[0:00] Today's passage in Ruth is starting to get into sort of a picture of redemption, restoration.
[0:12] Last week was a very bleak passage. It was very shameful of a passage and the disposition that Naomi and Ruth found themselves in.
[0:24] And so it's continuing the narrative today. But I got to ask something. I got to poke and prod at this question. A bunch of guys came up to me this week and said, hey, we need to earn a couple brownie points with our wives and maybe with our girlfriends.
[0:38] And so I got to ask you, who would you consider to be the luckiest person alive? The luckiest person alive. This is where men, this is your chance.
[0:48] This is your opportunity to say that, you know. Of course, it's me because I'm married to you. And, you know, this season you can have an extra portion of turkey at the dinner table, right?
[1:03] All right, guys. I did it. But seriously, who would you consider to be the luckiest person alive? You might recall a guy in his 90s now, a Croatian man.
[1:18] His name is Frane Silak. However you pronounce the Croatian last name. This guy has cheated death seven times.
[1:31] Seven times. And not only that, he's won the lottery. He is labeled the world's luckiest man.
[1:42] It happened back when he was about 75 years old. Now he's 90. So maybe he'll cheat death an eighth time as he lives to be 100.
[1:53] Sometimes we can identify the luckiest people alive based on the amount of money they have, the amount of situations that they've been rescued from, that it was clearly not anything of themselves.
[2:07] It could be the amount of Super Bowl rings on their fingers. But I'm not going to utter the sports team because I don't want to cause a curse on this place. But sometimes you can swing it in the realm of luck.
[2:25] But as we approach the Scripture today, the pages of Scripture, and building upon the narrative that was developing last week, we see the two women, Naomi and Ruth, returning to Bethlehem from the land of the Moabites, the pagan land.
[2:48] And they are returning in repentance, in complete emptiness, complete dishonor from their wanderings from God, specifically Naomi who lost her husband and her two sons, having completely nothing.
[3:06] We find great benevolence of man. We find second chances. We find the light at the end of the tunnel, which maybe from our perspective and the culture weighing in on our convictions, maybe we could say that she's pretty lucky, right?
[3:25] But however, I believe the author makes it very challenging for us because the author broadcasts the great works of man and how man has so much importance in the narrative that it makes it kind of hard to see God in this.
[3:46] And similar to us attributing luck to any of our work or favor, I believe the author sort of structures it in a way where you see this broken, empty family, and you see this mighty provision coming from man and a mighty favor.
[4:00] But it's up to the text to determine and give you that perspective that it is indeed nothing of man. It's indeed nothing of luck. There is no such thing as luck.
[4:12] All things are laid out in accordance with his plan and shadows, in the midst of shadows or highlights in life. What we spoke about last week was the providence of God.
[4:23] And I just want to remind you and everyone on the live stream about what the providence of God is. And I want to define the term so that we're all on the same page. I'm going to refer to the Heidelberg Catechism, question 27.
[4:37] The providence of God is the almighty and everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were, by his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty.
[5:07] Yeah, all things come not by chance, but by the fatherly hand of God. It reminded me last week, I mentioned the Chris Tomlin song, you give and you take away.
[5:21] Blessed be your name. So as we mull the scriptures today, as we look at Ruth 2, I believe it will continue to challenge us to understand that God is not only behind the famine in the land that we read of the situation in Bethlehem, which led to the sojourning family who were Israelites to this Moabite country.
[5:46] He's not only in charge of the famine, but now we see he's in charge of the provision and expression of his kindness. So I do have a warning today.
[5:58] This is a countercultural message, and it will probably cause you to evaluate your entire life, possibly your entire faith, in hopes of realigning with the heart of God is what it means to be witnesses of God's kindness.
[6:13] And what we have in chapter two, just so you know and you're tracking along, and for any note takers, this is another plot structure. You start with the scene, you have rising action, you have a climax in the story, and then the falling action in new scene, and we're going to observe that today in Ruth 2.
[6:30] Let's pray as we turn to the Lord, asking him for help. Father, help us to understand our sheer dependence upon you this morning, fix our attention upon you as we look upon the mirror of our lives and under the standard of your absolute truth found in the Bible.
[6:55] Jesus Christ, we thank you for your sacrifice for us, that as we scour the pages of Scripture, we hope to find you at the center of the narrative.
