Sermon Note

---

Lost and Found: “A Family Legacy” By Senior Pastor Tom Harrison May 13, 2018 Mother’s Day Care Portal video during pastoral moment • Asbury is a Foster Care Portal Church • There is a foster care and adoption crisis in Oklahoma. • Currently, 9600 children are in OK DHS custody, with 450 children in need of an adoptive home. • Not everyone can or wishes to be a foster family, but there is a way the church can HELP. • Care Portal, is an easy way to support the needs of Tulsa foster families with diapers, clothing, car seats and other life necessities. • Interested in helping, go to the NORTH lobby table to talk to someone about the Foster Care Portal. ESV change – hold up Tidings during scripture reading. • Short personal response on “why” we are changing to ESV Bibles. • Encourage people to read the article in Spring issue of Tidings. Other great Bible articles, too • Remind people to purchase nameplates • Great way to honor someone special by purchasing a nameplate which will be placed in the front page of one of the new ESV pew Bibles • Details in your bulletin Journal Intro: We wanted to end our story about Ruth on “Mother’s Day” as it is about her legacy. Genealogies in the Bible are usually found in the beginning of the book, not at the end. The Book of Ruth is an exception. Boaz and Ruth have a son they named, “Obed.” Obed has a son named Jesse. And Jesse has a son named David, who became the great King of Israel. Naomi, who had been in such disgrace, became forever linked to David. Ruth 4:17 is a wonderful verse: “The women living there said, ‘Naomi has a son.’" Go back through and re-read Ruth 1. Who would think that, “and they all lived happily ever after,” is how this story should end? Naomi has prevailed. Things worked out far better than she could have imagined after her catastrophic loss of her husband and two sons. The

ending of Ruth reminds us how the Book of Job ends (42). It reminds us of Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples (John 14). Paul reminded the Corinthians how they have received “comfort” from God through the Lord Jesus Christ even though they have suffered. It reminds us of the hope we have in the Bible (Revelation 22:1-9) that we will live forever. As Christians, ultimately, we cannot lose. As Christians destined for heaven, we have an important legacy to leave behind on earth. Application: Read all of chapter 4 today. Naomi (the doubter), Ruth (the outsider), Boaz (the faithful), you and me... none of us is worthy to have a place in eternity with God but for the “hesed” (faithfulness, grace, kindness and neverending love) that He offers us. What losses are you or have you experienced in life? How is or did God help you find your way through it? What legacy are you leaving, spiritual or otherwise? You may not see clearly the redemption of your loss or pain until you reach heaven, but God IS a God who redeems and THAT gives us hope. Naomi was lost in chapter 1. “The Female Job” had catastrophic losses: her home, husband, sons, her appearance + her reputation. Even her faith, while not “lost,” struggling. She had faith – and much doubt. Most of us can relate to Naomi’s pain. Many struggle with the problem of suffering – “Why did this happen? Why did God let this happen to me?” People lose faith because of suffering. Yet, as a human, we will suffer. Sometimes we identify the cause of suffering; but it often is random. Being human = life always ends in death which causes suffering, not only to the deceased but to the survivors. It is not wrong to ask the questions about suffering; but it will always exist, and we may never find the answers. The Road Less Traveled begins: Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. They voice their belief that their difficulties represent a unique kind of affliction that should not be and that has somehow been visited upon them, or else upon their families, their tribe, their class, their nation, their race or even their species, and not upon others. I know about this moaning because I have done my share. Life is a series of problems. Do we want to moan about them or solve them? Do we

