Heroes Don’t Wear Capes
Speaker
Pastor Tim Clowers. Juniper Church - Knoxville, TN.
Scripture References
Colossians 1:15, Ruth 1:1, Ruth 1:10, Ruth 1:16, Ruth 2:1-2, Ruth 2, James 1
Key Takeaways
God places unexpected heroes in our lives that may not appear to be obvious heroes
If you are waiting for God to provide, consider this: He may be waiting for you to humbly take the first step, trusting him to lead from there.
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Let's put our hands together. Come on really loud for Jesus because I mean it's all about him. It really is every bit of it is about him today. And so I'm going to talk to you this morning about a particular subject and we're going to talk about heroes.
And a lot of us have heroes in life and all of us probably have seen on the big screen or on television superheroes. Right. Superman is just he's like my all time hero. I don't know why but heroes are often I guess you could say they're easier to admire than than the ability to define a hero.
Right. And you know I could stand here and I could tell you what a hero looks like. I could maybe tell you what they might act like or I could even tell you that a superhero acts this way looks this way and does these kind of things.
But you know we realistically we have an image of what a superhero may look like in our mind. And so Judy would you go ahead and put that image up come on. I went old school. I went Linda Carter. Come on everybody.
And then I forget the guy's name but the OG of Superman way back in the 60s when he started that the OG Superman than a more modern Superman as well. So that's kind of like a vision that we have come on exact of what a superhero may look like.
But we also have a real life superhero in our midst today. Let's give it up for Zach. So the teaching today we're going to talk about it really kind of models a little bit about Zach. Real heroes actually just let it fall off.
They don't wear capes. Real heroes don't need anything other than the ability to just be Zach and Zach he looks like a normal human but he's really kind of a well yeah kind of question. No I mean who else will eat raw chicken in Japan.
Well he and I both probably would. But I mean he's he's what a hero looks like because a lot of this what you see today would never be possible without his loyalty his faithfulness. And so heroes come in different shapes sizes and images and what we think of them and what they may do.
But without him there's probably a lot of people over the last 18 months since we've been launched as a church would not have been possible without Zach would. Let's put your hands together for Zach.
All right so let's say a quick prayer. Heavenly Father we just invite you into this space today. Lord I pray that you open up my mind my intellect to communicate the gospel in a way that people would be receptive to hear and receive what you want to be said.
And I'm just I'm just a tool. I'm just a vessel and I want to be a mouthpiece for you today the same way that many people in the Bible spoke for you in Jesus name. So Jesus really is the ultimate hero and that's who I really want to point you to today because there's a scripture in the Bible it says it in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 15 it says Jesus is the visible image of an invisible God.
So if it says Jesus is that means he's not dead. He may not be physically present here but it means he is a visible image of the invisible God because whether most of the world says it or not they really want to know what he acts like talks like what else you think looks like.
So people that you see every day. Whether they say it, they wanna know what he acts like, or acts like, talks like, and what he looks like. And it could be you, the person, that they see that's the only Jesus that they'll ever see in their life.
And so if you'll stand to your feet, and we're gonna read a scripture this morning, we're gonna read it verbally this morning. And I want, as we get into this topic, we're gonna talk about, Judy, go ahead and put that verse on the screen, we're gonna read Ruth, verse one, all the way through verse five.
And so I wanted to just preface this by saying that God has a plan for each and every one of us, whether he's encountered a real hero or not. And I'm gonna talk about three people today. We're gonna talk about Ruth, we're gonna talk about a person named Naomi, we're gonna talk about a person named Boaz.
They probably don't sound like superhero names, like as Superman or Wonder Woman, but we're gonna unearth some truths today that hopefully you'll look at those people through the scripture and through what we read today or understand, you could be a real hero.
We don't need a cape. We just need the living God that lives on the inside of us to be the person that someone else needs, what you have living on the inside of you. All right, so let's read scripture Ruth, chapter one and verse one, let's go.
In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land, so a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him.
Verse two, the man named Elimelech and his wife was Naomi, their two sons, all right, bear with me on this one. Meilon and Killon, if I got that right, they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah, and when they reached Moab, they settled there.
