Handfuls of Purpose
🗣️ Speaker: Pastor Derrel Strickland
This sermon explores the understanding of God as a loving father through the lens of Jesus' life and the biblical story of Ruth, emphasizing the concept of the kinsman redeemer. He highlights how God provides "handfuls of purpose" blessings for us to pick up, illustrating God's enduring love and provision for His people.
The core takeaway of Pastor Strickland's sermon is that God, as a loving father, provides purposeful blessings in our lives, symbolized as "handfuls of purpose," and it is essential for us to recognize and embrace these blessings, understanding His enduring love and provision.
Additional Info
The info below was generated by an AI from the audio recording of the sermon.
Understanding God as a Loving Father
In last week’s sermon, we honored our earthly fathers, recognizing the various experiences people have had with their dads. Some were blessed with godly fathers, others had good fathers, while some had abusive or missing fathers. These experiences often shape our understanding of God as a loving father. If we lived in a perfect world, as God ordained, we would face no problems. However, reality is different, and many struggle with seeing God as a loving father, especially if they never had a loving earthly father.
God's Love and Justice
God is a judge and a just God, but it's crucial to remember that God is love. He wants what is best for us because He created us and knows our purpose. Jesus said, "When you have seen me, you have seen the Father." This means that looking at Jesus' life reveals God's loving nature. Jesus, although qualified to judge, did not do so. He showed love and compassion, particularly to those who were struggling, while He found it challenging to deal with the self-righteous.
The Heart of God in Matthew 18
In Matthew 18, Jesus calls for a child and tells us to humble ourselves like little children to be great. He warns against despising these little ones, emphasizing that their angels always see the face of His Father in heaven. The parable of the lost sheep illustrates God's desire for none to perish. If a man has a hundred sheep and one goes astray, he leaves the ninety-nine to find the lost one, rejoicing over its return. This reflects God's will that none should perish, highlighting His love and care.
Picking Up God's Blessings
God desires to bless us and does not want our talents or gifts to be wasted. The Book of Ruth is more than just a love story; it reveals God's ability to help us overcome bitterness, loss, and discouragement. It introduces the concept of the kinsman redeemer, a family member who rescues and redeems those in need. Boaz, as Ruth's kinsman redeemer, goes beyond the law's requirements, leaving "handfuls on purpose" for Ruth to glean, symbolizing God's intentional blessings for us.
The Role of the Kinsman Redeemer
The term kinsman redeemer signifies a family member's responsibility to help relatives in distress, often by buying back property or redeeming individuals from poverty. This concept is a powerful representation of Jesus Christ, our ultimate kinsman redeemer. He rescues us from our spiritual poverty, offering redemption and salvation. Just as Boaz chose to redeem Ruth and Naomi, Jesus chose to redeem us, not out of obligation, but out of love.
God's Handfuls on Purpose
God provides "handfuls on purpose," blessings intended for our benefit and growth. These blessings may come as unexpected opportunities or resources that we need to recognize and embrace. God is not waiting to punish us; instead, He is eager to bless us and help us accomplish more than we could imagine. We need to approach life with the confidence that God is continually working on our behalf, providing us with purposeful blessings.
Embracing God's Redemption
Every person needs redemption, and Jesus Christ is our redeemer. He chose to redeem us by His blood, offering salvation and freedom from sin. As believers, we should live without fear, embracing the blessings and opportunities God provides. Just as Ruth committed to Naomi and received God's blessings, we too must commit to God and trust in His provision.
Conclusion
God's love for us is profound and unwavering. He offers us redemption and provides purposeful blessings throughout our lives. It is our responsibility to recognize and embrace these blessings, understanding that God, as our loving Father, desires the best for us. By seeing God as a loving father and our kinsman redeemer, we can fully appreciate His enduring love and provision. navigate our lives, knowing that Father truly knows best.
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Use the questions listed below as a launching point to discuss the sermon points together as a family. These are great for dinner table discussions and small groups.
Icebreaker:
Share a moment when you received an unexpected blessing. How did it impact you?
Scripture Reference:
Ruth 2:14-16
Matthew 18:10-14
Isaiah 44:24-28
Discussion Questions:
What does the concept of 'handfuls of purpose' mean to you personally?
