Transcription
[applause] [cheering] Thank you. Thank God for men. And it is wonderful to see all of you that are here. And this is one thing I love about our fellowship is men who love God want to hear God's word. And so, thank you for coming. Thank God.
I'm going to keep the preliminaries short. I've lost my voice the last few days, so if my voice goes weird, it's probably not puberty, but we'll see. I'm probably not going to preach for more than two hours. Amen.
Turn your Bibles to the book of Ruth, chapter 2. Ruth, chapter 2. Strong men. What makes a strong man? There's a man in the UK, Eddie Hall, one of the world's strongest men. Eddie Hall can deadlift 1,120 pounds. He pulled an airplane with a rope weighing 44,000 pounds. That is incredible strength. But the scripture we're going to read talks about an incredibly strong man named Boaz. His name actually means strength. And we're going to see that what makes a strong man in the life of Boaz a strong man. You can see it by his relationship with God, how he treats women, and how he blesses his family and therefore the world. But I want to preach about strong men from Ruth chapter 2. If you want to follow along with me, this is just a snippet out of the whole book. Verse three and four.
So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. He said, "The Lord be with you," and "The Lord bless you." They called back, "Strong men."
Let's begin. I want to look at the first thought. A strong man is faithful. The book of Ruth actually begins with another man and his name is Elimelech. Elimelech was an unfaithful man. Elimelech did not trust God in a time of famine where in the past God had told his people, "I will help you if you'll trust me." He would not trust God in a time of famine. And apparently, he did not have a strong relationship with God because he makes a life-altering decision and he never asks God's opinion.
Ruth 1:1. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. Elimelech here does not trust God, does not have a relationship with God in order to seek him, and his decisions wind up putting his entire family at risk.
Ruth 1:3-5. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth, lived there about ten years, and then both of them died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
The story of Elimelech or an unfaithful man is the story of much of the world. There are men that are here. You have suffered because you had an unfaithful man in your life. Yet a man, your father, was not there for you because he was too selfish. He didn't mind making the baby. He didn't want to raise one. Didn't want responsibility. He was an unfaithful man. And so some of you grew up without a father. Some of you, you had a man who was supposed to be a Christian, a father who's supposed to be a Christian, but he did not have a strong relationship with God. Didn't seek God. Didn't pray. And he wound up making your family vulnerable. He had no discernment. Made decisions that were foolish for the family. Had no spiritual strength to help you at crucial times. Missed out on spiritual understanding that comes from having a relationship with God. Some of you here, you suffered because an unfaithful man abandoned your family. Didn't want the work of being a father and a husband, didn't want the responsibility and the pressure. And so in a time of crisis, bailed out.
There are men here that you had an unfaithful man who allowed sin to destroy your family. Your father was involved in secret sin, pornography, lust. Maybe he ran off with another woman, ran off for his own pleasure. And maybe when he was asked, "Why would you do that? Why would you leave your family?" He said, "But she's fun. She makes me feel young." But what about the family? An unfaithful man.
There are men that are here. You're not a kid anymore. You're not a child. And yet years later, you are still suffering the consequence. You still feel the effects of an unfaithful man. I was counseling one time and someone I had never counseled before. So just basic questions just so to get to know them so that I can help them and just asked a young lady and so your, you know, your mother, your dad. And the moment I just said, "Your dad," immediately tears come to her eyes. She's not a child, she's a mother, she's grown, has children, and yet she's suffering because she had an Elimelech in her life, someone who was unfaithful.
The book that we read, we call it the book of Ruth, but I would suggest to you that actually this book, the center of this book is this man named Boaz. Because Boaz is a complete opposite to Elimelech. Boaz is the answer to the problems that are created by an unfaithful man like Elimelech.
Ruth 2:3. We read it said, "So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan or from the clan of Elimelech." She goes to a piece of land. If you didn't catch what's going on, in ancient times, they didn't have pensions. There was no EBT or SNAP benefits. No one was going to pay for your groceries at Walmart. And so the only way that widows could eat while they were harvesting grain in the field, they were legally allowed to go and pick up scraps. And the Bible says here she is suffering because of an unfaithful man named Elimelech. And she winds up, the Bible says, as it happened, in a field belonging to a man named Boaz. And Boaz, his name means strength. Because this is what she needs. Having suffered from a weak man, an unfaithful man named Elimelech who had caused all these problems. What she desperately needs is a strong man. And that is exactly what she finds. She happens to be in the field of a man named Strength because this is what women need. They need strong men. This is what children need. They need strong men. And this is what the kingdom of God, the church, desperately needs is strong men.
