DON’T WAIT TO WORK // S01E02 (EPISODE 2)
It is easy to go stagnant waiting on a Word from God. What should you do if God hasn’t provided a plan or a prompting? Ruth is a beautiful example of the works you can do even whilst you wait for the specifics from our Father in Heaven.
Works often get a bad rap, linked all too often with the legalistic crowd. However, faith without works is indeed dead and we are saved by grace alone. How does God reconcile this? In the second of three installments where we delve into the Book of Ruth, we’re focusing on works.
QUESTIONS WE TOUCH ON IN THIS EPISODE:
- What are good works?
- Where do you stand with God?
- Are you in a waiting season?
VERSES FROM DON’T WAIT TO WORK
James 2:17, Ephesians 2:10, Proverbs 16:3, Proverbs 13:4, Proverbs 12:24, Matthew 5:16
QUOTES FROM DON’T WAIT TO WORK
“You know, we need to be a light. Um, our works actually demonstrate that light our works demonstrate who our God is. Um, when it’s pure of heart. Um, I like the fact that you said that our works can’t be something that binds us. It has to be something that is freely given.”
Shea Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E02: Don’t Wait to Work
“As long as you feel like works are a chore, you’ll feel this external pressure, oh, I have to do this or I’m not saved. I have to do this. Or other people will question my salvation. I have to do this or I’m not a good Christian has nothing to do with that”.
Michelle Watson, The Pantry Podcast S01E02: Don’t Wait to Work
ANNOTATED TRANSCRIPT
Shea: I don’t know why I like to start the podcast asking how you are.
Michelle: I know. I mean you didn’t ask when you got home so well you know, I mean it’s okay.
Shea: I think that was getting sprayed down for the Corona.
Michelle: Now we have to start over. Cause you brought up the Corona.
Shea: So, Hey, what’s up guys? It’s, it’s good to be here. It’s good to just talk about the word of God. It really takes my mind away from everything else that’s going on in the world when we could just sit here and really focus on things that are gonna build us up. Things that are going to grow us. We’re going to continue the story of Ruth, in this idea of works that she actually worked. It wasn’t like she just came along for the ride
Michelle: And she did it so quickly. You see there when she and Naomi first arrive, it’s the beginning of the barley harvest and then still during the barley harvest she asks Naomi, can she go glean? It wasn’t months or years before she worked up the courage to do something. She decided that she was going to serve her mother.
Shea: It’s really neat in that, in that portion too, it kind of makes me think, you know, when we take that verse in James 2:17 where it says, “see faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless”. I mean, that’s been annihilated so many times, but I think in this story we’ll be able to kind of dial that in and give people an understanding of what this works idea is really about. It’s really not self-centered. It’s selfless. Yeah. It has a serving frame to it. Even Paul says in Ephesians 2:10 “for we are his workmanship created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand”. I love that we can sit here and say, Oh yeah, you know, it’s my, you know, I came to Jesus and now I’m working. Really though, he prepared all that. He, he, he knows the design. He knows the direction. He knows your heart and where it’s going to be. In what season it’s going to be there and how you’re going to respond to that. I love that. I love actually not having the control.
Michelle: Yeah. It’s very comforting to know that he’s planned it all out, that he’s set things in motion that take into consideration all of time and everybody’s actions. That kind of omniscience really allows me to trust him and not have that anxiety about what I have to do next and try to figure out the whole plan.
Shea: Yeah. That I could sit and spin wheels forever on that sometimes until I finally just sit there and go, okay Lord, fine. It’s you.
Michelle: It’s good to remember. Cause I mean, I forget too. Everybody forgets, but it’s good that we have it to remember. Some people don’t know it so they can’t remember it and so they’re stuck in that anxiety forever.
Shea: Ruth made a choice, but she said, wherever you go, I will go wherever you live, I live. Your people will be my people. Your God, my God. She made this commitment. You know, when we came to Christ, we made the commitment. We might not have know how to live in that all the time, but we made a commitment, you know, and Leviticus, they kind of set the stage for it and it’s like you shall leave this for the poor. There was scraps that they would purposely leave for poor people. So see Naomi is already and Ruth are already knowing that they don’t have anything right from the get go. It’s kind of like, well I gotta rely, but you know what Ruth didn’t sit there and say, “Oh man, I don’t want to go out there. I don’t want to know.”
Shea: She has this idea of like, man, I want to feed my mother. You know, by that time it’s kind of cool. I think that they’re already building this mother daughter relationship. It kinda transpires. Naomi’s already said at once, my daughter, where we kind of start in this idea, it’s like, so Ruth, the Moabituss said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him in whose sight I may find favor. And she said, my daughter, it wasn’t like, Oh my daughter in law or oh my this. This is the second time that you read this, my daughter.
Shea: See this relationship is building. It’s kind of like our relationship with Christ. You know? It’s like, unless you understand this relationship, you don’t understand the work. Works come from the relationship in wanting to serve.
