Gleaning In the Garden of Grace

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Good morning, CCW.

Take your Bibles and turn them to Ruth chapter two.

Before we jump in, this Tuesday is a very, very important day.

And I want to take a moment.

If you have served in any of our armed forces, if you're in the military active or were in the military, could we have you stand this morning?

We honor those who have served Tuesday as Veterans Day.

Thank you.

Thank you for your service.

We appreciate those who would serve that we could have the freedom that we bear today.

And uh we do appreciate that.

Uh I do want to give an update.

We got a little sweet baby in here.

And uh David and Amanda Grantham took Wills in.

We prayed as a church family, and we got the best news we could possibly get this week.

They did the procedure and it worked.

Praise God.

Amen.

Amen, church family.

Thank you for praying.

I know, I know that they so much appreciate that.

Uh, tomorrow uh is Callie Vignelle's 14th birthday.

Callie, happy birthday.

All right.

Now we can get into the book of Ruth.

Uh this morning's sermon is entitled Gleaning in the Garden of Grace.

And the first point this morning is God's circumspectful work.

When I consider God's circumspectful work, there was a moment, a week, where I was riding around in what the teenagers used to call the big cheese.

Other people know it as the Jesus' awesome van.

But the church owns a big yellow van, and as life would happen is kind of comical, but my previous neighbor in the back side of Chelsea's Park, uh, Chelsea Park, his name was Mike Jordan.

Isn't that funny?

Well, Mike Jordan was in a bad way one day.

He was pulled off to the side of the road, and I, the pastor of the church at Chelsea Westover, was in the big cheese.

I was in the Jesus' awesome van because we had a vehicle down, and I'm rolling around the corner, and I just gotta say, I want to help people, but I'm not always awake and aware of all that's going on around me.

But that day, thank God, I was aware that somebody was pulled over and I had the whatever within me to stop because think about this.

Your neighbor, Mike Jordan, sees a message flash across his eyes as he is in a bad way.

And the message is, Jesus is awesome.

And it flies right past you.

And he goes, Jesus is not awesome.

But that day, that is not what happened.

I pulled over, I helped Mike, we got his car back in the right situation, and he got rolling down the road.

Now, some might say to that, you know, Pastor, that's coincidence.

But in God's economy, that's providence.

Would you pray with me?

We'll say the message that's gleaning in the garden of grace.

Father, God, we ask this morning that you would open our hearts to this book of Ruth, this redemptive story, this beautiful picture.

And God, I pray that for a few moments you would shut off all of the things that we can drag in.

Some people, just the morning was hard enough.

Some people the week, the month, the story that's been, God, in their life.

God, I pray that you just shut it down and remind us again this morning that you are in the business of rewriting.

And we might have came in one way, but we can leave different.

So, God, speak to our hearts, open our hearts.

God, if you're not here, it doesn't matter that we're here.

So, God, we ask that your presence would be filled in this place.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Letter A this morning is this God works through people.

Look at Ruth chapter 2.

Ruth 2 · chapter mention

Ruth chapter 2, verse 1.

Ruth 2:1

You're not to go far.

Verse 1, it says, There was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth of the family of Elimelech.

His name Boaz.

Chapter 1 ended, right?

And it was a picture, if it was movie-esque, it was a scene of destitution.

I am not Naomi, I am Mara, I am bitter, dragging along one of her daughter-in-laws, and everything they had was done.

You know, her husband died, her sons had died, and talk about dramatic.

I don't know if you've seen the end of or the intermission of Gone with the Wind, but it was a scene of chaos and all of this.

And Naomi, verse 21, she said that she was destitute.

Ruth, illogical, cleaves, right?

Orpah we would say she did what was logical in that time.

She left her mother-in-law and went another way.

Ruth sees her standing and says, I'm not going anywhere else.

And she gives those great phrases, for wherever you go, I will go.

Your people will be my people, your God, my God.

She clings.

And if you go back to verse 6 of chapter 1, which is just for a little context of what's happening, then she arose with her daughters in law that she might return from the country of Moab.

For, listen to this, highlight this.

She had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited his people.

Okay, so there was a rumor, there was a building that God may have been back in Israel.

He had visited the place of bread.

And so that's the end of chapter one.

They're heading back.

And then if the camera could turn scene, scene two, Boaz.

That's how it starts.

There's Boaz.

Well, who is he?

That's important to know.

Boaz is a kinsman.

He's related to Elimelech who died.

He is family.

And it's like in chapter one, none of that is a thought, and all of a sudden, the plot has thickened.

Well, it's not just like Boaz is just a person.

If you look at the descriptors, pretty good descriptors.

As they describe him, he is a mighty man of wealth.

The word there, the the content is Jabor Kail, and that means a champion who excelled in dinero.

Right?

He was a man of wherewithal, but he had money.

All the single ladies said, Hey! A man, a warrior of wealth.

Chapter 1 ends, and then chapter 2, Boaz, the strongman, the pillar, the man of wherewithal, someone who knew how to get things done.

And you'll find out through the uh reading of chapter 2, he's a person who cares about God's laws and God's peoples.

Some might say, Boaz, there is coincidence, but I would say in God's economy, Boaz is God's providence.

Look at letter B.

So there's the person.

God works through people.

Boaz is this key highlight of the new chapter.

And letter B, God works through particulars.

We're gonna look down at verses two through four.

And I want you, if you would, take and turn in your Bibles to Leviticus chapter 19.

Leviticus 19 · chapter mention

Hold your, hold a finger in Leviticus 19, Ruth 2, 2 through 4.

It says, So Ruth the Moabitus said to Naomi, please let me go to the field and glean heads of grain after him, in whose sight I might I may find favor.

And she said to her, Go, my daughter.

Then she left 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 family of Elimelech.

Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you.

And they answered him, The Lord bless you.

I want you to turn back to for some context.

Leviticus chapter 19, 9 and 10.

Leviticus 19 · chapter mention

Why is this gleaning important?

The particulars of God's providence in this passage.

Leviticus 19, 9 and 10 says, When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corn of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest, and you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard.

Listen to this.

But in God's law, those, hear this, who had would help and provide a percentage of what they had to those who did not.

This, we would say, is grace.

This is God's grace.

The scripture talks over and all over and over, religion undefiled is helping the poor, the orphaned, the widowed.

That is very much a part of the gospel.

And grace, if you understand the definition of grace, is something that none of us have deserved.

Grace is undeserved, unmerited favor.

I believe today, CCW, the church, can solve a lot of the world's poverty if it would adhere to something like the gleaning principle that the Lord put in place.

That is, of your profit, you leave enough to help those that are in need.

Well, Pastor Rick, why would I want to give of what I have given my hard work and effort for?

That's called grace.

Were you not given grace?

The job that you have, do you believe that that was coincidence or is it providence?

Providence says I'm gleaning in the grace.

The wealth that you have come by, do you believe that's all your wealth?

Or do you believe in the one that provides?

The Bible says he is the one who enables you to get wealth.

That's grace.

And so we could solve a lot of problems with if we left a percentage of our profit and gave.

That's called grace.

Pastor Danny used to get up before us often and he'd talk about his three jars.

He would say, if you want to live a good life, Grandpa told me, and he would tell this story a lot.

He said, You give, you put 10% away for your tax because the tax man's coming.

He said, You put 10% in your savings because you need to invest.

And he said, You give 10% tie, the baseline of your giving or your offering to the church.

Now I would offer to say this, and then if there's a percent left out of your living, find someone in need.

That is called grace, an offering.

Giving above that.

I like what some of y'all listen to Dave Ramsey.

And I don't do everything, Dave Ramsey.

We don't have envelopes no more.

That's hard.

We did have envelopes for some time, and Heather would be like, here's your three dollars.

I'm serious.

We did envelopes for a while.

But he says this, and I love it.

He says, live like no one else now, so that you can live like no one else later.

Now pause that because the second part of this, when you live like no one else later, you will give like no one else.

That's what he says.

You haven't experienced fun until you've helped somebody pay something that they didn't think they were going to be able to pay.

That's giving, that's grace.

That's living with your money and you telling it where to go and it not telling you.

And so God works in his law through this gleaning principle.

Within his law early, he had a setup for people to give out of their abundance so people that had a lack could have help.

Well, let's look at verse 3.

Like there in chapter 2.

Then she left.

Notice this, 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 family of a limit.

Did you see that?

And she happened.

As it was, so it were.

And she happened, as chance would happen, and lo and behold, some say coincidence in God's economy, providence.

Ruth was following God's word for gleaning the principle of how to eat in this dire of circumstances.

And listen, Psalms 37, 23, you need to know it.

It says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

If you're hungry and you go down to the food bank, you'll probably get food.

If you're hungry spiritually, you need to come to God's food bank.

The biblical place to glean today.

Church, many people are starving, they're malnourished, and their steps, according to Psalms, are in disarray.

We're impoverished spiritually, and our steps are in disorder.

We need fed, but many people to say, well, I'm so tired.

When it gets to the end of the week, you don't understand.

I'm so tired.

And what I would say is, yes, you're physically tired, but spiritually, you are so sapped of energy, and you need to get down to where God can feed you.

Our steps are in disorder.

We spend seven days doing everything else, getting so tired, and we forget to go to God's food bank.

We're starving spiritually because we've left God's food bank for other pursuits.

Ask the world today.

Ask them why they can't do what they need so desperately to do.

Church isn't a routine, church is where your soul eats.

The Bible says some will gain the whole world.

We'll do everything else that there is to do, to feed, and we'll lose our own soul.

And the Bible says, what profit is it?

What have you gained by gaining the whole world?

Matthew 6, 33.

You know what it says.

But seek ye second the kingdom of God.

No?

No, you're right.

It says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.

What happens if we seek God first?

Well, I think Ruth and Naomi found out.

They turned, they heard that God was in the house, that God's bread might be back in Bethlehem, and they headed towards where God might be.

And as it would happen, God starts working in the particulars of their life.

We see that God starts working in Ruth's life.

Jami says this good works is giving to the poor and the helpless, but divine works is showing them their worth to the one who cares for them the most.

We see how God starts to do that in this story.

Point number two, God's careful work.

Look down at verse five.

Boaz had come on the scene, he gave greetings, verse five.

Then Boaz said to his servants, who was in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this?

So the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered and said, It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaths.

So she came and has continued from morning until now.

Though she rested just a little in the house.

Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen, my daughter, will you not?

Do not go to glean in another field, nor go uh from here, but stay close by my young women.

Letter A, God's work through people's personality.

Don't miss this.

Boaz shows up, and we used to call this when I was a teenager, scoping the scene.

Boaz shows up, and we used to scope the scene down on Main Street.

The University of Delaware is conveniently located Main Street, Newark.

And so when I was not old enough to have a college girlfriend, but ambitious enough to look for them, me and my friend would drive down to Main Street, and it sat the whole campus.

There was a movie theater, there was a pool hall, there was places to eat, and they were walking it to and back to dorms and other things on campus, but not me and my friends.

We were just sculping the scene.

We were walking, we were looking, we were peering, hoping, ever hopeful.

We were never riding in any of our cars because they were disgusting, and nobody would take a second look, but we would be walking down the sea and we would look at somebody and hope those eyes would maybe meet.

Like I'm looking at one right now.

Boaz shows up, does a double take.

He said, He says to his man over here, whose?

That's important.

He doesn't say who is she, he said, whose is she?

Did you see that?

Boaz is fine thing.

I like Boaz.

Whose is that girl?

The foreman identifies Ruth.

Interesting by her background and reputation.

Don't miss that where she comes from is still being scrutinized in the story.

But a little bit about Ruth.

Look back at verse 7.

I don't want you to miss some particulars here.

And she said, please let me glean and gather after the reapers.

So as they're describing, the foreman's describing who Ruth is, he describes she was someone who humbly who came and asked nicely.

Even though New Test or Old Testament, this was her legal right.

You were legally allowed to come and glean.

But Ruth comes, she's nice, and it's none of this entitlement.

No, none of this.

Well, that's what the Bible says.

Just let me glean my grain and I'll be on.

Ruth comes, she's kind.

And don't miss this.

When he's describing her, you know what he describes?

