Speaker 1: Hey, clap those hands. If you love to Jesus, be
Speaker 1: patient with the old boy today. I've been up a
Speaker 1: long time. I want to also mention that Easter is
Speaker 1: coming soon. Now we're not waiting for Easter to live
Speaker 1: a resurrected life. But imagine how many people you might
Speaker 1: be able to invite the church on Easter this year
Speaker 1: that haven't been back yet. We should call it comeback Sunday.
Speaker 1: Comeback Sunday, right right, right right. The Duke Blue Devils
Speaker 1: couldn't do it last night, but a comeback. Tell somebody
Speaker 1: a comeback is possible. House divided. I felt it when
Speaker 1: I said it. Look at you, though, Look at you
Speaker 1: in the House of God today, look at you joining
Speaker 1: us US online. Look at you standing at attention, ready
Speaker 1: to see what God will speak. Well, I want to
Speaker 1: mobilize you in two weeks on April seventeenth, Easter Sunday,
Speaker 1: Easter at Elevation dot com for all the times and locations,
Speaker 1: and I would really really urge you to pray and say, God,
Speaker 1: is there somebody I could bring with me. You'll know this,
Speaker 1: the church comes last for a lot of people. It shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Back at target, back at the ball Field back everywhere
Speaker 1: else but church. But you don't have to condemn people.
Speaker 1: You can just invite them. Just invite them, all right,
Speaker 1: And so that's going to be awesome. And also Elevation
Speaker 1: Nights is three weeks away. That's where we take our
Speaker 1: ministry and we mobilize in arenas really all over the
Speaker 1: United States, but this particular leg we're going to be
Speaker 1: in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Columbus, Washington, d C. Reading Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: Shouts for reading Pennsylvania. Didn't expect it. But okay, Newark,
Speaker 1: New Jersey, and Boston, Massachusetts. You need to go to
Speaker 1: Elevation Nights dot com because tickets are going fast and
Speaker 1: you can meet with Jesus anywhere, but if you want
Speaker 1: to come into the arena, you got to have a
Speaker 1: ticket for those nights. It will be amazing and we
Speaker 1: can't wait to see you there. Tell somebody next to you,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to be here today. I'm happy to be
Speaker 1: here for part two of that sermon that Pastor Stephens
Speaker 1: started last week. We're going back to Ruth. Back to Ruth. Now,
Speaker 1: just to set your expectation, we are actually going to
Speaker 1: go backwards. We were in the last chapter of the
Speaker 1: Book of Ruth. Last week, we're going to go back
Speaker 1: to chapter two. It was no sooner than I set
Speaker 1: amen on the stage and sat down at my desk
Speaker 1: back there, that the Lord started to show me what
Speaker 1: to preach this week. So I've been waiting since then.
Speaker 1: So you will forgive if I'm a little overheated. All right,
Speaker 1: my engine's been revin for seven days. Ay man, and
Speaker 1: tell somebody online put it in the comments of the chat,
Speaker 1: say I'm ready to I'm ready to ask them, are
Speaker 1: you ready? Ask them? Are you ready? And if they
Speaker 1: don't look ready, give them a little stretch or a
Speaker 1: little shove or something. I'm so excited Ruth chapter two. Actually, Jared,
Speaker 1: let's go to Let's go to chapter one so we
Speaker 1: can get the context. I think that's important. This will
Speaker 1: not be a Bible study on the whole Book of Ruth.
Speaker 1: But what I hope to do, with the help of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit today is lift a principle from this
Speaker 1: Old Testament story as a picture that we can then
Speaker 1: apply a practice New Testament principle for our lives. That's
Speaker 1: what I hope to do today. So you might get
Speaker 1: mixed up on some of the history and go, I
Speaker 1: don't really know who that is or what that means.
Speaker 1: Or he said a name there and it had seventeen syllables,
Speaker 1: and I don't really know all these Bible names. That's okay,
Speaker 1: because we're really going to lift one principle today from Ruth.
Speaker 1: But I do want to read enough of the scripture
Speaker 1: where you can get the context. So let's go to
Speaker 1: Ruth chapter one, and let's do verse nineteen. So the
Speaker 1: two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When
Speaker 1: they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because
Speaker 1: of them, and the women exclaimed, can this be Naomi?
Speaker 1: Don't call me Naomi? She told them, call me Mara,
Speaker 1: because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I
Speaker 1: went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.
Speaker 1: Why call me Naomi? Because Naomi means pleasant. And she's
Speaker 1: carrying so much pain that she is changing her name,
Speaker 1: and her identity is now being not spoken by God
Speaker 1: but spoken by her experiences. Now she's lost two sons
Speaker 1: and a husband. So she didn't just have a bad
Speaker 1: day or get fired from a job she didn't really like. Anyway,
Speaker 1: she has every reason to say this. Now, watch how
Speaker 1: good God is. This is what I want you to
Speaker 1: watch with that context. Verse twenty two says, so Naomi
Speaker 1: returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the moabide, her daughter
Speaker 1: in law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
Speaker 1: Two Verse one, Now Naomi, and I love that word. Now,
Speaker 1: I want somebody to shout at the top of your
Speaker 1: lungs now man, that sounded good. You did that, just
Speaker 1: like you were supposed to. After all she's been through.
Speaker 1: The author wants us to know that this is not
Speaker 1: chapter one anymore. This is chapter two of the Book
Speaker 1: of Ruth, and it starts with one little three letter
Speaker 1: word shouted again. Now, Naomi had a relative on her
Speaker 1: husband's side, a man of standing from the clan of
Speaker 1: Alimelech whose name was bo Ass, and Boas means the
Speaker 1: Lord has made me strong. Isn't it good to have
Speaker 1: somebody strong on your side? Oh? Yeah, be nice to me.
Speaker 1: I got somebody strong on my side. Greater is he
Speaker 1: that is in me than he that is in the world.
Speaker 1: I've got God on my side. Wow wow, Wow, Martin
Speaker 1: Luther said, did we and our own strength confide our
Speaker 1: striving would be losing. We're not the right man on
Speaker 1: our side. The man of God's choosing. Gust asks whom
Speaker 1: that may be, Christ Jesus. It is he Lord Sabo,
Speaker 1: with his name from age to age the same on
Speaker 1: earth is not his equal, and he must win the battle.
Speaker 1: That's for free. That's Martin Luther. Martin Luther said that
Speaker 1: Ruth chapter two, verse two, and Ruth the moabide said
Speaker 1: to Naomi, let me go to the fields and pick
Speaker 1: up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I
Speaker 1: find favor. Naomi said to her, go ahead, my daughter.
Speaker 1: So she went out, entered the field and began to
Speaker 1: glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was
Speaker 1: working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from
Speaker 1: the clan of Alimelac. Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: Now imagine how God had to orchestrate all of this.
