" Take off thy shoes"
Ruth 4:1-8
Many times in the last few years I’ve questioned in my heart the mercy Christ has given me by my salvation and the great honor bestowed on such an undeserving man as me to preach the gospel. My heart sometimes almost breaks when I realize that the Creator of the Universe loves me with an unconditional love and gave his life on Calvary’s cross for me. Today I want to expound about the free gift of grace to salvation shown to a little boy who grew up in a depraved and sin ravaged family on the streets of Biloxi Mississippi. Yet I would share with you from the beginning of this message that there is no need for pity because GOD RESCUED THE BOY TO STAND ON THIS HOLY GROUND MY FEET REST UPON! I would choose instead to inspire you to greater works and if you can hear the sound of my voice today to encourage you. Be encouraged my brothers and sisters because no matter how worthless you may think you are, no matter how many times you’ve been kicked and ridiculed, no matter how outcast and ostracized you may feel…
YOU HAVE A LIVING HOPE BENEATH THE SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY! CHRIST JESUS THOUGHT YOU WERE SO PRECIOUS THAT HE GAVE HIS LIFE FOR YOU ON A ROUGH HEWN CROSS TO PURCHASE YOUR SALVATION.
YOUR KINSMAN REDEEMER LIVES!
(PRAYER)
At a time in history there was a woman who lost every hope and every dream she ever had to comfort her at night in a little cemetery in the hillsides of Moab. Naomi had the distinct displeasure of losing not only her husband but also her only two sons to unknown causes. The day the funeral director shoveled the last spadeful of dirt on her family, he buried all her hopes and dreams.
Yet as hopeless as her life seemed, as empty as her situation seemed to the eyes of the world, God had provided her with a shoulder to help bear the burden in the person of her daughter in law, RUTH.
1. Ruth’s physical appearance is not adequately described in the scripture for we aren’t told of any great beauty or any fine sophisticated manners or social graces
2. We are however spoken to about her heritage for she is called in the word of God a MOABITESS of the land of Moab
a. Numbers 22 begins to tell a story of enemies and curses
b. Balak was a king who chose to curse Israel through Balaam the prophet
c. Numbers 25 shares the outcome of the Moabites on Israel through whoredoms and witchcraft at the alter of Baal-peor and how God’s people were polluted by the Moabite women
1. Ruth walked into racism and detestability when she chose to go back to her husband’s homeland because of who her people were
· I am reminded still of just how strong racial prejudice is in this nation and even within our own churches. Even today we detest those who have a different color skin than we possess or speak a different language but we don’t stop there my friends. NO WE’RE EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BIGOTS BECAUSE WE’LL ALSO JUDGE THOSE AMONG US WHO COME FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS! We’ll judge a man by his families background even when his skin is the same color as ours and he speaks the same language we do. We’ll judge the poor white trash and those who have lived undesirable lives just as faithfully as we will those who are different from us.
· You can go win them to the Lord Brother Mike, just don’t bring them back to church with you
* Yet for all our judgemental prejudice, WE WORSHIP A SAVIOR WITH A DIFFERENT SKIN COLOR THAN OURS, WHO SPOKE A LANGUAGE WE WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND AND WHO ALSO CAME FROM THE WRONG SIDE OF THE TRACKS IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD?
I am so thankful that God doesn’t judge us by the same measure we have judged others. Thank you Lord for Mercy… thank you Lord for Grace and undeserved Favor!
1 Samuel 16:7 " For the Lord doesn’t see as we see, He doesn’t look on the outward appearance but the Lord God looks on the heart." So with the eyes of God let’s look on another human soul going through the same journey we are and examine her character, the contents of her heart…
1. She was loyal to those she loved… verse 14
2. She was courageous for those she loved… verse 8
3. She was faithful to those she loved… verse 16
4. She was committed to those she loved… verse 18
Naomi was an old woman but Ruth wasn’t a spring chicken either because she’d been married for at least ten years. Her time of eligibility for marriage was just about expired and when combined with her heritage it was two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning with two strikes already called across the plate. Barring a miracle from God, they had absolutely no hope! Barring the intervention of the Almighty no one would intervene for them! Unless God took matters into his own hands they would die starving and destitute with no one to fan their dreams into reality… yet they chose to return to the land of Judah.
HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW THEY WERE ON THE EDGE OF MIRACLE? HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW THAT WHEN WE DON’T HAVE ANYWHERE TO LOOK FOR HELP, ALMIGHTY GOD SAYS TO LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE!
Chapter 2 verse 10 begins to reveal the undeserved favor two worthless women received at the hand of another old man called Boaz. Ruth goes to him and lies at his feet in the threshing room floor when she has no other way to rescue herself and throws her heart at the mercy of a kinsman redeemer.
In Genesis 3 when sin separated all mankind from a Holy and Righteous God in the garden of Eden, there was a permanent and uncrossable breach fixed between us and God. A curse of death was placed on mankind and the earth was changed to not respond to our efforts.
Romans 8:22 says the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until this moment waiting for the redemption of the kinsmen redeemer. We are just as hopeless and lost without Jesus as those two little women were! We didn’t have any way to reach God because we couldn’t build the bridge.
" He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose." John 1:27 Those are the words spoken by the man Jesus called the greatest to ever walk the face of the earth. I never knew what John really meant by that statement until the Holy Spirit revealed it to me last night.
The kinsmen redeemer unloosed his own shoe from off his foot to show that he intended to stand in the gap for the hopeless, for the cast off, for the undeserving. John the Baptist had no ability to take the shoe off and redeem us so that God could give us the very best.