Michelle: Yeah. You know a lot of people, and we’ve talked about this a lot, they, the faith without works is dead.
Michelle: They feel like, well, you know, it’s not about work. Salvation is about faith and absolutely, salvation is about faith, but anything you believe manifest physically, if you’re happy, it’s going to dictate the following actions. If you’re sad, if you are amused, if you’re depressed, regardless of what is in your head, it’s going to manifest somehow.
Michelle: And so that’s kind of what we see in this story a lot. Her need to provide for somebody that she loves and so it manifests as actions and actions, our work. That’s one of the biggest things that trips people up is, you know, I don’t see any works and I’m not saying that there’s any specific things that you need to be looking out for, but just in your own life, if you’re questioning where you’re at with God, just look at what you’re, is what you’re doing, showing what you believe.
Michelle: Do you really believe what you know about God or are those just things that kind of pass through your head and then you move on with your day and you’re still in complete control of your own, what have you or do you really believe and that’s manifesting cause you can’t help it. You know if you, if you believe a chair’s going to hold you, you’re going to sit in it. Same thing with the Lord.
Shea: Okay. I’m going to bring in John F. Kennedy for a minute cause he has this awesome statement. Y’all. I’m ex-military. I still work for the army so you know a little bit more about me now. But uh, I worked for God too, but God comes first. Don’t tell my bosses at work or actually let them know cause I had enough that anyways, but no, John F. Kennedy has kind of puts it in a sense, he says, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. Sometimes we sit here in this mind frame of asking and it’s like, no, wait, what can I do for God? What can I do from Christ? And you know, in that move of saying, God, what can I do? Show me it brings fruits of labor. This is kind of a portion in the story where Boaz shows up and he could have been anyone, but it was Boaz.
Shea: You know, this is where that kinsman Redeemer kind of comes into play. It’s like all of a sudden that’s the field that she happens to be in. There’s no idea in there implanted that it was, you know, set up. It’s just she’s going to go out and work.
Shea: But here he comes. He comes on scene and you know, it’s like now, behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, the Lord be with you. And they answered him. The Lord bless you. I love those beginnings.
Shea: I love the fact that right up front there’s an establishment. There’s something deeper in this man than just the man who owns fields that says something. Godly man, godly man, man, a godly man. Single ladies, wait for that godly man. Amen. Amen. It’s worth it. Here the interest begins. We know where this story goes. It ends in a relationship that carries on through generations to Jesus.
Shea: You know, so that’s an amazing thing. But he comes in and says, Hey Lord, Lord, you know, it’s like wow. It’s not like, Hey boss, Nope, Lord, be with you, Lord, be with you too. It’s an establishment. It establishes the healthy man. So it’s like he comes in and of course he starts asking his people, you know, this is the game. I love the game.
Shea: Oh actually I hated the game in my life, but this game I like cause it’s biblical and like it works out. It works out awesomely and my past, sometimes the game didn’t work out. So although it worked out awesome in my marriage, amen and he walks out, he’s like, who is this? Who’s this woman? Well that’s Ruthie. You know, that’s Naomi’s daughter-in-law. And of course, you know, he’s got to make the approach right. He starts talking to her, Hey, you know, they get a little conversation going on and then it gets down to the nitty gritty. I love the nitty gritty. It’s like, do not glean in another few. Let your eyes be on the field, which they reap. In other words, stay here woman. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you?
Michelle: Valuable part of everything he said.
Shea: Right? And then he carries on. He says, when you are thirsty, go to the Veselin drink. I mean these are hit on words. I’m sorry, but Hey, Bible is full of love. Bible is full of beautiful relationships. How do they start here? She was poor and gleaning and here was the man who owned it and she says, though, “why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner”. She kind of throws out this humbled position when she meets him. This idea of who am I? I mean the only thing of ourselves that way sometimes like, why do I have this? Why did God give me this? Sometimes I sit across from my wife, I’m like, how’d I get it? How do I, you know what? This is amazing.
Michelle: I asked the same thing. To be honest with everybody, he’s, he’s a really great guy. I love what happened next when Boaz is saying that he knows of everything she’s done for her mother-in-law since the death of her husband because it shows not just how good of a job she might be doing gleaning there in the field. Her reputation precedes her and her reputation was based off the good works that she had done, the love that she had for her mother-in-law. And she’s showing that here, you don’t know if people are watching, people see. Right. And it says something when you don’t do it for people because it shows your heart.
Shea: Yeah, I like that. You know, she comes with, I’m just a foreigner and yet he knows so much more. You know, like we come to God sometimes in that position, like I think sometimes it stops our ability to work. It stops our ability to move forward until we understand this position with the father. Like he looks down at somebody and we sit there. I know I have from, from the drifter, from Christ back into Christ. You know, sometimes I would sit there and say, why me? Who am I? I’m just nothing. Why? Why would you want to use me? And then he turns around and he gives me so much more. He shows me, he says, look, look, I didn’t watch it. Yeah, maybe you weren’t the perfect, but I know your heart.