Speaker 1: Had to get stuck behind a slow car with a
Speaker 1: elevation sticker, or he would have been to Bethlehem too
Speaker 1: early while Ruth was in the shelter. Just look, because
Speaker 1: the narrator doesn't really say it was God, but it's implied.
Speaker 1: And if you look for it. You can see the
Speaker 1: hand of God, but it's not always named that. It
Speaker 1: didn't say that God led Ruth to the field belonging
Speaker 1: to Boas. It doesn't say that, but he did. It
Speaker 1: didn't say that Boas got there when he got there
Speaker 1: so that Ruth could be there when she was there,
Speaker 1: so that they could meet at this moment. It doesn't
Speaker 1: say that God wasmatch dot com, but he was, but
Speaker 1: he was. You don't always know that it was God
Speaker 1: that put a delay in your life so you wouldn't
Speaker 1: get there too soon. You call it stuff like coincidence,
Speaker 1: and that's just God's pseudonym coincidence. That's just a name
Speaker 1: God goes by when he doesn't want you to know
Speaker 1: it's him. Yet. Coincidence is just God in a costume.
Speaker 1: I'll want to preach today, you'll let me preach today.
Speaker 1: I'll let me preach today. So just then, okay. Boas
Speaker 1: walks out in his field, greeted the harvesters, and he said,
Speaker 1: the Lord be with you. They replied back, the Lord
Speaker 1: bless you. And Boas asked the overseers of his harvesters,
Speaker 1: who does that young woman belong to? And the overseer replied,
Speaker 1: she's the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi.
Speaker 1: Doesn't even know her name, God does She said, please
Speaker 1: let me glean. Please let me glean and gather among
Speaker 1: the sheaves behind the harvesters. She came into the field
Speaker 1: and has remained here. She came and remained. You see that.
Speaker 1: She came and remained here. You see it. She can't
Speaker 1: put it in the in the chat, would you? She
Speaker 1: came and remained. She came and remained from morning till now,
Speaker 1: except the short rest in the shelter. So bo I
Speaker 1: said to Ruth, my daughter, listen to me. Don't go
Speaker 1: and glean in another field. Hey, baby, you're in the
Speaker 1: right field, and don't go away from here. Stay here
Speaker 1: with me. Try that for a pickup line this week.
Speaker 1: Don't go glean in another field with Starbucks with me.
Speaker 1: But then he told her something to do. Now, now,
Speaker 1: pay attention here, watch the field where the men are harvesting,
Speaker 1: and follow along after the women. I have told the
Speaker 1: men not to lay a hand on you whenever you're thirsty.
Speaker 1: I know the women are supposed to fill the jars
Speaker 1: for the men, but you go get a drink from
Speaker 1: the water. Jars the men have filled. Okay, Holly, do
Speaker 1: not underline that verse at this. I'm almost done with
Speaker 1: reading the scripture. But it's so good. It's so good, y'all.
Speaker 1: At this, she bowed down, with her face to the ground.
Speaker 1: She asked him, Why have I found such favor in
Speaker 1: your eyes that you noticed me a foreigner? Boas replied,
Speaker 1: because you're cute. No, he didn't say that it was
Speaker 1: more than an appearance. Watch this. I've been told all
Speaker 1: about what you have done for your mother in law.
Speaker 1: I heard about you since the death of your husband,
Speaker 1: how you left your father and mother and your homeland
Speaker 1: and came to live with the people you did not
Speaker 1: know before. May the Lord repay you for what you
Speaker 1: have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord,
Speaker 1: the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come
Speaker 1: to take refuge. Now he answered the question, Ruth asked,
Speaker 1: and that's what we want to do today with this principle,
Speaker 1: Why have I found such favor in your eyes and
Speaker 1: the word of the Lord today. This is the principle
Speaker 1: that's in this chapter of Scripture. The one who seeks finds,
Speaker 1: say that out loud. The one who seeks finds, and
Speaker 1: just tell the person next to you, the one who
Speaker 1: seeks finds you may be seated. The one who seeks
Speaker 1: finds in that the truth. The one who seeks fines.
Speaker 1: And I need to point out something to you from
Speaker 1: the background of the text that is not boring. Always
Speaker 1: when I go let's get a little background, some people
Speaker 1: check out. They wait till I tell a story or
Speaker 1: talk about getting my kids a dog or something, and
Speaker 1: then they perk up. Or when I say something that
Speaker 1: rhymes or starts with all the same letters. I'm not
Speaker 1: even going to put my points on the screen today.
Speaker 1: You'll have to find them in the message. The moment
Speaker 1: I tell you there's four points in this message, you
Speaker 1: will only hear the four points in this message. What
Speaker 1: are you ten? You are grown enough now to glean
Speaker 1: the parts of this message that God has for you
Speaker 1: and the part that's not for you. You You leave it,
Speaker 1: but make sure you don't leave the thing that you
Speaker 1: need the most because you don't like it. Well, I am,
Speaker 1: he said, you better preach me. I am. This is
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. But the important thing about me reading
Speaker 1: chapter one, of course, was that we needed to continue
Speaker 1: the conversation about what Naomi and Ruth lost because without
Speaker 1: understanding what they lost, it'll have very little relevance to
Speaker 1: our lives if we also feel like we're at a loss. Now.
Speaker 1: You can be at a loss for words, you can
Speaker 1: be at a loss for money, you can be at
Speaker 1: a loss for knowledge, and so you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: necessarily have to be Oh, I lost my husband, I
Speaker 1: lost my sons. But one thing about this lens you
Speaker 1: have to admit is that it doesn't get much worse.
Speaker 1: You already left your homeland because of a famine. That
Speaker 1: was what happened in Chapter one, verses one through three,
Speaker 1: where Naomi had to leave with her husband a limeleg
Speaker 1: and they had to leave Bethlehem and they had to
Speaker 1: go to Moab where they worshiped others gods, and then
Speaker 1: her sons had to marry other women from Moab, and
Speaker 1: they had to eat Moabiite food. They had to be
Speaker 1: on a Moabiite diet when they have a Bethlehem appetite
Speaker 1: and they are surrounded culturally by enigmatic idolatry that they
Speaker 1: can't understand or process, but they ate there. The Bible
Speaker 1: doesn't specify exactly when a limelete passed or from what
Speaker 1: but he died, and perhaps Naomi at that point still
Speaker 1: knew her name meant Naomi because she still had two sons.
Speaker 1: Ten years pass and they leave to her, grief is
Speaker 1: no longer concealable. I don't know if that's a word,
Speaker 1: but it's definitely a state where you can't hide what
Speaker 1: you're going through anymore. You know, you're smiling, but not
Speaker 1: with your eyes, only with your teeth, and even the
Speaker 1: things you say to try to counteract it sound empty.
