WEBVTT - The One Who Seeks… Finds! 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:14.760 Hey, clap those hands. If you love to Jesus, be 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:16.880 patient with the old boy today. I've been up a 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:25.400 long time. I want to also mention that Easter is 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.720 coming soon. Now we're not waiting for Easter to live 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.159 a resurrected life. But imagine how many people you might 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.920 be able to invite the church on Easter this year 0:00:34.920 --> 0:00:40.280 that haven't been back yet. We should call it comeback Sunday. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:46.320 Comeback Sunday, right right, right right. The Duke Blue Devils 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.120 couldn't do it last night, but a comeback. Tell somebody 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:53.320 a comeback is possible. House divided. I felt it when 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.520 I said it. Look at you, though, Look at you 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:59.880 in the House of God today, look at you joining 0:00:59.920 --> 0:01:06.160 us US online. Look at you standing at attention, ready 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.920 to see what God will speak. Well, I want to 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.240 mobilize you in two weeks on April seventeenth, Easter Sunday, 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.959 Easter at Elevation dot com for all the times and locations, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:20.400 and I would really really urge you to pray and say, God, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.000 is there somebody I could bring with me. You'll know this, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:26.800 the church comes last for a lot of people. It shouldn't. 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:31.560 Back at target, back at the ball Field back everywhere 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:33.919 else but church. But you don't have to condemn people. 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:38.960 You can just invite them. Just invite them, all right, 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:42.959 And so that's going to be awesome. And also Elevation 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.319 Nights is three weeks away. That's where we take our 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:51.760 ministry and we mobilize in arenas really all over the 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:54.080 United States, but this particular leg we're going to be 0:01:54.080 --> 0:02:01.320 in Chicago, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Columbus, Washington, d C. Reading Pennsylvania. 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:08.040 Shouts for reading Pennsylvania. Didn't expect it. But okay, Newark, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:13.040 New Jersey, and Boston, Massachusetts. You need to go to 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:17.960 Elevation Nights dot com because tickets are going fast and 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.079 you can meet with Jesus anywhere, but if you want 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:21.960 to come into the arena, you got to have a 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.200 ticket for those nights. It will be amazing and we 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:27.919 can't wait to see you there. Tell somebody next to you, 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.520 I'm happy to be here today. I'm happy to be 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.840 here for part two of that sermon that Pastor Stephens 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:44.679 started last week. We're going back to Ruth. Back to Ruth. Now, 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.240 just to set your expectation, we are actually going to 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.360 go backwards. We were in the last chapter of the 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:51.600 Book of Ruth. Last week, we're going to go back 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.160 to chapter two. It was no sooner than I set 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.160 amen on the stage and sat down at my desk 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:59.880 back there, that the Lord started to show me what 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:02.799 to preach this week. So I've been waiting since then. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:06.320 So you will forgive if I'm a little overheated. All right, 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:12.480 my engine's been revin for seven days. Ay man, and 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:14.760 tell somebody online put it in the comments of the chat, 0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.160 say I'm ready to I'm ready to ask them, are 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:25.600 you ready? Ask them? Are you ready? And if they 0:03:25.600 --> 0:03:27.440 don't look ready, give them a little stretch or a 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:35.200 little shove or something. I'm so excited Ruth chapter two. Actually, Jared, 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.240 let's go to Let's go to chapter one so we 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:41.839 can get the context. I think that's important. This will 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:46.200 not be a Bible study on the whole Book of Ruth. 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:48.920 But what I hope to do, with the help of 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:54.160 the Holy Spirit today is lift a principle from this 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:58.880 Old Testament story as a picture that we can then 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:04.560 apply a practice New Testament principle for our lives. That's 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.960 what I hope to do today. So you might get 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:08.600 mixed up on some of the history and go, I 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.600 don't really know who that is or what that means. 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.480 Or he said a name there and it had seventeen syllables, 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:16.120 and I don't really know all these Bible names. That's okay, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:19.680 because we're really going to lift one principle today from Ruth. 