FBC Morning Worship Service

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Sunday morning service from Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning. See you on this Lord's Day. Thank the Lord for His goodness to us in this past week and how
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He has provided for us, how He has protected us through the week, how
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He's answered prayer. Some of you could point to some very specific things in which the way the Lord has answered prayer.
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Others of you may be able to testify that the Lord answered prayer with a no and in other cases you're waiting.
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But nevertheless thank the Lord for His faithfulness to His people and He shows that new to us each day.
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Let me just highlight a couple of announcements if I may in your bulletin. One is that as you probably are aware the
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COVID stuff has declined, continued to decline in our area.
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I don't think there's any coincidence at all related to anything political about that whatsoever, but nevertheless it has.
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We've got a plan, a schedule for getting some things back to normal.
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Normally this time of year we have an after morning service lunch and then 1 o 'clock afternoon service.
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We haven't been able to do that of course, but we will be restarting that soon.
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So next Sunday is our annual meeting in the afternoon and we're going to have a soup luncheon.
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People are already lined up to provide the food so you don't have to bring anything unless you're one of those who've been tapped to help or volunteered to help with that.
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But just come and be a I think three varieties of soup and some bread and salad for the luncheon.
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Everybody's invited for that. There is by the way a sign up sheet on that table like right around the corner as you're leaving on the table there where there's a few baby bottles are left.
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There's a sign up sheet taped to that table. If you would take a minute and sign up for that.
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Let us know how many to plan for tables to set up and so forth. So then after that luncheon then we'll have our annual meeting and of course for members and any non -members who would like to observe.
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So that's that's next Lord's Day. And then a couple of weeks after that on February 14th
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Michael and Kelly have again this year volunteered to host a Valentine dinner. And when we talked about this we weren't we weren't thinking that we would reopen afternoon services until 1st of March.
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So we set this up and that dinner's going to be on the Sunday the 14th at 6 o 'clock in the evening.
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And that's for couples in the church and you're welcome to join for that. And again there's a sign up sheet on the table or on the bulletin board there in the foyer.
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And then you can see in the bulletin when we do have things planned for reopening 1st
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Sunday of February for Sunday school and attended nursery and then
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February 21st we'll get into the regular morning service luncheon afternoon service and get into that routine.
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So looking forward to getting back to a little more opportunities for gathering for fellowship together and for learning of the
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Lord. We've gathered together to worship Him today to learn of Him and as we begin the service
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Psalm 147 a couple of verses in that Psalm say this, sing to the Lord with thanksgiving make melody to our
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God on the lyre the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in His steadfast love.
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So let's sing together today and worship our Lord as Jim comes and leads us in our opening hymn.
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Jim. Thank you Pastor it's number 55 in your hymnals number 55 let's all stand together please and sing verses 1, 3 and 4 1, 3 and 4 of number 55
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Sing praise to God who reigns above the
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God of all creation the God of power the
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God of love the God of all salvation with healing balm my soul
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He fills and every faithless murmur stills to God of eyes and glory the
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Lord is never far away but through all grief distressing and ever present help to stay our peace and joy and blessing as with a mother's tender hand
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He leads His own chosen band to God of praise and glory thus all my toil some way along I sing aloud
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His praises that all may hear the grateful song my voice in weary praises be joyful in the
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Lord my heart bear your part to God of praise and glory.
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Remain standing for prayer Brother Kevin would you lead us please. Lord thank you again for this day you've given us and for each one that's assembled here thank you for the privilege of that and Lord we pray for Pastor as he brings the message
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I pray that it would prepare us to give the reason the hope that lies within us
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Lord so Lord I pray that each one here has the hope of Christ and the message of love and what you've given us
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Lord in everlasting life so Lord may you touch the hearts and the minds of those here today in Jesus name we pray
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Amen. Thank you you may be seated I'm going to read
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Psalm 146 this morning in the back of your bulletin Psalm 146
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I encourage you to follow along as we read together in Old Testament worship this would be sung to some kind of Hebrew music that is lost to us
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I'd like to hear that wouldn't you see hear what that would sound like nevertheless let's read this or I'll read you follow along Psalm 146
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Psalm 146 Psalm 146 Psalm 146 Psalm 146
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Psalm 146 Psalm 146 Psalm 146 Psalm 146
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Psalm 146 Psalm 146
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Psalm 146 Psalm 146 Psalm 146 number one, the first one in the book, Blessed Father.
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We'll sing all four verses together. In your name to God we pray.
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Through our blood we seek his face. By your priesthood claim his grace.
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Blessed Spirit meet our need. In our silence intercede.
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Transient groans we cannot speak. Heal broken, help the weak.
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Triune God, please grant our prayer. As our glory we declare.
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May your promised kingdom come. May your worth, your will be done.
