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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us,
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Ruth and Chapter #2 in a message that I have entitled It just So
Hacked. And while that title doesn't
make sense, and, well, several of my titles don't make sense
that I found over the time, but this title will, Lord willing,
make sense as we go through and read our text here in just a few
moments. This idea of something just so
happening, you know, You ever wonder how One seemingly small
decision. Seemingly unimportant decision
could change the trajectory of the rest of your life.
How something so small, something so trivial, could end
up literally changing your life forever.
Taking a train at 3:00 o'clock instead of four o'clock.
Buying groceries on Monday night instead of on Wednesday
afternoon. Going to work 15 minutes early
or maybe 15 minutes late. All of these things are
insignificant. They're small.
There wouldn't even seem to be any relevance to them, or that
it would make any difference that you would do one thing
instead of the other. We've all been in situations
like this. But that that one single change,
That one small thought. By the time the day was done, we
thought, wow, I would have missed this event entirely if I
hadn't had this delay, or if I hadn't gone early, or if I
hadn't had this change. Thrust upon me, maybe that I
didn't even choose, but that someone chose for me.
Well, my day changed. I met someone that I wouldn't
have met before. I had a situation occur that
wouldn't have happened. Or maybe I was saved from being
part of a situation that I could have been, but now I'm not
because of the fact that I was making a different decision in
the first place. You know, if you think about it,
it could almost cause you to have a paralysis by analysis.
You ever heard that before? Or it almost makes you freeze
up. Well, what do I do if my life
could change at any moment depending on if I go here, go
there, do this, do that. Well, how do I even make a
decision in the first place? In my intention tonight in this
text is not to cause us to analyze down to the microscopic
level, every single decision that we make.
But. I want to maybe overall, if I
was to look at the big picture tonight from this text, it will
be this. I want us to realize this, that
God is at work and even the most seemingly trivial parts of our
life. That God in his Providence is at
work and even the most seemingly trivial parts of our life.
And I think sometimes we forget that the God of the universe is
also the God of the microscopic. The God who does these great
things, and boy, he does great things, doesn't he.
This, this God who does these great things is also the one who
works on the molecular and even the atomic level.
That this God, who does all of these amazing and tremendous
things, also cares about the very minute parts of our life.
And I think that comes through very clearly in our text here
tonight. Would you please stand for the
reading of God's word if you can?
Ruth chapter 2 will read the 1st 3 verses tonight.
Ruth chapter 2, beginning in verse #1.
And then once again, I will not be here next Sunday night or
Sunday morning. But then would Ross be preaching
the word of God next week? And I hope that you'll support
him and the services next Sunday night.
Ruth two verse #1 says this. And Naomi had a kinsman of her
husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of a
Limolek. And his name was Boaz.
And Ruth the moabitest said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the
field, and glean ears of corn after him, in whose side I shall
find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my
daughter. And she went, and came, and
gleaned in the field of the reapers, or after the reapers,
and her hap. You see that word there in our
King James Bible, and her hap that may look interesting to us.
We'll look at that again in a moment.
Her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto
Boaz, who was of the kindred of Limolech.
Now these three verses may seem completely unimportant to the
overall scope of the book of Ruth, but yet what we see in
those three verses with something that just so happed
change the course of Naomi and Ruth.
And Boaz and Israel's history forever because of something
that just seemed to be mere happenstance.
It was God proving that he cared about even the most trivial
parts of life. And if he cared about their
lives. Could I tell you this tonight?
He cares about yours too. Heavenly Father, be with us
tonight as we get into your word bless.
We do ask in the way that only you can through your Holy
Spirit. And we ask it in the name of
Jesus. Amen.
Thank you. May be seated.
Chapter 2 tonight begins by introducing a new key character
to this love story, a man named Boaz.
Now we looked at much length in the first message of this series
at what each of the names meant and how each of their names told
us a little bit about the person or the character that we were
looking at him. Boaz is no exception.
Boaz's name means strength is in him, strength is in him, and as
we look more at Boaz as the. Kinsman Redeemer will realize
that that name is apt in so many ways.
In fact, just saying that word, that phrase Kinsman Redeemer.
You may have heard me use that phrase in passing before, but
yet we see the near kinsman here in our text, right there in
verse #1 when it says in Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's a
mighty man of wealth. Now we know today that when we
use the term kin, we don't use it very often.
