6-14-2026
Ruth 3:1-18 (NIV)
Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Sermon Info
• Speaker / Pastor: Rev Douglas Dill
• Church / Location: Mountain View
Scripture References
• Ruth 3:1-18 (NIV) – the narrative of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz is read and unpacked as an example of hesed (steadfast, covenantal love) and daring faith.
• Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV) (Ask, Seek, Knock) – read as reminder that asking and seeking are part of trusting God in action.
Central Message
• Ruth’s example of hesed — a deep, abiding, self-giving love — combined with a daring act of faith brought protection and provision. The church is called to imitate that character by stepping out in generous stewardship for kingdom ministry, even when the future is uncertain.
Key Points
• 1. Ruth, a non-Israelite, chooses Naomi’s God and shows faithful hesed; that steadfast love is noticed and honored.
• 1. Boaz models protection and generosity: he provides for Ruth and pledges to do what she asks, showing how community can shelter the vulnerable.
• 1. Courageous, even risky, faith matters — Ruth’s bold action changed her story; daring acts can unlock God’s provision.
• 1. Practical application to the congregation: the church faces a loan on the worship center (over $14,000/month) and is considering extending terms to 10 years to reduce payments (to roughly $6,500/month) at about 4.7% interest; this would create breathing room for ministry.
• 1. Extending the loan is framed not as avoidance of payment but as a strategic, generous stewardship choice to serve children, community programs (VBS), and ministry growth.
Notable Quotes
• > “A deep, abiding love.”
• > “Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you.”
• > “This hesed is greater than that which you showed earlier.”
• > “We are called to do daring acts for the sake of ministry.”
Application
• Imitate Ruth’s hesed: act with steady, self-giving love toward widows, orphans and the vulnerable in our community.
• Be willing to take daring stewardship steps (e.g., support a loan-extension plan) so the church has margin to fund ministries to children and the neighborhood.
• Attend and participate in the congregational meeting to discern the loan proposal and ministry priorities.
• Practice generosity as a character trait, not merely a transaction expecting immediate reward.
Reflection Questions
• 1. Where have you seen or practiced hesed — steadfast, covenantal love — in your life this week?
• 1. What daring act of faith or generosity might God be calling you (or our congregation) to take, even if the outcome is uncertain?
• 1. How do you personally envision Mountain View using greater financial breathing room to serve children, youth, and the wider community?
• 1. How do you personally envision Mountain View using greater financial breathing room to serve children, youth, and the wider community?
Transcript
Lector:
00:04
One day Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you where you will be well provided for.” Now, Boaz, with whose women you have worked and is a relative of ours, tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
00:21
Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes, then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know that you were there until he is finished eating and drinking.
00:33
When he lies down, note the place where he is lying, then go and uncover his feet and lie down; he will tell you what to do.
00:42
“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered, so she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
00:49
When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile.
00:58
Ruth approached quietly, uncovering his feet, and lay down.
01:03
In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned, and there was a woman lying at his feet.
01:09
“Who are you?” he asked.
01:11
“I am your servant Ruth,” he said.
01:13
“Cread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian redeemer of our family.” “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied, “his kindness is greater than any that you showed earlier.
01:25
You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor, and now, my daughter, don’t be afraid; I will do for you all you ask.
01:34
All the people of the town know that you are a woman of noble character.
01:39
Although it is true that I am a guardian redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I.
01:47
Stay here for the night, and the morning, if he wants to do his duty as your guardian redeemer, good; let him redeem you, but if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it.
02:00
Lie here until morning.” So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized, and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.” He also said, “Bring me the shawl you were wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of
02:20
barley and placed the bundle on her, then he went back to town.
02:25
When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'” And Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens, for the man will not rest until
02:47
the matter is settled today.” The word of the Lord.
Rev. Douglas Dill
03:32
The holy Gospel according to Matthew.
03:34
Glory to you, O Lord.
03:36
Jesus is speaking, and he says, “Ask, and it will be given to you.
03:41
Seek, and you will find.
03:44
Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
03:48
For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” The Gospel of our Lord.
03:59
Praise to you, O Christ.
04:01
Please be seated.
04:06
Well, as you may or may not know, we’ve been going through Ruth as part of a series, so let me back up to three weeks ago, give you a little bit of synopsis as we go through such a stage here.
04:19
Ruth is not an Israelite.
04:22
She is the daughter-in-law of Naomi.
04:26
Naomi has lost her husband and her three sons.
