Catégorie
📚
ÉducationTranscription
00:00 For those of you that are committed followers of Jesus,
00:03 you are all in wanting to follow Jesus
00:06 and honor Him with every part of your life.
00:09 If you're a committed follower of Jesus,
00:11 how in the world do you meet someone
00:16 and date someone and marry someone
00:20 in a way that honors God in our culture today?
00:24 Because have any of you noticed it's complicated?
00:29 (audience laughing)
00:31 Type it in the comment section, it's complicated.
00:35 If you think it's complicated,
00:36 somebody say it's complicated.
00:38 It's incredibly complicated.
00:40 How do you even meet someone if you're a Christian?
00:44 Do you need some Christian pickup lines?
00:47 You walk into Life Group,
00:51 carrying your YouVersion Bible app on your phone
00:54 just so they see it,
00:55 and you walk up to someone and you say,
00:58 "Is it hot in here?
00:59 Or is that just the Holy Ghost burning inside of you?"
01:03 (audience laughing)
01:06 Do you see someone praising God
01:11 with no wedding ring on their praise finger,
01:15 and after church you say, "You must be a Bible verse,
01:19 'cause I wanna memorize you."
01:22 How do you do it?
01:23 How do you do it?
01:24 Do you walk up, "I've got more, do you want more?
01:26 I've got more."
01:31 Do you walk up to someone and say,
01:33 "Your name must be Faith,
01:35 because you're the substance of all things
01:37 I've been hoping for."
01:38 (audience laughing)
01:41 Now I kinda just joke him, but like for real,
01:46 how do you meet, and how do you date,
01:49 and how do you marry, and how do you honor someone
01:51 in this very complicated culture?
01:55 Because if you haven't noticed,
01:56 the culture's view on marriage is changing right before us,
02:01 every single moment of the day.
02:02 And in fact, for the first time in our lifetime,
02:06 the majority of adults are actually not married.
02:10 And I'll give you some statistics
02:11 that are quite revealing.
02:13 I'll give you three of them.
02:14 The first one is this.
02:16 In the last five decades,
02:18 marriage rates in the US have dropped by nearly 60%.
02:24 Another thought that is sobering is that 63% of men
02:28 under the age of 30 are choosing to be single.
02:32 They're choosing, so if you're looking for a man under 30
02:34 and going, "Where are they?"
02:35 They're intentionally sitting on the bench.
02:37 And if you ask them why,
02:38 they would say, "Because dating's a hassle.
02:40 It feels like going on a job interview.
02:42 We like the freedom.
02:43 And besides, why buy the cow if the milk is free?"
02:45 Can we be adults in here and talk about
02:48 what kind of thing I might say?
02:49 That's kinda what they're thinking along the way.
02:51 That's where the world is.
02:53 And then a big issue that we see right now
02:55 is that 77% of millennials prefer to live
03:00 with their partner before marriage.
03:02 And they might argue,
03:04 "Why would you buy a car without test driving at first?"
03:07 And this is kind of a mindset today
03:10 that marriage is not as important.
03:13 Marriage is not something that the culture values.
03:16 And so people are delaying marriage or avoiding marriage.
03:21 And yet, almost everyone you meet still
03:26 has this craving for that someone special.
03:31 And so if they do get married,
03:34 when they do get married,
03:35 tragically, about half or so of those marriages
03:38 end up in divorce.
03:40 That's heartbreaking and breaks the heart of God.
03:42 And then perhaps the other half that don't divorce,
03:44 many of those still struggle.
03:46 When we look on at the state of marriages today,
03:49 we'd have to agree that something is not working,
03:52 yet the culture continues to do what the culture does.
03:55 And that's why I've always said,
03:57 if you do what most people do,
04:00 you'll get what most people get.
04:03 If you want something different,
04:05 you have to take a different approach.
04:07 And that's what we're gonna look at today
04:09 in the book of Ruth.
04:10 We're gonna look at a different approach
04:13 to getting to know someone
04:14 and working toward a marriage that honors God.
04:17 I'm calling this message, finding the love that you want.
04:21 God, we pray that your word would speak life to us,
04:25 build our faith,
04:26 and God, give us the tools and the resources
04:29 to date, marry, and honor you in all of our relationships.
