Leave the Edges | Three Choices That Will Change Your Life | Pastor Jeremy DeWeerdt

All right, hello City First welcome to church. I'm glad that you are here today Welcome all of our locations Cape Janesville God behind bars. We love you guys so much and everyone join us online Thank you for being a part of the city first church fam And today we begin a brand new series called three choices that will change your life three choices That will change your life We prayerfully brainstormed this series Jen and I decided to take three weeks and what we're gonna do is we're gonna share with you three decisions We made about our lives personally and our family that were game-changing Decisions and and these are not only like three choices that have been game changers But also they've actually been three pillars of what is built our life and our family that we share Together I get asked this all the time people ask me pastor Jeremy You've been in ministry now since like Moses was alive, you know And a long time and and and and you've been married for many years for decades if you could go back and do it all over again What would you do? Different what would you do differently? And and you know what? The answer that is a lot actually I do a lot different because I know the outcomes of some of the decisions I made but I will say this the three things we're going to talk about this week and for the next two weeks these three Things I would do them again and again and again and again a hundred times over So today I want you to take notes I want you to lean in because this is a life experience talking today and I want to talk about the choice To not build a life that consumes everything for yourself the choice to not build a life That consumes everything for yourself. In other words, and I'll make sense of this. In other words, leave the edges Leave the edges because Jen and I have discovered something We've discovered that some of the richest moments in life don't come from what we hoard for ourselves but the richest moments are what we Intentionally leave behind for someone else how we can contribute to helping other people The world tells us that a good life is found in

Accumulating more. All right get all you can get get more money get more experiences Get more, you know accomplishments get more comfort get more stuff and I'm not saying all those things are bad But I will tell you those things are a part of life, but they don't actually give you the good life Jesus said quite the opposite. He said this Basically that the best life isn't built by consuming. It's built by contributing it's different and Jesus is quoted in Acts chapter 20 verse 35 as saying this it is more blessed to give Than to receive now when you hear that most of us Americans think money Now that would include money, but it doesn't just mean money. Maybe we've misunderstood This verse maybe Jesus wasn't simply giving us a command. Maybe he was giving us a secret a secret to actually Unlocking a better life because giving people actually live better lives the question is How do you build a life that helps other people win? How do you do that? Well, I think the answer is hidden in one of the most overlooked stories in the Old Testament We don't preach about it often some of you've heard the story But it's basically a story that's found in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament I want to focus on that today as the text the story actually begins with tragedy there is a woman by the name of Naomi and She is leaving the town of Bethlehem. This is well before Jesus All right, Bethlehem with her husband and her two sons because a famine has entered into that area They're actually trying to find a place where they can find food. So the whole family leaves Bethlehem and Eventually, unfortunately they get to this new place and Naomi's husband dies and then after that the unthinkable happens one of her sons die and Then even beyond that something even more unthinkable happens her second son ends up dying

Literally Naomi is now alone as a widow and she is there with her two daughter-in-laws because they're her sons had gotten married, and one of her daughter-in-law's names is Ruth. And we're talking about Ruth today because it's interesting that now there are these three widows and all of them are there without anything. They have no providers, they have no income. In that day and age, they had no future. And so eventually Naomi looks at her two daughter-in-laws and says, hey, you know what? We should go back to Bethlehem or you can stay here, what do you wanna do? And Ruth goes, I'm gonna go with you. The other daughter-in-law decided to stay in the new land. So Ruth and Naomi go up to Bethlehem and when they get there, they have absolutely nothing, like literally they don't have food. And I would just say this, losing a spouse in this day and age is absolutely tragic and absolutely horrific. In fact, as a church, because of the size, there are time after time that there are husbands or wives that they lose a spouse and we come around them and surround them as a church and try to minister to the best of our ability. It's absolutely heartbreaking. But I wanna let you know this, that 2,000 plus years ago, that in the ancient world, it was even more economically devastating

because if a wife lost a husband, at that moment, her life was pretty much over. There was no social security, there was no unemployment, there were no government programs, no retirement accounts. There was no way for these three widows now to be able to move forward, humanly speaking. And so Ruth, when they get back to Bethlehem, she looks at her mother-in-law, Naomi, and says this in Ruth chapter two, verse two. She says, let me go out into the harvest fields and pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it. In other words, she's saying, I'm gonna go into the fields and I'm gonna pick up the scraps of food that are left over from when the farmers had harvested the food. Now, this sounds a little bit interesting, but here's what's really going on, because many, many years before this, God had given his people, in Leviticus, it's recorded, a command, he gave farmers a command, and this is it. In Leviticus chapter 19, it says, when you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field. This is very important. You sit there and you go, why are you giving us this agrarian kind of history? Why are you talking about agriculture? Because this is gonna apply to your life.