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As we pray together today, I want to remember our missionary this week, Doug and Ruth Bacharach, serving in the
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Philippines. I pray for the effectiveness of their ministry, primarily focusing on a college and seminary training ministry, but also working every
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Lord's Day with churches in the area of Manila. I pray for Doug and Ruth and their work.
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Thank the Lord for how he's answered prayer related to Bob Klein and helping him through this time of extensive chemo treatment and so forth.
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He seems to be doing well with that. He does have another treatment scheduled for Tuesday, so pray for the
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Lord to bless in that and that the treatment itself, it won't be any of those negative side effects that are so afflicting.
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Many of you would know Wayne and Lynn Epps. Wayne's pastored Calvary Baptist Church in Dixon for years, 30, 40 years.
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I don't remember exactly how many, but his son, Peter, was just diagnosed this week with a form of lymphoma, and of course, it's always a serious sort of, it's a non -Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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So pray for him. He's to have chemo beginning a week from tomorrow, but in a lot of pain.
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He's already in a great deal of pain with this. So pray for Peter and his wife and have a young child as well.
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Also, pray for Hannah Knapp. Hannah was in an accident the other day. She didn't get injured, fortunately.
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Somebody got her, hit her from behind, and so now it's in the insurance process.
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And want to pray for a good insurance settlement. If they total her car, that's not really helpful.
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So that's a very practical thing, but you think about it. It's a difference between getting a car fixed and not having a car payment and getting a car totaled and then having to suffer with a struggle with that.
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So want to pray for her in that regard. And then, of course, we do have a new presidential administration as of this past week, and you are well aware of that.
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And this administration has wasted no time in making it clear that the policies, the philosophy of this administration is contrary to our convictions, our beliefs, and our desires for the progress and future of our land.
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Already has made it clear he wants to codify abortion laws on a federal level.
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So what that would do would be to take away from states the opportunity to restrict abortion and even eradicate it if they get to that point.
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So that, of course, is a grave concern. It's ironic that he would issue that.
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Was it the same day as Sanctity of Human Life Day or the day before right around that time?
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And then also issued the proclamation regarding gender dysphoria, paving the way for men who say they're women to participate in women's sports and all of the rest of the ways that thing is applied.
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So he's already taken steps in that regard. So clearly we want to pray for this administration, pray for the
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Lord to overrule the wicked hearts of men and wicked intents, and pray that many of these things that are intended are somehow, someway stymied and not brought to pass.
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Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Our Father and our
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God, we come before you today rejoicing in the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. It's a hope that transcends whatever happens in this world.
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However, whatever direction a governmental power takes, whatever policies are enacted, and however distressing they may be on a practical and everyday level in our lives and the impact that those policies can have on the institutions of the church.
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And Lord, we realize that these kinds of policies that the present administration has already enacted and plans for more to come are actions that will put the church in jeopardy in some ways.
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And yet we realize that when Satan and the gates of hell want to threaten and seek to destroy the church, it shall not prevail.
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We thank you for the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. We thank you for your power.
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We thank you for your sovereignty. We thank you that at this time in our nation's history, that the changes in administrations are not something that take you by surprise, but you even have a purpose in those changes.
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We think of how in Israel's history you used the wicked
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Babylonians to accomplish your purpose. You used the pagan king
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Cyrus to be your servant. You had your servants well placed in the pagan empire of Babylon.
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And Father, we know that whatever happens on a governmental level, it is ultimately for your greater purpose.
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And you still want to use us to be effective servants of yours regardless of the political climate.
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Help us, Father, to be faithful. We do pray regarding these intentions that are really a slap at you, at what you have done in creation, the creation of male and female, and the efforts that are underway to cloud that clear distinction and to encourage confusion and all the more heartache and strife in the lives of people and in their hearts.
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And we also, Father, are thankful that you have made it clear that you are the author of life, and yet this administration is wanting to make it more acceptable and accessible for people to take the life of unborn children.
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Oh, Father, we would pray, the desire of our heart would be, that you and your power, your great power, your sovereign power, your providential control, that you would put roadblocks and barriers up in the way of these intentions.
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Father, we pray that you would bring our nation to its knees, bring us as a people to repentance, a turning from sin, a turning to Christ.
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We thank you, Father, for the opportunity to intercede in behalf of others. And we pray today for Doug and Ruth Bacharach, and pray for their ministry in the
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Philippines, serving in a Bible college, serving in local churches. I pray that you would use them this weekend as they have opportunity to labor and work with your people and to testify of Christ.
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Use them, we pray. We pray for these who are afflicted. We think of Bob Klein and his chemo treatment
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Tuesday. I think also of Peter and his beginning of chemo next week.
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Or these men suffering from great affliction. I pray that by your grace, you would sustain them, enable them to endure that which is really injected into their bodies as an intention for healing.
