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00:00 Today, I wanna talk to those of you
00:03 that might be disappointed in this season of your life.
00:08 And for many of you,
00:09 it's not that you don't believe in God and His goodness,
00:12 you do believe in Him,
00:14 but right now you may not be seeing His goodness
00:17 in your life.
00:18 For some of you, you hoped maybe at this season
00:22 that you would be financially strong,
00:25 that you could be a blessing to a lot of people.
00:27 But instead of being strong,
00:29 many of you, you don't know how you're gonna make it
00:30 through this month.
00:32 You thought you'd be somewhere else and you're not.
00:35 Or for some of you,
00:36 you dreamed of having a God honoring marriage,
00:41 but your dream got put on hold.
00:44 Or worse yet for some of you,
00:45 your dream turned into a nightmare.
00:47 Some of you thought by this time in your life,
00:50 you'd be happy and content
00:53 and have a great ministry and full of joy.
00:55 Instead, you feel lonely and anxious and depressed.
01:00 If you're hurting and maybe feel hopeless,
01:07 and you're trying to find the faith
01:09 to hope for something better,
01:12 I just wanna start by saying, I am sincerely sorry.
01:16 And my heart hurts for you.
01:18 And I get it because there are times
01:20 when I'll preach with all the faith that I have,
01:23 but on the inside, my heart is hurting as well.
01:26 And so I'm praying that God would speak directly
01:30 to some of you today,
01:31 that He would give you hope and build your faith
01:34 as we dive into the final edition of this study
01:37 on the book of Ruth.
01:39 What I wanna do is I wanna give you some backstory,
01:41 and then I'm gonna give you the title,
01:42 and then we're gonna pray,
01:43 and then we're gonna dive in,
01:44 and God is gonna do what only God can do.
01:48 So we'll look back, if you remember in chapter one,
01:51 Ruth hit rock bottom.
01:54 You remember that?
01:55 She and Naomi both lost their husbands.
01:58 They were widowed.
01:59 They had no job.
02:00 They had no means of financial support.
02:02 They had no provision, and they really had no hope.
02:05 We could say in chapter one,
02:07 Ruth experienced heartbreak, she experienced loss,
02:11 and she experienced very, very real and deep pain.
02:15 Then she makes a decision.
02:18 You remember her decision.
02:20 She decided to leave the sinfulness
02:23 of the place she was in Moab
02:25 and pursue the one true God of Israel in Bethlehem.
02:30 And she went back to Bethlehem to pursue God.
02:34 And in chapter two, we would see this,
02:36 that she worked, and she waited, and she served.
02:41 Instead of selling her body
02:44 like many women would have been forced to do,
02:46 she went and gleaned,
02:47 she worked in the fields of a guy named Boaz,
02:50 and she served faithfully, waiting on God.
02:54 Boaz asked her to lunch.
02:56 They had what appeared to be almost like a little date.
02:58 She got pretty excited.
02:59 Maybe this guy is the one, maybe he's going to redeem me.
03:02 He's an honorable man.
03:03 He's a wealthy man.
03:04 He's a man of standing.
03:06 And then he kind of got busy and just overlooked her.
03:10 So in chapter three, we see she does a few things.
03:13 She initiates, she surrenders, and she trusts.
03:18 She initiates, she put herself in the path of this guy,
03:24 very much in the path,
03:27 meaning she put herself at the foot of his bed,
03:28 which is not something we necessarily recommend
03:31 in premarital counseling,
03:32 but nevertheless, that's what she did.
03:34 And she said, "Hey, remember me?"
03:35 And she was available to him,
03:37 and she trusted God, and she waited.
03:40 And then this week, we're going to discover
03:43 that Boaz actually redeems her, and he marries her,
03:47 and God blesses them.
03:49 And together, they have a son called Obed,
03:51 which means servant of God.
03:53 And in chapter four, we see God's goodness
03:56 when she is redeemed by a man of God.
03:59 She is restored by the blessings of God.
04:02 And all of the community starts rejoicing
04:04 and celebrating the goodness of God in their lives.
04:09 (audience applauding)
04:11 And it's a journey from chapter one to two to three
04:14 and to four.
04:15 I want to talk to those of you
04:17 who may feel stuck in chapter one.