But when we do use the term kin, it usually means family, doesn't
it? That someone?
Is close kin. That means that they're a close
relative, or even if they're a kindred spirit, it means that we
have something in common, or maybe many things in common that
makes us feel like family, even if we are not family.
Well, Naomi had a kinsman and his name was a Limolek, or
rather a Po has, and he was a kinsman because he was related
to a Limolek. They were near kin.
They were family. Now to us today, to have someone
who's a close relative. Might be something that brings
encouragement, It might be something that brings joy, but
it doesn't mean maybe a whole lot else.
For instance, on vacation, I'm looking forward to going to see
my uncle and my my aunt, my Uncle David and my aunt Shahome.
They they are really the only relatives I have left outside of
my father other than very far extended family.
That's kind of one of the things about being an only child.
And so because of that, we're going to get to see my Uncle
David and my Aunt Shahone. I'm glad to be able to see them.
But you know, legally, although we do have a close relationship
in the fact that we love one another, legally there's no kind
of requirement that they are supposed to take care of us if
something happens to us or or vice versa.
There is none of that. But understand that when we're
looking here in Ruth Chapter 2 or we're looking in Israel and
we're looking at the Old Testament law, that there were
requirements for family to be able to take care of one another
in the instance that something happened to.
Your kin, and particularly in a situation where the father had
died, the husband had died. If there was a near kinsman, it
was his responsibility to take care of the family, and in many
times to actually take up the name of the family and to
continue it on in that way. He was a relative of a lemon
lec, and it said in verse number one that he was a mighty man of
great wealth. I think this is important one,
because, well, wealth does mean finances.
And certainly he was a man who had great means.
He owned a field and he had servants who worked for him, and
he was a kind master to his servants.
He took care of them. I think that's very obvious as
you see how he took care of Ruth.
But I also see that if you were to look into the Hebrew and you
look at the connotation of that word, wealth, it doesn't just
mean he was a mighty man of financial means.
He was also a man of honor and virtue that that term, mighty
man of wealth is not just finances, although certainly
that's clear from the context of what he we mean.
This is an honorable man. This is a virtuous man.
This is a good man. In fact, it's a man whose
strength is in him. Why?
His name is Boaz in the 1st place.
He is a mighty man of wealth. He was a man of great virtue,
great honor, and yes, even financial means.
You know, it's one thing for Ruth to make her life changing
declaration in chapter #1. I'll go where you go.
Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.
But guess what happened? Now she's in Bethlehem.
Now she's here. And now they're hungry.
They have no food. They have no means.
Something has to be done. How are they going to make this
work? So the first need was for them
to acquire food. But we find, if we go into the
law of Moses, and I want to turn to a couple verses tonight, that
God made provision for those in his economy of the nation of
Israel. That theocracy being ruled by
God, he made provision for those who could not provide for
themselves to be able to have. Could we call it this way a
welfare system? But the kind of system where God
made sure that people took care of one another.
One of those verses in Leviticus chapter #23, Would you turn
there quickly? Leviticus chapter #23, and then
we'll go to verse #22, Leviticus 23, and verse #22.
If you had a field and you were to harvest your field, God had.
A requirement laid upon you in his law about how you were to
harvest that field. Leviticus 2322 says.
And when you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make
clean riddance of the corners of thy field.
When thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaming of thy
harvest. Thou shalt leave them unto the
poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your God, you see.
God had required the landowner to make sure that at the edges
of their field that not everything was harvested.
And also when they were to glean that they were to be able to
leave a little bit left over. They weren't to get the most
minute part of grain. They were to be able to leave
something there. For those who were not able to
provide for themselves, that they were to go out.
If they were physically able to go out in the field and to
provide for themselves, they were to have to work themselves.
It wasn't just. Handed to him.
Boaz didn't just take a basket and take it over to the people's
homes who needed food, but there was provision made to make sure
that they were caring for one another.
And that's where we see, well, God's just so angry in the Old
Testament. Do you realize?
The same benevolent God of the New Testament, the same loving,
concerning, caring God of the New Testament is in this exact
same characteristic in the Old Testament as well.
And we see that here in Leviticus 23.
What about Deuteronomy Chapter 24 if you turn there quickly?