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I pray that you would use it to that end. And then, Father, we pray for Hannah, that you would just encourage her.
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After this accident the other day, I pray that she would get a fair and good settlement and one that would be of real benefit to her.
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We pray that you would provide for and meet her needs. Father, we pray for those who can't be with us today because of physical limitations, some because of being shut in.
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I pray that you would bless them and encourage them in their isolation. And for any who might be ill today,
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I pray, grant them healing mercies. Lord, bless each who is in this attendance today.
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Use your word in our hearts. Bless all who are watching by live stream today. And use the message of the hour to encourage them, even in their homes.
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And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Amen. Before the morning message,
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Pastor Weiss brings a turn in your hymnals to number 411, 411.
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And a reminder in the last verse, the children's church are dismissed. But let's all stand together, please, and sing the first three verses, 1, 2, and 3, of number 411, the solid rock.
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Let's stand together, please. Excuse me. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
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I dare not trust the sweetest rain, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
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On Christ's solid rock I stand, no other ground is sinking sand.
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No other ground is sinking sand. When darkness fails
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His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace.
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In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.
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On Christ's solid rock I stand, no other ground is sinking sand.
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All is sinking sand. His oath is covenant and His blood support me in the whelming flood.
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When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay.
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On Christ's solid rock I stand, no other ground is sinking sand.
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All other ground is sinking sand. Please be seated.
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For our scripture reading this morning, I want to turn to Ruth chapter 2, the second chapter of the book of Ruth.
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I want to read verses 1 through 13. For our reading, be looking in the message at the entirety of the chapter.
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Ruth chapter 2, follow along in your copy of scripture as we read beginning in verse 1.
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It says, And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was
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Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight
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I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto
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Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto the reapers,
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The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee. Then said
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Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this? And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said,
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It is the Moabitess damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. And she said,
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I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she came and hath continued even from the morning until now that she tarried a little in the house.
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Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens.
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Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee?
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And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn. And she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him,
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Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldst take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto her,
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It hath fully been shown me all that thou hast done unto thy mother -in -law since the death of thine husband, and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.
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The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.
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Then she said, Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord, for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.
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The Lord add his blessing to his word. Let's pray together briefly. Our Father and our
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God, we are mindful today of how we need to hear from you. We are living in a time when circumstances would seem to rob us of hope, and would seem to plunge us in despair.
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Lord, we need to be encouraged by the hope that is found in your word. Encourage us today, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen. If you've ever read the story or watched the movie
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Le Miserable, the key character in that story is a guy by the name of Jean Valjean.
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As a young man, he ended up being sent to prison because it was a time of great poverty, and his sister's family was starving.
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He was too, but he was mostly concerned about his sister's child, who was literally starving to death.
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They had no money, they had no way of getting any food, so he walked by a bakery store one day and saw a display of bread in the window.
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In desperation, he broke the window, stole a loaf of bread for the child, and ran off, but he was unfortunately caught, and was then sentenced to prison for stealing a loaf of bread.
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He spent 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. When he was finally released from prison, it was made clear by his antagonist in the story that he would never, never be truly free.
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He would always be a prisoner wherever he went, even though he wasn't in prison. He had to take a paper with him in any town he entered into.
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He had to present it to the magistrate in the town and let them know that he was an ex -convict.
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That would limit him to anything that he would be able to do for the rest of his life. He was plunged into such a state of hopelessness and despair.
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But all of that changed when a seed of hope was planted in his heart and life by a bishop.
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He didn't have any place to sleep, so he stopped one night at the bishop's home and the bishop let him stay there.
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In the middle of the night, Valjean, in his despair and his utter hopelessness, thought the only way he could survive was to continue a life of stealing.
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He stole a couple of silver candlesticks and some silverware from the bishop and fled.
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The police caught him, not knowing what he had done, but caught him, thought he was a vagrant, and found the silver in his sack.
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He said that the bishop gave it to him. So the police took him back to the bishop's home and the police asked the bishop or so told the bishop that this vagrant told them that the bishop had given him this silver.
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Surely, the police said, you didn't give him the silver. Well, he didn't.
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But the bishop said, oh, my son, you left the best stuff behind.
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He reached into the cabinet and he pulled the rest of the silver that the bishop had, put it in the bag and said, now go your way, be well, and off he went.
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That seed of kindness, that act of kindness, sowed a seed of hope in the heart of Jean Valjean and it really ended up transforming his life.
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The rest of the story is a wonderful story of that transformation that took place in his life.
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A similar seed of hope is planted in Ruth chapter 2.
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You remember at the end of chapter 1, Ruth is in a state of utter hopelessness.
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Her hope is all but dead. But a seed is planted at the beginning of chapter 2, a seed that germinates by the time you get to the end of the chapter.
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So listen, don't despair. Don't despair. God may use some very seemingly unrelated, insignificant detail in your life to restore your hope.
