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Jaime Luce’ story begins with emotional and financial struggle as a single mother trying to survive. Today, she has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owned two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. She is on a mission to help others walk through the valleys of life with hope and knowledge that God always has a way.  Learn more.

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• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
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• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining me today for this episode of The Jamie Luce Podcast. I’m Jamie Luce, your host, and I want to be talking to you today about Ruth, you’ve probably heard so many sermons already on the story of Ruth and Naomi. But I wanted to point out a couple things to you today to help us recognize where we can lay hold of blessing, what that sometimes means for us the things we might need to do, but how to be in the right place at the right time. for the right reasons with the right people. There’s always a right. circumstance for us. We’re, I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way. I sure have. There’s been times when I just know I’m in the sweet spot. God is doing miraculous things. I remember playing tennis as a young girl. And there’ll be times when you’d hit that ball in that sweet spot of that racket. And it would just, it felt like butter. And I’m sure baseball players feel the same thing. When you connect with that ball. You know that? It’s just a wonderful feeling to know that when you’re in the middle of God’s will, things just go well for you.

It doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges, but God is making the way… he’s ordained the way. And even if you run up against issues and problems or circumstances that you have to learn what to deal with, you still have the force of what God has spoken over you behind you, and in front of you making the wait for you.

So I wanted to look at that today with the story of Ruth. So I’ll read to you several scriptures from Ruth one, verses one to five. And it says in the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land so a man from Bethlehem and Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Malone and Killian.

They were Efrain fights from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. And when they reached a Moab, they settled there. Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. The two sons married Moabite women, one married a woman named Orca, and the other woman named Ruth. But about 10 years later, both Mae loan and Killian died. This left Naomi alone without her son’s or her husband. So I want you to think about this because Naomi did not leave. You know, Bethlehem is called the house of bread. That’s what the word means. So they left the place of provision, because there was famine, where there should have been bread, and he leaves and his family, they have no choice. They go with him. So they go and they’re now in Moab. Now while they’re in Moab, which is actually not a good place to be, Moab is not a good place to be. But that’s where they ended up there in Moab. And while they’re there, the boys marry Moabite women. So these are foreigners, these women do not serve the God that they serve. And they’re in foreign territory they are now their their, their sons are now marrying women who have different practices. They serve false gods, they do things differently. And so here poor Naomi, she’s there because her husband takes her there, and they were in desperate need, because they needed to eat, and now her husband dies. And then 10 years later, the sons die.

Now in that time you needed your sons, because if you were a widow, it was the men who took care of the women. And they had no provision. So now she is alone, she she’s in a foreign land alone, faced with having to deal with life by herself, and deal with things that she’s not meant to deal with. The men were meant to deal with it. She wasn’t meant to deal with this. And you might even feel as a man that you’re in a circumstance and you’ve been stuck with something something’s been handed to you or inherited, or you made a bad decision and went somewhere and things went south, and now you’re dealing with something that you were never meant to carry. And you don’t you’re not sure what to do about it. And so in to the story then is Ruth the Moabite is the daughter in law. And if we look at verses six through 22, we get the picture of the character though, of Ruth and what kind of woman she was. And it says then, then she arose with her daughters in law that she might return from the country of Moab.

So roots are, Naomi says, There’s nothing here for me. And she comes to the realization I’m living in a place of need and want and there’s nothing here for me, this is not working. What we’re doing is no longer good. And I need to I need something different. I need it to change. I’m ready for my circumstance to be different and she did something very wise. When you realize that it’s not working the thing you did in your flesh the thing you did that work and you’re in a place where God is not. Then the best thing to do is to get Get up and change that six that situation in that circumstance. So it says that, therefore, she heard that the Lord had visited her people back in Bethlehem. And he had now given them bread. So there’s bread where they’re supposed to be bread. And that’s back where God, her God is in charge ruling and reigning. And the people there served that God so she knows, okay, enough of this, I’m going back. It’s like saying, I back slid, and I’m going back to Jesus, I’m going back home, you know, a teenager who maybe left the house and wanted to do it their way and they’re mad. And then they realize life is really hard out there. And my parents weren’t so bad, and they want to come home.

