SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the Ministry of Grankway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on our church, please visit grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a Bible, open it up to Ruth chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth is in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody in the first service said, I I I couldn't find Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: Joshua judges Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: If you get to like 1st and 2 Samuel, that's too far.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 222.
SPEAKER_01: And if at your house you don't have a Bible, you can take that with you.
SPEAKER_01: That'll be our gift to you today.
SPEAKER_01: We love to give stuff away around here, right?
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, Ruth chapter 2, just by way of synopsis, last week we saw how that we're like Elimelech, uh Naomi's husband, the kind of patriarch of the family.
SPEAKER_01: We're like him in that when things get hard, instead of repenting and asking God what's going on, we seek relief.
SPEAKER_01: But God orchestrates circumstances in our lives in order to turn our hearts back to him.
SPEAKER_01: Even when we've been unfaithful, God remains faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And now we pick up the story of God as told through the life of Ruth in chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: They've come back, and chapter 1 ends on, they says they came back at the time of the barley harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
SPEAKER_01: And we introduce two new characters in the story this morning, in the first two verses, so don't miss them.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth chapter 2, verse 1 says, Now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.
SPEAKER_01: And she said to her, Go, my daughter.
SPEAKER_01: And so she set out and went and gleaned in the fields after the reapers.
SPEAKER_01: And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to the reapers, The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_01: And they answered, The Lord bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And then Boaz said to his young man, who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this?
SPEAKER_01: And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.
SPEAKER_01: So she came, and she has continued from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
SPEAKER_01: And then Boaz said to Ruth, Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women.
SPEAKER_01: Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them.
SPEAKER_01: Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?
SPEAKER_01: And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink where the young men have drawn.
SPEAKER_01: And then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?
SPEAKER_01: But Boaz answered her, All that you have done for your mother-in-law, since the death of your husband, has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and your mother and your native land, and came to a people that you did not know before.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
SPEAKER_01: And then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.
SPEAKER_01: And at mealtime Boaz said to her, Come, come here and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the wine.
SPEAKER_01: And so she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over.
SPEAKER_01: And when she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her, and also pull out from some of the bundles for her, and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her.
SPEAKER_01: And so she gleaned in the field until evening, and then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
SPEAKER_01: And she took it up and went into the city.
SPEAKER_01: Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you glean today?
SPEAKER_01: And where have you worked?
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
SPEAKER_01: And so she took her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, The man's name with whom I work today is Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: I want to talk to you this morning about starting over.
SPEAKER_01: About starting over.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we talked about how uh Elimelech led his family.
SPEAKER_01: They lived in Bethlehem, the house of bread, and there was a famine.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of crying out to God and repenting and saying, No, wait a minute, God, we're in the promised land and we're not experiencing the promise.
SPEAKER_01: They put physical need above spiritual conviction and they went to Moab.
SPEAKER_01: That country is God's enemies.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Don't have anything to do with them, don't let your children marry them.
SPEAKER_01: And so they went, and there was things got difficult there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Naomi's husband Limelech dies, her two sons die, and she's left with nothing but her two daughters-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: And she tells them, Hey, go back to your family, go back to your father's house, find husbands, go back to your God.
SPEAKER_01: And one of them says, That works for me.
SPEAKER_01: Orpah says, See, uh, the Bible says that Ruth clung to Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: She says, Where you go, I will go.
SPEAKER_01: Where you lie, I will lie.
SPEAKER_01: Your God will be my God.
SPEAKER_01: May anything but death separate you from me.
SPEAKER_01: And so they come back.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Ruth is like a bad tattoo with feet for Naomi.
SPEAKER_01: Because she comes back and she's like, hey, God has dealt bitterly with me.
SPEAKER_01: Don't call me Ruth, which I mean, don't call me Naomi, which means pleasant.
SPEAKER_01: Call me Mara, which means bitter.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pick up the story, and basically the story, what we see in chapter two is the story kind of advances the big picture.
SPEAKER_01: There's two things that I want to talk to you about today.
SPEAKER_01: Because when people come back and they start over, they're usually kind of wondering, okay, what can I expect?
SPEAKER_01: What is this going to be?
SPEAKER_01: What am I going to do?
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, verse 2 of chapter 2, Naomi is so depressed, she can't even get out of bed.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth has got to get up and go to work for her.
