Sermon Tone Analysis

*WODONGA** BAPTIST CHURCH*

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*Sunday 9 & 11am, 18th March 2007 Trusting God No Matter What                                 Ruth 2 *

 

Many people look at the events and circumstances in their lives and treat them as though they are just accidents, just chance.

In fact, the following quotes are actual statements from insurance forms where car drivers tried to summarise accident details in as fewer words as possible.

They were reported on Toronto News.

“Coming home I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.”

“I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.”

“In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.”

“I had been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.”

“A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.”

“The pedestrian had no idea which way to run, so I ran over him.”

“I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.”

I wonder how many of the things that happen in our lives are accidents?

Or could it be that God is at work in our circumstances.

Do things really happen for a reason?

In 1858, a Sunday school teacher named Mr Kimble led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Jesus.

The clerk was D L Moody who, after becoming a Christian in that Sunday school class, became a great evangelist.

In 1879, while he was preaching in the heart of England, a pastor who was named F B Myer found his heart caught fire.

He later came to America, to college campuses and he began to preach all over college campuses and under his preaching, a student by the name of Wilbur Chapman was saved.

He engaged in YMCA work and employed a former baseballer named Billy Sunday to actually do the evangelistic work.

Billy Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Because of the revival and because it stirred the hearts of many, some 30 businessmen wanted to devote a day of prayer at Charlotte.

In May 1934, a farmer lent the men some land to use for their prayer meeting.

The leader of the businessmen, Vernon Patterson prayed out of Charlotte the Lord would raise up someone to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.

The businessmen then called for another evangelistic meeting asking Mordechai Ham, a fiery southern evangelist who shattered the complacency of the churchgoing people in Charlotte.

The farmer who lent his land the prayer meeting was Franklin Graham and his son, Billy, became a Christian during that meeting.

What a coincidence.

I wonder if that Sunday school teacher would ever have known the impact of what it was in bringing that young boy to the Lord.

Billy Graham has turned out to preach and to save so many people's lives.

Coincidence?

I don't think so, I think when we stop to think more and more about the things that happen in our lives we realise that God is working in ways that would astound us.

Can you remember last week when we looked at Ruth?

She and Naomi were in terrible circumstances and on the road Ruth’s sister-in-law Orpah realises how terrible the circumstances are and realises it’s going to be much better for her to go back to Moab and she left.

But the Bible says that Ruth clung to Naomi, she made up her mind that no matter what would happen she would stay with Naomi.

She said /“Where you go I will go, where you stay I will stay.

Your people will be my people, and your God my God”/ and she made an oath she said /“May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me”/, and she turned and together they walked into Bethlehem.

And remember Naomi's speech as she got to that place?

The people rejoiced and said welcome, she said /“Don't call me Naomi any more call me bitter because the Lord has gone against me.

I’ve lost my husband I’ve lost my two sons, now I have nothing”/.

But remember the hope that was seen at the very end of chapter 1 in verse 22. */“So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.”/*

So God had been making the house of bread a house of bread again and he had been showing favour on his people in the land of Bethlehem and so what happened all of a sudden the crops started to grow, and just coincidence, or, as might happen, they returned back to Bethlehem just at the time when harvest is taking place.

And verse 1 of chapter 2 begins, “*/Now Naomi had a relative/*”.

Oh a relative, what's happening here?

And it was “*/on her husband's side, from the clan of Elimelch/*,*/ a man of standing whose name was Boaz./*”

You see, Naomi thought she had lost everything but here’s a little hint that something might happen for the reader.

She has a relative who is a man of standing.

Take notice of it, maybe hang it there on a little peg at the side of your mind.

So Naomi was bitter, desperate, feeling like she had nothing at all that was any good, and while that happened they came back to Bethlehem.

Ruth's attitude is completely different though.

Have a look at what happened.

In verses 2 to 3 Ruth works hard making the most of whatever little she has.

*/ 2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor."

Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter."

3 So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters./*

She trusts, “I’ve made a commitment to follow Naomi, I've made a commitment to follow her God, I'm here in a foreign land even though it’s very dangerous for me to go out on the fields at harvest time, I’m going to do what I can.”

She knows that there are men all around and that she’s a foreigner from Moab, the enemy, and that Israelite people don't like people from Moab and that she’ll be vulnerable and won't know anyone.

She says to herself, “Even if there are dangers, Naomi and I are going to starve.

And I'm trusting in God and I'm going to make the best of the circumstances I possibly can.”

She doesn't sit back and say “The circumstances aren’t right, it’s too dangerous, the works too hard.”

She doesn’t whine, complain or make excuses… she went out – vulnerable, doing lowly work, but trusting in God completely.

Do you know, at harvest time what would happen - the crops would grow up, and the harvesters would come out.

Usually they were men.

Big strong men.

And they would have a sickle and they would chop the harvest, the wheat.

Whatever the harvesters left behind would be picked up by some women.

Some of the ones that were employed and were well-known and may’ve been part of the family and they would come through and pick up the grain and bind it into sheaves.

After that gleaning would take place and this involved gathering the stalks that had been left behind.

This would be undertaken by whoever needed food, as the Bible had instructed earlier in Leviticus, God had said

*/9 " 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen.

Leave them for the poor and the alien.

I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 19:9-10/*

So what would happen is then people would come and glean from the little that was left over and take what they can.

So Naomi and Ruth realised that there was nothing that they could do, so they had to go on the generosity of those who are already had stacks and hope that someone would let them glean at least in the field and that while they were gleaning they might find some people who might generously leave some behind.

You don’t get much lower than gleaning.

You know, Ruth could have said a lot of things.

She could have said Naomi, my husband died too, I’m from another land, you’re supposed to be looking after me, here I’ve come with you, what mess have you got me into.

She could have said, gleaning?

What are you talking about?

I’m beautiful, I’m young, as if I’m going to go gleaning.

It’s below me, you won’t catch me gleaning in the fields.

She could have said, God hates Naomi, she even said so herself, and He’s got it in for us, let’s just sit here and mope.

She could have blamed God, she could have got bitter at Him, she could have done all those things.

But she didn’t, she believed that the God that she trusted in would be able to get her out of even this impossible situation.

And she was willing to even glean to do it.

There are many people who say “I want to serve the Lord” and someone says well how about you do this little thing… “oh no, I want to serve the Lord, anything but that”, what about helping with washing up, cleaning the church, joining a small group…We kind of think we know what ways God is going to work in our lives, don’t we?

And they tend to be the more things that are valuable, or recognised often.

But do know what I find?

I find that God uses people that glean.

I find God uses people who do the very ordinary things, faithfully and with all their heart and God comes along and says “/I’m going to provide for you in the most amazing way/”.

I remember, a friend of mine telling me this story of this Christian film he had seen.

In the film this man really believes God’s got something incredible in his life.

“He’s going to use me in a great way” and throughout the film this younger guy came up to him and said, “Excuse me could you spend some time with me I’m really struggling?” and he said, “No look its all right, I’ll tell you what, I haven’t got time, God is going to use me in a huge way, come back later on.

God is going to use me, He’s got something big in store, I know it.”

And the movie went on a bit more, and then the boy came up again and he said, “Look, can you help me?

Can you help me?

I got some things I really want to discuss?”

And he said, “Look I would love to, but God’s going to use me in big way and I’m working on this”…and at the end of the film the man came before God and he said, that one who’s been tugging at your shirt was the one that I wanted to use in a great way and use you through him, but you missed the opportunity.

Can’t remember what film it was, or where it was, but it was a good point.