04:33 We pray this in Jesus' name.
04:35 And everybody said, amen.
04:37 Let's dive into Ruth.
04:38 We're gonna do a little review
04:41 because the backstory is really important.
04:44 If you missed last week,
04:45 let me go over the highlights to catch you up.
04:48 The book of Ruth.
04:48 This is a story of an ordinary family of four
04:52 that lived in Bethlehem.
04:54 And when there was a famine in Bethlehem,
04:57 the father of the husband got worried
04:59 about feeding his family.
05:00 So he left Bethlehem and he went to Moab
05:03 about 50 miles away.
05:05 And this was a massive mistake beyond measure
05:09 because number one, God said,
05:11 don't marry the people of Moab.
05:13 Don't even go to Moab
05:15 because this was a people that was founded through incest.
05:19 They worshiped the false God called Chemosh
05:22 and would actually make child sacrifices to this God.
05:26 God even said that Moab is his wash basin.
05:30 That's what God said in scripture.
05:31 So this dad is worried about his family.
05:34 So during the famine, they leave Bethlehem.
05:36 They go to Moab in order to save the family.
05:39 And the dad and the two sons ended up dying in Moab.
05:44 It's a heartbreaking start to the story.
05:47 Chapter one, it starts with heartbreak and loss.
05:52 And so Naomi turns Moab, leaves Moab
05:57 and returns to Bethlehem.
05:58 And in Moab, she actually had two sons that were there.
06:03 They married Moabite women.
06:05 And at the end of this, she decides to go back,
06:07 but one of them stays back in Moab.
06:09 And we see the story pick up
06:11 when Ruth makes her famous statement to Naomi.
06:16 Naomi's going back to Bethlehem.
06:18 She's leaving Moab to go back to Bethlehem.
06:20 And Ruth, one of the daughters says,
06:22 "Where you go, I will go.
06:24 "And where you stay, I will stay.
06:27 "Your people will be my people and your God, my God."
06:31 She makes the declaration of loyalty
06:33 and she turns away from the God of Moab.
06:37 She turns to the God of Bethlehem.
06:39 This is her moment of salvation and she becomes new.
06:43 What happens?
06:44 Naomi, the mother-in-law and Ruth, the new believer,
06:48 new follower of God, return to Bethlehem.
06:51 They're homeless, they're hopeless and they are hurting.
06:55 Some of you are hurting today.
06:58 Some of you are in a very painful place today.
07:03 Chapter one of Ruth starts with heartbreak.
07:10 The good news is today we're turning a page.
07:14 We're starting in chapter two.
07:17 Today, chapter one comes to an end and we're in chapter two.
07:23 Chapter one is behind us and we're in chapter two.
07:26 I don't know who this is for, but metaphorically speaking,
07:29 for some of you, I believe God is gonna turn a page
07:31 in your story.
07:33 You've been stuck for a long time in chapter one.
07:37 And right now in God's Word, God is going to do something
07:40 in your life, show you something, move in a way.
07:43 He's going to turn a page in your life.
07:46 Chapter one will be behind you.
07:48 Today, we're in chapter two.
07:51 You're going to discover some good news
07:53 whenever you leave Moab and you go to Bethlehem.
07:56 When you turn away from Moab,
07:58 you'll find God's blessings in Bethlehem.
08:01 Today, we're in chapter two.
08:03 If you're ready for chapter two, say we're ready for two.
08:05 Type it in the comment section, we're ready for chapter two.
08:08 Let's dive in.
08:08 Chapter two, verse one says this.
08:11 Now, Naomi had a relative of her husband,
08:16 on her husband's side, a man of standing.
08:19 Everybody say a man of standing.
08:21 Type that in the comment section, a man of standing.
08:23 A man of standing.
08:24 Another version says he was a strong man, a man of standing.
08:27 He was a strong man from the clan of Elimelech
08:30 and his name was Boaz.
08:33 He is a strong man, he is a man of standing.
08:37 Now, when it says he was a strong man,
08:39 this does not necessarily mean he had nice arms
08:44 and wore a tight-fitting T-shirt.
08:46 But as some would say, if a shirt fits, wear it.
08:48 I don't know, he wasn't necessarily strong in that way.