Verse three, then Elimelech died and Naomi was left there with her two sons. Verse four, the two sons married Moabite women, one married a woman named Orpah and the other, a woman named Ruth. Verse, or sorry, but about 10 years later, and verse five, but Mulan and Killon died, that left Naomi alone with her two sons or her husband.
Pretty powerful story if you think about that. All right, so give somebody a high five and take your seat. So this particular story, it sounds very, very, very tragic because Naomi, who really the preface of that first part of the passage was about, she not only was left as a widow, but her two children, they died as well.
And for most of us, and I say most of us in this room, it's really hard for us to be able to relate to Naomi. So it's like, if you think about it, Naomi's husband and two children die. And so she's left a widow, she's left all alone.
And for most of us in this room, that's really hard for us to relate to that. But for some of you, you may have encountered or gone through some of that. And that's not easy. It's not easy to walk through that.
And during this particular time in society, in ancient society, in ancient biblical days, oh, by the way, Delaney, I'm just easy. Nothing was worse than being a widow in Hebrew times, which is old ancient society.
Really, there was, you couldn't think of something that you didn't wanna be, which is a widow. And the reason being is because they were taken advantage of way too often, and they were, usually in most cases, they were poverty -stricken.
However, in ancient society, when it was available and when it happened, God's law provided in the situation where there was a near relative of the husband who passed away to take care of the widow. Like I said, when it was able to happen, because there wasn't always somebody to take care of the widow.
right. But when it was available God's law said the nearest relative to the husband is required by law that you've got to take care of this widow that is left with nothing because Scripture says they're poverty stricken and they're always taken advantage of and they're ignored a lot of the times.
That's what ancient society did and how Scripture describes a widow. Now the Scripture also says Naomi was in Moab in this particular part of or this at this time and it says that she knew or and was told that she needs to go home because there is a family redeemer for her and that there is also a time of barley and wheat harvest so therefore what that means is as a widow oh wow I'm gonna go back home because I've been told that my husband's redeemer for me is still alive that he can take care of me and there'll be provision for me meaning to say that I can go to the fields and I can take the leftover fragments of wheat and barley to sustain me so that I can live I can just go get I can basically what she was saying is or what Scripture tells us about her is I'm gonna go home to my homeland I'm gonna go to halls because halls has it right just kidding I don't know what they have but I'm gonna go to halls and just barely scrape by with a little bit of barley and wheat left over and I'm just gonna live my life and just barely make it by until until my time has come to to go to the next part of the next part of my life you know so the way it worked was let me try to get this it's all up here I got to get it out of my mouth is the poor and the widow in ancient society the poor and widows in ancient society god wanted to make sure that there was a system in place to take care of them so whenever there were farmers working and there was a land owner law states that the corners of the field were not to be harvested and any fragments left over by the harvesters in harvest season they were not supposed to pick up the fragments the corners of the field and the fragments left over from harvesting they were not to touch those the owners of the field and the workers those are to be left for the widows and the poor people so that everybody's given a chance so I want to show you a real I guess you could say in my in my eyes a real life hero so would you put up that picture please um so that is the little lady on the right is Evie I call her my mother -in -law because I I feel like she is my mother -in -law so that's Jackie's late husband's mom and that is also Reese's grandmother and so to me I see her as a real -life Naomi because her husband passed and her son passed and her second son passed so there's a modern real -life story of Naomi of what we just read about and God supplied somebody to to help her his name is Frank uncle Frank everybody say uncle Frank come on a little bit louder uncle Frank and so you know God provided somebody for her to take care of her and she lives a pretty comfortable life but can you imagine what she faces every single day knowing that her husband passed away her two children are gone and all she has left is what Reese's grandchild when or when we room but when we I'm talking like him when when Reese has a child hopefully she'll get to see another you know like a great grandbaby I know that would bring her a lot of joy wouldn't it Taylor and even in our midst we have someone that's gone through a very similar tragedy and and I won't point that person out but two words that stood out to me is the word widow Described in Hebrew means discarded and forsaken.
So the way that they described a widow and the way they were thought of back in ancient times in the Old Testament is they were discarded and forsaken. I mean, that's not very exciting is to be think about those terms.