Ooh, the girl can work.

He says, she's been working all day till this moment, right now.

She broke for just a little bit, but she worked all day long.

I learned.

There's three kinds of workers when I used to have to move pianos for the moving company.

There's somebody who gets up and they walk to the back of the piano.

Piano's the heaviest thing you can carry.

Piano or gun safe.

But there's somebody who walked to the back, they'll pick up their end, and they'll be the pusher.

There's somebody who walks to the front of the piano and they get there strapped in and they have the hardest job walking backwards, especially if you got to go upstairs.

Okay?

And then there's guy number three.

He's whistling, walking around with the piano bench.

How many of you have carried a piano bench before?

You can do that.

Right?

Ruth's personality is seen when he's describing her.

He said, Man, she has been working all day.

Can I tell you the way to fight poverty the Bible way, church?

Get a job.

That's the Bible's prescription for poverty.

2 Thessalonians 3.10 says it.

It says, if you don't work, you don't eat.

Martin Luther said, the way that we serve God is in our everyday tasks.

Titus 2.10 says, we show the beauty of faith by work.

Work is a gift.

Ruth knew how to work.

She left an impression because of her work.

Look, she might have been destitute, but she didn't lack drive.

She might have been hungry, but she did not lack hustle.

She might have been strapped for cash, but she was not second class.

She didn't whine.

She worked.

And Colossians 3:17 says, Whatever you do in word or do deed do all for the glory of God.

Colossians 3:17

Christians today, it ought to be everyone's testimony here.

It ought to be your testimony that you're the hardest worker.

If you're a saved person and you don't like hard work, you need to get your heart right.

Solomon, the wealthiest man in Scripture, said this Go to the ant, thou slug.

Don't be a slug.

Nest.

You have to work.

Our work is our testimony.

And so I believe I've told teenagers, everybody can be a millionaire.

But you gotta work.

You gotta work.

And we have a generation of generations and generations.

All the oldest people here say, Preach it, Pastor.

Tell them to get to work.

Bless God, that's all we ever did.

And when I leave here, I'm gonna go work.

I'm gonna start back on the garden, hang up the clothes on the clothesline.

We're gonna work.

It's your testimony.

By the way, in the Garden of Eden, before things got diseased, they tended to the garden.

Okay?

It wasn't, God didn't curse it and then there was work.

There's always been work.

Work was a gift, it was something they got to do.

It was enjoyable.

Let her be, God works through people who lack pride.

Look at Ruth chapter 2, verse 9 through 12.

Ruth 2:9–12

Again, Boaz says to Ruth, Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after them.

Have I not commanded young men not to touch you?

And when you're thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.

So she fell on her face, bowed down 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?

And Boaz answered and said to her, It has been fully reported to me all that you've done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother in the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before.

The Lord, repay your work, and a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.

So Boaz here, you see two people who lack pride, both Boaz and Ruth.

But Boaz, in the end of chapter or verse 8 and verse 9, I think Boaz, right, he's back to scoping, but now he's one-on-one.

And he gives his best pickup line.

Right?

Y'all have a good pickup line?

We used to in youth group for fun.

We would tell them each week, come and prepare your best pickup line.

This is my favorite of all time.

Daisy came in and she said, Are you Jewish?

Because you is really fine.

She said it with a lot of a lot better than I did.

But Boaz, look at verse 8.

He says, You will listen.

Did you hear that, ladies?

He said, You will listen.

A man with a plan, a man with confidence.

He said, Girl, you're gonna listen right now.

He said, This right here, this is your field.

And then he gives her an offer she can't refuse.

He says, You'll have companions, you'll have protection.

None of my men are gonna hurt you.

And you need a drink, get a drink.

You'll have refreshment.

No one is gonna hurt you here.

You like leaning in fields.

Well, girl, put your eye on my field.

Then his eyes raise.

And look at how Ruth responds, y'all.

You can't make this up.

I told Heather this morning, this story's fun.

She fell on her face.

Whoo! She said, hit the ground.

Oh my! Oh, the girl, she said, oh.

I never had a girl respond to a pickup line like that.

What are you doing?

Get up, you hurt?

Is it my breath?

What?

But this was so tender.

You'd miss the moment.

She never once complained, she never questioned with all the hard times.

Why?

In any of that, you could have heard a why from her.

But here, finally, Ruth, who has trusted and been faithful, is down on her face.

And it's tender.

I know I've been being silly, but it's tender.

She looks up at this man and she says, Why?

Why have I found favor in your sight?

She was overcome with the idea that someone would give her such grace.

Oh, but think back what she's been through.

She lost a husband.

She's given up all she had.

She didn't know when the next meal was gonna come, the next paycheck, and she's in this distraught situation.

She's why would you have, I am I'm a foreign woman, she says, why would you have favor on me?

Don't miss it.

You've dealt so kindly to me.

The picture of my mother-in-law's affliction.

She's carrying me in here, and I'm just a picture of everything she lost, a reminder of all that's been bad.

Overcome with kindness.

You want to talk about a lack of pride.

Church, there are some people here that so motivate me because of a lack of pride in their life.

You think nobody ever saw it, maybe.

Maybe you've thought that before.

I've been doing this, and I want to tell you every ride given, every chair moved, every quiet act of kindness, I'm so thankful.

But beyond even me, God never missed it.

God never missed the sacrifice.

The Bible says there's a fragrance.

You're a fragrance care to our Lord God by being a person who lacks pride.

It says that God will exalt those who are humble.

But he cannot stand those full of pride.

God noticed.

And you know what?

Boaz had to say to Ruth in that moment.

He said, The Lord repay you and reward you, and may my God, who I so believe in, be your refuge.

He said, I've heard of you.

He said, your reputation goes before you.

I've heard about how you've been to Naomi, your mother-in-law.

It goes with you.

Church, the choices that you make, even quietly, even privately, that reputation goes before you.

He said, I heard of your lack of pride.

And God works through Boaz, who himself lacked pride, and Ruth, who lacked pride.

And now, both of these people, think about it, both moved towards the destitute.

Ruth moved toward a mother-in-law, and it didn't make sense to a lot of people.

And it wasn't because I don't believe she was going to help so that Naomi would help her.

I believe she was going knowing this woman's going to need some help.

She moved toward someone with nothing.

There was no upside.

And now Boaz moved toward the destitute.

You know who else moves toward the destitute?

Jesus Christ.

Jesus moved toward the untouchables.

Jesus went toward the leper, and even Law said, Don't touch him.

And Jesus embraced him when he didn't even have to.

His words could have fixed the situation.

But Jesus wanted that man to feel.

Jesus went toward the demoniac.

Now, talk about scripture, it scares me.

Or the woman with seven demon spirits.

And I'm like, okay, well, that might be one you pray from a distance.

Jesus moved toward those that were destitute.

He moved towards tax collectors.

He moved towards the hurting.

They were deliberate targets.

Only people who lack pride will look for the outcast.

Do you look for someone to help church?

Is it part of your week to week?

Is it part of your business strategy?

Is it part of your church ministry?

Do you look to help the destitute, someone who's hurting?

Well, Ruth is there in this tender moment.

Corey Tanboom said, Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.

That takes us to the third point, God's comforting word.

Look at verse 13 through 17.

Boaz gave his pickup line.

Then she said, Let me find favor in your sight, my Lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your maidservants.

Now Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come here and eat of the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.

So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed parched grain to her, and she ate and was satisfied and kept something back.

And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her.

Also let grain from the bundles fall purposefully for her.

Leave it that she may glean and do not rebuke her.

So she gleaned in the field until evening and beat out what she had gleaned.

And it was an epha, an epha of barley.

And so it continues.

We see God's comforting work, letter A, God works through particular pleasure.

This might be the first sign of a romantic interest.

If you can picture it, he pulls out the chair.

She'd been gleaning, and he says, Come here, right?

You come to this spot right here.

Right next.

Come pull up a chair next to the reapers.

And we see this picture of eating together.

You know, you've heard your whole life, man's heart is held through a stomach, or you can get to a man's heart through his stomach.

But here's a woman.

Let me tell you about the hungry woman.

He said, Come here.

Come eat and dip you a little something.

It says vinegar, but I picture pesto.