How have you seen God’s intentional blessings in your life?
Why do you think it’s important to recognize and claim these blessings?
Discuss a time when you might have missed or overlooked a blessing from God. What was the outcome?
How does understanding God’s redemption through Jesus influence your daily life?
What practical steps can you take to be more aware and appreciative of God's blessings?
How can this message about God's intentional blessings and redemption encourage others around us?
Prayer Focus:
Pray for awareness of God's blessings in our lives.
Ask for strength to claim and utilize these blessings for God’s purpose.
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Connecting our kids to what we as adults are learning and hearing on Sundays is vital to passing on our faith to the next generation. Use the summary below as a great way to talk about the message we heard with your kids.
A Story About Ruth and God's Blessings
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Ruth. She lived in a place called Moab. Ruth had a very bravely decided to move to a new land with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Naomi was very sad because her husband and sons had died, and she thought God had forgotten about her. But Ruth loved Naomi very much and promised to stay with her.
When they reached the new land, Ruth had to find some food for them. She went to a field owned by a kind man named Boaz. Boaz saw Ruth working hard and decided to help her. He told his workers to leave extra grain on the ground just for Ruth. These extra grains were special blessings left on purpose for Ruth to find and take home.
Ruth picked up the grains gratefully and took them to Naomi. They were very happy because these were blessings from God that provided their needs. Boaz later married Ruth, and they had a family. And guess what? Their great-grandson became a king!
The story shows us that God always leaves blessings for us, just like Boaz did for Ruth. We just need to find them and thank God for His kindness and love.
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The Book of Ruth:
The Book of Ruth is set during the time of the judges in ancient Israel, a period characterized by social and religious upheaval. This story occurs after a famine had struck Bethlehem, which ironically means 'House of Bread.' Elimelech, along with his wife Naomi and their two sons, migrated to Moab, a neighboring nation often in conflict with Israel. Moabites descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew, and were generally considered outsiders by the Israelites.
Ruth, a Moabite widow, decides to return to Bethlehem with her Israelite mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth's loyalty to Naomi and her embracing of the God of Israel is a significant part of the narrative. In Bethlehem, Ruth meets Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s deceased husband, who acts as a 'kinsman redeemer.' This practice was rooted in ancient Israelite law, where a close relative could redeem impoverished family members by buying back property or marrying a widow to continue the family line.
The Role of the Kinsman Redeemer:
The term 'kinsman redeemer' (Hebrew: go'el) is central to the story. It refers to a male relative who had the responsibility to aid a family member in need, whether by redeeming land, avenging wrongs, or marrying a widow to preserve the family lineage (Leviticus 25:25–55; Deuteronomy 25:5–10). Boaz’s actions symbolize God’s redemptive work through Christ, making this story a profound illustration of God's provision and grace.
Matthew 18:10-14:
This passage is part of Jesus’ teaching about humility and the value of looking after 'little ones.' Jesus emphasizes God’s care for every individual, comparing it to a shepherd who leaves his flock to find one lost sheep. This underscores the importance of every soul to God, reflecting His desire that none should be lost.
Isaiah 44:24-28:
This prophetic passage speaks to the restoration and future redemption of Israel. It highlights God’s sovereignty as the creator and redeemer who orchestrates history to fulfill His purposes. Mentioning Cyrus by name—a Persian king who would eventually allow the Israelites to return from Babylonian exile—shows God’s control over nations and leaders. This historical context magnifies God's power and His ongoing redemptive plan for His people.
In sum, the story of Ruth and the associated scriptures provide a rich tapestry of God’s intentional blessings, redemption, and relentless love for His people.
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Well, hey there, everyone. I'm Daniel Hahn, and I'm the online campus pastor here at Oxford assembly of God church. And this is our podcast. And I just want to thank you for listening today. We hope the message you're about to hear inspires you, builds your faith, and helps you see that God has a purpose for your life.
And now let's get into the message.