SPEAKER_01: She's just debilitated.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she's laying in bed, popping prozac and drinking cheap vodka, like whatever, that's great.
SPEAKER_01: You go work.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so bitter.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so angry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm so despondent.
SPEAKER_01: And when I thought about that, I thought of the hymn writer.
SPEAKER_01: His name's William Cooper.
SPEAKER_01: William Cooper probably he wrote the hymn, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
SPEAKER_01: He also wrote a hymn that we don't really sing much in the church anymore.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the, this is kind of, I want to put it down as a template over Ruth chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: The name of the hymn is God Moves in a Mysterious Way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, beloved, let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: There are going to be times in your life where God's going to move in a mysterious way.
SPEAKER_01: And unless you believe in the providence of God and the kindness of God, you're not going to see it.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, let me tell you just a little bit about William Cooper.
SPEAKER_01: William Cooper, since the age of six, struggled with debilitating depression.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like overwhelmingly sad depression, so much so that all through his life, on numerous occasions, he tried to take his life.
SPEAKER_01: Like one night he called a cab to take him to the Thames River in England.
SPEAKER_01: He was going to just jump in and end his life.
SPEAKER_01: And the cab driver, it was a foggy night, and the cab driver realized what was going on, and so he just drove around for a long time and he came back to Cooper's home and he said, Here you are, sir.
SPEAKER_01: And Cooper got out and realized he was home and he didn't even realize it.
SPEAKER_01: And he took it as a sign that maybe God was watching out over him.
SPEAKER_01: But all his life he struggled.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, on his deathbed, he sat up and smiled and he looked at heaven and he says, Alas, heaven is open to me.
SPEAKER_01: Because he always lived with this sense of unworthiness that there's no way he could get into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to just read the lyrics to this old hymn, God moves in a mysterious way.
SPEAKER_01: And let that kind of be the windshield through which we look at Ruth chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: The hymn says this God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.
SPEAKER_01: He plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
SPEAKER_01: Deep and unfathomable minds of never failing skill.
SPEAKER_01: He treasures up his bright design and works his sovereign will.
SPEAKER_01: Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take.
SPEAKER_01: The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head.
SPEAKER_01: Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace.
SPEAKER_01: Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.
SPEAKER_01: His purpose will ripen fast, unfolding every hour.
SPEAKER_01: The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
SPEAKER_01: Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain.
SPEAKER_01: God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.
SPEAKER_01: What does he make plain in Ruth chapter 2?
SPEAKER_01: Two things.
SPEAKER_01: And the first one is the providence of God.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_01: I want to just point out something to you.
SPEAKER_01: After uh they introduced two new characters, uh Boaz, and then this person that's gonna have favor on Ruth, or she believes it's gonna have favor on her.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 says, So she set out and she went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech, and behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: Now just stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: There's a whole lot of, and by the way, in the literal Hebrew, it does say it just happened.
SPEAKER_01: It's chance upon chance.
SPEAKER_01: She happened to come.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say she came to the field that belonged to Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: How hard is that?
SPEAKER_01: You could just go out there and say, hey, where's Boaz's field?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's that big 60-acre property.
SPEAKER_01: But no, that's not the way they owned fields back then.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't own the entire field.
SPEAKER_01: You owned like a part of the field.
SPEAKER_01: That's why the Bible says she came to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Think of it like a patchwork quilt.
SPEAKER_01: And so she's standing right there, and she could be 20 yards that way and not be in the part of the field that he owns.
SPEAKER_01: She could be 10 feet that way, or she could be 50 yards that way, or 8 feet that way, and be out of the part of the field.
SPEAKER_01: But the Bible's kind of tongue-in-cheek in the Hebrew, and it says she just so happened as fate would have it.
SPEAKER_01: She comes to the part of the field that is owned by Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And oh, by the way, behold, which is not a word we use.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody used that word.
SPEAKER_01: Drop that word on, you're not gonna go to lunch today and go, behold, fajitas.
SPEAKER_01: It's just not something we use.
SPEAKER_01: It's modern-day vernacular.
SPEAKER_01: What they're saying is, hey, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Check this out.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, and Boaz who happened to be there from Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: It's like karma.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: See, it's not karma or coincidence or fate.
SPEAKER_01: Those are all impersonal things.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you believe in karma or fate or all this stuff, then then I got a question for you.
SPEAKER_01: Who do you give credit to for?
SPEAKER_01: Who do you thank when it's good?
