It's been very good so far, so you've
set yourself kind of a standard, so we're
hoping that at least you reach that today
with God's help.
Let's pray for him.
God, thank you so much for John and
how he so desires to deliver the words
from on high, and as he does so,
God, continue to refresh his mind and his
mouth with your words, Lord, and give us
the ears to hear what the Spirit is
saying in this time, for this moment, from
these your words in your holy Bible.
Thank you for John.
Amen.
Thank you, Pastor Brian, and we missed you
last week.
I had to put up with my jokes
and didn't quite go over as good as
that sunshine environment that you set for us,
so what a pleasure it is to just
turn to the Word of God this morning
and go back to the second chapter of
Ruth, this beautiful little story that's like a
ray of light in the midst of dark
times, and I'm just going to read from
verse 8 through to the end of chapter
2, verse 23, and we'll look together into
the Word.
So Ruth chapter 2 and verse 8 says,
Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen,
my daughter, will you not?
Do not go to glean in another field,
nor go from here, but stay close by,
my young women.
Let your eyes be on the field which
they reap, and go after them.
Have I not commanded the young men not
to touch you?
And when you are thirsty, go to the
vessels and drink from what the young men
have drawn.
So she fell on her face, and bowed
down to the grind, and said to him,
Why have I found favor in your eyes,
that you should take notice of me since
I am a foreigner?
And Boaz answered and said to her, It
has been fully reported to me all that
you have done for your mother-in-law
since the death of your husband, and how
you have left your father and your mother
and the land of your birth, and have
come to a people whom you did not
know before.
The Lord repay your work, and a full
reward be given you by the Lord God
of Israel, under whose wings you have come
for refuge.
Then she said, Let me find favor in
your sight, my lord, for you have comforted
me and have spoken kindly to your maidservant,
though I am not like one of your
maidservants.
Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come
here, and eat of the bread, and dip
your piece of bread in the vinegar.
So she sat beside the reapers, and he
passed parched grain to her, and she ate
and was satisfied, and kept some back.
And when she rose up to glean, Boaz
commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean
even among the sheaves, and do not reproach
her.
Also let grain from the bundles fall purposefully
for her.
Leave it that she may glean, and do
not rebuke her.
So she gleaned in the field until evening,
and beat out what she had gleaned, and
it was about an ephah of barley.
And she took it up, and went into
the city, and her mother-in-law saw
what she had gleaned, and she brought out
what he gave to her, and what she
had kept back after she had been satisfied.
And her mother-in-law said to her,
Where have you gleaned today, and where did
you work?
Blessed be the one who took notice of
you.
So she told her mother-in-law with
whom she had worked, and said, The man's
name with whom I work today is Boaz.
Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,
Blessed be the Lord who has not forsaken
his kindness to the living and the dead.
And Naomi said to her, This man is
a relation of ours, one of our close
relatives.
Ruth the Moabitess said, He also said to
me, You shall stay close to my young
man until they have finished all my harvest.
And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in
-law, It is good, my daughter, that you
go out with his young woman, and that
people do not meet you in any other
field.
So she stayed close by the young women
of Boaz to glean until the end of
the barley harvest and wheat harvest, and she
dwelt with her mother-in-law.
Let's pray together.
Father, thank you for your Word.
Thank you that it is for our help
and for our teaching, for our encouragement, for
building us up in the things of righteousness
and truth.
Thank you, Lord, that it is by your
Spirit that you take the Word and bring
it to our hearts in just the right
measure and way, time after time after time.
Lord, in quiet surrender, our hearts call out
to you this morning, Spirit of the living
God, come and take this written Word and
write it in our hearts, that we may
benefit from it and profit in it and
be drawn closer to you because of it.
May your Lord be glorified and exalted in
your Word this day, because we ask it
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, last time as we did the first
10 verses of this chapter, we talked about
the fact that it's sort of centered on
Boaz.
He's a character introduced to us at the
beginning of chapter 2, and this morning in
our few moments together, I want us just
to think a little bit on Ruth herself
once again.