Last week was Father's day, and we honored our earthly fathers. And there were some blessed with godly fathers, others, by what we would say, good fathers, while others had some abusive fathers. Many have missing fathers. And one of the majority battles we face is understanding that if we were perfect and lived in a perfect world, we would not have any problems. I said, if everything was like God ordained it to be, we wouldn't have any problems.
But guess what? That's not the way it is. It's not the way it is. But also many struggles with seeing God as a loving father. Because some people never had a loving father.
They've never experienced that. And we know that God is a judge, and we know that he's a just God. But sometimes we miss the fact that God is love. And guess what? God wants what's best for you.
And guess what? He is the one that knows what's best, because he created you and knows what you were made for. Remember the words that Jesus said, when you have seen me, you have seen the father. Now, what in the world does that mean? And how can that relate to us today?
Well, I can tell you what that means, is that when we look at the life of Jesus, we don't see hatred.
And he was qualified to judge. But guess what? He didn't do it. The only people he got upset with was those spiritual ones.
He couldn't handle spiritual people. He could handle the sinful. He could tell them coming to me all you that labor. But those people that were spiritual, he'd struggled with them. Matthew, chapter 18 reveals, I believe, the true heart of God.
When he calls for a child to come and he tells us to be great, we need to humble ourselves as a little child. And then if you drop down to verse ten of chapter 18, it tells us this, see that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my God, of my father, who is in heaven. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the 99 on the mountains and go a search of the one that went astray.
And if he finds it truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the 99 that never went astray. So it is not the will of my father who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. Not willing that any should perish. How many believe that's still true today? He's not willing.
It's not his desire that any would perish. Now, the word perish means to destroy or to put it into. God does not want any of us to perish. Now, I know that's taking this next verse out of context, but when Jesus fed the 5000, you know, when they got finished feeding them, what did he tell them to do? Pick up the remainders.
Pick up the leftovers. Now, why did he say that? Because the Bible tells us, he says that none be wasted. That none be wasted. God desires to bless us.
He does not want to see one iota of your talents or your giftings wasted. He wants what's best for you and for you to be all that he created you to be. Now, I know that's hard for us to understand. Now, today we're going to be looking briefly at the Book of Ruth for a quick glance. At a quick glance, you'd say, well, it's just a love story.
And it is an awesome love story. But how many knows? This whole book is just a love story. It's just a love story. It's an awesome love story.
But I believe that Book of Ruth is much more than that. For one thing, it shows us the lineage of Jesus. It reveals that God can help us to overcome bitterness, loss and discouragement. But it also shows us the work of the kinsman. Now, that word kinsman, that's an Old Testament term, but do you know what a kinsman is?
Do any of you have any kin? How many of you have a kin that you don't want to own? No, don't vote on that. A kinsman. A kinsman, that literally means that you're connected by family.
That that's a kinsman. And. But you know what the hebrew word for kinsman? What it literally means is? Redeemer means.
Redeemer means coming to the help of or rescuing. So if you're a kinsman, family are supposed to come and rescue those that are having issues. Primarily, they'd sold their property or lost their property or were in despair. So their kinsman was called the kinsman redeemer. They would come and redeem that person.
Now, if you've not read the Book of Lu. Uh, book of Ruth. Or if you haven't read it recently, I'd like to encourage you to read it. It's only four chapters. Wouldn't take you long unless you're a slow reader.
But if it does, read it slow. But I want to start with one of my favorite verses of Ruth. Ruth, chapter two, verse 14 through 16, which says this.
And at mealtime, Boaz said to her, speaking, ruth, come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the wine. So she sat beside the reapers. Now, that's those that were harvesting the crop. And he passed to her roasted grain, and she ate until she was satisfied. Oh, I like that.
Huh? I like to eat until I'm satisfied. You know, I don't. If I go to a restaurant, I do not mind paying for the meal, but I want to leave satisfied. If I got up and leave hungry, I don't care if it's cheap.
I don't like it. I like to be fed. I like to be satisfied. And God wants to satisfy us. And she had some leftover.
And when she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his young man men, saying, let her glean even among the sheaves and do not reproach her. Now, I think most of you got an idea. They were harvest in grain, and when they would put it together, they would put it in sheaves and wrap it all together, and they stack those throughout the field. And so that was what she does. And said, let her even go around those sheaves.