Just a few books away, Deuteronomy chapter 24, verse
#19, Deuteronomy 2419 says when thou cutest down thine harvest
in thy field, it has forgot a sheaf of grain.
You realize what it says? A sheaf of grain, a stock that
maybe because you're using a sickle, you're using some of
these older fashion tools that we certainly wouldn't use today,
where they use combines and. Machines like that.
If there was a sheath, if there was a stalk of grain that was
left behind, thou shalt not go again to fetch it.
It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the
widow, that the Lord may bless thee in all the work of thine
hands. You see, what God is doing is
creating in this system a vehicle of grace.
He is saying you don't deserve the fatherless, the poor, the
widow to get this, but it'll be left for you.
And you'll have a benefit if you receive it.
And he says to the landowner, you have to be able to have
generosity within your heart as well.
By the way it says to leave your corners.
It didn't say how big those corners had to be.
Think about that for a second. Didn't say how big those corners
had to be. It said just leave the corners.
I would imagine it would be up to the landowner to see how
generous they would be. But I see from this year in
Deuteronomy 2419 that God says this if you take care of those
who are less fortunate. Then I will bless you for your
care and your concern for them. So God created the system where
people could go out into the fields and they could be
provided for, and God would bless those who had little.
But God would also bless those who had much as well, as they
all took care of one another. This is what God had intended.
So Ruth goes to exercise her literal God-given right to
glean. And when I say God-given rights,
sometimes we talk about God-given rights and they have
nothing to do with God giving them in the 1st place.
But I just showed you two different verses which shows
that Ruth and Naomi had a literal right given to them by
God to go out in the field and glean so that they would be
provided for. This isn't even really
necessarily taking to the fact that he's the kinsman yet.
I mean, that will come later, but they're just going out and
finding a landowner and finding a field.
And I imagine, again, not knowing much about Bethlehem,
Judah at that time, but knowing that it was the House of bread
and knowing historically there would have been many fields that
would have been out there that would have been owned assumingly
by several different landowners. And could you imagine maybe just
like driving down the street, you're about to run out of gas?
And you say, what, what gas station should I go to?
And if you're like me, you start to go to that mental checklist
of which gas station has the best prices, which ones have the
best amenities, which has the kind of things that you want or
you don't want. And you're saying, how far can I
go before I go to the gas station?
Some of you are like me, and you wait to see that needle.
How far can it get down before, just because I like to keep life
exciting. That may be what it is, I don't
know, but you just maybe at random choose one.
Maybe you're thinking about it. Maybe you're making a plan, or
maybe it just happens to be this needle is low.
The next one I find that's where I go and it just seems like such
a random decision here. Here's what it means when it
what it was her hap that she looks out on the fields and she
doesn't know who Boaz is. She doesn't know who the kinsman
is. She doesn't know what the
relationship between Boaz and a Limolek and Naomi is.
And I would say this, that Naomi gives no indication.
That she should even go to Boaz's field.
It doesn't seem to me, if you read the rest of the chapter,
that Naomi is really understanding that Boaz's field
would be a good choice for her. Because when Ruth comes back
home and explains what happened, Naomi seems maybe just as
surprised as anybody as what to what's going on in this
situation. And so it is the fact that she
goes out and she looks and she says what field.
There's a field over there. There's a field over there.
And by law I can glean at any of them.
Well. There.
And it was boaz's field, the kinsman Redeemer.
It just so happed, in fact, that word hap, according to the
Webster's 1828 dictionary, means that would come suddenly or
unexpectedly. Chance, fortune, accident,
casual event. By the way, this is the only
time this word is used in the Bible.
So is the Bible saying that Ruth just happened by chance to land
in the field that belongs to Boaz?
And my answer to you is this. You and I both know that with
God there are no accidents. You know that with God, nothing
just happens by happenstance. That, just as the old saying
goes, has never occurred to you That nothing has ever occurred
to God. That there is no mistake and
there is no chance. And there is nothing that takes
God by surprise in the throne of heaven as he looks down at us
and say, wow, I didn't see that one coming.
So no, we wouldn't say that that word that.
She took her hap to be able to go.
It just so hap that she would go to Boaz's field, as that is
saying that God just kind of rolled the dice and said, you
know what'll be fun? Why don't we get Ruth to go over
to Boaz's field? I bet that would turn into a
great story. You know, I mean, this could
happen a lot of different ways, but let's just kind of see what
happens and take it by random. Let's choose a number.
