The Sycamore Message

Redefining Family

In our sermon series on Ruth, we have seen a complex and textured story of a family that has experienced the unthinkable. Naomi and Ruth have been forced to redefine their ideals of family in order to survive.

We’d like family to be simple and buttoned up. There’s always what God intended and then there’s what He works with. Death, disagreements, divorce, affairs, adoption, foster care, weird uncles, move-in parents, move-in adult children. Sin and brokenness have forced us to redefine family. We see in the book of Ruth that plans don’t go as planned.

The main theme of this book is redemption from unlikely places.

Last week, Angel taught us that Ruth is working for a man named Boaz that’s wealthy. He’s attracted to her but can’t marry her. The rules of engagement are such that the next of kin has first rights. We found out there is a next of kin besides Boaz and this is where we pick up today.

The Jewish people had redemption built into their culture. There was a Year of Jubilee every 50 years when things were given back. If you had fallen on hard times and had to sell your land or home, it would be returned during the Year of Jubilee.

Redeeming also involved purchasing a family member’s land to preserve a relative’s name.

Redeeming was a duty to preserve a family’s name.

Redemption simply means bringing something back to its original purpose or owner.

Redemption was a concession for a reset.

Don’t you wish you could have a reset when life got katywampus?

Deuteronomy 25:5–6: “If two brothers are living together on the same property and one of them dies without a son, his widow may not be married to anyone from outside the family. Instead, her husband’s brother should marry her and have intercourse with her to fulfill the duties of a brother-in-law.

“The first son she bears to him will be considered the son of the dead brother, so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.”

Boaz wants to redeem the land and marry Ruth, but the marital rights belong to the next of kin, whose name is never given to us. So Boaz goes to sit at the city gate, a public place where legal proceedings would take place. He sees the next of kin and gathers ten elders to join him as witnesses. He lays out the proposition to the kinsman-redeemer, and it all sounds good and convenient until Boaz says, “Of course, you also have to marry Ruth—not Naomi, but Ruth.”

The kinsman-redeemer refuses his right because it “might endanger my own estate.” The heir who would be born would not be his. This speaks a great and difficult truth to me.

Redemption isn’t always convenient.

Reference Deuteronomy 25:7–10. If a brother refused to marry his dead brother’s widow, she would shame him by removing his sandal, taking away his right to redeem the land.

To redeem was to make the wrong right—to take an unfortunate situation that wasn’t planned and fix it. There are unfortunate things that have happened to us that we didn’t plan. When we started out, divorce wasn’t in the cards. A miscarriage wasn’t my hope. Foster care wasn’t a consideration. Adoption wasn’t my first choice. Our spouse dying wasn’t the plan. All of a sudden, we find ourselves displaced from family in a new place. We find ourselves forced to redefine what family is. Sometimes the person I’m closest to isn’t even related to me by blood.

Our perfect picture gets derailed by a mishap.

Ruth and Naomi’s lives were derailed by misfortune.

What makes it more complicated is that Ruth is NOT part of their tribe. She is outside the promise and bloodline of Abraham. We can already see that family is being redefined. 

Redeemer can also mean avenger. When life treats us badly, we want to avenge the wrong. But God says, “Vengeance is Mine.” He is our avenger! Things can go from bad to worse when we try to be our own redeemer.

Redemption isn’t always convenient; it may mess up your plans.

We don’t always get to pick who’s in our family. This next of kin didn’t want to accept Ruth as his wife because she might bear a son that would inherit the very land he was buying. He said, “it might endanger my own estate.” If Ruth has a son the land would go to him.

When the next of kin won’t redeem Naomi, he removes his sandal to signify that he is forfeiting his right to claim the land. Your sandals represented your legal claim to property.

Reference Deuteronomy 11:24–25.

Let’s move on…

A son had to be born to redeem the land… I said, a Son had to be born to redeem the land! Boaz is going to give Ruth a son—not to carry on his name, but to carry on the father’s name.

The men speak a blessing over Boaz and Ruth.

Perez was born into a messed-up family. Perez was a twin who was supposed to be born second but came out first, and the midwife named him Perez, which means “breaking out.”