You know, there’s all these different circumstances for us to realize we need to turn around and go back to where it’s right. We need to get back to what’s right, do what’s right. Maybe you used to have really good practices of things in your life you had you were you know, you read your Bible, you were in church, you prayed, you were obedient to God, you were doing all that he asked you to do, living according to his principles, and life came COVID came, and you stop going to church, and then you stop reading your Bible, and you stop praying, you stopped, you know, it’s time to get back into the right swing of things here, folks, you got to go back to where there’s bread, it’s time to get up and leave this behind.

So she hears that this is the circumstance, there’s bread back where there needs where there should be bread, and she needs to be there. So, therefore, she went out from that place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. Now Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, go return each of you to your mother’s house. The Lord will deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead. And with me, the Lord grant that you may find rest each in the house of her husband, so she’s wanting to go find new husbands, to have their lives be fixed, go back home, it’ll be fine for you. This isn’t your normal home. I know that. So she kissed them she lived they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, surely we will return with you to your people. So they both say we love you. No, we don’t want to go back. We don’t want to leave you, which is wonderful. She was obviously a wonderful mother in law that they wanted to stay with her serve her and not leave her alone. But Naomi said turn back my daughter’s will why will you go with me? Are there still yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husband’s turn back?

My daughters go for I am too old to have a husband, if I should say I have hope. If I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons, would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughter’s four, it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. So I want you to see that what she did is she actually took what happened in her life. And she thought God did this to her. And that’s not the case. That’s not what happened. But that’s what she interpreted that to mean. And so she’s saying I don’t want what God’s doing to me to be your your pain and lot in life, too. I don’t want you to have to deal with this to go back, go back to your own lives. They lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpha kissed her mother in law, but at meaning she kissed her and said goodbye. but Ruth clung to her. And she said, Look, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her God’s return after your sister in law. But Ruth said, and treat me not to leave you or to turn back from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go and wherever you lodge, I will lodge your people shall be my people, and your God, My God, where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. The Lord do so to me. And more also, if anything, but death parts you and me. She says no.

There’s something about you, Naomi, there’s something about this life that you created, and that I recognize that is different from where I came from. And I’m not going back. I’m going with you. I’m giving my life to this. This is I’m making this decision and I’m not going back. So when she saw that she was determined to go with her she stopped speaking to her. Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem and it happened when they had come to Bethlehem that all the city was excited because of them. And the women said is this Naomi? But she said to them, Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again. Empty. Why do you call me Naomi since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite is her daughter in law with her who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest and that’s important because they’re coming back at a time, when there is a reaping going on, this is a time of blessing. This is a great time of joy. This is a time of provision God is making a way. So not only are they returning, but they are returning, because God is there, God is ready to bless God is pouring out His blessing on these people. So they got up and left. That’s the key. I want you to hear this, you have to get up and leave. Sometimes Sometimes, you got to leave it all behind. Because if you’ll leave it all behind, God has everything to give you where you’re going. But it takes truly walking away from everything that you knew. Ruth came to two realizations and then made two decisions.

The first realization she came to was that she recognized staying where she was would mean certain death for her both physically with famine and emotionally alone in her loss. Okay, she realized where she was at her decision then was to get up and leave it all behind, folks, no matter where you are, and what has happened to you. I don’t mean to minimize what you’ve gone through. Trust me, I have been through hard things too. Sometimes the decision has to be made. I am getting up from here, and I am leaving this I am not staying here.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast, you’ll know that our previous podcast, an episode we talked about the man who is at the pool of Bethesda, and sometimes you’ve got to get up and get out of that self pity and pick up your bed and walk and you cannot stay where you are another day longer. You’ve got to make a decision.

And Ruth did, she decided that’s it. I’m leaving here and I’m going with God. I’m going with God because I see that there’s something different about who Ruth serves the gods she serves. She specifically names got her God her people, she’s going with her to her land her people her God, and she’s going to live and die that way. She she’s made a full decision, a full life decision, a full change in her perspective, and she’s going after God. The second realization she came to was nothing in her past had brought her fruitfulness she had to recognize the truth about where she was not her home, not her family, not her God, her marriage didn’t produce children. Nothing had produced fruitfulness for her life. The only life that she saw came from her mother in law, who served a different god. So second decision she made was to serve that God and to go wherever he led. Where does that lead back to where they came from back to where they used to live. When you finally surrender all and allow the Lord to lead you, He will lead you at the right time to the right place and to the right people to change your entire life and your future. So if we look at Ruth to verses one to 17, it says there was a relative of Naomi’s husband, a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabite has said to Naomi please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him and whose site I have find that I may find favor. And she said to her go my daughter, then she left and went and gleaned in the field after the Reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. Now you have to understand Ruth doesn’t know who Boaz is. She doesn’t know any of these people. She doesn’t know this land. She doesn’t know who owns land.