And as I said, this is one of
those bright stories in the midst of a
dark time in the history of Israel.
It's a story that brings to our hearts
encouragement and strength.
And as you think with me this morning
a little bit about Ruth, she's a foreigner
in a strange land, and some strange customs
must have been there, things she didn't grow
up with, all kinds of challenges to learn
new ways and a new way of thinking
and so on.
And she's someone who must, I'm sure, have
struggled with that as she faced it, as
we all do.
And as I look at the character of
Ruth, I cannot help but think about the
morning when she says to Naomi, let me
go and glean in the field.
Now she didn't know anybody who was going
to be in that field, and it must
have been kind of a lonesome walk from
the house out to the field.
And we looked last time at the providence
of God in that she just happened to
be in the field of Boaz.
But as you just consider the loneliness that
she faced and the burdens and concerns that
she must have had, although the times have
changed and the fashions have changed, although I've
discovered if I keep it long enough it
will come back into fashion.
Thanks, Brad.
As you just think about these things, it's
good just to notice that although the issues
were there before Ruth, they're still the same
kind of issues that you and I face
today.
The kind of issues that focus on us
as individuals, as families, in human relationships, in
all of those kind of things.
And the book of Ruth is primarily a
love story, as we said at the beginning.
And you think about all of those things
that she's carrying, plus she has the care
of her mother-in-law.
But I want you just to notice with
me this morning five things that are given
to Ruth.
And in these verses, 8 through the end
of the chapter, because it's so good just
to think upon the fact that oftentimes we
feel isolated and alone.
Nobody can feel the things that I do.
Nobody can live my life, right?
But there are so many things that we
all of us face and that still remain
to this day, even from the time of
Ruth.
And so she is given five things here
in these verses that we just would look
at this morning.
And I think about Ruth too as one
who understood brokenness.
Her heart was broken because the love of
her life had died.
Her relationship with her land is broken.
It's interesting when you stop and think about
the place where you grew up.
There's an attachment there.
There's an emotional attachment to that place, but
that is gone, that is broken.
And her relationship with her family, her father
and mother and so on, that is broken.
She must have had that sense of being
very isolated from all of these things, and
there certainly can be pain in each of
those broken relationships.
And so as a widow with no food
and no help, she is going out to
the fields alone.
But just look at the things that are
given to her here with me.
In verses 8 through 10, you see the
first thing that happens is she's given an
invitation.
As Boaz speaks to her, he's saying, don't
go and glean anywhere else.
Let me give you an invitation.
I like invitations.
You know, that's the problem with an evangelist.
They just keep inviting people to Jesus.
And that has been the purpose of my
life for 41 years, and I don't plan
on changing it, not one little bit.
And I've quit making excuses for it.
And if you just happen to be here
this morning and you don't really know Jesus,
let me just say right off the top,
He's the best one at inviting that I
know.
He can take any of us and give
us an invitation, and it's so personal.
It's so singular, just as Boaz here is
inviting Ruth.
He says to her, you stay here.
Stay with my people.
Work here.
And you know, it's so good when you
think about this invitation.
He knew everything about her, and she knew
nothing about him.
Now, how do I say that?
Because the Scripture says that he says to
her, I know what you've done as you've
come, and I know how you've looked after
your mother-in-law.
Now, isn't that a relationship that everybody treasures
with their mother-in-law?
Come on, Glencairn, there's a little whoo-hoo
should be in there.
Okay.
Maybe it's a bit like that prayer that
Tevye makes in Fiddler on the Roof.
He prays, God bless and keep the Tsar
far away from us.
Anyhow, human relationships are interesting, aren't they?
But he is giving her this invitation, and
he knows all about her, just as Jesus
knows all about you and me.
You know, there are so many things that
we hide from people and so on, and
yet Jesus knows all about them.
I think about the things that were so
full of shame in my life that night
when I came to trust Jesus all those
years ago.
Oh, I'd be so heavily burdened if anybody
knew the kind of things that I was
involved with and doing, and yet in that
moment as Jesus walked into that little bedroom,
and he's really saying, I know all about
it.