08:51 What it means is a strong man or a man of standing
08:54 means he had internal strength,
08:56 it means he had character, it means he had integrity.
08:59 Interestingly enough, in the Hebrew language,
09:01 it actually means that he was a man of wealth
09:03 or even more literally, he was a man of property.
09:06 He had property.
09:08 He was a man of standing,
09:10 which if you could allow me to play with this for a moment,
09:13 I would say, ladies, that a man of standing
09:16 is way better than a man of sitting, right?
09:20 You don't want someone who is passive,
09:23 you don't want someone who is complacent.
09:26 You want someone who is standing,
09:28 is a man with a work ethic, with some drive,
09:31 who might even own something and have a job.
09:35 What you want is you want a boaz.
09:38 A boaz is a man of standing.
09:41 You want a boaz.
09:42 Everybody say, I want a boaz.
09:44 You want a boaz.
09:46 This one country preacher said, he said,
09:48 "You don't want no lazy ass.
09:50 "You sure don't want no broke ass,
09:53 "and you don't want no dumb ass, you want a boaz.
09:58 "You want a boaz."
09:59 (congregation applauding)
10:02 Can we have a little fun today?
10:03 Are you okay with that?
10:04 I said, as, a Z, I said, as.
10:07 As, is what I said, in case you're getting all freaked out.
10:11 Some of you say,
10:13 "You just described my last three boyfriends."
10:15 You don't want that, you want a boaz.
10:19 And we see a little bit about this story.
10:21 Look at the next verse, says this in verse two.
10:25 "Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,
10:28 "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain
10:31 "behind anyone else in whose eyes I find favor.
10:35 "Naomi said to her, go ahead, my daughter."
10:37 So you go get to work.
10:38 "So Ruth went out and entered a field
10:41 "and began to glean behind the harvesters."
10:43 Now you may say, what does that mean, to glean?
10:46 It's very interesting.
10:47 To glean is something that you can read about
10:49 in Leviticus 19, when God commanded the Israelites
10:53 to let the poor follow behind them.
10:56 And so if you were harvesting something
10:57 and you dropped a little bit of the wheat
10:59 or a little bit of the grain on the ground,
11:01 you were not to pick it up,
11:02 so that those who were widows or those who were outcasts
11:05 or those who were poor could come behind
11:07 and you would leave it for them and they would pick it up.
11:09 And that was God's way of providing for them,
11:12 like God's food bank or his soup kitchen to say,
11:15 I wanna care for those who don't have
11:18 what everyone else has.
11:18 And so this was what Ruth was doing as a widow.
11:21 She would go out and glean and pick up what they left over.
11:24 So we see in the next verse,
11:26 "As Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters,
11:29 "and as it happened,"
11:33 another version says, "it just so happened."
11:37 Everybody say, "It just so happened."
11:40 "And as it happened,
11:43 "she found herself working in a field
11:47 "that belonged to Boaz.
11:50 "And as it happened,
11:53 "it just so happened."
11:57 And this, when you read that, is God winking at us.
12:02 It just so happened.
12:04 It just so happened.
12:05 And this brings up one of the major themes
12:09 in the book of Ruth.
12:10 It just so happened.
12:12 When you look at the book of Ruth,
12:13 you're gonna notice that there are no supernatural miracles
12:17 from God.
12:18 There's no burning bush.
12:19 There's no parting of the Red Sea.
12:21 There's no voices from heaven.
12:23 But though you don't see supernatural miracles
12:26 in the book of Ruth,
12:27 what you do see is the supernatural providence of God,
12:32 the providential power of God
12:35 all the way through the book of Ruth.
12:38 What is the providence of God?
12:40 That's a fancy way of saying
12:42 it's whenever God uses natural circumstances
12:47 to bring about his supernatural plans.
12:51 It's when you think you're just so happening
12:53 going to this one place
12:55 and you just so happen to meet someone
12:58 and that just so happens to lead to something else
13:01 and it just so happens to lead to the blessings of God.
13:05 This is the providential power of a good God.
13:09 Romans 8:28 says, "We know that this God,
13:11 "he works in all things, in everything,
13:13 "in the good things and in the bad things."