Speaker 1: So you might get to a point like Naomi, where
Speaker 1: you begin to reject anything that contradicts the pain that
Speaker 1: you have assimilated as a part of you. She said,
Speaker 1: don't even call me by my real name anymore. We
Speaker 1: don't typically tell people that, like right, like don't call
Speaker 1: me Stephen, you know, call me Seth. It's just we
Speaker 1: start answering to different stuff. Has said, another word that
Speaker 1: started with us, And uh, it's really just that we
Speaker 1: start responding internally to a different understanding of who we
Speaker 1: are based on what we've been through. Now. I mentioned
Speaker 1: that already, but I want to juxtapose it now and
Speaker 1: go with me here, because the Bible says in verse
Speaker 1: twenty two, something very good that it was the beginning
Speaker 1: of the barley harvest. It was the beginning of the
Speaker 1: barley harvest. So they went back to Bethlehem. They went
Speaker 1: back to where the bread was. And I could preach
Speaker 1: Old Zerman on that, but I don't want to get distracted.
Speaker 1: But going back to Bethlehem should be a happy moment
Speaker 1: to go back to their homeland. It's been a decade.
Speaker 1: They're going back to Bethlehem. Bethlehem means house of bread.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know it best for its primary resident,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who would be born
Speaker 1: in Bethlehem later not yet. But it's the house of bread.
Speaker 1: And they are going back to where the bread is.
Speaker 1: And real quick, let's take just a moment and have
Speaker 1: a commercial interruption and tell somebody next to you the
Speaker 1: bread is back. The bread is back. The bread is back.
Speaker 1: The bread is back. That's good news, Naomi. Here's at
Speaker 1: some point the bread is back in Bethlehem. The famine
Speaker 1: is over. God has answered the prayers of his people.
Speaker 1: Is safe to go back. You can leave Moab, this
Speaker 1: horrible place where all these horrible things have happened to you,
Speaker 1: because the bread is back. There's bread and Bethlehem. You
Speaker 1: don't have to hide out in this foreign, strange place anymore.
Speaker 1: The bread is bad. I want to say to everybody
Speaker 1: watching online who hadn't come back to church since the
Speaker 1: pandemic started. The bread is back. The bread is back.
Speaker 1: The bread is back. God never left, but the bread
Speaker 1: is back. There are seasons in your life where you
Speaker 1: come into a reality that what you went through is
Speaker 1: leaving you. But but Ruth still had to make a
Speaker 1: decision once she got to Bethlahem right to go into
Speaker 1: the fields and begin to glean. Did you see that
Speaker 1: in chapter two, verse three, she went into the field
Speaker 1: and began to glean. It says that she started gleaning,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't say that she ceased grieving. The first
Speaker 1: thing I want to talk to you about that might
Speaker 1: be like a point is gleaning in the grieving. Put
Speaker 1: it right in the chat, gleaning in the grieving, because
Speaker 1: what we think is going to happen is that when
Speaker 1: our harvest comes of what we ask God for. How
Speaker 1: many times do you think they prayed God bring bread
Speaker 1: to Bethlehem. What they didn't know is that when the
Speaker 1: bread came back to Bethlehem, they would also be bringing
Speaker 1: their bitterness with them gleaning. In the grieving, we think
Speaker 1: God's gonna bless me and I'm going to feel better.
Speaker 1: That's how I'll know I'm blessed, because gleaning is like
Speaker 1: I don't think any of us know that much about gleaning,
Speaker 1: so let me try to explain it. But my agriclate
Speaker 1: cultural knowledge is very low. But from the biblical perspective,
Speaker 1: they would go through the field, and it was actually
Speaker 1: required by Levitical law. And you can check this out
Speaker 1: in Leviticus nineteen. Because I know you've been looking for
Speaker 1: an excuse to dive into the Book of Leviticus, so
Speaker 1: you could go to the nineteenth chapter of the Book
Speaker 1: of Leviticus and read about how they commanded them in
Speaker 1: the law. They said, when you're gathering your crops, the
Speaker 1: wealthy landowners, you have to leave a little on the edges.
Speaker 1: And if you don't pick something through the first time,
Speaker 1: you don't get to go back through and pick it
Speaker 1: up again. That's for the gleaners. Who are these gleaners?
Speaker 1: The gleaners consist of three categories. It's the destitute or
Speaker 1: the poor, it is the widows, and it is the foreigners.
Speaker 1: Ruth is all three. She is uniquely qualified through her
Speaker 1: disadvantages to go through the field and glean. So we
Speaker 1: keep thinking it takes stuff that it really doesn't take
Speaker 1: for God provide for us. You know our educational level.
Speaker 1: But but if you're good at gleaning, it doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that you have stopped grieving. There is no indication. I
Speaker 1: defy you to find it in the text. You can seek,
Speaker 1: and you won't find where Ruth danced and Naomi high
Speaker 1: fived her. You won't find anything in the text that
Speaker 1: suggests that the sadness ceased. But the bread was there,
Speaker 1: but so was the bitterness. That's why I told you
Speaker 1: last week almost as a warning it will come together.
Speaker 1: The biggest blessing of your life might come at the
Speaker 1: worst time. You could have a great blessing at a
Speaker 1: horrible time. Truly, surely you don't believe me. Have some kids,
Speaker 1: I mean, they are a blame us from the Lord right,
Speaker 1: but they will walk in and want to talk to
Speaker 1: you at the worst times. They never come talk to you.
Speaker 1: After you wrote in your journal this morning and prayed
Speaker 1: to Jesus and ask the Lord God give me an
Speaker 1: opportunity today to speak wisdom into the next generation. God,
Speaker 1: I just want to train up my children in the
Speaker 1: way that they should go. It's going to be when
Speaker 1: you are tripping over something that was on your schedule
Speaker 1: that day, that you are going to have the opportunity
Speaker 1: to glean. Watch this. Glean doesn't mean the field is
Speaker 1: full and you just go through picking. Glean means that
Speaker 1: you notice what was left on the ground that somebody
Speaker 1: else didn't even see. So, pop quiz, are you good
Speaker 1: at gleaning? On a scale of one to ten? How
Speaker 1: good are you at gleaning? What do you mean, preacher?
Speaker 1: I mean, how good are you at taking a regret
Speaker 1: in your life and, by the spirit of God, turning
Speaker 1: it into a lesson and recognizing it maybe as the
Speaker 1: hand of God, even though you don't call it that.