SPEAKER_01: Who do you blame?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I want to suggest a different word is at work here in the life of Ruth and Naomi and my life and in your life, and it's this word providence.
SPEAKER_01: See, that is the theme.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that happens in Ruth chapter 2, and the context for it all is providence.
SPEAKER_01: So we need to understand what we mean by providence.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a couple of definitions, and then I want to give you one you could just live in.
SPEAKER_01: The first definition of providence, according to the dictionary, is the protective care of God.
SPEAKER_01: The protective care of God.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: I give you a great example.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you remember back in high school when you did things that were just ridiculously stupid and you can't believe you did them?
SPEAKER_01: And now that you look back as a 30 or 40-year-old, you're like, God, why did you not kill me?
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Look around.
SPEAKER_01: You're in great company.
SPEAKER_01: I remember going back, Madison hopefully doesn't remember this.
SPEAKER_01: He was about five years old.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I was in the there's one grocery store in my hometown.
SPEAKER_01: That's how big it is.
SPEAKER_01: And so everybody goes there, it's kind of like the social hub, and so I walk in.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, McLean, what's up?
SPEAKER_01: Blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm walking, and Sophie, I think Sophie was a baby.
SPEAKER_01: I'm carrying Sophie, and I'm and Madison's pushing the car.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, don't hit my heels with that thing, please.
SPEAKER_01: How hard is this?
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so I walk along there, and then we got to talking, and the guy says, You know what?
SPEAKER_01: You know what my impression is, you know what my lasting memory of you is?
SPEAKER_01: I'll never forget coming down the danger foot highway, going 117 miles an hour, and you had the truck door open, you were puking your guts out.
SPEAKER_01: And I just with had the baby in one hand, just kind of took Madison's head and just covered her ears.
SPEAKER_01: Really?
SPEAKER_01: In front of my kids, you're gonna say that?
SPEAKER_01: But you say, now here's why we don't want you students to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: It's because you look at that and kind of go, see, you did that, dad, and you turned out okay.
SPEAKER_01: We know how you think, clones.
SPEAKER_01: But what we would say to you as old men and women is that that wasn't us just, oh, just being teenagers.
SPEAKER_01: That was the providence of God, the protective care of God.
SPEAKER_01: Another definition of providence is timely preparation for future eventualities.
SPEAKER_01: Gotta use big words so you don't think you're in church.
SPEAKER_01: Timely, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Timely preparation for future eventualities.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, I had, in other words, God's got a plan, and it's bigger and better and beyond, and and and and he's not never at any point is God kind of like, oh, what am I gonna do now?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I didn't see that coming.
SPEAKER_01: I had dinner uh dinner one night this week with a young couple in our church.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and we're talking, and they said, Hey, we want to join our church, but we and I said, Well, we want to just we want to know your story, we want to just fill the building up with strangers, and so let me take you to dinner.
SPEAKER_01: So we sat down, they're a young couple, they celebrate their one-year anniversary tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just kind of like, Oh, God love you.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, So was the first year hard?
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01: And the second year gets a little bit better, and then you get good for a while, and then your wife finally gets comfortable enough to tell you, hey, you do this, and it drives me crazy.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, Why haven't you said that before?
SPEAKER_01: We were newlyweds, I didn't want to fight about it, but now I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take this pillow and suffocate you if you don't stop snoring, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Turn over.
SPEAKER_01: I say, here's how you know you've been married a long time.
SPEAKER_01: When you first get married, your wife's like, hey, sweetie, you're snoring.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, okay, you turn over.
SPEAKER_01: After about five years, hey, hey, turn over.
SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, oh, oh, oh, I guess the honeymoon's over.
SPEAKER_01: But we sit down, you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Providence, what do you mean, preparation for future eventualities?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Tell me y'all's story.
SPEAKER_01: How'd you meet?
SPEAKER_01: And they kind of laughed, they kind of smiled, looked at each other.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Why is there a story here?
SPEAKER_01: You said, Well, I coached a swim team, and she was one of the people on the swim team, and I was kind of young, and she was kind of old, and I'm older than relax, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you're one of those guys.
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, and so I didn't use, I just coached, and then, and then six years later, he said, I walked in, I just happened to walk in this restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: Just happened, there's that word again.
SPEAKER_01: I just happened to walk in this restaurant, and she was a hostess in the restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Do you recognize her?