God is saying a principle here that is a principle for you and I in 2026. Do not harvest to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest, in other words, the scraps that are left over, leave them for the poor and the foreigner or the immigrant. Now, imagine this, God is literally telling his people, don't maximize everything for yourself. In your life, do not consume everything that you produce. Leave some behind, leave some of the edges, leave enough for someone else to benefit from your life. One day, Ruth is picking up scraps in a field and is harvesting the edges of the field and a man by the name of Boaz, who is the land owner or the farmer, notices her and hears her story. And this is interesting, instead of Boaz asking, well, what is the least that I can do? God commanded me that I had to leave the edges of the field. Instead, he asked, how can I help? And he tells his workers this. He says this in verse 15, even if Ruth gathers among the sheaves, what's a sheave? That's already harvested crop. In other words, his farm has already been harvesting the crop and they bundled the crop. And so he's telling his workers, even if she doesn't just harvest off the edges, but let's say she goes and she goes to the bundles of already harvested crop and takes some of that,

don't embarrass her, don't embarrass her. In other words, rather pull out some of the stocks that have already been harvested. This is in the edge of the field and pull them out for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up. See what he's doing here as a farmer? He's saying, I'm not only gonna obey God's rule about not harvesting to the edge, but also some of the harvest, I'm gonna kind of leave it. I'm gonna do it with dignity. I'm gonna leave it for her to pick up. God said. This is the command, God said, leave the edges. And you know what Boaz said, Boaz said this, let's drop handfuls of the harvest on purpose. Let's even leave a little more. I think that is the kind of life that God calls us to live. And here's the reason why, our world says this, our world says, focus on your own needs. Even as some of you are hearing this message, you're thinking, I don't even have enough, I have to harvest all the way to the edge. And can I tell you, I know people that make $20,000 a year, I know people that make $200,000 a year, and I know people that make $2 million a year. And I will tell you the one thing that is consistent among all of them, is they all don't think it's enough. All the people think, I need a little bit more. That's the funny thing about money,

that's the thing about time, that's the thing about our resource, we always personally don't think we have enough, we think that we're stretched, and I'm not saying there isn't some reality to that, but our world says this, our world says, God helps those who help themselves. That's not a Bible verse, by the way. Some people are like, well, God helps those that help themselves, you know, it's in the Bible. No, it's not, that's not in the Bible. Our world says, consume all that you get or you earn. And God says it differently. God says this, and I'm gonna give you some principles today. God says, a generous life doesn't consume everything it produces. A generous life does not consume everything. Here's Boaz the farmer, he planted the crop, he worked the field, he owned the land, and yet God said this, it's not all for you. And I would say to you, accountant, teacher, doctor, single parent, barista, person who works in the trade somewhere, yes, you go to work, you earn the money, you do all the things, and God says it's not all for you. Even with your time, even with your talent, even with your resource, even with whatever you own, your apartment, your home, your cars, whatever it is, God says you've earned all this, that's great. It's been a blessing, I've given it to you,

and by the way, it should not all be hoarded for yourself. Not getting a lot of amens today. Because I am attacking a spirit that is in this culture. And this culture says it's all mine. Mine, mine, mine. In fact, you know what? Some of the first words that came out of your mouth as a little baby was no and mine. Sorry, sorry. See, why does God give us the command to not harvest to the edge? Here's the reason why. It's less about farming and it's more about heart. This command is not to the farmer. Most of you are not farmers. Most of you are not planting the crop right now. Most of you are not gonna harvest it in the fall. Most of you have nothing to do with farming. This command is not just for farmers. This command is about our heart because we don't build a life where everything revolves around us. We have to build a life where we leave a little bit of money, we leave a little bit of time, we leave a little bit of energy, we leave a little bit of attention and emotional capacity on the edges of our life because people in our world need it. The roosts in our world need it because not everything that God gives you