In other words, don't have to restrict to the outside, but let her go to where there's some grain. Any of you ever been to a yupik pea patch? And you always want to go to what? Where there's some peas. You don't want to go where somebody's already picked them all over.
You want to go where there's some good ones. And he said, let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her. And this, verse 16. And also pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it for her to glean, and do not rebuke her. Now, I really like that, but I want to read that one verse from the King James version, verse 16.
And it says, and let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose. It doesn't say on purpose, and I've been quoting that for years, handfuls on purpose. And I'll probably say that there, but says, handfuls of purpose. Of purpose. Why?
Because she could eat it. She needs something. There was a purpose to it. And it says, leave some of the handfuls of purpose for her and leave them that she may glean them and rebuke her not. In other words, guess what he says.
You guys working in the field, I want you to make sure she has some to harvest. I want you to drop some handfuls of purpose, make sure that she's got one. Now this goes a little bit beyond what God originally intended you say. What do you mean? See God had already told all of the farmers that they were supposed to leave the corners of the fields for those people that were poor, those people that did not have and they had a place they didn't have to go beg.
They could go to the field and harvest them something to eat. I wish my dad would have heard that because you know what, we always grew a big garden and there were some people that I never saw until harvest time and they would show up at harvest time and they'd say oh short, I would sure like some of that corn, I cheer like some of those butterbeans, I cheer like some of those peas. And you know what my dad always say my boys will be glad to go harvest it. Gator, you know what I'm talking about. Only time we saw them was at harvest time.
And you know there's always those spiritual people too. They just want come at dinner on the grounds.
But I'm glad that God made provision for those poor people. But he said this goes beyond that. I want you to leave some things on purpose. Now I thank God for salvation. How many thanks God for salvation?
Hallelujah. But how many is glad to get those things other than salvation along with salvation? I like to get those handfuls on purpose. Those blessings that I never saw going to happen. All of a sudden there they are.
Thank you Lord. But Gator you and I have experienced it and I kind of hope that when I get to heaven I've kind of got mixed emotions on this. I don't think I want God to say remember that handful on purpose that you didn't pick up?
I left it for you, I left your job and I left you a blessing, I left you an opportunity and I did it on purpose. But you didn't pick it up. So I'm kind of hoping that he don't show all that. Maybe just a little bit of it but not all of it. Cause I can guarantee you most of us have got some handfuls that God allowed blessings, things that he wanted us to do, given us to prepare us to do great things and we didn't pick up the handfuls on purpose.
But can I suggest to you that we look as God, as someone dropping handfuls on purpose, not as a God that's waiting to zap you. I can tell you there's some people that live in fear.
They live in fear because they think God is looking to zap you. Now, I can tell you, if he was going to zap us, the first mistake we made, gator would be the only one here today because all the rest of us would have been zapped, right? No, you'd be the first one to have been zapped. Huh? We all know it.
Listen, but that's not our heavenly father that loves us. He's not wanting to zap us. He's wanting to drop handfuls on purpose. He's wanting to bless us. He wants us to let us accomplish more than we've ever imagined.
And I can tell you here recently, and I guess it's because I'm getting old, I've been thinking, God, you've done so much for me. You have blessed me beyond I could ever imagine. Some of you know, I've said this before, but when I started college, Bible college, I went not to become a ministerial major. I went to become a school teacher. Now, I know I was going to preach, but I never knew a full time pastor.
They had to do something. They had to do something to feed themselves. And I said, hey, I can go be a pre. I can be a teacher and, and then to support my habit of eating.
But I'm glad. I'm glad that God gave more that let me do more than I ever, ever, ever dreamed of. He did those things. He did those things and he dropped handfuls on purpose. God is not looking to zap you.
If he was, you'd already be zapped. He's looking to drop handfuls on purpose. Now, the first time we see. I told you the word kinsman literally means the redeemer. But the first time we see the word redeem in scriptures, in the book of Exodus, right after they came out of Egypt, and in chapter 15, verse eleven, says this, who is like you, o Lord among the gods, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders.