There's nothing that you've done that's hidden from
me.
There's nothing that you can hide away from
me.
I see it all.
I know it all.
I know everything that you've done, but I
want you still.
This is the glory of the gospel, isn't
it?
And you know, none of us lives life
perfectly, do we?
And so she is receiving this invitation, and
we see the gospel in it if we
just pause for a moment, because just as
Boaz is saying to Ruth, listen, come.
Come on along here.
So the Lord Jesus says, come.
You ever noticed in the New Testament how
often he uses that word, come?
Just come.
And it's such a life-changing moment in
the life of Ruth here.
It's a clear invitation for her, and the
invitation of Christ is so clear.
You can come with all the burden, and
all the sin, and all the guilt, and
all the shame, and he will save, and
he will cleanse.
It's not that he might.
There's nothing ambiguous in it.
It's a straight, direct shot.
One of the things I love about young
people these days is they basically say, listen,
just stay straight.
Don't mess about.
Just make it clear.
I love it.
There's a few of us you could teach
lessons, because we've learned not to make it
clear in life.
It is such a clear invitation, and it
is a free invitation.
Stay.
Not just come for this one time, but
stay.
Stay here in this field.
Stay here with my people.
Stay in this place of security and of
love.
And it is an invitation that demands a
response.
I believe with all my heart that the
gospel demands a response, and that preaching demands
a response.
And I'll tell you why I believe that,
because there have been times when I myself
have sat and listened to a message, and
God has brought a conviction to my heart
that there's something there that ought not to
be there, and then the service closes, and
instead of going to the cross to deal
with that, I shook hands with people and
chatted a while and skipped out, and in
the next hour or two I convinced myself
that I really don't need to do with
that just today, and so I put it
off.
But an invitation demands a response, and as
God's Word encounters you and I, and as
Christ makes his claims over your life and
mine, it demands a response.
It demands the response to say, yes, because
any other response is to say.
You know, as I read sometimes of the
older time preachers in days gone by, I
love how singularly simple they made things.
D.
L.
Moody, for instance, used to finish an evangelistic
sermon like this.
He would read from Revelation and chapter 20
about the marriage supper of the Lamb, and
he'd say, let me give you an invitation.
Here it is, while sitting here in Glencairn
Alliance Church on Sunday morning the 23rd of
May, Jenna's birthday, I receive from one of
your servants a pressing invitation to the marriage
supper of your dear son.
He said, I'll write an answer for you.
Please have me excused.
Would you sign that and sign away any
hope of eternity in heaven?
You see, it was so clear, so crystal
clear.
And then he stated again and say, let
me give you a different sense of opportunity
to respond to that invitation.
While sitting here in Glencairn Alliance Church, May
23rd, I receive from one of your servants
a pressing invitation to the marriage of your
only son.
I will by the grace of God attend.
Would you sign that and be sure of
heaven?
And oh, my friends, this thing of eternity
is so important.
We can have all of the other things
all lined up.
We can have a great education and a
great family situation and a good job and
good health and all those things, but without
settling this issue of eternity, we've missed it.
We've missed it.
And God forbid that I should leave the
pulpit this morning without leaving it clear.
If you have not come to a place
of making that response to Jesus, oh, by
the grace of God, make it this morning
and be sure as we move on with
him.
This is a turning point in the life
of Ruth.
Nothing will ever be the same again from
the day that she went into the field
of Boaz, because ever from that day she
is no longer a foreigner.
She is no longer an outsider.
She is on her way into the kingdom
of God by the grace of God.
The second thing that she receives is comfort
in verses 11 and 12.
As Boaz is saying, it's been fully reported
to me all that you have done.
And then she goes on and says, you
have comforted me, a foreigner.
Wow.
I like this unfolding, don't you, where the
aloneness is no longer true.
There is this sense where he is speaking
to her, speaking kindly to her, and with
understanding about all that she has been involved
with, with her mother-in-law, leaving her
family, and all of those things.