Let's see what happens. No, no, that's not what it is at
all. God, in his Providence directed
Ruth. I believe in a way that only he
could. To the field of Boaz, but yet as
it would occur to the outside world, as it would occur to
someone who was outside of this account in this story, it would
seem as if by chance that she just happened upon this field.
But God in his Providence, and God in his love, and God in his
care, was working together, a marvelous plan in his Providence
that Ruth could only dream of, that Ruth could not supply for
herself. That she couldn't write up if
she wrote the script, but yet God says this, I'm going to put
together something absolutely amazing in your life, and it
starts here with something that seems so random and so
happenstance. I'm going to see that you go to
the field of Boaz. Spurgeons morning and evening By
the way, if you've never read Spurgeons Morning and Evening,
it's a wonderful book. If you're fairly new into
reading your devotions, it gives you just a small glimpse of
Spurgeon for the morning, at night, for 365 days.
But Spurgeon actually deals with this verse in that morning and
evening devotional, and he said this.
Her hap was yes, it seemed nothing but an accident.
But how divinely was it overruled?
Ruth had gone forth, with her mother's blessing, under the
care of her mother's God, to humble but honorable toil, and
the Providence of God was guiding her every step.
Little did she know that amid the she she would find a
husband, that she would make her the joint owner of all those
broad acres, and that she, a poor foreigner, would become one
of the progenitors of the great Messiah.
God is very good to those who trust in Him and often surprises
them with unlooked for blessings.
Little do we know that what may happen to us tomorrow, but this
sweet fact may cheer us, that no good thing shall be withheld.
Chance is banished from the faith of Christians, for they
see the hand of God and everything.
The trivial events of today or tomorrow may involve
consequences of the highest importance.
O Lord, deal as graciously with thy servants as thou didst with
Ruth. What is Spurgeon saying?
They're so eloquently. He's saying this the moment that
Ruth says I am going to trust in Jehovah God.
That's what she said in chapter #1.
I am going to trust that he will lead.
I am going to trust that he will guide.
I'm going to trust that he will direct.
And as I walk by faith, remember that's what we're told to do in
Ephesians. We're to walk by faith, not by
sight. As we walk by faith, every step
trusting that God is taking us the right place.
It may just seem that these random things occur to us.
It may just seem that things just happen to.
Come together in these unexpected ways.
But as we just take a step after a step after a step by faith, we
realize that God is directing and God is leading.
And even in the things that might seem small or trivial,
like going to Shaw's instead of Big Y, or going to Walmart
instead of buying something on Amazon or or getting the gas
filled up at Cumberland Farms instead of going to a Speedway,
we realize that even in these. Mundane and small things of life
as we just yield ourselves to him and trust in him and walk in
faith that he will direct us and he is interested and even the
smallest parts of our lives. That's what we call the
Providence of God. Now don't get weird on me about
that because sometimes we use that word, and I'll be honest
with you, it can be taken out of context.
But realizing that God's simply in control of everything, that
even understanding that we have a free will, but yet that we
have a God that see saw every decision already decided by our
free will before the world even began and orchestrated
everything together in such a way to make sure that his will
be done. He say, how do you explain that,
pastor? Well, I just tried to.
Maybe I should say, how do you understand that, pastor?
And the answer is, I don't know. Because I'll be honest with you,
It'll boggle the mind if you think about it long enough.
The fact that I could buy something for $50.00 that I
could have bought for $100 and that my life could change
forever because of that decision, you say, How could
something that small don't tell me there have been things in
your life that you look back and realize, wow, that was seemingly
inconsequential. Choosing a doctor and you're
looking at a list of five names and you say, how on earth am I
supposed to know? And it just so hap that God
directed you to the right Doctor Who would give you the right
diagnosis or just so happy that you went to a doctor that you
didn't care for. But that God use that situation
to be able to further your life and to be able to further you.
That it's not just wow, I'm just going to so happy and
everything's happy, go lucky because it doesn't always work
that way either. But that as we go by faith, we
realize it with every step that God will direct us through his
Providence into the situations that we need, when we need them
to be able to grow for God's glory.
May I remind you tonight that we have to remember that God is at
work even in the most trivial moments and decisions in our
lives. I remember I've told the story
before, was several years ago. I believe that when I started
the job at Gordon's Jewelers, I I didn't have a job.
