It Just So Happened

Well, so now if all right if you have a Bible go ahead and turn with me to the second chapter of the book of Ruth I think it's on page 283 if you're using one of our Bibles If you're a guest with us and you don't have a Bible there might be one underneath the chair in front of you And also if you stop at our welcome desk. We have Bibles that we can give to if you want one and We are continuing our series through the book of Ruth We're going to tackle the whole second chapter. I'm going to read the whole thing It's such a beautiful story and God reveals such beautiful things in it So let's prepare our hearts to hear God's word This is God's holy true and life-giving word Ruth chapter two Now Naomi had a relative of her husbands a worthy man of the clan of a limoleck whose name was Boaz and Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him and whose sight I shall find favor and She said to her go my daughter So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers and she happened to come To the part of the field belonging to Boaz who was of the clan of a limoleck And behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers the Lord be with you and They answered the Lord bless you Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers whose young woman is this and the servant Who was in charge of the reapers answered she is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab She said please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers So she came and she has continued from early morning until now except for a short rest Then Boaz said to Ruth now listen my daughter do not go to glean in another field or leave this one But keep close to my young women let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping and go after them Have I not charged the young men not to touch you and When your thirsty go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn That she fell in her face bowing to the ground and said to him why? Have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner But Boaz answered her all that you have done for your mother-in-law Since the death of your husband has been fully told to me and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people That you did not know before The Lord repay you for what you have done in a full reward be given to you by the Lord the God of Israel under whose wings you Have come to take refuge Then she said I have found favor in your eyes my Lord you have Comforted me when spoken kindly to your servant though I am not one of your servants and At mealtime Boaz said to her come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine So she sat beside the reapers and he passed to her roasted grain and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some leftover When she rose to glean Boaz instructed his young men saying let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her And also pull out some of some from bundles from For her and leave it for her to glean and do not rebuke her So she gleaned in the field until evening and she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an effa of barley And she took it up and went into the city her mother-in-law Saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her food that she had left over after being satisfied And her mother-in-law said to her where did you glean today and where have you worked blessed be the man who took notice of you So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said the man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz and Naomi said to her daughter-in-law may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness Has not forsaken the living or the dead Naomi also said to her this man is a close relative of ours one of our redeemers and Ruth the Moabite said besides he said to me you shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest and Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law. It is good my daughter that you go out with his young women lest in another field you be assaulted So she kept close to the young women of Boaz gleaning until the end of the barley and weed harvest and she lived with her mother-in-law This is the word of the Lord Let's pray together our Father. We thank you so much that you Kindly and graciously lovingly reveal yourself to us We thank you so much that we can know you and be known by you we thank you Lord that you're good and that you're in control and we pray Lord as we Gleaned from this passage as we look at the things you reveal about yourself. Would you bless us? Would you shape us would you Equip us and excite us to continue our mission to make disciples May you be glorified Lord fill our hearts with joy now as we fix our eyes on Christ For it is in his name we pray Amen I think A lot of our church may be more than half our church. It's probably too young to remember The Y2K scare Good times If you don't know what that is all about it just so happens that sometime in the 90s Computer programmers figured out that there was a massive bug in the way computers worked and there was this increasing fear that when The calendars and computers went from 1999 to 2000 those two zeros at the end would cause all sorts of computer malfunctions and So there was this increasing worry about what's that going to do our computers going to be able to function right? Are they going to be able to do all the things that they do people were wondering like what's going to happen to the banks and what's gonna Happen to all the different types of records and There was some worry because so much of what we did in life had to do with computers and January of 1999 time magazine Helped or maybe didn't help by running an article called the end of the world question mark exclamation point question mark NBC Erred a made for TV movie about just how bad things could be if all the computers Don't work after