04:20 And I want you to hear me when I tell you
04:22 that God loves you, He cares about you, and He's with you.
04:27 Some of you, you're in the in-between, you're waiting.
04:32 You're in chapter two.
04:33 Stay faithful to God in chapter two.
04:36 Keep trusting God in chapter three.
04:39 And my prayer for you is that in chapter four,
04:42 I pray that you discover, here comes my title,
04:45 I pray that you discover that God's plans for you
04:48 are better than you can imagine.
04:53 Because He is good, He is faithful, and His Word is true.
04:58 So God, today we pray
05:01 for those who may be disappointed in their current chapter.
05:06 That God, we would all find you, experience you,
05:10 know you, and be changed by you.
05:15 We pray this in the name of your risen Son, Jesus,
05:17 and all God's people said, amen and amen and amen.
05:22 Let's pick up where we left off last week.
05:25 Do you remember Boaz wanted to redeem Ruth,
05:29 but there was another relative who was more closely related
05:33 and the author of the book calls him Poloni Alimony.
05:37 Who remembers that?
05:38 What does that mean?
05:39 That means Mr. No-Name.
05:40 That means muted name.
05:41 That means John Doe.
05:42 That means we're not even gonna say your name.
05:44 And so Boaz goes and meets with Poloni Alimony
05:47 and basically shrewdly works his plan and makes a deal
05:52 so that he can marry Ruth, provide for her,
05:57 protect her, bless her as his kinsman, redeemer.
06:02 And then he does this at the city gate,
06:04 the place of business,
06:04 and the elders there pray this prayer of blessing.
06:08 And they pray, "May the Lord make Ruth
06:11 "like the women from whom the whole nation
06:13 "of Israel descended.
06:15 "May you prosper and be famous in Bethlehem."
06:20 The elders pray this one prayer of faith.
06:25 And suddenly we see that one prayer
06:28 resulted in a changed life,
06:32 a changed family,
06:36 and ultimately a changed legacy
06:41 that would impact us even to this day.
06:46 One prayer.
06:47 Never underestimate what God can do
06:52 through the power of responding to one prayer.
06:55 Some of you may be stuck right now
06:58 and you may be one prayer away from the blessing
07:01 that God wants to bring in your life.
07:04 And so we actually see the answer to this prayer
07:07 in Ruth chapter four, verse 13.
07:10 The elders pray this prayer, and then we see in one verse,
07:13 so Boaz took Ruth into his home and she became his wife.
07:18 They got married, the two became one flesh.
07:21 When he slept with her,
07:23 the Lord enabled her to become pregnant
07:27 and she gave birth to a son.
07:32 The Lord enabled her to become pregnant
07:34 and she gave birth to a son.
07:36 We see one verse as an answer to one prayer
07:41 that clearly demonstrates how God can take years
07:46 of brokenness and turn it into blessings.
07:51 And when I say years of brokenness,
07:53 you have to remember that Ruth and Naomi experienced
07:56 10 years of misery in Moab.
08:00 In other words, sometimes a chapter may last
08:05 for a little while.
08:08 And then she makes one decision.
08:11 She decides to turn from Moab, turn to the God of Israel,
08:15 return to Bethlehem.
08:17 Someone prays one prayer of faith
08:19 and the results are dramatic.
08:21 It's not only a changed life,
08:23 it's not only a changed family,
08:25 but it is a changed legacy
08:28 that even impacts all of us today.
08:33 It's amazing.
08:34 And how did this come about?
08:37 There is a phrase in our verse
08:39 that I don't want you to miss.
08:40 And that is this, the Lord enabled.
08:44 Who enabled, who brought it about?
08:47 It was the Lord that enabled.
08:49 In fact, there is a phrase in Hebrew,
08:52 I wanna show you that is translated as the Lord enables.
08:55 It is the phrase Yahweh wey-yitn.
08:57 Everybody say that, say it aloud.
08:58 Say Yahweh wey-yitn.
09:01 If you wanna type that in online right now,
09:03 let me just spell it for you
09:05 so you'll type it the right way.
09:06 If you wanna type it in online, Yahweh,
09:08 Y-A-H-W-E-H, wey, W-A-Y, yitn, E-I-T-T-E-N.