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Don't despair. Now remember that for Naomi, hope is encompassed in place, that is, land, permanence through children, and purpose.
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There's got to be more to life than just my mere, sheer existence.
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So a seed of hope is planted, and a seed of hope is planted in verse 1 by God's grace. Now verse 1 is really just a statement of fact that is not really of the flow of the story.
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Just telling us, introducing this character, this man Boaz, and it says in verse 1 that Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth of the family of Elimelech.
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His name was Boaz. So Naomi and Ruth don't have the connection with him yet, but what the author tells us, the writer of this story tells us, in verse 1, is that God's grace is planting a seed of hope in this part of the story, this section of the story, because of who
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Boaz is. Who is this man? Well he is, in the first place, a man of substance and standing in the community.
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The scripture tells us he is a mighty man of wealth. Now the Hebrew terminology here doesn't demand that he is materially wealthy.
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The Hebrew term just means he's a man of stature, a man of significance, and there are different ways in which that can be measured.
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Sometimes that same word is used of a mighty warrior in a battle context.
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Well here, because of the context of the story, it's pretty evident that his stature includes a measure of wealth, a measure of substance in the community.
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And because of his being who he is, he's a person in the community of influence and wherewithal.
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He has the ability to make things happen, if you will. It's kind of like, in our community, just about everybody knows who
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P .W. Dillon was. I mean, you drive down, what is it, 3rd Street and coming back, heading east, and you're going to come across the
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Dillon Home. And you don't have to live here long before you want to know, why is that home the
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Dillon Home? What's so significant about the Dillon Home? We moved here in November, late
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October, November of 2002. And for Christmas, the home was all decorated up.
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I mean, we knew a little bit about it. We knew that P .W. was the president of the
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Northwestern Steel. And so we saw the home all decorated, beautiful home.
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We said, you know, let's check that place out. So we went for the tour at Christmastime. And we got the tour, we got the history, and we found out that this man was a man at the time of his life of great significance in the community.
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And that hasn't died down at all. The Dillon Foundation is still making an impact in our community.
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Well, Boaz was that kind of a man in Bethlehem. But more importantly to the story here, as the seed of hope is planted, he's not simply a man of substance and standing, of influence and wherewithal.
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He is a kinsman of Naomi through Elimelech. That means he is a person of hope.
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This man can remedy the plight of Naomi and Ruth. So the seed is planted by God's grace because of who
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Boaz is. It's also planted because of what Boaz will eventually do.
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And what he will eventually do is provide for these women a settled place, a form of permanence, a renewed sense of purpose.
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Ah, but I'm getting ahead of myself because when you get to verse 2, Naomi and Ruth aren't even aware of Boaz.
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He's not even really on their radar screen as providing for them any potential hope.
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Now the point here, the application of that for us is that we never know when someone, someone that we're not even really that familiar with or who is very remotely touching our lives, may be a key player in providing hope in our lives somewhere down the road.
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I think many, many years ago now when Chris was a sophomore in college, when she went to school at the beginning of her sophomore year, she had just enough money for one semester and that was it.
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And so the plan was that at the end of that first semester she was going to go home, she was running out of money, she had no money to continue on the next semester.
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As the first semester was drawing to a close, the longing to stay and finish out that year just grew more intense and wanted to stay and thought that she needed to stay but what to do, what to do?
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Finally decided that she would by faith go ahead and continue on and finish out that school year.
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She was just going to get a student loan to finish it out, do a work loan thing and work on campus and pay off some of that, the rest she would end the year with a student loan.
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A couple of days after making that decision she got a notice in her mailbox that an unknown benefactor had made a contribution to her account.
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And a few weeks later she got another one of those notices, an unknown benefactor. And she got one that continued every month, in fact every month until that student loan was paid off.
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And when that first note came in the mailbox that there was a contribution made to her account from an anonymous donor, the hope that she was doing the right thing, heading in the right direction, made the right choice was planted in her heart and that hope just continued to germinate from some unknown source.
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Later on she found out, I don't know if she ever found out the name of the individual but was able to find out that he lived in Kansas City, and just determined that he was going to continue contributing every month until her school bill was paid off.
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What a tremendous encouragement. The Lord uses people like that in a tangential way in our lives.
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People that we may not even be aware of or only remotely aware of and yet he uses them to plant a seed of hope.
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So the seed of hope is planted by God's grace through this individual
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Boaz. But then that seed of hope is watered through the sacrificial spirit that you see in verses 2 and 3.
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This is on the part of Ruth. And notice how the Lord honors a person who has a humble spirit.
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He honors a person of a humble spirit. Ruth comes to her mother -in -law and says,
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Let me go. Let me go and glean in a field. She's seeking permission to do this.
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The thing of it is, Ruth is just as hungry as Naomi is. Both of these women are really impoverished.