Perez was really an unexpected mistake who became an ancestor of King David and Jesus. You may feel like your life is misplaced and doesn’t line up with everyone else’s perfect family. But God has a way of redefining family!

God is redefining what it means to be part of the family.

Boaz marries Ruth, and they have a son. But notice what the women of the city said to Naomi.

You thought family looked like having lots of sons, but He gave you a daughter-in-law who was better than seven sons. Life may have thrown your thought train off track, but we’re redefining family through redemption!

God wants you to be part of the family today.

The Sycamore Church

Sunday Sermon Notes

Pastor Eric Burton

Sunday, Aug. 16

Scripture: Ruth 2:1–3, 11, 20

This week, we’re going to look at what kind of woman Ruth was. We’ll discuss work ethic and dignity.

Ruth means friendship.

We saw last week—and continue to see this week—that Ruth’s friendship fostered loyalty. Loyalty is staying true to vows that aren’t convenient. Loyalty is staying the course when you have the chance to leave.

She didn’t know it yet, but she was living by faith. She was believing in a God she did not know. Even when things didn’t go her way and she had justification to leave, she chose to stay.

Vows are personal promises we make that don’t include others doing anything. Covenants, however, involve two parties and often last beyond convenience. We are going to see that the vows Ruth made ultimately became a covenant: another party became involved, and God reciprocated what Ruth was promising.

This is the kind of decision we need to make with God: a vow that includes faith, a faith that moves God, and a God who moves on our behalf.

Ruth is willing to work despite being a widow without the promise of an inheritance or livelihood. The apostle Paul speaks of widows in 1 Timothy 5:9–15.

Ruth decides to find work to support herself and her mother-in-law. She tells Naomi that she is going into the fields to gather what has been left behind.

This customary work principle allowed the poor and the foreigner to keep their dignity. They weren’t looking for a handout, but a hand up.

Ruth wants to know why Boaz is being so kind to her because, as she says of herself, “I am only a foreigner.”

Leviticus 19:9–10: “When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. It is the same with your grape crop—do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Leave them for the poor and the foreigners living among you. I am the Lord your God.”

This law reinforced tzedakah—justice, not merely charity—by making support for the poor a structural, rather than only voluntary, part of agricultural life.

Charity can sometimes feel easy because it releases us from a sense of obligation; we give a dollar and feel excused. Justice requires active involvement. Charity can divide the haves from the have-nots, but justice is for all.

As Ruth is working, a rich man named Boaz asks who she is, and the foreman tells him. The foreman knows her reputation. Boaz knows her reputation. But Ruth does not know Boaz.

Ruth 2:8–11: Boaz tells Ruth to stay in their field and remain with the young women. He shows her how to find the best place in the field, instructs his workers to be kind to her, and invites her to have water.

Ruth is overwhelmed by his kindness and falls at his feet to thank him. She is trying to reconcile the favor she has been given, but she does not know that Boaz already knows her.

Verse 1: There was a rich man in Bethlehem who was a relative of Elimelech, Ruth’s late father-in-law.

Verse 3: It just so happens.

Her values and principles have brought her to the right place. When you have a right heart, your feet will follow.

Psalm 37:23: “The Lord directs the steps of the godly; He delights in every detail of their lives.”

Get on the right path, and God will direct your steps.

You may have thought your life choices were random. Ruth went to work in the field hoping to find favor. What she didn’t know—mikreh, an unforeseen event—was that the field belonged to her next of kin.

The steps of a good person are ordered by the Lord.

Pastor Eric Burton | Sunday, August 9, 2026

Key Scripture: Ruth 1:1–5, 13, 20–22; 1 Corinthians 15:20

Throughout this series, we will see God use the most unlikely person to bring redemption to a woman—and ultimately to the world. Although the book is named after Ruth, chapter 1 centers on Naomi, a woman who feels God has dealt bitterly with her. Her story begins much like Job’s: with tragedy.

Ruth 1:1–5

Life is good when tragedy strikes. Naomi loses her community, her husband, and her sons.

After all her loss, Naomi is left with her two daughters-in-law. She hears there is food back in Bethlehem and decides to return. Naomi tells both women to go back to their mothers, but neither wants to leave her.