Michelle: I’ve set this for you. You know, and it says in Proverbs 16:3 commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.
Michelle: When you’re working in his will, you’re working in the plan he has set aside specifically for you, which encompasses everything good and godly about you and everything that isn’t perfect. Everything that isn’t good, all the things that you won’t do right. He’s taken it all into account and it’s still the best plan for you. Right? So when you’re working and your work to the Lord, things end up making sense in retrospect because you’re playing to his hand.
Shea: Oh wow. I’m just gonna let you know. And the Holy spirit is like, I know “works” get beat up. Like “what do you do at the church? What do you do with this and that”.But opening your Bible is a work, turning to him when you’re struggling is a work. But what does that do? The more that I open the word of God, the more I work at understanding the word of God. It becomes an outward expression. Outward to inward expression, back out to an expression to people. Because that’s where it all boils down to. Are we showing ourselves as people who love, believe in trusting God?
Shea: Are we showing ourselves as people who love our God and therefore love our neighbor? It’s really a beautiful thought. And see all this wraps itself up, right? Wraps itself up and it keeps going into this story, right? And we get to the meal time because you know, he sees something, he sees something so much greater than what she saw in herself. Which was “I’m a foreigner”, but he’s like, no, there’s something worth it here. I like that too. So her works transpires into a relationship, right? And that relationship turns into going back to God and saying, if it’s thy will, and so see, all of this is transforming out of this works idea. I’m not working to receive something that I can never earn. I’m working for a betterment of the kingdom.
Michelle: She went there to get food to feed Naomi and herself. She didn’t go looking for a guy. She didn’t go because she had some 12 step plan. She just knew what they needed in the moment. And I love it because so often people are focused on waiting on God to give them this grand master plan where they’re going to know everything. They’re not going to be in the dark about anything. \
Michelle: And until they get that from the Lord, they’re just kind of sitting there twiddling their thumbs and waiting. Right. And when you’re like it’s said in Proverbs 16 you know, when you commit your work to him, right, it’s things as simple as going to provide for your family will lead you down the path and you don’t need to know every step. She had no way of knowing that that’s where it was going to end up.
Shea: Right. And he blesses her. I jumped ahead on some things with the relationship and where it goes, but when you go back to where they were at, it was just the beginning. Yeah. You know he, he came in, she had that, that moment of like,”who am I” I’m going to say it again.
Shea: I know I’m repeating it because a blessing came from it. Now, it wasn’t a blessing of marriage at the moment. It wasn’t a blessing of hooking up. It wasn’t a blessing of getting everything that they wanted in life, but he turns around and he tells his men, Hey, look, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her. Do not do anything against her. Do not treat her like a foreigner. Do not treat her any different than the people who already worked for me. Also, let grain from the bundles fall purposely for leave it that she may glean and do not rebuke her. I love that.
Michelle: It makes me think about, I mean I’m a big Proverbs person, but it makes me think of two other verses in Proverbs 13:4 it says, “the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing. While the soul of the diligent is richly supplied”. She had the soul of the diligent. She went out to provide for herself and hers and was richly supplied back, not just with things that she liked her wildest dreams, but on a spiritual level too that they don’t really go into directly here, but she has just come and joined this belief system.
Michelle: She’s just recently committed to this God and now she’s being so richly blessed because she wasn’t waiting for someone else to provide. She didn’t say, Naomi, you’re older. You’re the mom, you take care of me. She actually was like, no, I’m going to humble myself and take care of you.
Michelle: And then Proverbs 12:24 it goes back to that the hand of the diligent will rule while the slothful will be put to forced labor. Not saying that the slothful is always straight up forced by somebody else, but as long as you feel like works are a chore, you’ll feel this external pressure, oh, I have to do this or I’m not saved. I have to do this. Or other people will question my salvation. I have to do this or I’m not a good Christian has nothing to do with that. It’s really about when you’re diligent, you rule with God in that sense. You know, you’re, you’re under his protection, under his blessing cause you’re allowing him to bless you.
Shea: I like that. You know, we need to be a light. Um, our works actually demonstrate that light our works demonstrate who our God is. Um, when it’s pure of heart. Um, I like the fact that you said that our works can’t be something that binds us. It has to be something that is freely given.
Shea: He freely gave us. Why wouldn’t I want to freely give? Why wouldn’t I want to be that light? Why wouldn’t I want to be like Matthew 5:16 “Jesus said in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father”.
Michelle: That’s exactly what Ruth did. Amen. Amen man. Hey, thanks for joining us.
Michelle: Yeah, it’s been awesome and we will get with you next time. So just remember the pantrypodcast.com that’s hard to say. But, let us know what you’re thinking and drop us a prayer request. We’d love to hear from you guys.
I am enjoying listening to you two. Keep it up!