Speaker 1: Are you good at that? Because I am not a
Speaker 1: graduate level gleaner, truth be told, God is teaching me
Speaker 1: to glean every single day. And I just started back
Speaker 1: two weeks ago doing my gratitude journal again. I stand
Speaker 1: up here about once a year and I say, y'all,
Speaker 1: keep a gratitude journal. I do it for two weeks
Speaker 1: and then I forget to glean. And so it usually
Speaker 1: has to happen to me. Is I have to get
Speaker 1: to a point of so much anxiety in my life,
Speaker 1: and so much worrying about stuff that's stupid, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 1: and so much of being mad about stuff that you know,
Speaker 1: other people said or did or didn't say, or didn't
Speaker 1: do or going to do maybe do hypothetically do in
Speaker 1: the future at some point that I'm trying to, you know,
Speaker 1: sitting there all tied up in knots about things I'm
Speaker 1: going through. And so I just started back to practice
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. I have got to start my
Speaker 1: day with caffeine because I can't glean without caffeine. It
Speaker 1: came to me on the spot. I just went with it.
Speaker 1: I love you so much. But the thing about that
Speaker 1: is it causes me to go back through my day
Speaker 1: and see what things I got to do that I
Speaker 1: thought I had to do. And I need that constant training.
Speaker 1: I can't just do that once a week. Maybe you
Speaker 1: get all you need of that on Sunday, you know,
Speaker 1: once a week I come and I worship God and
Speaker 1: I thank him for all he's done. I can't do
Speaker 1: it six days without him. I can't because if I do,
Speaker 1: grief will overtake gleaning. You don't live to be forty
Speaker 1: two and and not have tears in the fiber of
Speaker 1: your faith. You know, you don't pastor a church that
Speaker 1: just grows and grows and not lose a lot along
Speaker 1: the way. You don't believe with faith and expectation. I
Speaker 1: know you know what I'm talking about. You don't live
Speaker 1: this long and not have some grief. The thing that
Speaker 1: really arrested my attention, and I hope you see it.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you look for it, you'll see
Speaker 1: it in the text that it doesn't say that they
Speaker 1: stop breathing in order to start gleaning. And I want
Speaker 1: to say you free that you might not feel better
Speaker 1: yet that has nothing to do with God's hand on
Speaker 1: you or not. When as I love this, I love this.
Speaker 1: It said there was a man named bo As on
Speaker 1: their side. They didn't know that yet. Read it in
Speaker 1: the text, it says they had a relative named Boas.
Speaker 1: Naomi knew about bo As, she didn't know he was
Speaker 1: still around. They had no idea, and neither do you,
Speaker 1: my friend. So you cannot let the grief overtake the gleaning,
Speaker 1: because there is still something left on your life. There
Speaker 1: is still something left in your life. The process of gleaning.
Speaker 1: I mean you got to go through the field. You've
Speaker 1: got to learn how to not only go through somebody
Speaker 1: else's field, but go through your own field and see
Speaker 1: what's on the ground. That's what the cleaners would do.
Speaker 1: They would follow behind. You could either follow at a distance,
Speaker 1: or if you got special permission, you could glean among
Speaker 1: the sheaves. That means you could get close. You could
Speaker 1: get more than sick feet close to the sheaves, and
Speaker 1: whatever fell out you could grab that too. And they
Speaker 1: didn't have the permission to lay a hand on you
Speaker 1: because you were gleaning among the sheaves. And that means
Speaker 1: you get to stay close to the reaper. And that's
Speaker 1: what Ruth wanted. She said, I want to glean behind
Speaker 1: the reapers, among the sheaves and just let me see
Speaker 1: what they miss, because I can live on what they miss.
Speaker 1: You will meet somebody every once in a while that
Speaker 1: is so good at gleaning it'll make you feel guilty
Speaker 1: over how grumpy and gripey and ridiculous you are. Speaking
Speaker 1: from personal experience. I meet people all the time going
Speaker 1: through things that would grieve me so much because I
Speaker 1: know how I know my tolerance level. You know, people
Speaker 1: say I have a high pain tolerance. That's a sign
Speaker 1: they don't right. True story. Jones used to be a
Speaker 1: physical therapist. He said, when you hear somebody come and
Speaker 1: say I have a high pain tolerance, they are a wimp.
Speaker 1: That is sign number one because they're deceived. They think
Speaker 1: they have a high pain tolerance. But when you meet
Speaker 1: somebody who truly gleans while grieving, Like when Layman texted
Speaker 1: me this week and he was like, oh, thank you
Speaker 1: for that word. How do you lose your son while
Speaker 1: you're in church? That's been how many years? About a decade,
Speaker 1: about ten years, about the same amount where Naomi had
Speaker 1: lost Alimelet I know he's still grieving. How can he
Speaker 1: be grateful to a god who let his son be
Speaker 1: taken so soon? He never stopped grieving, He just started gleaning.
Speaker 1: His son loved a fish, so he started a fishing
Speaker 1: club in his son's honor. The only people they bring
Speaker 1: to Christ through Riley's catch. Look it up, Riley's catch,
Speaker 1: you'll see it. Shout out free advertisement, Tom Layman, Thank
Speaker 1: you're welcome. I always text him. You're my favorite Layman,
Speaker 1: like the play on words Layman and clergy hahaha. Because
Speaker 1: he teaches me to glean going through my own life,
Speaker 1: just recognizing that's the thing about gleaning, okay, because I
Speaker 1: want you to know that somebody else could walk through
Speaker 1: the field of your life and find ten things to
Speaker 1: be grateful for that you take for granted. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to make you feel bad. Trust me. God gave
Speaker 1: me this message early last week, and he whipped me
Speaker 1: with it all week, just over and over again. I
Speaker 1: was listing a bunch of things to Holly that I
Speaker 1: was stressed about this week. All of them were things
Speaker 1: that I put on my own schedule. All of them
Speaker 1: were decisions I made. Many of them were blessings that
Speaker 1: I prayed for, just full grown. They're not puppies anymore,
Speaker 1: because you know, a scheduling commitment is a puppy, But
Speaker 1: when the appointment comes, it's a full grown dog and
Speaker 1: it has to be walked by the way. Graham said
Speaker 1: he's naming his dog apparently, this Boston Terrior Boass. So
Speaker 1: that's good, that's good, that's good. It's gonna take a while.
Speaker 1: It's gonna take a while. Even when he was begging
Speaker 1: me for a dog. If you missed it last week,
Speaker 1: it was a whole thing don't worry about it. But
Speaker 1: even when he used to ask me for a dog,
Speaker 1: he said, all you do is bring up all the
Speaker 1: things about the dog that we're gonna hate. And I said,
Speaker 1: that's right. And all you do is think of all
Speaker 1: of the things with the dog that you're gonna love.
Speaker 1: And I'm accurate, and you're ignorant. But sometimes you can
Speaker 1: know too much. Sometimes you can know too much to
Speaker 1: where you get in a point where you stop looking
Speaker 1: for the Lord. Don't call me Naomi, call me Mara.
Speaker 1: Now when you name yourself bitter Marra, you become magnetic
Speaker 1: for Marra. So the second thing that's kind of like
Speaker 1: a point in this message is the mind on a mission,
Speaker 1: the mind on a mission, the mind on a mission.