[7:08] And Holy Spirit, we turn to you at this time. Let our pride be reduced to ash right now. Let us all decrease so that you might increase.
[7:19] Empower me to boldly proclaim the truth embedded in your Holy Scriptures, and we ask this solely upon dependence of the Holy Spirit at this moment. We praise in Jesus' name, amen.
[7:33] Let's take a look at the first section of the passage today, and it's titled, A Gleaning Opportunity. I like to play on words, and this is my play on words.
[7:46] A gleaning opportunity, and we're gonna look at verse one through nine. We see as this text sets up, now Naomi had a relative of her husband's, a worthy man, the clan of Elimelech, whose name is Boaz.
[7:59] And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor. And she said, go, my daughter. So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the field, come to part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.
[8:21] So building off what we learned last week about Elimelech, the meaning of his name, possibly the history of this great man of God who left the land of God and went and sojourned with his wife Naomi and built a family in a Moabite city, a pagan land.
[8:41] So building off of that last week, the plot structure begins with a new scene. And this scene begins with a bitter Naomi, she said to call herself Mara, a woman completely empty without home or food.
[8:58] Ruth is described as the Moabite. And you're gonna see that in this passage. It's gonna be actually interesting if at the end of this message, I'll sort of highlight that, but it's like the author keeps trying to remind us who we're dealing with here.
[9:15] Ruth, the Moabite, right? It's like haunting us in this passage. You'll see it even at the end of chapter two. In Ruth's efforts of caring for Naomi, we see that she sets out to the fields to glean and the text suggests that this was a, this is something that happened to occur.
[9:32] This is just a happening. She happened to come to Boaz's field. As we were informed last week, it was the barley harvest. This was intense laboring from about April to June.
[9:43] Barley harvest. And gleaning is an interesting sport, isn't it? Everybody knows about their gleaning. Dan Stone's gonna stand up and he's gonna give us a dissertation of what gleaning is.
[9:54] Come on. Oh, no, okay, you're, okay. Yeah, COVID, yeah, you can blame COVID. That's the excuse for everything right now. But gleaning is an interesting sport.
[10:05] It's an interesting process, right? It's rooted in Old Testament law. It has terms and conditions laid out in the law of God. And Leviticus 19 actually governs this thing called gleaning.
[10:22] It says, when you reap the harvest of your land, in Leviticus 19 verse 9, you shall not reap the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
[10:34] You shall leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God. And it's also echoed in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 24.
[10:45] And gleaning is something where you have the reapers. You have the guys with the sickle cutting down the harvest. You have the young women following behind.
[10:58] They're known as maids following behind, tying everything up into sheaves. And then you have people who are essentially poor without much, such as Ruth, following behind even the maids, picking up the scraps and taking those scraps for food.
[11:18] So Ruth sets out in hope and expectation to find this food for her Naomi. But what she happened to set out to exceeded her expectations.
[11:29] She finds a man. And let's meet this man behind this field that she's found herself happily to be gleaning. Verse 4 continues saying that, Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, The Lord be with you.
[11:47] And they answered, The Lord bless you. Meet Boaz. His name, as I instructed last week, all these names mean something.
[11:59] The author clearly ties names with the narrative, and they're important. Boaz means in him is strength. He's clearly a man who's upright, and has godly character.
[12:11] He's respected among the people who are sweating, doing this intense laboring of gleaning for him. And he comes into the scene.
[12:22] The Lord be with you. You can imagine a deep kind of Gaston from, you know, deep voice from Beauty and the Beast.
[12:32] You know, just a man of great stature, a good founded leader. The man that women gawk over, I could imagine being Boaz.
[12:44] He is known as a man of power and importance in society. He is a worthy man. And so Boaz inquires. He arrives at work, receives honor from his workers.
[12:56] He inquires about the stranger that he's never seen before, following his young women who are wrapping up the sheaves. And he's instructed of what the story could be.
[13:08] He actually turns to this young stranger with a term of endearment. Apparently, the word about Naomi had spread even to Boaz about the return of Naomi after losing everything.
[13:22] And through Boaz's permission in this passage, he receives favor of his protection and provision. And this is significant too.
[13:34] That through his kindness, he provided this stranger protection. As the narrative began, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
[13:46] And so, the days of judges really does not paint humanity in its finest moments, we'll say. This is where women are thrown around like rags.