I worked at IHOP. I mentioned that this morning
for like two or three days, and that didn't work out.
I didn't have a job. And David Corley said to me, you
want to go to Chickfila. Now, who would have thought my
life would change because someone asked me to go to
Chickfila. It's good.
It's not that good. All right.
But he said, you want to go to Chickfila.
The closest Chickfila to us at the time.
There were really not many freestanding stores at that
time. You went to the mall, We went to
Penn Square Mall. We were leaving Penn Square
Mall. And there was a sign in front of
Gordon's Jewelers that says call such and such number about
hiring. And I thought, I need a job.
And I said I got a girlfriend, I'm going to get her a ring
eventually. By the way, that's her in case
you're worried, Okay. But I'm going to have to do
something. So I'm just standing there
looking at the sign. In fact, it was a smaller sign
on top of the jewelry case. And the manager comes up to me.
Her name is less. I know that now.
I didn't know that at the time. And she says, are you looking
for a job? I said, I I am.
I said I was actually going to call that number.
Because don't worry about calling that number.
She says, Tell me a little bit about yourself.
I said, well, I'm a student at Heartland Baptist Bible College.
She said, wait a second, So is that where Valerie Meeks goes?
And I happen to know Valerie was a student at Heartland.
I didn't know her very well, but I certainly knew of her.
The school was small enough to be able to know pretty much
everybody. I said.
Valerie does go there she goes, you know, Valerie's leaving in a
few weeks, she's about to get married and so they're going to
be moving on. And so she asked me a few more
questions. She says, Would you like the
job? And I started talking her out of
it. I said no, this is happening way
too quick. I said, I don't even know the
difference between a sapphire and emerald and a Ruby.
She goes, we'll teach you what the colors are.
We'll teach you what all that is.
She goes, But if you're interested, Heartland has a
great testimony and reputation here.
I would like you to work here before I knew it, a couple days
later, I was wearing a suit from school and just walking over to
Penn Square Mall. We're driving over Penn Square
Mall and walking in. And I had a new job just because
I have to go to Chickfila now, the world would say, isn't that
a coincidence? What Tim Hackett, tongue in
cheek, calls the coincidence list, the prayer list.
Because it is a coincidence. These things get answered.
But we realized the Providence of God when we found this
church. I've told you before the reason
we found We not even found this church, but found Easton.
We were praying about this whole area.
Where would God take us? And I went on this trip with
Mike Carney, the worst New England driver I've ever met.
Stop. Go.
Stop. Go, stop.
Go You ever been so sick that you wish you would throw up?
And I just, I was like, I would just wish I would.
I would get this over with because because he's driving me
crazy, he's going 60 miles an hour for three feet and then
hitting the brakes. And I'm from Florida.
I've never seen this, but apparently this is what Boston
traffic was like. I didn't know.
And so he's taking me everywhere.
He took me all the way to Gloucester and took me to
Waltham is Lord, where should we plan a church?
None of these places did I feel the spirit of the Lord moving.
And finally I have to go home. And he says, you know what, I I
have to go to the chiropractor. It's in Middleboro.
I'm in Randolph. But the closest train station
you need to be able to get to TF Green is in a place called
Mansfield. Now I've never been down to
Mansfield before, but I can remember driving down the area
which is now where I live, and I can show you almost the cluster
of houses on 106 going into Mansfield where it was as if the
Lord. He didn't use an audible voice,
but he might as well have because it was so clear where
the Lord says here because a man had to go to the chiropractor
and took me to a train station, which was different than the one
he picked me up from. And Sharon, now the world says,
well, what a coincidence. I say just so happened.
It just so happened. Do you realize what an amazing
thing that is to know there's a God that so intimately cares
about you? That even in the very smallest
and mundane things of life that he is working in the background
through through nature and through the decisions of man,
that he is able to do these things?
And and and that that delicate balance between the sovereignty
of Providence of God and the free will of man, that he's able
to be able to put all of that together.
And he works in ways that only he can and he does so to be able
to direct our life. And he does so because he loves
us and he cares about us. So I don't, I don't know that I
like the sound of it sounds like God's in control.
Well, no. We have a free will.