09:13 Yah, everybody say it with me, Yahweh wey-yitn.
09:18 I love that this phrase is actually translated
09:22 different ways by different Bible translators.
09:25 I'll show you four different ways it's translated.
09:27 The NIV says the Lord enabled.
09:31 Another version in the ESV translates it as the Lord gave.
09:36 Another version, the CSB says the Lord granted.
09:39 And finally, the Good News translation says the Lord blessed.
09:44 No matter how you say it, it was the Lord who did it.
09:48 What did he do?
09:49 He is a giving God, he is a granting God,
09:52 he is an enabling God, and he is a blessing God.
09:56 The Lord enabled.
09:57 For you, there might be a different translation of the verb.
10:00 For you, it might not be the Lord enabled,
10:02 but it might be the Lord provided, or the Lord healed,
10:06 or the Lord answered, or the Lord restored.
10:09 For somebody, it might be the Lord opened the door,
10:12 the Lord proved himself faithful,
10:14 the Lord made a way when there didn't seem to be a way.
10:18 (audience applauding)
10:19 It is the Lord who enables, Yahweh wey-yitten.
10:24 Whatever you're facing today,
10:28 I came to tell somebody that God is able.
10:33 Our God is able, our God is able, our God is able.
10:37 Now to him, Ephesians 3, now to our God, who is what?
10:42 Say it with me, now to our God who is able
10:44 to do immeasurably more, not only what you can ask or think,
10:49 but more than all you can ask or imagine
10:53 according to his power that is at work within us.
10:55 He is able.
10:57 Whatever you need, God can do it.
11:02 And God can do even more
11:05 than everything that you can imagine.
11:08 Now, I know what some of you are thinking right now,
11:11 because I might be thinking the very same thing.
11:13 You're thinking, if he can, why didn't he?
11:17 If he can do it, why hasn't he?
11:20 If God is able, then why am I sitting here
11:24 waiting on him to do it?
11:27 And I'm guessing, I don't know, but I'm guessing
11:29 that might've been something similar
11:30 that Ruth would have thought back in chapter one.
11:33 If you remember, her husband died, which wasn't her plan.
11:36 And so she turned to God,
11:38 and she was very, very loyal to Naomi.
11:40 Wherever you go, I go, wherever you're be,
11:42 you're gotta be my God, I'm sticking with you.
11:44 And she stunk with her grumpy, bitter mother-in-law.
11:47 Then her sister, Orpah, bounced.
11:50 She's out, her sister-in-law, she's gone.
11:53 And so this woman who's broke, what does she do?
11:56 She goes and works early in the morning
11:57 till late at night, gleaning in the fields,
12:00 just trying to have enough food to eat
12:02 in order to survive.
12:03 And finally, after she's working her brains out
12:06 and her fingers are raw, she meets a cute guy
12:09 who might be the one who seems to be interested
12:12 and then goes, "Sir, God, where are you?
12:17 "I thought you sent Boaz, a man of God, a man of standing.
12:22 "I thought he was gonna be the one to redeem me,
12:24 "and now here I am waiting.
12:26 "Where are you, God?
12:27 "Why didn't you do what I thought you were gonna do?"
12:32 Maybe you ask, "Why didn't you heal
12:34 "the person I love when I prayed?
12:36 "Why didn't you save that marriage?
12:38 "Why didn't you come through in the way
12:40 "that I thought you would come through?
12:41 "Where are you, God?"
12:44 And you're waiting, you're waiting,
12:47 stuck in chapter two and stuck in chapter three.
12:51 I wanna remind you, and this is for somebody today,
12:54 that while you are waiting, God is still working.
12:59 Even though you may not see it,
13:03 doesn't mean he's not active.
13:07 And what I love about Ruth
13:09 is even when she didn't see anything,
13:11 she kept her faith.
13:14 And she didn't let her current situation
13:17 or her current circumstances define her view of God.
13:22 She just kept on trusting.
13:25 Why?
13:26 Because Yahweh, (speaking in foreign language)
13:28 God is able.
13:30 Whatever you need, he is able.
13:32 He has an answer for every problem that you face.
13:36 We can say it this way.