SPEAKER_01: And he went, Not really.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, uh you say that the face looked familiar, and she's like, I recognize him.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just kind of chatted and we went out on a date, and we've been dating ever since.
SPEAKER_01: I said, That's providence.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a third definition for providence, and it's simply this.
SPEAKER_01: This is from the Heidelberg Catechism.
SPEAKER_01: This is the way they taught their children, their congregations.
SPEAKER_01: There's 52 questions in the Heidelberg Catechism, and they take one every Sunday afternoon and meditate on it, and they'd ask the question what is the providence of God?
SPEAKER_01: In other words, what is the realm of that which God controls?
SPEAKER_01: And here's the response God's providence is his almighty and ever-present power.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas with his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade and rain and drought and fruitful and barren years, food and drink and health and sickness and riches and poverty.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, all things come not by chance, not by karma or fate or coincidence, but by his fatherly hand.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna stand before you as your pastor who loves you and tell you you need to get your life around that, or else it is gonna be all about you and what you can produce and accumulate and get and fix and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm telling you, not only is there a God in this world, and it's like we said earlier when we read when Amy stood here and read the 130th Psalm, praise the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits without a good theology or a doctrine of providence.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have a framework for blessing the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have a framework for going.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God, when I was 16 and I was an idiot and I had the truck door open, puking my guts up, doing 117 miles an hour in Cecil Petrie's truck.
SPEAKER_01: True story, horribly embarrassing, but true.
SPEAKER_01: Lone Star was the culprit because it was always on sale.
SPEAKER_01: But now I get to stand in aisle forth, and Greg Malloy says, Yeah, that's my last memory about you.
SPEAKER_01: And we were talking about it on the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: We're like, that guy could have fallen out.
SPEAKER_01: No, because I believe what we just read from the Heidelberg Catechism, that the providence of God was watching over me and keeping me from destroying myself.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're here today and you know deep in the marrow of your bones, not in your head or in your heart where you feel, but in the marrow of bones where you this certainty dwells, you don't have words for that.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, I am outside of the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: Your only hope, my friend, is that God is providentially watching over you as an expression of his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says in Ruth chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: And so she said, Go.
SPEAKER_01: And so she set out and went and gleaned in the fields after the reapers, and she just happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who happened to be of the clan of Elimelech, and behold, Boaz was there.
SPEAKER_01: She happened, he, Boaz happened to be of the clan of Elimelech, and we'll get into this next week.
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about the kinsman redeemer motif, and oh, and God's kind of telling the story, and God's kind of saying, hey, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of setting the stage, not because I'm good or loving, but because I'm in charge.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm exercising, exercising my providence over this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the less you we can put that statement from the Heidelberg Catechism back up there, and and depending on how you're wired up theologically, there's part of that you read and kind of go, I don't know if I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just tell you what bothers me about this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's written in old English, doesn't bother me.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta slow down, think about it.
SPEAKER_01: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: That all things come not by chance, just those two words, all things, used to really bother me.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, are you serious?
SPEAKER_01: All things?
SPEAKER_01: Oh well, but I had to work through that, had to read the Bible, and I just go to Starbucks and talk to my friends and say and find an opinion that that fit my preferences.
SPEAKER_01: I had to read the Bible and I was like, got it.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the part that bothers me.
SPEAKER_01: I do weddings.
SPEAKER_01: That's what bothers me about this.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all look like you look when your kids come to you and go, I need$100.
SPEAKER_01: Put your hand on your bill phone, what for?
SPEAKER_01: Here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what bothers me.
SPEAKER_01: Not that I do weddings.
SPEAKER_01: I love doing weddings.
SPEAKER_01: I do premarital counseling.
SPEAKER_01: If you want me to marry you, you gotta do like five sessions of premarital counseling in 75 minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And I ask you questions like, who do you trust in?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you put all your hope in this guy or this girl, you're gonna be like two ticks and no dog.
SPEAKER_01: This is not gonna last long.
SPEAKER_01: And just not.
SPEAKER_01: And so, I mean, usually it goes well.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it doesn't go so well.
SPEAKER_01: There's a young lady in this church a couple, three years ago, was getting she got engaged and said, Well, you do our premarital counseling.
SPEAKER_01: My fiance's heard of you, but he didn't go to our church, and he agreed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, great.
SPEAKER_01: And about the second, see, married people have this radar.