Speaker 1: That's why I told Elijah the other day. He was
Speaker 1: going on and on and just complaining, and I said, Son,
Speaker 1: is your mind just on a mission trip to be
Speaker 1: miserable today? You just wake up this morning and say, here,
Speaker 1: dear mind, here's a I like for you to do
Speaker 1: to me for me today, you fascinating computer called the
Speaker 1: human brain. I want you to collect everything that I
Speaker 1: can be stressed about and sad about today and put
Speaker 1: it all in one big pile. I am gleaning everything
Speaker 1: today that I can feel terrible about. I don't want
Speaker 1: any good thoughts. I don't want any grateful thoughts. I'm
Speaker 1: going straight to misery Incorporated. Call me morrow and asked
Speaker 1: him that. I said, did you just wake up today
Speaker 1: and tell your mind. We're going on a mission today.
Speaker 1: We are going to find misery wherever we can find it.
Speaker 1: We will nurture it in its various forms. If we
Speaker 1: see potential misery, we will feed it. We will nurse
Speaker 1: it at our breast until it becomes full grown misery.
Speaker 1: We will look for a fence, and we will nurse
Speaker 1: it at our bosom until it becomes full grown resentment,
Speaker 1: until it takes over and we are depressed at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, praying for God to give us peace.
Speaker 1: He said, no, Dad, not on a mission trip. Just
Speaker 1: not a morning person. You gotta go through the field
Speaker 1: and glean in the morning. I'm not a morning person either.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'm a night person or an afternoon person.
Speaker 1: At this age of my life. I'm like a one
Speaker 1: thirty three pm person, like that one right after lunch,
Speaker 1: catch me then right right right. But you can't just
Speaker 1: you can't just give over to that. Bitter is not
Speaker 1: a personality type. It's a decision. Uh uh. She had
Speaker 1: no choice but to be better. Look what she went through.
Speaker 1: Ruth lost her husband too, and she said, go let
Speaker 1: me glean. Are you good at gleaning? You know, gleaning mentally?
Speaker 1: Let's break this down a little bit, okay, because if
Speaker 1: we keep this in the fields of Bethlehem, I really
Speaker 1: don't think it'll do you that much good at your job.
Speaker 1: If we could break this right down to where you live,
Speaker 1: I kind of want to know, what are you even
Speaker 1: looking for right now? While you're listening to me preach,
Speaker 1: some of you are just looking for the words in conclusion, right.
Speaker 1: It's the strangest thing. It's the strangest thing to me.
Speaker 1: Two people can come to the same church, the same church,
Speaker 1: and it's not like they're sitting even that far apart
Speaker 1: on the same road here the same sermon, and one
Speaker 1: of them six months later, say it was that day
Speaker 1: when pastors stood up there looking good in his suit.
Speaker 1: He's having fun, man, But I don't even remember what
Speaker 1: he was wearing. I remember he said that there's bread
Speaker 1: in Bethlehem, But he mentioned about bitterness and he talked
Speaker 1: about gleaning, and I put a practice in my life
Speaker 1: that day. I decided that I need to get good
Speaker 1: at gleaning because I'm good at grumbling. Naturally, nobody has
Speaker 1: to train me for that. How many of you are
Speaker 1: good at grumbling? How many of you are Olympic level grumblers?
Speaker 1: If we send a recruiter through this church seeking for
Speaker 1: the gold medal, grumbler, raise your hand right now? Oh,
Speaker 1: I mean I could turn anything into a gripe. Watch me.
Speaker 1: I'm real good at this. I can do joy judo.
Speaker 1: God can send something to bless me and I'll turn
Speaker 1: it into an attack. It's like this reverse gratitude thing.
Speaker 1: I got a knack for it. I got a knack
Speaker 1: for it. I got a knack for it. The church
Speaker 1: used to be full sometimes, and I would be like,
Speaker 1: this is unacceptable. Where are the first time guest's gonna sit?
Speaker 1: And the staff would be looking at me. This is
Speaker 1: years ago. I'm much better than this now, but they'd say,
Speaker 1: can we can? We can? We have five minutes to
Speaker 1: be happy that the church was full. No, we gotta
Speaker 1: fix it. We gotta fix it right now. Where's the
Speaker 1: guests gonna be? I told people to bring the differends
Speaker 1: to Easter, and the church is one. There's nowhere for
Speaker 1: them to sit. Because I am good at gleaning things
Speaker 1: to be anxious about. The dog's gonna poop, the dog's
Speaker 1: gonna pee, the dog's gonna whine, the dog's gonna yelp,
Speaker 1: or going on vacation, you're going to college and like
Speaker 1: seven years, who's gonna take care of the dog. Then
Speaker 1: I can do all of that naturally. But what I'm
Speaker 1: not good at it is gleaning. I don't even receive
Speaker 1: encouragement that well. I mean, I can glean insecurities like
Speaker 1: a boss. When people say I don't like elevation for
Speaker 1: all these reasons, I want to say, that's your whole list.
Speaker 1: Let me give you a few more. If you're just
Speaker 1: looking for a list of what not to like, let
Speaker 1: me save you the time. I'll put it online. You
Speaker 1: don't have to do a mission to find that already
Speaker 1: got things. But somebody else will sit in the same service,
Speaker 1: and they'll sit in the same service here, the same sermon,
Speaker 1: and they'll say, did he say he was getting a
Speaker 1: Boston Terrior. That's a stupid dog. She get a hyperdoodle.
Speaker 1: Never the one who seeks finds. I'm going through the field.
Speaker 1: I'm going through the field. I'm going through the field.
Speaker 1: I'm going through the field. I'm going Oh, I'm going
Speaker 1: through the field. It didn't say bo ass field. She
Speaker 1: had no idea whose field she was at. Pick a field,
Speaker 1: any field, pick a field, any field, pick a field, anything. God,
Speaker 1: Just show me what you want for my life and
Speaker 1: your will for my life, own Father, I am waiting
Speaker 1: for you to show me your will, show that may
Speaker 1: serve you with my whole heart. Ruth wasn't looking for Boass.
Speaker 1: She was just looking for Barley. Any field will do. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's easy for them to say, No, it's not. You
Speaker 1: can always find fruit in somebody else's field that you
Speaker 1: can't see in your own. Always. That's why the foreign
Speaker 1: nurse could see stuff that the people who were there
Speaker 1: every day couldn't see. That's why sometimes people who come
Speaker 1: to this church from somewhere else in the world, they'll
Speaker 1: cry through the whole service because they don't get it
Speaker 1: all the time. So they're walking through the field, going,
Speaker 1: my God, look at this beautiful expression of Christ in
Speaker 1: the church, and the one who seeks fies. But somebody
Speaker 1: else said this parking lot. If I was the pastor
Speaker 1: of this church, I have to parking figure it out
Speaker 1: by now. No, you wouldn't you just picking in somebody
Speaker 1: else's field. Now, oh if that was my kid. It's
Speaker 1: not your kid, you're mad at me. Now you could
Speaker 1: go through my feel and find stuff that I'm grumbling about.
