Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / When You're Desperate And Don't Know What To Do - December 7, 2025

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When You're Desperate And Don't Know What To Do - December 7, 2025 · REZ CHURCH Podcast

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Good morning, everyone. For those of you who don't know
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me, my name is Vance Furtado. I'm a volunteer teaching pastor
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here at Resurrection Church, as well as an elder.
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And if you are visiting us this morning again, we want to say
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welcome to you. And please, if you get a chance,
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fill out that little card in the Pew in front of you so that we
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get an opportunity to say hello. All right.
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We are continuing our series this morning called Christmas
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Roots, which has a study in the small but beautiful Old
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Testament book of Ruth. Now last week, Pastor Daniel
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took us through the 1st chapter, and it's my privilege to take us
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through Chapter 2, Ruth Chapter 2, which we're calling
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Providence in the field and later.
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So we're going to go in there momentarily.
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Before we do that, I'd like to share with you a true story out
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of my own life that illustrates something that we're going to
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see in today's message. I was in my late 30s, so you
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obviously, you know, this was some time ago and I was teaching
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at a local Christian School in northeast Bakersfield called
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Heritage. I've been there eight years
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teaching Bible, history and other subjects and I was making
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28,000 minus paying for Linda, my wife and our two kids medical
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insurance. No, it wasn't very much back
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then either. I worked summers to try to earn
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a little bit of extra money. Linda was working crazy hours,
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and I mean crazy hours at our business, sometimes getting up
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at 3:00 in the morning to start work so that she could get stuff
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done at home with her business before our kids even got up.
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She was starting to have health problems, especially high blood
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pressure, because she wasn't sleeping enough.
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So our kids had and our children Joe and Kathleen were still
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pretty young. They had basically 2 absentee
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parents who were doing their dead level best to try to
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provide and we were barely making it.
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And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about because
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you've been there or you are there.
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Something had to change. So I was teaching a Bible class
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at the old church and a friend of mine, my Co teacher, he
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offered to give me an opportunity that I had dreamed
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of for years. He was willing to allow me to
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help me to be able to go back to school to get my doctorate so
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that I could teach at a Christian university or at a
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seminary. That had been my dream.
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But am I sacrificing my family again to do this dream?
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So Linda and I were praying about it and I started to take
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the first steps to do that all right, taking a special exam,
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signing up for some classes. But is this the right thing?
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And then another opportunity was presented.
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A friend of mine, she got a job teaching at current high school
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district and she got it bam, right away.
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So I started thinking, Lord I have tried twice before to get a
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job teaching in Kern High School District and both times flopped.
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Should I try 1/3 time knowing I suck at job interviews and I do?
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What do I do? The job will pay enough for me
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to support our family to where Linda can leave her business but
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it's a new job. I applied, I went through three
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job interviews and I got offered a job teaching at a place called
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Nueva High School in Lamont. I didn't even know Lamont had a
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high school, and it does. You can barely find it, but it
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does. I would be teaching continuation
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students. Now, some of you know what that
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is, but let me explain it to the rest of you.
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Think back to when you were in high school.
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Do you remember the kid that maybe you sat by in class that
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was always popping off, always creating trouble, maybe getting
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into fights on campus, coming into class smelling funny?
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You know what I mean? All right.
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And then suddenly that kid disappeared.
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You didn't see him anymore because they came to me.
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That's the kind of kids that I taught because I took the job.
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Did I? No.
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This is definitely God's will. No, I'm struggling.
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I'm trying to figure it out. Should I have stayed where I
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was? It was comfortable.
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We were poor, but I was comfortable.
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Should I have gone back to school?
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That would have taken another three or four years.
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Or do I take this job having to basically learn to be a teacher
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all over again? Well, let me tell you, it was
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incredibly hard, but eventually, eventually, I really liked it.
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And I remained at that school for 21 years until I retired.
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So here's my question, all right.
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During all those months of uncertainty, anxiety, Linda and
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I are trying to figure out the next step for me.
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I was floundering. It's like I was drowning and I'd
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pop back up again, and then I'd go back to drowning again.
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During all those months of uncertainty, I was just
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floundering. Or was I being guided by God
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himself? And the answer is yes.
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Yeah, that's how it is sometimes with God.
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OK, we don't always figure it out, but He's in charge.
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As a matter of fact, that's exactly what we're going to see
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in the Book of Ruth, chapter 2. See the prophet Jeremiah in the
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Old Testament. He figured out something that I
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did not understand, and here's what he wrote.
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I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not in himself, but
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that, and that it is not in a man who walks to direct his
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steps. In other words, we're uncertain.
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We're not sure what the next step is.
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That never happens to God. What this is called, everyone is
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the Providence of God. I know it's a big word.
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What is Providence? Here's a good short definition
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of it. Providence asserts that God,
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having called the world into being, continually sustains,
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renews, and orders it. In other words, the Lord is in
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charge and nothing is beyond his power, including everything
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that's happening in our lives. The main point of this message
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is this, guys, what we see is coincidental is often
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providential. All right, let's take a look now
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at Ruth, Chapter 2. I invite you to read along with
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me as we take a look at this chapter of Scripture.
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After we've read through it, then we'll go back and talk
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about it. All right, here we go.
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Now. Now I only had a relative of her
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husband's, a worthy man of the clan of Eli Melek, whose name
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was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said to
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Naomi, let me go to the field and glean among the ears of
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grain after him, and whose side I shall find favor.
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Now that word favor, I underlined it in my Bible
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because it's important. And she said to her, Go my
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daughter. So she set out and went and
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gleaned in the field after the reapers.
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And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to
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Boaz, who was of the clan of Eli Malik.
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And behold, Boaz just came from Bethlehem.
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And he said to the reapers, the Lord be with you.
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And they answered, The Lord bless you.
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Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the
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reapers, Whose young woman is this?
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And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered.
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She is the young Moabite women who came back with Naomi from
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the country of Moab. She said our excuse me.
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She said, please let me glean and gather among the sheaves
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after the reapers. So she came and has continued
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from early morning until now, except for a short rest.
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Then Boaz said to Ruth, Now listen, my daughter, do not go
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and glean in another field or leave this one, but keep your
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eyes to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field
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that they are reaping, and go after them.
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Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?
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And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the
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young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face,
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bowing to the ground, and said to him, Why have I found favor
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in your eyes, that you should take notice of me since I am a
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foreigner? But Boaz answered her.
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All that has been done, all that you have done for your
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mother-in-law since the death of your husband, has been fully
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told to me. And how you left your father and
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mother and your native land, and became to a people that you did
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not know before. The Lord repay you for what you
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have done, and a full reward be given to you by the Lord, the
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God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.
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Then she said, I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, for
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you have comforted me and spoke kindly to your servant, though I
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am not one of your servants. And a meal time Boaz said to
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her, Come here, eat some bread, and deep dip your morsel.
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That's a piece of bread in the wine.
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So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her the roasted
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grain, and she ate some until she was satisfied and had some
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leftover. When she rose to glean, Boaz
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instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among
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the sheaves and do not reproach her.
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He and also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it
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for her to glean and do not rebuke her.
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So she gleaned in the field until evening beat out what she
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had gleaned, and it was about an EFAF of barley.
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She took it up and went to the city.
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Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.
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She also brought out and gave her what food she had leftover
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after being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to
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her, where did you glean today and where have you worked?
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Blessed be the man who took notice of you.
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So she said to her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and
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said, The man's name with whom I work today is Boaz, and I only
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said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord, whose
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kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.
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Naomi also said, This man is a close relative of ours, one of
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our Redeemers. And Ruth and Moabite said,
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Besides, he said to me, You shall keep close to the young,
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to my young men, until they have finished all my harvest.
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And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, It is good, my
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daughter, that you go with his young women, lest in another
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field you be assaulted. So she kept close to the young
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women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat
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harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law.
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So point number one, what we see in this chapter is Ruth's great
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need provision. That means food, but it's more
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than food actually and favor. OK, Now before we talk about
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this, two important facts we have to remember from chapter 1,
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from Pastor Daniel's message last week.
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First of all, Naomi tried really, really hard to get rid
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of Ruth. We used to say try to beat her
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with an ugly stick didn't work. It says Ruth clung to Naomi.
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It's the same word used in Genesis 2 to describe the
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relationship between a man and a woman in marriage.
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She was holding on to Ruth for dear life.
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Ruth couldn't get rid of her, and she finally gave up.
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So then they arrived in Bethlehem, where Naomi was from.
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Ruth had never been there. She's a foreigner and we're told
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last verse of chapter 1, the barley harvest has just started,
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meaning God's at work. Food is being provided again,
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the famine is over. So they arrive and Ruth has to
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do something. They're going to starve unless
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Ruth takes action. So Ruth, in desperate courage
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and resolve, she tells basically her adopted mother, I'm going to
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go out into the fields and I'm going to get food.
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Now, it takes real courage to do this.
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She's never been there before. She has no idea what's going to
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happen. But you know what?
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To obtain a blessing often takes a risk.
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I remember years ago when I was still teaching, I was working at
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my desk in my classroom, and it was like lunchtime for the
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students or snack time or whatever.
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And these two girls came in, two high school girls, and I was
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just kind of working away. And one of the girls, she was a
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bit more talkative. The other one, she was pretty
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quiet all right. But I had them both as students,
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so they came to my desk. And it turns out the quiet girl,
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she needed to ask me something, but she had her friend come with
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her. So they both talked with me
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about it was an assignment or something like that.