However, understanding these things that I just kind of went through and told you about is, could you imagine the trauma and the tragedy that Naomi walked through in this season in her life and her husband and her two kids are dead.
And so the only thing left for her was to go get a little bit of barley and wheat and let me just go back to my homeland and sustain myself until I die. However, here's what I wanna say, nothing just happens.
Come on, say that with me, nothing just happens. So Naomi, you know, she made the choice and so she went back home. However, before she went back home, she had two daughters -in -laws and she in her mind is thinking to herself that, okay, I'm too old, so if I remarry and I have two more boys, hopefully I get two boys, that's too long of a timeframe.
I'm basically too old. And so what is the point in that at this stage of my life to be able to give my daughters -in -laws new husbands to marry? So she tells them, just go back to where you're from.
So in Ruth chapter one, verse 10, the two daughters -in -law, they make this statement. They say, we want to go with you to your people. So they cry in Orpah, Ruth, they cry and they're dismayed because their mother -in -law is telling them to go back to their home, they go back to their families.
However, in Ruth chapter one and verse 14, I wanna read this to you really, really quickly. Thank you. And again, they wept together and Orpah kissed her mother -in -law goodbye, but Ruth clung tightly to Naomi.
Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. And then in verse 16, or sorry, or sorry, in verse 16, Ruth replied and she says, don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live.
Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us. So at that particular moment, Ruth had made a decision that I'm gonna choose to be faithful to my mother -in -law.
I'm sorry. She's making a determination. So Orpah leaves Ruth and Naomi go back to her homeland. And when you read scripture, there's little, there's not a lot of information about Ruth and Naomi like personally, but you could imagine in the age in our time where in some regards, there's a little bit of individualism that takes place in our lives and in our, let's just say not our lives, but in our society today.
And you can, you can imagine what a good relationship looked like between a mother, mother -in -law and a daughter -in -law, right? And what blending families look like. However, there were probably numerous opportunities between Ruth and Naomi to have a little bit of tension in their lives, right?
Because when you blend families and when you've got a mother -in -law, daughter -in -law, father -in -law, you know, son -in -law, there's always gonna be a little bit of tension. But irregardless, can you imagine the sacrifice that Ruth chooses to make no matter what?
And so nothing just happens. Say that with me again really loud. Ruth chapter 2 in verse 1 and 2 says that when they got back to her homeland, which is basically Bethlehem, there was an influential man named Boaz who owned the tract of land and law required, as I said, that the landowner and his workers, the corners are to be left for the poor and the widowed and the leftover harvest fragments are for the...
widowed and the poor, okay? And so, and really the reason that they did that, according to ancient society, it prevented hoarding. That they, instead of being these individual landowners, they, instead of hoarding it all and collecting so, so, so much, they can get super, super wealthy.
Well, in this particular region, it prevented hoarding. So therefore, they wanna take care of their own. Does that make sense? So ultimately, what happens here is Naomi goes back, Ruth goes back, she starts working and she made a determination that, okay, I'm gonna go with my mother -in -law and the only thing that I can do is she tells Naomi, her mother -in -law is, you know, there's a field over there and I know that there's a redeemer.
I don't know anything much about this family redeemer thing but here's what I do know is my mother -in -law is widowed, her two sons are dead, so I'm gonna go to the fields and I'm gonna gather barley and I'm gonna gather wheat leftovers so that I can feed her and that I can feed me and I'm just gonna go there as often as I can and work hard.
So in other words, she decided to be faithful and she decided to sacrifice her future, not knowing what the future held. It's like, I may be giving up a new potential husband and my own children, so I'm gonna go with her instead.
She decided to be faithful. So after some time, here's what happens, the guy's name is Boaz who owned that field. He was a close relative of Naomi's late husband, which was a lemon -like and he apparently was wealthy, he was influential.
And after some time of Ruth going to the fields, collecting the harvest and harvesting barley and wheat, he notices her because she's there working every single day. She's sweating, working hard. And then he starts to ask questions and here's what he says when he starts to ask questions.
In Ruth chapter two, verse eight, Boaz went over and said to Ruth, listen, my daughter, stay right here with us when you gather grain. Don't go to any other fields, stay right behind the young women working in the fields.