Speaker 1: You'd be like, you serious, you're annoyed about that with Holly.
Speaker 1: Holly is amazing to you, you dummy, And I'd be like,
Speaker 1: that's pastor dummy to you? Who do you think you're
Speaker 1: talking to? I'd be same with yours. But when you
Speaker 1: put your mind on a mission to find misery, the
Speaker 1: devil will help you. Look, the devil is rubbing his hands.
Speaker 1: Oh you want to feel bad, Oh, I'll help you harvey.
Speaker 1: Oh you want your feelings hurt, I will help you
Speaker 1: harvest hurt feelings. Oh you want to be pissed off,
Speaker 1: I'll help you pick some of y'all got pissed off
Speaker 1: because I said the word pissed off. The one who
Speaker 1: seeks finds somebody else said, thank god he said it
Speaker 1: like that. That's real. That's real. I can relate to that.
Speaker 1: That's real. That's real. That's real, that's real. Your mind
Speaker 1: is magnetic. That's why the Bible says, you go you're
Speaker 1: be transformed by the renewing of your mind, and you
Speaker 1: have the sensitivity level set. You ever go through the
Speaker 1: airport and the thing has the sensitivity level set. So
Speaker 1: when you go through the detector and they start putting
Speaker 1: their hands all over you because I guess they have
Speaker 1: to see what I'm saying. I'm a complainer. And you're
Speaker 1: going through the metal detector and it goes off in
Speaker 1: one airport and not in another. You're like, I was
Speaker 1: just in Charlotte and I wore all this through the
Speaker 1: thing and nothing happened. Now I'm in Cincinnati and is
Speaker 1: beeping and buzzing and flashing and all of that's going on.
Speaker 1: There's strobe lights and there's people coming out the ceiling
Speaker 1: with handcuffs. What happened between Charlotte and Cincinnati. They had
Speaker 1: to detector on a different setting, right right? Because I
Speaker 1: didn't change anything. It's not what you go through that
Speaker 1: defines you. She went through the same field they had
Speaker 1: just picked over and found enough to live on. And
Speaker 1: I'll give you this, bumped into someone she wasn't even
Speaker 1: looking for because Here's the real beauty in the passage,
Speaker 1: not that she found the great pier and then olive
Speaker 1: there and the grain that the Bozo dropped Boass finds her.
Speaker 1: Isn't that awesome? How she was just doing her responsibility
Speaker 1: taking care of her mother in law, no less, making
Speaker 1: sure we have enough to eat, just gleaning for a
Speaker 1: purpose that was not only hers, she had to eat too.
Speaker 1: That she didn't only think of herself. And because she
Speaker 1: didn't only think of herself, and because she didn't sit
Speaker 1: in what she just went through, because she went out
Speaker 1: and remained in a field, because she didn't even know
Speaker 1: who belonged to Here comes Boas, and Boass noticed Ruth
Speaker 1: before Ruth ever noticed Boas. You ever wonder if we
Speaker 1: seek the wrong things, especially in this culture. Man, I
Speaker 1: just wonder, are we so busy trying to get somebody
Speaker 1: to notice us? Are we so busy trying to get
Speaker 1: somebody to like something that we posted, that we miss
Speaker 1: something that God has given And we spend our whole
Speaker 1: day going through somebody else's field on social media. To me,
Speaker 1: take it or leave it to me, social media is
Speaker 1: a minefield. To me, I have to use it sometimes
Speaker 1: I have to be on it. I am not critiquing it.
Speaker 1: I pay staff members to run it. There. That being said,
Speaker 1: I have to be very careful because even good things, right,
Speaker 1: you're going through the field and you're on social media
Speaker 1: and all of this. And I know Ruth isn't on
Speaker 1: Instagram in the passage, but I'm updating the passage to
Speaker 1: make sense to our life. As you go through the
Speaker 1: field of your life, you have to be very careful
Speaker 1: and selective about what you pick up. That's why I
Speaker 1: got so mad at the table, abby, because I don't
Speaker 1: like phones at the table for dinner. I don't. And
Speaker 1: it's a constant battle, okay, because sometimes I you know,
Speaker 1: I break my own rules, but I don't like it
Speaker 1: because it shifts the mood. It shifts the mood for
Speaker 1: our family. You know, even if we're just gonna fight,
Speaker 1: I want us to have a fully focused fight at
Speaker 1: the table. Let's put all our attention on beating the
Speaker 1: crap out of each other, all right, let's do this right.
Speaker 1: If we're gonna fight, let's fight right, right. But that's
Speaker 1: why I soa I'm mad last night because somebody was
Speaker 1: pulling up something on social media and then they were
Speaker 1: saying how stupid and how dumb, and they were complaining
Speaker 1: about what they just scrolled to. And I said, why
Speaker 1: are you crawling in a dumpster and complaining that it stinks?
Speaker 1: Did I say that? I said that I do it
Speaker 1: all the time. Now my version is more sophisticated. I
Speaker 1: go to the YouTube comments to see if people are
Speaker 1: responding positively to our messages through sermon and song. Least,
Speaker 1: that's why I tell myself my motive is, you know
Speaker 1: you write these songs. We wrote a song called this
Speaker 1: is the Kingdom. I had them sing it a minute ago,
Speaker 1: where it's just the scriptures right, And I wrote that
Speaker 1: with Pat Barrett, Jason Ingram, and our very own Chris Brown,
Speaker 1: not the real Chris Brown, the Elevation Worship Chris Brown.
Speaker 1: And when we started writing it, God just gave it
Speaker 1: to us as the Beatitudes Matthew five, the Sermon on
Speaker 1: the Mount, And I was so happy because it was
Speaker 1: word for word the scriptures. Blessed her the por and spirit,
Speaker 1: for there's this kingdom of heaven. Blessed those who mourn,
Speaker 1: for they'll be comforted, blessed to meet for their own hurt.
Speaker 1: They are a blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
Speaker 1: for they will be filled. And then we sing, this
Speaker 1: is the Kingdom of Heaven. And then we sang seek
Speaker 1: first the Kingdom and all will be add and we
Speaker 1: sing that over and over again, and we put out
Speaker 1: the song. Part of me was a little bit like,
Speaker 1: this is cool because nobody can say that this song
Speaker 1: isn't biblical. I thought till I went to the comments,
Speaker 1: the comments of YouTube where all happiness goes to die
Speaker 1: the Cemetery of Joy, and I saw this comment where
Speaker 1: this guy said this is not biblical. I'm like, it
Speaker 1: is nothing but biblical. When we wrote the song, we
Speaker 1: made a rule we can't put any words in the
Speaker 1: verse that is not from the NIB twenty eleven copyright
Speaker 1: in the thing that's it was a rule that it
Speaker 1: was the old Bible, nothing but the Bible. And that
Speaker 1: was my dad's favorite verses, the Sermon on the Mount
Speaker 1: before we went to Heaven. He would read that every
Speaker 1: single day. Every day he would read it. So I
Speaker 1: was so happy. I was like, I wrote a song
Speaker 1: for you, Dad, and none of the Pharisees can say
Speaker 1: anything about it because it's just the scriptures and they
Speaker 1: can't say nothing about this one because it's just the scriptures.