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And I said, yeah, that's no problem, you can go, you guys
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are fine. Here's how you do it.
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OK, you're good. All right, see you and the 2
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girls turn. And they left and I went back to
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working at my desk. But as they stepped out of my
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classroom, the talkative girl said to the quiet one, See, he's
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not so scary after all. If you don't take a risk, you
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don't get a blessing. So Ruth goes out what she can
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do. This is how it was set up in Old
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Testament times. According to Deuteronomy 24,
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when a farmer harvested his fields, he was to go through
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once, whether it was grain, barley, olives, grapes,
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whatever, he went through and he had it harvested.
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But once he harvested his field, he was not to go back a second
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time. Whatever would fall on the
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ground, grapes, olives, wheat, whatever, whatever would fall on
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the ground. Then the poor people could come
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along and they could pick up this food.
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Yeah, it that's called gleaning. It's back breaking stoop labor.
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But if you didn't do it, you starved.
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They also left alone the corners of the field so that also the
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destitute like Ruth and Naomi could go to the corners of the
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field and get some food there. Now maybe.
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Maybe at the end of that, because Ruth is gathering for
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two people, not just herself but also for Naomi, she might have
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enough to feed them for one day, but it's better than starvation.
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So it says verse 3, she goes out to the field.
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Notice it's singular because it's not other fields.
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It's one big field, and there's no sign saying which part of the
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field belongs to which part. She goes out there and she just
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happens to go to the part of the field owned by Boaz.
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Coincidence or Providence? There's no sign saying harvest
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here. This guy's nice harvest.
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No, she just goes out there and she asks around and she starts
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to work back breaking stoop labor.
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And then Boaz comes out to check on his workers.
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He just happened to come as Ruth is there working again.
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Coincidence or Providence? Ruth does not know one part of
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the field from the other, but the Lord does.
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A person's heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his
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steps. Boaz, who knew everybody in
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Bethlehem because he's the elite of the city.
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He's in the top 5%. The ESV Bible describes him as a
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worthy man. The Christian Standard Bible
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describes him as a man of noble standing.
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He's at the top. Ruth is not even on the scale.
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She's not even an Israelite. It's like a wealthy rancher
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comes out, checks on everything that's happening on his ranch,
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and he notices A ditch digger that was hired just for the day.
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That's the social difference between these two.
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And he tells her, stay in my field, have lunch with my
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workers, which means it's like she's now part of his extended
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family. Here's even more food that you
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can gather because he tells his workers, I don't care what the
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law says. Leave her more.
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The Lord had moved Boaz's heart to give her a great blessing.
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It was so far above what the law required.
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Guys, it was crazy. But all that is an illustration
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of how God cares for us. How much does God care?
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Well, I had to pick just one verse, but this is just one
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verse and a whole mess of them. It says this Blessed be the God
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and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
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every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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Now, having food to eat, that's a blessing, but having spiritual
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blessings that last throughout eternity and the fact that God
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gives us every single one of them in Jesus, that's amazing.
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Now why? Why did Boaz do all this?
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Well, he tells Ruth because she doesn't know why either.
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And it has to do with Boaz knows about Ruth.
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She doesn't know him, but he knows about her.
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She, he knows her character. He knows that she is coming and
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acting out of love for her adopted mother.
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That's what's motivating her. Courageous, unselfish love.
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Jesus himself said no greater love exists than this, that
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someone laid down his life for his friends.
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John 1512 And Jesus did the ultimate sacrifice.
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He laid down his life for us, but we weren't his friends.
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Scripture actually calls us his enemies, but Jesus loved us
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enough to do that. Now it says she gathered an
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EFAF. That's nice.
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What in the world is an EFAF? OK, I had to do some checking on
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this because I got different answers.
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But basically an EFAF is 30 to 50 lbs of food.
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You're don't get that picking up little grains at the end of the
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day. Maybe you get couple handfuls.
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So you got to picture this in our heads.
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She gets all this food, wraps it up probably in some cloth that
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she's had, and she's trundling it back to Bethlehem, kind of
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stumbling along because it's a lot of food.
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So it's enough to feed her and Naomi for two weeks.
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So when she arrives at the house and there's the food, Naomi's
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like, where'd you work? Who helped you?
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What happened? Because this is unheard of.
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So Naomi is revived. Naomi is excited.
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Naomi at the end of chapter 1, she said, don't call me Naomi,
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call me Mara, because Mara means bitter and I'm bitter.
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I'm angry at God. She's not angry anymore because
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she sees God's kindness in what Boaz has done.
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Not only has God in his Providence met her need, He's
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gone over and beyond that. See God's kindness.
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That's that word we saw as kindness in the chapter.
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It's a beautiful Hebrew word called hesed.