But don't be don't be surprised by the fact that God's in
control. If God's not in control of all
things, then he's not sovereign. If God's not sovereign, then
he's not God. So the price of maintaining
contingencies outside of God's control results in a belief that
God is not really God. And if our free will can trump
God's Providence, then who ultimately is God?
Here's what I mean by that. If our free will can thwart
God's plans, then that means we're more powerful than God.
I imagine there's going to be a lot of people exercising their
free will in the end times, doing what they decide they want
to do, and it's still going to play out word for word and verse
for verse. What we see here in the Book of
Revelation, how is that the balance between the free will of
man and the Providence of God? It's going to happen exactly
like we see here. There's not going to be a time
where God says, Oh no, they made a decision I didn't expect.
Now Revelation is wrong. Before the foundation of the
earth he knew the free will, decisions that would be made.
He understood and was able to put them all together.
It reminds me of Proverbs 21, one that gives people like heart
palpitation sometimes when they think of it.
The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of
water. He turneth it withersoever He
will. And people sometimes get very
nervous about that verse. But listen, the bottom line of
this is that man does have free will, but man will not thwart
God's plan. X the 713 and 14 people get
nervous about that as well. And God harden Pharaoh's heart
that he harkened not unto them, as the Lord had said.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened.
He refused to let the people go. Do you know what I see from
that? Is that Pharaoh made the
decision, I will harden my heart.
And God says I see that decision.
And I'm going to use that decision to be able to make my
power known to Egypt and to make my power known to every
generation that's followed as we see it here in the book of
Exodus. And I know this is not a full
discussion on the topic of God's Providence, but I want us to
consider the fact that every day, even in the mundane things
of life, God is working and God is leading, even if we don't see
it. I imagine Ruth did not realize
she made a life changing decision when she wandered into
the field of Boaz. There wasn't something that just
swelled within her and said, you know, I've done something really
well today. I imagine later she looked back
and said, wow, what if I'd gone to a different field?
What if I had made a different decision?
What if I had made a different choice?
But the fact is, you didn't. She didn't.
That God in his Providence directed her to that place
didn't overwhelm her, didn't turn her into a robot, but that
she made the decision because she was walking by faith.
And as she walked in faith, she was where she needed to be when
she needed to be there. Isn't that what it comes down
to? This isn't about the paralysis
of where do I go? What do I do?
What train should I take? What should I do with my car?
What should I do with my life? I don't understand every
decision. It could be monumental.
What do I do? Take the next step of life by
faith. Just take the next step of life
by faith. And as you do so, you realize
every day is a gift and every moment is an opportunity that
God can work in your life. And this isn't just about
church. This is even when we're doing
the things that aren't considered, quote UN quote
spiritual, that God can use those things that we do to be
able to put together such a thing, to weave into that
tapestry of life, to be able to accomplish his purpose and be
able to do what he would want us to do.
This is true when you're going shopping.
It's true about where you go for dinner.
It's true about who shows up at the office one day.
It's true about the restaurant that is closed that you thought
would be open, so now you have to go to a different restaurant.
It's true about the drive, where every light seems to turn red.
It's true about maybe even you getting sick that through all of
these situations, God can use these things in such a way that
we look at as typically being so inconvenient, or that we look at
it so inconsequential and that God could use all of those
things. How many of you ever been in a
situation where you got held up and then as you were driving,
you saw a great and large accident and you realize if I
had left when I wanted to leave, you realize I could be, I could
be dead right now. But what is that?
That's God's protection. That's God's Providence in your
life, in the decisions that seem inconsequential.
Well, I was running late. I mean, this is a big deal.
Well, God maybe had different plans for you on that day.
The interesting thing about this is, though, is that work had to
be done. Ruth had to get up.
Ruth had to go. Ruth couldn't just sit around
all day. In fact, I would submit to you
that Naomi and I'm not. Listen, we've said a lot about
Naomi here, and I love some of the dialogue I've had with folks
about Naomi. I've talked to several different
people about Naomi and about her in this book.
And boy, what a multifaceted person like we all are.
But so even in this book. But Naomi did not go.
Perhaps she missed some of the blessings at first because Ruth
went and she did not. Now, I don't want to be too hard
to Naomi. We don't know her physical
situation. We don't know all those details.
But this is what I know. Ruth made the decision to go,
and Ruth received incredible blessings and it just seemed to
be at random. And it wasn't.