want to teach our children to solve them? Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. Chapter 4 tells the rest of the story. This sermon series is “Lost and Found.” So far, all I’ve been able to say was that Naomi and Ruth WILL BE found in chapter. 4. We’ve finally gotten there. There are 3 parts to our story in chapter 4: 1.) The kinsman-redeemer. Mosaic laws were given to save the name and protect the property of families in Israel. The rich weren’t supposed to take advantage of widows and the poor. These laws ensured that a man's family name would not die with him and that his property would not be sold outside his tribe or clan. The Jewish rulers didn't always obey this law. The prophets rebuked them for stealing land from the helpless. Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, had property that had either been sold or was under some a mortgage, and the rights to the land had passed to Ruth's husband, Mahlon, when Elimelech died. This explains why Ruth was also involved in the transaction. She was too poor, however, to redeem the land. A man had to be a near relative to be a kinsman-redeemer. Another man in Bethlehem was a nearer relative to Ruth than Boaz. However, the kinsman-redeemer also had to pay the redemption price. Boaz gathered 10 men to witness the transaction at the city gate (like our courthouse). When the nearer relative walked by —and Boaz hailed him. The other guy wanted to buy the land until he learned that Ruth was part of the deal. He had the money but not the motivation, so he backed out. If he married and had a son with Ruth, it could be a problem for the son he may already have had. Since he was unwilling to redeem Ruth, Boaz could purchase both the property and a wife. He removed his sandal and completed the transaction before 10 witnesses (how a deal was made then). Boaz now had the land + Ruth! Ruth 4:13-22 “A Family Legacy” So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." 16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 18 This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, 19 Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, 20

Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 21 Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, 22 Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. 2.) Ruth and Boaz were blessed to have a son, OBED = “SERVANT.” He would live up to his name and be a "servant" to Naomi, his "foster mother." He would renew and sustain her life. “NANA” informally adopted him as her own son. Grandchildren are like Fountain of Youth. We "get young again" when the grandchildren come to visit. There's no better way to get a new lease on life than to start investing yourself in the younger generation. Holding a baby = holding the future in your arms. Obed would bring blessing to Bethlehem. He would bring fame to both the family name + the name of his native town. Elimelech’s name almost disappeared from Israel, but Obed would make that name famous and bring glory to Bethlehem. Naomi would have the comfort of knowing that the family name would not perish but increase in fame. Obed brought blessing to Israel. He became the grandfather of Israel’s greatest King, DAVID. Obed’s greatest privilege would be as the ancestor of the Messiah. Through the life and ministry of David’s greater Son, Jesus, Obed would bless the entire world. 3.) The Book of Ruth is a story of redemption. The words "redeem," "buy," and "purchase" are used at least 15x. But, redemption can’t happen unless the price is paid. I believe the entire Bible is the story of redemption. That is why we have entitled this series, “Lost and Found.” This story = Naomi (Jewish) Ruth (Gentile) and Boaz (type of Jesus). The story of the Bible leads where God wants to redeem all of us through Jesus. To “redeem” means to bring back or buy back something or someone who was lost. Furthermore, this “lost” person was someone who was powerless to help themselves. There’s a saying, “God helps those who help themselves,” but the theme of the Bible is that “God helps those who cannot help themselves.” God helps people who are lost, broken and living in despair be forgiven, released and redeemed. Through Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. Through Jesus Christ, we have resurrection.

We Assist. Helping others follow Jesus. It’s not good enough just that I have been redeemed, I am to help others find redemption, too. We don’t always see the results. We usually don’t know what our actions right now will affect future generations. Naomi, Boaz and Ruth all stepped out in faith and lived in obedience. These 3 left a legacy. In the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile and 14 from the Exile to Jesus. In it, there are 42 men named, and only 5 women. All 5 women named have a history: Tamar’s story (Genesis 37) is tawdry; Rahab was a prostitute and a foreigner, Ruth was a virtuous woman but was a foreigner from Moab, one woman is not named, “whose mother had been Uriah's wife” (Bathsheba committed adultery and Solomon was her son with David). Mary, the mother of Jesus wasn’t a foreigner or have a sexual history, she was just young and a virgin. There is only one man whose mother (“Rahab”) and wife (“Ruth”) are named in the genealogy of Jesus: Boaz. We all have histories. We all have regrets, struggles, crises, doubts, fears, and problems. We find redemption through Jesus Christ. He offers you this gift today. Let Him redeem your life. And we are His church, we are here to help others follow Him. As part of a redeemed fellowship, we once were lost but now we’re found – let’s help others find our Kinsman Redeemer, too.