Speaker 1: They don't like Mike get loud. That's not a Bible
Speaker 1: verse that it actually is, make a joyful noise to
Speaker 1: the Lord all the earth, so that's in there too.
Speaker 1: But I thought, they can't say anything about this one.
Speaker 1: They can't pick on me this time because it's just
Speaker 1: the Bible. And I went to the comments and I
Speaker 1: found out that the one who seeks finds this dude
Speaker 1: Bogloo seventy four, whatever the username was, I wouldn't call
Speaker 1: him out even if I remembered it goes this is
Speaker 1: not biblical. It doesn't say seek first the kingdom and
Speaker 1: all will be at it. It says seek first the
Speaker 1: Kingdom and his righteousness, and all will be at it.
Speaker 1: You can't just seek God for whatever you want, for
Speaker 1: this will give way to temporal theology that results in
Speaker 1: fleshly carnal motivations, posing his worship and posturing is ah ah.
Speaker 1: So I got so mad. I got so mad. I
Speaker 1: had a harvest righteous indignation because I'm going dude, it's
Speaker 1: in the verse Blessed to those who hunger and thirst
Speaker 1: for righteousness. It's in the verse of the same song
Speaker 1: You just came here looking for something to be mad about.
Speaker 1: You didn't want to see it in the verse, so
Speaker 1: you didn't see it in the verse. You skipped the
Speaker 1: verse to get to the park because you were looking
Speaker 1: for a hole. And I was telling the Lord that
Speaker 1: these people, Lord stiff necked Israelites, Lord, your people, Lord,
Speaker 1: he just found something wrong. He was just looking for
Speaker 1: something wrong. And the spirit of the Lord said, you
Speaker 1: did the same thing, because how many good comments were
Speaker 1: there here that said I just love singing the scriptures.
Speaker 1: This really comforts my soul, reminds me of my grandmother,
Speaker 1: helps me through a hard time. Lord, thank you for
Speaker 1: your word. But you skipped those. You just had to
Speaker 1: glean the grossest thing on the whole comment section. Do
Speaker 1: you do this find the one thing? Well, they said
Speaker 1: love you, but they didn't say aye in front of it.
Speaker 1: They texted me back and said I can't wait to
Speaker 1: see you. But it didn't have three exclamation marks, only two.
Speaker 1: Are they really excited? They said, hi, but not a
Speaker 1: bunch of eyes. Just looking for something. You're good at gleaning.
Speaker 1: You just gleaned for garbage. You're doing it too. You
Speaker 1: went past dozens, if not hundreds, of comments saying this
Speaker 1: song bless me looking for a battle. You were picking
Speaker 1: a fight when you came to the comments. You were
Speaker 1: looking for it. You know you do that right, You
Speaker 1: look for rejection. I texted Holiday, who produced the album.
Speaker 1: I said, the rhythm album. I said, you're surprised people
Speaker 1: like it, aren't you. He said yeah, because I had
Speaker 1: been telling myself that people don't know good music. I said,
Speaker 1: I do that all the time. It's called prejection. It's
Speaker 1: when I reject something about myself before you get the
Speaker 1: chance to So now when you try to give me something,
Speaker 1: when you try to give me something, I can't even
Speaker 1: take it because I'm not looking for love. I'm looking
Speaker 1: for you to leave. And the devil will help me
Speaker 1: collect the evidence. You want to find evidence God has
Speaker 1: left you, you could probably find it the one who
Speaker 1: seeks fines. You want to find evidence that the world
Speaker 1: is falling apart and we're probably all on the brink
Speaker 1: of destruction. There are seventy three channels on your TV
Speaker 1: of evidence, and if you turn on those channels, you
Speaker 1: will find every reason to believe that if Jesus doesn't
Speaker 1: come in back, come back today, we're all screwed. But
Speaker 1: there's also still people doing a lot of good in
Speaker 1: the world. There is there's still mighty revivals happening in churches.
Speaker 1: There's still there's still the glory of God covering the
Speaker 1: earth like the waters cover the sea, and you can
Speaker 1: find that too in the field. Why was I in
Speaker 1: the comments anyway looking for validation? Why was I in
Speaker 1: the dumpster? Going through the comments section on YouTube to
Speaker 1: find creative validation is about like going in the dumpster
Speaker 1: behind cracker barrel looking for a biscuit. You could probably
Speaker 1: find some, but it's gonna be crumbs. It's gonna be crumbs.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be crumbs. But God didn't put your favor
Speaker 1: on a social media platform. He put it in the field.
Speaker 1: Favor is in the field. Ruth's responsibility positioned her for
Speaker 1: God's favor. Ruth's responsibility. We are a high entitlement generation.
Speaker 1: We pray for stuff and don't pick through anything. But
Speaker 1: the one who seeks finds, the one who seeks finds.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy that I was going through the comments
Speaker 1: looking for a song that says Matthew seven seven, Ask
Speaker 1: and you will receive, Seek and you will find. That's
Speaker 1: in the same song. I'm disobeying my same song, looking
Speaker 1: for something that contradicts what God has promised me. And
Speaker 1: he said it in the song seek and you will find.
Speaker 1: Give me the verse knocking the door will be open
Speaker 1: to you next verse for everyone who asks receives. Say
Speaker 1: it with me, the one who seeks finds. What are
Speaker 1: you looking for? You're looking for? Boass Oh, I just
Speaker 1: need an opportunity, You just need an obedience tunity mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Because the one who seeks finds. The one who put
Speaker 1: it back up seeks finds. You've been gleaning and gathering
Speaker 1: in the wrong fields. And God, you know what I
Speaker 1: really wanted to tell you today is that if you
Speaker 1: are not able to find God right now, that's all right,
Speaker 1: because the one who seeks has never really been you
Speaker 1: to begin with. The Bible says in Romans three ten
Speaker 1: that there is none righteous, not one. There is none
Speaker 1: who seeks after God. I'm really grateful for what the
Speaker 1: rest of that. Matthew seven says. In verse eight. It
Speaker 1: says to him who knocks, the door will be open.