13:16 In the chapter one that you don't like,
13:18 in the blessings of chapter two,
13:19 he works in all things to bring about his goodwill.
13:23 He works in all things to bring about good
13:25 to those who love him
13:27 and are called according to his purpose.
13:29 He just so happens to be working in the field
13:33 of a man named Boaz.
13:35 If this story were a movie,
13:39 we know it's a rom-com, right?
13:41 It's a chick flick.
13:43 And in every chick flick,
13:44 there's gonna be the plot twist.
13:46 This is where Ruth is at her lowest.
13:49 She's gleaning, picking up the leftovers.
13:52 Enter the handsome hero.
13:55 Now, he may not have been handsome, we don't know,
14:00 but I like to visualize him in handsome.
14:02 He might've been ugly, but even if it was ugly,
14:04 he was a business owner and that was a good thing.
14:08 We don't know what he looked like.
14:10 She might've been happy when she saw his looks,
14:12 he might not have been.
14:14 When I met Amy, people told her it was a blind date,
14:17 we had never met before.
14:19 They told her, "He looks like Tom Cruise."
14:22 I walked up to her apartment, I knocked on the door.
14:26 She opened the door, the big smile on her face
14:28 and she went, "Oh."
14:30 (audience laughing)
14:32 But I'm here to tell you, I was a man of standing.
14:35 I was a man of standing.
14:37 And I talked my way into closing that deal
14:40 as fast as I possibly could.
14:43 So she just happens to come across a man named Boaz.
14:48 Why do you think she just so happened to come across Boaz?
14:55 We got a little clue, if you remember last week
14:59 in chapter one, Naomi, the mother-in-law,
15:02 actually prayed for Ruth.
15:04 Do you remember what she prayed?
15:05 She prayed, "May the Lord show you kindness
15:07 "and may he bring you a husband."
15:09 She prayed that in chapter one.
15:11 And when she prayed, God listens.
15:14 And I wanna remind you, every time you pray to God,
15:17 he's always listening.
15:19 God cares about what you care about.
15:22 And when you cry out to God,
15:25 God just so happens to show up.
15:29 That's why praying for, if you have the desire
15:32 in your heart one day to get married,
15:34 praying for your future spouse is a really wise thing to do.
15:39 If you're a parent and you want your kids to marry well,
15:42 it's a wise thing as a parent
15:44 to pray for your children's future spouse.
15:47 I'll shoot straight with you,
15:48 like some of the kids that came around, my kids,
15:51 we prayed some of them in.
15:54 And we prayed a couple of them out.
15:55 (audience laughing)
15:56 And because we wanna be praying,
15:58 and when we pray, God just so happens to show up
16:03 and God just so happens to do what only he can do.
16:06 So she's just out working the fields.
16:10 She's just doing what, she's just being responsible.
16:13 She's working in the field
16:14 and she just so happens to meet Boaz.
16:17 And verse four tells us this.
16:19 While she was there, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem
16:24 and greeted the harvesters.
16:26 And what did he say to his workers?
16:28 He said, "The Lord be with you.
16:30 "The Lord bless you."
16:32 What do we see with this guy?
16:34 We see very clearly he's a leader,
16:37 he's kind to his people.
16:39 And the first thing he's talking about is the Lord.
16:43 "The Lord bless you, the Lord bless you."
16:45 Now, I've said this before and I made a lot of you mad.
16:50 So if I haven't made you mad yet,
16:52 I'll go ahead and try to make you mad right now.
16:55 If you're a serious disciple of Jesus
16:58 and you want to marry someone
17:00 who is a serious disciple of Jesus,
17:02 and you meet someone and you don't hear about Jesus
17:07 or God or church or their faith
17:10 somewhere relatively early in the conversation,
17:14 chances are they are not serious about their faith.
17:18 Oh, but Craig, that's too late, blah, blah, blah.
17:20 People have their interests, blah, blah, blah.
17:21 Listen, people tend to talk about first
17:24 what they value most.
17:26 If you are a committed follower of Jesus
17:29 and you're not hearing something about their faith early on,
17:33 chances are they may be a Christian,
17:36 but they're not as passionate
17:37 as you're gonna want somebody to be
17:39 when you go through life,
17:41 needing the power of God
17:42 to help you through every single day.