13:37 We can say he has a lifeline
13:39 for every letter of the alphabet.
13:43 In fact, I just went through the A, B, C, D, E, F,
13:46 all the way through just for fun to show you
13:49 that God is able to give you whatever you need.
13:53 What is God able to do?
13:55 A, he's able to answer your prayers.
13:58 B, God is able to bless you abundantly.
14:02 C, he can comfort you when you're hurting
14:04 or D, deliver you from evil.
14:06 He empowers you.
14:07 E, to do his will.
14:08 He F, forgives all of your sins.
14:11 Praise God for that.
14:12 G, he gives you your daily bread.
14:14 He heals you when you're sick.
14:16 I, he illuminates your path.
14:18 J, he justifies you by his amazing grace.
14:21 K, he keeps you from stumbling.
14:23 L, God loves you no matter what.
14:25 M, he moves your mountains.
14:27 N, he will never leave you and he will never forsake you.
14:30 O, our God overcomes all your enemies
14:33 by the blood of the lamb
14:34 and by the words of your testimony.
14:36 He provides P for all of your needs.
14:38 He Q, quiets your darkest fears.
14:40 He restores what you lost.
14:42 S, he strengthens you when you're weak.
14:44 T, he transforms your life.
14:46 U, he understands what you're going through in your pain.
14:50 He vanquishes your darkness.
14:52 W, he works all things together for good.
14:55 X, he extends you grace and give me some grace too
14:58 'cause I know that starts with an E
15:00 but there's an X right there
15:02 and that is the best that I could do for you.
15:03 Y, he yearns for all of your heart
15:07 and Z, he zealously pursues you
15:11 with his unconditional love, whatever you need.
15:14 Yahweh weyitten, God is able.
15:17 Our God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more
15:20 than all you can ask, think or imagine.
15:23 Whatever you can think of, our God can do
15:25 and he can do even more.
15:27 Whatever you need, Yahweh weyitten.
15:32 Our God is able, whatever you need.
15:36 And we see God show his ableness.
15:41 We see the answer, the provision in Ruth 4, verse 14.
15:44 I love this.
15:46 We see then the women of the town said to Naomi,
15:50 "Praise the Lord who has now provided a redeemer
15:54 "for your family.
15:55 "May this child be famous in Israel."
15:58 Can we pause there for just a moment
16:00 and notice why they're worshiping God.
16:02 It wasn't for Boaz's financial success.
16:04 It wasn't for a promotion.
16:06 It wasn't that they finally got to go
16:07 on their dream vacation, but it was that God
16:09 was providing a family legacy to change the world.
16:13 He gave them life.
16:13 All life comes from God.
16:15 Life is a gift from God.
16:16 And we see them praising God that he provided for them.
16:20 "May this child be famous in Israel.
16:25 "May he restore your youth and care for you in your old age,
16:30 "for he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you
16:34 "and has been," what?
16:35 Has been somebody said, has been what?
16:37 "Has been better to you than seven sons."
16:42 They've been better to you than seven sons.
16:48 It is important to note that they're celebrating
16:52 God's blessings now to Naomi,
16:55 but this was not anywhere close to her plan.
17:00 She never planned to leave Bethlehem to go in the Moab,
17:04 but her husband took her there.
17:06 And she never planned for her husband to leave her
17:09 to die and to be destitute.
17:12 That wasn't her plan.
17:14 That wasn't anywhere close to her plan,
17:16 but God had a better plan.
17:19 And this baby Obed, which means servant of God,
17:21 and Ruth loved Naomi and was better,
17:24 somebody say better.
17:25 Better.
17:26 Better than seven sons.
17:29 Some of you right now are at a place that you did not plan.
17:34 And you may be disappointed where you are.
17:39 And I want to remind you of the goodness of a God
17:41 who is able and whose plan is always better.
17:46 God's plan is better.
17:48 Would you just politely touch the person next to you
17:51 and say, God's plan is better.
17:53 Touch the person next to you on the other side,
17:56 your second choice, and tell them,
17:57 God's plan is better for you too.
17:59 You may be my second choice,
18:00 but God's plan is better for you too.
18:02 Type it in the comment section, God's plan is better.
18:05 God's plan is better.