SPEAKER_01: We can tell you if this is a good idea.
SPEAKER_01: You ain't got to be a preacher, you just gotta be married to kind of go, oh, you mm-mm.
SPEAKER_01: And so about the second session, I was just kind of looked at and I said, Now, do you you sure you want to do this?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you do this, you're gonna have a kid on the day you get married, and he's not gonna have a child until you get pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: But you then you're gonna have two kids because he's not ready to be married.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, and the guy was like, hey dude, I'm right here talking about you.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm talking about you.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: You are fundamentally unprepared for marriage.
SPEAKER_01: And if she marries you, I said, you better think long and hard about this, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Well, I kind of been wondering, don't overlook anything.
SPEAKER_01: Because marriage isn't gonna make it go away.
SPEAKER_01: Marriage is gonna give permission to the fullness of whatever's in him right now in moderation.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means.
SPEAKER_01: That means if he's selfish right now, you have no idea how selfish he's gonna be.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden her eyes are getting bigger.
SPEAKER_01: She goes, I gotta think about that.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you need to think about it.
SPEAKER_01: That week I got an email.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Listen, I broke the engagement.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Her dad had already given me a gift card, a nice gift card.
SPEAKER_01: To golfsmith.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was kind of like, oh Lord, I was gonna get me.
SPEAKER_01: It was enough to get a new set of irons.
SPEAKER_01: It was like, Lord, give me some new golf clubs.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, you didn't do the waiting, give that back.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_01: So I come up the next Sunday to the dad, I said, Hey, here you go.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that thing broke up.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, no, no, no, you keep that.
SPEAKER_01: I said, No, I didn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, you did plenty.
SPEAKER_01: That is the best money I will have ever spent in my life.
SPEAKER_01: God's like, Oh, oh, oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01: See, let me.
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring it down to where you live, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Just just think about it like this just for a second.
SPEAKER_01: When I say the providence of God, what bothers me is I do weddings, and here's here's what bothers me.
SPEAKER_01: People, this sounds like a when you say he still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures and so governs them that leaf and blade and rain and drought.
SPEAKER_01: Think of wedding vow.
SPEAKER_01: Fruitful and barren years, food and drink, sickness and in health, richer for poor, health and sickness, riches in poverty, indeed, all things.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what bothers me about this great confession of the providence of God is that we are more than willing and joyfully willing to stand before God and make that vow to another fallen, yet redeemed human being.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we are consistently unwilling to make that vow to God, whose nature is so much more certain.
SPEAKER_01: So much more certain.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the crazy thing they said in my office and say they've known each other two years, five years.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care if you were born in the same hospital.
SPEAKER_01: And I just tell them the marriage is hard work, it's more than legalized sex.
SPEAKER_01: And the guy's always like, well, more could there be.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my phone number.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that part that's part of it, and it's great.
SPEAKER_01: But we just we seem to be willing to say, yes, I trust this person, and yet God says, live this way in relation to me.
SPEAKER_01: Believe this about me, that I'm the providence of God is at work in Ruth's life in such a way that she goes, and by the way, when you read things like this, it should cause us to wonder, what must this God be like?
SPEAKER_01: See, what must He be like?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the big phrase I told you earlier was coming.
SPEAKER_01: The nature of God is not episodic, it's eternal.
SPEAKER_01: The nature of God is not, it's not defined by whatever circumstance you're in right now.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're if your marriage is in the tank and it's hard right now, you know, just you you're gonna be real tempted to define God as, well, God, you know, our marriage is really messed up, but we're really recommitted and we've got into church, all good things, and and God was faithful.
SPEAKER_01: And it makes it sound like, oh, God just in that moment decided to be faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, God was faithful before you ever got here.
SPEAKER_01: His nature's not episodic, it's eternal.
SPEAKER_01: It's just eternal.
SPEAKER_01: It's been going on for a long, long.
SPEAKER_01: You said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: You just, if you've got a Bible uh in Exodus 34, you don't have to turn there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it'll come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to point this out to you.
SPEAKER_01: Just three verses in Exodus 34.
SPEAKER_01: This is when Moses goes to get the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: He says, The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, this is what God said about himself.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: If you hear anything, hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to what people say about God.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what God says about God.
SPEAKER_01: Because people say crazy things like, well, God helps those who help themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Where's that in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's in there somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: Our preacher told us that.