Verse nine, see which part of the field they are harvesting and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly and when you are thirsty, help yourself to take water, they have drawn from the well.
So what does Jesus look like? What does Jesus act like? And what does Jesus sound like? Well, here we get somewhat of a picture of Boaz being a physical representation of Jesus. And the reason I say that is because, excuse me, Ruth stood out.
He asked questions about Ruth. So in my opinion, the reason that I pulled this out today was because real heroes don't wear a cape. And so in this regard, Ruth and Boaz are some heroes because Ruth decided to work hard, be faithful and sacrifice.
She just decided to work hard and she got noticed by the wealthy landowner. And he says this, I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when we go up to the early part of what widows are, you know, what they describe a widow as is, do you guys remember that?
Like a discard, no good. You know what I mean? They're not worthy. They're not worthy. Thank you. Hold on, you see it, sorry guys. And so I wanted to share with you a scripture. It's found in James chapter one of verse 19.
It says, understand this, my dear brothers and sisters, you must all be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to get angry. Verse 21, so get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives and humbly accept the word of God that's been planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
But here's the cool part of that context is verse 22. It says, but don't just listen to God's word. You must do what it says. And in verse 25, it says, if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for it.
So the word of God is there for us to learn from it. It's there for us to teach us. And if we'll simply obey it, there's protection in the obedience. So when Walter was a child, he used to go to the stove when it was still hot, when his mom would remove the stove.
And he would wanna go touch the stove. And his mom would say, no, you can't do that. He didn't understand. He just wanted to go to the stove. I mean, come on. That's 101 of rearing children. We tell them no, we do things for them so that they don't get hurt.
And when the Bible says, obey my commands, obey my word, and in that context of scripture, it's found 864 times in scripture. Obey my words, obey my commands. And we all get busy. We all get in a hurry at times, right?
We all drive too fast on the interstate at times. And we all get stuck in that checkout line that's long. And whether it's Kroger, Walmart, wherever it is that you shop, and you're like in a hurry because I gotta get going.
It's like, I'm in a hurry, I've got somewhere to be. And then you get in the checkout line that's long, and then you see this sweet little old lady. She's just, doop, doop, slowly checking you out. And then you're like, kind of like me sometimes, this is what my wife tells me, you're like, which line is gonna be shorter?
There, where? Then you go over here, like, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna go here to this line because this line's gonna be shorter. I mean, does anybody relate? All right, say this with me, nothing just happens.
All right, say it louder, ready? So maybe God put you in that long line to protect you from a car wreck that's getting ready to happen. So you're being delayed in the line. Or maybe that's a widow who's making $9 .50 an hour and you're in line to be kind to her and just to tell her that she's doing a great job.
And maybe you're in line to smile at her because they're going through a rough patch in life or him, could be a him. Maybe they just need a friendly face because their mom just died. But real heroes don't wear capes.
You can be the real hero in somebody's life that is needed. And the reason I say nothing just happens is nothing really does just happen when God's plan is in action. And I was having a conversation with Erin just a little while ago that she said, man, it's just been one of those weeks where I got called Mike twice.
And it's like, there's like this deja vu moment. It's like where things just kind of lined up and you're like, it wasn't a coincidence. It was just, it was God. Kind of putting her in positions and places and in front of people where she just like, God, wow, it's great to see you move.
And the reason that I bring that up towards the end of the teaching here is when you're operating in your God -given purpose, you'll see these little deja vu moments. And it's like kind of what the Lord spoke to me in that very moment when I was talking to her is like, when you're walking in your God -given purpose, things begin to unfold and you see things come before you that wow, God is moving and I'm operating in my purpose.
and it gives you more opportunities to be a hero. And I'll be honest with you, whenever I'm driving, not every day, but sometimes I pray, Lord God, if there is an accident that happens, let me be the first one on the scene.
That may be a weird prayer, but it's true. Because what if, what if you see an accident right in front of you, and there's somebody that's in the car, and there were two cars involved, or they run off the road, and you're like, you're shocked.
You're like, what's going on? And you're, wow, that looks tragic. What if you're that only person that could tell them about Christ before they go to heaven? I know it's maybe out of some of you comfort zone to be able to be that person.