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They don't have means of any kind. They can't just go to the
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ATM and take out a few bucks and then go down to Kroger and buy some bread. They don't have that kind of capability.
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They're impoverished. And Ruth, in her hunger, could just say, Hey, I'm going.
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Like it or not, I'm going. But that's not her approach. Her humility comes out here when she goes to her mother -in -law and says,
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Let me go. Let me go. And what she's doing in that act is honoring honoring
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Naomi's position as her mother -in -law and her authority. So she shows that humble spirit by seeking permission.
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But I think more poignantly, she shows that humble spirit by what she does, by what she does.
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She deliberately, voluntarily seeks a lowly position.
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Let me go and glean ears of corn, ears of grain.
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Let me go. This is barley harvest, so she's gleaning barley. Let me go and glean it.
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Now to us, those are just words. Unless you understand the significance of those words.
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Going and gleaning in a field was the work of the community's poorest people.
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They didn't have a job. And the only way they could eat was to go and pick up any grain that might have been dropped by the reapers, accidentally dropped by the reapers, or any that might have been accidentally overlooked as the reapers went through the field harvesting the grain.
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And the poorest of the poor were the ones who gleaned. And Ruth is saying, let me take the position of the poorest of the poor to go and glean.
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This is comparable in our day,
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I suppose, to accepting, to being in such a position of impoverishment that you accept welfare, like you don't have any other choice.
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I'm talking about people who want to work and all the rest of that capability, but they can't get a job.
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And the only alternative is to seek public assistance. And for someone who really has a heart to work and a mind to work and doesn't have the ability to or the opportunity to, whatever, it is the hardest thing in the world.
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It is the hardest thing in the world to go and ask for help.
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And this is Ruth. This is Ruth. She's accepting that position willingly.
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Let me go and glean. So the Lord honors that humble spirit on the part of this woman, but the
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Lord also leads those who have a willing heart. So here's this humble lady.
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She's hungry. Her mother -in -law is hungry. She's going to do the job.
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She's going to do the work to provide and take that lowly position to go. And off she goes.
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And she is willing in that voluntary role to go anywhere.
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Because you notice what she says at the end of verse 2. She says, Let me go and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight
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I shall find grace. Let me go anywhere. I'll go to whatever part. And we have to kind of understand the agricultural layout here as well.
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There was the city, the town of Bethlehem. Everybody lived in the town. And then outside of the town, there was the huge area that would have been set aside for agricultural purposes.
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And that huge land mass for agricultural purposes was subdivided.
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And different owners had different parcels of that agricultural land.
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So it's not like in our area. A farmer may have a well -staked out parcel of property.
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Maybe a few hundred acres or maybe a thousand acres. But he's got it staked out. And everybody knows whose farm that is.
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It wasn't the way. It wasn't that way around Bethlehem. You could go from one place to another and go from one person's property to another and not even necessarily know it.
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So that's what she says. Let me go and I'll go wherever I can go. Wherever I can go. She's willing to go anywhere to solve this problem.
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And she has no hidden designs. She has no hidden ulterior motives. Nothing like that controlled her.
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You see at the last part of verse 3, the King James translates it very quaintly. Her hap was to light upon the part of the field.
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In other words, it just so happened that she went to Boaz's field. Now she didn't know that.
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She didn't have a clue who Boaz was. If she'd heard the name Boaz, it wouldn't have meant anything to her.
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It just so happened that she landed in Boaz's field.
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Now you and I know who Boaz is and how do we know? Because the narrator told us in verse 1. But she didn't know.
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She just happened to land there. Now, let me make this clear.
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Ruth's toil doesn't earn her what's coming. In other words, the grace that's coming, the favor that's coming, and all the rest of it.
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She doesn't earn that by her toil. Her toil puts her in a place where she can receive it.
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It's kind of like, you remember the account of Abraham's servant who is commissioned by Abraham to go find a wife for Isaac.
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And the servant goes with a caravan and he takes off to go find a bride for Isaac.
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And off he goes and he gets to another land. And he finds
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Rebekah. And when he finds
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Rebekah and it turns out that she's going to be the one and she agrees to go and become Isaac's wife and everything.
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The servant said this, I, being in the way, the
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Lord led me. So it wasn't that that servant's work earned him the blessing of this bride provided for his master's son.
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It was that his going faithfully to do what he's been given to do put him in a position, a place where the
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Lord could lead him to the right thing. Well, this is the way it is with Ruth. She being in the way, the
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Lord led her to the right field of the right man at the right time.
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So the seed of hope is watered by this sacrificial spirit of Ruth.
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But the bulk of this chapter, verses 4 through 17, this seed of hope is then fertilized with the nutrients of grace.
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And I would suggest the same is true for you and me. The Lord, in his grace, plants a seed of hope.