04:31
Two of the daughter-in-laws went back to their native land because they were not Israelites either, and Ruth chooses to follow her mother-in-law and take on her God.
04:43
So now Naomi’s God is Ruth’s God.
04:49
And if you remember, I talked about in the first chapter, when the word kindness is used here, it’s actually a little more appropriate to use something else, but in Hebrew it’s hesed, a deep, abiding love.
05:07
A deep, abiding love.
05:09
And so even in this section we hear, “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” this is Boaz speaking, “this kindness, hesed, is greater than that which you showed earlier.” It’s a greater hesed than even before that you have been showing to your mother-in-law and to the people here.
05:28
“You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.” So this hesed is a love like that of God’s love for God’s people.
05:41
A deep, abiding love.
05:47
Ruth follows Naomi back to Jerusalem, and she stays with her.
05:54
And her character, her hesed, is known to others.
05:59
This is part of who she is, how she acts.
06:04
Not for reward, but it’s who she is.
06:09
Now, out of that, sometimes reward comes.
06:13
And sometimes it comes right away, and we see it.
06:17
Sometimes reward comes much later.
06:21
We don’t do good acts right so that we get rewarded.
06:27
I didn’t hear any acknowledgment on that one.
06:32
But it is okay to be rewarded after you do a good act.
06:36
That doesn’t negate that good act.
06:40
That’s like giving, and you’re giving because you’re also going to get a tax write-off.
06:45
“That’s okay,” says the tax lady.
06:50
It is okay to be rewarded.
06:55
But this is her character.
06:56
She is full of hesed.
07:01
So last week you heard Pastor Carl talk about Ruth, and you heard about doing things, and God does rewards.
07:10
God takes care of God’s people.
07:14
Ruth is not one of God’s people.
07:19
Where is she?
07:23
Where is she?
07:26
Who is Ruth related to down the line?
07:30
Down the line, not ahead of time.
07:33
She is related to King David.
07:37
Who is I hope you all will shout out the right answer.
07:42
Who is related to King David that we really love?
07:49
Who is it that is related to King David that we really love?
07:53
Right. So we have Ruth, not Jewish, full of God’s love, hesed, doing the right things for people.
08:11
And now we get to this chapter today.
08:15
So I am going to expand a little upon something that a chaplain said, but I’m going to also tell you that feet don’t always mean feet.
08:28
The Jews didn’t like to always say exactly what they were talking about.
08:33
So have you ever heard of somebody being long in the nose?
08:36
You all know that character, right?
08:38
Pinocchio. And he was long in the nose because why?
08:42
Lied. So if they would say somebody was very long in the nose, they were calling a liar without calling them a liar.
08:49
Imagine what they’re saying about somebody with a stiff neck.
08:53
Slow to change because you can’t get around speeding the other way.
09:00
How about long in the tooth?
09:03
Oh, right.
09:05
So that’s their descriptive language.
09:08
So here Naomi wants to take care of her daughter-in-law.
09:16
Boaz has been very good to them so far, allowing them to glean from the fields and even saying, “Knock off some extra for them so that they can take these things.” He wants to see them taken care of.
09:27
He is a relative of Naomi, not of Ruth.
09:34
But yes, because it depends on how you want to look at relatives.
09:37
In-laws, okay?
09:39
So yes, he is, but not by blood.
09:44
So in Jewish tradition, if a woman was widowed and has no offspring, the brother or the uncle should marry them.
09:56
That is the law, to take care of them.
09:59
It ain’t easy being a widow in biblical times in a foreign land.
10:05
You can get hurt.
10:06
All sorts of things can happen to you.
10:08
You hear Jesus say, “Take care of the widows, the orphans, the poor.” This is what we’re talking about.
10:13
Take care of them.
10:16
God has given us resources.
10:19
Sometimes that’s people.
10:23
Sometimes that’s building.
10:28
Sometimes that’s faith.
10:31
In this case, there’s a lot going on here.
10:35
So Naomi says, “Go get dialed up.
10:40
Put your best stuff on.
10:41
Get perfume on.
10:43
But wait until Boaz had ate and drink.” Use your imagination.
10:53
He is now asleep.
10:55
But she’s supposed to find out where he’s at on that threshing floor before all the lights go down.
11:02
And you are to uncover his feet and lay at his feet.
11:08
Feet doesn’t necessarily mean feet.
11:13
Oh, see, I just heard it.