18:06 I'll give you a little example.
18:09 My best friend, Amy, is here today.
18:12 And Amy was the second child of two.
18:17 She had an older brother and her, a son and a daughter.
18:21 I am the oldest of two.
18:23 I'm a son and my parents had a daughter, Lisa.
18:25 And so when we got married, we had a plan,
18:28 a very good plan.
18:30 We were gonna have two children,
18:31 a son first and a daughter second.
18:34 That was our plan.
18:36 It was a good plan.
18:38 And we were confident in our plan.
18:40 And we were gonna work our plan.
18:42 That's what we wanted, a son first and a daughter second,
18:45 two kids.
18:47 And God gave us something better than a son.
18:51 God gave us a Katie, my first daughter,
18:54 who is the love of my life, Katie,
18:57 I love her with all my heart.
18:59 And so I knew that the second child
19:00 would obviously be a son, just in a different order.
19:04 And God didn't give me a son,
19:05 God gave us something better.
19:06 God gave us a Mandy, who is more precious and godly
19:10 than about anybody I know.
19:13 And then I just knew the third one would have to be a son
19:16 and God didn't give us a son, God gave us something better.
19:18 God gave us an Anna.
19:20 This is a Christian version of Tigger the tiger.
19:23 This is Anna, full of more joy, passion
19:26 than you could ever imagine.
19:27 And then we got pregnant again.
19:29 And I just decided, you know what, I miss God's will.
19:31 I am a girl dad, I am full girl dad.
19:33 So I wanted a fourth girl.
19:35 This time God didn't give me a girl,
19:37 God gave me something better.
19:38 God gave us Sam, my son Sam.
19:41 And then we were done with four 'cause we had a son
19:43 and boom, surprise, God gave us something better.
19:46 God gave us a Stephen.
19:48 Then we were done-er than done, so done.
19:52 You have no idea how done we are.
19:55 Stop the presses.
19:56 Keep your hands off of me, we're done.
20:01 That's five kids and we're done.
20:04 And we were so done and we tried to be done
20:06 and God has something better.
20:10 God gave us a Joy.
20:12 And Joy is the most joyful person you've ever seen
20:18 in your life and we had a plan.
20:21 And we tried to work our plan
20:23 and God's plan was not our plan, God's plan was better.
20:27 And I want you to hear this in your life,
20:28 God is able and his plan for you is better.
20:32 And so when you don't get the job you want,
20:37 tell yourself when you're in chapter two
20:38 or you're waiting in chapter three,
20:40 that there's something that God has for you in chapter four
20:44 that is even better than what you wanted in chapter two,
20:47 God's plan is better.
20:48 (congregation applauding)
20:50 And when you wanted to marry that person
20:53 and you don't get to marry that person,
20:55 tell yourself God's got somebody way better
20:58 than that fixer-upper, God's got somebody coming for you
21:02 that's gonna make you thank God all day long
21:04 that you didn't marry that one along the way.
21:07 And there are some of you right now,
21:09 you had different plans for your weekend
21:10 or you were gonna watch something different on YouTube
21:12 but God had a different plan and you are here
21:14 and you're watching this right now
21:16 because God wants to say something to you that he is able.
21:20 And God's plan is better.
21:22 God's plan is better.
21:24 We see the story progress and it gets really emotional to me.
21:28 In verse 17, we see this.
21:31 The neighbor women said, "Now at last,
21:35 "Naomi has a son again."
21:37 And they named him Obed, servant of God.
21:40 And he became the father of Jesse
21:45 and the grandfather of David.
21:47 Why does that matter?
21:49 And then the end of Ruth goes into this kind of lineage
21:52 of who came next and who came next and who came next.
21:56 One of the major themes in the book of Ruth
21:59 is the providence of God, the providence of God.
22:03 What is the providence of God?
22:04 That's when God uses natural circumstances
22:08 to bring about his supernatural will.
22:12 In the book of Ruth, you don't see any physical miracles.
22:15 You don't see any parting of the Red Sea.
22:17 You don't see anyone walking on water.
22:19 You don't see any raising the dead,
22:20 but you see the miraculous providence of God
22:25 when he uses natural circumstances
22:28 to bring about his supernatural will.