She doesn’t know anything about where she’s at. This is brand new to her. Let scripture says that she happened to fall into bow as his field. Now Boaz had come from Bethlehem and said to the Reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless you. So you can already see the relationship what kind of man this is right. Then Boaz said to His servant, who was in charge of the Reapers, who is young woman assists he knows that’s not one of his servants, who is this woman who’s gleaming in the fields. So the servant Who was in charge of the Reapers answered and said it is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. And she said, please let me clean and gather after the Reapers among the sheaves. So she came and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house. Then Boaz went to Ruth, okay, he goes directly to her and says, You will listen my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean and another field? You have, he’s basically saying you found the right place. No, don’t know, nor go from here. But stay close by my young women. Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them. So he’s saying you just follow them. They’re going to show you what belongs to me. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? No one’s going to harm you. I’ve said my word, these men pay attention to me. They’re not going to hurt you. You’re safe here, this place that God has led you this place that you had trusted him to put you at the right place at the right time.

Boy, is this your gear lucky day, so to speak. And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn. I’ll take care of you here. He’s saying, you’ve got everything you need. We don’t want you hungry or thirsty. You’ve got protection here, verse 10. So she fell on her face bowed down to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? And Boas answered and said to her, it has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before the Lord repay your work and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge. Then she said, let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your maid servant, though I am not like one of your maidservants. She’s saying, I know I’m a foreigner. And look how you’re dealing with me. Look how you’re treating me. Now, Boaz said to her at mealtime, come here, and eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar. So I’m gonna skip for the sake of time. He tells he takes care of her. He feeds her he gives her extra he’s so good to her. And what is God showing her that when he when she’s hungry, not only will he put her on the right place at the right time, he’s going to feed her hunger, he’s going to satisfy her thirst, he’s going to make sure that everything she needs is provided for her.

God saw to it that she was in the right place at the right time, that Ruth would find the exact place that he had chosen for her to begin her new life of blessing. And God will see to it that you get noticed by just the right people. Psalm 32 eight says I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Number two, he sends protection. Psalm 9111. He gives His angels charge over you.

Number three, he provides for your needs. And then some Ephesians 320 says the God of more than enough, all of this if this wasn’t enough, this God that we serve goes above and beyond what we could ever ask or imagine. Ruth just was being obedient, wanting to love her mother-in-law and saw the difference in her life. But she turned her life over to the Lord in the obedience that she walked in, and God restored everything to her. The story goes on to say that both Ruth and Naomi gives Ruth instructions on how to deal with this man Bo s. And in our next episode, we’ll be talking about Boaz as a kinsman redeemer, what that really means what that means to be a kinsman redeemer and what God really did. But I want you to see the beauty of what God did here for her. Ruth had a right heart of servant she was a servant, already a servant’s heart, she wants to love her mother in law, take care of her, bless her, give her all that she could, you know, the instead of having a son to take care of her at least you’d have a daughter in law who would help who because Naomi was old and couldn’t physically go out and be a Reaper, her daughter in law went for hurts and let me go find food for us. Let me take you on as my responsibility.

Let me serve you and be to you what a son would be to you. I mean, she gave her life she turned her life over. Guys, that’s what it is. When we when we turn our lives over to Christ. We’re no longer living for ourselves, we are living for Him. And he’ll call us to to serve one another to love one another. But he will put us by doing that by walking in that servanthood by by saying God You’re my God, I’m going to do it your way. I’m going to live the way you want me to live and choose you by doing that. God makes sure that he is the one blessing you for that those acts of obedience. He puts you in the right place at the right time. He gives you the right people around you. He gives you a meets every need that you need supplied. He will Do it for you. So Boaz ends up marrying, marrying this Moabite woman. Now I know you don’t recognize how strange that is, because you didn’t marry foreign women. And this was a righteous man and he married her. The backstory though, however, he was so the right person, he was so the right person. His mother of folks, was a forerunner to his mother, Boaz, his mother, was we like to call her sadly. And she’s forever known as this but she is the harlot. She is She is the famous story, Joshua, and Caleb go in and they go to Rahab the harlots house she is Rahab that is his mother.