Character is what determines destiny. Our world is obsessed with image. How you look and what people think you are. Listen, I don't give a rip how many likes, clicks, or tweets you get. I don't care to read your edited life information to look at your picture that's been filtered. I don't care. Character is what you really are, not what other people think you are. When no one is around. Character.
And Boaz is the center. He is the answer to Ruth and Naomi who have suffered because of an unfaithful man. Boaz was a faithful man. That word faithful means reliable or trustworthy, constant. So we learn something about Boaz. How do you become a strong man? Strong men have a relationship with God.
Verse four. Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and he greeted the harvesters. "The Lord be with you." This is the center. When he is talking to people, he is talking God because he has a relationship with God. Listen, gentlemen, you want to be a strong man. Strong men read their Bibles every day. Strong men pray every day. Strong men go to church every time the doors are open. That is faithfulness. Strong men that we see in Boaz's life, they are faithful to God.
I said this story began with Elimelech. When times got hard, he bailed. It's famine. It might be hard to be here. So he runs away. Where was Boaz during the famine? In Bethlehem, where God said he should be. Bethlehem was experiencing famine, but that's where God wanted him to be. In other words, strong men don't change their actions because times are hard. That's what weak men do. "Oh, I thought I was in love, but man, this is a lot of work. I'm out of here." That's a weak man. A weak man gets involved in ministry and says, "I don't like it. It's boring." That's a weak man. "There are people, they bug me." So what? That's a weak man.
Strong men are faithful and they don't change because times are hard. My father stayed faithful to the ministry when he was going through hell. He kept his relationship with God. When things weren't going well, it didn't matter. My father went to prayer. I saw him read his Bible. He came to church because he was strong. Strong men have a relationship with God. And they don't change because of tough times.
We read about Boaz that strong men, they are faithful. If you're faithful, that means other people can rely on you. They can count on you to do what's right. Some men are performers. They can put on a show for a certain amount of time or if they're going to get something, if they're going to get a benefit. I've seen this through the years coming close to conference, men all of a sudden their volume in prayer will, "Oh God, I pray." But then they don't get sent out and you don't see them praying nearly as fervently or even as much. But strong men, they're not performers.
We just read two verses. This is the most significant day of Boaz's entire life. And he doesn't know that. We can read ahead. We know he's going to marry this woman Ruth and they're going to have a child. It's going to be the grandfather of Jesse, in the line of Jesus. He doesn't know that. Where is Boaz on the most significant day of his life? He's at work in Bethlehem, which is exactly where he's supposed to be. That is profound. If we had men who will do what they're supposed to do always. There are people that have been faithful in our congregation for 40 and 50 years. I don't ever think about, "I wonder if they're going to be at church." I would be shocked if they're not. People I know that they'll be in prayer, on outreach, giving, helping people because that's a Boaz man. A man of strength is faithful.
Man named Brad East. He said, "Last December, my brothers and our wives, we gathered in a restaurant with a few dozen of my parents' friends and people they went to church with or go to church with, rather. We were there to celebrate my father's retirement from a company that he has worked at for more than 40 years." He said, "My brothers and I, we each spoke, trying to relay what made our dad so good as a father, a mentor, a teacher, most of all as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ." For us, the question, "What made Dad so good?" answered itself. This man lived a good life because he lived the good life. He knew what mattered and he committed himself entirely to it. He said that is why when we're celebrating a milestone of his life, people from church were there because he was always at church."
Gentlemen, are you a faithful man? What are you going to be? Are you going to be an Elimelech? You're going to be a man that someone later in life is going to ask your children about you and tears come to their eyes because of your unfaithfulness? Are you going to choose? We put on these rallies to give men a challenge to be men, men of God, faithful men.
Let's talk secondly. What makes a strong man? A strong man respects women. Our society has denigrated women in their worth. In our society, women have become objects. Women are something to be used and discarded. Women are something to be shown off to make you look good to others. There's a term they call women "arm candy." It's very common today that there are men, they think a woman is something to be mistreated. There are men, they think it's okay to speak badly to women or about women, to call them names. There are men, they think it's okay to mistreat women, to hit them. If you're frustrated, you're having a bad day, they think it's totally okay to put their hand on a woman. But in our text, we read that a strong man respects women. You have to read the whole story. It's only four chapters.
Ruth 2:8-9. So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. Watch the field where the men are harvesting and follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. Whenever you're thirsty, go get a drink from the water jars that the men have filled." If you respect women, you protect them. This is a real man, a strong man.
