What Just Happened?

Amen. What a blessing that was.

Isn't it cool to have to see the next generation rise up and be

bold and courageous and worshiping King Jesus and even

leading us the body of Christ. So kids, so proud of y'all.

Big thanks to Miss Teresa and Delhi K and Heidi and I'm sure

others that serve them in this way and ready them to lead us.

What a what a blessing church family, why don't we just go the

Lord in prayer before we open his word.

And if you would bow with me and let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, as we gather in your name to worship you.

Father, we praise you because we know you live.

Jesus, you are alive, you conquered death.

And Father, you've given us the hope of eternal life, life now

abundantly on this side of heaven, life with You forever.

When we take our last breath, Lord, we rejoice in the hope

that we have that cannot be taken from us.

We praise You, Father, for the greatest message that has

changed us, that we can impart to our children and their

children and their children, that our lives can be in Jesus.

Our lives can be redeemed, Father, our sin can be forgiven.

There's a God who reigns and who loves us and has a wonderful

plan for our lives. Father, I pray that we'd be

faithful to instill in the next generation that which you've

done in us so that you can do in them.

God, I pray, Lord, that you would meet with us in a special

way today. Bless the preaching of Your

Word. Father, I pray that you'd open

up our minds and our hearts to hear what you'd have to say to

us. God, Your Word is it's living

and active that it would penetrate and reveal to us by

Your power in our hearts what we need to see.

And we lay ourselves at your feet and say, have your way.

King Jesus, we pray and all God's people said Amen.

If you have your copy of God's word, and I hope you do, go and

make your way to Ruth chapter 2, Ruth chapter 2.

Ruth 2 · chapter mention Ruth 2 · chapter mention

My original plan when it came to the book of Ruth was to preach 1

chapter, a sermon to preach Ruth in four.

And that's obviously not going to happen.

We're moving a little too slow for that, but that's OK.

That God's just laid some things on my heart and just brought

some things to the surface as I've walked through this book

that I just can't move too quick to to don't want to move too

fast through. And so we're going to take it in

some little smaller chunks than I had originally planned.

So we'll be in verses one through 7 of Ruth chapter 2

Ruth 2 · chapter mention

today. But I think you'll see why we'll

just take a little longer to camp out on it.

The name of this series is when God writes our story.

And again, what we're talking about is when we really give God

control of our lives. When we say God, we want you to

write, we want you to have the pen, we want you to do it.

Only you can do God. We're not in control.

We know you are. You be Lord and master God.

You be God. I don't want to be and God don't

let me get in your way. Y'all with me when God writes

the story. All right, so when we pick up in

chapter 2 verse one, here's what it says.

Let's just read that first verse together.

Now Naomi had a relative of her husband.

'S. A worthy man of the clan of

Elimelech whose name was Boaz. Now if you need a little

ketchup, if you're fresh to this and haven't been with us through

chapter 1, what's going on in the book of Ruth as we're in the

Old Testament with the Israelites and it's the time of

the judges and that's the time before their King's ruling.

And what you really need to know is spiritually the days are

dark. These are days of disobedience

and unfaithfulness on the part of God's people and God's doing

what God's said he would do when he said if God's people are

unfaithful, if y'all are unfaithful to me, then guess

what? I'm going to do things that are

going to make, they're going to make life difficult so that you

turn your attention back to me. You're going to realize I'm

going to help you realize you can't do life without me.

You can't live independent of me.

That's not the way this works. So I'm going to do things to get

your attention. And sure enough, some things

have happened. One of those things is famine.

There's no food in the grocery store.

There's no food in the fields because there's no rain from the

sky and there's no water in the ground.

And God's people are suffering. One man by the name of Elimelech

decides he's going to move his family to Moab.

That's away from the promised Land.

That's outside the revealed will of God.

And while they're outside the revealed will of God, guess what

happens? More decisions outside the

revealed will of God tend to happen when you get.

Outside the revealed will of God.

And so 3 bad decisions and about 10 years later we got 3 dead men

and three widows and life's just not real pretty and it and it

and it and it's things have gone gone wrong.

Naomi is a. Widow with two foreign daughters

in law and she decides she's going to make her way back to

the promised land. She's heard there's food.

God's people have cried out to God.

