Would you take your Bibles, please, and turn to Romans 8. Romans 8 is tonight, we look at how Providence works. Providence is the guiding and the governing force in all of the universe. It's that force that Jesus said does not allow two sparrows to fall to the ground, apart from the Father's will, and that numbers every hair on our head. It is God's completely wise and holy governing and guiding and guarding all of His creation through His divine will. Our little confession of faith said, God, the great creator of all things, does a whole direct dispose and govern all creatures and all actions and all things. From the greatest even to the least, by as most wise and holy Providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, goodness, and mercy. That's an amazing statement that God governs all things, all creatures and all actions. He determines who wins the elections and who wins the championship, who gets a raise and who gets the flu, who loses their job and who loses their mind as they get older. All of these things are under the sovereign providential hand of God. And yet by the same token, the Bible teaches that we do not live in a world that is mechanistic. We're not determined by some irreversible and irrefutable power called fate. We do as sentient creatures. We do make decisions. We do have certain ability within our own selves to determine some of the outcomes and courses of our life. And our confession of faith acknowledges that, although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God who is the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly yet by the same providence. He orders them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely or contingently. God and His ordinary providence makes use of means, yet is free to work without them, above them, and against them at His pleasure. We realize that the providence of God is especially directed towards the saints. Our confession says, as the providence of God does in general reach to all creatures, so after a most special manner, it takes care of His church and disposes them to all things that are good thereof. That's what brings us to Romans 8 and to verse 28, famous verse we love to quote. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Now the question is, what is that purpose? That is determined not so much by the events around us, but by how we interpret them. In other words, it's determined by our worldview. Because a worldview is an interpretive grid that helps us make sense of the data or the experiences, the things around us that we perceive with our senses, and to fit them into some context where our lives are connected to the lives of the people around us and the greater human experience, so that things both in the microcosm of our own life and in the macrocosm of the world begin to make sense. David Wells in his book called God in the Wasteland talks about the fact that there are basically four worldviews. He draws upon the research of a sociologist, professor named Robert Wuthnell, who back in 1994, 20 years ago, was teaching a seminary class and decided to take a survey, give a survey to a seminary students to determine their worldview. And he said when it was all said and done, their views fell into one of four categories. They were either theistic, they had a God-centered view of life, or individualistic, a self-centered view of life, or they were socio-scientific, where the center of our life was the greater community, or they were mystical in the worldview, experiential. He said that 61% of the students, seminarians, and I'm glad to say 61% for seminarians, had a theistic view of life, but that meant that 17% came from an individualistic perspective, 20% from a socio-scientific and mystical were 15% of the students, and that adds up to more than 100% if you do the numbers, if you're a math person, but that's because several students had different worldviews depending upon their situation. So Wells and Wolfnow defined these views, here they are, the theistic worldview entails a belief that life is derived from God, sustained by God, and given meaning by God. People have a theistic worldview, answered the questions on the survey like this, I definitely believe in God. God is the chief agent who's constructs reality and makes life meaningful, and my life is greatly influenced by God, more than any other force in my life. In contrast, the individualistic worldview entails a belief that individuals are the center of their world, and in charge of their own destinies. This goes beyond a simple belief and free will, to a conviction that individuals transcend all social forces and are personally responsible for all of their own achievements and all of their own failures. People who had an individualistic worldview said this on the survey, if one works hard enough, he or she can do anything and be anything they want to be, whenever I fail, I have no one to blame but myself. Self-improvement is important to me, and I work hard to achieve it. Hard work always pays off. If someone is poor, then it is probably their own fault. Hard work is a good builder of character. People should be responsible for supporting themselves in retirement and not be totally dependent on the government agencies like Social Security. Social problems like crime and property can be attributed ultimately to the faults of individual character. I am the one primarily in charge of my own destiny, and my life is greatly influenced by my own decisions more than anything else. It's amazing how many evangelical Americans would agree with those statements that are not a theistic worldview. The social scientific believes that the forces of social and cultural factors shape the individual. Humans evolve from lower animals. Science rather than religion will give a better understanding of the origins of human life than the Bible. Suffering is called by social arrangements that make people greedy for riches and power, and most suffering comes about because people want to top abuse those who are on the bottom from getting their fair share. The mystical worldview is the hardest one to define, and it entails a belief that the meaning of life resides intuitively comprehended by peak experiences, typically experiences in which the person feels that one with the universe or in close proximity and unity with other individuals. So people with this worldview said, it is good to live in a fantasy world every now and then. I have experienced the feeling that I was in harmony with the universe. I grasp the meaning of life best to intense peak experiences, and I often use intuition as a basis for my decision making or actions. Much of my life is influenced by new insights that I gain at different times about myself. Now, when you add those all together, Wells and Wolfnow said, there's a great deal of confusion about how Christians, these were Christian seminary students, I might say, in a reformed and evangelical seminary, by the way. A great deal of confusion about how to interpret what's happening in the world, which means that there will be great confusion about providence. If we go back to Romans 828, we find a theistic worldview in three verses. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. Now, the first question we ask, we love to quote this verse, but we don't seem to ask the question, what is the good? What is the good that God is causing all things to work towards? Is it feeling good about myself? The mystical worldview is it my own decisions and my own success, the individualic worldview is it the community, the culture at large, that has to be fixed for the benefit of other people in the world, or is it the purpose of God in some way? Well, we don't have to guess, because even though we quote verse 28, we seldom look at verse 29 that tells us what that good is. The good is our Christ-like character. For those who love God, all things work together for the good, according to His purpose. For those of you who are new, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son in order that we might be the first born among many brothers. There's the good that we might be conformed to His Son, Jesus Christ, and God's way of accomplishing that is in verse 30, what we usually call the ordo or the order of salvation. And those of Me predestined, He also called. And those of Me called, He also justified. And those of Me justified, He also glorified. So here's a theistic worldview, that God has this great good in store for you and Me, that we would be conformed to Jesus Christ. That's the thing that He's causing all things to work together for to accomplish in our life. He's using His predestined purposes, but also the decisions that lead to our salvation, our repentance and our faith, and our obedience to the Word of God, and our cooperation with Him in sanctification, pushing us towards the ultimate glory. One writer warned, where is he said, before God changes our circumstances, He wants to change our hearts. If our circumstances change for the better, but we remain the same, then we become the worse. God's purpose and providence is not to make us comfortable, but to make us conformable, conform to the image of His Son. Christ-like character is the divine good for each of His children. That's what we're going to find in the little story of Ruth. If you'll turn over there now to chapter 2. As we'll see tonight, God working out His providential plan in the lives of three people, Naomi and Ruth and Boaz. In His providence, God sent a time of rain and good produce and a favorable harvest of the land that had been experiencing a famine for seven years. Chapter 1, verse 6, tells us that Naomi arose with her daughter-in-law to return from the country of Moab for she heard in the fields of Moab that God had visited His people and given them food. You'll notice at the end of scene 2, which is chapter 1, verse 22, they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, and they will stay in that barley harvest through scene 3, which is the end of chapter 2, verse 23, so she kept close to the young woman of Boaz, gleaning till the end of the barley and weed harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law. So here's a little story about two women who in the providence of God find their way back to a land of plenty. And although they're just looking for something to sustain their life, looking for food, shelter and protection, they find much more in the providence of God, and they learn to interpret that providence of God using four spiritual principles. In this little story, there are four paragraphs in chapter 2, and each paragraph presents to us a principle about understanding the providence of God. Now there's four ways to understand it, as an individual, as a member of society, in some mystical supernatural way, or from a perspective of God, a theistic worldview. And we find that Naomi and little Ruth believe her not, and certainly Boaz have a theistic worldview that interprets what's happening in their life. The first principle for understanding the providence of God, for interpreting what God is doing in your life, is the principle of God's word, chapter 2, the first seven verses. Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a worthy man of the clan of the Lime Alec, whose name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moivite 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 sent out and went and gleaned into 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 the Lime Alec. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and 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 wrong woman is this? And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, she is the young Moivite 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 short rest. Now the story tells us that Ruth and Naomi came back to the land of the Lime Alec, to the place of what would be the tribe of Benjamin in the country of Judea. During the Barley Harvest, the eighth month of their agricultural years. It was the time quite frankly we'll find at the end of the story between the Barley Harvest and the Wheat Harvest. The Barley Harvest came in late April, the Wheat Harvest in early May. The Barley Harvest was associated with a feast called the Passover, the Wheat Harvest with one called Pentecost. That's why at Pentecost, even to this day, the Jewish synagogue reads through and celebrates the story of Ruth. And it was providential, no pun intended, providential that they came to the country of Lime Alec again at the time of the harvest. Because God in His Word, in the Bible, through Moses, the great logiver, had said in place some biblical statutes that would provide for and protect two widows who were sojourners from a foreign country. Four of them in particular. Over in Exodus chapter 22, he established protection for sojourners and widows. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you mistreat them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear that cry, and my wrath will burn. And I will kill you with a sword, and your wives shall become widows, and your children will be fatherless. Then there was the principle that you shall love your neighbor. In the Vedic chapter 19, when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge. Neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare. Neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. I am the Lord your God, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Then there was the rule of the religious duty at Pentecost. Leviticus chapter 23, God says, you shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count 50 days to that day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present your grain offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall bring it from your dwelling place, and bring two loaves of bread to be made of two tenths of an efa. They shall be fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven as the first fruits of the Lord. And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge. You shall not gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor for the sojourner because I am the Lord your God. That led to a fourth biblical principle called the law of gleaning that Naomi and Ruth appealed to in this passage in Deuteronomy chapter 24. When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat out your olive trees, you shall not go over them a second time. What is left shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes from your vineyard, you shall not strip it bare. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, all that is left. You shall remember that you once were slaved in the land of Egypt, and therefore I command you to do this. I want you to notice that all of these levitical statutes, these rules about sacred holidays and caring for orphans and widows and harvest rules and leaving things in the field on purpose for the poor and the sojourner and the fatherless and the widow, all of these things were in place 300 years before Naomi and Ruth were ever born. God and His providencial wisdom was looking down through time, anticipating the need for people like Ruth and Naomi to be provided for. And these precepts from God were already in place, but of course they would have done no good whatsoever, had Ruth and Naomi not taken advantage of them. You'll notice that it's Ruth, who somehow has heard about this, who first takes an initiative and says, let me go reap in the fields of your relatives. And Ruth the mobile bite 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 Naomi said to her, go my daughter, when she goes there, the young men who were in charge see this stranger, this mobile bite girl, they said, they've heard that she came back with Naomi that they were both widows. And so without a costinger or reprimanding her, they let her glean. When Boaz comes and said, who is this woman, this stranger gleaning in my fields and my property? And they said, well, she came back with the widow, Naomi, she is a mobile, a sojourner, a stranger in our land, then Boaz says, let her glean. It was the only way, quite frankly, one of the few ways I should say that people who were widows or who were poor had a way to support themselves and provide for themselves other than to sell themselves in this servitude. So here, from the word of God, there's an entire ethos of compassion and generosity and obedience to God's law that was established by the Lord, written down by Moses past on as part of the culture of Israel and adopted by this gracious man named Boaz, who is obviously a godly man. The scripture calls him twice in this passage, a worthy man, which literally means a mighty man of valor. He is Leon Moore says, a solid citizen, a man of influence and integrity and faith in the community. And when he comes to greet the people in this field, he says, the Lord be with you and they say the Lord bless you. He has a theistic worldview about things. He doesn't say when he arrives, how's the harvest? How's the work going? How much do we make today? He says the Lord be with you and his servants who've learned to live unto his worldview say the Lord bless you. There in these opening verses, the seven verses and these three lives interfacing, Ruth and Naomi and Boaz, there is a principle. I think it's the number one principle for understanding providence in your life and that is what does the word of God say? What does the Bible have laid out for us to explain? What we should do, what others should do, what is actually happening. We're living in an age I think that is increasingly by negligence, I don't think by choice, but because of technology and our love for music and our individual worldview and our craving for experiences, we are less and less prone to really dig down into God's word and to know it. And yet here, as we see this providence of God unfolding in these three lives, it is following the lines of the revealed word of God. God is not doing anything that he hasn't already said he would do. And he's asking people to act in accordance with certain standards that he's laid down so that they can be a blessing. The word bless you, Boaz says. And his young men, in his sense say, you already have, you've blessed us, you've blessed Naomi and Ruth, you've blessed the Lord. So knowing God's word helps interpret God's work. Ignorance of the Bible can and will harm us and sin which is disobedience to God's statutes will make life harder and will at least for a season retard the good purposes of God in our life. God's first interpreter as the one he's in doing is always his word. I've been in ministry for over 30 years and I'll bet I've had a thousand people, if not more, come to me and say, Pastor, I just, I don't know what God is doing in my life. I don't know what's happening here. How can I interpret what's going on? And I always try to send them back to God's word as a starting point. Amy says, the Lord does nothing without revealing his secrets