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It's watered, but then it's fertilized with the nutrients of grace.
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Look at verse 4, how the Redeemer, and Boaz is that Redeemer. Look at how that Redeemer cultivates a gracious atmosphere around him.
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In verse 4, you have this interesting interchange between Boaz and his laborers.
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He comes to the field and you get a sense of his kindness toward his laborers.
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He comes to them and he says, The Lord be with you. Yahweh be with you, he says.
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And they reply, which gives you an indication of their attitude toward their employer.
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They reply, The Lord bless you. The Lord bless you.
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So he provides here a positive work environment, beseeching
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God's blessing on the laborers, and the laborers show a respect for their employer.
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What a wonderful working arrangement. Oh, that it would be so true in businesses all over the place, right?
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If you work in a place like that, the Lord has truly blessed you. But it's the
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Redeemer, Boaz, who has cultivated that gracious atmosphere in the workplace, if you will.
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But then that Redeemer next, in verses 5 -7, expresses a gracious appreciation.
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A gracious appreciation. So in verse 5, he wants to know, who's this woman?
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Who's this woman? Now, what's going on here, there's a few ways of interpreting this.
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One of them is that Ruth gets to the field and she asks,
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Can I go glean? And right away she's given permission to go glean. And she's out there gleaning.
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And Boaz comes and he sees her off in the distance in the field and wants to know who she is.
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Another way of interpreting this, both are legitimate, another way of interpreting this is that Ruth comes to the servant that's over the laborers, and she says,
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Can I glean here? And he doesn't have the authority to allow her to do it, so he says to her,
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Hold on a minute, hold on a while, till the master comes. And then when Boaz comes, she's off to the side, waiting to hear what the verdict will be.
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Whatever the case, Boaz wants to know, who is this woman? Who is this damsel?
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And literally he asks, To whom does she belong? To whom does she belong?
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He's assuming that she is a servant of somebody. To whom does she belong?
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Well, the servant answers and explains who she is. And in verses 10 and 11, notice how
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Boaz expresses appreciation for her personal sacrifice. She asks,
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Why have I found grace in your eyes that thou shouldst take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
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Boaz answered. And he says, It's been fully showed to me all that you've done to your mother -in -law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother in the land of your nativity.
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He's honoring her, expressing appreciation to her for her personal sacrifice, for what she has left behind.
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And what she did not leave behind was her mother -in -law. What she left behind was her own father and mother.
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And she left behind her place. In other words, she has left behind everything that should have offered to her hope.
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She's abandoned all hope. And he expresses appreciation that she would be willing to abandon all earthly hope for this unseen hope.
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She's left her native land. She's left her family.
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She's left where she belonged. And for what? But, remember what our
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Redeemer said, Jesus. He said, There is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands for my sake and the gospel, who will not receive an hundredfold now in this time and in the age to come eternal life.
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You remember later on, Peter, he said, We've left everything. What shall we receive?
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Well, the Redeemer expresses appreciation for those who will so personally sacrifice their all.
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But this Redeemer also expresses appreciation for the personal faith that Ruth expresses.
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Because she has left it all behind. At the end of verse 11 he says, And you are come to a people which you did not know heretofore.
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You have acted in total uncertainty of whether you would be accepted, of where you would really land, and you did so simply trusting
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Yahweh, the Lord, the God of Israel. He points that out at the end of verse 12.
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When he says, The Lord recompense your work, and a full reward be given you of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you are come to trust.
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So he expresses appreciation for her personal sacrifice as well as her personal faith.
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So this Redeemer, he extends grace to this woman, not only by offering gracious appreciation, but by extending gracious favor.
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And here the Lord uses this man,
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Boaz, as an instrument of grace in the life of this chosen woman.
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This chosen foreign stranger who has come by faith to the
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God of Israel. And what Boaz, the Redeemer, extends to her is the gracious favor of abundant protection.
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Abundant protection. Look at verse 9. In verse 9 he says to her,
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Don't let your eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go after them.
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Now listen to what he says, Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? That gives you a little bit of insight in what the working dynamics could have been like in that environment.
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Where given the right opportunity, maybe hiding behind some stalks of grain, a young man might assault a vulnerable young woman.
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But this Redeemer provides and extends the gracious favor of abundant protection for Ruth by guaranteeing that she's not going to be physically assaulted.
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And he even protects her from verbal abuse. Because notice the end of verses 15 and 16.
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At the end of verse 15, Boaz commanded his young men, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not.
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Don't reproach her. And at the end of verse 16 he says that she may glean them and rebuke her not.
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Don't reproach her. Don't rebuke her. Let her glean.
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Let her get what she needs. Let her meet the needs of her household.
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And don't reproach her. Don't rebuke her. Reproaching has the idea of humiliating her.
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Don't humiliate her. Don't scold her. Don't put her in her place.