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:22.880 But I do want to read enough of the scripture 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:25.480 where you can get the context. So let's go to 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:29.120 Ruth chapter one, and let's do verse nineteen. So the 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.400 two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.000 they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.000 of them, and the women exclaimed, can this be Naomi? 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.119 Don't call me Naomi? She told them, call me Mara, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:53.760 because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.960 went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:03.360 Why call me Naomi? Because Naomi means pleasant. And she's 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:08.919 carrying so much pain that she is changing her name, 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:15.400 and her identity is now being not spoken by God 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:23.400 but spoken by her experiences. Now she's lost two sons 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.120 and a husband. So she didn't just have a bad 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.440 day or get fired from a job she didn't really like. Anyway, 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.040 she has every reason to say this. Now, watch how 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:35.680 good God is. This is what I want you to 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:40.360 watch with that context. Verse twenty two says, so Naomi 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:45.919 returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the moabide, her daughter 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:50.000 in law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:56.039 Two Verse one, Now Naomi, and I love that word. Now, 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.600 I want somebody to shout at the top of your 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:03.480 lungs now man, that sounded good. You did that, just 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:06.679 like you were supposed to. After all she's been through. 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.760 The author wants us to know that this is not 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.200 chapter one anymore. This is chapter two of the Book 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.919 of Ruth, and it starts with one little three letter 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:21.560 word shouted again. Now, Naomi had a relative on her 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.279 husband's side, a man of standing from the clan of 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:31.960 Alimelech whose name was bo Ass, and Boas means the 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.400 Lord has made me strong. Isn't it good to have 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:40.160 somebody strong on your side? Oh? Yeah, be nice to me. 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:44.560 I got somebody strong on my side. Greater is he 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.640 that is in me than he that is in the world. 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:53.520 I've got God on my side. Wow wow, Wow, Martin 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:55.960 Luther said, did we and our own strength confide our 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.280 striving would be losing. We're not the right man on 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.960 our side. The man of God's choosing. Gust asks whom 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:06.359 that may be, Christ Jesus. It is he Lord Sabo, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.840 with his name from age to age the same on 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:14.600 earth is not his equal, and he must win the battle. 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.840 That's for free. That's Martin Luther. Martin Luther said that 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:21.920 Ruth chapter two, verse two, and Ruth the moabide said 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.640 to Naomi, let me go to the fields and pick 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:29.960 up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.840 find favor. Naomi said to her, go ahead, my daughter. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.880 So she went out, entered the field and began to 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:43.440 glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:49.160 working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:55.840 the clan of Alimelac. Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:58.880 Now imagine how God had to orchestrate all of this. 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:02.960 Had to get stuck behind a slow car with a 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.600 elevation sticker, or he would have been to Bethlehem too 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.440 early while Ruth was in the shelter. Just look, because 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.560 the narrator doesn't really say it was God, but it's implied. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:17.280 And if you look for it. You can see the 0:08:17.320 --> 0:08:20.240 hand of God, but it's not always named that. It 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:24.120 didn't say that God led Ruth to the field belonging 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:29.120 to Boas. It doesn't say that, but he did. It 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.440 didn't say that Boas got there when he got there 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.600 so that Ruth could be there when she was there, 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:36.640 so that they could meet at this moment. It doesn't 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:43.680 say that God wasmatch dot com, but he was, but 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:47.280 he was. You don't always know that it was God 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:51.400 that put a delay in your life so you wouldn't 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:59.360 get there too soon. You call it stuff like coincidence, 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:07.839 and that's just God's pseudonym coincidence. That's just a name 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.240 God goes by when he doesn't want you to know 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:18.400 it's him. Yet. Coincidence is just God in a costume. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:24.600 I'll want to preach today, you'll let me preach today. 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:31.480 I'll let me preach today. So just then, okay. Boas 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.040 walks out in his field, greeted the harvesters, and he said, 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.520 the Lord be with you. They replied back, the Lord 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:44.120 bless you. And Boas asked the overseers of his harvesters, 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:49.920 who does that young woman belong to? And the overseer replied, 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:53.720 she's the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:59.120 Doesn't even know her name, God does She said, please 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.400 let me glean. Please let me glean and gather among 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.800 the sheaves behind the harvesters. She came into the field 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.560 and has remained here. She came and remained. You see that. 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:13.960 She came and remained here. You see it. She can't 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:15.839 put it in the in the chat, would you? She 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:22.560 came and remained. She came and remained from morning till now, 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.840 except the short rest in the shelter. So bo I 0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.440 said to Ruth, my daughter, listen to me. Don't go 0:10:29.520 --> 0:10:33.719 and glean in another field. Hey, baby, you're in the 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.880 right field, and don't go away from here. Stay here 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:40.920 with me. Try that for a pickup line this week. 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.840 Don't go glean in another field with Starbucks with me. 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.520 But then he told her something to do. Now, now, 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.880 pay attention here, watch the field where the men are harvesting, 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:57.400 and follow along after the women. I have told the 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:01.160 men not to lay a hand on you whenever you're thirsty. 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:03.920 I know the women are supposed to fill the jars 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:05.520 for the men, but you go get a drink from 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:10.680 the water. Jars the men have filled. Okay, Holly, do 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:14.280 not underline that verse at this. I'm almost done with 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.679 reading the scripture. But it's so good. It's so good, y'all. 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.320 At this, she bowed down, with her face to the ground. 0:11:20.720 --> 0:11:28.320 She asked him, Why have I found such favor in 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:35.320 your eyes that you noticed me a foreigner? Boas replied, 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:40.520 because you're cute. No, he didn't say that it was 0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:44.480 more than an appearance. Watch this. I've been told all 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.280 about what you have done for your mother in law. 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:51.480 I heard about you since the death of your husband, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:56.120 how you left your father and mother and your homeland 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:57.840 and came to live with the people you did not 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:02.880 know before. May the Lord repay you for what you 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.120 have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.200 the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:16.640 to take refuge. Now he answered the question, Ruth asked, 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:18.600 and that's what we want to do today with this principle, 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:22.280 Why have I found such favor in your eyes and 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.040 the word of the Lord today. This is the principle 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:32.040 that's in this chapter of Scripture. The one who seeks finds, 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:39.520 say that out loud. The one who seeks finds, and 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.760 just tell the person next to you, the one who 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:54.199 seeks finds you may be seated. The one who seeks 0:12:55.240 --> 0:13:02.320 finds in that the truth. The one who seeks fines. 0:13:03.640 --> 0:13:05.720 And I need to point out something to you from 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.400 the background of the text that is not boring. Always 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.960 when I go let's get a little background, some people 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.839 check out. They wait till I tell a story or 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:20.560 talk about getting my kids a dog or something, and 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:23.080 then they perk up. Or when I say something that 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.680 rhymes or starts with all the same letters. I'm not 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:27.680 even going to put my points on the screen today. 