A lot is being written and preached about purpose driven life-styles – but Jesus is a Good Shepherd that gently leads his sheep to green pastures, quiet waters and on paths of righteousness for His Name's sake. He does not drive His sheep like cattle.
When we love God and know that we are called according to His purpose, all things work together for good for us. The main purpose is to be conformed to the image of His Son, the first-born of many brothers. We cannot produce this change in ourselves by goal setting and works of the flesh in which the flesh always want to glory. We cannot drive ourselves into conformity with Christ. We simply have to learn to yield to Him, more and more and learn to find contentment in life. When He reveals Himself in and through us as a body of believers, we cannot boast about it, because we are vessels in the Master's hand. Our purpose is to yield not to try and accomplish our self-set goals of achievement that makes us proud once we obtain them.
One of the areas in which we need to yield to the Lordship of Christ is giving. We find a wonderful example of this in the story of Ruth. Boaz gives us a tip on how he operated as a wealthy farmer and we find out how the Lord rewarded him by bringing him into the lineage that produced David and eventually Christ. (I ask you, how could he have set that goal or purpose for himself and driven himself to achieve it? I must become the great grandfather of King David through whom Christ will be born? These self-motivational Christian books take our eyes of Christ and puts it back on ourselves. Jesus said we must deny ourselves, but people prefer to buy books that satisfies the flesh and boosts the ego! May God open our eyes to see the truth and to find peace within, knowing that our purpose is within us and not outside of ourselves. When you have to find our chase your life's purpose you become unnatural and begin to drive others just as hard as you drive yourself! Jesus said, My yoke is easy and my burden is light: learn of Me that I am meek and gentle of spirit and you will find rest for your souls!)

Listen to this sermonHandfuls on purpose
Andre Pelser
14/05/2005
Introduction
The story of Ruth is filled with instructions for life. Wealthy farmers told their harvesters not to pick up the grain that fell while they were reaping so that poor people who followed the harvesters could glean some grain to feed their families. One day a stranger called Ruth came to glean behind the reapers. Boaz instructed his workers to drop handfuls of barley on purpose so that Ruth could pick it up and take it home. The word of the Lord instructs us through this incident tells us how He purposely takes care of us and reminds us to do the same to others.
The meaning of the names
Naomi – ‘my delight’
Mara – bitter
Elimelech – ‘My God is king’
Boaz – fleetness: the name of one of the two pillars in Solomon’s porch
Ruth – ‘friendship’ or ‘female companion’
Ephrah to Ephratah: ‘ash heap to a place of fruitfulness’
Bethlehem: ‘house of bread’
Kinsman – redeemer, restorer, nourisher

Ruth 2:15, 16
15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: 16 And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.
The Kinsman-Redeemer
When Boaz redeemed the land that used to belong to Ruth’s late husband he also married her. The elders of the land who witnessed this deal praised him for being willing to take on this responsibility so that the family line of Ruth may continue. They lauded him and said, ‘may you be great and famous and may God bless you like he blessed Perez, whom Tamar bore for Judah!’
Perez or Pharesh means ‘breach or bursting forth’ and became the line of Judah through which David and eventually Christ was born. The bursting forth can be seen as a wall breaking down because it can no longer hold the increase, like a wall of a dam that is too full. It speaks of tremendous increase.
Because Boaz was willing to let his servants drop handfuls on purpose for Ruth he was blessed with much increase.

Isn’t this how God provides for us?
He sees to it that there is enough for us as we go to glean whatever we can find. He makes sure there is enough to pick up and to take home. He provides for us materially and spiritually. When we gather together to worship him he sees to it that there is enough handfuls dropped on purpose for each and every one to take home. He is our Provider. He is our nearest kinsman. He redeemed us when no one else would.
Ruth was instructed by Naomi to go and wash herself and to put on perfume and to go and lie at Boaz’s feet. Ruth obeyed Naomi and when Boaz awoke he spoke to Ruth and praised her for not running after young men, rich or poor. He rewarded her for her integrity and gave her more provision. Her act of surrender caused him to take full responsibility for her.
The church is like Ruth
We need a kinsman redeemer. As we lay ourselves down at his feet the Lord has compassion on us and provides for us.
He provides handfuls of salvation, handfuls of healing; handfuls of spiritual gifts and handfuls of comfort; he provides handfuls of blessings and handfuls of knowledge; he provides handfuls of encouragement and handfuls of fellowship; he provides handfuls of forgiveness and handfuls of sanctification; and the amazing thing is he does it on purpose! He knows our needs and lets his servant drop these handfuls on purpose.
As we preach the anointed word of God we drop handfuls on purpose for those who are hungry and needy. We have a spiritual harvest that is so plentiful that we can drop these handfuls on purpose!
Wherever you go, at work, school or play, you can follow this instruction: drop handfuls on purpose for those who are ready to glean the grain. The Lord of the great harvest is instructing us to drop handfuls of his word on purpose wherever we move and live and have our being. He wants us to drop handfuls of his divine blessings wherever we go. We have a wealthy Lord and his harvest is great. We can afford to drop handfuls on purpose. The harvest does not belong to us, it belongs to him and he can tell us what to do with it.
He wants us to drop handfuls of prophecies to encourage, exhort and comfort others. By prophesying to others we are not making our Lord poor. He has enough prophecies where those other prophecies came from. He has storehouses full of healing and storehouses full of deliverance!
If we only think of ourselves we will never drop handfuls on purpose: we will only take what we can get and keep it all to ourselves. But our Lord is teaching us to do what he himself would have done: drop handfuls on purpose.
Jesus left us an example
He left the portals of heaven and came to earth to do just that: to drop handfuls of God’s nature on purpose: he came to show us what God in the flesh is like. People witnessed how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good healing all who were oppressed of the devil for God was with Him. He promises to be with us too. He has anointed us with His Holy Spirit and we can go around doing good, healing people too. Because He dropped handfuls on purpose we can do it as well.
What is there that you are holding onto for dear life? Learn to drop handfuls on purpose and see how you will burst forth and increase in your life. Learn to drop handfuls of friendliness and see how your life will be blessed. Reach the unreached, love the unloved