Paul Daugherty - Medicine for the Weary Soul
We’re starting a new series this month called Wonderful World. It’s a series about really seeing the world the way God wants us to see it, and really seeing our lives through his perspective. It’s a series that will stir up joy, thanksgiving, hope, life, love as we go into the holidays, how to get along with our families, our friends. But really, I believe it’s a series that God wants to open our eyes to see that he is with us, he’s for us, and he has a great purpose for this season in our lives.
So if you got a Bible, go to Galatians chapter six. Galatians chapter six. And I wanna preach a message to you today called Medicine for the Weary Soul, Medicine for the Weary Soul. There’s been a, a bug going on out there, and I’ve noticed it, I’ve heard people say, «Man, there’s a bug that’s going around. There’s some sort of a bug that’s just messing with people’s immune systems». And I think the bug is different. We’re not talking about COVID, we’re not talking about some flu, and don’t get nervous going as the bug here right now. I think a bigger bug that’s happening out there is a bug of weariness and just people feeling tired and it’s not necessarily sickness, although that might be a result. But I think there is a spiritual attack on so many people right now of just weariness, just feeling weary.
And this is what Paul in Galatians chapter six, he said this, «Let us not become weary». The new King James version says, «Don’t grow weary in doing good». «Let’s not grow weary». In other words, you can grow into this. This can become something that develops and gets bigger and bigger. Let’s not allow weariness to get stronger in our lives for at the proper time, somebody say the proper time, there’s a proper time, and there is a proper time for harvest. He says, we will reap a harvest. May not happen when you want it, how you want it, where you want it, the way you want it, but a harvest is coming if you don’t give up. Ruth chapter one, the Truth in Ruth, in verse one of chapter one, it says, «In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land».
The very first verse of Ruth chapter one starts with the famine. Things are not good. People are running outta money, they’re running outta food, they’re worried. Anytime there’s a famine, there’s fear. Famine either creates space for fear or faith. Right now, in 2022, we’re watching people choose a path of fear or faith. Don’t let a famine determine, don’t let a famine become the shepherd of your soul or your finances. Choose to have faith even in a famine. God can bless you even in a hard season. God can take care of you even in a famine. God did it for Joseph. God did it for Ruth. God did it for Naomi. God can do it for you. But famines lead to hard times.
And so in this moment, there was a man from Bethlehem who moved with his wife and their two sons to Moab. And his name was Elimelech. His wife’s name was Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Melon and Chilion. And they were there in Moab living there. And it says in verse three, «Now Elimelech died». We don’t know why he died. We don’t know how long they had been married before he died. But all of a sudden there’s heartbreak that enters into the story. And oftentimes the reason why we are weary is because something has happened that was hard in our lives. You’ve lost someone, you’ve lost something, you’ve lost a friendship, you’ve lost a loved one. You’ve walked through maybe the loss of a job, but weariness starts to come in or things unmet expectations.
What is causing you or me to get weary in this season? What is causing you to be tempted to throw in the towel? I want you to just think about that. What’s tempting you to quit right now? What’s tempting you to move past weariness into a place Paul said in Galatians, let’s not get so weary that we feel like giving up. That we feel like throwing in the towel. So my question for you, and I wanna throw a couple reasons up on the screen, what’s tempting you right now in weariness to quit? For some, just like Naomi, it’s unmet expectations. I was expecting marriage to look like this. I was expecting my husband to still be here right now, but he’s gone. For some, it’s disappointment. I’m just disappointed. I’m disappointed because things didn’t go the way I thought they were gonna go. For others, it’s discouragement.
I just keep hearing hard things, negative news, Paul, there’s a famine going on. There’s inflation. There’s things that I’m worried about. For some people, it’s shame, it’s fear, it’s regret. It’s a wrong focus. There’s things that are just coming into your life. And I remember when I was younger, this guy, he was struggling with something. Something was messing with his body, and he went to the doctor and the doctor diagnosed him with something, gave him medication. A few days in, he got worse. He got worse. So he went back to the doctor and found out he was misdiagnosed. Because he was misdiagnosed, they made a medication error.
This happens all the time in hospitals, and oftentimes it leads to death. It leads to someone getting worse and worse and doctors don’t catch it in time and realized that they had misdiagnosed someone or that there was a medication error that gave someone the wrong medicine because they didn’t know exactly what this person was dealing with. Or they did know what they were dealing with, but when the nurse typed it into the computer, there was just one letter that went off and they gave them the wrong drug, the wrong medication.