is intended for you. And you know what? I believe this and Jen and I have discovered this and we have not been perfect at it. Please do not think that we are saints that we've lived this out, but it's something that has been a primary focus of our lives for now 35 years. The richest life isn't one that consumes the most, it's the one that contributes the most. You find a rich life through giving, not getting. Which brings me to my second point that I think God tells us in this story and that is a generous life creates margin for other people to win, for other people to win. You know, Ruth's future, literally as a widow, her future existed in someone else's margin. Oh, did you hear that? Her future existed in someone else's margin. What the farmer called leftovers, Ruth called hope. What Boaz, the farmer, barely would notice, Ruth prayed for. And I'm wondering if today that isn't still true in 2026. What you call a spare 20 minutes, someone else would call a desperately needed conversation. What you call a little spare money, someone else calls groceries. See, what you call an invitation into your life, someone else would call that family. And what you call a spare bedroom in your home, someone else would call it home for a temporary season. See, here's the thing, the problem is many of us harvest our lives right to the edge. And so every dollar is spent, every evening is booked, every weekend is scheduled, every ounce of energy is consumed, and then someone needs us. And we honestly say, I wish I could help, but I have

nothing left. Why? We've harvested our life right to the edge. Maybe we've harvested it too close. You can't help other people, you can't help their life win if you've consumed the harvest yourself. So it brings me to the third point, and that is a generous life doesn't just even leave the edges, it drops handfuls of blessing on purpose. In other words, strategically. Generosity must be strategic. It doesn't hit you like lightning. It's usually not something that you just feel inspired to do in a moment, but rather a life of generosity has to be strategically planned. Because we're all given the same amount of seconds in a day, we're all given opportunities, we're all given various abilities, we're all given different connections relationally in our life, we're all given money to a certain degree, and we have to strategically say, how are we gonna live our life? Because someday when we are put six feet under, and by the way, no one gets out of this life alive, all right? Someday when that happens and they hold a memorial service for us, they are not gonna talk about all the things that you amassed and you consumed. What are people gonna talk about? How you impacted their life. What you gave. How you helped them. Who you were. The conversations you've had. The times that you helped their life win. That's what they're gonna talk about. They're not gonna talk about your 401k. They're not gonna talk about your cars. They're not gonna talk about that new set of tailor-made clubs. They're not gonna do it. That's not what we're gonna talk about. Now none of those things are bad, but if you harvest to the edges of your life, accumulating all those things, at the end of our life, then guess what? People are gonna have a hard time figuring out what to talk about. I've actually been to funerals like that, where the family and friends are like, well, what can we say? Because literally the person lived their life just for themselves. See, Boaz could have just simply followed the law, but instead he said, pull out some stocks from the harvest and leave a little bit extra for her. See, I think generous people ask a different question. Generous people ask different questions. Most people ask, what do I have to do? Generous people ask, what more can I do? Can I encourage people more? Can I mentor someone, even though

I'm very busy? Can I help? Who can I include? Who can I invite? Whose life can I help win? Jen and I have discovered this, and again, we are not the poster children, I want to say that. We are not the ones that do it perfectly. We are not Mother Teresa, okay? I promise you. But we have tried, and I think those people that have known us for over three decades of doing ministry and life together in marriage, they would say that this is maybe a signature of our life, that it is one of the big three choices. We've decided that we are going to intentionally try to help other people succeed, not just in our profession, but in our lives. Not because we have to, because we get to. We've invited people into our lives, we invite them into our home, into our journey. We try to mentor them, we try to encourage them. We encourage them, we try to give them lift. And we try to avoid becoming people, listen to this, who are generous in theory but not in practice. Because one thing I've noticed about our culture, we often mistake caring for helping. They are not the same thing. Just because you care doesn't mean you helped. You know, we feel bad, we say a prayer, we click the like button on Instagram or Facebook or whatever, and we tell ourselves, you know what, somebody should do something. And somehow we walk away from that moment thinking we participated. You don't help somebody by feeling something. You help somebody by doing something. And this is something for all of us to understand. When we watch videos of people who need food, you know, you watch videos of people