to his servant, the prophets. What an amazing statement. The Lord does nothing without first telling the writers of the Scripture what he's doing. Moses would say the secret things belong to the Lord, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law. So here's the first principle, especially for regenerate people, for born again Christians, who according to Paul have the mind of Christ. We should be going to the Word of God and at the daily reading and study and discussion, prayer over, insights from other people from the Scripture. We should be able to begin to see the providence of God take shape, but there are some other principles that go along with it. And here's a second one, the principle of reciprocity. It comes in the second paragraph beginning in verse 8. Then, Boa said to Ruth, now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one. Keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are weeping and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you were thirsty, go to the vessels and drink, with the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? But Boa has answered her, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me in 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 and the full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel. Are to whose wings you have come to take refuge? Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord. If you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants. Boa's tells Ruth that he will provide for her an extraordinary way. Boa's actually goes beyond the law. He tells her that she doesn't need to go to any other field which was the custom that she should stay there and that he would provide for all that she needed on his own property. That she didn't have to glean alone which was usually the process they would come after hours even into the evening which was dangerous for women in the fields in those days as it would be today. He says, no, you will glean along my servants and my maid servants like one of my hired hands. You don't need to be afraid of them. I've told the young men not to touch you. I don't think he's talking about being molested. I think he's talking about he spread the word among your servants that when you see this foreigner, this girl who's not part of our community, going beyond what she's allowed to do by the little girl, don't rebuke her or a costor, let her do it. I've given her permission to do so. Ruth is deeply touched and says, why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? Well, now the correct answer from Boaz should have been, well, this law that I'm following, this Levitical Law of Gleening is put in place for foreigners for sojourners in my land, but he doesn't. He says, I am blessing you because you have blessed Naomi. He is appealing to what the Bible calls the law of reciprocity, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me how you left your father and mother and your native land and have come to the people that you did not know before. 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. The Lord repay you for what you have done. That is the key statement. And that is the reason Ruth says, why are you doing this? Boaz says because I'm here to repay you for what you have done for someone else. This is the second principle. We may not like this one, but it's all through the Scriptures. It's called the law of reciprocity or sometimes called the law of sewing and reaping. Hosea would say, for they that sew the wind shall reap the whirlwind, sew for yourselves righteousness and reap steadfast love. Jesus stated the law of reciprocity this way, judge not and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, press down, shaken together, flowing over. It will spill into your lap. For with the measure you have used, it will be measured back to you in return. The law of reciprocity, the Apostle Paul talks about it. He talks about sewing and reaping, the one who is so bountifully shall also reap bountifully, the one who is so sparingly shall reap sparingly. Do not be deceived, he said. God is not mocked. For whatever a man so is this will also reap. For one who is so's to own flesh, from the flesh reap corruption, to one who so's to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not go weary in doing good for induced season we shall reap if we do not give up. So then while we have an opportunity, let us do good to all men and especially to those who are the household of the faith. Even James chimed in and says and the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. There is a spiritual all in the universe that things come back to us, the way we've given them to other people. Years of spiritual sewing, years of humbling yourself each other in repentance before one another, of praying together, of loving your wife as Christ loved the church and respecting your husband as you would the Lord will eventually yield the faithful reaping of a good and godly marriage. The opposite is true. Years of flesh to living and spiritual hypocrisy will lead to a troubled marriage and unconverted children. Sometimes when bad things happen to us, we tend to say, well, why has this happened to me? I did everything I was supposed to do and it didn't work out and I exhort you brothers and sisters as a brother in the Lord, be very careful about saying that. Because what you're doing is you're saying, I am not responsible for any of the things that happened to me. And everything according to God's plan, it was God. It was God who failed. It was God who broke his promise. I did everything right and my children walked away from the Lord. I was a great husband and my wife left me. It was the only one laid off at work because of his Christian and they persecuted me. Could it be? Could it possibly that you were an obnoxious employee, that you were not a good husband and you were not a spiritual leader of your children? There is something in life. Jesus said it. Moses said it. Hosea did and James and the other people of the Old Testament. They said there is a law of sewing and reaping. Ruth, for no benefit to your own, had chosen to be good to Naomi. And now, Moses said, the Lord is going to repay you for that. The Lord is going to give you the reciprocity. What you sowed your kindness and Naomi's life will come back to