Speaker 1: And you know, I read in Revelation that Jesus stands
Speaker 1: at the door and knocks, that he finds in the
Speaker 1: field the foreigner that somebody else has passed over. And
Speaker 1: if that's you and you are gleaning and grieving in
Speaker 1: the same season today, I want you to read verse
Speaker 1: nine so you really get this message in your spirit,
Speaker 1: like really get it. It says in verse nine, give
Speaker 1: me verse nine, which of you, if your son asks
Speaker 1: for bread, will give him a stone next verse. Or
Speaker 1: if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake.
Speaker 1: Or if he asks for a dog, we'll give him
Speaker 1: a cat. All right, I slip that in. It's not there.
Speaker 1: But he said, if you, then, though you are evil,
Speaker 1: know how to give good gifts to your children. How
Speaker 1: much more will your father give good gifts? Now Ruth
Speaker 1: wasn't looking for bo as she didn't have to. All
Speaker 1: she had to do. And all you have to do
Speaker 1: is get in the field. Get in the field, put
Speaker 1: your yourself in a place of the last thing God
Speaker 1: told you to do. That's where you gotta be. That's
Speaker 1: all you gotta do. You don't have to pick the
Speaker 1: right field, know the right field, predict the right field.
Speaker 1: You don't even have to be in the right city.
Speaker 1: God will find you in the wrong field because the
Speaker 1: eyes of the Lord scan the Earth second Chronicle sixteen
Speaker 1: to nine says, looking for someone to show himself strong
Speaker 1: on their behalf. He's looking for you. He's looking for you.
Speaker 1: He's looking for you. He's looking for you. He sees
Speaker 1: the big leaves you made to cover yourself up. Adam.
Speaker 1: He knows you're naked under there. He knows you're hurting
Speaker 1: under there. He knows you're addicted under there. He knows
Speaker 1: you're broken under there. He knows you're impotent under there.
Speaker 1: He knows you're disappointed. Under there, he knows you're frustrated.
Speaker 1: He's looking for you. And guess what, the one who
Speaker 1: seeks eyes and I know the Father found you. Has
Speaker 1: he brought you here? He found you just like the
Speaker 1: prodigal son's dead, where said he saw him a long
Speaker 1: way off, covered in mud. He knew that was his son,
Speaker 1: Smelling like pigs and dumpsters. He knew that was his son.
Speaker 1: He saw him a long way off. Because the eyes
Speaker 1: of the Lord have never been blind to your Christ.
Speaker 1: And the eyes of the Lord have seen how you
Speaker 1: have been mistreated. And boas said to Ruth, the Lord
Speaker 1: Almighty saw what you did, and he's come to reward you.
Speaker 1: Will he find you in the field when he comes,
Speaker 1: or will you be in your frustration, will you be
Speaker 1: in your failure? The heavenly Father is on a rescue
Speaker 1: mission today to find you, the real you, the one
Speaker 1: you try to hide, the one you try to bury,
Speaker 1: the you that knows better. Boh, I said, who is that?
Speaker 1: We don't know her name, but she came and remained.
Speaker 1: You know this woman ended up not behind the harvesters.
Speaker 1: By the time you get to the end of this passage,
Speaker 1: the foreigner has a position in the household. And you
Speaker 1: know that's exactly what the Lord wants to do for you,
Speaker 1: to take you from slave to son and daughter, and
Speaker 1: to raise you up and put a ring on you.
Speaker 1: The one who seeks finds God doesn't give up. If
Speaker 1: he doesn't see you in church, He'll send a YouTube link.
Speaker 1: He'll come through the minefield and put a fifteen second
Speaker 1: clip on Instagram so his word can find you. And
Speaker 1: I want you to know that there is treasure in
Speaker 1: your field. There is treasure in your field. Why would
Speaker 1: you dig through a dumpster for crumbs when there is
Speaker 1: treasure in your field? Lord, today, it is my prayer,
Speaker 1: my earnest desire, and really God, the only thing that
Speaker 1: matters that you would find Lord, who you're looking for.
Speaker 1: I have no way of knowing who you sent this
Speaker 1: word for, but I believe that you did. Everyone standing stillness,
Speaker 1: no one moving. Jesus said, I came to seek and
Speaker 1: save that which is lost. I want to give an
Speaker 1: invitation today. This is a significant sermon, but for somebody
Speaker 1: it's more than that. For somebody, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a saving word. He's been looking for you. Some
Speaker 1: of you been far away from God for a while,
Speaker 1: and he's been missing you. He never leaves you, but
Speaker 1: you've kind of left him, haven't you. You kind of
Speaker 1: left his love, haven't you? You kind of left the
Speaker 1: field where you put you? Haven't you? I got good news.
Speaker 1: Your Father is looking for you, and the one who
Speaker 1: seeks finds. That's why you're here, not because you found God.
Speaker 1: He found you. Father. Wherever you find us today, we
Speaker 1: know that you love us, and we know that your
Speaker 1: grace and your mercy have followed us to this point.
Speaker 1: I just thank you for what you showed us through
Speaker 1: Ruth today. For somebody, this is not just a principle.
Speaker 1: For somebody, this is an invitation, and I want to
Speaker 1: pray right now for those who need to give their
Speaker 1: lives to Jesus, you need to really really come out
Speaker 1: of your hiding and receive His love and his mercy
Speaker 1: in your life, Repent and turn from your sin, receive
Speaker 1: His righteousness as a free gift. Right now, If that's
Speaker 1: you and you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: you didn't know that was the Holy Spirit. You didn't
Speaker 1: know that was the hand of God drawing you, but
Speaker 1: it was. You didn't know to call it that, but
Speaker 1: that's what it was. And if that's you and you're
Speaker 1: coming to God for the first time today, or you're
Speaker 1: coming back to him, you've been in a far country
Speaker 1: and you're coming back to him, You're coming back to Bethlehem,
Speaker 1: You're coming to the place where God's presence is. Right now,
Speaker 1: I want to lead you in a prayer and you
Speaker 1: can repeat after me. And if you mean this in
Speaker 1: your heart, the Bible says that if you confess with
Speaker 1: your mouth that Jesus's Lord, believe in your heart God
Speaker 1: has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Speaker 1: This is the promise. So right now we're praying out
Speaker 1: loud as a church family and online for all those
Speaker 1: who are receiving the grace of God. Repeat after me.
Speaker 1: If this is your moment, Heavenly Father. I am a
Speaker 1: sinner in need of a savior, and today I make
Speaker 1: Jesus the Lord and savior of my life. I believe
Speaker 1: he died that I would be forgiven and rose again
Speaker 1: to give me life. I receive your new life. This
Speaker 1: is my new beginning. I'm coming home to my Father.
Speaker 1: If you just prayed that, shoot your hand up on
Speaker 1: the count of three, one, two, three, I want to
Speaker 1: celebrate with you. Awesome. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also help us reach others by investing today at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church dot org. Slash give and thanks again for
Speaker 1: joining us on the Elevation Podcast inst