17:44 "The Lord bless you, the Lord keep you."
17:46 He comes out and saying to his people.
17:49 And what I love about Boaz is,
17:51 notice, he's not a priest, he's not a prophet,
17:56 he's not a pastor.
17:58 And yet he has a ministry, right?
18:01 He's working his mission field.
18:04 His fields of harvest is also his fields of ministry.
18:09 And that's a reminder to every single one of you,
18:11 you don't have to be in full-time ministry
18:15 to be in full-time ministry.
18:18 Meaning you don't have to have some kind of title
18:20 or work for a nonprofit or go to some other country
18:23 as a missionary to be a missionary in your school.
18:27 You don't have to go to overseas to preach the gospel
18:30 to let the way you live preach the gospel.
18:33 So this is just an ordinary business owner
18:36 who's letting the light and love of God shine.
18:41 And while he's serving God,
18:44 he just so happens to notice Ruth.
18:48 And what did he notice?
18:52 Well, to be candid,
18:55 if she had an online dating profile,
18:57 it wouldn't have been ideal.
19:00 Think about it.
19:03 If you looked her up and if she was honest,
19:06 'cause not everybody's honest.
19:08 Everybody has one good picture.
19:11 One good one.
19:14 Well, how'd they do that?
19:15 Well, that was that one good one they took seven years ago.
19:18 To be candid, if she had an online profile,
19:22 it wouldn't have been something to be really drawn to.
19:26 What do we know about her?
19:27 Well, she was a Moabite,
19:29 meaning she was from the wrong people group.
19:32 And she used to worship the wrong God.
19:34 And she was widowed, which means she was not a virgin,
19:38 which was a big deal at that time.
19:39 She was homeless, she was destitute,
19:41 and she came with, worst of all,
19:44 a grumpy old mother-in-law.
19:47 Her travel partner has some real baggage, right?
19:52 We could say she had a complicated past.
19:55 She had a complicated past.
19:59 But she did not let her past define her.
20:02 I'm gonna tell you right now,
20:04 don't let your past talk you out
20:07 of God's plan for your future.
20:09 Don't let it happen.
20:10 Some of you are like, "No, well,
20:11 "I can never because I whatever."
20:13 I had a complicated past before I was a Christian
20:17 and lived in a sinful lifestyle.
20:20 And, oh, that disqualifies me.
20:21 Well, actually, it might prepare me
20:23 to speak to someone who's there
20:24 to say, "If God can redeem me,
20:26 "He can do the same thing for you."
20:27 Don't let your past talk you out
20:29 of what God wants to do in your presence and in your future.
20:35 So let's look at what happened as they're gonna meet.
20:38 Boaz asked his foreman, "Hey!"
20:41 I see that girl over there.
20:43 "Who's that young woman over there?
20:45 "Who does she belong to?"
20:47 That was the old version of creeping on somebody's profile.
20:51 That's what he's doing right now.
20:53 He's gonna find out, I want some more details.
20:55 And the foreman said, "She's a young woman from Moab
20:58 "who came back with Naomi.
21:01 "She asked me this morning if she could gather grain
21:04 "behind the harvesters.
21:05 "And this woman, she's been hard at work ever since."
21:10 All of a sudden, Boaz, a man of standing,
21:14 is looking on at this unlikely woman
21:18 and he notices some things that stand out in her.
21:22 Gentlemen, what are you looking for in a woman of God
21:27 that stands out from what you're gonna see
21:29 in most people in culture today?
21:32 We see four things that he would have noticed in her.
21:35 What do we see?
21:36 We see, first of all, she's faithful to God.
21:38 The second thing we see is she's loyal to her family.
21:41 The third thing we see is she's a hard worker.
21:44 And finally, she honors God morally.
21:47 First of all, she's faithful to God.
21:50 She turned away from her people and the false God
21:54 to serve the God of Israel.
21:56 She's loyal to her family.
21:59 The other one, Oprah, she stayed back in Moab,
22:02 but Ruth made the sacrificial decision
22:05 to stay with Naomi and go to Bethlehem.
22:08 She's a hard worker.
22:10 She's not waiting around for someone to meet her needs.
22:12 She's not crying out, she's a victim.
22:14 She's up early, gleaning in the fields.