God has answered. She tries to convince two

daughters in law to stay behind. Y'all go back to your home, go

back to your address, go back to your family, go back to your

little G gods. One does, one doesn't.

Orpa turns her back and she goes back.

To moem goes back to her little G gods.

Ruth does the exact opposite. Ruth makes a vow in that moment.

She's she says to Naomi. Naomi, where you go, I'm going

to go. Where you live, I'm going to

live. Your God's going to be my God.

I'm making a God decision here, Ruth.

I'm making a life commitment decision here, Ruth.

And your God's going to be my God and God's people are going

to be my people. And God's land is going to be

where I live. And where you die is where I'm

going to die. And and Ruth commits herself,

she covenants herself, she converts to following God.

She goes from following little G false foreign gods and Moab to

the one big G God. And she's all in.

The question really is, when you come to chapter 2, is God going

to be kind to Ruth? Let me put it like this.

Will God commit himself to her at the same level as Ruth has

committed himself herself to him?

Will God honor such a decision to follow him and be all in?

Will God honor such faith? Will God reward such one that is

chosen to give their heart, mind, life, soul to follow God?

Well, the first thing we need to know after Ruth and Naomi have

returned from the promised land is that there is there are male

relatives in the clan of Elimelech.

You say why is that important? Well, this one, before I tell

you why that's important, we learned here in verse one right

out the gate, there are male relatives.

There's one in particular by the name of Boaz, and he is what the

Bible calls a worthy man that ought to jump off the page of

the Bible to you. Because if you know it's the

days of the judges and men are doing what's right in their own

eyes, guess what? There's one who's not.

There's at least one this this means I'll tell you more what it

means later, but there's one who's doing and seeking what's

right in God's eyes. And this is very practical

because if Ruth number one, this is important to know that

there's this man, there's a relative in Limelux clan.

It's a worthy man because number one, if Ruth is going to

experience peace and prosperity and provision and protection in

this world and this ancient culture she's in, she's going to

need a man most likely. I know that's politically not

correct these days. That's just the day she's living

in all right. She's going to need a husband.

She's going to need a provider. She's need to protect her.

She's going to need one that can provide her rights, all right?

Otherwise she's going to face some destitution the rest of her

life. So this is, practically

speaking, good news. There's a there's a man, if you

will. And not only is there a man,

he's a worthy man. I mean, come on.

Right. Sometimes maybe some Single

Ladies in the audiences, like I'm looking for a worthy 1.

All right. Well, there, there's one out

there for Ruth, all right, There's a, there's a potential

husband on the horizon. Hint, hint, the Bible is saying,

all right. So again, Boaz isn't just any

man. He's a worthy man, not just an

eligible bachelor. This guy's like a five star

prospect. When it says worthy, it means

he's excellent. He is righteous, he's good, he

is prosperous, he is wise. Again, I want to ask the

question right? We're asking this question.

Will God be kind to Ruth? She's committed.

She's coveted herself to God. Will God commit himself to her

as much as she's committed to him?

Will God honor such faith? Will God provide?

Will God be good? Well, sure seems like all the

sudden hint, hint, there's some hope, right?

There's a man in the picture and he's a good one.

Now listen to what the Bible says beginning in verse 2.

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, Let me go to the field

and glean among the ears of grain after.

Him and whose sight I shall find favor, she said to her.

Go, my daughter. So she set out and went and

gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to

come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of

the clan of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from

Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you.

And they answered, The Lord bless you.

And then Boaz said to the young man who was in charge of the

reapers, whose young woman is this?

And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered,

She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from

the country of Moab. She said Please let me glean and

gather among the. Sheaves.

After the Reapers. So she came and she's continued

from early morning until now except for a short rest.

What I first thought that came to my mind when I read this and

was studying this week. When I think about verse 2

through 7, what Ruth did here is Ruth realized life was not going

to happen by sitting at home. Amen.

Here she has moved to a foreign country.

She's a foreigner in a foreign land and she's destitute.

She's a widow, she's bereaved. Life has been not going right

but going wrong. There's all kind of excuses she

could have made. She could have stayed at home

and kind of clammed up and hidden.

And yet she realizes life's not going to happen.

More specifically, they're not going to eat if she stays at

home and the food is not in the grocery stores.