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It's the Lord's unexpected, wonderfully rich, Amazing Grace
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that shows up when we least expect it was a coincidence or
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was a Providence. It's sort of like last week.
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Linda and I were out of town because we're visiting our
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daughter, son-in-law and our granddaughter down in San
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Marcos. Our granddaughter, Beverly,
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she's 19 months old. She has no idea what time is.
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It doesn't really matter because the world revolves around her.
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All she knows is that when she sees now Papa and grandma, big
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smile breaks out because it's party time.
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The good times are going to start.
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All right. This is Grace.
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All right, what are you going to give me?
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What you bring for me? No, that's grace.
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Let's move forward now to our time.
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All right point #2 our great need and God's provision was
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fulfilled with the arrival of the Son of God about 700 years
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after the book of Ruth was finished.
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The Old Testament writing stopped around 400 BC.
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God didn't speak through prophets anymore.
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Everything stopped and the people noticed.
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Why are we hearing from God? Well, because God went silent.
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But the people knew someone was coming, someone whom they
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desperately needed, because places in Scripture in the Old
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Testament talked about him. One of them was the passage we
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just heard earlier. For to us a child is born, to us
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a son is given, and his name shall be called.
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Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father and Prince of
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Peace. One of those titles would have
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been enough, but that one title wouldn't have covered everything
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for Jesus. So Isaiah wrote down all four,
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and even that wasn't totally sufficient.
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The point is, is this is who is coming.
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Some of what we read there happened the first time he came.
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Some of it happens when he comes back because the next line of
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the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.
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Not a whole lot of peace out there in the world is there, and
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there won't be until Jesus comes back.
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Just as Ruth desperately needed favor, so also Israel and all of
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us need God's favor. We need the provision that God
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provided in Jesus. He's the perfect God, man who
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will provide salvation for us. God is absolutely in control.
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And at the end of those 400 silent years, we're told, but
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when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son,
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born of a woman. When time was right, when
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conditions in the world was right.
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Most importantly, when people were desperately seeking to have
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a real and authentic relationship with the living
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God, that's when Jesus showed up.
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So applications and conclusion. What does the word Providence
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really mean? It's simply guys, the idea that
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God provides, whether we see it and recognize it or not, He
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provides. He provided for Ruth, for Naomi,
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and he sent his son into this world to provide the only way we
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can know God. Now, maybe you're here visiting,
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perhaps because of the baptisms that will happen later.
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You have a friend or a family member, or maybe you're just
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visiting and he's thinking, well, I don't know about all
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this, preacher. Well, let me tell you something,
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all right. God provided for you to hear
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this message. He preserved you, He protected
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you, and He brought you into this building or else online so
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that you would have the opportunity to meet His Son
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Jesus. And by the way, He planned this
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for you before you were ever born, because according to Psalm
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139, God knows every single one of our days before we even
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existed. So maybe you're here and you
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don't know Jesus. I'm going to give you an
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opportunity right now to come to know the Son of God.
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So I'm going to ask all of us, please to bow our heads, close
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our eyes, simply so that we can kind of push things out.
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If you want to know Jesus, I invite you to pray this prayer
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with me, whether silently or out loud, God hears.
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Dear God, I ask you to take away my sin.
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I ask you to give me new life through your Son, Jesus.
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I thank you, Lord, for the fact that I can have a relationship
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with you. Come into my heart and into my
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life. Lord Jesus, if you prayed that
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prayer, would you mind just raising your hands so that I can
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see? Thank you.
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You may put your hands down. Amen.
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Let's go ahead and stand, please.
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At this point in the service, I need to mention a couple of
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things. First of all, if you were one of
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those who prayed to receive Jesus, welcome to God's family.
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Also, I invite you to go to the tables.
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We have one in this wing and one over in this wing.
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Lights will come on momentarily where you can meet with someone
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and we can chat, have a chance to talk with you and get to know
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you and explain to you a little bit more about what it means to
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walk and to know Jesus. So we invite you to do that.
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The other thing is, is that we're going to have baptism
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shortly. And so if you're one of those
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folks that's signed up for baptism, you want to head right
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over here. There's a side door that's open
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over where Brenda is. Please head in that direction
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now so that we can get you ready for baptism.
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All right. The other thing is, fellow
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Christian, how often do you think God has taken care of you,
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watched over you, protected you, and you didn't even know it?
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See, sometimes we're really not grateful for how God takes care
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of us. Amen.
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So what do you need God to do for you today?
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If you have something Lord's been working on your heart about
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whatever it is, I'm going to invite you to come forward for
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prayer. Our prayer team.
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Please go ahead and come forward, guys, we want to pray
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with you. We want to do for you whatever
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we can to help you on your journey with God, so as Katie
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plays, you come forward as the Lord leads.