11:15
Oh. Just saying, there’s nothing that says that this is what happened, but feet isn’t always feet.
11:28
So she lays at his feet, uncovers his feet, and she’s there.
11:31
He gets startled awake.
11:34
It’s already bold for her to go in there.
11:38
A widowed woman boldly goes in.
11:42
She dares to go in the threshing floor.
11:47
She dares to uncover his feet.
11:49
She dares to lay at them and then does what he says.
11:55
But it doesn’t end there.
11:58
She also dares to say, “Take your cloak and cover me.” She proposed to him.
12:08
How many of you women here proposed to your husband?
12:13
Kind of a little odd, isn’t it?
12:15
It doesn’t happen.
12:17
Now, can you imagine being a widow of a foreign land in a foreign land proposing to this guy?
12:28
He’s taken back.
12:31
“You’re hesed.
12:33
It’s greater than what I’ve heard.
12:36
You didn’t go after a young rich man.
12:39
You came to me.” And he says, “What you’ve asked for will be granted.” But in also protecting her, he tells her to leave before anybody can see her when the lights come up.
12:58
This is protecting her, not him, because let’s face it, guys, guys can have a bad reputation and it’s okay, but women having that bad reputation is not okay.
13:11
It’s a double standard, and even more so back then.
13:16
So Boaz is taking care of her, says, “I will grant you everything that you ask.” Can you imagine if Ruth had not dared to act, if she had not gone in there, and she had not asked him to cover her with his cloak?
13:37
There may not have been a King David.
13:41
There may not have been a Jesus from the line of King David.
13:45
Well, if God has anything to say about it, it’s going to happen anyhow.
13:49
But this is how important Ruth is and how important her acts are.
13:57
Her hesed changes everything.
13:59
Her daring changes everything.
14:05
How many of you know that we have a congregational meeting coming up after this?
14:10
That’s good.
14:11
Is that why you’re here?
14:13
I hope not.
14:15
But congregational meeting is for something very important, an option, an opportunity for us to do a daring act.
14:24
Did you know we have a loan on this worship center?
14:29
It is over $14,000 a month.
14:36
Yeah, I heard a little, “Woo.” It’s a lot of money per month.
14:41
How many of you want a $14,000 mortgage on your house?
14:45
I’d say $14,000, but not per month.
14:50
Some of you wouldn’t move if it was $14,000 a month, right?
14:53
Most of us aren’t going to, “I can’t afford that.” That’s a lot of money.
14:59
Now, the interest rate on that is about 4.7%.
15:03
And I’m looking over it.
15:04
I make sure I get my numbers right when I talk to him about that.
15:08
About 4.7%.
15:10
It will be paid off in two and a half years.
15:16
Or not.
15:19
We can make payments at $14,000-something per month, and in two and a half years, we get a nice $105,000 balloon.
15:31
Who’s given the $105?
15:34
Yeah, I can’t.
15:35
None of us here can give $105,000 to do that.
15:39
So then we have to deal with that.
15:42
So here’s the proposal, and this is how we dare to act.
15:46
Just wait.
15:48
Ruth did.
15:49
God provides.
15:52
And we don’t act because we expect something out of it.
15:57
We don’t act ingenerous because we think something’s going to last forever.
16:03
We dare to act and are generous because it’s the right thing to do.
16:09
It’s part of our character.
16:12
So we’re going to talk about extending loans from two and a half years to 10 years.
16:24
Why didn’t it be a jaw drop?
16:26
That’s good.
16:27
What does that mean for us?
16:30
It means from a payment around a little over $14,000 down to around about $6,500.
16:37
It means a bigger cash flow to be able to have comfort and do ministry.
16:42
Think about that.
16:44
With that money, what do you envision us doing in ministry?
16:51
Where do you envision Mountain View going?
16:55
Do we do it for us?
17:01
So there’s the story of this old man, long in the tooth, who’s planting little sprouts of a fruit tree.
17:11
And this young man comes up to him and says, “Why are you planting these fruit trees?
17:16
You’ll never see the fruit off of them before you die.” He said, “I’m not doing it for me.
17:26
I’m doing it for generations to come.” Why would we want to extend our loans?
17:36
We’re doing it for the kids that come up here, for VBS.
17:40
We’re doing it for the kids that came right here.
17:42
We’re doing it for the young people sitting in the pews.
17:45
We’re doing it for the community.
17:46
We’re doing it to take care of ministry.
17:50
Stack. Who we are.
