Let's just let
me give you an example right now. But I didn't listen,
and we dated. We dated for four years, and I
can honestly tell you that all those four years God

(17:46):
was saying nothing, one nothing one nothing, one nothing one.
But her father was wealthy and he let me drop
his red Corvette and he would actually give me money
to take her out on dates. I mean, that's a
lot to give up. And I got to a point
in my life where I knew I was at a
crossroads because I had felt a strong call into the ministry,
and I knew that if I told her I was
going into ministry, that would be the end of our
relationship because her parents had handpicked me for her and

(18:09):
they wanted nothing to do with that, because that would
mean maybe a life of poverty. I think what would
have happened if I ignored the voice of God and
married this lady. She's been divorced four times now. Not
that not that divorce is the unforgivable sin. It's just
I'm telling you she has hard time mating taining relationships.
That's kind of hard if you're in ministry. But you

(18:30):
know what I really think about. I love my wife.
I would I mean, it's like God said, leave Moab,
and just so you know, she was Moab, and then
my wife's over in the Promised Land. What would have
happened if I would have married Moab? I would have
never met the Promised Land. And I just can't imagine

(18:51):
my life going down a different road. But it could
have so easily. It was so close. God constantly tries
to get you to come out, get out of there.
You want something good, and it might be good, but
I want I got something great in any area of
your life, sex, money, power, position, relationships, everything. He keeps saying.

(19:14):
And you, when things happen, bad things happen, you say, God,
why have you abandoned me? And and God would say you,
I haven't abandoned you. I'm not involved in this baby,
that's me shaking your world. That's me exploding the popcorn. Listen,
I'm trying to save you. See the problem is that
if you're at an airport and you've got three pieces

(19:36):
of luggage and you take two and you check them in,
you take one, you keep it with you, and you
have a coffee and you look down and the one
you didn't check is gone. Somebody took it. You can't
go back to the airlines and say, hey, you're responsible
for my suitcase. They would say, no, We're only responsible
for what you committed to us. And I'm telling you
that God is only responsible to what you've ultimately committed
to him. You choose to live your own way in

(19:57):
this area of your life. How dare you expect God
to reach down and bless As I've said before, he's
not an enabler. He only is responsible for what you
commit to him. Get out of my ab whatever it is,
whatever it is, get out And things may be going
well now, but it will cause the disintegration of your soul.
And even if they're good now, there's something so much
better that God has for you. I want to, I

(20:17):
want to, I want to bring this to an end.
Stay with me here for a moment. My friend Tony Bennett,
who coaches Virginia Now, my friend Tony Bennett. We've gotten
close over the last ten years and we'll text each
other from time to time, especially if we've read something
in our devotional that inspires. And so Tony sent me
this text last week before the duke came, and it
started out in the first part of the text was

(20:38):
simply what he had read. He said, Jeff, I read
this for Jesus. Identity and acceptance come before achievement and ministry.
This is a joy no one can take away. You
cannot earn the acceptance of God. And then he starts
to write a little note to me, and he says,
you know, Jeff, when Jesus came out of the water,
a voice from heaven said, this is my son and
whom I'm well pleased. He said. Then the devil took

(21:00):
him out the desert and kept saying, prove it, prove
that God loves you. Prove he loves you. And he said,
did the same thing on the amount of transfiguration before
Jesus was to endure the cross. And then Tony says
to me in the text, talk about affirming your identity
and being accepted by the Father. This really spoke to me.
I wanted to share it with you. Obviously, you've achieved
so much in your life and career, but for both

(21:22):
of us to know we are children of God and
unconditionally loved and accepted in Christ as the absolute ultimate hope.
You're well, Jeff. Pastors are guilty too, man, And I've
said this. If we start trying to get our significance
out of how big our church is, if we try
to get our value out of success in the eyes

(21:44):
of the world, we will die a slow and painful
death because it'll never be good enough. But if your
significance is in Christ, if I really give him my worth,
you know what you get incredible peace. Whatever you've not
given to God, what you need to entrust to His
care by trusting His precepts and provision, get out of

(22:05):
moeb Have I shown you Jesus this weekend, your kinsman, redeemer.
He's a way maker, he's a miracle worker, he's a
promise keeper. He's lied in the darkness waiting for you
to step in. And I'm begging you as best I can.
I love you whatever you do I do, and that's
the beauty of it. I really do love you no
matter what you do, because God loves me no matter

(22:26):
what I've done or do. But as somebody who loves you,
you want a good life. He wants to give you
a great one. But you got to get out, and
until you do, there's this constant battle between vitality and
growth and the disintegration of your soul. Father, thank you
that Christ is our kinsman, redeemer, that he has saved us,

(22:47):
redeemed us. Not only has he taken us out of
a land of sorrow, but he's taken us into a
land that has far greater worth than we could ever
hope for. Imagine, he has paid our debt. He has
united himself with us so that we are the heirs
of all of his wealth and riches. That everything we're

(23:08):
truly looking for we find in Him. And so we
pray that in our weaknesses, where we keep going back
into the land of Moab, where we have one foot
in the Kingdom of God and one foot in the
kingdom of Man, I pray that our eyes would be open,
and that we would repent and completely and fully live
in the land of our kinsman. Redeemer who has given

(23:30):
us all good things. You are a waymaker, a miracle worker,
light shining in the darkness. Give us the courage to
step in in Christ's name. Amen.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
You've been listening to Today with Jeff Findes. Next time
we'll bring you a new message from Pastor Jeff. You
can listen to more messages like this. Just search for
Today with Jeff Fis. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you make.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
Me a mond a day say with every single friend,
I won't bring this up

Speaker 2 (24:17):
You you wait, Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines