Let's take our Bibles once again and go to the book of Ruth, chapter 2. I'd like to finish out this chapter this morning. As we have been here, I think, three, this might be the fourth time that we've been in the second chapter, finishing this out. By the way, it's good to have some of the ones that we prayed for on Wednesday night who have been on the front lines of all of the storm recovery. It's good to see Levi. I know Levi has been, it's good to see him this morning. He's been working six days and doing a lot of cleanup. It's good to see Levi this morning and Peter. Peter's actually a lineman and so I think we owe these guys a hand. Now, if we could only get Charter Spectrum to hire Peter, we would be doing very, very well. And so maybe we should give him a call and ask them to hire him as a specialty operator. But nonetheless, we appreciate these guys. I think we maybe don't realize the danger of the job that they have been involved in. It's not a very safe thing and so we appreciate all that all of them are doing for that and continue to pray for some of the others that we've mentioned as well. We're looking at a chapter that we have entitled, No Coincidences with God. No Coincidences with God. And of course the theme or the proposition statement we could say is that mature believers realize this important principle. And that is that there are no accidents. There is no fate involved. There is not what we might would call happenstance. When it comes to the child of God and His direction upon that child, us, you and I who know Him, upon our lives, there is not those kinds of things in our lives. Now, we hear those kinds of words all the time. But I think we've got to be very careful that we do not succumb to the world's idea of how things operate in this world. For you see, the child of God is under, as the choir sing about today, We are under the sovereign hand of the mighty Creator, folks, at every moment. Every moment of every day. And the hand of that good God is gracious to us. We again could go further and say that we live every moment of every day within the grace of God. And I would go one further step than that. We oftentimes, because we are weak and frail and we are sinful, we still live in the grace of God every moment of every day, sometimes despite our own actions. For you see, He does not cease to be a gracious God, even though we may falter and we may fail, which we often do. Now having said that, He will sometimes chastise, or He will often sometimes withhold blessings, but we're never without His grace. And that's something that we need to understand. He is not going to one day say, well, the tally for that individual having come and confessed their sins to me, as it says in 1 John 1, 9, he has gone over the limit of 10,469 times. And my limit was 68. Therefore, my grace is done." Aren't you thankful that we have a God whose grace is an eternal and inexhaustible reservoir of grace? He'll never run out. What a good God we have. We see this again in the life and the metaphor that you're familiar with that we've used throughout this series is the fact that the tapestry of God's providence that He is weaving in each individual life We may not see the completed picture at this point. In fact, most of us do not. and he will one day reveal it to us, but little by little, the threads come together to form a wonderful, beautiful creation of life that the master creator has for each one of us. He certainly was doing this in the life of Naomi and Ruth and Boaz, and he would continue on making that tapestry in the line of David, which we're going to see again, as this series progresses, which I think is one of the main reasons why we have this book in the Old Testament. God is putting it all together, and He does it in such a beautiful way in this book. I don't know about you, but again, as I said at the outset many weeks ago, I remember as a young boy reading this book and thinking, and I still do, what a beautiful story the Lord has provided for us here, is it not? What a beautiful way it unfolds. And so again, without re-preaching the points, let me just give them to you if you're taking notes or maybe you'd like to. But we're looking at five divisions within chapter 2. The first one is actually verse 1. The providence of a person we looked at. And so, what happened? We looked at Boaz coming on the scene. And some interesting things about this significant individual in God's time and in God's place. In verses 2 and 3, in fact, we looked at that specific idea, which is the providence of a place. The providence of a place. Not only had Naomi and Ruth traveled back to her homestead of Bethlehem. Again, how significant is that going to become? But even more specific, the author tells us that she just happens to go and to glean, she takes the initiative actually to provide for herself and for Naomi, and she just happens to go to a certain field that belonged to Boaz. Again, coincidence? I think not. Happenstance? No. Fate? No. It was all the plan of God. It was the plan for them to go back in His timing from the land of Moab back to her homeland and into the city of Bethlehem. It was God's timing for Boaz to come on the scene and for her to go to this particular field. We see that she gleans according to the Old Testament law. They were to leave the corners of the field for the poor and the needy, and they would not reap or glean in giving them those things. We see Ruth as she is very industrious in her hard work, and people begin to take notice. And that's what we have in verses 4-7, the third division we looked at. was the providence, I call it, of attention. And he, I'm speaking of Boaz, he recognizes that there's a stranger here. And Ruth gets the attention not only of the foreman of the field who sees her, but we find that she garners the attention of Boaz himself. I think this is two-fold. I think it was, again, God's divine direction in His heart and life, and we're going to see that even more in chapter 3. And that's going to intensify. But there's also something here that is very earthy, if you will. It's what we can identify with. He was attracted to her physically. And again, we're going to see that even more so in chapter 3. And as God lays that out, and that's how God plans it, and that's how God works it out. And so, we see that coming to the forefront here. In verses 8 through 16, we also looked at, and this special section, I think, the heart of it is the providence of God's grace, or the providence of grace. Because we see Boaz giving grace. He mentions the fact that Ruth had the testimony of also dispensing grace when she did not have to. Again, let's think about it in retrospect. Here is a woman who could have stayed in Moab, stayed where it might have been comfortable after almost a decade there, perhaps, or actually she had probably grown up there herself. It was her homeland. And she could have remarried very easily there and started a new life for herself, but she gave herself in totality and in commitment to Naomi. And of course, we know those wonderful phrases in that first chapter, where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your God will be my God. And she dispenses in those statements a grace that is not usual. For in essence, she is saying to Naomi at that point, not knowing how God was weaving the tapestry in her own life. She was saying, I am setting aside all the things that I might want or desire in my life, and I am committing myself to you. My friends, that's grace. That's selfless. That is the epitome of love, is it not? Or more specifically, agape love. That love which is the ultimate kind of love that our Lord showed and it's mentioned hundreds of times in the New Testament. Agape love is simply defined as love void of self. not expecting anything in return, but always giving for the sake of the other. It is to that kind of love that we all should aspire, and the example of which Christ gave us by the sacrifice of Himself. Here is one who came awfully close in being very exemplary in agape love, and it was Ruth. And this testimony that she had, the actions that she displayed, went before her. In fact, let's go back and let's read these verses a little bit by way of review. Look at verse 11 of chapter 2, and this gives us an example of what we're talking about. And Boaz answered and said to her, It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people whom you did not know before." And so, again, he has heard this. Her testimony had walked before her, as it were. And all that we would be the same What do people know us for? And I think we spend a little time on that. But what do people, when they think of us and they hear our name, what is it about us that they think of when they hear our name? Again, many, many Christians, they can build themselves a reputation. They can have certain talents that they're very good at, and that may not necessarily be a sinful or even a bad or immoral thing to be known for. But my friends, I would say, let us strive. Let us ask God. Let us, by the Holy Spirit's power, be known for something more than the things of this earth. As I said last Sunday morning, the greatest thing that we can leave, the greatest epitaph that we could carve in stone, both literally and figuratively, is that we, you and I, he or she, walked with God. There's nothing else in life more important for our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, if the Lord would allow those days to be seen, that they could know about you and I than that. All the other things will be forgotten. Well, they were good at this. They were talented at that. They had a passion for this and all those things may be good and well and certainly enjoyable and nothing wrong with them, but those things will pass away. They will fade into eternity. But when we walk with God, my friends, that will not fade. That is so important for us. This was her testimony. And so we saw that, and now it turns once again back to Boaz in dispensing his grace to her. And I think one of my all-time favorite verses in this whole book is found in verse 16. And he orders his men, and he says, also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her. Or again, it is worded elsewhere. drop or leave handfuls on purpose for her. I love that. I love that. Because again, not only is he being gracious, it reminds us of how God, if we are aware And we're not blinded to the things that are going on around us. We sometimes become blinded to the blessings of God because we have so many things on our heart and mind that we forget that, you know what, we have a good God who, listen to me Christian, who daily drops handfuls of purpose for us. I think the problem is that we just don't see them because the mundane things of life tend to shove it out of our minds. We're busy here. We've got a schedule. We've got to keep. We've got things that we've got to do. And again, there's nothing wrong at all with that. But oh, how we as believers need to have a constant and a perpetual spiritual focus on the things as we go through this life. It reminds me of an interesting statement in the book of Proverbs. I know that's a favorite of many of you. And he'll say something like this, let it be frontlets, where? Between your eyes. In other words, right here. Let it be right there. In other words, let it be in the forefront of your conscious thought. Now again, I know, and I am not naive enough to know that we, pastor, we have jobs, we have families, we have things that we have to do in this life. We can't always be walking around monkish with hands folded, you know, going to the next Vesper service. I know that. That's not the reality of life. But let's flip that coin over once again. On the other side of that coin is this, though. Though we do go about our lives as God has, again, woven that particular way or vocation or place or time, we don't do any of that without, again, there being the conscious thought that God is always with me. It doesn't matter what vocation you're called to. I'm doing what I do for the glory of God. Isn't that what Paul says? He says, whether I eat or drink, and then he has that all-encompassing statement, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Let that be for us Christians the prominent principle and the frontlet, so to speak, between our eyes. In other words, let me say it even more plainly. When we go to work or whatever we do on a daily basis, let's not forget God. Sometimes we tend to do that, do we not? It's easy. It's easy in the society in which we live. We're inundated with things and information and so forth and our minds are full. Isn't it interesting that in the information age we have so much knowledge and yet such weak spirituality in the information age? And that's because we crowd God out of these things. Well, we note again that as these people received grace, they dispensed grace. And again, I would like to commend that to all of us as God's children. We have been recipients of it. Again, if we begin to take note and we would begin to track all of the graciousness of God, we would be overwhelmed. We would be overwhelmed at His goodness and the blessings that He gives us. I think I've mentioned this in time past, but there's a gospel song that we have sung for many, many years in the church, and some of you grew up singing it. In fact, if we were to stand and sing it, you would have the verses memorized. Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. What's the next phrase? And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. That phrase has always bugged me. Okay? And here's the reason why. If we really had the thoughts of God as frontlets between our eyes, would it surprise us? It shouldn't. It really shouldn't. If we were really keeping track, if we were really conscious of our God and how gracious and good and benevolent and sovereign He is, it shouldn't surprise us when He blesses us and drops the handfuls on purpose. But I think the songwriter is probably accurate because, let's face it, we don't do it. We don't do it. I would suggest this, and this is just a very, very practical way of trying to maybe curb that a little bit. Take yourself a little book, a notebook or whatever, and begin, and here's what you do. Every single day, write down the date and just think or ponder one thing that comes to your mind of how God has blessed you that day. and start keeping a journal and you can look back and it will go by quickly and you'll be able to flip back through the pages of month after month and even year after year and you're like, yeah, I remember that. You see, the problem is that our memories, well, they're not as good as we think they are. And many of you in here could agree with me that the older you get, the worse it gets. And you have to start writing things down. The unfortunate thing is that sometimes you write it down and you still forget it. But if you have this in a journal, you're not going to forget it. You're going to be able to look back and you're going to flip through the pages and you're going to be like, thank you, Lord. Thank you on that date two years ago that you gave me that handful on purpose. Thank you, Father, for that. That's just a practical way to do that. I would suggest that to all of us. We come to the last section, 17 through 23, and I want to read these verses. And this is the providence of God's goodness. This is exactly what we've already been talking about. But we see it now and it is lived out or it is on the lips of Naomi and Ruth alike. So look at verse, we'll begin in verse 17. So she gleaned in the field until evening and beat out what she had gleaned and it was about an ephah of barley. Then she took it up and went into the city and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. So she brought out and gave to her what she had kept back after she had been satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, Where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one 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 work today is Boaz. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forgotten his kindness to the living and the dead. And Naomi said to her, This man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives. Ruth the Moabite said, He also said to me, You shall stay 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 men, and that the people do not meet you in any other field. So she stayed close. by the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law." So we see Ruth's work. She was still what we had looked at earlier. She was a very industrious woman, and that indicates great character. There is no laziness or there should never be any laziness within the child of God. And the virtuous woman, well, meant to, but the virtuous woman with whom she is associated Isn't it interesting? It goes through all of those characteristics about how industrious she was, and then it gives an example of what she did to be an industrious worker. And if it doesn't represent Ruth, it certainly is very much like her. She was an absolute woman of character. And she worked hard. It was difficult, very difficult labor that these people did to glean and then reap in this barley harvest. One writer said, at the end of the day's work, Ruth beat out and winnowed the grain she had gleaned. Again, that's a very difficult process. She had collected about three-fifths of a bushel. That's what an ephah of barley would be. Again, that may now sound like a lot, but that was very, very difficult work. And so again, Ruth was working and it represented who she really was. And by the way, we also find, and most Bible scholars will tell you this, that this was equivalent, what she gleaned was equivalent of at least a half a month's wages in one day. So again, that gives us an idea of just how hard a worker she really was. Proverbs 31, 17, again, as it speaks of that virtuous woman, it says, she girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms. And so she was doing very difficult, hard labor. And she wasn't afraid of that. What a wonderful thing. And that is what got her noticed. That is what is going to take her. And this is going to be very important for her later on. In verse 19, we see Ruth's report. I love... this is another one of these verses that we get a little glimpse. We know what's going to happen as the reader. And we're waiting for it to be revealed to Naomi. And we're waiting for her to find out all of this, and I say this quote-unquote, all of these coincidences. No, they're not that. All of these plans of God as He has willed it. And so, again, look with me in verse 19, or the last part of it. So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked, the man's name with whom I work today is Boaz. Now, can you imagine, as soon as Ruth uttered that name, can you imagine the reaction? And I would love to have seen it on Naomi's part. Her emotions, her heart, it must have been a mix of emotion. And I wonder as she is thinking about how all of this has worked out, if she was joyous and yet she was tearful at the same time. And she is saying, blessed be the Lord, with tears brimming in her eyes at the fact that God has worked all of this out. I'm sure her heart leapt within her. when she heard this name because she knows immediately that God has not forsaken them. God has not abandoned them. And with this one statement, She realizes what God has done. She says again, blessed be he of the Lord who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead. She considered herself at one point the dead because she had lost everything. And as we've said, we should have empathy for this woman and for Ruth too. Their lives were turned completely upside down. They had no way of again knowing how it was going to turn out. Naomi did not know if she was going to survive. But it was the care, the love, the attention, the commitment of Ruth that kept her going. And then God, in essence, what does He do? drops a handful on purpose for Naomi as well. When that name comes up, she knows immediately. She said, he is a close relative of ours. Now what we're going to view and what we see again as we progress is we're going to see some very interesting cultural customs, if you will. And of course we know that it was customary for relatives to take up the families and to keep that family going upon the death of others. And we'll see that. And that was part of the Old Testament culture in the day. And so here she knows. And so we find in verses 20 and 23, we see Naomi rejoicing. And what a good thing it is to see that once again, is it not? What a contrast between the first chapter and now. Here is one who, again, she's been very vilified for some of the words that she spoke. She was saying, don't call me Naomi anymore, call me Mara, which means bitter. She's been vilified by a lot of, as I said, preachers and commentators on that. And I think unrightly so. Because again, as I've said in the course of this series, we oftentimes have problems putting ourself in people's shoes. And I think it's unfortunate and indeed unfair that we would say, well, she had a major spiritual problem here. Well, maybe she was struggling. But I would ask this question, who among us haven't? Who among us haven't struggled spiritually at times, especially when times and moments of crisis come our way? And again, I think that we're a little bit harsh on her. She was downtrodden again. And what a wonderful thing to see how, again, the handfuls on purpose of God's grace, what it can do to the life, what it can do to the heart, and how it can certainly help the countenance. And so she encourages her here, Ruth, and so she says to her to stay at the stuff. Keep doing what you're doing. Again, at this point we have to also admit that we do not know how all of this is going to turn out. The ultimate purpose for Boaz, for Ruth, and for Naomi hasn't been revealed yet to them. And here's how I would word it. These handfuls on purpose are going to get better and better. And we'll see the ultimate purpose by the time we get to the end of chapter 4. It gets better and better. You know, I think that reminds me of the Christian life, folks. My pastor used to say often, he said, you know what? The walk of the Lord, the Christian life, it just gets better and better and gooder and gooder. Can you look back and say that? Can you say that about your walk with the Lord today? I think that if you are truly a child of God and we take time out, again, as I said earlier, to really count our blessings, we will realize, well, you know what? That's a very true statement. It's as the old gospel song says, it's sweeter as the days go by. Is it that way for you? It should be for all of us. Because again, what do we have here? Again, let's step back and look at the big picture for just a moment. God is weaving these threads in our life. And we have to trust Him, even though we say, well, this doesn't make much sense. How possibly is this going to turn out to be anything that I recognize, or anything that is going to be worthwhile? And that's when we have to say, Lord, I trust You. Lord, You are my God. Lord, You are the Master Weaver. And I trust the creative process. that you have in my life. I began a couple of weeks ago with a poem that really centers around our theme. It's written by a man named Grant Colfax Tuller. He was a very interesting man. He was a preacher. He was a very prolific hymn writer. And he bridged the time between the 19th and 20th centuries. And he wrote this wonderful little poem called, The Weaver. I read it to you. I want to read it to you again. He says, My life is but a weaving between God and me. I cannot choose the colors he weaveth steadily. Oft times he weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride forgets he sees the upper, and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason why. The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern he has planned. He knows, he loves, he cares. Nothing this truth can dim. He gives the very best to those who leave the choice to Him. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for these reminders in this beautiful story that is ultimately the story of the Savior who was to come from these people who were shown grace, and Lord, they dispense grace to others in their life. Lord, what examples they are. We thank you for the fact that we can learn from them, and I pray, oh God, that we would think about, contemplate the fact that each and every day, whether we recognize it or not, we live in your grace. And Father, those handfuls that you dispense to us on purpose, Lord, you give them to us. Lord, sometimes we fail to recognize it. And Lord, we would ask Thy forgiveness for that. And I would pray, Father, for this preacher and for, Lord, others here on their behalf. Lord, that You would help us not to get so busy and wrapped up in the life, our everyday life, that we forget You and the things that You do for us. We thank you for salvation. We thank you for Christ. We thank you for the blessing of being able to meet here today. And Lord, reminding us of all these things. And Lord, help us to take away that which the Holy Spirit gives to us and reminds us of in our hearts and minds today. We thank you again for this little glimpse of glory divine as we have a chance to come and to gather around your word and to sing praises to your name. Lord, help us to realize that you are the planner, the master creator of our lives. Help us to trust you even when we do not know where the end may be or what the final product may look like. Lord, help us to have that faith and that trust in you alone. Work in our hearts today as we close out our time together, we pray in Jesus' name.