[14:01] Horribly. This is when women are raped without even thought. This is when women are killed and abused. Just unworthy of even the quality or identification of being a human being.
[14:17] And so, what Boaz does here is actually very significant because he promises her protection to stay with my people. Ruth is giving clearance and permission to follow Boaz's reapers and actually encouraged, essentially, to join the team of reapers and harvesting.
[14:36] As they reap, they're harvesting with a sickle. The young women are wrapping sheaves and the reapers tie those sheaves of barley. And then, young Ruth is encouraged to continue in this manner not to go to another field lest she be hurt.
[14:54] And so, isn't it interesting, church, as we read all of this, as we kind of absorb what's being detailed in this passage, that the provision of Ruth is rooted in the law of God.
[15:08] It's regulated. The provision of Ruth is regulated by the law of God. Something that we saw in Leviticus 23. It's voluntary compassion of Boaz. Obviously, not all the men who own these fields would maybe give Ruth the same amount of kindness and character and quality of life that Boaz offers.
[15:29] And we're gonna see that actually increase. So truly, as we're starting to see this narrative, something's happening. God is doing something. It's truly not just a random happening as verse 3 talks about.
[15:42] It's not luck as our culture likes to reference, people who are fortunate. But the providence of God's plan, and it's God's providence and compassion through man that we're seeing being carried out here.
[15:57] And you see what's happening here. Ruth, for once in her life, Ruth is meeting Yahweh. The Moabite is meeting Yahweh through the kindness of Boaz.
[16:11] It was the field of which Ruth gleaned, but unbeknownst to Ruth, might it be God who was actually gleaning Ruth? Might it be actually God gleaning Ruth's circumstances and turning out that she is turning and finding herself under the mighty wings and provision of God?
[16:29] And we see Ruth responds to this great kindness as we see a section titled, Welcome Home. In verse 10, we see that she fell flat on her face after receiving this favorable interaction with Boaz.
[16:46] She bows to the ground and said, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner?
[16:57] Ruth is relationally a nobody. She's nobody to Boaz. She's nobody to the maids. She's nobody to the reapers. She's a stranger from Moab.
[17:08] She's Ruth the Moabite, a stranger. It's similar to us walking in the grocery store. It's not like we take time to get to know everybody's story and who they are. They're just strangers.
[17:21] Getting onto a train, you find all these people that you don't know from Adam. Their very existence is sort of unknowing to you as you pursue daily tasks.
[17:35] And so Ruth responds to the kindness of Boaz. Despite her pagan origin, despite her impoverished state of her family, she responds in complete humility and incredulous to the fact of being noticed.
[17:49] And this recognition and favor drops this nobody to her knees in complete awe. Notice how the prophetic tone of Boaz in verse 12.
[18:03] The Lord repay you for what you have done and a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the God of Israel under whose wings you have come to take refuge.
[18:16] At face value, we can miss, come up short and miss the object of Boaz's favor and the prophetic implications that this has for these two women. But essentially, Boaz, through prophetic nature, is welcoming Ruth and by welcoming Ruth is welcoming Naomi home.
[18:34] Welcome back home. I am your God. I am the God of Israel, the God of your ancestors. This welcome is providentially experienced through the kindness of no other than Boaz, through human action.
[18:52] Verse 13 and 12, as we see, he mentions something that she's done. There's one action that's central to the focus of Boaz's favor. And it is the favor that Ruth had in the life of another, in the life of Naomi.
[19:07] The selfless favor. One action that laid aside all parental affairs and laid aside any hope of marrying. This is the dedication, the determination that chapter one spoke about that she had towards Naomi.
[19:25] It was one that essentially said, till death do us part. This is one that echoes throughout every marriage that exists. And Ruth graciously, selflessly, gave her life and dedication to the benevolence of another.
[19:39] And the simple principle that we see working behind the scenes of this narrative is that Ruth may appear to be a stranger to all, but she is no stranger to God.
[19:51] God knew that she would be gleaning this field that day. God knew her in her mother's womb. this is something that the Lord saw and he's seeing through.
[20:06] And what I think we miss in this narrative often within chapter two is that Boaz and Ruth share a similar wing of provision of God. They share a similar wing of provision because remember the days of the judges, there was a famine in the land.
[20:22] The mighty harvest that Boaz is experiencing is the grace of God. It is the wings of provision of God for Boaz but it's also swooping to have those who are grafted in but also grafting in others who are outcasts.