the new year Wilderness survival boot camps suddenly became popular and of course there was the the bunkers the Y2K bunkers if you had one Good work they you know it was it was quite interesting. You had people actually stocking away food They were even buying large quantities of spam which now we use that word to talk about junk email But back then it meant canned ham spam made in Austin, Minnesota And so people were kind of worried like what's gonna happen? Are we gonna make it through this as the whole world gonna Just fall apart and then all of a sudden it was New Year's Eve 1999 and that ball is dropping and the countdown is happening 10 9 8 and there's People being like we're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine. You know 6 5 4 and there's people like we're gonna die and you know It's just this whole spectrum and 3 2 1 Happy New Year. It was okay. Nothing happened. Okay. It was just completely cool. Nothing really happened and it was now It's now referred to as the biggest non-disaster in our history. So But you know if you if you were alive then if you were thinking then if you're worried or not worried then it is interesting How often we worry? It's interesting how easily we can start worrying about something right some of us worry all the time But all of us worry occasionally and all of us have friends and loved ones that worry a lot Maybe you are discipling somebody who worries a lot. What do we do with that? So I love this next passage or the passage that we're looking at this morning in the book of Ruth Because God reveals some things about himself in this passage that Really help evaporate our worry? And we're gonna see this morning the good news is this that that through faith in Christ God sets us free from a life of worry Through faith in Christ God liberates us from worry, so we're gonna see that by talking about three things first. We're talking about God's control over all things We see that in this passage God's control Then we'll talk about God's care For the vulnerable God's care and then third God's call to believers Okay, God's call so God's control God's care and God's call. Let's jump in looking at God's Control over all things here's first thing we want to recognize here every aspect of human life Is under the sovereign control of God Every Aspect of human life is under the sovereign control of Almighty God and that's really good news. So As we pick back up with our story here chapter two begins with this foreshadowing Okay, the author first mentions Boaz in verse one talking about how he's this worthy man and That word the Hebrew words for worthy man are interesting because they have the connotation of Wealth and strength Wealth and strength so they author plants that seed of this wealthy strong individual and then brings us back into the story of Naomi and Ruth and As we've seen their their lives are in complete disarray at this point and So as we re-enter the story we see That Naomi and Ruth were probably pretty worried, right? They're both widows. They have no money They have no place to go. They're back in Bethlehem and who knows what's going to happen you would imagine That they would be pretty worried and in fact that might be why Ruth just bolts out into trying to find some resources trying to be able to get some Food verse two says she's gonna go into the field and glean What's that? Gleening was actually something commanded in the Old Testament Old Testament law required that farmers would leave The edges of their fields Unharvested so that the poor in the area could come and they could harvest the edges and take that food and be Provided for it's beautiful and that's what Ruth is doing here Okay, she's in this foreign land and she doesn't know anybody, but she she knows she needs food and maybe even out of worry She bolts out to go and Gleene to get food now. What's what's amazing is the way the author Describes this situation and particularly in verse three with the the words She happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz if you notice that she just happened To go where Boaz's field was and this is basically how the author is signaling to us that what's happening in this scene is Not a mere set of coincidences There's so many things that happened now in this story that to believe it's all just coincidence is too much and that's how the Author is signaling that actually what's happening is God is showing his control over the situation She just so happened to go to this field that Boaz owned and it just so happened That Boaz has already heard about her Boaz is already wanting to know more about her Boaz also is asking about her he notices her and Boaz is this strong and wealthy just happens to be this strong and wealthy israelite and So suddenly in this big turn of events Ruth is being cared for she's being provided for she's being protected by Boaz the author Is showing that there are just too many coincidences here coincidence here to believe that all things that these things are just happening And just at the right time and so That's what we have to understand about this scene and all our lives that nothing is just happening. It's all under God's control It's all part of his plan. We don't often understand his plan, but that does not mean that he's not fully in control of everything that's happening at all times and he reveals that to us in his Word here and in other places he wants us to know and to deeply believe that God is in control And one of the reasons he wants us to know that is so we were we would be less likely to worry Think about this. We see God sovereign control of these situations all the time in scriptures proverb 16 Verse 9 the heart of man plants his way, but the Lord establishes his steps Isaiah 1424 the Lord of hosts has sworn as I have planned so it shall be and as I have purposed so it shall stand Daniel 2 2 or sorry Daniel 