And this past week, I was looking at stories where this happened. If we take the wrong medicine, if we think I’m weary because of this and we treat it in the wrong way, we can stay weary for a long time, or we can accidentally throw in the towel when God actually wanted us to persevere and that there was a medication, a cure for our weariness. For some we’re seen only the negatives. We’re seeing only what’s wrong. We’re offend. I am hurt, Paul. I’m weary because I’m offended. I want to quit because someone let me down. I wanna quit because I don’t see a way out of this. I don’t see a way through this. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Y’all, that’s a lie from the enemy.
When God is in it, God always has a way of redemption. God always has a way of getting you through whatever you’re going through right now, this is not how it ends. This is not a permanent season. Don’t make a permanent decision in a temporary setback. Don’t throw in the towel just because you have a temporary moment of discouragement. Though a righteous man may fall seven times, he will get back up again. There’s a way through this. For some it’s sin. And my question for you is, what is tempting you right now to quit? Where is the weariness starting to set in? Okay, back to the story of Ruth. So Naomi loses her husband. Her two boys get married a few years into their marriage both sons die right around the same time.
So, now you have a widow who now has lost both of her sons. She’s overwhelmed, she’s discouraged, she’s disappointed, she’s weary, she’s weary. Life is not so wonderful when she hears people singing, it’s a wonderful world she’s going «Maybe for you, but not for me». When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid for other people providing food for them in her old hometown, she and her daughter-in-laws prepared to return home from there. With her two daughter-in-laws, she left the place where she had been living and she set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
Now, here’s one thing I I take from this story. I love the book of Ruth. Is that in order for me to step into the future God has for me, I’ve gotta be willing to leave behind whatever past I’ve been sitting in, sulking in. You can’t step into your destiny if you’re still obsessed over your history. You can’t step into a bright future if you’re still living in the past of yesterday. And listen, you could sit with a counselor all day and try to figure out what happened in your past, but at some point you’ve gotta start living in the future. You’ve gotta start moving towards where God is leading you. And I’m telling you, what’s in front of you is so much greater than what’s behind you. You might might have seen some good things in the past, but God didn’t call us to build museums and just live in the past our whole life.
God wants us to start seeing miracles in our future. So here in Naomi, she begins to move. She’s weary, but she’s walking towards. This is a picture of so many people in the church. I’m weary, but I’m still walking. I’m weary, but I’m still moving. You don’t always have to have it all together if you will just start moving towards your future. I’m so glad that God works through even some bitter people like Naomi. And sometimes we think if I’m not joyful, God’s not happy. As long as you begin to trust in him, as long as you will give your tears, those who sow in tears will reap a harvest of joy.
If you will come to him in your sadness, in your disappointment, in your bitterness, and cry out to him just like David did, just like Naomi did, just like Hannah did, just like Abraham did, you don’t have to be perfect to come to God. You can come to God broken. You can come to God weary. If you don’t believe me. Watch what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28. Look at the message version. He says, «Come to me all you who are weary». I love the message version He says, «Are you tired? Are you worn out»? I can already hear some people and you’re like, yes, yes. Is this my chance to answer in church? Yes I am. Jesus says, are you burned out? Look at that, are you burned out on religion? Are you tired? Come to me.
Jesus doesn’t say, get a joyful spirit and then you can come to church, cheer your attitude up, and then you can follow me. He says, walk while you’re weary. Come to me in your brokenness. Come to me in your burned out on religion feelings that you have, come to me in your brokenness. The safest place to be when you’re burned out, tired, weary, is with Jesus. The most dangerous place to be is running from his presence to think, I don’t need Jesus. I don’t need the church. I don’t need these people. I’m burned out. No, no, no. The safest place we can come when we are exhausted, bitter, broken, burned out, tired, busy, overwhelmed, sad is to Jesus medicine for a weary soul. He says, «Come to me I’ll show you how to take a real rest».
I want a real rest. You could take a vacation and still feel exhausted after that vacation. You’re like, I need a vacation after this vacation. He says, walk with me. This is Jesus talking. He says, walk with me. Walk with you when I’m cheerful? No, walk with me when you are tired and sad. Walk…Work with me. Come to work when I’ve got it all together. No, come to work even when you’re broken. And watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of my grace. I can just hear God calling out to Naomi. Come to Bethlehem. Come and stay with me. An unstable world needs a stable savior. Come and stay. Come and stay. Come with me in your instability. Come to me in your brokenness. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill fitting on you. Now watch as Naomi is heading there.