The food is in the the fields and the right best next decision

that somebody's got to make it somebody's got to get up and go

to work, Somebody's got to go get a JOB, right?

If we're going to eat, if we're going to live, somebody's got to

do something that's not necessarily it's not complex.

It may not be easy, but it's not complex, right?

Often times the gap between where we are and where we need

to be is just the simple right next best decision in front of

us that needs to happen instead of sitting.

But deciding to get up and do something about it.

I heard a pastor this week, I was on a podcast listing and he

said something that kind of resonated with me, caught me off

guard at first. I was like, I don't know if

that's right. But the more I thought about it,

it really resonated with me, he said.

You know, sometimes we as Christians can be very timid,

very passive and very fearful, very reserved, kind of sitting

back waiting for something to happen when it comes.

To the will of God in our lives. What he means is, is that often

times we'll seek to know the will of God and pray and pray

and pray and sometimes we we don't just step forward and go

ahead and walk through the doors God has opened and put ourselves

with that right next best decision to be in position for

God to bless. And so he said something

sometimes he said he tells people, listen when you're

trying to discern God's will, not every decision is going to

come with this crystal clear vision and 10 step plan where

you know the destination. God calls us not to walk by

sight, but by by fate. So he said, I tell people three

things. Pray, guess and go.

How I heard that I was like, wow, pray, guessing.

I'm not sure I agree with that. But then I thought about my life

a little bit, and I thought about how many decisions have

essentially have been my very best guesses after praying with

all I've got and asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance.

And you know what? God didn't speak to me audibly.

I've never heard the audible voice of God.

God didn't write it with clouds in the sky.

He didn't write it with ink on a paper.

But I prayed and prayed. I asked for peace, and I asked

for an open door. And guess what?

A door opened. And guess what?

Guess Kyle, take the best guess, but I remember thinking about

seminary and I visited different seminars.

Which one should I choose? God, There's lots of good ones.

And I just felt a piece about a certain 1 you could back up

right? And think about college and I

end up going to the University of Alabama.

And God never said Roll Tide somebody like sure, he didn't.

He said go dogs. He didn't say that either.

But I just met, you know, God opened the door.

I had a piece about it after I'd prayed about it.

I'm not saying I was throwing darts in the dark, OK?

And I'm not saying guess about like who to marry or some big

decisions in your life. But I am saying that sometimes,

sometimes we want we're going to put ourselves in the right best

next position by just simply moving forward with the doors

God has opened after we've prayed about it, said God will

move when you seem to open a door, I'm going to go pray,

guess, go. Some decisions, pray or know and

go. Some are pray, guess and go.

Now, in Ruth's case, what's going on here?

Is the fact that she. Knew God's law made very clear

provisions for the poor, for the destitute, for the orphan, for

the widow, for the foreigner and the sojourner.

And part of those provisions for the welfare of those people that

were very, very dependent on others for survival was that

during harvest time, the fields ready for harvest were not to be

gleaned by the harvesters on the edges.

Those were to be left. Furthermore, if they dropped any

stalks of barley or wheat or ears of grain, they were not to

pick them up. Why?

So that those that didn't own fields, So that those who didn't

have what it took to buy groceries at the grocery store

could show up and work and glean and gather enough food to eat.

This was part of God's plan and the grace of His law to provide

for people. And so she knows this, and yet,

right, even though she knows this, she also knows she's a

foreigner, she's a Moabite. Remember when this is and the

time of Israel, the days of the when men are righteous and

treating people with respect and dignity, think again.

They're doing what's right. No doubt she's still thinking,

OK, I know God's law says this, but guess what?

Probably what she's expecting to hear is to show up at the field

and said, hey, Moabite, go home. Hey, you don't.

You don't belong here. You don't, don't, don't step on

this field. She's probably expecting to be

treated unkindly, and so she's taking a risk and says, listen,

I'm going to go and seek which field I might find favor.

In other words, I'm probably not going to find favor everywhere.

There's probably going to be some people not like me when I

try to show up at work. But I'm going to go.

Somebody's got to go. I'm going to do the right next

best thing no matter what happens.

Naomi says go. She goes in the Bible.

Says something that ought to jump off the page to you when

you read it. And she, what's that next word

starts with an H Is it on the screen?

Where are we? There it is.

You see that word happened literally the Bible in the

Hebrews says by happenstance she happened.

Is the way you could translate or by chance she chanced.

And I just want to ask you upfront question right here is

God is his word literally saying by mere sheer coincidence or

luck or happenstance that Ruth ended up in the field belonging

to Boaz? Yes or no y'all don't seem too

clear do you think? I'm not going to ask that.

I don't want anyway. Let me put it like this.

I know the Bible literally says here that it's by chance, by

coincidence, by accident, if you will, that she shows up in just

the right field where it happens to belong to this worthy man,

which there's not that many of them, and just the right one

where she would find favor. But literally the Bible says

that. But that's literally not what

the Bible means. You know, we call that when you

literally say something, but you don't literally mean that.

That's called irony, and we use that in a literary or rhetorical

way that makes things something funny or make something so

obvious that you would literally say it.

But that's literally not what it means.

It means the exact opposite, Right.

So again, from Ruth's perspective, why would it say

that? Because from Ruth's perspective,

yeah, she just happened to choose a random field.

She just happened to show up, and this is the first job that

was presented. And it happens to be where she

finds there's a. But from God's perspective, we

know who sent the famine. God who's allowed Ruth and Naomi

to return it just the right time for the barley harvest.

God who's allowed Naomi to have the gift of a brother of a

daughter-in-law who wouldn't turn her back on her now, who's

guided by whose hand has guided Ruth to just the right field.

Nothing. Just so happened.

Nothing. In fact, I'm getting ahead of

myself. I don't know where I am.

And let me just go and give you the first point.

When God writes your story, nothing just happens.

Nothing. Now, sometimes I know we

struggle to believe that. But there is no such thing.

Hear me, you can disagree with me all you want to.

God will correct you when you get to heaven.

There's no such thing as luck, chance, happenstance, or

coincidence in life. The world was spoken into

existence by a sovereign God. Who holds it in his hands,

Ladies and gentlemen, He knows the number of hairs on your head

today versus the number that was on your head yesterday.

He knows when the Sparrow falls. He knows a word before you speak

it. God already knows.

He knows the thoughts and intentions of your heart.

Life is not unraveling chaotically outside the hands of

a sovereign God. It is in the hands of Almighty.

God, mark it down. Nothing just happens.

In fact, the word luck should not be in the vocabulary of a

Christian because there's no such thing.

And the Bible makes that clear. So here we are.

In reality, God is writing Ruth's story.

I've I've heard it said that our lives could be described as like

a split TV screen. You know when you're trying to

watch multiple ball games at one time, when your husband does

this and or maybe you know, if you're into sports.

So one side showing one view, the other side showing the other

view. It could be said that your life

is like this. One view is through your eyes.

It's what you see. It's what you're experiencing in

the moment. Live day by day, moment by

moment. And in this view is so zoomed

in, it's so particular, it's so personal to you, but you can't

really see outside of that. The larger picture from 40,000

foot, you can't see future and you can't always see all that

was in your past. You're right there in the moment

and you can't connect all the dots.

And often times what you experience through your split

screen seems random by chance, happenstance or coincidence

because you can't see the whole picture.

You can't see the whole timeline.

You can't see the whole. Plan, but there's another view

on the screen. And it's God's view.

From his view, you can see the whole thing.

He can see your past. He sees your present, and He

also sees your your future. He sees not only what's coming

out of your mouth, He sees what's in your heart.

Through His screen, He can see the plan and purpose He has for

you. Through His screen you can see

how He's orchestrating on connecting all the dots to work

all things Romans 828 for your good, for those who love Him and

are called according to His purpose.

From God's point of view, you can see everything.

If we could just get a glint now every now and then.

From our point of view, it's as if we see the hand of God all of

a sudden intervene. Like when something happens

that's so miraculous you can't explain it outside the

miraculous supernatural intervention of God.

You know what we call those in the world?

Miracles. It's it's been said God works in

two ways in our world. I think this is in your notes.

The first way is his visible hand.

God works sometimes, not most of the time, but sometimes in

supernatural miraculous ways where it's like, hey, that's,

that's inexplicable outside the miraculous supernatural hand of

God. We call those miracles.