17:54
We’re called to take care of our resources.
17:58
This is a resource so that we can take care of God’s people, us too, the children, the community.
18:11
It’s a bold, daring act to extend our loan from two and a half years to 10 years.
18:18
But imagine.
18:21
Just think about it.
18:24
What could we do?
18:26
Now, this is not a reason to go, “Okay, now we’re paying less, so now we don’t need to pay.
18:34
We don’t need to give.” That’s not what this is.
18:37
It’s an opportunity, actually, to say, “Let’s get behind this.
18:42
Let’s think about the ministry we can do.
18:43
And how can I get involved even more?” It’s a daring act to step out and do this.
18:53
That’s what Ruth did, a daring step.
19:00
She didn’t know how it was going to go.
19:04
We don’t know how it’s going to go.
19:07
But we’re called to step out and say, “We’re called to do daring acts for the sake of ministry.” This is the character of God, a good steward who takes care of God’s people.
19:24
And he does it in a way for us to be modeling after as well.
19:29
He takes care of us so we can take care of others.
19:32
He takes care of others that can take care of us.
19:37
It works all the way around.
19:42
So are we going to step out boldly as Ruth did?
19:49
Are we going to take those acts, unsure as we might be what it means in 10 years or in 3 years?
20:03
Here’s what I can tell you.
20:06
By taking on that 10-year loan, nothing prevents us from paying more principal down.
20:16
And still, maybe you get rid of that loan in two and a half years, maybe three and a half years.
20:27
But we have the breathing room to do ministry, to take care of God’s people, take care of the little ones that are coming here, take care of the little ones outside of here, in this community.
20:44
We can always eliminate that loan here when that’s equal.
20:51
When we have the breathing room, all things are possible because God works with us.
20:58
God worked with Ruth.
21:01
God will work with you, me, us together.
21:07
A daring act by Ruth, not knowing what was going to happen.
03:32
The holy Gospel according to Matthew.
03:34
Glory to you, O Lord.
03:36
Jesus is speaking, and he says, “Ask, and it will be given to you.
03:41
Seek, and you will find.
03:44
Knock, and the door will be opened to you.
03:48
For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” The Gospel of our Lord.
03:59
Praise to you, O Christ.
04:01
Please be seated.
04:06
Well, as you may or may not know, we’ve been going through Ruth as part of a series, so let me back up to three weeks ago, give you a little bit of synopsis as we go through such a stage here.
04:19
Ruth is not an Israelite.
04:22
She is the daughter-in-law of Naomi.
04:26
Naomi has lost her husband and her three sons.
04:31
Two of the daughter-in-laws went back to their native land because they were not Israelites either, and Ruth chooses to follow her mother-in-law and take on her God.
04:43
So now Naomi’s God is Ruth’s God.
04:49
And if you remember, I talked about in the first chapter, when the word kindness is used here, it’s actually a little more appropriate to use something else, but in Hebrew it’s hesed, a deep, abiding love.
05:07
A deep, abiding love.
05:09
And so even in this section we hear, “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” this is Boaz speaking, “this kindness, hesed, is greater than that which you showed earlier.” It’s a greater hesed than even before that you have been showing to your mother-in-law and to the people here.
05:28
“You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.” So this hesed is a love like that of God’s love for God’s people.
05:41
A deep, abiding love.
05:47
Ruth follows Naomi back to Jerusalem, and she stays with her.
05:54
And her character, her hesed, is known to others.
05:59
This is part of who she is, how she acts.
06:04
Not for reward, but it’s who she is.
06:09
Now, out of that, sometimes reward comes.
06:13
And sometimes it comes right away, and we see it.
06:17
Sometimes reward comes much later.
06:21
We don’t do good acts right so that we get rewarded.
06:27
I didn’t hear any acknowledgment on that one.
06:32
But it is okay to be rewarded after you do a good act.
06:36
That doesn’t negate that good act.
06:40
That’s like giving, and you’re giving because you’re also going to get a tax write-off.
06:45
“That’s okay,” says the tax lady.
06:50
It is okay to be rewarded.
06:55
But this is her character.
06:56
She is full of hesed.
07:01
So last week you heard Pastor Carl talk about Ruth, and you heard about doing things, and God does rewards.
07:10
God takes care of God’s people.
07:14
Ruth is not one of God’s people.
07:19
Where is she?
07:23
Where is she?
07:26
Who is Ruth related to down the line?