You stretched out your right hand and the earth swallowed them, talking about the enemy. And then you have led your steadfast, led in your steadfast love, the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by the strength, by your strength to your holy abode. Now, every one of us here today have something in common. Every one of us has either been redeemed or we need to be redeemed.
Now, there's no in between either one of those. All of us are needing to be redeemed, or we have been redeemed. And if we have been redeemed, guess what? We don't glory in the fact that we did it. Because God's the one that redeemed us.
He was the kinsman Redeemer. Now, why was Ruth in Moab? She was born there. I said she was born there. She was a moabite.
She lived there. But why was her mother in law, Naomi? Why was she there? Because there was famine in Bethlehem. Now, it's kind of interesting.
We don't know enough the story to know why they went. They might have been starving completely to death. And I can tell you, you can say what you want to in all the battles on the people coming to United States. But if my family was starving to death and I had to get something, I'd come to. I do what I had to do.
We don't need to judge those that we're not qualified to judge.
We don't know why they left Bethlehem. You know what Bethlehem means? House of bread. They left the House of bread and went to a foreign country. And then tragedy really struck.
Her two sons died, her husband died. And Naomi, which means pleasantness. All of a sudden, she said, just call me Mara bitterness. Call me sister bitter, because God has forsaken me. But there was one person that wouldn't forsake her as Ruth.
See, we're not qualified to judge somebody because we don't know what they've been through. But today we're talking about the kinsman redeemer. God's way of protecting his people back in the Old Testament was that their nearest kin could come and buy back their redemption or buy back their land and give it to them because they had lost it. They had sold it. We don't know what happened.
All we know that if Boaz had not have stepped up, Ruth and Naomi would have been beggars the rest of their life. They needed redemption. And I can tell you, many of us have issues and problems, and we could talk about them, and we could get together and we could even say, my problem is bigger than your problem. But the reality that wouldn't resolve anything. We'd still have problems.
But we have a redeemer. A kinsman redeemer that buys back their property. Now, why they'd have been sold, we don't know. But it created poverty. They did not have anything because, see, they could sell.
They could sell their property in despair and sometimes through circumstances or situation. Now let me just say this. For some of us here today, we all needed redemption. And all of us have had to be redeemed from messes in our lives. Some of them we deserved.
Some of them, we got in that mess because we messed up. How many knows that? Sometimes we did doing the best we can and we still got in a mess. We didn't deserve it. But the reality was we still had to be redeemed.
We had to be bailed out. We had to be helped. And I can tell you that Jesus Christ is our redeemer. He's the one that bails us out. And that's the reason we need and to realize that he gives us handfuls on purpose and we need to stop and pick those handfuls up.
Hallelujah. Now this morning I felt really impressed to share this and it came out of back of my mind. But I remember reading a story close to 50 years ago about a pastor up in Ohio, semi God pastor, that their church was growing and they needed to buy property. And it was a struggling church. They didn't have a lot of money, but they finally found a piece of property that was for sale, but they just needed some help getting it.
And one of the ladies in the church was a maid for a wealthy man who happened to delve in real estate. And she made an appointment for the pastor to go visit this wealthy man. Now this pastor was a lot like me. I can preach before hundreds. I been on national tv and it don't bother a crowd, don't bother me.
But one on one scares me to death.
I'm not kidding you. To go knock on somebody's door gator and try to talk to them about the lord or business, even go to a bank, ask them for a loan, even though I've got collateral. Scares me to death. And I think he might have been a little bit like that. But he went to this maid, she led him through the kitchen and made appointment with this man at his house.
And he began to tell him, said, you know, we found this piece of property. Said, we're a small church, we need to relocate, we need to build, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we found this great piece of property. We just need some help getting him. Was wondering if you have any suggestions or any way you can help us.
He said, you don't want that property. Said, well, we do. We've looked at it, we've looked all over, and that's the only place that we can come close to affording he said, you don't need that priest property. He said, I got a much better peace that you need. Said, I've got 20 acres over here, right next to the interstate, that would make a beautiful place for church.
And the pastor said, but you know, we can't afford very much, he said, and began to talk. And finally the pastor got a. He said, listen, you'd just give us that money, wouldn't you? Or give us that property, wouldn't you? And the rich man said, yeah, I will.