2 21 Says God changes times and scenes seasons he removes kings and sets up kings He gives wisdom to the wise knowledge to those who have understanding Colossians 117 he is before all things and in him all things hold together see there as just The the scriptures are just full of these places where we see God showing that he's in control He's created this plan and it's unfolding. He's always in control and why why is this so important? It's so important because the difference between being peaceful and panicked in any situation is going to be Based on who you believe is in control The difference between you being peaceful or panicked in any given situation is going to have to do with who you believe is in control at that moment This thing about this yesterday while a lot of the kids were wearing costumes and some of the adults too If you were an adult who wore a costume, it was awesome a lot of you looked so Warm in those costumes. I don't know how you survived the hot day But it was amazing, but you know some of the costumes were like totally full. They they cover everything you can't even know who it was I just think about this for a moment. I have four kids three of it's your daughters If I was wearing a costume and I was completely Nobody could tell who I was and I ran up to one of my daughters and picked her up and started swinging her around You better believe she's gonna panic in that moment, right? She's gonna absolutely panic But if I were to take the mask off And suddenly suddenly she realizes, oh, it's my dad Okay, she probably hit me a little but then after that After that she would probably say Do it again, daddy do it again Why cuz now she she's not panicked because she knows exactly who's in control. It's her daddy Who loves her and whom she loves who she knows she can trust and that's one of the reasons that God wants you and I to know he's in control Not just to carry a theological fact in our pocket, but to be able to be peaceful in a situation instead of panic because We know that he's in control. His hands are upon us. He is caring for us The difference between being peaceful and panic in a situation depends on who you believe is in control And so that's why we want to believe in this doctrine of God's sovereignty that he's in control Charles Spurgeon says when you go through a trial the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head And it's true the more that you and I as we follow Christ Believe that God's in control of all these situations. It's going to help us not to be worried Especially if we recognize not only God's control of all things but his care for the vulnerable So let's talk about that God's care for the vulnerable One of the things we see in this passage is that God deeply cares for the vulnerable and extends his loving kindness To them Okay, our God is a God who it cares about the vulnerable and extends his loving kindness to him Hesid in Hebrew. We've talked about that a few times in this passage. Sure in this book. I mean He cares for the vulnerable see if we're thinking about what's written here We have to understand that what Ruth does in this scene matters what she does matters, but what Ruth represents Matters probably even more What Ruth represents? What is she represent? She represents the vulnerable in society Okay, think about this three different people including Ruth herself referred to her in this passage as being a foreigner or from Moab, okay She is an outsider. She is a foreigner On top of that we already know she is a widow So she's a foreigner and a widow and we know that she has no source of income at this point So she is poor. She is a widow who is foreign who is poor and she's also therefore a foreign person who's a widow Whose poor is subject in this time in culture to extreme danger. You notice that in verse 22 When Naomi reminds Ruth that if she goes anywhere else, she might be assaulted So you've got somebody who really represents the vulnerable in Any given society So she represents the vulnerable will Boaz represents God's care for the vulnerable because now Boaz steps in Boaz demonstrates the kind of Care that God gives to the vulnerable so think about this remember we talked about how Boaz is in the beginning of the passage He's marked out as a worthy man those words refer to his wealth and his strength, okay? Well, just see how beautiful it is that Boaz is gonna step in now and he's gonna use his wealth and his strength for Ruth To care for Ruth in her vulnerability He's gonna use his wealth to provide for her. He lets her glean and verses 15 and 16 Show us that as well as where 17 shows that he said that she could glean more than normal He told the the servants to let Ruth take more than people normally take I mean he is just loading her up with Food in fact in verse 17 it says that she went home with an IFA I mean, you know how much an IFA is right? Yeah, I do too. So let's move on. No, just kidding. I didn't know I had to look it up It's about two or three weeks worth of food. I mean, can you just say Ruth? So he's using his wealth To to show care for her in her poverty and then he uses his strength, too Right he's wealthy and he's strong strong. What does he do? He uses his strength to protect her look at verse nine Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And as you might imagine that word touch has the nuance of strike Have I not told these men they will not strike you? So here's Ruth Completely vulnerable and then Boaz shows up. I will use my strength to make sure that you are safe You are safe here

