Speaker 1: All right, we're not holding hands. I don't know how
Speaker 1: we are on the spectrum of being able to, but
Speaker 1: can we at least touch the shoulder of the person
Speaker 1: on either side of you? That'll work? Baby steps, Baby steps,
Speaker 1: baby steps. Pray this out loud. Lord. The person I'm
Speaker 1: touching needs you more than I do because they're a mess,
Speaker 1: So bless them today in Jesus' name. Come on, give
Speaker 1: God praise. How y'all doing? Welcome? Welcome? Just kidding. You're
Speaker 1: a mess and you know it too. How many of
Speaker 1: you think that you are the least spiritual person on
Speaker 1: your row? Raise your hand? How many of y'all think
Speaker 1: there's nobody in this room that read the Bible less
Speaker 1: than I do this week? Raise your head? All right?
Speaker 1: Oh man, such a weird icebreaker for me to say that,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I'm just excited to be here. I told
Speaker 1: the Lord after we weren't able to have public meetings
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't take it for granted when we could
Speaker 1: get back together. So if you'll notice, maybe you don't
Speaker 1: like this, but I go longer now. I take my time,
Speaker 1: and there's multiple reasons for that. One thing. I think
Speaker 1: if you're going to spend three hundred and fifty dollars
Speaker 1: filling your tank with gas to drive to church. I
Speaker 1: ought to at least give you more than a little dabba,
Speaker 1: do you? And the other reason for that is that
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit has really been doing a work in
Speaker 1: my heart. And the natural overflow of that is I
Speaker 1: just find myself less and less thinking of preaching like
Speaker 1: a performance. And what I think now more is that
Speaker 1: the Lord would make me a vessel. Tell him you'll
Speaker 1: call him back that in about three hours when I
Speaker 1: finish with this message, tell him you'll call him back
Speaker 1: for me. Hey, won't take that long. But now I
Speaker 1: think about myself, Lord, make me a vessel for what
Speaker 1: you want to give your people. And I love that
Speaker 1: because it's not up to the box how good the
Speaker 1: pizza tastes. So if I can just be a box
Speaker 1: to get you what God wants you to eat today,
Speaker 1: that'll be great. And yes, I just called the Bible
Speaker 1: pizza because Jesus said I am the Bread of life,
Speaker 1: and he didn't say what kind of bread. So anyway,
Speaker 1: y'all remember book It used to get the personal pan
Speaker 1: pizza for book It. It's gonna be a personal word
Speaker 1: for you today. All right, I'm in a good mood.
Speaker 1: That's bad news for the devil. I'm happy and ready
Speaker 1: to drink. Hey, real quick check if you would and
Speaker 1: see if we're coming to a city near you. Elevation
Speaker 1: Nights dot com. It'll be cities such ass but not
Speaker 1: limited to, Indianapolis, Chicago, Boston, Newark, Columbus, Grand Rapids. Why
Speaker 1: did you say that so loud? Grand Rapids? You're from there,
Speaker 1: You're coming over in a couple of weeks. Good, you
Speaker 1: got your ticket. It's not free. You can't just show up.
Speaker 1: It's not like just regular church night because the arena's
Speaker 1: not free, so we got to pay for it. So
Speaker 1: but you'll be there all right. Great, and you're here
Speaker 1: today from Michigan, God bless you Michigan. All right, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be that's going to be awesome. I loved it
Speaker 1: so much last year. I really needed it after ministering
Speaker 1: in an empty room for so long through COVID, to
Speaker 1: get out and see the way that people have been
Speaker 1: impacted by our church and see it firsthand. I needed it.
Speaker 1: I felt like it. I was like something just came
Speaker 1: alive inside of me, like it needed to be watered
Speaker 1: and after we came back, I was just fired up
Speaker 1: and full of life. So that's why I'm going back
Speaker 1: selfishly just to do ministry because I get more out
Speaker 1: of it than I could ever give. And I wish
Speaker 1: you could all come, but anyway, you get to come
Speaker 1: every week. So what are you worried about? And I
Speaker 1: wish we could have this conversation just one on one
Speaker 1: from the Word of God today. That would be ideal
Speaker 1: because I could walk you through it a little different.
Speaker 1: But we'll have to do the best we can with
Speaker 1: just all of us. And I want to take you
Speaker 1: to the Book of Ruth, chapter four, verse nine through seventeen.