Ruth 1:20–22

Naomi comes from Bethlehem—a name that means “house of bread”—yet famine forces her to leave. In verse 21 she says, “I went away full, but the Lord has brought me home empty.” She feels empty-handed and ineffective. The people who gave her identity and purpose are gone, and the source of her livelihood is gone.

In verse 13 she says, “Things are far worse for me than for you, because the Lord himself has raised his fist against me.” In verse 21 she says the Lord caused her to suffer and sent tragedy upon her. Like Job, Naomi believes God has testified against her and allowed her suffering.

When Naomi returns, her town is excited, but the people do not know what she has endured. They celebrate the Naomi they remember without realizing she is no longer the same. She is angry and disappointed with God for how she believes He has treated her.

Life has changed her so deeply that she changes her name from Naomi, meaning “my delight,” to Mara, meaning “bitter.” Some of us want people to stop calling us what we were years ago. We are no longer the sweet, innocent idealists we once were. We feel God has dealt with us, and life has changed us.

It is humbling to come home empty. We may set out with great aspirations, believing we are too big for our city or that our town is a dead end. We leave for greener pastures, full of ourselves—but God brings us home empty.

I am thankful that God brings us back. Naomi returned changed, but she returned at the right time. Ruth 1:22 says they arrived in Bethlehem in late spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest. The barley harvest was the first harvest of the year—a season of celebration and first fruits that points us toward Christ.

“But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.” — 1 Corinthians 15:20

We may think we are useless after losing what once gave us identity. But if we let God empty us, we can come back changed. We can sit full of ourselves, yet God wants to empty us of ourselves. We often want to leave worship feeling full, but perhaps we need to leave empty so God can fill us with something better.

Naomi left full, but she came back changed at the very moment new life was beginning. You may be bitter because of what life has brought, but you came back at the right time—a time of harvest.

John Barnett

The Sycamore Church

Interns Rising

The Great PhysicianYou do not want to miss service next Sunday! It’s our first Young Communicators service. Story of Larry Miller led the Jordan shoe brand department at Nike. In 1965, when he was 16, he shot another young man in a gang rivalry.  Thrity-four years later, he landed as the president of the Jordan brand at Nike. But he was always afraid his past would catch up with him. He suffered with migraines and nightmares of getting arrested again… He finally told his daughter and Nike.  As soon as he told them, the headaches and nightmares stopped.   Luke 5:17-26Matthew 9:32-33As long as we are alive, we consist of body and spirit. Spiritual experiences can impact people so deeply that they transform them physically.  And I’ve seen physical trauma change the spirit of a person so deeply that they become bound and imprisoned by invisible bars. I’ve seen the spirit of infirmity convince people they will never be well. The Jewish people saw their sin and sickness as synonymous. Let me clear, not all sickness is because we sinned, but I have seen sin cause sickness. It’s been said we are not our sin, but I would push back on that because I’ve seen people become their sin.  I have seen it reduce them to a shell of who they used to be. We can see their view of sin and sickness in John 9 where Jesus heals a blind man.  The disciples asked who sinned, this man or his parents. It was prophesied that when the Messiah came, he would take away the sins of the world.   This means he was going to make right the wrongs that sin incurred on the world. Sin was the reason for the breakdown of men and families, or health, our nations, even the land we walk on.  Sin made the world sick.  Luke, who was a physician, implied that Jesus was the great physician. He records Jesus’ words  in Luke 5:31: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” We see that Jesus connects the need for a physician to helping those who are sinners.  Psalm 103:3: “ He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.”Sickness is  spiritual. Jesus once healed a man that was demon-possessed and mute. Matthew 9:32 says Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak. Jesus was addressing the spiritual to get to the physical.  We have been conditioned to address the symptoms of people but not the cause.   Jesus heals the paralyzed man in Luke 5 to show he has the power to forgive sins.  Christ’s healing in our lives isn’t just to give us comfort or convenience but wholeness.Jesus is able to bring this wholeness to our lives because he took the prescription meant for us. The unbelievers said in Matthew 27:42: “ He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him!”They thought his condition was because of his own sin. They didn’t realize it was our disease and sin that put him on the cross.   Isaiah 53:4Our sin affected his body. But the wounds of his body are now the prescription for our sin. How do I get this healing? Like sin, we have to admit we are sick.  Healing and repentance are connected through confession. The admittance of sickness and sin. Jesus asked those who wanted healing what they wanted.  The admittance that you are sick is the beginning of faith. James 5:16 tells us to confess, pray, and there will be healed. Joanne’s story of freedom that brought healing.2 Chron. 7:14: Seek His face and pray. He will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.