It's amazing Was he just a nice guy? No, see the author is portraying him as this man who's faithful to God He's portraying him as this person who's wanting to show this loving kindness the kind of the loving kindness that God shows to the vulnerable We see that in verse four Boaz is portrayed as a man who's faithful to God. He shows up and he greets his servants by saying What does he say the Lord be with you? So we're seeing the author showing him. This is a man who knows the Lord. This is a man who understands who God is And and we could say that that greeting the Lord be with you is just the way people greeted people, but Actually most scholars and our like Daniel block who believe this that Boaz greeting Reflects his religious commitments. He was a Yahwist or believed in Yahweh whom heroes may expect to bear the divine name With integrity in other words Daniel block is saying That Boaz mentions Yahweh's name there because he knows he's there to represent Yahweh to his people. He's there to represent who God is and what God is like to his people and Ruth experiences that too Well as believed he knew the Lord and he knows that the Lord shows this loving kindness to the vulnerable God Cares deeply about the vulnerable. We see this all through the scriptures Exodus 22-21 you it's a law you shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him Exodus 22-22 you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child Psalm 68 verse five father of the fatherless and protector of the widows is God in his holy habitation Isaiah 117 learn to do good seek justice correct oppression bring justice to the fatherless plead the widows cause God tells us people James 1 27 religion that is pure and undefiled before God the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their Affliction and to keep oneself unsteined from the world See Boaz is demonstrating this incredible loving kindness this chessed To Ruth because he believed that God is a God of loving kindness that God cares for the vulnerable and That God uses his strength and his wealth to care for those in need to care for the vulnerable And so that's what he's showing here and the reality is when we when we believe that God is a God who cares for the vulnerable It's powerful. It's life-changing for us when we think about our being vulnerable the times when we're vulnerable We will know that God is both in control and that he cares about our situation and that he can do something That's why stories of people caring for the vulnerable hit us right in the fields as they say Right because we want to know that God cares for me like this person cares for This vulnerable person they're helping. I was remembering the story of Gladys Allward. Some of you might know her name She's a she's a missionary famous missionary Gladys Allward was a missionary in China in the 30s and 1930s and she She left actually in 1930 to go to be a missionary in China and in her second year there She saw a woman who was selling a child that that had been kidnapped and So she went and bought that child and brought that child into her home and chose to be a Mother to her chose to adopt this orphan and then after some time Another child needed a place to go. So Gladys took that child in and over the next few years She would continue to bring these orphans in and love them She was showing this incredible care for these orphans in their vulnerability In 1938 war broke out and there was some bombing of the city that she was in Yang Chen and So she had to flee she had to go and take the orphans to safety and so she Embarks with all of her orphans that she loved and was caring for and she takes them on this 12-day Journey where they're basically walking all day and then sleeping at night Sometimes they would find shelter sometimes they would just be sleeping outside and she's able to bring this group of orphans For this 12-day journey until they finally arrive at the yellow river and once they get there Now there's no way to cross and and the children actually start to say to her Well, let's pray let's pray God can do anything and sure enough this Chinese officer shows up and is able to get them a boat And they cross and they're able to make it later on that 12th day to this place of safety in Sian And it's just this amazing story of her commitment to these orphans her unwillingness to leave them behind her Determination to make sure that they would be safe And so perhaps the craziest part of the story is the number of orphans that she took on this long journey Because it was about a hundred Why would she do that? Why? Why would she? risk everything to care for these vulnerable children because She knows what that she knows that is what God is like and Even more so she knew that that is the way God had been to her See when we put our faith in Christ what we're doing is recognizing that we are absolutely vulnerable We because of our sin because of our rebellion against God we are totally vulnerable to the justice that we deserve for our sin And so what does God do then God sins his son the Lord Jesus the true and better bow as to use his strength and his wealth To come and rescue us by dying on the cross in our place paying for our sins so that our vulnerability to God's wrath is no more Because all of us who have trusted in Christ We're far more vulnerable than we ever could possibly realize but we are now completely safe in Christ He has paid our debt He has given us his righteousness. He has promised us eternal life with God And the more that we believe that the more that you and I believe that God has has met us in Christ met our greatest vulnerability Then it helps us to not only recognize God's care for the vulnerable, but worry far less When we feel very vulnerable because that's when you worry isn't it so it's Christ That liberates us from worry because we know God's in control We know he uses that control to care for the vulnerable. We see it most of all and rescuing us from our sin But also in our trials in life So we don't have to worry but we can Act Let's talk about God's call to believers. We've talked about his control overall things his care for the vulnerable and Third his call to believers looking at