Verse nine. "I have told the men not to touch you." That's a man of strength. He is going to protect women. If you respect women, you try to bless them. And that begins with the women who are in your life right now. Some of you are young. You are young. You're not married yet. The women in your life, who do you have? Maybe a mother. You have sisters. Let me let you in on a little secret. I tell ladies, you want to find a good man, you're not sure if he's a good man, look at how he treats the women in his life right now, because that will be how he treats you one day.
Ruth 2:9. "When you are thirsty, go get a drink from the water jars the men have filled." You can look at a man, watch how does he speak to the women in his life. He speaks disrespectfully, mocking. He talks down to women. That's exactly what he's going to do one day when he finds out, "My, my, my queen." But you're going to treat her one day just like you treat the women in your life right now. How does he talk about the women in his life? What does he say about the women that he works with, goes to church with, related to right now? Because a strong man, Boaz respected women. That's what gives him strength.
Not only that, but a strong man, he can be trusted with women. Some men think that women are on this earth simply for you to use sexually. If there's a woman anywhere near you, you hit on them, you try and touch them, you try and hook up with them. Here he comes. He is wealthy. He comes one day and he says, "Who is that working in the field?" And they said, "That's the widow of," you know, and telling her husband's name. If he was like a lot of men today, he could have said, "Well, I'll help you, but what are you going to do for me? If I give you a job and I give you lunch, then you owe me. And you know what? You owe me."
If you keep on reading, the book of Ruth is got one of these strange stories. They're working hard from probably before the sun goes up until well after sundown. And so he just sleeps there where they're doing the work. He wakes up in the middle of the night. To his shock, there is a woman laying at his feet where he is sleeping. This is very strange to our modern sensibilities. But what she was doing, this is an ancient culture because her husband had died. It actually she was asking, it was a marriage proposal. But she comes, it's dark and there's no one there to see. They're alone. And this is the place where he has made his bed. He's sleeping. Now, there are men, many men right there. That would be one of their porno fantasies, wouldn't it? "I woke up and there she was." Or there are men who, realizing what it is, she wants to get married. "Well, we'll be married soon anyway. Like, we're almost married, so I guess that makes it okay." You know what's so powerful about Boaz? When he wakes up in the dark alone with a woman, he keeps his hands off of her. And you know what he's thinking? He's not thinking, "This is my lucky night." You know what he's thinking? He is concerned about her reputation.
Ruth 3:14. "She lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized. And he said, 'Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.'" He's worried about her. He doesn't want her to be walking away as people are coming to work and seeing her come away from him. Like, "Oh, again." He cares for her and he keeps his hands off of her. They're talking about marriage and he approaches even this marriage relationship. He approaches it the right way. When he realized the possibility is that we can get married, he goes about it the right way.
Ruth 3:12 and 13. "Although it's true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night. In the morning, if he wants to redeem, fine, let him redeem. If he's not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it. Lie here until the morning." He goes about it the right way. He doesn't just say, "Well, I saw her first, and who cares what anybody else thinks? Baby, we're in love." It's interesting. He says, "I am going to go about this the right way. I am going to speak to people respectfully in order to arrange it." You know what that means? If you're single and you're not married yet, that means if at all possible, you go and speak to their the girl's father or mother. That's respect.
I did that. I wanted to marry my wife. We had been going out for some time, wanted to get married. I went and spoke to her father and asked in his... He's a sinner. He had no concept. Why would anyone want to get married? We found out later on he thought she was pregnant. That would be why would anyone else want to get married? It just was crazy to him. And so he said, "Okay." But I remember being terrified going to his work and asking him, "Sam, I want to marry your daughter." You speak sometimes to your pastor, her pastor, to get an outside opinion. You know what? When a man is not willing to be respectful and go about things the right way, it's a bad sign. I've seen there have been men that they're from the tribe of Benjamin and they want to come after one of our girls, but he's a disrespectful punk. And I've warned girls, I'm telling you, he's trouble. Only to have go, "No, no, he's a good man. I love him." Okay. You'll never guess what he wound up being. Trouble. If a man won't do right before he gets the girl, he won't do right after he gets the girl. Gentlemen, you are what you are. Marriage doesn't suddenly change your character. You were bad and now, "But we got married. He's an angel." No, if you don't do right before, you won't do right afterwards.
Let's talk finally about the blessing of a strong man. The story of Boaz shows us that a strong man is a blessing instead of a curse. Elimelech, a weak, unfaithful, unspiritual man, cursed his wife and his family. Boaz, his name means strength. And we learn that a strong man blesses his wife.
