Joseph Prince - Depend On Grace And Be Led to Right Happenings

This is an excerpt from: The Kairos Year Of Right Time, Right Place - Part 1

Right time, right place. Now, let's look at the right place, okay? We'll look at the story of, Abraham's servant, but before that we look at, Ruth, we just saw just now on the screen. There's a beautiful, Ruth is a picture of you and I. The story of Ruth, I have a sermon, um, album called, "Love Story of Ruth," yeah, "The Love Story of Ruth". It's very romantic, it's a beautiful story, and it's a love story of Jesus and his church. All of us, we are the bride of Christ, amen, and we are all non-Jews for the most part. We are not Jewish people. We don't belong to the commonwealth of the Israel, amen. And, Ruth is from Moab, present day Jordan. And they're actually under the law, they're under the curse, and they're not allowed to enter into the congregation of the Lord. That's under the law, okay?

But what happened is that Naomi, who is a Jewess, a Jew from Bethlehem, she and her husband, all right, Elimelech, all of them left. Elimelech, they left, they left the land of Bethlehem to go to Jordan to stay there for a while because there was a famine, then later on their three sons married, sorry, their two sons married two Moab girls, all right, Ruth and Orpah. And what happened is that later on all, both sons died. Her husband died first, and the two sons died. It's a picture of Israel outside the land. They never really prospered outside the land. In fact, there's even death outside the land. That's why God brought them back, in 1948 they came back as a nation. All the prophetic truths are there. And then Ruth is not part of Israel, right? But then she wanna come back because she said to her mother-in-law, "Your God," the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "He's my God". He became a believer. "Your God is my God," praise the Lord. She believed in the Lord, amen.

So, she followed her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem when God started visiting them and giving them a harvest of bread, praise the Lord. All right, they went back, and this time when they came back, they came back poor, right? It's all of us, we are all spiritually bankrupt. I don't care how much money you have in the bank, all right? We are all spiritually bankrupt. Even rich people die. It's not just poor people die, rich people die. Everyone come under the curse of sin because we are all spiritually bankrupt, and the wages of sin is death, physical death and spiritual death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. So, we should not measure our life by our accumulation of wealth. Stop it, this year stop it. Enjoy the true life. Stop postponing enjoying the life more abundant that Jesus came to give, amen. Just another million, another ten million. Oh, I got this new idea.

My friend has this amazing idea. We'll make a lot of money here, lot of money. Every year the same thing, and end up, you know, frustrated, losing your years and, time is going by, losing time with your family, coming out frustration just for another million. Hey, friend, this is not what fulfillment is. But God can give you blessings, amen, that you can have more than enough to be a blessing, yes, but it must come from the Lord. Now, if you are working in a company, you must be a good steward, amen. Your job is to prosper your company. You must be an asset and a blessing as a testimony to the Lord. You're not there looking to your boss as your source for your profit. The Bible says, "Don't be eye service as man pleases, but work as unto the Lord".

Do everything with excellence. Go the extra mile. Not only when they're looking at you, do it as unto the Lord, knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward. The Bible says that. That's the motive for working, amen. Then we look forward, we see Jesus there, we're working as unto the Lord. We walk before him, before his face smiling at us. This is for you, Jesus. Amen. And then even your life becomes worship. Okay, anyway, talking about this. She came back, and the menial tasks for a poor person to get some sustenance is actually gleaning. In other words, after the harvest, after they reap the harvest, the reapers come and cut the harvest, usually the stalks will fall off. They'll bundle the stalks together, but there are some that fall off. Whatever that falls to the ground, it's a backbreaking work. The gleaners will come, the poor people will come, and they will pick up what fell off, and that becomes theirs.

So, this is what she said. "Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace". This girl who just became a believer believes in grace. What is grace? Unearned, undeserved favor. Now, if she went by the law, the law condemns her. She doesn't belong to Israel. But she's not looking to the law, she's looking to grace. Unearned, undeserved favor, the more undeserving I am, the more I qualify for grace. She says, "I'll go to the fields". She told her mother-in-law, "I'll go and work as a gleaner, I'll go to the field," and look at her faith. "And whoever is there, I will find grace in his sight," okay? So, she went, "And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and," I purposely used the old King James, see if you understand or not. "And her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech".

Now, Boaz was the wealthiest bachelor at that time. So, there's a large field there. Not every part of the field is Boaz, even though he's the wealthiest man. Some parts belong to other men. But because she says, "I'll find grace," she found herself, she happened to be in the field belonging to the wealthiest bachelor. Now, watch this. Her hap, it's Old English. Hap, H-A-P, "Her hap was to light," her hap is the word where you get happening, all right? It's the word where you get happy, hap. When happenings happen the way you want it to happen, you are happy, got it? And for us believers, even when happenings don't happen to happen the way you want it to happen, we are joyful. Joy is independent of circumstances. We have both.

And happenings that happen the way you want it to happen, but qarah is happenings that happen to happen in the right way, amen. Her hap was to light, these two words, hap and light, are two words of qarah. One is noun, one is verb. Qarah is used twice in one verse, right happening. You know the rest. Boaz came, Boaz saw her in the field, he fell in love with her immediately, and she became the great-grandmother of David, who slew Goliath, amen, and from her lineage came our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah, praise the name of Jesus. All started with she was at the right place at the right time. And, you know what? She wasn't smart enough to position herself at the right place at the right time. She don't even know who is the guy who owns that field. She happened to be in the field.

What the world calls coincidence, God says it's a God-incident, amen. This is gonna happen to you. Your life partner will just look at you. Serenade you straightaway. "When I saw her standing there, I fell about from my chair. And when she moved her mouth to speak, I felt the blood go to my feet". You'll find Boaz says all this in verse, no, he don't, okay. You all got it so far? Come on, church. Right time, right place. Qarah is all about right happening, amen. Right happening, praise the Lord. Only God can give right happening. Now, go to Abraham's servant story, praise God. Now, again, let me just tell you this. For the story of Ruth, all right, before we show them Abraham's servant, the story of Ruth is the story of Jesus, right?

Now, we are bankrupt. We are, by the law, by the law we are all condemned, amen. We have all broken the Ten Commandments, if not outwardly, inwardly in our thoughts and our hearts and minds. All of us are sinners. We don't have any title to God and his blessings, praise God. But you know what? We need a redeemer. A redeemer is someone who can buy you out of your slave market, out of your sin, amen, out of your condemnation, and bring you to a place of sonship, amen. So, Boaz, the one who married Ruth, is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. To redeem someone, you must have three quality, three qualities, all right? Number one, you must be a relative. There's a law to redeem someone who is poor, all right, under, it's Moses's law, actually.

All right, it's imperative that a person is a relative, must be a relative. That's why Jesus came as a man, 'cause all men is lost. Number two, he must be wealthy. The relative, it must be a relative, and must be wealthy, because the poor cannot redeem the poor, right? And third of all, it's the most important, I think, he must be willing. We know our relatives that are wealthy, they are our relatives, but not willing. Don't put up your hands. Right? So, Jesus must belong to the human family, that's why at the start of Christmas he came as a baby, all right, wrapped in human flesh, amen, so that he... is he rich? Oh, yeah, amen. But best of all, he is willing. How willing? Stretch his hands on that cross and said, "I love you. I love you". And died for our sins on the cross.