Let’s go back to Ruth chapter one. She looks at her daughter-in-law she says, «Go back. Go back to your own hometowns. Go back to your mom’s houses. And I pray that God would show kindness to you the way that you’ve shown compassion to me. She kisses them goodbye. They weep aloud». In verse 10 they say, «We wanna go with you, Naomi. We wanna go to your people. But Naomi said, no return home, my daughters». A second time. She pleads with them. «She says, why would you come with me? Am I gonna have any more kids? Even if I got married tonight? Would you wait? And if I had children, would you wait for them to grow up for 20 years to marry my sons again? No, my daughters don’t wait with me».
Watch this, in verse 13, she says, «It is more bitter for me than for you». So her weariness has now led to bitterness. She says, «God’s hand is turned against me». When people are weary and they’re bitter, they start looking for someone to blame. And for Naomi, she goes, it’s God’s fault. It’s God’s fault. I blame God for this. I remember reading a book my dad wrote in the '90s called «God is Not Your Problem». I read it when I was in high school, and I remember asking my dad, I said, «Dad, talk to me about the story of Job. Talk to me about stories in the Bible where bad things happen to good people». And he said, «Paul, I’ll tell you one thing. God was not the author of evil in any of those people’s lives. God was not the one trying to punish them for a reason, trying to do something against them».
God is not your problem. God did not send cancer into your life to teach you a lesson. God didn’t send COVID to you to try to teach you. God is a good God. John chapter 10 says, the shepherd, he is a good shepherd. I’ve come to give you life and life more abundantly. «At this, they wept aloud again. And then Oprah kissed her goodbye. And Ruth clung to her». Oprah said, «All right, I’m out. I’m not sticking around». She’s like, «You’re bitter and I’m gonna go where I’m celebrated, not where I’m tolerated». This is the 2022 motto. If it’s hard, leave, if it’s uncomfortable, leave, if it’s awkward, leave, if you’re not celebrated, leave. And yet, that sets the next generation up for a quitter’s mentality on anything that’s not immediately Instagram successful, instantly microwave success.
Ruth clings to her. Ruth does not cling to a perfect leader in this moment. Ruth does not cling to a cheerful leader in this moment. Ruth does not cling to an easy job in this moment. Ruth clings to an uncomfortable, bitter woman, someone who’s telling her to leave. And Ruth says, I’m staying. In verse 15, Naomi tells her again. I said, leave. When are you gonna go? When are you gonna quit being around me? I’m not good for you. Your sister-in-law’s going back to her people, go with her. And I love Ruth’s response in verse 16. Don’t ask me to leave again. Don’t urge me to go. Where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people.
This is coming from a woman who just lost her husband. This is coming from a woman who’s weary from weeping, a woman who is weary and discouraged from unmet expectations, disappointment. But what you don’t hear in Ruth’s words is any blaming on God or any anger at Naomi, all you hear is these beautiful words of loyalty, these beautiful words of commitment. She says, «I’m gonna go where you go. I’m gonna stay where you stay. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her…»
Isn’t this a beautiful picture of friendship? That they’re friends through the highs and lows. They’re friends through the good times and the bad times. They’re friends for richer or poor. Where is this language today and our world that we feel like we’ve gotta be done if it’s not easy? Sometimes when we’re weary, we think the medicine is just leave. But while Ruth is weary, she says, I’m staying. The last thing I asked you to check was check your stay ability. Your stay ability is connected to your stability. Stability. An unstable world needs some people who are willing to stay when it’s hard. Some people that are willing to stay.
What is God asking us to stay in? He’s asking us to stay with his people. He’s asking us to stay in the ministry He’s called you to, stay in the mission He’s called you to, to stay in the marriage that he’s called you to, to stay in the community that he’s called you to, to stay in your convictions, in a world that’s compromising left and right, to just stay. To stay even when there’s unknowns, uncertainty, question marks about the future, to stay in faith, to dig your heels in and say, «Naomi, don’t ask me again, I’m staying. Don’t ask me when I’m gonna leave. I’m here. I’m here. You’re bitter, you’re uncomfortable, but I’m still here».