God works in our world that way. God also works the second way in

our world, though most often he doesn't work through his visible

hand. He works through his invisible

hand. That's what we call Providence.

That's God's sovereign providential orchestration and

leading of all of human history and all of time and everything

according to His plan and according to His purpose, where

everything is in His hand and He is in His hands, are behind the

scenes working all these things for our good, even if we can't

see them. So listen #1 when God writes

your story, nothing just happens.

In fact, happenstance here in the text means, hello, wake up.

Can you see the hand of God at work?

Now moving on to Boaz. Boaz, if you noticed when we

read the text, shows up at the field.

Can I just modernize it a little bit?

Boaz shows up at the office. Boaz shows up at the

construction site. Boaz walks into the boardroom.

He then unashamedly greets his employees like this.

Did you hear what he said? The Lord be with you.

Is that how your boss talks to you at work Monday morning?

Right out the gate, lights turn on, unlocks the door

construction site. The Lord be with you from his

very first words. We're learning what kind of man

Boaz is, what kind of boss he is, what kind of man he is, what

kind of employer he is, supervisor he is.

I, I want to put it a couple ways, Boaz, we, we can notice

what is worthy man mean. Well, we're now seeing Boaz is a

godly man. We talk about being godly a lot.

What does that even really mean? Let me try to make it even more

practical. Monday morning for you, you

ready by godly man. Boaz is not just a Sunday

Christian. Boaz is a Monday Christian.

There's a big difference. A lot of people want to be

Sunday Christians. A lot of people don't want to be

Monday Christians. This is a guy.

He's a godly man. Boaz isn't a private Christian.

Boaz is a public Christian. Boaz is not a shy about his

faith. Christian Boaz is a bold about

his faith. Christian Boaz is a Christian.

No matter where he goes, no matter whom he's around, no

matter what he's doing, y'all follow me.

That's what godliness is. When God goes with you, where

you go because you're all about. Him.

And following him, Boaz is not just a God and he's a kind man.

We can know someones heart by their words.

You know where your words come from, The well of your heart.

His words are kind, his words are caring, His words are words

of blessing. His words are words of love for

the people in his life. And so the workplace culture, if

I could use that, we talk about our workplace culture.

His workplace culture is being created and impacted by a man,

reinforced by his response to his to his employees, His

response to him and their response back is the Lord bless

you. Does that sound like where you

work? The Lord be with you from the

boss and the Lord bless the boss.

Is that how your your coworkers talk about the boss?

Probably not, right? Let me ask you some questions.

Is God publicly honored where you work?

Is God's presence and blessing salt?

Is his love shown and shared between employers and employees?

Now, a lot of us, when we hear those questions, we've been

like, well, listen, Kyle, I'm not in control of where I work.

All right? I, I, I get that to some degree.

But listen, that's what the 1st of this Some of you are in

control of where you work. You own a business, you have

supervision, authority, and there's nothing that would stop

you from saying something like the Lord be with you and us

today. I'm going to pray God blesses

our work today. I'm going to pray God blesses

you and your family to let the Lord bless and be with you

today. There's nothing that would stop

you from pronouncing a blessing and publicly invoking the name

of God and publicly seeking God's blessing and publicly

seeking God's presence where you work if you chose to be

unashamed about it. Some of you own your own

business and no matter what anybody says, you can say what

you want to because it's your business, some of you where you

work. You got enough authority and got

enough position and supervision. You can pretty much say what you

want to. But sometimes do we choose not

to. Sometimes we choose to be a

private Christian instead of a public Christian, and maybe a

shy Christian instead of a bold one.

And we, we, we, we restrain what God wants to do, what he's doing

in US, what he wants to do through us to impact the people

around us. Boaz is allowing God to use him

to impact the people in his life.

But the deal is the godly condition of this man's heart is

creating a godly culture, if you will, in his business.

By the way, this is what the gospel does.

The gospel changes a person from the inside out and the gospel

and Jesus Christ is the only one who can do this.

This is why we must be so passionate about sharing Jesus

and his gospel. Because do you realize the only

thing, The only one who can change the human heart, The only

one who can change a person that can change a marriage that can

change a family that can change a home that can change a

neighborhood that can change a community that can change a

business that can change a. City and a state and a nation

and a government and the word. You realize the only one, the

only thing that can change that is Jesus and his gospel.

He is the only one that changes the human heart.

He's the why do I say that? Because he's the only one that

takes a dead heart and makes it alive, causes us to be born

again where we can say no to our sin by the power of the Holy

Spirit to live out a different kind of life.

No one else, nothing else can do that.

And so a change happens from the inside out when the gospel gets

a hold of us again. What?

What is that gospel, right? That that the reality is, is it

separated from God? We are born into this world in

our sin. We are separated from him and

have no hope of heaven. We have no hope of being able to

do anything ultimately to please God in our sin.

We're selfishly motivated. We worship ourselves and we seek

our own things. And yet we might find some.

Aspects of philanthropy and some good out there in the world.

We're not as bad as we could be, but we're not as good enough as

we need to be to please God. Our best efforts are like sinful

rags. The Bible says that's where.

That's where God so loved us. He chased after us by sending

His Son to live a sinless life in our place, to die, to pay the

price for our sin, to rise from the dead, defeating the result

of our sin which was death, to give the victory so that all who

would call on His name confessing Him, He would save

and make alive. He would change from the inside

out. Has that happened in your life?

Do you know that you're different because of Jesus?

If so, that change that happens on the inside is meant to now

flow through the outside and the people that's in are in your

path that God has put. That's how things change when

God starts with us in our heart. By the way, a little reminder

here, one of the greatest, greatest, greatest mission

fields that we overlook every single day is the place that we

work. The people we call our Co

workers or employees or employers.

These people, most of them may never walk in the doors of the

church, but they walk in the door of their workplace every

day. Where you walk in, where there's

a believer that's been changed by the gospel.

And one of the ways that we testify to the goodness of God

is in the way we work, how hard we work, how diligent we work,

how excellently we work, how honest we work, how we show up

on time, how we don't leave early, how we do the things that

God has called us to do, that we're faithful, in fact, the

way. We work preaches what we believe

about God because He's the one who originally gave us the

mandate to work and keep all the way back in Genesis in the the

garden. How we steward what we've been

entrusted is a testimony to Him and how we act.

Where we work is our mission field giving us opportunities to

testify to Him. We learn more about the kind of

man Boaz is by the next thing that he says.

Really. By what he doesn't say when he

walks up, Because what he doesn't say, What would you

expect the boss to say when he walks up on the construction

site? When he walks up on the ag field

and talks to the harvesters? What would you expect the

business owner to say? When he gets a midday report

from his employees, what's the first thing you'd expect him to

ask about? How's work?

How's business? How are profits?

How are we making it? Boaz didn't say any of that.

What does he say? He asked a question.

You notice the question he asked.

Whose young woman is that? That seems like an odd question

to ask, right? Is that how do you what?

What does he mean by whose young woman is that?

Well, again, during this day and time, a woman's rights and

identity were tied to who her father was or who her husband.

Was. And so he's never seen this lady

before. And he's, he's not asking about

work. Boaz, a godly man, a kind man, a

caring man, shows up and looks out on business and like, oh, I

see somebody I've never seen. Boaz notices.

People whose young woman is this?

Who does she belong to? I've never seen her.

And so we begin to see again further the kind of man Boaz is.

He notices her. He has an awareness of others

and shows that his foreman gets him up to speed.

Hey, this is the Moabite woman that came back with Naomi.

Everybody's heard about him. Everybody's been talking about

him. Boaz just has a chance to see

him or meet Ruth yet. The second thing I want you to

see here that we see in both the life of Ruth and.

Boaz is the second truth. When God writes your story.

When God writes your story, you still have a part to play.

You still have a part to play. What I don't mean when we talk

about when God writes your story is when we sit back and put life

in autopilot, when we just expect maybe to be a puppet in

the hands of God or a robot. That's not what I'm talking

about. Ultimately, God being in

control, he is. But don't make the mistake to

mean that we have no part to play.

God's sovereign Providence means that we are going to actively

entrust our lives to His will and actively seek His will every

moment of our lives. Let me make it even more

practical, right? God wants to provide for you.

But guess what? That means, just like it meant

for Ruth, that Barley's not going to walk its way home.