SPEAKER_01: He should be fired.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God says about Himself.
SPEAKER_01: He said, The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the children's children to the third and fourth generations.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
SPEAKER_01: And said, Oh Lord, if I found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us.
SPEAKER_01: For it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for your inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: See, when people finally understand how good God is, when they stop listening to everybody else, their posture of their life changes.
SPEAKER_01: Moses just kind of bowed his head to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh, that's so good.
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I could smoke that so good.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: But I'm all out of cigarettes, so I'll just bow down.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this.
SPEAKER_01: Anytime in the Bible, people understand how good it is.
SPEAKER_01: Their posture changes.
SPEAKER_01: My friend Billy Foote, who's been here led worship before.
SPEAKER_01: You know Billy Foote?
SPEAKER_01: Big bald-headed guy with a goatee?
SPEAKER_01: Looks like he's housing people in that thing.
SPEAKER_01: At his wedding.
SPEAKER_01: Billy was 32 when he got married, lonely, struggled with loneliness, wrote great worship songs, was just lonely.
SPEAKER_01: Was in his wedding, South Carolina, standing there.
SPEAKER_01: He's standing right there, doors open, she comes down the aisle, Billy's kind of standing looking at me, and I kind of look, and I'm like, man, she's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: And he turned around and burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably.
SPEAKER_01: He just bent over with his face in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: And he was, he was like immediately to the ugly cry where noise and snot comes out.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the groomsmen tried to help him.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Because Billy was like.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, and this is a good day.
SPEAKER_01: And the groom's like, Billy, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, shh, shh, stop touching him.
SPEAKER_01: You can't help him.
SPEAKER_01: You don't understand what he understands.
SPEAKER_01: This is so good.
SPEAKER_01: This coming down the aisle in the street is so good, and I'm so undeserving.
SPEAKER_01: I should be burning in hell right now.
SPEAKER_01: And instead, I'm gonna get married and eat cake and have sex.
SPEAKER_00: How great is God! But you can't say that at a wedding.
SPEAKER_00: You probably should.
SPEAKER_00: So he just burst into tears.
SPEAKER_01: He could.
SPEAKER_01: We had to stop the ceremony while he composed himself.
SPEAKER_01: And his wife Cindy's just standing there, just looking up at him, like, I love you.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, don't say that, that ain't helping.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was like, he would recover and she would go, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: Tell him you hate him.
SPEAKER_01: Anytime people finally understand how good God is, how good God is, and how good God intends it to be, the posture of their life changes.
SPEAKER_01: They're not stiff-necked, cocky, arrogant, independent people anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're here today and that's you, you just don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: You might know church, you might know religion, you might have it all figured out, everybody in their place, so you can label them and feel safe and in charge, but you are a scarecrow coming to a bonfire.
SPEAKER_01: It's not gonna end well for you.
SPEAKER_01: That's the providence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And secondly, the kindness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, back in Ruth 2, let's be done.
SPEAKER_01: We have lunch to go to.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you don't have lunch plans, I have extra tickets in my pocket.
SPEAKER_01: See me after the service, and I'll give them to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's kind, we have to be kind.
SPEAKER_01: Ruth chapter 2, look at verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.
SPEAKER_01: Who you think that is?
SPEAKER_01: It's not Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: Then Boaz said to Ruth, Now listen, my daughter, do not go glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women.
SPEAKER_01: Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them.
SPEAKER_01: Now you need to understand something.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: God said, This is the law.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I'm gonna bring you into a land flowing milk and honey, and I'm so gonna bless you that it's illegal to be stingy.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way God said it, though.
SPEAKER_01: God said, Hey, when you reap your fields, don't don't don't cut all the grain down.
SPEAKER_01: Leave the edges and the margins so the poor can come.
SPEAKER_01: The widow and the alien, they can come and they can get some sustenance, some food.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, the Bible does not say if you're poor, just stay home and keep having kids and expect people to bring it to your door.
SPEAKER_01: Never says that.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I say that is because in this young, restless, reformed kind of generation, the new hot button is the poor.
SPEAKER_01: What is your church doing for the poor?
SPEAKER_01: Does your church care about the poor?
SPEAKER_01: Hey, listen, don't roll up on me, Skippy, in your skinny jeans and give me a lecture about the poor, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We've been caring about the poor since you were in about the fifth grade.