that are in hurt and pain and crisis, or you hear about it, your heart breaks, but the breaking of the heart is only one wing on the airplane. It doesn't fly unless you do something. That's the other wing of the airplane. Now you can't do everything, you can't help every need, but guess what, you can help someone. Don't allow the excuse that you can't do it for everyone to give you permission to do it for no one. Does that make sense? You see, here's the thing. We have not been perfect at this, but Jen and I have really tried. And sometimes, if I can be honest, blessing people has been an amazing blessing. And sometimes blessing people has not been a blessing at all. We've housed people in our home, multiple people. In fact, you would ask our older two kids, there have been multiple people that have sat at the dinner table with us night after night, different people that we brought into our home throughout the decades. And many of them are grateful, and many of them, that season, that temporary season of living with the DeWerts, it gave them a lift, a head start, and then we've housed people. And they didn't seem that grateful. And we kind of felt taken advantage of.

And guess what? That's gonna happen when you bless people. We've invited people into our lives. We've, you know, and they've thrived, they've grown. We've mentored them and they've grown, and then we've invited people into our lives and they went off and they made bad decisions later. It's gonna happen. Your blessings may not always be received correctly, but you're called to leave the edges of the field unharvested in your life anyway. Do you hear that? It doesn't always pan out. I could tell you the horror stories and I could tell you the victories. And I will tell you this, there's more victories than horror stories. This thing I know, though, I know this. Allowing people into the edges of our lives has not just been a blessing for them, it has always been a blessing for us. Why? Because it is a spiritual principle. Proverbs 11.25, the generous will prosper, those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. That's a promise. When you bless other people, God says, okay, your blessing, I now can bless you. In my core, in my core, you could tell this point that I'm talking about today,

and you're gonna hear this on all three weekends because this is who we are, I'm passionate about this. And the reason why, in my core, I believe the blessings that God has given to Jen and myself are a direct result of the blessings we've intentionally given to others. It's called sowing and reaping. When you give, I believe God blesses you and we've experienced that. When you help others, God notices. In fact, Jesus himself said this. Jesus, very famous, you've heard this before, Matthew 25. He said, I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was homeless and you gave me a room. I was shivering and you gave me clothes. I was sick and you stopped a visit. I was in prison and you came to me. See, here's the thing. When we let others in the edges and the margins of our lives and we allow them to harvest the edges of our lives, we leave a little bit of margin for them, God takes notice. We're really blessed. God. So as we close, as we close, a generous life can echo for generations. This is such a cool part of Boaz's story and Ruth's story. You know, Boaz was probably thinking he was helping a widow. Yeah, go ahead and eat off the edges of my field. Take a little bit more off the sheaves. But he had no idea that in this interaction, eventually, he'd fall in love with Ruth. And Boaz and Ruth would

end up getting married. And they would have a son by the name of Obed. And that son would have a son by the name of Jesse. And Jesse would have a son by the name of David, who would slay a giant by the name of Goliath. David grew up to be a king, and he had a son by the name of Solomon. And Solomon built God's temple in Jerusalem. And you keep going down the lineage, and guess what? They would have a son, and they would have a son, and on and on and on. And pretty soon, there was this individual that came along named Mary. And Mary had a son by the name of Jesus. Now, this is the thing. You literally could go to Jesus and go back in the lineage, and it goes all the way back to Boaz and Ruth. Here's the thing. One generous farmer, one decision to allow the edges to be unharvested, ended up changing history. History is so cool. You just never know what your God is building through your generosity. You don't know. When you bring that young leader under your wing, he or she is like raw, you know, out of college and trying to learn the profession, and you're like, I'm gonna take you under my wing. And you have no time, except you've left a little bit at the edge of your life. You're like, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna give that edge of the field to this person. And you mentor that young person? You don't know. That person may go on to be a great business leader, a great community leader. You don't know. The family you help, you don't know. When you leave a little bit of edge in your life and you allow that family to be blessed off the edges of your field, you don't know if you have stopped a cycle in that family, where now generation after generation after generation, it's different. That they're not going to be in the same type of trap and cycle that the previous generations have been in. When you sponsor that kid, that youth to go on summer camp, you don't know if they get there, and also the call of God is on their life, and someday they'll lead a great work, a great church. They'll be a missionary reaching unreached people groups. You don't know. That person you invite to church, the missions donation that you give, you have no idea. I have no idea the impact that's gonna have generationally. You may think you're just simply leaving edges of your life and you're taking a little bit of harvest and you're purposely dropping blessings.