You know what I'm saying?

Right?

And she's dipping and eating.

This says she ate till she was full.

Let me tell you about a hungry woman.

My wife becomes prophetic when she gets hungry.

She says to me, if I don't get something to eat real soon, I'm gonna have a headache, Rick.

You know, it always happens when we're on a long trip, too.

And she got about two, maybe three places she'll eat when we're on a trip like that, and I can't find them.

And I've driven 50 miles, and that headache's coming.

I'm like, come on, Lord.

Give us this day our daily bread.

But it says, Ruth eats until she is full.

She didn't hold back, and I'm betting she was pretty hungry.

Remember Psalms 37:4?

Psalms 37:4

It says, Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Ruth has done it God's way.

She had a 10-year nightmare, but she said yes to Yahweh.

She said, The Lord God.

Now God has given her the desires of her heart.

I mean, I bet she tried to look cute, but she ate fast.

She's going.

But look at Boaz.

What does he do?

He says, I need you, man, to drop some handfuls on purpose.

Put some here.

You see that girl over there?

Put some right there.

Drop a little extra right there.

I mean, it's like if y'all walked into a store and somebody was dropping$20 bills.

You know what you'd do.

Dropping handfuls on purpose.

That seems like a good phrase for my God.

Y'all with me?

He's dropping handfuls on purpose.

Dropping handfuls.

I don't know about you, but God has so blessed me.

Mr.

Larry says all the time, I'm blessed.

Ask him how he's doing.

I'm blessed.

Well, God's dropping handfuls on purpose.

Why did Boaz do that?

I think he wanted Ruth to get so much she wouldn't glean anywhere else.

Single man.

Boaz is teaching a little something here.

Something that's age old.

Why don't you drop a little something?

You know what I'm saying?

Single ladies, can I get an amen?

Handfuls of something on purpose.

If you're married, it still works.

It won't hurt.

I can promise you that.

It ain't gonna hurt if you drop something on purpose.

Handfuls.

Pastor told me just to hand my wife tons of money.

That's not what I'm saying.

But it's a picture of God's grace.

God wants you, church, to get so much.

And he promises.

If you'll just get a taste, you'll never want to glean anywhere else.

The psalmist said, Oh, taste and see that the Lord He is good.

If you taste it, Ephesians 3, 17 through 19 says this.

Hear this scripture.

You, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

He wants you not to be spiritually malnourished.

He wants you to be so full, church, and so filled, and he's dropping handfuls on purpose.

Now he can't make you pick it up, but he can drop it.

And he is.

And you can leave here and be a doer of the word or just a hearer only.

But I recommend being a hearer, putting it in your pocket, taking it, picking it up.

Ruth hoped for a few days of food in this gleaning.

Well, she went home carrying what equates to a half bushel, 30 to 50 pounds.

Ruth is coming home.

Wait until she sees Naomi.

That's what we're getting to.

Look down at verse 19 through 23.

God works through particular praise.

So Boaz and his men got her set up with so much grain.

Verse 19, 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.

You gotta read it like it says it.

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.

Woo! I bet she likes saying it.

Boaz.

Then Naomi said to her, daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead.

And Naomi said to her, He, this man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives.

Ruth the Mobi 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 women, and that people do not meet you in any other field.

So she stayed close by the young women of Boat as to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest.

And she dwelt with her mother-in-law.

It's the first time we see from chapter one.

Remember this unemotive, just tragedy in ten years.

Naomi turning, she says, I'm bitter.

This is the first time.

It's interesting.

Note this Naomi praises.

Naomi, a mother and a wife who walked through hell.

But grace wouldn't leave her bitter.

Grace wouldn't leave her bitter.

I bet when she saw the bread that came in, she might have remembered why they left home in the first place.

The famine was coming.

They were going to be in need of bread.

It may have flashed through her head, a lemon leg, my husband, the years we've had together.

Why did we do this?

Why did we have to go through this?

It could have been a lot of things.

But you know what Naomi does?

You know, a good Christian woman always can't hold on to bitterness.

Naomi comes to herself.

And I think in that moment she saw the bread and she said, God has provided.

My God has provided.