Somebody's got to get up and go go get it.

God wants to bless you. But your part is to get up and

go get it. But sometimes it's showing up

doing the right next best thing. God wants to bless you, but

guess what? God expects of you to give it

all you've got. God wants to use you to impact

the cultural around you, but you've got to be unashamed of

Jesus and willing to open your God wants to use you to impact

the culture around you and the people in your life.

But you need to pay attention, notice and care enough to ask.

Questions to get to know the people God is crossing your path

with. To know perhaps what God wants

you to do. I don't know why this truth

seemed to stick out to me in this way.

I think I've shared this with you before, a memory I have when

I was a a young kid from a movie that I watched.

And this very truth that we still have a part to play in God

being in total control, but God calling us to do our part.

First start with me when I watched the movie where the red

Fern grows. Anybody seen this movie?

Some of you kind of a movie that my wife won't watch with me is

too sad, she says. But I remember as as a kid

watching this movie and never forgetting this one particular

scene. If you know the movie, it's

essentially about this young boy named Billy and he desperately

wants to hunting dogs. And he wants them so bad he

can't stand it. But he's just prayed, prayed,

prayed and prayed and prayed for these two Coon dogs that he

desperately wants, But he doesn't have them.

In fact, it's gone on so long that he's convinced.

He tells his grandpa. Grandpa, I'm convinced God

doesn't want me to have two hunting dogs.

So he's telling Grandpa this. And grandpa says, well, Billy,

maybe God wants you to do your part.

And Billy said, well, what? What's that?

Grandpa says something like this.

So maybe God wants you to meet him halfway.

You know, I thought about a lot of times how we can be Billy

sometimes maybe because something we desperately desire

or direction, God wants us going.

We prayed, prayed and prayed and prayed about it.

But. It It's as if Billy was

expecting those two dogs to drop out of the sky or to wander away

from the neighbor and claim a new owner, right?

But that wasn't probably how it was going to happen.

This is going to happen as Billy decided to scrape every penny he

could get together and work hard and ask God for jobs and favor

and the ability to work hard and by God's help.

Really, that was the part Billy was to play as God wrote that

story for Ruth. God was writing her story.

But what if she just stayed at home that day and didn't walk

out to a field with all the risk that it?

Involved What if Boaz would have walked up on that field as a

godly man? But you know what, he just kind

of leaves this Christianity at church on Sunday and walks up

and all he's concerned about his money.

What he what would he have? What would he have missed?

And God wants to write your story, but God's expecting you

to do your part right to show up.

Say God, here I am, send me, God use me.

God, help me see as you see, want as you want, and do as you

do. God guide me, God, as I step

forward. Sometimes it's pray, guess, go.

Sometimes it's not. Always pray, no, go.

Ruth had no idea what she's going to encounter when she

walked out on that field as a Moabite widow, she had trusted

God. The question was, would God be

kind to her? Would God provide for her?

Sure enough, you see, when God writes your story, nothing just

happens when God writes your story, you still have a part to

play. And if I could just put it in

one sentence, when God writes your story, he writes with his

hands and yours. He writes with his hands and

yours. I, I want to share one more

thing with you that has impacted me this past week in a way that

I, I, I don't, I can't fully put into words, but.

It has to. Do with this whole concept of

when, when God writes our story and how God longs to do just

that. Not not just for Ruth, but for

you. I did a funeral about a week ago

for a lady in our church. Some of you knew her and perhaps

some of you didn't, but her life has impacted me.

And she was, she was the wife of a pastor for quite some time.

But without going into any detail, a lot about those years

was really hard, extremely hard, and ended in loss, tragic loss.

She found herself a widow after years of trying to walk

faithfully with God. She suffered from decisions that

she didn't necessarily make. And, you know, here she was

probably entering the fourth quarter of her life, and the

natural question for her to have asked was God.

Why God? What are you?

God, what? What are you?

What are you doing? That's not the question she

asked. She's 69 years old, a widow.

Things have gone, not all wrong, but some very wrong things.

And she was doing an Experiencing God Bible study by

Henry Blackaby. Some of you done that.

And she asked God this question. That's a dangerous question to

ask. She asked God the question, God,

what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do?

What do you have left for me? God, God, how can you use me?