Speaker 1: I want to say what's up to Taylor Shidel at
Speaker 1: Elevation Columbia. He texted me before I got up that
Speaker 1: he was praying for me while I was preaching, And
Speaker 1: that's why I'm shouting him out. I'm reciprocating. I appreciate
Speaker 1: your prayers too, as I preached today that I would
Speaker 1: be effective, that I would be effective for who God
Speaker 1: wants me to reach. Never preached a sermon from Ruth before.
Speaker 1: Hollywalked by the other day and saw my Bible open
Speaker 1: to Ruth. She said Ooh, Ruth. And my reluctance to
Speaker 1: preach on Ruth isn't just because it's a book about
Speaker 1: a woman. I'm not a sexist. I think it's one
Speaker 1: of those stories that just to give you a sliver
Speaker 1: or one scene of the story, like it doesn't do
Speaker 1: justice to the beauty of the whole thing. But still
Speaker 1: God directed me here and just sucked me in. And
Speaker 1: so I'm going to do my best today just from
Speaker 1: not trying to be cute. But I just want to
Speaker 1: show you one truth from the book of Ruth. I guess,
Speaker 1: but let's look at this together. Ruth Chapter four, verse nine.
Speaker 1: Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people today,
Speaker 1: you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all
Speaker 1: the property of Alimelech, Killion and Maylon. I have also
Speaker 1: acquired Ruth the Moabi Meylon's widow as my wife, in
Speaker 1: order to maintain the name of the dead with his property,
Speaker 1: so that his name will not disappear from among his
Speaker 1: family or from his hometown. Today, you are witnesses verse eleven.
Speaker 1: Then the elders and all the people at the gate said,
Speaker 1: we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who
Speaker 1: is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who
Speaker 1: together built up the family of Israel. May you have
Speaker 1: standing in Ephratha and be famous in Bethlehem through the
Speaker 1: offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman. May
Speaker 1: your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore
Speaker 1: to Judah. That's a blessing right there. That's a blessing
Speaker 1: right here. Tell somebody next to you, I'm stepping into
Speaker 1: a blessing. I'm stepping into a blessing. I'm stepping in.
Speaker 1: Tell them give me some room because I'm stepping into
Speaker 1: a blessing. I need six feet because I'm stepping all right,
Speaker 1: all right, But that's not the word. That's not the
Speaker 1: word today, because we need to read the next verses.
Speaker 1: So Boas took Ruth, and she became his wife. When
Speaker 1: he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive,
Speaker 1: and she gave birth to a son. The women said
Speaker 1: to Naomi, Praise be to the Lord, who this day
Speaker 1: has not left you without a guardian redeemer. May he
Speaker 1: become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and
Speaker 1: sustain you in your old age. For your daughter in law,
Speaker 1: who loves you, and who is better to you than
Speaker 1: seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the
Speaker 1: child in her arms and cared for him. The women
Speaker 1: living there said, Naomi has a son. Naomi has a son.
Speaker 1: You're never gonna believe it. But she who was gone
Speaker 1: for over ten years because of the famine and came
Speaker 1: back bitter, is holding a son. And they named him Obed.
Speaker 1: And who's the father of Jesse see the father of David.
Speaker 1: And this is what the Lord told me to tell
Speaker 1: you today as our message, it will come together. Who
Speaker 1: felt that when I said it? It might be online?
Speaker 1: Put it in the chat, put it in the comments
Speaker 1: right now. Or tell your six foot three neighbor it
Speaker 1: will come together. Tell your five foot four whoever's standing
Speaker 1: next to you. I'm trying to say, just make the declaration.
Speaker 1: It will come together. In Jesus' name. You may be seated.
Speaker 1: It will come together. Kind of one of those cliches
Speaker 1: that I don't like when people say stuff like that
Speaker 1: to me, it'll come together. I'll be stressed about a
Speaker 1: sermon and Hollio say it'll come together. I'll be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds good. I mean, that's that's that's just a
Speaker 1: millimeter better than when life gives you lemons or lemon Yeah,
Speaker 1: how does it go? Make lemonade? Cliches? Cliches? And yet
Speaker 1: I don't mean it in that trite way because it
Speaker 1: could sound like that, I know you lost your job.
Speaker 1: It'll come together. Could you tell the power company that
Speaker 1: for me? Oh, I know you're single. Their friends are married.