22:31 Last week, we talked about the providence of God
22:33 and we said, it's a lot like Hebrew, the Hebrew language.
22:37 For those of us who read English, when you read Hebrew,
22:40 we actually read it backwards.
22:43 And the providence of God is best understood
22:46 when it's viewed backwards.
22:49 I'll show you, who are we as Christians?
22:52 We are followers of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
22:57 Everything about our lives is about Jesus.
23:01 We seek him first.
23:02 He is our Lord, he is our Savior, he is our Redeemer,
23:06 he is our King, he is our righteousness,
23:09 he is the door through which we enter,
23:11 he is the good shepherd, he is the living vine,
23:15 his name is Jesus.
23:17 And as we look at the lineage we looked at last week,
23:20 we see Jesus and we read backwards, just like Hebrew,
23:23 just like the providence of God is best viewed backwards.
23:25 We look at Jesus who came from Mary and Joseph,
23:29 who came from Jacob, but I won't read all the names
23:32 'cause there's a lot of them
23:33 and they're really hard to pronounce, some of them.
23:35 And I did pretty good last week,
23:37 but I'm not gonna try it again.
23:39 But if you go back through Jacob and Matthew
23:40 and up the lead to Zadok and down to Azor
23:43 and down to Jehoiakim and to Josiah
23:45 and up to Jotham and Uzziah and down to Roabim,
23:48 and then you get to the names we just saw.
23:51 We just saw Solomon, David, Jesse, who came from Obed,
23:56 who came from Ruth and Boaz.
23:58 Let's go back to who Ruth was in chapter one.
24:02 Do you remember who she is?
24:04 She was a Moabite woman.
24:07 Do you remember Moabites worshiped the false god Chemosh.
24:10 They sacrificed babies to this false god, the demon god.
24:15 And she came from a people that were not the people of God.
24:21 And this sinful Moabite woman turned to the God of Israel
24:26 and he redeemed her and he restored her.
24:33 And she left Moab and went to Bethlehem.
24:37 I want you to stop for a moment and think about this.
24:40 When she married Boaz, that was her second marriage.
24:43 Her first husband died.
24:47 This was not her plan.
24:51 If you find yourself thinking you're at plan B right now,
24:55 just remember, God's plan is better.
24:58 God's plan is better.
25:00 If you wake up somewhere in life
25:02 and you didn't wanna be here,
25:05 and you're disappointed, and you're hurting,
25:09 and you're waiting, remember,
25:12 while you're waiting, God is still working.
25:15 God has something better.
25:18 And I wanna show you something very emotional to me.
25:20 I wanna show you the progression of Ruth's identity.
25:24 This is what we might call a little Easter egg.
25:26 This is a buried treasure.
25:27 This is what we're gonna dig up next week
25:29 when we learn how to study the Bible.
25:31 I'm gonna show you how you find little treasures like this
25:34 that you would miss as you read through.
25:35 But we're gonna watch as Ruth's identity
25:38 is strengthened by the presence of a loving God
25:42 and watch the way she sees herself changes
25:46 as she gets to know God even better.
25:49 Early on, she says this.
25:51 She sees herself as a nokia, yeah.
25:55 Nok, nokia, yeah.
25:58 Nokia, whatever.
26:00 She sees herself as that.
26:01 And in the Hebrew language, that means I am a foreigner.
26:06 I don't even belong here.
26:08 And then in chapter two,
26:09 she sees herself as a shippah in Hebrew.
26:13 And that she says to Boaz,
26:15 she says, "I'm lower than your servants.
26:18 "I'm not even worthy to be a servant.
26:21 "I'm lower than that."
26:22 And then in chapter three, she sees herself as a step up.
26:26 I'm an ama, I am your servant.
26:30 And in chapter four, guess what she is?
26:31 She's an isha, I am your wife.
26:36 And as she gets to know the goodness of God,
26:39 her identity starts to change.
26:42 Some of you right now, spiritually,
26:43 you feel like a foreigner,
26:45 not even good enough to be a servant.
26:47 So low in the places and things of God,
26:50 but as you get to know God,
26:52 it changes how you see yourself
26:55 and you can become exactly who he calls you to be.