You don't know that, but God may be actually writing a brand new story for that person. So Jen and I have learned this powerful lesson. When you spend your life helping others, other people win, you end up discovering the life you've always wanted. Jen and I are blessed. We are so blessed. We're blessed beyond what we should be blessed, but I think it's because we took Jesus up, not just on a command, but a secret. When he said, it's more blessed to give than receive. We haven't been perfect at it, but we've tried. It's not because God is trying to get something from you. He knows something about you. See, you're created to live with a generous heart because you're made in the image of God, a Mago day. You are made in the image of God and God is a generous God, for God so loved the world that he gave. See, you are created to leave the edges. You are created to drop handfuls of blessing on purpose, strategically. The life that is worth living isn't a life that asks itself, how much can I keep? But it's a life that says, whose life can I make better because I was here? here, maybe the greatest legacy any of us could leave is this. Listen, this is the point of my message right here. Someone else's miracle is hiding in the edges of your life right now. Someone else's miracle is hiding in the edges of your life. So leave the edges. Leave the edges. Don't harvest all the way up to the edge. Leave the edges and look and say, I'm going to leave a little bit of time, a little bit of money, a little bit of emotional resource, a little bit of assets. Whatever it is, I'm going to leave it at the edge because I want to help other people's lives win. As we close, we get the opportunity to practice what I just preached.

We get the opportunity to help feed children. And this is a time, we've never done this before, we're trying it because we have a heart to be able to help children not suffer with malnutrition and food insecurity. And so I had a conversation back in January with the senior leaders of Convoy of Hope, a very trusted nonprofit, number 27 on the Forbes list, by the way. Out of a million nonprofits, they're number 27 according to Forbes. And you know what? I'm friends with these people. And I said, we want to do something. We already help with Relief. We already help with food distribution in Rockford and in Cape and Janesville from time to time. And we help clean the city and serve and we do all the things, but we want to do something different. I said, why don't you do a one day to feed the world? So what we decided to do, and for those who've been here last few weeks, if it's your first week, you don't have to participate in this, although I'd encourage you to, but you don't have to. But none of us have to. We all get the choice. What we said is take your annual salary divided by 365 and give one day, one day to feed children. So today is our opportunity to do this. This is the edges of the field.

See, this is the edges. We're going to take a piece, a little bit of the edge, and we're going to help other people. And I want to tell you, for every dollar that is about ready to be given, we are able to provide five nutrient-rich meals for children, every dollar, five meals. Isn't that amazing? So today, City First, I believe we're about ready to be able to provide tens of thousands, not hundreds, not thousands, tens of thousands, literally, of meals for children in under-resourced areas of this world where they're going to learn about Jesus and be given a meal three times a day. So this is what I'm going to ask us to do. I think everybody could do something. If you're like, you know what, I did the math on that. I don't know if I could give that much. Give something, give something, a dollar. That's five meals. We could all do something. We can drop handfuls of blessing on purpose and we can help children be able to live so that they could have a relationship with God and they can serve their world wherever they're at. So that's what we're going to do right now. We're going to take a moment and put some QR codes on the screens and we're going to have,

if you want to give a physical gift, you can make it out to City First Church and anything that comes into this offering is going to go to the One Day to Feed the World. But if you want to give a physical offering of cash or check, they're going to receive a physical offering at all of our locations and then also they're going to put a QR code on the screen and we are going to go ahead and we are going to give. So they can go ahead and throw the QR code up now. Let me go ahead and let's pray and then we're going to take a moment to give and then I'll come back up and dismiss this, all right? Heavenly Father, we just thank you. We thank you, Jesus, that we get the opportunity to take a little bit of the edges of our life, the edges of our harvest, the edges of the fruit of our life and to be able to make a difference. Lord, some of us are hungry at church today but we don't know what it means to really be hungry in life. Today, we want to solve that problem for children. We want to provide for them meals and provide for them the gospel so that they can hear about Jesus and they can live a life of serving you. So today, I pray, God, bless both gift and giver.