Speaker 1: Don't worry. The Lord has a bow as for you.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna do it. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna do it. She wants me to do it,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do it. There's an old thing online
Speaker 1: that says, while you're waiting for your bow, ass, don't
Speaker 1: settle for brogue as poor as all that. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna do it. Temptresses. It's the whole thing. It's a
Speaker 1: whole thing. In Christianity, the Book of Ruth is usually
Speaker 1: identified by chapter one, verse sixteen, and it's always into
Speaker 1: King James at a wedding. This is the famous verse
Speaker 1: of Ruth. All right, you're gonna know it. When I
Speaker 1: say it, You're like, huh, what's it about? You'll know
Speaker 1: when you see it. Put it on screen. This the
Speaker 1: King James, where it says whither thou goest I will go?
Speaker 1: You got to get the wether in there for the
Speaker 1: marriage vows. Then that sounded like a wedding. Whither thou goest?
Speaker 1: You never said whither in your life. But now you're
Speaker 1: about to commit your whole self to somebody, and you
Speaker 1: breaking out words you never use, whether thou goest I
Speaker 1: will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge? People
Speaker 1: shall be my people, By God, my God, I'm not
Speaker 1: making fun of that verse. That verse in itself is
Speaker 1: a sermon in itself. It is a sermon in itself.
Speaker 1: That one verse shows you that when you decide who,
Speaker 1: you decide where, when you decide, Now, this is not
Speaker 1: how we think we think I need to decide where
Speaker 1: I'm going to college. No, no, no, that's not as
Speaker 1: important as who you hang out with when you get
Speaker 1: to college, wherever you go to college, right. I teach
Speaker 1: that all the time, that because who will ultimately identify
Speaker 1: not only where you end up physically, Like Holly wouldn't
Speaker 1: be in Charlotte if she had married me, because she
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been a pastor's wife, or if she had
Speaker 1: maybe the guy JJ she was talking to, he ends
Speaker 1: up somewhere else. And when when you say yes to someone,
Speaker 1: you say yes to something that you don't know about
Speaker 1: at the time. I'm the same with God. When you
Speaker 1: say yes to God, He'll take you places that you
Speaker 1: never thought you would go when you say yes to Him.
Speaker 1: Who you say yes to who you say no to
Speaker 1: is very important, really important. Tell somebody it will come together. Now.
Speaker 1: I want you to get that in your mind so
Speaker 1: we can get it passed your mind into your spirit
Speaker 1: so that you hear it differently. When I finish in
Speaker 1: a few minutes, then you hear it right now. Because
Speaker 1: we are all standing in a space in our life
Speaker 1: where we are needing clarity on some things. And maybe
Speaker 1: you're not in the same situation as Naomi and Ruth,
Speaker 1: both of them being widows, were completely dependent on the
Speaker 1: kindness of someone else. And maybe it's not that bad
Speaker 1: in your life. Ruth not only lost her husband when
Speaker 1: she lost her Maelon, but Naomi lost her son. Naomi
Speaker 1: had already lost her husband, a Limelech, and they were
Speaker 1: already in a strange place. Now I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you about this, because when you read a Bible
Speaker 1: verse in isolation, it's almost impossible to really make sense
Speaker 1: out of it. And I want you to have that
Speaker 1: app on your phone where they give you the verse
Speaker 1: every day. But I don't want you to always read
Speaker 1: the scriptures in isolation, because if you just take it
Speaker 1: in isolation, sometimes we don't even read the whole verson
Speaker 1: we quote it, and then we think that it didn't work.
Speaker 1: It's not that Romans eight twenty eight isn't true. All
Speaker 1: things work together for the good. You just stopped in
Speaker 1: the middle of the verse. Is said all things work
Speaker 1: together for the good of them that love God and
Speaker 1: are called according to His purpose. Means that God doesn't
Speaker 1: decide what is good in your life based on your preference,
Speaker 1: but his purpose. So then you go through something and
Speaker 1: this isn't good. This isn't good. How can this be good?
Speaker 1: God isn't God is good, and this isn't good. What's
Speaker 1: going on? I thought it was all good? God didn't
Speaker 1: say that. In the Bible. God didn't say that. He
Speaker 1: said all things work together for the good of those
Speaker 1: who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 1: So his purpose comes first, not my preference, go ready.