This powerful landowner is comforting her with his
words.
And does not Jesus do the same thing
for you and me, to bring a comfort
to our brokenness and our struggles?
When we go to him in the midst
of it, there's a word for us.
There's a strength of the Spirit of God
to touch us and to minister to us.
You know, this thing of comfort is really
very interesting.
There's some years ago, I directed a Billy
Graham crusade in St. Louis, Missouri, and our
office was in a place called Creve Coeur,
or Creve Coeur, as you may try in
French to say, and you French-speaking folk
can correct me afterwards.
It's part of the greater St. Louis area.
But while we were there, we heard of
a young man called Douglas Morier.
It came in as a prayer request.
He was 15 years old.
He had flu-like symptoms and was very
sick at home with a temperature of 104.
And after a couple of days, his mother
said, Douglas, we're going to the hospital.
Took him into the hospital in St. Louis,
and after running some tests, the doctors gathered
a Ryan Douglas, this 15-year-old young
man, and said to him, there are some
things that we need to say to you,
and they're not easy things to say.
The first is that you have leukemia.
The second is you will have to take
a course of chemotherapy, and it is a
very tough course.
We're not going to pull any punches.
We want you to know how serious this
is and how difficult this is.
And you know, as Douglas, at 15, heard
this news, he began to be thoroughly depressed.
That's the most natural reaction in the world,
isn't it?
Everybody has forgotten about me, God is not
even going to touch me, here I am
now with this terrible thing.
And his aunt called a local florist and
she asked for a big spray of flowers
to be sent to Douglas's room to seek
to cheer him up a little bit.
And as the flowers arrived, and Douglas looked
at that arrangement, and he read the card
from his aunt, and how she said she
was looking for great things from him, and
so on.
But then he found a second note, and
this is what the second note on those
flowers said.
Douglas, I took your order.
I work at the florist.
I had leukemia when I was seven years
old.
I'm 22 years old now.
Good luck.
My heart goes out to you.
Sincerely, Laura Bradley.
Douglas found that his heart was comforted and
lifted.
Here he is in a hospital, in the
midst of millions of dollars worth of equipment,
in the center of doctors who are so
skilled and experienced, and so on, and know
what to do.
But what is it?
It's a lady who makes $170 a week
working in a florist shop who took two
minutes to write a little note to say,
I had that, and I'm still here.
And that's what Boaz is doing to Ruth
here in that field as he speaks to
her.
And that's what Jesus wants to do to
your heart and to mine this morning.
He is the one who is the God
of all comfort.
We seem to think that we should only
quote that verse from 1 Corinthians 1 at
time of funeral and death, but he is
the God of all comfort.
All the time she was comforted.
She says so in verse 13.
Now Boaz knew that she didn't have all
the things that an Israelite lady would have,
but he's ministering to her and comforting her.
Here's the third thing that she is given
in verse 13.
Grace.
Look at that verse.
Let me find favor in your sight, my
Lord, for you have comforted me and have
spoken kindly to your maidservant.
And the thing about grace is that when
we find it, we're looking for more.
She has already said, Oh, I'm so glad
I find favor.
In verse 10, she has bowed before him
to say that.
And now she is saying, Let me find
favor.
This is the thing about grace.
It's not just that amazing grace that saved
us back then.
It is that growing grace that Peter speaks
of in 1 Peter chapter 3, or 2
Peter chapter 3 and verse 18.
Grow in grace and in knowledge of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It is meant to multiply in us and
to grow in us.
And there is this longing in her for
more of that grace that has been extended
to her.
Do you have that this morning?
We were singing that this morning.
I didn't talk to Tom and Rachel about
what I was going to preach on.
There's no collusion here except what the Holy
Spirit brings together.
And we were singing about that very fact,
weren't we?
This grace of God and this longing for
more of him.
Do you have that this morning?
Oh God, I just want more and more
and more.
I read sometimes in history of the church
and some of those men and women who've
been greatly used of God, and it seems
that there is a time in their lives
when they have often had to say to
God, Just wait, Lord.
I can't take anymore.