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.480 You'll have to find them in the message. The moment 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:33.960 I tell you there's four points in this message, you 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.760 will only hear the four points in this message. What 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:41.720 are you ten? You are grown enough now to glean 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.920 the parts of this message that God has for you 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.360 and the part that's not for you. You You leave it, 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.960 but make sure you don't leave the thing that you 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:56.480 need the most because you don't like it. Well, I am, 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.760 he said, you better preach me. I am. This is 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:06.680 what I'm doing. But the important thing about me reading 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.800 chapter one, of course, was that we needed to continue 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:15.880 the conversation about what Naomi and Ruth lost because without 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:20.920 understanding what they lost, it'll have very little relevance to 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:26.040 our lives if we also feel like we're at a loss. Now. 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.160 You can be at a loss for words, you can 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.960 be at a loss for money, you can be at 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:34.960 a loss for knowledge, and so you know, it doesn't 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.480 necessarily have to be Oh, I lost my husband, I 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:40.800 lost my sons. But one thing about this lens you 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.360 have to admit is that it doesn't get much worse. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.080 You already left your homeland because of a famine. That 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.040 was what happened in Chapter one, verses one through three, 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.480 where Naomi had to leave with her husband a limeleg 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.000 and they had to leave Bethlehem and they had to 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.200 go to Moab where they worshiped others gods, and then 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.920 her sons had to marry other women from Moab, and 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.160 they had to eat Moabiite food. They had to be 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.640 on a Moabiite diet when they have a Bethlehem appetite 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:16.240 and they are surrounded culturally by enigmatic idolatry that they 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:20.440 can't understand or process, but they ate there. The Bible 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:23.320 doesn't specify exactly when a limelete passed or from what 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:27.800 but he died, and perhaps Naomi at that point still 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:32.120 knew her name meant Naomi because she still had two sons. 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:39.200 Ten years pass and they leave to her, grief is 0:15:39.280 --> 0:15:42.800 no longer concealable. I don't know if that's a word, 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.600 but it's definitely a state where you can't hide what 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:52.280 you're going through anymore. You know, you're smiling, but not 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:58.920 with your eyes, only with your teeth, and even the 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:01.600 things you say to try to counteract it sound empty. 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.120 So you might get to a point like Naomi, where 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:10.760 you begin to reject anything that contradicts the pain that 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.000 you have assimilated as a part of you. She said, 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.720 don't even call me by my real name anymore. We 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:21.840 don't typically tell people that, like right, like don't call 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:27.560 me Stephen, you know, call me Seth. It's just we 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.000 start answering to different stuff. Has said, another word that 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.800 started with us, And uh, it's really just that we 0:16:34.880 --> 0:16:40.720 start responding internally to a different understanding of who we 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:42.800 are based on what we've been through. Now. I mentioned 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.120 that already, but I want to juxtapose it now and 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.040 go with me here, because the Bible says in verse 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:52.640 twenty two, something very good that it was the beginning 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.240 of the barley harvest. It was the beginning of the 0:16:56.280 --> 0:17:01.200 barley harvest. So they went back to Bethlehem. They went 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.040 back to where the bread was. And I could preach 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:08.320 Old Zerman on that, but I don't want to get distracted. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.080 But going back to Bethlehem should be a happy moment 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.600 to go back to their homeland. It's been a decade. 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.760 They're going back to Bethlehem. Bethlehem means house of bread. 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.520 Of course, you know it best for its primary resident, 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.560 Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who would be born 0:17:26.640 --> 0:17:29.800 in Bethlehem later not yet. But it's the house of bread. 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.399 And they are going back to where the bread is. 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.560 And real quick, let's take just a moment and have 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:39.879 a commercial interruption and tell somebody next to you the 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.600 bread is back. The bread is back. The bread is back. 0:17:44.119 --> 0:17:47.120 The bread is back. That's good news, Naomi. Here's at 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.280 some point the bread is back in Bethlehem. The famine 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.919 is over. God has answered the prayers of his people. 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.000 Is safe to go back. You can leave Moab, this 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.000 horrible place where all these horrible things have happened to you, 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.879 because the bread is back. There's bread and Bethlehem. You 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:07.240 don't have to hide out in this foreign, strange place anymore. 