Speaker 1: His purpose comes first, not my plan. What happens to
Speaker 1: us is we get addicted to a plan, and if
Speaker 1: it doesn't fit the plan, we want to throw it
Speaker 1: back to God and say fix this. But God doesn't
Speaker 1: start with the picture called your plan when he is
Speaker 1: building the pieces of your life. He's God. He's God.
Speaker 1: And the truth of the matter is, you can't really
Speaker 1: judge your life in isolation. You can't really know when
Speaker 1: you're going through something, whether it's good or not. Don't
Speaker 1: judge it just yet. One scripture says, judge nothing before
Speaker 1: the appointed time. Judge nothing before the appointed time, when
Speaker 1: God will reveal hidden things and bring them to life,
Speaker 1: and the secret things will be laid bare. Judge nothing,
Speaker 1: no thing. All things work together for the good of
Speaker 1: them that love the Lord. Now, if you love something
Speaker 1: else more than you love the Lord Romans eight twenty eight,
Speaker 1: is going to be hard for you, because if you
Speaker 1: love popularity more than you love God, when people leave you,
Speaker 1: you will think that's not good. But if you love
Speaker 1: the Lord's purpose more than you love popularity, sometimes you
Speaker 1: will praise God not for who stays with you, but
Speaker 1: for who leaves you. Because you believe that the Lord
Speaker 1: is leading my life. Wow, wow, Wow, it will come together.
Speaker 1: We make the mistake of thinking that everyone who starts
Speaker 1: with us will stay with us, and it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: that way. This is not a sermon about abandonment or divorce,
Speaker 1: but I do want to talk about those issues because well,
Speaker 1: in the Book of Ruth, you have this woman named
Speaker 1: Naomi who goes to a place called Moab where there
Speaker 1: is something to eat for her family, and through no
Speaker 1: fault of her own, she watches her husband and her
Speaker 1: sons ten years later die in front of her eyes.
Speaker 1: Her two daughters in law are committed to stay with her,
Speaker 1: Ruth and Orpah. And there's a reason that this is
Speaker 1: not called the Book of Orpa because she left. There
Speaker 1: is a reason that I said turn in your bible
Speaker 1: to the Book of Ruth, because Ruth stay. Put this
Speaker 1: in your heart. Whoever left you in your life, whoever
Speaker 1: walked away from you in your life, was not part
Speaker 1: of God's purpose for your current season. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: they're bad, it doesn't mean they're evil. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you need to make a voodoo dollins stick a pin
Speaker 1: in they're left ear trying to get them to have
Speaker 1: an earache. It doesn't mean anything. I don't mean you
Speaker 1: need to talk crap about them. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: you have to want them to fail. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you have to go out and buy new car to
Speaker 1: show him you made it and drive by their house
Speaker 1: and they're not even home. It doesn't mean any of that.
Speaker 1: It just means, can I preach. God doesn't build my
Speaker 1: life on people who left. So one thing I'm learning
Speaker 1: to appreciate at the stage of my life is the
Speaker 1: providence of God. The providence of God. The providence of God.
Speaker 1: The plans of man and the providence of God are
Speaker 1: two totally different things. The man directs his steps in
Speaker 1: his mind, God orders his steps in real life. And
Speaker 1: so maybe I'm preaching to somebody today who is like Naomi.
Speaker 1: You know, when we walked into Ruth chapter four, it
Speaker 1: looked like everything was going good, and on the surface,
Speaker 1: it sounds like this is a moment to be happy,
Speaker 1: and it is. It is if you look at it
Speaker 1: in isolation. But understanding what led up to this moment,
Speaker 1: I think gives me a greater appreciation for who God
Speaker 1: is and what he is able to do. Let's look
Speaker 1: at it a little deeper, because even the Book of
Speaker 1: Ruth is an interesting book. You have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,
Speaker 1: and then Ruth first Samuel, second Samuel, first King's second Kings.
Speaker 1: What's Ruth doing between all those big books? Why is
Speaker 1: there a book in the Bible about one woman from Moab?
Speaker 1: Moab is not Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Moab.
Speaker 1: Moab was not even seen. I could do this real quick.
Speaker 1: Moab was like you went to school in Chapel Hill
Speaker 1: and you are cheering in four coach. K You see
Speaker 1: what I've said, That level of hatred right there. You
Speaker 1: felt it coming through the room. And this is a
Speaker 1: local illustration. Okay, I could use another one somewhere else.