[20:38] Ruth is also receiving the protection from assault and the provision of Boaz to take part in God's harvest.
[20:50] And likewise, don't we share in similar benefits under the wings of God's provision through Jesus Christ? The Bible says that mankind is just as alienated from God as Ruth was in this land.
[21:02] Strangers from another land. Colossians 121 says this. It says, And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
[21:22] You see, church, the gospel is about God gleaning. God is in the business of gleaning. He takes the outcasts, he takes the broken, he takes the fragments of broken man and ties them up into sheaves, repurposes a trash for treasure.
[21:41] This is the gospel. Through Jesus, it is not just gleaning. This is known as a harvest harvest of man. For he reconciles aliens to himself.
[21:55] This is of which we respond to God in the same way and manner that Ruth does. In verse 13, she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.
[22:16] It is not because of anything that we do or have done. This is grace unmerited. This is a favor of God and Ruth is experiencing the gospel at this point.
[22:28] And we see in the last section a redeeming opportunity. We see it from verse 14 to 22 going to a close. It was at mealtime, Boaz said to her, they're taking a break at this time.
[22:42] He says, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers. She's part of the team, right, church?
[22:55] She sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain. And she ate until she was satisfied and she had some left over.
[23:07] So not only does Boaz, church, respond to Ruth's actions, provide provision and water, he continues to provide her lunch.
[23:21] Truly, the Lord's kindness is providentially displayed through this man, through man's actions and the abundance of provision is clearly seen. If the next four verses could be marked in a word, it would be abundance.
[23:36] And the one experiencing this abundance is one who has nothing. Boaz goes beyond the provision of the law, not only just leaving the borderlines of the field for those who are poor to come and harvest and glean, not only leaving some scraps for those who are poor and impoverished to take some so that they're provided for as we see in Leviticus 19, he's going beyond the minimum.
[24:04] He's going beyond the minimum and going above and beyond for this woman. And abundantly leaves large amounts of barley behind him, we see in this passage, for Ruth to glean.
[24:17] And this leaves Ruth with an ephah of barley. This is 30 to 40 pounds of barley. It's about half of an 80 pound bag of concrete for anybody who's been moving a lot of concrete this weekend.
[24:29] This is a lot of barley. This is a lot of food, a lot of provision that this woman who came empty handed is leaving with in full. And as Ruth turns back to Naomi, she returns.
[24:45] And I find it a little bit humorous that Naomi's first response after eating the leftover lunch provided by Boaz, it's sort of like sitting at the dinner table with possibly your parents or maybe your kids and you're just, you're eating and then it's just hitting you.
[25:00] Wait a minute, we're eating. And then just with sort of speculation and wonder, so where did you glean today? Just curiosity, speculation from a parent.
[25:15] Think about those days that have those lowly beginnings. You wake up and you're just like, man, I need to go back in bed and try again. But end in those high endings.
[25:26] Can you imagine Ruth getting up in the morning just wondering, I don't know where we're gonna find food. Coming back with such a high ending, can you imagine the joy, the excitement that she's containing as Ruth is beating out the grains from her gleaning that day, which is 30 to 40 pounds of ephah, or that's an ephah of 30 or 40 pounds of barley.
[25:50] And Ruth beats out those grains returning home. Can you imagine just having this all stored up like Naomi's gonna flip when she sees this? It's here that Naomi's human emptiness begins to be refilled by the Lord.
[26:05] Her doubt is turned into hope. We see that God truly does work all things according to good, as Romans 8 says. Naomi is humble after ever being humbled by the Lord.
[26:19] She's becoming reacquainted with the God of Israel, isn't she? The one who delivered and redeemed her ancestors out of slavery says, may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.
[26:35] Ruth is the source of God's sovereign, working, his covenant, loyalty, his loving kindness and mercy.
[26:46] Think about that. Ruth, the Moabite, is the source of God's sovereignty, the source of God's covenant loyalty, the source of his loving kindness and mercy for Naomi.
[27:02] And so we see redemption begin. We start seeing that this whole narrative going forward is starting to sort of reshape as we start seeing this wonderful work and provision of God and God's redemption begins.