you and my kindness in your life. If only I will give you more than you gave to Naomi because the Lord will repay you. Most of us at Christmas time like to watch the story called It's A Wonderful Life. How many people like that movie? That's the number one Christmas movie of all times. You know what's the story about? It's a story about the law of reciprocity. It's a story about a little guy named George Bailey who has the Bailey savings on loan and always wants to go off and accomplish great things but he stays there in time after time. At his own expense, to his own sacrifice, to his own hurt and inconvenience, he takes care of somebody else until he's in the time of crisis. He's about to go bankrupt and then go to jail. And one phone call from his wife spreads literally around the world and all the people he's helped in different ways. Come back and with great generosity, bail out his business and pay off his debts because George Bailey experienced the law of reciprocity. It's a blessing when things go well in our life and we get a reciprocal blessing from the Lord. It's a difficult thing to accept when things don't go so well and I would remind you that this rule works both ways. When we do the right thing and God rewards it, we should give thanks for the fact that God operates by this principle. And when we don't and we pay the consequences, we should be encouraged that the principle remains in force and if we would repent and do the right thing, then blessings would come. There are people tonight who will go home and say that was a horrible sermon. That was a work to righteousness sermon, but I have said nothing about earning your salvation or reciprocity, Christ justification for your good works. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who live by the law of God and reciprocity to that, God blesses them. If that doesn't work, then what is right and wrong? What is good and bad? Why do we have rules and regulations and even principles to govern our life together? Third principle, the principle of humility, chapter 2 verse 14. And at meal time, Boas 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 left over. And when she rose the glean, Boas instructed his young men saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her and also put out some of the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean and do not review her. Boas continues to show special favor to Ruth. She eats with his family, rest with his servants. He goes more than she can eat so she has leftovers for mother-in-law. He tells us, feel hands to purposefully leave bundles out for her so that she can take him home and allow her to go beyond the limits of the borders of the field and glean in the middle and not to rebuke her. And you know what? Naomi knows this. And so does Ruth. And the next paragraph, I'll acknowledge that. Ruth is aware that Boas is going beyond the rule of the law and extending to her a great kindness and she is humble enough to receive it. How many times, my friends, especially in America, how many times do we hear people say, especially men, I don't need your charity, but indeed we do. We need the mercy of God in this grace. And that mercy in that grace usually comes through other people. The hand of providence often, in fact I would say the majority of time, works through the hands of other people. And if we are too proud to receive a gift, mercy, pity, charity from someone else, then we will miss the hand of providence reaching into our lives. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. I grew up a very ungrateful young man who turned into a self-centered young fellow became a bitter young man until 1995 at the age of 46. And then for some reason, I began to notice the hand of God in my life through my wife and through my children. Through some elders named Joe Goodwin and Todd Barrett and the kind people of Trinity Presbyterian Church and my minister friends and Mississippi Valley Presbyter, it was like a light one on. And I began to see how for years and years and years I had kept people at bay. I had projected the image to my wife and children and everyone close to me that I was a self-sufficient man and I did need your help and I don't want your charity. The real problem was I was angry on the inside, angry at God and angry at life and angry at everybody in the world including my wife and children. Until I realized all that God was doing for me through them and then slowly but surely I began to turn into a grateful man. Gratitude and humility always go together because whenever we thank somebody we're acknowledging our need and their provision. And if you are an ungrateful person, if you find it hard to say thank you, hard to show gratitude, then you are a person who is proud and God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. It was a very humbling thing for Naomi to go back and root to go back to the family that was theirs and to act like a stranger and a beggar but they did. And when Boaz went beyond the law and was gracious to them, you don't hear them say we don't need your charity, we know the living of the law, we know our rights. They were grateful and that shown in this final paragraph that gives us the 4th principle, the principle of authority beginning in verse 17. So she gleaned in the fields until evening then she beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an eph of barley. And she took it up and went into the city, her mother-in-law saw that she had gleaned all that she had gleaned and she brought out and gave her what food she had left over 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, the man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. And Ruth the Moabite said besides he said to me he shall keep close to 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 should go out with his young women less in another field you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young women of Boaz gleaming until the end of the barley and wheat harvest and she lived with her mother-in-law. Here's the fourth principle, the principle of authority. After they give thanks and I want you to notice that Ruth moving from chapter 1 to chapter 2 goes from bitterness to blessing. She's a person who has become grateful for what God is doing in her life and she blesses God in Boaz and