07:30
Down the line, not ahead of time.
07:33
She is related to King David.
07:37
Who is I hope you all will shout out the right answer.
07:42
Who is related to King David that we really love?
07:49
Who is it that is related to King David that we really love?
07:53
Right. So we have Ruth, not Jewish, full of God’s love, hesed, doing the right things for people.
08:11
And now we get to this chapter today.
08:15
So I am going to expand a little upon something that a chaplain said, but I’m going to also tell you that feet don’t always mean feet.
08:28
The Jews didn’t like to always say exactly what they were talking about.
08:33
So have you ever heard of somebody being long in the nose?
08:36
You all know that character, right?
08:38
Pinocchio. And he was long in the nose because why?
08:42
Lied. So if they would say somebody was very long in the nose, they were calling a liar without calling them a liar.
08:49
Imagine what they’re saying about somebody with a stiff neck.
08:53
Slow to change because you can’t get around speeding the other way.
09:00
How about long in the tooth?
09:03
Oh, right.
09:05
So that’s their descriptive language.
09:08
So here Naomi wants to take care of her daughter-in-law.
09:16
Boaz has been very good to them so far, allowing them to glean from the fields and even saying, “Knock off some extra for them so that they can take these things.” He wants to see them taken care of.
09:27
He is a relative of Naomi, not of Ruth.
09:34
But yes, because it depends on how you want to look at relatives.
09:37
In-laws, okay?
09:39
So yes, he is, but not by blood.
09:44
So in Jewish tradition, if a woman was widowed and has no offspring, the brother or the uncle should marry them.
09:56
That is the law, to take care of them.
09:59
It ain’t easy being a widow in biblical times in a foreign land.
10:05
You can get hurt.
10:06
All sorts of things can happen to you.
10:08
You hear Jesus say, “Take care of the widows, the orphans, the poor.” This is what we’re talking about.
10:13
Take care of them.
10:16
God has given us resources.
10:19
Sometimes that’s people.
10:23
Sometimes that’s building.
10:28
Sometimes that’s faith.
10:31
In this case, there’s a lot going on here.
10:35
So Naomi says, “Go get dialed up.
10:40
Put your best stuff on.
10:41
Get perfume on.
10:43
But wait until Boaz is 8:00 and drink.” Use your imagination.
10:53
He is now asleep.
10:55
But she’s supposed to find out where he’s at on that threshing floor before all the lights go down.
11:02
And you are to uncover his feet and lay at his feet.
11:08
Feet doesn’t necessarily mean feet.
11:13
Oh, see, I just heard it.
11:15
Oh. Just saying, there’s nothing that says that this is what happened, but feet isn’t always feet.
11:28
So she lays at his feet, uncovers his feet, and she’s there.
11:31
He gets startled awake.
11:34
It’s already bold for her to go in there.
11:38
A widowed woman boldly goes in.
11:42
She dares to go in the threshing floor.
11:47
She dares to uncover his feet.
11:49
She dares to lay at them and then does what he says.
11:55
But it doesn’t end there.
11:58
She also dares to say, “Take your cloak and cover me.” She proposed to him.
12:08
How many of you women here proposed to your husband?
12:13
Kind of a little odd, isn’t it?
12:15
It doesn’t happen.
12:17
Now, can you imagine being a widow of a foreign land in a foreign land proposing to this guy?
12:28
He’s taken back.
12:31
“You’re hesed.
12:33
It’s greater than what I’ve heard.
12:36
You didn’t go after a young rich man.
12:39
You came to me.” And he says, “What you’ve asked for will be granted.” But in also protecting her, he tells her to leave before anybody can see her when the lights come up.
12:58
This is protecting her, not him, because let’s face it, guys, guys can have a bad reputation and it’s okay, but women having that bad reputation is not okay.
13:11
It’s a double standard, and even more so back then.
13:16
So Boaz is taking care of her, says, “I will grant you everything that you ask.” Can you imagine if Ruth had not dared to act, if she had not gone in there, and she had not asked him to cover her with his cloak?
13:37
There may not have been a King David.
13:41
There may not have been a Jesus from the line of King David.
13:45
Well, if God has anything to say about it, it’s going to happen anyhow.
13:49
But this is how important Ruth is and how important her acts are.
13:57
Her hesed changes everything.
13:59
Her daring changes everything.
14:05
How many of you know that we have a congregational meeting coming up after this?
14:10
That’s good.
14:11
Is that why you’re here?