Ephesians 5:25. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her." This is biblical manhood of a husband. There are men who love to quote the Bible to their wives, which is the height of foolishness. The Bible says, "I'm in charge." If you ever have to tell your wife you're in charge, you're not. Okay? "I'm the head of the home." Well, guess what being the head of the home means? That means you get to sacrifice. That's what Jesus did. "I'm the head of the home." Congratulations. According to the Bible, you get to die. Just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself. A strong man blesses his wife. A strong man loves his wife and does everything he can to meet her needs. He blesses his wife by being faithful to her.
And then we see that a strong man, he blesses his children. A strong man who's a good father, you know what he does? He provides reference points. Reference points are things you line up with. I used to live on the island of Tasmania and Australia. They had many years ago a bridge that a ship, a captain hit one of the supporting pillars, knocked it out. Numbers of people died because cars were driving off. So they established reference lights. They had a huge green light on the shore and then they had one at the base of the bridge. They called reference lights because you lined up. If you ever saw two lights, you're in trouble. You shifted until you saw one. You lined up with referred to. That's what it means. A strong man, a good husband, a good father. He provides reference points. He shows his children. He shows boys what a man should be. He shows girls what a man should be. He shows the kids what a husband, what a father, what a Christian was. What an incredible blessing. I got married very, very young. Got married. I was 18 years old. But I knew there were things that, oh, you got to work out. They're dumb stuff you got to work through. That's all true. But I was ahead of the game. There was so much I knew what to do simply because I had seen it. It was instinctive. There were ways in which I spoke, ways in which I acted. Not because I had taken a class or a course. I had been raised with a faithful man. I understood how to speak to a woman. I understood the responsibilities in a home because I had a reference point. My father blessed his kids. He didn't curse them.
A good father helps aim his children in the right direction. Psalm 127:4 says, "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth." Part of this can be by deliberate instruction. Part of that is example. But the power of a father is like an arrow. You can aim a child. Oh, they have to make their own choices. I understand that. But you can at least send them in the right direction. And a good father passes down a blessing to his children that lasts. It lasts through generations. My father passed something to me and to my wife. And we were able to pass that on to our daughter and her husband, our son-in-law. And now that blessing is being passed through Stephen and Emily into their children. It is a lasting blessing. I see Stephen and Emily acting in ways they are just carrying on something that has been handed down and now their children are receiving the benefit of that.
Ruth 4:17. The women living there said, "Naomi has a son," and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
A strong man is blessed by God. Ruth 4:11-12. The elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah." They are speaking about a blessing that comes from God. Faithful men please God. There are men that are here. You work jobs that are no fun. Some of you are in difficult situations financially. Others of you working through marriage problems. God sees faithful men. God will help you. What they're saying here is at the end of the day, yes, life goes up, life goes down. Sometimes life is easy, sometimes it's hard, but they said, "May the Lord, may the Lord be with you. May God get involved in everything you do." Gentlemen, isn't that what you want? Don't you want the blessing of God to be at work in you and through you?
Finally, we see a strong man. He enters his destiny. God has plans for your life. There is a reason why you are on this earth. Think about this. Why doesn't if God only wanted us to get to heaven, why didn't the moment you prayed at the altar, why didn't he just... you're gone? That's why you're here. There's a reason you're on this earth. There are people that you're supposed to impact. There are things that you're supposed to do. A strong man who is faithful to God and faithful to women, they enter into the plans that God has. He has no idea. He's just coming. I don't know if he ran to pick up supplies, what he was doing. Comes back to the field. Has, "Who's that lady? Who's that girl working in the field?" He has no idea. No one knew that is the woman you're going to have a child. Your grandson, your great-grandson is going to be the king of the nation. And on down through the generations, the Messiah, God in the flesh, will be one of your descendants. He didn't know that.
Gentlemen, if you will be faithful right now, you have no idea. Some of you, God bless you. I said at the beginning, thank God some of you have driven out. Your eyes are hanging out right now because of how difficult it was to get. God bless you. You have no idea. When you go to church and you're tired, when you pray, when you labor for God, you have no idea. You are entering into destiny and all that God has for your life. Boaz blessed the world through his descendant Jesus Christ. And you can bless other people.
I close with this story. Man named Charlie Winter. They say he's a devoted dad. He would do anything for his kids. In 2019, he and his family, they were standing waist-deep water in Atlantic Beach in North Carolina when his 17-year-old daughter Paige was attacked by a shark. One of their friends said they were standing in waist-deep water and chatting and Paige suddenly got pulled under by a shark. As soon as her dad Charlie realized what was happening, he jumped into action, jumped on the shark and started punching it in the nose as hard as he could. It had his daughter. It had already bit her leg off and now it had her arms. It was going to kill her. And he would not. He punched and punched and punched until the shark let go. The family friend Brandon said, "Charlie wouldn't stop until the shark released his little girl." He lives for his children. That's a faithful man.