This isn't just work harder and good things will happen.
This is not health and wealth. This is not any of those things.
In fact, as I mentioned before, it could just so happen that
something in your life comes along that's not so great after
all. It could just so have that
something comes along that you feel like is not a blessing.
It's like someone threw you an anchor and said hold on to this
for a while. But even in those types of
things, God works and God will use them.
I look at a tumor in my jaw and I think that two years ago I
would have said this isn't a blessing.
And I'm very careful about calling it a blessing now
because I don't want the second blessing.
But I do know this. Did God use it in my life?
And can I point to very definite things that God did in my life
and in the life of my family and even in the life of this church,
because of what I personally went through, I would be a fool
to say I wish I'd had something else.
I wish it had gone another way. It just so happened that before
I got a tooth extracted that my life changed forever.
There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about that
surgery or what it's done to my body is I have even still some
issues with my leg. Not much.
Some of you would. I mean, I imagine many of you
would rather trade with me. It's so minor.
But I sometimes wonder if God
just leaves it there just to remind me.
Hey, remember, like Jacob with a limp God needed to be remind
him. Remember who's in control.
You fought me and you lost. That limp will remind you every
day the rest of your life. You have to wonder sometimes if
God's done something like that in my life and who am I to fight
that? Who are we to fight that?
We get so bitter at God when he does certain things in our
lives, but we don't realize that those things that maybe seem so
random, that maybe see so inconsequential, is God's hap in
our life getting us to where we need to go.
The rest of this chapter, the rest of this book does not
happen. If she doesn't happen upon
Boaz's field. But God is not just the God of
the universe. He's the God of the microscopic.
I'm going to give you this example.
I'll be done. I've always had trouble with the
end of the book of John, and I mentioned this verse a few weeks
ago where it says that if all the books were written of the
works of Christ, that the world could not contain them.
I've had trouble with that. And the reason why is because, I
mean the world's big, you know, how could that be the case?
But at the same time, I also understand that God's word is
true. And so when I have something
that doesn't seem to line up, let me give you some help with
Bible study. When there's something that
doesn't line up with the way you think, the Bible says one thing,
you think something else. Just start from the place of I'm
wrong and the Bible's right. Because it's not that for 2000
years or so since the can has been completed that you are the
one that was right and everyone else was wrong.
But isn't that what our flesh does?
And so I have trouble with this. It's so.
But it's like, okay, Lord, I realize I'm wrong here and
you're right. But how is this the case?
And I heard this illustration just a few weeks ago, but it's
but it's truth. And I it's not just a sermon
illustration. I had to look it up to make sure
it wasn't just preaching that it was true.
So you've been around church long enough to know what I'm
talking about. If you were to take the DNA that
is in your body, our body's just DNA that that code.
If you were to stretch out of the DNA in one body, there's a
lot of different numbers that people come up with.
But I have seen that that very, very thin microscopic thread
would go back and forth between the moon hundreds if not
thousands of times in your body, in your body, say, Pastor, what
does this do with HAP? Well, hold on a second.
One body. Now why don't we take the about
the 8 billion people that are on this earth right now?
And I've seen estimates somewhere between 15 to 17
billion people that might be alive since the creation.
Let's just take somewhere around there and take all of their DNA
and write it down in a book. I imagine the world wouldn't be
able to contain it. I imagine that you say.
Well, but it says the acts that Christ performed, did he not
create all of them? Do you realize that the world
couldn't contain it? That's the God of the universe.
You're telling me the God of the universe doesn't care about the
microscopic, That he doesn't care about where you go and when
you go and how you get there, or what you spend or what you don't
spend, or or who you meet or who you don't meet, or or what place
was closed and what place was open or or the car ran or the
car didn't run. We met the foresman's because
our car broke down. If our car didn't break down, we
don't meet Dan and Priscilla Foresman because we were on a
road. I shouldn't have been on in the
church van because I should have been in our van, but our car was
broken and I was mad at God that our car is broken.
This is such a bad thing. It just so happened that the car
transmission went kabloui kabloui.
That's theological. You look it up.
It's in the original Hebrew, but God provides over and over
again. Here's the application.
Are you ready? Why don't we trust him?
And why don't we walk by faith? Because as we take each step by
faith, what happens? It'll just so happen he gets us
where we need to go. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.