1. Paradise as referred to in scripture is SECOND BEST my friends because the best is to live with God in heaven
2. The righteous dead were held in Paradise just like Jesus said they were in Luke 16 and to the thief on the cross because no man could go to heaven, God’s home until the breach had been repaired…
GOD NEVER FORGOT US THOUGH BECAUSE HE LOVED US WITH A PERFECT AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! WE WERE HIS CREATION FOR FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM BUT SIN SEPERATED US FROM THE RELATIONSHIP! THE SIN DEBT HAD TO BE BRIDGED!
He never forgot and he kept passing out band aids until the fullness of his timing was in place… in Genesis he made a covenant and in Exodus he delivered from hard bondage… in Leviticus he gave us a small shot of pain killer with his perfect law ( JUST TO TIDE US OVER FOR A LITTLE WHILE AND LET US SEE HOW HOPELESS WE REALLY WERE ) we couldn’t live by the law because of our nature but he never forgot us… HANG ON CHILDREN I’M COMING FOR YOU! Here take these judges I give you and when their not enough I’ll give you a king and some prophets BUT JUST HANG ON CAUSE I’M COMING! I LOVE YOU! TELL THEM I LOVE THEM MOSES, TELL THEM I LOVE THEM DAVID, TELL THEM I LOVE THEM ISAIAH, TELL THEM I LOVE THEM DANIEL, EZEKIEL, JEREMIAH, MICAH, NAHUM, JOEL…
JESUS TOOK OFF HIS KING’S ROBE, HIS KING’S RINGS, HIS KING’S CROWN, LAID DOWN HIS KING’S SCEPTER AND SLIPPED HIS ROYAL FEET FROM HIS KING’S SHOES…
Here Father, I mean to redeem these people. (shhmph) he split the night sky from heaven’s golden streets to be nurtured in the womb of a woman and was born a flesh and blood human in Bethlehem. HOLINESS PUT ON HUMANITY AND DIVINITY PUT ON FLESH TO LIVE AMONG US AS ONE OF US! FULLY GOD BUT ALSO FULLY MAN!
The kinsman redeemer has to be from among us, one like us. He went to the cross led by Roman soldiers thru the streets of Jerusalem and was nailed in his hands and his feet. They parted his garmets as he hung there and as he looked past his naked bloody feet, HE HAD TAKEN OFF HIS SHOE AS THE PROMISE OF OUR REDEMPTION! Hold on I’m coming for I have need of a bride, a people to be called by my name, a people to buy with my blood. Darkness settles over Golgotha’s hill and a cry is heard, the veil is torn in the temple… his body is laid in a borrowed grave and it stays there for three days and nights…
JUST HOLD ON CAUSE I MEAN TO BUY YOU AND REDEEM YOU, THE STONE BEGINS TO TREMBLE AND THEN IS ROLLED AWAY, JESUS IS ALIVE…
NO MARY DON’T TOUCH ME! There’s still one more place I have to go to redeem you, one more task to perform to pay the FULL PURCHASE PRICE because I don’t need no discount, I don’t need any money saver’s coupons and I’m not going to buy you off the clearance rack…
HE ASCENDS TO HEAVEN LEADING THOSE CAPTIVE IN PARADISE TO THE OUTSKIRTS OF GOD’S HOME AND FROM THOSE PRECIOUS NAIL PRINTS POURS FORTH BLOOD ON THE MERCY SEAT! Full price has been paid and Heaven erupts in applause and praise as the angels begin to sing, HE IS WORTHY, He is worthy, he is worthy! Praise him, praise him for he is worthy to be praised…
Whew! Oh friends to know that he looked into the future and gave instructions to his angels and the Holy Ghost to keep their eyes out for a little baby boy born in New Orleans Louisiana on October the 1st 1964. Yeah I know how bad he is and that he steals candy and breaks windows wearing hand me down clothes and smoking cigarettes but this is what I command you to do.
This blood is for that wretched, evil, sinfilled little boy down there and I want you to whisper in his spiritual ears how unhappy he is. How empty he feels when he lays down to sleep at night and wants to just die because he’s hungry and cold. Make him to know that I’m a God that fills emptiness and create in him the desire to be filled. Whisper in his ears how much I love him and when the world comes to mock him and tease him and he has no hope… and at this moment draw him by the power of my Grace and tell him this is the moment of his salvation in me… tell him how much he’s worth to me… tell him about how much I love him and not to worry about his self esteem because I WANT HIM TO HAVE SELF WORTH. MIKE DEPHILLIPS WAS WORTH SO MUCH THAT IT TOOK THE BLOOD OF THE KING OF KINGS TO REDEEM HIM. YOU WERE SO PRICELESS IT TOOK THE BLOOD OF THE KING OF KINGS TO BUY YOUR SALVATION.
GIVE HIM GOOD MEASURE, PRESSED DOWN, SHAKEN TOGETHER AND FLOWING OVER OF MY HOLY SPIRIT! Ruth got that when she had knelt at the feet of Boaz, six meaures of was an abundance! Teach him how to pray too! If he has any needs that come up you tell him for me not to pray to the Father on his own.
1. the father doesn’t know what it’s like to be hungry
2. the father doesn’t know what it’s like to be tired
3. the father doesn’t know what it’s like to be cold
4. the father doesn’t know what it’s like so you tell him to pray in my name, his kinsman redeemer
INVITATION