Gentlemen, I'm not talking about sharks. I'm talking about hell. Would to God that there be men who would leave this rally saying, "I want to be a faithful man. I will fight hell off of my marriage. Fight hell off of my children. I will be a man of strength. And may God use my life to bless other people."
Let's bow our heads. Close our eyes all across this place. Thank God. Now, with our heads bowed, there are men that are here. You can never be a strong man while you're living in sin. Sin is... [clears throat] selfishness. We talk about sin. That is doing wrong in the eyes of God. I don't care if it's sleeping with people you're not married to, pornography, hatred, stealing, lying. Those are all manifestations, but the root of it all is selfishness. There are men that are here. You have lived a selfish life up till now. But I'm challenging you. God loves you. He wants to help you. The answer, some of you have been broken by the unfaithfulness of other people. The answer to your brokenness is Jesus Christ. He died on the cross. You can be saved. You can be delivered from your sin. But you've got to turn from your selfishness. You need a miracle that only God can do. And if you say, "God, I am sorry for living in sin and a selfish life." God could save you. He could change you from the inside out.
How many men are here? You need God to save you. You say, "I want to turn from my sin. I want to pray and ask God to forgive me. I want to live a new life." If that's what you want, lift up your hand. Let me see it. I want to get right with God. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hands are going up all across this place. Thank God. Thank God. Hands are going up. God bless you. God bless you.
That are men that are here. You're backslidden. You were saved, but it got hard and you turned away from God. You can fix that. Fix your sin problem. How many backsliders lift up your hand? Hold it up. I want to come back to God. Thank God. Thank God.
I want every man that raised his hand, stand up right now. Don't wait. Do it right now. Stand up. Come here. Come here. Out of your seat. Come. Come anywhere at the front. Find a place to pray. And I want a man to pray with every one of these. Kneel down. Kneel down. All across this place, God is going to help men. Don't leave a single man praying by himself. Make sure that someone's praying with them. Doesn't matter if you know them or you don't know them. Make sure someone's praying with every one of these men. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you. Men are coming. God bless you. Thank God for honest men. God can help honest men. Thank God. Got some men here. More. More. There you go. will lead them in a prayer. God bless you.
Everyone else, I want you to stand up to your feet. Strong man, that's what the world needs. That's the hope of your family, the hope of the world. Come find a place to pray. Tell God, "I want to be a strong man and I need your help." They're going to sing while people are coming.
[singing and music]
"Create in me a heart, oh God, and renew your right spirit within me. Oh, and cast me not away from thy presence. Oh God, help us, thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and renew a right spirit within." Amen.
I want to help you to pray. If you want God to help you be a strong man, I want you to say this out loud. Say, "Father God, I need help. I need you to heal me. I have suffered the effects of an unfaithful man. I choose to forgive. I let it go. Heal my heart. I break that curse of unfaithfulness. Help me tonight. I choose to be a strong man. Make me faithful. Help me to build a relationship with you. I need strength. God forgive me. I have been unfaithful. I have not respected women, and I am sorry. Heal me. Change me. I want to do right. I want to bless the people in my life. I want to enter the destiny you have planned for me. Help me tonight to be that man of strength in Jesus name."
Now let's praise the Lord together right now. [applause] Sh. [applause] [applause] Hallelujah. Worthy is the Lamb of God. [applause] [applause] Hallelujah. Lord God, God help us. I pray, Lord God. For say the Lord thy God. And each and every man standing here. I have given the strength and the courage of a lion. But there are men here. You have abused that power. I have called you to be a lion among the sheep, that you would use your strength and your courage to lead and protect the flock. Many of you here have used that strength to instill fear, to force these sheep to follow you. I charge you this night. Turn away from your selfish desires. Use your strength and your courage to lead them unto me. Be a shepherd. Be a guardian. Be the man of God that I know you can be, that I have charged you to be. I called men this night to repentance, to use your strength wisely as I have given it to you, saith the Lord thy God. [applause] [applause] Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. [applause] Praise God. Praise God.
We are going to be dismissed. I want to remind you tomorrow we're going to pray at 7:30 in the morning. We have some fine preaching tomorrow. Mark Olsson, Ray Ruby, Joe Campbell are going to preach great words of God they're going to bring. Uh, men, if you're staying in the building, remember you're going to go out and eat, whatever. Be back by 11:30. And then in the courtyard, don't come in the front door. That'll be locked. But there's a gate near the courtyard, uh, the fellowship hall, and that's how you'll get in.