You just never know. And so the rest of the story about Boaz, Naomi, and Ruth is, at the end of the day, what happens in this really cool story is Boaz, the landowner of where Ruth was gleaning the barley and the wheat.
She was faithful. I mean, there's two and a half more chapters that demonstrates how she was faithful. And because of her faithful, hard work to take care of her mother -in -law, forgetting about her future, sacrificing her future for Naomi's current life and situation.
Boaz saw that and he paid attention. Yeah, my guys, they're not gonna treat you rough. You get all the wheat and all the barley that you want. You know what? Because you're a widow, instead of guys how they'll normally ignore you of what the definition says in ancient times, they're not gonna treat you rough.
They're gonna actually give you water. They're gonna be kind to you because I've told them to. Nothing just happened. That doesn't just happen just by chance. It happens because she made a choice. And because she made a choice to be faithful to her mother -in -law and serve God along that process, God rewarded her.
And the long story is her and Boaz got married. He redeemed the land which is ancient law says he or he has to redeem the person which ultimately meant he's the redeemer, Boaz. But actually there was a closer relative than the guy named Boaz.
And so Boaz goes to the closer relative of Naomi's late husband and Boaz says to him, it's like, so are you gonna be the redeemer? Are you gonna redeem her? And he goes, well, yeah, sure. Since I'm the closest family relative.
Oh, but by the way, there's also a daughter -in -law that comes with it. You have to redeem her too. And he's like, oh, no, thanks, I'm good. So what Boaz does, he's like, I will be the redeemer. He steps up to the plate and he redeems not only Naomi and the land, but Ruth, they get married.
And Ruth becomes the great grandmother of King David into the same physical lineage of Jesus Christ. So had Ruth not made that decision to sacrifice her future, to serve Naomi, to work hard, to get married to Boaz, we would have never seen a King David.
It's possible. So have you ever made many mistakes in your life and you regret making those mistakes? Because it's like, oh man, I shouldn't have made that stupid choice. Why did I do that? You're like, God had a plan for your life or God had a plan for that person's life.
So in the Bible, there is a guy named King Saul. He was to be the king of kings, the best king in the land that the nation of Israel would lead, or he would lead the nation of Israel. But he got misguided somewhere.
He didn't obey. So you know what happened? King David comes along. Thank goodness, because of Ruth, God had a backup plan and it was King David. So what if you are God's backup plan? And so as we finish today, I wanna just leave these words with you.
Slow down. Just slow down when we're at the store, when we're driving, and obey my commands. I mean, it's really simple. Because at the end of the day, nothing just happens. All right, stand your feet really quickly.
And if I could invite the prayer team to come on up, and I would like to invite my wife up to the stage as well. The reason that I invited her up here, it was because, to me, she's a really big hero for, for me, personally, knowing what she has gone through in her life, and the daily sacrifices that she makes, to make this family come together.
Because usually in a family, there's always a mom. That is the glue, usually. You know, a husband, a father, he's kind of the head of the home. A man, a wife, a mom, they run the home. I'm just being honest.
And without my wife and her amazing sacrifices, you know, this family really wouldn't come together and be what it is without her sacrifices. And I just, I just wanted y 'all to know that, how much, I love her and how amazing she is.
there's just so many great, amazing giftings that God has given her for us. And so she's a big hero in my life. Um, um, so if you will just close your eyes with me for a few moments. If at any point during this teaching today that, that really gripped your heart, and you feel there's conviction in any aspect of your life right now, I want to give you an opportunity to really rededicate your life back to God.
Or you want to truly make that commitment to God for the very first time that says, you know what? I've never really truly given my life to God. And today I'm going to make that, I'm going to make that choice.
I mean, every eye in the room close, please. You want to make that decision today that I don't want to be religious, but I want to be a Christ follower. And I want to obey his commands because that means, what that means is I get to follow my King.
And if that's any of you in the room that you need to rededicate your life back to Christ, or you truly want to make him the King of your life for the very first time, truly, slip up your hand really, really quickly.
All right, thank you. All right, let's all look at me really quickly. We're going to say this prayer. Say heavenly father. I invite you into my life. Forgive me of all my sins. Help me to lead a life that represents you.
In Jesus name, amen.