Bitter people try to stay bitter.

But she remembers what made her husband leave and what she came back to.

And I think Naomi in this moment has sort of a personal revival.

The Bible says, David said, Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.

You see, scripture says, church, that God inhabits the praise of his people.

So it's okay to get excited in church about praising God.

Psalms 18, 3 says, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and so shall I be saved from my enemies.

Psalms 150, verse 6 says, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Psalms 150:6

And Naomi.

I mean her heart leaps.

She said, Blessed be the God of him who would bestow this kind of kindness.

She said, This is a good thing.

Thank God.

We've been through it.

Have you ever been through it?

And you got through it, and you're on the other side, and you were able to say, Oh, thank God.

Man, that was horrible.

That was terrible.

I'm not diminishing hardship.

Hardship is hard.

But thank God who is faithful.

Thank God for his grace.

Isaiah 61.

Verse 1 through 3.

The prophet was writing, he says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

He sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

I don't know if that describes you today.

He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captive and to comfort those who mourn.

Verse 3 talks about this exchange that some maybe here today need.

Verse 3, Isaiah 61 says, He came to give beauty for ashes.

He came to give the oil of joy in exchange for the mourning.

And he came to cloak us, the garment of praise, exchange for that spirit of heaviness.

Anyone here today, you came in feeling heavy, maybe a little tired, just on autopilot?

Man, can you take off that cloak and leave today with an exchange for the garment of praise?

Ruth describes the situation as chance would have it.

As it happens, the man, his name was Boaz.

And Naomi says, Ruth.

Ruth, do you realize?

Do you realize that Boaz is our kinsman?

She's seeing a picture of the bigger picture.

He's our kinsman.

You're gonna find out next week.

But as chance would have it, if you get to know a kinsman, you know what a kinsman can do for you in our story?

She sees the picture and she's so excited.

We don't hear it all.

But in the story, Ruth could be married to a kinsman.

It could happen.

And she says, Oh, as chance would have it, some may call that coincidence, but God calls it providence.

As gleaning in the garden of grace, in a moment we're gonna open this altar for invitation.

But I just want to summarize Ruth in this chapter as we do.

And as you sit there considering your heart, I want to ask you, did you come in tired?

Do you feel spiritually a little bit on autopilot?

Is the tank full?

Where are you?

We're gonna open this altar in a moment.

But Ruth walked into a field that she didn't earn, and she found favor that she didn't deserve.

She came looking for scraps, and she left full of grace.

Maybe you today have been in the field gleaning, and you say, Man, Pastor, I've been doing what I feel like I've been doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I've been doing, I've been serving, and I just, I'm tired.

I don't know if God even sees.

Maybe today, as we have this time of invitation, you can come and say, and hear me.

We're flesh, we have tensions, and something can mount up and it's crazy.

It'll be in our head, and we can be worried and distracted.

And I'm not judging you, it's just who we are.

And if you're there, what I want to tell you today is just don't be okay with leaving with it.

You don't have to stay in that.

I need to feel your grace, God.

Can you utter those words?

I need to feel your grace.

You may have walked in and you feel a little bit empty.

God, help me.

I want to feel full because if I'm full, then out of my overflow, I can make a difference.

So I want to ask you in a moment, would you consider saying during this time of invitation, God, come and fill me?

Just fill me.

I'm asking you for your grace.

I'm coming to your table, I'm coming to your field.

I want to show you a picture as we close of John Newton.

A few years before John Newton died, he began losing his sight, and his sight was so dim that he was no longer able to read.

And custom with one of his friends, a brother in ministry, they'd have breakfast together and then they'd read the word of God together.

One particular day, while they were sitting together, they read the words of Paul.

And those words said, By the grace of God, I am what I am.

And the story goes that Newton was eerily silent for a long time as he pondered this passage.

By the grace of God, I am what I am.

Said he finally looked up and he said to his friend, I am not what I ought to be.

I'm not what I want to be.

I am not what I hope to be.

But I can truly say that I'm not what I used to be.

And by the grace of God, I am what I am.

God's grace, church.

Isn't that your story?

Do you need his grace today?

I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet.

I'm gonna pray.

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