Speaker 1: What is a woman from Moab doing between the five
Speaker 1: covenants in the Bible? Write down the word covenant in
Speaker 1: your notes, please. Covenant is a concept we would do
Speaker 1: well to understand in our current contemporary society. We don't
Speaker 1: understand it at all. We don't understand commitment at all.
Speaker 1: We just understand convenience. Even when we say marriage vows,
Speaker 1: we don't really mean half of what we're saying. We're saying,
Speaker 1: as long as you make me happy, I'll be with you,
Speaker 1: And we don't really mean what we're saying. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that to shame anybody. I'm just saying sometimes
Speaker 1: we would do well to understand these verses in their context.
Speaker 1: Because God made a covenant with Noah. He said, I
Speaker 1: never fled the earth again. That's the first covenant. There
Speaker 1: are five covenants. The Bible is structured around five covenants. Covenant,
Speaker 1: I will never flood the earth again. It means there's
Speaker 1: going to be a limit on human evil. The Abrahamic Covenant,
Speaker 1: which God said, I'm gonna make a nation out of you.
Speaker 1: Count the stars if you can, count the sand if
Speaker 1: you can, and Abraham goes one, two, three, four, five
Speaker 1: to seven, eight nine. This is going to take a
Speaker 1: long time, God, And God said, exactly, it's going to
Speaker 1: take a long time for me to show you what
Speaker 1: I'm going to do through you, and your descendants will
Speaker 1: be as numerous as the sand on the sea shore,
Speaker 1: if you can believe it and receive it, even though
Speaker 1: you are past child bearing years. I am gonna bring
Speaker 1: forth a life out of your wife's dead wound. That
Speaker 1: will bless the whole world, and I will bless you
Speaker 1: and you will be a blessing. That's the Abrahamic Covenant.
Speaker 1: Then you've got the Davidic Covenant, which God made with David,
Speaker 1: the second King israel head. You remember Saul, the one
Speaker 1: that the people wanted, and then David, and he's like,
Speaker 1: this is my guy right here, He's after my heart
Speaker 1: and he said, I'm going to establish a throne from you.
Speaker 1: Now you forgot about the Mosaic Covenant where God had
Speaker 1: to bring his people out of Egypt, and then the
Speaker 1: New Covenant. How many thank God for the blood of
Speaker 1: Jesus that lets me know that I can't keep the law,
Speaker 1: and what the law was powerless to do in that
Speaker 1: it was weakened by my flesh. God did by sending
Speaker 1: his son Jesus, the son of David, to be a
Speaker 1: sin offering in my place, and upon Jesus was placed
Speaker 1: all of my transgression and all of my shame. So
Speaker 1: whatever shame I carried into church today as a child
Speaker 1: of the New Covenant, I carried it illegally because Jesus
Speaker 1: took it. And whatever he took he intends to keep
Speaker 1: and deal with. So I've got to give it back
Speaker 1: to him over and over and over. Because God has
Speaker 1: already made up his mind about me. He already made
Speaker 1: up his mind about me. He's not looking to see
Speaker 1: if I get it right or if I get it wrong.
Speaker 1: He made a purpose for my life, and it will
Speaker 1: come together. Say it, it will come together. I feel
Speaker 1: like preaching this like this cod Orange revival. But you
Speaker 1: won't help me touch three people. Tell them it will
Speaker 1: come together. It will, it will. I know it's taken
Speaker 1: a while. I know it's been on layaway and delay,
Speaker 1: and there's a shipping thing, and I know they can't
Speaker 1: get it to you like they were supposed to. And
Speaker 1: I know your three years past the due date of
Speaker 1: when you expected God to do it. But if Naomi
Speaker 1: encourages me about one thing, it's that after she lost
Speaker 1: everything she held, dear God still had something for I'm
Speaker 1: glad about it. I love that verse that they said
Speaker 1: in the blessing. They said in verse eleven, Ruth four eleven,
Speaker 1: this is the one that got me. We are witnesses.
Speaker 1: May the Lord make the woman who is coming into
Speaker 1: your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up
Speaker 1: the family of Israel, that sounds so nice. Rachel and Leah,
Speaker 1: who together teamwork makes the dream work. They together built
Speaker 1: up the House of Israel. And I remember they're saying
Speaker 1: this hundreds of years after it happened. They're saying this
Speaker 1: after they have the benefit of seeing the blessing fully matured.