[27:17] Naomi also said to her, the man is a close relative. This is no ordinary man, Ruth. You were in Boaz's field. This is a relative of ours. This is not just a relative, but as we can kind of understand from a legal context in our world today, sort of like how you have a power of attorney, this is a guy who can redeem our family name.
[27:41] This is no ordinary field, Ruth. Truly God has seen my mourning, he has seen my emptiness, he has seen my repentance and he is coming in with favor.
[27:53] He is responding to favor. Boaz is a relative. It's a redeemer. For the family. We're going to get into that more next week.
[28:04] But the term has legal context of redeeming somebody from slavery, purchasing land from the family, even marrying a relative's widow to preserve the family name.
[28:16] This is the law of redemption that's found in Leviticus 25. It's a redemption from slavery, property, and family name. And this term also has redemptive, salvific context.
[28:29] We'll say that in a mouthful. As this earthly custom is a picture of the reality of God the redeemer. Redeeming sinful man. Doing a greater work by proclaiming and redeeming those under the slavery of sin.
[28:44] Because isn't Boaz truly a picture of Christ, of God's kindness poured out? Didn't Jesus redeem those who were slaves to sin, Romans 6, that have lost all earthly possessions and privileges from the fall, Genesis 3, and those who are alienated from God because of sin, 2 Corinthians 5.
[29:09] This entire plot structure, this entire narrative has tremendous implication that points to something. And it almost has a parallel implication. Within the first section, we see that the law of God was that which provided an opportunity, a gleaning opportunity for Ruth.
[29:30] It was all because of the law of God. But also, it's the law of God that is providing on the back end this redeeming opportunity that gives this family a chance to be redeemed and restored.
[29:45] Two roads leading not only to verse 12, God's mighty wing of protection, provision under his mighty wing. And the providence of God is paved out upon the promises found in the law of God.
[30:00] There's no other way of putting it. The law of God is the wing of God's refuge. The law of God was instituted for that protection and provision. And what the law of God ultimately pointed to, as we see from a New Testament church, it pointed straight to the cross.
[30:17] Because the law of God pointed out that man cannot achieve what Jesus Christ achieved. And that our sins are placed upon him in full atonement, full satisfaction, propitiation for sin.
[30:30] And the plot structure comes to a close at this time as this pagan daughter-in-law, the Ruth the Moabite, Ruth the Moabite is encouraged to continue under the protection and provision of Boaz.
[30:41] And we're gonna pick up on the story next week as we get into more of a love story next week. But as we come to a close, I want us to understand something here.
[30:53] Because truly, we can be reassured in the foundation of our faith that when we lay the, when we're seeing the foundation of our faith laid by God is being built upon the law of God.
[31:07] It has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with Jesus. The reason that we're saved is because of what Jesus accomplished. He came and was placed, put himself under the law to save those under the law.
[31:20] And we see that this good news of the gospel is found in Ephesians 2.20 where you have the foundation laid by the apostles, by the prophets, that's built on the cornerstone which is Jesus Christ.
[31:34] And so we see that connection that just as the law of God made a way for Ruth, Ruth became a beneficiary of the gleaning. And the law of God is making it possible to restore this broken family to prior honor and status.
[31:49] Isn't this what Jesus Christ does for mankind? It is the gleaning and labor of God that he ties up the fragments and emptiness of our lives, exchanges it with an abundant harvest, a redemption that fully restores and abundantly provides not only enough for today but leftovers to share.
[32:11] Then we see in the second section, truly were brought into the fold of God being complete outcasts and strangers who receive an undeserved favor of God's grace.
[32:22] What was a wandering of Ruth that day on that empty morning of waking up was the plan of God of which his law brought her under the mighty wings of provision of the Lord where he says, welcome, home.
[32:39] what was a wandering to Ruth was a plan of God. And the same is true today. As we survey our lives, are we slow to attribute seasons based upon our own happenings, upon our own luck, upon our own gleanings, upon our own people that we simply ran into that day or is our perspective fixated upon everything stemming from the kind providence of God?
[33:17] Are we slow to attribute those seasons to God? This challenges us because if Romans 8 is true that God is working all things for the good of those who love him, we understand God's kindness transcends through all situations just as the Heidelberg Confession states.
[33:39] This is the good seasons, the terrible seasons, the seasons of loss, but also the seasons of plenty, of seasons of blessing, of rejoicing.
[33:50] This is because we know his word tells us a narrative of kindness even in famine, even in blessing. And furthermore, do we strive to live a life that exposes the kindness of God that we've received?