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Don't reproach her. And don't rebuke her. You know, rebuke is a pretty strong word that would be, oh, it would be, it would almost be an insult.
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Don't insult her. Let her be. Here the redeemer, the master, guarantees the protection of this one to whom he's extending grace.
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He also extends the gracious favor not only of abundant protection, but abundant acceptance.
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Abundant acceptance. Verse 14 is a beautiful picture of the acceptance that is offered to her.
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But to get the significance of that acceptance, look back at verse 10. At the end of verse 10,
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Ruth asks, Why have I found grace in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, seeing
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I am a stranger? Like, why would you, why would you treat me this way?
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I'm an outcast. Why would you treat me like this? Okay, so Ruth recognizes how she deserves to be treated because of her position as a
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Moabite woman in Jewish culture. She deserves to be an outcast.
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Why would you treat me this way? And then in verse 13, she realizes that if she is to gain anything whatsoever, the least little bit of grain, she has to receive grace.
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So she says at the beginning of verse 13, Let me find favor in your sight, my
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Lord. Let me find grace in your sight. And this
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Redeemer responds with abundant grace, abundant protection, abundant acceptance.
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Because in verse 14, Boaz says to her, At mealtime, come thou hither and eat of the bread.
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At mealtime, come here and sit down and dine. Come and dine.
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Now get the significance of this. She is one who was a far off, who by the grace of this
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Redeemer is brought near, brought near to dine at his table.
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Doesn't this sound familiar? Something you read in the book of Ephesians? Chapter 2,
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Paul says to the Ephesians, But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
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You Gentiles, me, a Gentile, by the grace, the abundant grace of our
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God, our Redeemer, we have been brought near. We were far off, but we have been brought near by the blood of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. So, she who was a far off is invited to draw near, and she is invited to share the food.
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Come and eat the bread. Share the food and to enjoy the meal.
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Not just get something to satisfy the craving hunger in your belly, but to enjoy the meal.
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How so? Take your bread and dip it in the wine. There's where the enjoyment is.
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It's not just a crusty piece of bread that she gets to eat, but she gets to dip it in the sweet wine, in the savory wine, and gets to enjoy the meal as well.
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He offers her, did you catch this? He offers her bread and wine.
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There's another type of Christ in the Old Testament that offers bread and wine.
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Melchizedek. You remember Melchizedek? When Abraham rescues
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Lot from the warriors that had ransacked and raided the area and took them all captive, he's coming back,
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Abraham's coming back, and Melchizedek comes out. Melchizedek, the king of Salem, the priest to the
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Most High God, he comes out to meet Abraham and he offers him bread and wine.
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The writer of Hebrews tells us Melchizedek is a type of Christ, offers bread and wine.
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And here is a Redeemer, Boaz. Boaz is a type of Christ, and he offers to this one an alien from the household of faith, an alien of grace.
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He offers to her bread and wine. And then that night before his betrayal, the night of his betrayal, before his death, the
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Lord offers to his disciples around that table bread and wine.
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And the next day, less than 24 hours later, the one who fulfills the types of Melchizedek and Boaz, the one who fulfills the types, offers to us the bread of his broken body and the wine of his spilled blood.
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Bread and wine. She's invited to enjoy the meal, to share the food, and in this abundant acceptance, she's given more than she could anticipate.
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Not only bread, she couldn't even anticipate that, but she's given the bread, she's allowed to dip the bread in the wine, and then she's given roasted grain.
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Roasted grain in addition to the bread and the wine. And she is given more than enough.
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She was satisfied, the end of verse 14 says, she did eat and was satisfied and left.
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She had some left over, is what that literally says. She's given more than enough.
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Now look at this, look at this. Here is this gracious redeemer who took an ordinary occasion and transformed it into a glorious demonstration of compassion and generosity and acceptance.
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In his gracious favor that he extends, he provides abundant protection, he provides abundant acceptance, he provides abundant satisfaction.
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He provides and meets her needs of thirst and hunger. She's thirsty, he says to her in verse 9, go to the well and take of the water that's been drawn.
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She's hungry, he says to her, come to the table, come and dine, come and eat. And our redeemer says to us, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.
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He extends the grace of abundant satisfaction and he extends the gracious favor of abundant provision.
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Here this redeemer provides generously for her a place to work.
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He says in verses 8 and 9, don't go anywhere else. You stay right here, you stay right here.
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You come every day to my field until the harvest is ended. We read at the end of things that she stays not only through the barley harvest but through the wheat harvest as well.
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She stays in the place that he graciously provides. He not only provides a place for her to be, but he provides a crop for her to gather in verses 15 through 17.
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He tells the workers, the master of the workers, he says let her glean among the sheaves.
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That's not normally what they would do. They were allowed, the poorest of the poor, they were allowed to glean, but they had to stay on the fringes of the field.