her daughter-in-law. And then she says in so many words, Ruth let's say under the structures of authority and protection that God has provided. And that's what the story if the bottom line is about. Boaz responded to the authority of Moses and the lividical code and the Old Testament scriptures to be merciful and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Naomi placed herself and Ruth under Boaz's authority for he was a goel, a kinsman redeemer according to the mosaic law. Ruth submitted to her mother-in-law spiritual authority and leadership and guidance and did what her mother-in-law said. Even though perhaps as a young Moabite it didn't make a whole lot of sense and Boaz as servants did as their master dictated and all this authority structure was in order for God to bless everyone. And so he did. Paul tells us in the New Testament that every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. As a minister for doing good. Whether it's our parents or our husbands, the elders in our church, the bosses at work, the policemen and magistrates, the president of the United States, whether we like them or not, whether we wanted them or not, they are there as an authority structure through which God can work. Once providence is designed by the Lord to function best when his divine chain of command brings order and guidance to life. I think you would agree with me loved ones that many of the sorrows and sufferings that we bring upon ourselves, we bring upon ourselves because we step out of authority structures to go our own way. So when you add these four principles together, the principle of the law of God, the principle of sewing and reaping reciprocity, the principle of humility and gratitude and the principle of submitting to authority, they help us to interpret God's providential work in our lives. What God is doing oftentimes seems like a mystery, but you know, folks, it's really not. What God is doing is to cause all things to work together for our good so that we might be conformed to His Son, Jesus Christ. Who, incidentally, lived by the Word of God, sowed and reaped good and blessed things for mankind and has reaped the harvest of souls who love a door and worship Him, who was humble and grateful, and although He was the king of kings and Lord of lords, He was a man under authority for a season so that you and I might be saved. Providence may seem mysterious. As the hymn writer said, God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform, but there are three things that are not mysterious. What God intends for each of us, which is a Christ-like character, how God's hand of providence works in our life through the Word and through our actions and through the mercy of others and the authority in our life, and why God's providential acts unfold the way they do. If we honor these four principles, we are blessed, and if we don't, then we pay the price. Here's the good news. We may look upon this and say, you know, I really haven't followed these four principles for the majority of my life and I've paid for it, but here's the encouraging thing, my friend. These four principles are principles that remain in place forever. Whether you're four, or 14, or 46, or 74, you can go back to these principles and begin to obey God's Word to so spiritual things, to be grateful for the mercy and kindness God has given to you. And to follow legitimate authority, and you'll find that the hand of providence turns in a gracious ways it did for Naomi and Ruth, and you will to say sooner than later, blessed be the Lord who has dealt so bountifully with me. Of course, it all depends on your worldview, but I would remind you that here are three people in this story who have every reason not to follow these principles. An old woman at the end of her life, full of disappointment and bitterness, due to frankly was spiritually backslidden for over a decade. Now, a young woman who was a pegged and hasn't got a clue in the bloom of her life, hoping for a good life in the future, and a middle-aged man who's been a good and godly man, all of his life, and probably asking himself, where was the wife and children that I've longed and wanted all my life. And to follow these three people, at different stages of their life, submit themselves to the hand of providence and God blesses every one of them. You can see that if your worldview has God at the center, and if not, then you're left guessing what in the world God is doing to you. Father, we thank you that in your mysterious work of predestination, and it's outflowing in what we call providence, that you have given us biblical principles that we can follow to help us interpret what you're doing in our life, to cooperate with your gracious hand and your wonderful principles, to work with others to be a blessing and to be blessed by them, and to live under those structures that you've instituted for us, for our spiritual good, from cradle to grave. This is not a mystery. It's a matter of looking at the world from the perspective that you have shaped everything in it, and all the people and all the actions that flow from it, for the grand purpose of bringing us out of ourselves and into Christ, and conforming us to His endless glory. Help us to plug into your word and to understand it, to sow and reap spiritual things from the spirit and not from the flesh, to be grateful, to receive mercy and to be thankful for it, to follow the different lines of authority that you put in our life, which direct us in the good and noble way. As we go on in this story, we'll find what a blessing this has been, not just to bow as in Ruth and Naomi, but to the whole world through what you brought out of their lives and their bodies, and into our own time, ultimately the Savior of the world. Because it is Jesus Christ who is the invisible hand of providence made visible, he is the word made flesh, God in a human body, he who has seen Christ has seen you, you said, and therefore it is no mystery what Jesus Christ has intended for us, things which I has not seen and year has not heard, and things that have not entered the heart of man, all that you have prepared for those who love you in Jesus Christ. And so we pray for your guidance through these principles, through the Spirit and the name of the Lord, and we ask this for Jesus' sake, amen.