22:16 And finally, she honors God morally.
22:18 How do we know this?
22:19 Because almost every widow during that time
22:22 was forced into prostitution in order to pay the bills,
22:25 and she refuses to do what most do,
22:28 and she's out working hard, sweating.
22:31 In the heat of the day, she honors God morally.
22:34 We see some qualities that stand out.
22:37 If you want something different,
22:39 you wanna be something different.
22:41 You wanna honor God.
22:42 You wanna be faithful to people.
22:44 You wanna be a hard worker,
22:46 and you wanna honor God by living a life
22:48 that's pleasing to God morally.
22:51 And the text goes on to tell us this.
22:53 Scripture says, "Boaz went over and said to Ruth,
22:55 "Listen, my daughter,
22:57 "stay right here with us when you gather grain."
23:00 Now watch this, he says,
23:01 "Don't go to any other fields.
23:03 "I've warned the young men not to treat you roughly."
23:06 In other words, I'm gonna protect them
23:09 from being inappropriate to you.
23:11 And then watch as he serves her.
23:12 He said, "And when you're thirsty,
23:14 "help yourself to water that they have drawn from the well."
23:18 He's protecting her.
23:20 He's caring for her needs.
23:22 And then what does he do next?
23:23 The next thing he does is he prays for her.
23:27 He prays for her in verse 12, and this is what he prays.
23:30 "May the Lord repay you for what you've done.
23:32 "May you be richly rewarded by the Lord,
23:36 "the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come
23:39 "to take refuge."
23:40 And all of a sudden we see some qualities
23:43 that stand out in Boaz.
23:45 What are the four qualities that stand out in Boaz?
23:47 Let's look at them.
23:48 Number one, he honors her.
23:51 Number two, he protects her.
23:53 Number three, he provides for her.
23:55 And number four, he prays for her.
23:57 He honors her.
24:01 Ladies, sounds old-fashioned, and it is.
24:04 You want someone who opens the door for you
24:08 and lets you go first and takes you to a restaurant
24:12 that you have to tip
24:13 and pays the bill.
24:17 He protects her.
24:20 He's gonna protect her from ungodly men,
24:24 and you want someone who's gonna protect you
24:26 not just from men, but protect your heart
24:29 and protect your purity.
24:30 He provides for her.
24:31 We're gonna see next week, he's incredibly generous,
24:33 and he prays for her.
24:35 You want someone who prays for you and prays with you
24:39 because you need the power and the presence of God
24:42 in your life.
24:43 That's what you're looking for in a man.
24:45 And so men, that's what you wanna develop
24:48 in your own heart.
24:49 You wanna be someone that honors women
24:51 and would protect them and be a blessing to them.
24:56 And we see what happens next.
24:57 It gets pretty emotional to me, this.
25:00 Scripture says at mealtime, Boaz said,
25:02 "Come over here, have some bread
25:04 "and dip it in the wine vinegar."
25:06 When she sat down with the harvesters,
25:07 he offered her some roasted grain
25:09 and she ate all that she wanted and she had some left over.
25:14 She had all that she wanted and she had some left over
25:20 because we serve a God who does exceedingly
25:24 and abundantly more than all you could ask,
25:28 think, or imagine according to his power
25:31 that is at work within his people.
25:33 What you want is you want someone
25:35 that doesn't just meet the needs that you have,
25:38 but exceeds your expectations by blessing you
25:42 with the blessings from God in heaven
25:45 and loving you in a way that would honor God
25:49 and help you feel secure in all that you do.
25:53 This is a very different approach.
25:55 Instead of sliding up into someone's DMs going,
25:57 "Hey, what's up?
25:58 "Wanna chill?
26:01 "Hey, let's go to the bar and hump and bump."
26:02 And I'm, (mimics drum roll)
26:04 Right?
26:05 And I'm being serious
26:07 because this is a very, very different approach.
26:10 We're gonna see much more next week
26:14 of how to take a different approach
26:15 if you want a different result.
26:17 I wanna pause and slow it down
26:21 and try to bring this to a very powerful moment with God
26:26 and summarize what we've seen so far in this story.
26:32 Because in so many ways, all of us,
26:36 we are a lot like Ruth.
