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We hope these readings, prayers, songs, sermon notes + quotes are beneficial to you this week. See you next Sunday at 9 or 11 am, 10 am on TVC Online or anytime!
Sermon Notes for July 26, 2026
Ruth 4
The God of Great Reversals
Pastor Tommy Bailey
- Where are we?
- Who is He?
- Who are we?
- What has gone wrong?
- What is the solution?
- Where are we going?
The Book of Ruth:
- Chapter 1
- Decisions on the Road to Bethlehem
- Chapter 2
- Providence in a Barley Field
- Chapter 3
- Redemption at the Threshing Floor
- Chapter 4
- Hope in the Little Town of Bethlehem
We cannot hold together human vulnerability and God’s trustworthiness at the same time unless there is some certain sign that God loves us, that he isn’t an absentee landlord or, worse, a monster… it takes the whole story of redemptive history to shape our questions about God’s presence in the darkness.
Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night
Signposts of God’s grace in Ruth:
1. The Cost of Redemption
2. The God of Great Reversals
Standing on a hill in Galilee Jesus said to his disciples: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted…Who then are the mourners? The mourners are those who have caught a glimpse of God’s new day, who ache with all their being for that day’s coming, and who break out into tears when confronted with its absence…The mourners are aching visionaries. Such people Jesus blesses; he hails them, he praises them, he salutes them. And he gives them the promise that the new day for whose absence they ache will come. They will be comforted.
Nicholas Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9
3. The Little Town of Bethlehem
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
Micah 5:2
To speak of sin by itself, to speak of it apart from the realities of creation and grace, is to forget the resolve of God. God wants shalom and will pay any price to get it back. Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God…
Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be
Emphasis added
And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation…”
Revelation 5:9
Those little arms in the manger will one day grapple with the monster ‘Death’, and destroy it. Those little feet shall tread on the serpent’s neck and crush that old deceiver’s head!
Charles Spurgeon
Songs, Readings & Prayer for July 26, 2026
Songs
“Praise To The Lord The Almighty“ by Joachim Neander and Catherine Winkworth
“He Is Making All Things Right“ by Ben Shive, Bryan Fowler, Skye Peterson
“We Will Feast In The House Of Zion“ by Sandra McCracken and Joshua Moore
“There Is A Redeemer“ by Melody Green
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken and Louis Bourgeois by by William Reese, Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, Matt Boswell
All songs are used with permission. CCLI License no. 2003690
Looking for our Hymns of the Week or resources to worship anytime? We’ve curated a playlist of hymns TVC Worship has led on our YouTube Channel!
Call To Worship: Faithfulness of God
Leader: For the word of the LORD is right and true;
He is faithful in all He does.
Men: Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the skies.
Women: You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Men: For the LORD is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Women: O LORD, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy;
in Your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.
Men: The LORD is faithful to all His promises and loving toward all He has made.
All: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!
Classic Prayer: Soren Kierkegaard
Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts over the seduction of the world, over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future, over the fright of the past, over the distress of the moment. But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves. You have loved us first, O God, alas! We speak of it in terms of history as if You have only loved us first but a single time, rather than that without ceasing You have loved us first many times and every day and our whole life through. When we wake up in the morning and turn our soul toward You – You are there first-You have loved us, first. If I rise at dawn and at the same second turn my soul toward You in prayer, You are there ahead of me. You have loved me first. When I withdraw from the distractions of the day and turn my soul toward You, You are there first, and thus forever.
Confession of Faith: New City Catechism
Part 1, God, Creation & Fall, Law Q 18,19,20
Leader: Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished?
People: No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgement both in this life, and in the life to come.
Leader: Is there any way to escape punishment and be brought back into God’s favor?
People: Yes, to satisfy his justice, God himself, out of mere mercy, reconciles us to himself and delivers us from sin and from the punishment for sin, by a Redeemer.
Leader: Who is the Redeemer?
People: The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself.
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Discussion Questions for July 26, 2026
- Naomi, who once asked to be called “Mara” (bitter), ends the story holding a grandson and celebrating the Lord having provided a redeemer. Wolterstorff describes mourners as “aching visionaries.” Is there anywhere in your life that you are still in the “aching” stage, waiting on a reversal that is yet to come?
- The book ends not with Ruth or Naomi, but with a genealogy which points to Christ’s arrival centuries later in the same little town. Why does God so often work through small or seemingly insignificant places and people? What “small” faithfulness in your life might God be weaving into His larger story?
- Plantinga writes, “Human sin is stubborn, but not as stubborn as the grace of God.” Where do you need to realize and believe this week that God’s grace is more stubborn than what’s gone wrong?
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