Thank you, God, that we get the opportunity one day to feed the world. We love you, in Jesus' name, amen. Let's go ahead and let's give. ♪ With all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, it's gonna happen ♪ ♪ Just let the way make it through, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, can you imagine ♪ ♪ With all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, it's gonna happen ♪ ♪ Just let the way make it through, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ He's gonna move, can you imagine ♪ ♪ With all of the faith in the room, what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ What the Lord can do, it's gonna happen ♪ ♪ Just let the way make it through, He's gonna move, He's gonna move ♪ ♪ You are more than able to do ♪ ♪ You are more, you are more than able to do ♪ ♪ You are more, you are more than able to do ♪ ♪ You are more, you are more than able to do ♪ ♪ Who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, anything is possible, anything is possible ♪ ♪ Who am I, who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ ♪ Anything is possible, anything is possible, anything is possible ♪ ♪ No matter what you're going through, anything, anything is possible ♪ ♪ Who am I, who am I to deny what the Lord can do ♪ All right. Thank you City First for being such a generous church. You always are such a generous church. And what we just did there literally is giving life to thousands upon thousands of children.

So thank you so much. And I wanna just say this as we leave, if you're new with us here, we have a gift for you on the way out. Just go to the Next Step booth and say, hey, it's my first time and Jen, I wanna give you a free gift. And there's prayer teams down here if you'd like to have prayer for absolutely anything. Also, we have little stickers again on the way out the door because some of you are like going, you know what, I wanna wear one of those stickers again. Hey, feel free to grab as many as you want, all right? God bless you. We will see you next weekend for part two of three choices, three decisions that change a life. ♪♪ What an amazing message. You know, today, if you haven't taken that step to make Jesus the leader and the forgiver of your life, this is the most important decision that you could make. And we wanna give you an opportunity today. All you have to do is simply just repeat this prayer with me and just say, Jesus, thank you for loving me. I know that I've sinned and I need your forgiveness. Today, I choose to follow you, be the leader and forgiver of my life. I wanna live for you, in Jesus' name, amen. If you prayed that prayer, that is the best decision that you can ever make

to make Jesus a leader and forgiver of your life. You're saying yes to Jesus, greatest decision, and we wanna come alongside you on this journey. One of the first things that you can do is tell someone about the decision that you just made. Let them know about that decision. They wanna celebrate with you. And we'd also love to give you a free resource called New Beginnings. It's a simple 14-day devotional, and it's gonna help you understand the decision that you just made and the first steps in your relationship with Jesus. That's right, and when you sign up for New Beginnings, you'll also receive a few short videos from our pastor that are gonna help you learn practical ways that you can pray and learn how to read the Bible and build strong Christ-centered relationships. And remember that if you ever have any questions, if you need encouragement, or you just wanna connect with someone, you could always reach out to us, send us a DM, call our office, and we would love to take a moment to chat with you. Yeah, that's right. And another great next step is Growth Track, which happens on the first Sunday of every month. And Growth Track is designed specifically for you to discover your purpose, learn more about City First, and find out how God has uniquely created you

to make a difference. You can join us online or in person, and you can find out more information on the app or by scanning the QR code right here. That's right. That's right, and if there's anything happening in your life that you need prayer for, it would be our honor to pray with you. You can submit a prayer request anytime through the app or our website, and our team prays over every request that comes in. But most importantly, what you can do is keep showing up, keep coming back to church, keep leaning into community, and keep growing in your faith, because God has so much more for you ahead. That's right. Well, we love you, City First Church fam. We're so grateful that we got to spend part of our day together. We can't wait to see you again next week, but in the meantime, have an amazing day. We love you. God bless.