Do you see Rahabs life completely chose God to she saw this God of the Israelites, she protected those men and chose that God, she put her faith in that God who was so powerful. She said, I believe he’s powerful. Look what he’s done, how he’s delivered you, I believe it. I believe in so much, I’ll protect you, I’ll take care of you. Her her desire was that you would that they would then take care of her and not kill her. And they said not only that, but if you’ll bring all your family into your house, nobody in your house will be harmed. And so she brings them all in. She stays and lives a converted life among a new people. And she becomes one of them. She marries a man named South Salman. And he’s an Israelite and she becomes one of them. She’s so changes her life. She serves God and she has Boaz. So Boaz is raised with the knowledge of a foreign woman who chooses God. And he’s not, he’s not going to turn down and he recognizes the power of what God does. And he looks at this woman and he says, I will be that for you. I recognize how God can change a life. How I can be raised so godly have a whole. Listen, folks, it doesn’t matter where you’ve come from. It doesn’t matter who your parents are, it doesn’t matter what you didn’t have. Your life can look completely different. Here you have a woman Rahab was a harlot, okay, she’s she, she was the she was the town, boy. And yet she isn’t. And that’s what she’s known for. I mean, we still call her that, even though her life was completely changed around look at her beginnings. Look at her past a woman with a past. And God didn’t stop that from being ready hab ends up this genie illogical line that produces Boaz then goes down and produces a Jesse, who produces a David King David, who then generations later produces a Jesus, a Jesus, from these women from a woman who had passed. And then now this mole by a woman who served false gods who lived a life that stood against the living true God. But she turned and gave her life to God, and everything changed. These women who also had, I then can’t deny the powerful men that were in their lives. Then you’ve got to Selman who says, I will marry that woman, I see the change in her life.

I recognize who she is, and God, I recognize now that she is she’s been washed from that old life and she has a new life with me. And now look, we she was a redeemer, too. And now they’ve got Boaz, this kinsman redeemer, who comes in and takes this woman, this beautiful-hearted woman who’s a servant, and marries her, and lives out the legacy that he saw lived from his parents, he’s now starting that legacy himself. The beauty is, well, well, I don’t want to get, I’ll save it. I’ve got some good stuff on that kinsman redeemer boy, and what that means and what he does in life that he lives then for them and the sacrifices that he made. But these men and women got it only takes one. Listen, if you want to say there has been a pattern in your life, and you have seen how through the generations of your life that’s been trouble and sickness and addiction and, and poverty and  all these things that have robbed from your life and your family’s life. It only takes one who stands up and says says that’s it. Today’s the day I’m the one I am making the change. I am turning from this, I am serving God with my whole life. I’m going to do it God’s way. I’m going to follow his commands. I’m going to I’m going to obey His whatever he asked me to do. I’m going to serve his people. When we make those decisions. It just takes one we can change generationally, what happens.

Look at her decision of emptiness. Even the decision that Naomi made to turn around and go back. Making that decision then changed her life. She now had this daughter Long gets married to bow as a kinsmen, someone, and this person comes in and then gives her a grandchild, she went out and what she thought was full, comes back, feeling empty and lost. Like she lost everything. And now God gives back to her. Folks, there’s so much blessing in God. There’s so much blessing to walk in when we walk in obedience, when we’re willing to turn and walk away from what is behind us to leave our past behind, to stop the life that whether that sin, whether that was ignorance, and we didn’t know, whether that’s generational things that we’ve been stuck in and living in, we make the decision today, I’m getting up from here, I’m leaving here. And when we do, and when we follow God, and we give Him our lives, he says, in my hands, I will give you the life I’ve planned for you. No, I have seen no ear has heard the things that God has prepared for his people. God has a good plan for your life. His thoughts are always toward you. He loves you. He’s got blessing waiting for you. I don’t care what’s happening in this world. I don’t care what’s happening in the economy. I don’t care what’s happening globally. I don’t care if there’s wars and rumors of wars.

Your God can protect you. He can take care of you. He can say yes, you might find yourself in a place of famine. Right now. I’ve got a place of blessing where there’s a barley harvest going on right now good things are happening over there. And he can lead you into the right place of blessing. God has good things for you. And if you’ll give it into his hands, if you’ll follow his instructions. Everything can look different. Your future can be different beginning today. Take this encouragement, live this folks live it and watch what God will do for you. Thank you so much for joining me today. We’ll see you next time. Bye bye