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.800 The bread is bad. I want to say to everybody 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:11.960 watching online who hadn't come back to church since the 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.520 pandemic started. The bread is back. The bread is back. 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:19.200 The bread is back. God never left, but the bread 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:22.040 is back. There are seasons in your life where you 0:18:22.119 --> 0:18:25.119 come into a reality that what you went through is 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:31.159 leaving you. But but Ruth still had to make a 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:34.960 decision once she got to Bethlahem right to go into 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:40.520 the fields and begin to glean. Did you see that 0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:44.040 in chapter two, verse three, she went into the field 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:53.960 and began to glean. It says that she started gleaning, 0:18:54.760 --> 0:19:00.480 but it doesn't say that she ceased grieving. The first 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:02.040 thing I want to talk to you about that might 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:14.600 be like a point is gleaning in the grieving. Put 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:20.040 it right in the chat, gleaning in the grieving, because 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:23.080 what we think is going to happen is that when 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:25.920 our harvest comes of what we ask God for. How 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:28.200 many times do you think they prayed God bring bread 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.840 to Bethlehem. What they didn't know is that when the 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:35.640 bread came back to Bethlehem, they would also be bringing 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:45.120 their bitterness with them gleaning. In the grieving, we think 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.639 God's gonna bless me and I'm going to feel better. 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:55.080 That's how I'll know I'm blessed, because gleaning is like 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.680 I don't think any of us know that much about gleaning, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.960 so let me try to explain it. But my agriclate 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.600 cultural knowledge is very low. But from the biblical perspective, 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.840 they would go through the field, and it was actually 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.040 required by Levitical law. And you can check this out 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.320 in Leviticus nineteen. Because I know you've been looking for 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.840 an excuse to dive into the Book of Leviticus, so 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:16.920 you could go to the nineteenth chapter of the Book 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.000 of Leviticus and read about how they commanded them in 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.840 the law. They said, when you're gathering your crops, the 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.639 wealthy landowners, you have to leave a little on the edges. 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.160 And if you don't pick something through the first time, 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:32.320 you don't get to go back through and pick it 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:37.480 up again. That's for the gleaners. Who are these gleaners? 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:41.040 The gleaners consist of three categories. It's the destitute or 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:44.040 the poor, it is the widows, and it is the foreigners. 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:49.840 Ruth is all three. She is uniquely qualified through her 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:55.960 disadvantages to go through the field and glean. So we 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.160 keep thinking it takes stuff that it really doesn't take 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.240 for God provide for us. You know our educational level. 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:09.480 But but if you're good at gleaning, it doesn't mean 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:15.159 that you have stopped grieving. There is no indication. I 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:17.680 defy you to find it in the text. You can seek, 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:23.440 and you won't find where Ruth danced and Naomi high 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:27.800 fived her. You won't find anything in the text that 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:33.480 suggests that the sadness ceased. But the bread was there, 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:37.800 but so was the bitterness. That's why I told you 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:41.119 last week almost as a warning it will come together. 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.679 The biggest blessing of your life might come at the 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:50.919 worst time. You could have a great blessing at a 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:56.880 horrible time. Truly, surely you don't believe me. Have some kids, 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:01.120 I mean, they are a blame us from the Lord right, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:03.800 but they will walk in and want to talk to 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.320 you at the worst times. They never come talk to you. 