Now, that's not a handful on purpose. I said, that's not a handful on purpose, just because God wanted to drop it. And I said that this morning. So maybe I shouldn't have shed there since second service. But the first service, somebody came to me after, afterwards and told me, said, pastor, that was for me.
Said, I just said, I'm 60 something years old and worked as a real estate agent. And the broker just quit and gave me the business.
And he said, now I had to get my broker's license. Isn't it amazing? When we stopped to pick up the handfuls on purpose, that's what God has given us. God has given us.
What God has given us was not by accident, but by divine purpose. And sometimes we look and say, did I deserve it? Nope. But God blessed me anyway. Do you think.
Do you think when Ruth made her commitment to Naomi, did she have a clue what was going on? All she knew, that she was going to a foreign country with a woman that owned nothing.
Sounds a little bit like marriage.
Now you laugh because we read what she says many times in a marriage ceremony where it says this, do not urge me to leave you or return from following you, for where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me.
And more also, if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, no more. Do you think Ruth had a clue? Do you think that she would have a dream to say, my great grandson is going to be king of Israel? Now, she didn't have a clue.
The only thing she had is that God had spoken to her. And she said, your God going to be my God, because the God of the Moabs, Moabites were not the same. God of the Jews said, I'm going and I'm going to serve your God, without a clue of what was going to happen. Do you think that she would have went if somebody said, you know, one of these days your great great grandson was going to be the father of Jesus Christ?
You're talking about handfuls on Purpose. God was doing more. And friends, you never know what handfuls of purpose God is dropping in your path with every intention that you need to pick it up and take advantage of it. The greatest handful of purpose was Jesus Christ. He was our true kinsman Redeemer.
He was the example that Ruth was talking about, the kinsman Redeemer, going to redeem the nation of Israel. Now look what Isaiah says about redemption. IsaiAH, chapter 44, verse 24, where it says this. Thus says the Lord, your redeEmer, who formed you from the womb. That means that he knows more about you than you know about yourself.
He knows what he has planned for you. So all those surprises that came to you, God knew them beforehand. I am the Lord who made all things. Who alone stretched out the heavens, who sprout up the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited. And of the cities of Judah they shall be built.
And I will raise up the ruins. Who says to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up your rivers in verse 28. This is an awesome verse because Cyrus is named before Cyrus was ever born.
Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. Who's Cyrus? Cyrus was the king that helped rebuild Jerusalem. He's the one. He says, he's my shepherd.
Now, he was not a godly man. He was not a jew. But how many knows that God can use anybody? And he shall fulfill all my purpose, saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and of the temple your foundation shall be laid. Chapter 47, verse four.
Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name is the holy one of Israel. Now I found this pretty interesting as I'm studying for this message. The word Redeemer. And we know kinsman, Redeemer means the one that's rescuing. But the word redeemer is not found in the New Testament.
Instead, we find the word redeemed. It's past tense.
It's past tense. You and I have been redeemed. Hallelujah. He's already given us the green stamps. Some of you old enough, remember green stamps?
Right. He's already given us. They've been redeemed. See, the first time we hear the word redeemed, in the New Testament is when Zechariah was singing his praise about his son, John the Baptist. It says this, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.
Now, that's before Jesus was born and has raised up a horn of salvation for us and the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear. Serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all your days without fear.
I believe there's so many failures in the kingdom because of fear.
God's given handfuls of purpose, but we are afraid to pick it up.
Now, you may not relate to this at all, but it makes sense to me. And since I'm telling the story, I'm gonna give it to you. Growing up, we had a bunch of dogs. My dad was a big fox hunter, so we always had a pack of 15 or 20 head of dogs. So we had a bunch of dogs, and one day we had a litter of puppies that would.
And they were not born in the pen. They were born out. We had plenty of room from Jerome. And one of them, we named Herm or Herman. Now, if your name's Herm, I'm not calling you a dog, okay?
I'm just telling you. But old Herm. But if you were going to name him today, you'd talk about him today. You'd have to say he was a feral dog. He was wild.