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They could trail far behind those who've already harvested, but they couldn't go where the sheaves were stacked.
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The reapers would gather up stalks of the grain and they would bundle them together and then they would take those bundles and put those sheaves in a separate place.
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When that happened, some of the grain would fall off, the heads and so forth, and then when they came to collect the sheaves for them to be beaten out and so forth, they would collect up all those heads of grain that fell off.
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He says let her go even among the sheaves. Not only among the sheaves, but he says
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I want you to drop some on purpose for her and don't prevent her.
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Don't fuss at her for it. He provides her abundance. Abundance.
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Look at verse 17. Verse 17, so she gleaned in the field until the evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley.
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Again, that doesn't mean anything to us. What's an ephah? Have you used an ephah of flour lately?
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That's three -fifths of a bushel. In the weight of barley, that would come out to about 30 pounds of grain that she was able to glean that day.
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That is far, far more than any other gleaner would have gleaned in the field of Boaz in that particular day.
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Abundance. So watch, the seed of hope is planted by God's grace.
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The seed of hope is watered by this humble, sacrificial spirit.
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The seed of hope is fertilized with the nutrients of grace until finally, finally, the seed of hope sprouts as grace breaks through the hard soil of the hopeless heart.
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Verses 18 through 23. Remember, the hardened, the hardened soil of a bitter heart sees no grace.
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Remember the end of chapter 1, verses 20 and 21? Naomi and Ruth come into town and the townspeople say,
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Is this Naomi? Is this Naomi? Is this Pleasant? That's what her name means. Is this Pleasant? Is this a Pleasant woman?
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She says, Don't call me Pleasant. Call me Bitter. Call me
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Bitter. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty.
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Why do you call me Pleasant? Seeing the Lord hath testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me.
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You see the hardness of the soil of that hopeless heart.
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God is blamed for all the difficulty. God is blamed for all the grief.
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God is blamed for all the hardship. And there is nothing seen to be grateful for.
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Even though there is much to be grateful for. It's not seen. Ah, but now, now, grace, abundant grace has been poured out.
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And that grace that has been poured out causes the hard soil of the bitter heart to be broken up and the seeds of hope sprout through the surface.
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Verse 20. Verse 20. Naomi said unto her daughter -in -law after she shows her, after Ruth shows
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Naomi all that was happened in that day. The 30 pounds of barley that was brought home.
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She reports on all of the abundant grace that she received that day.
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And Naomi, Naomi said unto her, Blessed be he,
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Boaz, of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and the dead.
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And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of Canaan to us, one of our next kinsmen.
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Again, we may not understand the depth of the significance of that.
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But for Naomi, what she has just done is praise the
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Lord for His role in bringing Ruth to that place where she could be the recipient of such abundant grace and recognizing, remembering
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He is a Redeemer. He is a Redeemer. He's a near kinsman.
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Hope is revived in Him, in that Redeemer. There is hope.
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And I'm reminded of what Paul tells us in Romans when he says, Do you not know that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance, to break up the hardened soil of your heart and lead you to the hope, the hope of forgiveness, the hope of redemption, to lead you to hope, lead you to repentance.
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How easily, is it not, how easily we fall into despair, a sense of hopelessness, and yet the
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Lord has provided a Redeemer, a Redeemer. He's planted a seed of hope in the sending of the
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Savior. But have you come to Him, the Savior, have you come to Him in a repentant, humble, impoverished spirit, calling upon Him to save your soul?
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Oh, this Redeemer will extend to you gracious favor, and hope will sprout, hope will sprout, as His grace breaks through the hardened soil of your hopelessness and despair.
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Oh, trust Him. Trust Him, however dark, however dark the night, however hopeless the situation, trust
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Him, our Father and our God. We thank You for our
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Redeemer. Thank You for Christ, our Kinsman. I pray this morning that there is one who has not found in Him the hope that He came to offer, the hope that He came to give, may today their faith look up to Him, the
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Lamb of Calvary, the Redeemer who came to save sinful souls.
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This we pray in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. Would you take your hymnal and turn to number 407.
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407. I want to sing this hymn. My faith looks up to the
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Lamb of Calvary. 407. Let's stand together as we sing. Stanzas 1, 2, and 3.
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407. My faith looks up to Thee. My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine.
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Now hear me while I pray, Take all my guilt away,
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O let me from this day Be wholly
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Thine. May Thy rich grace impart
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Strength to my fainting heart, My zeal inspire
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As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee Pure, warm, and changeless be
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A living fire. While life's dark maze
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I tread And griefs around me spread,
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Be Thou my guide. Darkness turn to day,
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Wipe sorrows' tears away, Nor let me ever stray
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From Thee, Ah, Son of God.
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And now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, may
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He comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work. And this we pray in the name of Jesus, our