SPEAKER_01: So just in the name of Jesus, shut up.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the deal.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: This is a free little sermonette here inside the sermon.
SPEAKER_01: If you just keep giving to the poor, you are imprisoning them in their poverty.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's grain.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, hey, if you're poor, come get what's available to you.
SPEAKER_01: Don't sit around and wait on a handout.
SPEAKER_01: Don't wait on the president to vote it in the law because then the law will dictate that you stay there forever.
SPEAKER_01: But hey, God's got a bigger and better plan.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason God told him that, if you're reading Deuteronomy 24, he said, you leave that because you've been slaves before.
SPEAKER_01: You know what it's like to not have enough food.
SPEAKER_01: But God said, I'm going to bless you so much.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to not have to harvest all the field.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to have so much.
SPEAKER_01: You can leave the corners alone.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why Ruth is gleaning in the fields of Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: And Naomi's back home.
SPEAKER_01: You know, just drinking cheap vodka.
SPEAKER_01: Trying to medicate the pain of an angry life.
SPEAKER_01: Popping sleeping pills to sleep at night.
SPEAKER_01: And she's there.
SPEAKER_01: Because God cares about the poor.
SPEAKER_01: The kindness of God is all over this.
SPEAKER_01: But let me just read.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: We're just about done.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: Let your eyes be on this field, they are reaping, and go after them.
SPEAKER_01: Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?
SPEAKER_01: And when you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.
SPEAKER_01: And then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, because I heard a sermon one time where someone said, When you finally understand it, the posture of your life changes.
SPEAKER_01: She fell on her face, bowing to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?
SPEAKER_01: That is probably one of the earliest understandings of conversion in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think she's talking to Boaz.
SPEAKER_01: See, because in verse 2, she said, In the fields of the one in whom I shall find favor.
SPEAKER_01: Read on.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: But Boaz answered her, All you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and your mother and your native land, and you came to a people you did not know before.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord repaid you for what you have done.
SPEAKER_01: A full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
SPEAKER_01: And then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.
SPEAKER_01: I am not one of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a child with a promise.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: And God begins to say in the book of Ruth, hey, the gospel is not just for religious people.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just for Jews.
SPEAKER_01: We're not waiting for Paul to come along, for the gospel to go to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: I am embracing the foreigner, and I'm going to show chesed, covenant kindness to somebody who doesn't deserve it, like me.
SPEAKER_01: And you.
SPEAKER_01: And Ruth.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Kindness.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the little thing, and then we're done.
SPEAKER_01: Naomi says it later on, Blessed is the one that noticed you, but look in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: She says, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me?
SPEAKER_01: Since I'm a foreigner.
SPEAKER_01: One of the ways you remind people that God hadn't forgotten them is by noticing them.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to ask you, what'd you notice this week?
SPEAKER_01: Last night I'm with my family at the cracker barrel having Sophie's birthday dinner because she loves the cracker barrel.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you've been to the cracker barrel, it's against the zoning laws in Sugarland to build one here.
SPEAKER_01: Gotta build them out in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: So we gas up the truck and we drove to Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: And they build a store that you gotta walk through to get to the restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: That's not of God.
SPEAKER_01: When you got a nine-year-old.
SPEAKER_01: So there's 15 more minutes.
SPEAKER_01: And I want a jar of gumballs.
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, we need that.
SPEAKER_01: Like a hole in the head.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, we're eating, and I look around, and just right above the little partition, I see a black hat with letters and numbers and a picture of a ship on it, and a couple of buttons stuck in his hat.
SPEAKER_01: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
SPEAKER_01: The patriotic redneck and me set up and said, There is a veteran.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Come on, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: And I grabbed my 14-year-old.
SPEAKER_01: And I just walked over and said, Excuse me, sir, are you a veteran?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, yes, I am.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I and my family would like to express our appreciation for your service to our country.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you, I don't want to interrupt your meal, but I just want to say I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And his wife said, He's a veteran of two wars.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Really?
SPEAKER_01: Which one?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, World War II and Korea.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, then let me thank you again for your service in both wars.
SPEAKER_01: And he just said, We've been polka dancing.
SPEAKER_01: You can't spill that on me.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Just blurted out.
SPEAKER_01: We've been polka dancing.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's why you should notice things.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You have.
SPEAKER_01: And the wife said, Well, my walker said, I can't polka dance anymore.