All the others were gentle, but not her. And he grew up. We fed him. He got all the treatment that all the rest of them had. But he wouldn't let you touch him.
He lived in total fear of people.
I finally caught her by leaving the kitchen door open one day and put in scraps by the door, and I trapped him in the kitchen. And so from that point on, we kept him in the pen, and we tried to make him not afraid of us.
But that dog never would let anybody but me or my dad touch him because he was afraid.
I thought of that dog when I was thinking this message. When it says that we are fearful that God wants us to serve him without fear, I can tell you, for those of us, many of you have heard me say it. I'm a born chicken. I'd rather hear him say, there he goes, than don't he look natural. Some of y'all get that later.
I'm not a brave person, but I found out that if God dropped some handfuls on purpose, there's a purpose in it. I said, there's a purpose. And some of us here today that we did not deserve it. God did not die, but we were blessed by God dropping a handful on purpose.
First, Peter, chapter one, says this. Remember, the word redeemer is not in the New Testament, but look what it says in chapter one, verse 18. Knowing that you were ransomed. Another word for it. You've been redeemed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers.
You were not redeemed by green stamps or top value stamps. Now, some of you young ones don't even know what I'm talking about, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world. In other words, before the earth was created, before Adam fell. God knew that he was going to have to send Jesus to redeem the world.
But he was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you. For us, who through him, are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.
Can I remind you that Boaz did not have to redeem Ruth, you say, well, yeah, she was a beautiful lady. We don't know that. We assumed it was because it fits the love story a lot better. Right? But when you stop to think, when he redeemed Ruth, he redeemed Naomi, a bitter mother in law.
He didn't do it because he had to. He did it because he chose to. And I know Jesus had to die for our sins, but it wasn't because God made him. He chose to redeem us. He chose us to redeem us by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Boaz didn't even have to leave the handfuls on purpose. All he had to do was just leave the corners. But he chose to. So what if he had nothing?
Well, there were others in line to redeem Ruth and Naomi before Boaz. He might have been the last one. I said he might have been the last one that was connected, had enough lineage to say, I'm going to be the one. So what if he hadn't have? Then they would spend the rest of their lives unredeemed.
Jesus chose to redeem us. Amen. He also chooses to let handfuls of purpose fall on our behalf. Why? Because he knows us.
He understands us, and he knows what we need to be, all that he could be. So God makes that provision by dropping handfuls on purpose. I kind of like to use the scripture where it says we can approach the throne of grace boldly because he has grace and mercy there for us that we can take advantage of anytime because he chose to redeem us. Now the question comes to this. Handfuls on purpose.
There's great, great, great blessings in serving God.
But to pick up all of the blessings of God and neglect being redeemed of God is the biggest mistake anyone in the world would ever make. Because we're not redeemed. We have to pay for our sins. Jesus already paid for them. Don't neglect picking up that bundle that's left on purpose.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for God. I thank you for your blessings. God, I don't deserve, never have done anything to deserve the blessings that you've blessed me with. You've given me handfuls of purpose far, far beyond I could ever imagine.
And father, I'm sure if Ruth was here today, she'd say, oh, I never dreamed that my grandson was going to be king. I never dreamed that my descendants would be the father of the savior of the world.
But thank you, Father, that I accepted the redemption because you were not willing that any should perish, but that all should have eternal life. God, we ask you to speak to our hearts and lives today. Touch us, minister to us. We thank you for it. Our worship team is going to lead us in some worship.
And if you're here today, you may know that Jesus paid for the redemption, but you need to cast that redemption in. You need to accept that redemption. Then I also think there's some people here today that you need to hear that God is working on your behalf and he's dropping some handfuls on purpose, some blessings for you, but you need to pick them up. You need to honor him by taking advantage of the gifts that that he has given you. So as we worship the Lord today, the altars are open.
I ask you if you would stand.
On behalf of our pastor and staff here at OAG, we want to say thank you. Thank you for being a part of our ministry. We are grateful for you and the support you give our church and its ministries so that we can continue to do it good God has called us to do, to be the family church for the family of God. For more content from Pastor Strickland and Oxford assembly of God, check out our media website at OAG Church media.