But oh, my brother and sister, that's not
our problem today, is it?
It's all kind of, God, she
receives grace.
You know, I like to preach about grace,
but I better motor along.
When I think about grace, I cannot help
but think about the Graham family and Franklin
Graham in particular.
Growing up in the home of Billy Graham,
what do you think might have been the
subject of conversation fairly often?
Jesus, oh yeah, radical thing to talk about
around the family table.
And Franklin ran as hard as he could
for a long time, until one day in
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in the grace
of God, he just sat down in a
heap on the floor and said, Oh God,
I'm sick and tired of being sick and
tired.
Can you really change my life?
And I got to tell you, God has.
He's not even allowed to pray at the
White House because of his comments about Islam.
I would say he's standing on Jesus, wouldn't
you?
And I remember when Ruth Graham was wheeled
out at Franklin's ordination out in Colorado, she
had had hip surgery, and sitting in that
wheelchair she said, I just came to encourage
you parents tonight, because not very long ago
this young man was somewhere in the world
with a bottle of Daniels, but look at
the grace of God.
Hurry up, John, it's a holiday weekend.
You got seven minutes to finish.
Let's do it.
The fourth thing that she was given or
received is fellowship.
In verses 14 through 17, this is their
first meeting, Boaz and Ruth.
This is a first date, guys.
You know, think about the idea here.
He took her to lunch on the first
date.
It happened right there.
Don't you love how he invites her close
to him?
Don't you love how as he says to
her, you come close?
Verse 14, come here and eat the bread.
Come on close.
Somehow we accept the lie that the Lord
doesn't want us to be all that close,
but look at this.
Here's the illustration of Boaz and Ruth, and
he's just saying to her, come on over
here.
Come on over here.
Not only is he inviting her close, but
he's providing in all of those things that
we looked at last week.
And there's so much more that she wants
to do as she returns to Glean to
get some more food for her and Naomi.
What does he say?
He calls those reapers and he says, listen,
you see her?
Drop something right in her pathway.
Take that good stuff that you're harvesting and
just leave it there for her.
Drop it right in her pathway.
Think about this with Jesus and you and
me.
When was the last time that you knew
that sense of, Lord, you give this just
to me.
Just to me, Lord.
Out of all, just to me.
When we were going to build that Arendelle
Alliance Church in Saskatoon some years ago, I
had booked a series of meetings and was
asked to go to Dexcom and explain the
building thing.
Sam week?
Try to explain that to the DS.
I know Bob Peters was a good friend,
but he's going to say, cancel the meetings.
Get the important thing.
Get the first thing first, right?
I was praying like a rocket.
And then he called and said, John, would
you mind if we change the meetings, the
Dexcom meetings by a week and put them
back a week so that, would that interrupt
your schedule too badly?
And I stuck my tongue in my cheek
and said, well, I suppose we could do
that.
Said, Bob, I have to tell you, I
booked to preach a series of meetings in
Montana that week, and then he said, you
rat!
You're the one!
Nothing would come together.
You're the one!
But you know what it was?
It was just a loving hand of a
Savior saying, look at the tangle you got
yourself in.
Let me drop something in front of you
on purpose, just for you, just for you.
Last thing that she receives is mentorship.
In verses 18 through 23, when she goes
back to Naomi, there's a mentorship going on
there.
I won't take time to go back into
the verses just to say.
Naomi's not just her mother-in-law.
She's her mentor.
And how great a picture there is here.
Somebody to instruct, somebody to hold on to,
somebody who can really fit the bill and
do the job, somebody who can help her
become what God designed her to be.
It's a thing of mentorship, you know.
Another way to say it would be discipleship.
We all need somebody who keeps pointing us
in the right way.
I thank the Lord for fellows like Bill
McLeod, who at 91 years of age, still
say, John, how many chapters did you read
today?
You ever feel like going to the principal's
office, Brad?
It's what it feels like, brother.
Six.
But mentors are not just judges.
They're people who say, when I read the
word today, this is what I got out
of it.