SPEAKER_01: He said, So I danced to all the other women.
SPEAKER_01: I said, You like to spread hope all around the world?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, I don't want to erupt your meal.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, I'm 89 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why would that man say that to a total stranger?
SPEAKER_01: Because not enough of you have seen him in the store and talked to him.
SPEAKER_01: So I said, You're 89.
SPEAKER_01: You don't look 89.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I married a younger woman.
SPEAKER_01: And she put her hand over him, she said, We're both widowers.
SPEAKER_01: We met 32 years ago at a polka dance.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, You've been dancing ever since?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Well, that's good.
SPEAKER_01: My 14-year-old standing there, kind of like, here's my dad again talking to strangers.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I'm wanting to do.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm I'm enlarging her worldview.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you're 14, the world can shrink down and hurry to whatever you want to do.
SPEAKER_01: The world is about, and nothing against 14-year-olds.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are 14.
SPEAKER_01: I was 14 once.
SPEAKER_01: 33 years ago.
SPEAKER_01: And so we just did this a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I'm 89.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, you're a good-looking 89, sir.
SPEAKER_01: I hope I look as good as you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Marry a younger woman.
SPEAKER_01: I did.
SPEAKER_01: They'll keep you young.
SPEAKER_01: And he winked at me.
SPEAKER_01: That's more than I want to know right there.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for your service.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Ruth went home with the epha of barley, which is 29 pounds.
SPEAKER_01: It's enough barley to eat for three to four weeks.
SPEAKER_01: But I just want to tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, we said earlier that the height, we want to grasp the height of God's plan for our life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just episodic.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just, he's not just a toe-tuck driver.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to get you out of this.
SPEAKER_01: Ladies, look at the last verse and we'll we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: And I ain't going to preach this, I just want to point it out.
SPEAKER_01: So she kept close to the young woman of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and the wheat harvest.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, a constant supply of food.
SPEAKER_01: God, my most pressing need, or to use language we used before, God, my loudest desire, has been satisfied.
SPEAKER_01: And ladies, look at the next sentence.
SPEAKER_01: And she lived with her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Aren't you glad that's in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: No husband, no kids, no distraction.
SPEAKER_01: She lived with her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: I know you're trying to be religious right now.
SPEAKER_01: Just breathe that in.
SPEAKER_01: I bet she rocked one of those snap-up moo-moos you get at Walmart.
SPEAKER_01: Watched a lot of golden girls.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever tried to turn the channel on an old person's TV?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_01: I watch Maury every day.
SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna do a paternity test.
SPEAKER_01: It's somebody's kid.
SPEAKER_01: Either you're the father or you're not the father.
SPEAKER_01: No mystery there.
SPEAKER_01: I like Maury.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why that's in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you ladies are kind of like, breathe.
SPEAKER_01: The reason chapter 2 ends with that obscure, random, should live with a mother-in-law, is that God is not only meeting her loudest desire, he's speaking to her deepest desire.
SPEAKER_01: See, the providence of God is bigger than your circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be so easily satisfied with just getting out of whatever you got yourself in last.
SPEAKER_01: What you want to get into is a relationship with a God that is so good that He has loving kindness and covenant faithfulness, and he never runs out of it.
SPEAKER_01: And so chapter two ends with she lives with her mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_01: Because chapter three is gonna tell us what God does about that situation.
SPEAKER_01: You know why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the providence of God is bigger and better and beyond what you're in right now.
SPEAKER_01: Let me voice a prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: The story of Ruth is the story of God, and it's the story of Neil, and it's the story of Kenny, and the story of Scott, and the story of Amy, and the story of Wade, and the story of Kenneth, and the story of Forrest.
SPEAKER_01: And just it's our story, God.
SPEAKER_01: It's our story.
SPEAKER_01: It's not some random.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what is this book about this woman?
SPEAKER_01: It is a book about us, about our wayward heart and your consistent heart to come after us with goodness and mercy that swallows up our badness and our passion for justice.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, I just pray that uh as we prepare to leave, that we would take with us what you said to us and leave everything else here.
SPEAKER_01: We don't need any more unlived information in the world today.
SPEAKER_01: We love you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for telling a story that's big enough for us to live in.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Your father is God, and as such, he's in charge of everything.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he's chosen to use two things to get your attention the most his goodness and his mercy.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and figure out why.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you, you're dismissed.