26:58 In the book of Ruth, the Old Testament book of Ruth,
27:03 the gospel is all over this book.
27:06 Who is Ruth?
27:08 She's a foreigner.
27:10 She's a stranger, lost and broken in Moab.
27:14 And she leaves Moab
27:15 and pursues the one true God in Bethlehem.
27:19 And she feels lower than a servant.
27:21 She's not even worthy, she's a sinner.
27:23 And Boaz loves her and he redeems her
27:28 and he restores her and saves her,
27:30 not even as a slave or not as a servant,
27:33 but as a wife, as a family member.
27:35 And that's why I came to tell somebody,
27:37 if you are in Christ, this is your story.
27:41 If you have been born anew by the grace of Jesus,
27:45 this is your story.
27:47 Because one time in your life,
27:50 God felt far away
27:54 and you were hurting and broken and you felt hopeless,
27:57 but God has something better for you
27:59 than you could ever imagine.
28:00 And God sent his one and only son, Jesus,
28:04 the Lamb of God, who was without sin,
28:07 who shed his blood and died and rose again
28:10 so that anyone who calls on him
28:12 would be saved and transformed.
28:14 He sent Jesus to love you, to save you, to redeem you.
28:19 And we see this very same story in the New Testament
28:24 in the letter to Ephesus to the Ephesians
28:27 when Paul told us this same story in the New Testament,
28:31 he said, "Don't forget that you Gentiles
28:34 used to be outsiders.
28:37 In those days, you were living apart from Christ.
28:41 You lived in this world without God and without hope.
28:46 But now," somebody say, "But now."
28:49 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.
28:53 Once you were far away from God,
28:56 but now you have been brought near to him
28:59 through the blood of Christ.
29:02 Scripture says, "So now you Gentiles
29:04 are no longer strangers and foreigners.
29:07 You are citizens along with God's holy people.
29:11 You are members of God's own family.
29:14 You're an Esau, you're a wife, the bride of Christ.
29:19 You're an ambassador of the most high God.
29:22 You are the light of the world.
29:23 You are a child of the living God, a joint heir
29:27 of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
29:29 That's who you are when you know him."
29:32 You're not stuck in Moab.
29:35 You find the blessings of God in Bethlehem.
29:38 So if you're stuck in the in-between, stay faithful to God.
29:43 Keep pursuing God because Yahweh, our God is able
29:52 to do exceedingly abundantly more than all you can ask
29:55 or imagine according to his power
29:58 that is at work within you.
30:01 He is able.
30:02 And while you are waiting, God is still working.
30:07 Even now, you may feel like you're in the middle
30:13 of brokenness, but God's plan is better.
30:15 There is a chapter four, his blessings are real.
30:18 He's working in all things to bring about good
30:21 to those who love him and are called according
30:24 to his purpose.
30:25 And one day you'll look back, just like Hebrew,
30:29 and see the providential will of a good God
30:32 who was with you all the time, even in this moment.
30:37 So Father, we thank you.
30:40 We worship you.
30:41 God, we thank you that you are loving us back
30:45 in the book of Ruth and preparing a Moabite woman
30:48 to be a part of the lineage of your son, Jesus,
30:51 that would save us.
30:52 As you're praying today, those of you online
30:56 or all of our churches, I know some of you,
30:58 you're in a season that isn't really where you'd wanna be.
31:03 You're in a chapter that might be disappointing,
31:05 or maybe it's someone that you love, someone close to you.
31:08 If those of you would say, I really do,
31:11 I need prayer today, I'm in a chapter that I don't prefer,
31:14 I didn't choose, or there's someone close to me that is,
31:17 and I wanna pray for them,
31:17 would you just lift up your hands right now?
31:19 Just lift them up.
31:20 Online, you can just say, yes, please pray for me.
31:23 Just that much, please pray for me.
31:25 And God, we're gonna come to you now.
31:27 And I pray on behalf of our church family
31:32 and those people even around the world online
31:34 that you would give them what only you can give them,
31:39 and that is a peace from heaven right now,
31:42 that in the middle of turmoil and pain and chaos
31:46 and heartbreak and disappointment,
31:47 we thank you, God, that there is a peace from heaven
31:50 that goes beyond our human ability to understand.