14:13
I hope not.
14:15
But congregational meeting is for something very important, an option, an opportunity for us to do a daring act.
14:24
Did you know we have a loan on this worship center?
14:29
It is over $14,000 a month.
14:36
Yeah, I heard a little, “Woo.” It’s a lot of money per month.
14:41
How many of you want a $14,000 mortgage on your house?
14:45
I’d say $14,000, but not per month.
14:50
Some of you wouldn’t move if it was $14,000 a month, right?
14:53
Most of us aren’t going to, “I can’t afford that.” That’s a lot of money.
14:59
Now, the interest rate on that is about 4.7%.
15:03
And I’m looking over it.
15:04
I make sure I get my numbers right when I talk to him about that.
15:08
About 4.7%.
15:10
It will be paid off in two and a half years.
15:16
Or not.
15:19
We can make payments at $14,000-something per month, and in two and a half years, we get a nice $105,000 balloon.
15:31
Who’s given the $105?
15:34
Yeah, I can’t.
15:35
None of us here can give $105,000 to do that.
15:39
So then we have to deal with that.
15:42
So here’s the proposal, and this is how we dare to act.
15:46
Just wait.
15:48
Ruth did.
15:49
God provides.
15:52
And we don’t act because we expect something out of it.
15:57
We don’t act ingenerous because we think something’s going to last forever.
16:03
We dare to act and are generous because it’s the right thing to do.
16:09
It’s part of our character.
16:12
So we’re going to talk about extending loans from two and a half years to 10 years.
16:24
Why didn’t it be a jaw drop?
16:26
That’s good.
16:27
What does that mean for us?
16:30
It means from a payment around a little over $14,000 down to around about $6,500.
16:37
It means a bigger cash flow to be able to have comfort and do ministry.
16:42
Think about that.
16:44
With that money, what do you envision us doing in ministry?
16:51
Where do you envision Mountain View going?
16:55
Do we do it for us?
17:01
So there’s the story of this old man, long in the tooth, who’s planting little sprouts of a fruit tree.
17:11
And this young man comes up to him and says, “Why are you planting these fruit trees?
17:16
You’ll never see the fruit off of them before you die.” He said, “I’m not doing it for me.
17:26
I’m doing it for generations to come.” Why would we want to extend our loans?
17:36
We’re doing it for the kids that come up here, for VBS.
17:40
We’re doing it for the kids that came right here.
17:42
We’re doing it for the young people sitting in the pews.
17:45
We’re doing it for the community.
17:46
We’re doing it to take care of ministry.
17:50
Stack. Who we are.
17:54
We’re called to take care of our resources.
17:58
This is a resource so that we can take care of God’s people, us too, the children, the community.
18:11
It’s a bold, daring act to extend our loan from two and a half years to 10 years.
18:18
But imagine.
18:21
Just think about it.
18:24
What could we do?
18:26
Now, this is not a reason to go, “Okay, now we’re paying less, so now we don’t need to pay.
18:34
We don’t need to give.” That’s not what this is.
18:37
It’s an opportunity, actually, to say, “Let’s get behind this.
18:42
Let’s think about the ministry we can do.
18:43
And how can I get involved even more?” It’s a daring act to step out and do this.
18:53
That’s what Ruth did, a daring step.
19:00
She didn’t know how it was going to go.
19:04
We don’t know how it’s going to go.
19:07
But we’re called to step out and say, “We’re called to do daring acts for the sake of ministry.” This is the character of God, a good steward who takes care of God’s people.
19:24
And he does it in a way for us to be modeling after as well.
19:29
He takes care of us so we can take care of others.
19:32
He takes care of others that can take care of us.
19:37
It works all the way around.
19:42
So are we going to step out boldly as Ruth did?
19:49
Are we going to take those acts, unsure as we might be what it means in 10 years or in 3 years?
20:03
Here’s what I can tell you.
20:06
By taking on that 10-year loan, nothing prevents us from paying more principal down.
20:16
And still, maybe you get rid of that loan in two and a half years, maybe three and a half years.
20:27
But we have the breathing room to do ministry, to take care of God’s people, take care of the little ones that are coming here, take care of the little ones outside of here, in this community.
20:44
We can always eliminate that loan here when that’s equal.
20:51
When we have the breathing room, all things are possible because God works with us.
20:58
God worked with Ruth.
21:01
God will work with you, me, us together.
21:07
A daring act by Ruth, not knowing what was going to happen.
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