26:38 What do we know about her?
26:41 She was a Moabite and she had sinned against God.
26:47 And in a very similar way, we're all Moabites.
26:50 We've sinned against God.
26:52 We've fallen short of his standards and sinned against him.
26:56 She came empty-handed with nothing to offer.
27:01 And so do we, our hearts are deceitful above all else.
27:05 Everything good she had would be given to her
27:09 in the same way everything good we have
27:13 is gleaned from the goodness of a God of love,
27:17 a God of mercy, and a God of grace.
27:20 And Boaz blessed Ruth with more than she ever expected.
27:25 And our God will bless us with more than we ever deserve.
27:30 His grace that covers our sins,
27:34 his power to make us new,
27:37 his peace that goes beyond our human ability
27:40 to even understand.
27:42 And I want you to notice,
27:44 Boaz invited Ruth to his table
27:49 in the same way that Jesus invites us to his table,
27:55 where he offers us the bread and the wine.
28:00 His body and his blood,
28:03 so that no matter what your past is like,
28:07 you can be made new.
28:10 So,
28:12 if you're stuck in chapter one,
28:19 it's time to make the change.
28:22 It's time to turn away from Moab
28:25 and turn to the God of Bethlehem.
28:28 Because when you turn away from Moab,
28:30 you find God's blessings in Bethlehem.
28:33 If you're hurting and you're stuck,
28:36 maybe today God will turn your page.
28:39 If you're caught in an addiction,
28:41 maybe as you cry out to him today,
28:44 God will turn the page.
28:47 For those of you that are losing hope,
28:49 maybe God will turn the page, a new chapter.
28:52 You're battling depression or anxiety,
28:55 fear, mental health issues.
28:57 Maybe today you turn into chapter two.
29:01 Because whatever you're going through,
29:03 God hears the cries of your hearts.
29:06 He hears your prayers.
29:09 And when you pray, God just happens to show up.
29:14 And through his providential power,
29:17 he takes natural circumstances and uses them for your good
29:22 to bring about his divine purposes in your life.
29:27 That's how good he is.
29:29 So no matter what you're going through,
29:32 it just so happens that you're hearing truth
29:35 from God's word today.
29:38 It just so happens God may speak to you
29:41 a word that builds your faith today.
29:44 Chapter one is finished.
29:46 Chapter two has begun.
29:49 You may be struggling in your marriage
29:50 and it just so happens God may speak to your spouse today.
29:54 This is the kind of wife that you can be.
29:56 This is the kind of man of God that you can become.
29:59 It just so happens that if your faith is low,
30:04 God may build your faith.
30:06 When you hear his word, faith comes by hearing
30:10 and hearing by the word of God.
30:12 It just so happens God brought you here
30:15 to hear this word, to build your faith.
30:17 Chapter one is closing.
30:19 Chapter two begins.
30:20 God is here.
30:21 He is with you and he is for you.
30:24 (congregation applauding)
30:27 God, thank you today that you're gonna do a work
30:29 in the lives of so many people.
30:31 Holy Spirit, do what only you can do
30:34 by your providential power and the truth of your word.
30:38 Build our faith, God, as we trust in you.
30:43 With everybody, eyes closed, nobody looking around,
30:47 I wonder how many of you are stuck somewhere
30:48 in a chapter one right now
30:50 and you're ready for chapter two.
30:52 Would you lift up your hands?
30:53 Lift up your hands and say,
30:54 "Yes, I'm ready for God to do something new.
30:55 "I'm ready for God to do."
30:57 I need a miracle from God.
30:58 Lift up your hands.
30:59 I need a touch from God.
31:00 I'm crying out to God.
31:01 Father, I pray today that for those that are stuck
31:04 in chapter one, that your Holy Spirit would do a work.
31:07 If you're online, just type in the comment section,
31:09 "I'm ready for chapter two."
31:12 God, we thank you that you make all things new.
31:17 That even if we're stuck in a chapter that we don't like,
31:19 you can still work in that chapter
31:22 to bring about good by faith, God.
31:24 We ask that you work, God, that you move,
31:27 that by your providential power,
31:30 you would work in the very things
31:32 that we may not even want to bring about something good.
31:36 Build our faith, God, as we trust in you today.