Summer of Sabbath: Rest and Restoration

Redeeming the Rest. Genesis 3:8-10My wife and I… but mostly my wife, like to take walks in the evening. Sometimes I’m tired and just want to stay home. It doesn’t feel like rest until we’ve returned home. But every time I go on a walk with Kamala, I get something back that would have been misused by just sitting on the couch. We used to have fun reading, running, and drawing.  We had fun at what we were good at until someone said you ought to do that to make money. All it takes for fun to become work is to make it mandatory.Children interrupt our work with requests to play in an attempt to connect. Relationship researchers John and Julie Gottman call these “bids for connection.”Play isn’t just fun; it strengthens relationships. The first playmate a child has is their parent, that also happens to be their provider.  Play is equated with rest, and rest is done with those they love.   Dads set the pace of rest. When dads don’t rest, the family feels like they can’t rest. When Dad is busy, the family feels busy. When you chill, they chill.  Children are trying to interrupt the labor of our lives to bring things back to a time when there was rest, play, and enjoyment. What we used to do for fun feels forced and awkward, like a suit with puppet strings. We used to have fun with God before it became mandatory.  Acts 15 all the fun in the church became “unfun” very quickly when some hyper-religious people came and told the new believers, “If you really want to be a follower of Jesus, you have to be circumcised.” Talk about taking the fun out of living for Jesus. Somewhere in time, that which God created for enjoyment became drudgery with rules.  The rules meant there would be expectations.  The expectations meant there would be disappointment.  The disappointment would drive distance between us and the one that loves us.  In Genesis 3, God is desperately attempting to connect with Adam and Eve.  God walked in the garden during the cool of the day. The “cool of the day” means the “Ruah or breath of God”.  It was the time of day Adam and Eve spent in the presence of God.  When they sinned, they didn’t feel they could rest with God anymore; instead, they hid. What once used to be fun immediately felt like disappointment and guilt. Guilt and shame force us out of the arms of the very one that can restore us. People hide from God in hopes to restore themselves before they return to Him.  They hid from God because they were naked. God asked them, "WHO TOLD you you were NAKED?” Pastor Clifton Lejeune told me, “when you see a relationship status say complicated, it means a 3rd party got involved.” "Who" told you you were naked? Somebody got involved in your relationship with God. God asks, where and who. But Adam answers back with what and why.  A good indicator of a bad relationship is the breakdown of communication.God knew where Adam and Eve were geographically.  He wanted to know where they were in relationally …. Like the game Marco Polo. I know you are here, but where are you in relation to me? Sin isn’t just a bad act. It’s what we do against a relationship.  It separates us from our peace, our spouse, our children, and most importantly, our God.  Proverbs 18:1 Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;he breaks out against all sound judgment. (ESV)The Bible is a record of God’s attempts to reconnect a relationship that was lost.Our original purpose was to rest with God.God has been trying to redeem the time that used to be fun. He’s trying to exchange what was taken and used to separate us from Him to now connect us.  Lets get back to fun!Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.We can’t borrow time or steal time or get time back. To redeem is to exchange. Redeeming is to make wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well-doing are as it were the purchase money by which we make the time our own.Redeeming is changing possession by purchasing  what once belonged to you and using it for its original purpose. “Our Sabbath is not away from God but with God.” -Chad Ducote.  Don’t run from Him, run to Him. Sabbath is what restores our soul. We should rest with what loves us back!!! Zephaniah 3:17 For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”Our God loves to play.  He is a God that is rejoicing and singing over us. Rest and play doesn’t always have to have a point. This rest that Jesus came to redeem asks nothing of us.  Jesus has come to redeem (exchange possession) the time that once separated us from Him to now be close to Him.  It’s for redeeming and restoring what was misused.  Let’s go back to what we used to do before Christianity became a chore.  Let’s return to the fun we used to have with God. Sing unto the Lord a new song.  Let’s do something