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.560 After you wrote in your journal this morning and prayed 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.280 to Jesus and ask the Lord God give me an 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:18.359 opportunity today to speak wisdom into the next generation. God, 0:22:18.480 --> 0:22:20.359 I just want to train up my children in the 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:22.360 way that they should go. It's going to be when 0:22:22.400 --> 0:22:25.640 you are tripping over something that was on your schedule 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.320 that day, that you are going to have the opportunity 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.679 to glean. Watch this. Glean doesn't mean the field is 0:22:31.720 --> 0:22:36.439 full and you just go through picking. Glean means that 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:41.400 you notice what was left on the ground that somebody 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:47.720 else didn't even see. So, pop quiz, are you good 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:52.520 at gleaning? On a scale of one to ten? How 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:56.520 good are you at gleaning? What do you mean, preacher? 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:03.840 I mean, how good are you at taking a regret 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:08.080 in your life and, by the spirit of God, turning 0:23:08.119 --> 0:23:13.439 it into a lesson and recognizing it maybe as the 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.240 hand of God, even though you don't call it that. 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:23.280 Are you good at that? Because I am not a 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:28.359 graduate level gleaner, truth be told, God is teaching me 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:30.520 to glean every single day. And I just started back 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:34.080 two weeks ago doing my gratitude journal again. I stand 0:23:34.160 --> 0:23:35.520 up here about once a year and I say, y'all, 0:23:35.600 --> 0:23:37.399 keep a gratitude journal. I do it for two weeks 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:40.920 and then I forget to glean. And so it usually 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:42.680 has to happen to me. Is I have to get 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:44.600 to a point of so much anxiety in my life, 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:47.840 and so much worrying about stuff that's stupid, it doesn't matter, 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:50.600 and so much of being mad about stuff that you know, 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:52.600 other people said or did or didn't say, or didn't 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:55.639 do or going to do maybe do hypothetically do in 0:23:55.680 --> 0:23:57.879 the future at some point that I'm trying to, you know, 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:01.800 sitting there all tied up in knots about things I'm 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:05.479 going through. And so I just started back to practice 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:07.919 a few weeks ago. I have got to start my 0:24:08.080 --> 0:24:19.199 day with caffeine because I can't glean without caffeine. It 0:24:19.240 --> 0:24:21.280 came to me on the spot. I just went with it. 0:24:23.200 --> 0:24:26.000 I love you so much. But the thing about that 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:28.920 is it causes me to go back through my day 0:24:30.720 --> 0:24:34.399 and see what things I got to do that I 0:24:34.440 --> 0:24:39.439 thought I had to do. And I need that constant training. 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:41.280 I can't just do that once a week. Maybe you 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:43.399 get all you need of that on Sunday, you know, 0:24:43.440 --> 0:24:45.679 once a week I come and I worship God and 0:24:45.720 --> 0:24:48.960 I thank him for all he's done. I can't do 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:57.040 it six days without him. I can't because if I do, 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:03.800 grief will overtake gleaning. You don't live to be forty 0:25:03.840 --> 0:25:07.800 two and and not have tears in the fiber of 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:11.560 your faith. You know, you don't pastor a church that 0:25:11.720 --> 0:25:14.200 just grows and grows and not lose a lot along 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:18.439 the way. You don't believe with faith and expectation. I 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:20.399 know you know what I'm talking about. You don't live 0:25:20.560 --> 0:25:25.080 this long and not have some grief. The thing that 0:25:25.280 --> 0:25:28.040 really arrested my attention, and I hope you see it. 0:25:28.240 --> 0:25:30.960 I don't know if you look for it, you'll see 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:35.560 it in the text that it doesn't say that they 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:41.040 stop breathing in order to start gleaning. And I want 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:46.159 to say you free that you might not feel better 0:25:46.440 --> 0:25:54.560 yet that has nothing to do with God's hand on 0:25:54.680 --> 0:26:00.679 you or not. When as I love this, I love this. 0:26:01.040 --> 0:26:04.040 It said there was a man named bo As on 0:26:04.160 --> 0:26:09.159 their side. They didn't know that yet. Read it in 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:12.840 the text, it says they had a relative named Boas. 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:16.080 Naomi knew about bo As, she didn't know he was 0:26:16.119 --> 0:26:21.200 still around. They had no idea, and neither do you, 0:26:21.320 --> 0:26:27.240 my friend. So you cannot let the grief overtake the gleaning, 0:26:28.800 --> 0:26:32.640 because there is still something left on your life. There 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:36.720 is still something left in your life. The process of gleaning. 0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:39.200 I mean you got to go through the field. You've 0:26:39.240 --> 0:26:41.720 got to learn how to not only go through somebody 0:26:41.800 --> 0:26:45.640 else's field, but go through your own field and see 0:26:45.640 --> 0:26:47.639 what's on the ground. That's what the cleaners would do. 0:26:47.960 --> 0:26:51.720 They would follow behind. You could either follow at a distance, 0:26:52.320 --> 0:26:55.200 or if you got special permission, you could glean among 0:26:55.280 --> 0:26:58.480 the sheaves. That means you could get close. You could 0:26:58.520 --> 0:27:02.479 get more than sick feet close to the sheaves, and 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:05.040 whatever fell out you could grab that too. And they 0:27:05.040 --> 0:27:07.600 didn't have the permission to lay a hand on you 0:27:07.800 --> 0:27:11.560 because you were gleaning among the sheaves. And that means 0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:13.680 you get to stay close to the reaper. And that's 0:27:13.720 --> 0:27:17.000