31:40 As you keep praying today,
31:44 some of you, you're about to get the new chapter
31:46 that you've always wanted.
31:48 You might feel very stuck in Moab.
31:51 You feel stuck and dead in your sins.
31:55 Let me just speak very, very clearly
31:57 because sin is not a popular word today at all.
32:02 It is a word that is very true to all of us.
32:06 It's in Scripture that every single one of us,
32:08 we've all sinned.
32:09 What does that mean?
32:10 That just means that we've fallen
32:11 way, way short of God's standards.
32:12 And you know it, you feel bad for some things you've done.
32:14 There's a part of you, if you're honest,
32:16 you're gonna go, "Yeah, I've done some things that are wrong."
32:18 And so when we think about God, we wonder like,
32:20 how do we qualify for Him
32:22 after we've done so many things that are wrong?
32:25 And the amazing thing is we just can't on our own.
32:28 And in His love and mercy,
32:29 and we're gonna find as we go through this story,
32:32 out of the brokenness of a Moabite woman
32:35 comes the lineage of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
32:39 Who is Jesus?
32:39 He is the Son of God who never sinned,
32:41 who is perfect in every single way.
32:43 Jesus, the Son of God invites us to His table.
32:48 We don't deserve to be there,
32:50 but He gives us the bread and the wine.
32:55 It's His body that was broken for us.
32:58 It was His blood that was shed for us on a cross.
33:02 He died and rose again so that we could be forgiven.
33:06 Whoever you are today,
33:07 if you know that you're not walking with God,
33:11 even when I talk about it and say,
33:12 "Hey, if you're a true disciple of Jesus,"
33:14 there are some of you like me,
33:14 you grew up kind of believing in God,
33:17 kind of going to church,
33:18 but you're not really walking with Him.
33:20 Let's just call it what it is.
33:20 You're really not.
33:21 You're really not.
33:24 What are we gonna do today?
33:25 We're gonna step out of Moab,
33:26 we're gonna step into Bethlehem,
33:27 we're gonna step away from our sin,
33:28 and we're gonna say, "Jesus, we wanna trust You as Lord."
33:30 When you call on Him, He will hear your prayers.
33:34 He'll forgive every sin, and you start a new chapter.
33:38 All the old is gone, and everything becomes new.
33:42 You belong to Him.
33:43 Wherever you're watching from today,
33:45 you just so happen to hear this message
33:47 'cause your life has just so happened to be changed.
33:50 I want His forgiveness, I need His grace.
33:52 Today, I step away from my sin, and I call on Jesus.
33:55 I call on Him.
33:56 I make Him my Lord, I make Him my Savior.
33:57 If that's you today, you know you need His salvation.
33:59 Step away from Moab and step toward Bethlehem and say,
34:02 "Yes, Jesus, I give You my life."
34:04 That's your prayer.
34:04 Lift your hands high right now.
34:05 All of the place, lift them up high and say yes
34:07 right over here.
34:08 Praise God for you.
34:09 Right back here, others today saying yes.
34:10 That's my prayer right up here in this section.
34:12 Say, "Yes, Jesus, I'm surrendering my life to You."
34:15 Right back over here.
34:16 Come on, church, let's thank God for what He's doing.
34:18 Others today say, "I want His grace, Jesus.
34:20 "I need You, I surrender to You."
34:23 Those of you online, type it in the comment section.
34:25 "I am surrendering my life to Jesus."
34:28 And as you do, we're all gonna pray.
34:30 Nobody prays alone.
34:30 Pray, Heavenly Father, forgive all of my sins.
34:35 Jesus, save me.
34:36 Fill me with Your Spirit so I could know You
34:41 and I could serve You and I could follow You
34:45 for the rest of my life.
34:47 My life is not my own.
34:49 I give it all to You.
34:51 Thank You for new life.
34:53 I'm leaving Moab.
34:56 I'm coming to Bethlehem.
34:58 I give you my life.
34:59 In Jesus name I pray.
35:02 Can somebody celebrate big?
35:03 Welcome those born into the family.
35:05 Come on church.
35:05 Come on church.
35:06 Come on church.
35:07 Praise God.
35:08 Thank God, thank God, thank God.
35:09 (applause)