verse 20 and here's the point the means by which God ordinarily cares for the vulnerable is through his people That's the ordinary way God shows up The ordinary means by which God cares is through his people by calling his people to care for the vulnerable to go to the vulnerable to serve the vulnerable and We actually see this is so amazing in this passage Naomi who has been through the worst of the worst right in verse 20 She's gonna awaken to the fact that God still cares about her She's gonna be reminded of God's loving kindness to her why because of what Boa's did look at verse 20 What's happened is Naomi and Ruth his return now she has talked about how she was taking care of and she says I was taking care of by Boa's and here's Naomi's response verse 20 may he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness Has it loving kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead and that is Naomi's way of saying God does care God really does care God is taking care of us God does love us God is faithful It's a big moment for Naomi and for Ruth and it should be a big moment for us as well because what Reissures Naomi that God cares is Boa's showing up and showing God's care for the vulnerable and what that does is it teaches you and I to be people Who won if we are vulnerable and we have needs we should make that known in the church so we can care for One another in that way, but also to be people who are looking for opportunities to use whatever strength whatever wealth We have to care for the vulnerable to demonstrate gospel demonstration We often say to to demonstrate to the vulnerable that God cares about them We when we show up. That's how they see that God cares. I Mean what a privilege, right? And so I want to I think we can all ask ourselves in what ways are we Following God's call to care for the vulnerable in what ways might God utilize us in our gifts and our abilities in our ordinariness to show up for the vulnerable and demonstrate God's care and I want to I want to show you though I'm here's a on the slide. We have eight ways that our church reaches out and serves people who are vulnerable and While you look at that list I wonder some of you are already very much involved in some of these ministries But I would encourage you to ask if God is maybe prompting you Nudging you calling you to take a step forward and think of more ways that you ordinary old you and ordinary old me can show up and to show God's care for the vulnerable and here's what you do text the word kindness to our our text number 407 9 8 4 4 8 8 0 And what you'll get is information on all these different ministries What if God wants to prove to someone who's vulnerable right now that he loves them by sending you Like he sent Boa as in this moment What a privilege and God uses it. I mean, it's I want to tell you a story about something that happened in the office as we close So we have a ESL ESL is English says a second language So we teach people who are wanting to learn English. It's a tremendous help for people who are not from our country who whose native language is not English And I want to tell you about Santiago Santiago is a man who's a student in one of our ESL classes and And very recently Santiago was here and he when he when he came out to go to his car after ESL his car battery was dead And so he went back into the office and he told Lisa our events coordinator that his Batteries dead and so Lisa started asking all the staff if anybody had jumper cables apparently nobody did So we probably got to do something about that But she also then she called the Deacons You know Deacons are the leaders in the church of our ministry of mercy and things like this So so a couple deacons are on their way Michael Blackston from Redeemer counseling comes out. He he does have some Jumper cables, okay like he should and that's awesome So so he tries to jump the car doesn't work Jim Dennis one of our deacons gets here. He tries to jump the car. It doesn't work Now what's getting worse about this is Santiago is supposed to be at a job interview And he was running out of time And so he was getting pretty frantic and worried and so The staff just said and this is all the staff. I wasn't even there the staff said look We'll we'll pay for an uber and you can get to your job Interview and he kind of fought that off for a little bit But then as he saw the clock tick and he finally said okay, yeah, I call new bird So so they called a new bird Lisa ran in and got some cash and came out and said here take this because you got to be able to get back to your car And he didn't want to take it but he did And off he went in the uber and then a few days later came back And he came in to talk to Lisa and he said he wanted to give the money back because he ended up not needing it Somebody was able to give him a ride to his car and he stands there and he tells Lisa he's like I Never had strangers treat me like that. I've never had complete strangers Show such a kindness to me and he also said he got the job. I mean, what a Unbelievable privilege for you and I who know that Christ has redeemed us and our greatest vulnerability and now We get to show it. That's like to people Praise God. Let's pray father. We ask you Lord. Would you fill us with your spirit and Would you lock in the beautiful things about yourself that we've seen in your word this morning and Would you embolden us to Believe that you're in control to believe you care about the vulnerable to follow your call to demonstrate your care for the vulnerable out of the joy that we have Knowing that Christ has come and rescued us in our Greatest vulnerability and would you help us grow as a body of believers in Demonstrating to our city to our neighbors even to the nations Your incredible love and kindness to the vulnerable We pray these things for your glory and for our joy in Jesus name amen