[34:04] Listen up. Because I must ask you, just as the determining title of this sermon is Mirror of Kindness, I must ask you, does our kindness reflect the heart of God to redeem, to restore?
[34:27] Does it reflect the heart of God to provide and to protect? maybe a better question, when people look at our lives under the measuring stick of Scripture, of what Colossians 2 and what Colossians 3 says about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to be of the flesh and in sin, do they see the kindness of a saint or the abrasiveness of a sinner?
[34:54] Thinking back to our series in John, are we the kind of people that when Nicodemus comes to us in the night, are we quick to damn him for asking all these questions about the law of God, not understanding the gospel?
[35:12] Are we to just cast them away because they don't understand? Maybe Jesus meaning the Samaritan woman in John. Asking all these questions and not truly getting it, are we very quick, church, to possibly just throw the Samaritan right into the well?
[35:30] She deserves it. She can't understand it. Off with her. Right? This is true, church. True Christianity is encapsulated in kindness.
[35:41] There's no other way to put it. This is both in theoretical agreement, but it's also in habitual expression. That, yeah, there's one thing to acknowledge, yes, Christians should be kind.
[35:53] I know, I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm a work in progress. Yeah, but I just destroyed this guy in an argument over nothing. It's not just in that theoretical agreement. It's in actual application.
[36:05] It's in habitual expression that's ingrained deep within a soul that is marked by the Holy Spirit sealed. This is not saying that kindness is, that equals doctrinal compromise, that, yeah, we'll just be kind to everyone and, you know, it's fine and everything.
[36:25] This is not something that's mutually exclusive for one another. Kindness and doctrinal compromise do not equal one another, but as our witness, it's the most kind thing that we can do to spread the gospel, to share the gospel with people, to not throw the Samaritan into the well, essentially.
[36:44] The reality is, as we mine the depths of God's grace, we find ourselves completely unworthy of the very breath we have. How could we witness Jesus to the world out of anything but kindness?
[36:58] Just like the author reminds us that this is Ruth the Moabite who's experiencing God's kindness, maybe it's better for us to have a little title attached to our name, Brent the Sinner, Brent the Past Drug Addict, Brent the Past Whatever, you can come with your imagination.
[37:20] Rick, the insert here, if we could just remind ourselves of where we came from, might we respond to the world in a better kind light, knowing that we're not better than even the biggest stranger that doesn't know God.
[37:35] We are the ones who have come to God empty and left with an abundance of grace, an abundance of joy, protection, provision. We are nobody apart from Christ, but in Him, we have everything.
[37:48] If you are not in Christ, the Bible doesn't paint life apart from Him very kindly, but it would be the most unkind thing that I could do, that we as Christians can do this, just stand and go about our lives and say that life apart from Jesus Christ is okay and I want to be kind to you in this manner.
[38:08] No, that is doctrinal compromise. but this may be received as unkind, but according to the Bible, I have to kindly beckon everyone in this life to turn their life to Jesus Christ and come under His mighty wing of provision and protection.
[38:26] And if you are in Christ today, to ponder the words and to ponder the actions of man, the actions of God lavished upon man, not only to a man of God like Boaz, but also to an outcast like Ruth, we gotta say, just Christians, stop throwing the Samaritan into the well, right?
[38:48] We have this, my favorite hymn on our lips. It goes, not I but Christ, my every need supplying, not I but Christ, my strength and health to be, Christ only Christ, or spirit, soul, and body, Christ only Christ, live then thy life in me.
[39:08] O to be saved from myself, dear Lord, O to be lost in thee, O that it might be no more I but Christ that lives in me. May that be true in this life.
[39:23] May our worldview and perception be refined by the abundance we receive and do not deserve the slightest bit. May that drive our identity, being mirrors of kindness in this world that is very hostile.
[39:36] trial. May it drive our identity in Christ in gratitude and thanksgiving. Let us reallocate our time, our finances, our talents to be given back to God as the first fruits of our lives just as it was for Boaz and just as it was for Ruth.
[39:52] Let us be mirrors of kindness. Let's pray.房s, acids, leader o Bereich husband,造, sovereignty, guide or the blood, pour fulfilling pozir, advertis cau,鏿 themes, windows,詞, lou, conspiracy Hartfield碑 Shaft.
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