WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?
R&B
February 2, 2014
Ed Young
Love is powerful. It’s unpredictable. It’s something that can change our lives. And it’s something much more potent than an emotion!
Through this thought-provoking look at the story of Ruth and Boaz, Ed Young shows us how to experience the right relationships. And he reminds us that when it comes to finding the ultimate love, it’s all about getting in the right rhythm!
Transcript
Good morning! Today we’re opening up a brand new series I’m really, really excited about called, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” What’s love got to do with it? Now we have many different locations here checking out Fellowship Church. We’re one church in many, many, many different locations. Let’s welcome all of our different places right now. We can just cheer a little bit. Since we’re talking about love I’ve invited my man, Greg Fears, Jr. to help us in today’s opening session. We’re gonna have some music behind this romantic series. How do you like that? Oh we can clap better than that, come on now! All right, all right, yeah, yeah. Because, Greg, man, he can just play with it. Feel the flow. I love it. I love it.
We’re talking about a little bit of R&B. Can you do some R&B? That’s the title of today’s message. A little bit of R&B. You know what R&B is? Rhythm and blues. It’s a style of music. A little bit of R&B. Well, we’re gonna put a new spin on R&B. R&B today stands for a couple of characters in the Bible. Ruth and Boaz. A little R&B. Ruth and Boaz. Those are kinda interesting names. Specifically I want to talk to you today about finding the right person for you. You might be going, wait a minute. I’m a parent. I’m a single parent. I’ve been married for 32 years (I’m talking about myself now… 32 years Lisa and I’ve been married). How does this have to do with my life? All of us know people who are single. About half of our church are unmarried and about 90% will get married, and that’s some good news for singles. So we better understand what it means to choose the right person. Within this process when it comes to choosing the right person we can apply this to our marriages, even a marriage for three decades. We can apply it to grandparenting, we can apply it to every age and stage of life. A little bit of R&B. Now this love story, I’ve gotta say, is maybe the greatest love story I’ve ever seen. So against the backdrop of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, against the mindless maze of romance novels and Hallmark channel and Lifetime movies (sometimes I watch those. I’m kinda forced to watch those now and then) we’re gonna talk about a real love story. I’m not saying those aren’t love stories but we’re gonna talk about the real, real deal.
Is it just me or have you ever noticed when you see a chick flick the guys act like girls. Have you noticed that? They’re always serving, they’re always incredible chefs, they’re always taking the trash out without having to be bothered with that. They’re kind and understanding and sweet. It’s kinda funny, isn’t it? They’re always rich. And then if you go see a movie about men, you know, a man’s movie, the girls are always aggressive. They like hunting and fishing and fighting. And they’re always in the mood… always. It’s hilarious, isn’t it? It’s really funny. We’re different. Is that profound or what? A man and a woman, we are definitely different.
Well, let’s go back and let’s look at this R&B because there’s a relational rhythm that we’re gonna get into that God wants us to get into. When we meet the central person of this book, Ruth, she is not in rhythm. She’s singing the blues. She is from a place called Moab. Moab? Yeah, Moab. Moab, if you know your geography, was east of the Dead Sea. Now I’ve been in the Dead Sea before. I’ve swum in the Dead Sea. In fact, you’re not really swimming, you’re floating. You can’t really sink. Nothing lives in the Dead Sea. So I’m here to tell you, if you’re living in Moab relationally speaking, you’re dead. If you make your bed in Moab, if you’re mesmerized by Moab, you’re not gonna discover the greatness God has for you. And Ruth, this icon of the faith, is from Moab. This wheels-off culture. A place that was just nuts. Our culture is kinda going nuts. The last verse in the book of Judges, Judges chapter 17, verse 6, and this was sort of during that time period. It says, “In those days there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Does that sound like our world today or what? Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.