And when you read the word today, what
is it saying to you?
And there's continuing growth in the family of
God.
I love historical illustrations.
And you know, the American Civil War was
a terrible time.
But one Sunday morning in 1865 in Richmond,
Virginia, a black man walked forward in a
church at the end of the service, came
to the altar, and got on his knees
alone in a totally white congregation.
And everybody was going, huh?
But you know, the congregation that morning had
a mentor, a man very highly respected.
His name was Robert E.
Lee.
Seeing that, he got up and came to
the altar and got on his knees beside
this man.
And all of a sudden, everybody in that
group knew what to do.
That's the love of God, isn't it?
I need to finish, and it's time for
us to enjoy this beautiful weather and holiday
weekend.
Friends, the Lord provides everything that we need
in Jesus.
And Ruth found life in coming to the
Lord.
And there is still in him the invitation,
the comfort, the grace, the fellowship, the mentorship.
But we need to make a response.
So as I close this morning, I'm just
going to go to a few moments of
prayer.
Am I speaking to someone, and perhaps you've
heard the invitation of Jesus many times, and
found a way to put it off?
This morning, don't put it off.
Come to him.
Everything that you're looking for and longing for
is in him.
Am I talking to someone, and you need
comfort?
He is the God of all comfort, grace,
fellowship, someone to come alongside and mentor.
Yes, he does that too.
And he supplies the right person in the
right way.
So as we go to prayer for a
moment, let me just lead in a simple
prayer for someone who needs the Lord Jesus.
But you can make this your moment of
response to him.
We would simply say, Dear Heavenly Father, thank
you for Jesus.
Thank you for the invitation to come to
him, to be saved and free.
Lord, as I look at my life, I
know that I'm a sinner.
I repent of that sin.
Come and live in my heart and give
me new life in Christ.
And yet, my Father, as I pray this
morning, I know that for many hearts there
are burdens and struggles and disappointments and wounds.
And so in this moment, we want to
come to you and ask, God of all
comfort, touch us.
Renew that strong fellowship in our hearts by
your grace, and enable us to walk with
one another and encourage one another in the
things of Christ.
These things we ask in Jesus' name.
In God's people's name.
Amen.
I'm going to ask Brad to come in
a second and lead us in the benediction.
Come on up, brother.
I just wanted to say again, thank you,
Glen Cairn.
It is such a privilege to pastor this
church.
And I am just blessed in that role.
Next Sunday, I will be praying and enjoying
a Vietnamese sort of sense of life because
I'll be speaking to the Combined Alliance churches
in the Toronto area.
And I'd appreciate your prayers for that.
And also on Sunday morning at Bayview Glen
in Toronto.
And I was asked to come and preach
on reconciliation in Bayview.
So if you would remember that in prayer,
I would greatly appreciate it.
And I know that as Brad preaches next
Sunday, the Lord will mightily use him.
And you will pray for him and encourage
him along.
He's preaching on lordship, and he's got a
very busy week.
So just keep him in your prayers.
If you would like prayer, I'm going to
ask our elders just to linger with me
over here after the service.
God's been speaking to you about something, and
you want someone to pray personally with you
and for you.
You make this your opportunity just to come.
And we'll be delighted to do that.
I'll take the microphone off so you don't
need to worry that it will be broadcast.
Okay.
God bless you.
Thanks, John.
We'll be praying for you for sure.
I'm going to read you with a little
bit of scripture as we go into this
Sunday afternoon.
And 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 to
5 says this.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
According to his great mercy, he has caused
us to be born again to a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
who by God's power are being guarded through
faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
in its time.
Amen.
It is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and it's
waiting for you.
That invitation that John so eloquently spoke about
to go to heaven.
I hope you have a great week, and
I hope that you take these things on
this time of worship, these times of praise
and thanksgiving, these words that God has not
accidentally put in your ears and in your
mind, and that you would sort them out
and that you would live them out, and
you would look for those opportunities to receive
and show the grace of God in our
lives, in your lives, wherever you are.
Have a great week.
You are dismissed.