31:54 Show us, God, through your Word and by your presence,
31:56 that you are good, that you are loving God,
32:00 that you are with us, and you are always able.
32:05 God, give us the faith to trust and to believe in you.
32:10 You are able, God, and you are good.
32:13 As you keep praying today, nobody looking around,
32:17 there are some of you that you might be a little bit
32:19 kind of like Ruth was in Moab.
32:22 Maybe you're not walking intimately with God right now.
32:27 You may be lost and broken.
32:30 This isn't a popular word today in our culture,
32:33 but I'll just say it the way the Bible says it.
32:35 You're dead in your sin.
32:36 What does that mean, dead in your sin?
32:38 That your heart kind of feels dead, you feel hopeless.
32:42 You've done things that you know they're wrong.
32:44 How do you know that?
32:45 How do you know that?
32:47 God gave you a conscience and there's something in you
32:49 that says that's wrong, and you may feel guilty,
32:51 and you may feel ashamed.
32:53 What I want you to know is that right now at this moment,
32:57 you're not here by accident.
32:58 You're not watching by, you had something different planned,
33:00 but God's plan was better, and you're here right now
33:03 because God wants you to understand this,
33:05 that he loves you, and he loves you so much
33:10 that he sent Jesus through the lineage of a Moabite woman
33:16 to say to the world,
33:19 you can have life and life abundantly.
33:21 Jesus, the Son of God, perfect in every way,
33:25 died for the forgiveness of all of our sins,
33:28 and God raised him from the dead,
33:29 defeating death, hell, and the grave,
33:33 so that anyone, and I want you to hear me
33:35 when I tell you this, this includes you.
33:37 It doesn't matter what you've done.
33:38 It doesn't matter how alone you feel.
33:41 It doesn't matter how far away God feels.
33:43 Anyone who calls on that name, the name of Jesus,
33:46 when you cry out to him, he hears your prayers,
33:49 and he makes you new, just like Ruth was made new.
33:52 You're made new to experience the goodness of God.
33:56 Wherever you are today, those who say,
33:57 I need that, I need his forgiveness.
33:59 I know I've sinned.
34:00 I know I've done some wrong things.
34:03 I wanna know you, God.
34:04 I wanna be changed.
34:05 We're not just praying a prayer.
34:07 We're devoting our life to Jesus.
34:09 Wherever you're watching from today, those who say,
34:10 I'm ready to step out of Moab.
34:12 I'm ready to leave that old life.
34:14 I wanna be a follower of Jesus.
34:15 I want him to be first.
34:16 I want him to be the Lord of my life.
34:17 When you cry out to him, he'll hear your prayer.
34:19 He'll forgive your sins.
34:20 He'll make you brand new.
34:21 He'll fill you with the Spirit.
34:22 You will never be the same.
34:25 You're not a foreigner.
34:26 You're a family member.
34:27 You're a child of God.
34:28 Those wherever you are today say, I need that.
34:30 I need the grace of Jesus today.
34:31 I leave my old life.
34:33 I choose him.
34:34 I give my life to him.
34:35 That's your prayer.
34:36 Lift your hands high right now and say, yes, Jesus.
34:37 Yes, as we have hands going up today
34:39 at all of our churches, we praise God
34:41 for all of you saying, yes, Jesus.
34:43 Yes, Jesus, yes, Jesus, yes, Jesus.
34:47 Online, type in the comment section,
34:49 I am surrendering my life to Jesus.
34:51 Just say it, I'm trusting Jesus.
34:54 And wherever you are today, we're gonna pray together.
34:56 Nobody prays alone.
34:57 Pray, heavenly Father.
34:59 Forgive my sins.
35:02 Jesus, save me.
35:04 Be the Lord of my life.
35:06 Thank you for loving me.
35:08 Thank you for forgiving me.
35:10 Thank you for making me new.
35:12 My life is not my own.
35:14 I give it all to you.
35:16 Thank you for new life.
35:18 You have all of mine.
35:20 In Jesus' name I pray.
35:22 I need somebody to celebrate right now.
35:24 Give God praise.
35:25 Thank you for who he is.
35:26 We're leaving Moab and going to serve God in Bethlehem.
35:29 (congregation applauding)