Like Ruth’s not lying, she’s like, you’re not an easy person to stay with, but I’m still here. And I love that God moves through people that aren’t easy. God moves through some stubborn women. So Naomi comes back. Naomi comes back and when she gets to Bethlehem, there’s a stir in the town. They say, «Is this, Naomi? Doesn’t look like Naomi». She says, «Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara. 'cause God has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but I’ve come back empty». Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara. I feel afflicted. I feel weary. I feel exhausted. I feel burned out, but I’m here.
The best place to be is here when you’re tired, when you’re burned out, when you’re afflicted, come to me, Jesus says, come in your weariness medicine for this old oh little town of Bethlehem. Come to Bethlehem. Make my heart your Bethlehem God So Naomi returns from Moab accompanied by Ruth two weary women, I want the band to come out. And the last verse of Ruth chapter one is literally the opposite of the first verse of Ruth chapter one. Ruth chapter one’s first verse starts with the famine, but the last verse says, right as they got to Bethlehem, harvest was beginning.
And when I read that this last week, y’all we’re walking into harvest season right now, literally on the calendar, it’s harvest season. But spiritually on the calendar, it’s harvest season. At the proper time, you will reap a harvest, Ruth, if you don’t give up. At the proper time, Naomi, little did they know that they were arriving at just the right time. Weary, exhausted, broken, tired, but God was about to do a miracle. In chapter two verse one, it says, «Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz».
God was introducing the kinsman redeemer. God was introducing in the midst of their weariness, God was setting them up for favor in a famine, favor in a hard season. There’s a reward if you don’t give up, there’s a harvest coming if you don’t quit. If you’re disappointed, stay in the ring and choose where you’re gonna be. Ruth chose, these are my people, this is my place, watch this in verse two, Ruth gets up in the morning, she says, let me go to the fields, let me serve, let me pick up the leftover grain. She tells Naomi.
Now, Ruth is sad, just like Naomi, she’s lost her husband too, she’s hurting. But instead of looking at herself in the moment of depression, she starts looking at who can I help in this moment? How can I be a part of the solution? She’s got a worker’s heart. She says, let me go to the field. Let me pick up grain. Let me serve you, Naomi. Let me help you. Naomi said, I can’t get out. You go ahead, you go ahead. So she goes out, she enters a field and she begins to work in the field. I’m so thankful for faithful people who just work in the field. They’re working in the nursery field, they’re working in the parking lot field, they’re working in the youth field, they’re working at the dream center field, they’re working in the Victor Christian school field. Just people who are just out there serving, just serving, helping.
As it turned out, while she was working in a field, it just so happened to belong to Boaz. When Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said, who is that girl out there working? This last week was my wife’s my, her mom went to be with the Lord a year ago. It was the anniversary of her mom passing away. And I asked her if I could tell this story, but I went to her maybe a week and a half ago I said, «Hey, what do you want to do coming up on this one year anniversary»? I remember when my dad passed that first year, all the memories are just right in your face. And I said, «I don’t know, you want to go do something? You wanna get outta town for a day»?
And she said, «I just want to go to that hospital, that same hospital where she was, I want to go to the same floor. I want to go to that same room». I said, «Are you sure»? She said, «Yeah». I said, «What do you want to do there»? And she said, «I want to go pray for people. I want to go encourage the hospital workers, the nurses and doctors». She was sad. She was weary, but she was walking. I’m so thankful for a wonderful wife. And she goes, and so we went to the hospital in tears coming down the eyes and she just went there and she said, let’s get some gift cards from Walgreens or CVS. So we get some gift cards, and we go up there and she starts talking to nurses. They’re saying, «What are you doing here»? She said, «Well, this is where my mom was last year».
And she starts encouraging them, starts praying for them. «One lady, after we got done praying for us, she had to come and find us 15 minutes later, she said, Doctor just came in the room after you prayed for me. They found what was actually happening with my husband. Now, his bladder’s working again, and he’s actually just had his first using the restroom after several days of not being able». God was moving in our wariness. You don’t have to be perfect for God to move through you. You don’t have to have it all together to show up. But I’ll tell you, compassion is a beautiful medicine for grief. Generosity is a beautiful medicine for lack and pain. Sometimes we think I’m hurting, so I need people to give to me. I’m poor, so I need people to give to me. But let the poor say, I am rich. Let the weak say I am strong. Let the blind man say, I can see. See, when we give out, when we serve, even when it’s hard, healing starts to happen.