And she said God gave her incredible clarity and laid on

her something that she didn't expect at 69 years old.

She said she knew deep down in her heart God wanted to use her

as a missionary to Muslims. 69 years old.

People told her that to go would be dangerous.

She knew that. I'm sure in her mind, she

thought, God, I think you've called the wrong person wrong

life stage. She passed at 82.

She said yes to God at 69. To this call I want you to

listen to the places God took her in the last quarter of her

life when she said yes to God after what might have seemed

like a story that would not end well.

Listen to these places she got took her Hong Kong, China,

Macau, Mexico, Japan for a summer teaching English, Italy,

Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Monaco, Ghana, Costa

Rica, China a month in 1999, New England and Nova Scotia, Yemen,

Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Victoria,

Vancouver Island, Canada, Morocco and the Sahara Desert,

Niger, West Africa and Mali and Togo teaching English and Bible

to Muslims. Nicaragua for seven months

teaching English and a mission school, Israel, Jordan and

Palestine, Lebanon, the Middle East, helping refugees from war

in Iraq and Baka Valley and southern Lebanon, northern

Africa missions, teaching private English lessons to

Muslims for eight months, Spain and Gibraltar, Dominican

Republic. And she then she says, I think

I'm missing a few. Maybe I'll remember later.

So I did her her funeral and she write, she wrote, she wrote

this, she says I am still this was just a about a year, a few

months before she passed 81 and in contact with a few of my

students from each of these countries.

What a wonderful blessing God had in store for me later in my

later years of life until I surrendered at age 69.

I had no idea that these years what they would be, what they

would be. And it still amazes me.

And this is what she said. An awesome God gave me an

amazing life story. An awesome God gave me an

amazing life story. An amazing God gave Ruth an

amazing life story. Ruth was at a point when she

didn't. She didn't know if she had any

good chapters ahead. This lady I speak of wouldn't

have expected to have such chapters ahead.

But is God good and is God kind? Do we go through some chapters

we wonder why he wrote them a certain way or why they went a

certain way? Sure, but God doesn't waste

anything. The question is, are we all in?

Have we given everything to him and trusted Him?

Are we willing to let Him write? Are we willing to trust He's an

awesome God wanting to write an amazing life story for us?

Do we trust His hand? Do we realize nothing just

happens but he's riding through his hands and ours?

I don't know as Pastor John and Praise team are going to come

out. I don't know where you are in

your story. Maybe you're at a point where

you know there's never been that moment in your life when you've

been changed, made alive, and are different because of Jesus

Christ. And listen, if that's you,

that's the that's the point where the story starts.

I'm going to stand here in the time of invitation and just

invite you to step out from where you are.

If God is calling you to say, just come to me, would you trust

me? Confess me as Lord?

Let me forgive you and heal you and make you alive.

Would you come? Maybe you need to come because

you're right now you're just walking through chapters that

you just don't know how this story ends and you've really

lost hope that God has any good chapters to write.

They shouldn't come and trust God and say, God, I don't know

where you're leading me, but God, maybe I want to ask that

same question. God, what do you want me to do?

God, what do you want me to do? I'm willing to go.

I'm willing to walk through whatever door it is, no matter

age you are, where you are, what you're going through.

God, what do you? Want me to do God?

I'm going to trust you. Maybe you just want to come and

put yourself at the feet of Jesus to say God, I don't want

to be a Sunday Christian. I want to be a Monday 1 and I

want you to use me everywhere and every moment of my life.

I want to make everyone I'm count God use me and write,

write an amazing story through my life for your glory.

I'm going to pray. I'm going to ask you to stand

and then you come as God lead. Heavenly Father, I want to pray

in these next moments as we respond to you that we do so

unashamedly. We would do so trusting you with

our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

God, I want to just thank you for writing an amazing life

story for this lady we celebrated a week ago.

There wasn't all roses that God, she trusted you through the

thick and thin and you showed yourself faithful to her.

I pray you to remind somebody here today that you're faithful

and that you're good. I pray that you'd encourage us

and I pray that someone to trust Jesus today as the Lord and

Savior and their story would truly begin.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Cherish family.

Would you stand with me as we sing and worship?

Would you come and respond as God leads you to this morning?