Speaker 1: They are saying this like a parent who is ninety's
Speaker 1: one years old and all their kids have kids now,
Speaker 1: and they have lived long enough to know, don't stress
Speaker 1: about that. It's all right. Please, please don't worry yourself
Speaker 1: that much about that. It's all right. See, we don't
Speaker 1: get to live through that lens. We don't get to
Speaker 1: live through the lens of knowing that Rachel and Leah
Speaker 1: built up the House of Israel together. We don't get
Speaker 1: to live through the lens of Naomi knowing I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hold a baby named Obed in my arms, even though
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cry for years about my husband, only to
Speaker 1: lose my sons. Because see, we don't taste life as
Speaker 1: a meal. We experience the ingredients in isolation. In God's mind,
Speaker 1: your life is a meal. In God's life, your God's mind,
Speaker 1: your life is Thanksgiving Day. What the y'all el on Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: I might come over put it in the chat. What
Speaker 1: y'all got at Thanksgiving? Is? What do you like at Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1: What do you have at Thanksgiving? Mac and cheese? I
Speaker 1: might come? Can somebody do better than that? Mac and
Speaker 1: cheese and sweet potatoes? Now? Like sweet potatoes or a
Speaker 1: sweet potato thing with marshmallows in it? Yeah? Because I
Speaker 1: really just had the sweet potatoes are the middleman for me.
Speaker 1: I just want the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes, honestly.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's good. That's good. I might come. What else?
Speaker 1: What do y'all have at Thanksgiving? See? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm making everybody hungry. I'm losing my audience. This is
Speaker 1: really bad public speaking. What am I doing? You? You
Speaker 1: gotta understand the moment that Naomi is in her life
Speaker 1: right now is a blessing. But it's a mixed blessing.
Speaker 1: It's a mixed blessing. I noticed the room got happy
Speaker 1: when I said you're stepping into a blessing. It's like, yes,
Speaker 1: I forgot to tell you it's a mixed blessing. I
Speaker 1: forgot to tell you it is a mixed blessing. So
Speaker 1: that means you need to prepare for the blessing as
Speaker 1: it is actually going to be, or you might miss
Speaker 1: the blessing because it's going to be mixed when you
Speaker 1: get it. In fact, Naomi was in so much pain
Speaker 1: there in Moab where she went to escape from Bethlehem,
Speaker 1: where there was a famine. It seems like she did
Speaker 1: all right when she lost her husband, but when she
Speaker 1: lost her sons two, she said, don't call me Naomi anymore.
Speaker 1: Call me Mara. Because Naomi has the connotation of pleasant,
Speaker 1: Mara means bitter. And after what she's been through, can
Speaker 1: you blame her? When somebody has been through something like this,
Speaker 1: you don't tell them it'll come together. What will come together?
Speaker 1: How can you replace those boys? Even if God gave
Speaker 1: me twenty more, it wouldn't replace them. That's how it
Speaker 1: is sometimes in your life. Don't try to tell me
Speaker 1: it's gonna get better. Call me bitter. When that kind
Speaker 1: of bitterness hits your heart, you don't even want to
Speaker 1: hear about better from anybody, not from preachers, not from teachers,
Speaker 1: not from pinterest. Don't tell me all things work together
Speaker 1: for the good of those that love God, because when
Speaker 1: you taste the ingredient in isolation. It would be lying
Speaker 1: to say that's delicious. It would be lying. I was
Speaker 1: talking to a god in I think I think he
Speaker 1: was in London. Yeah, he was in London. He said
Speaker 1: he had to lay off forty of his two hundred employees.
Speaker 1: He said, but you know what, it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I said, I understand what you're saying. But for them,
Speaker 1: I hope you didn't tell them that. He said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not telling them that. I'm just telling you that.
Speaker 1: I said, well, make sure you don't tell them you
Speaker 1: feel that way, because they probably don't see it like
Speaker 1: that right now from your perspective. He said, you got
Speaker 1: a good point. You got a good point, and it
Speaker 1: is a good point when you are tasting it. Have
Speaker 1: you ever walked in the kitchen and just use an example,
Speaker 1: I'm not a cook. Take a scoop of baking powder
Speaker 1: and just down it. Did you ever do it? So?
Speaker 1: Baking powder is bad? Anybody want a big heep in
Speaker 1: pile a baking powder for lunch today? Raise your hand?
Speaker 1: Why are you messing up my illustration? Bro? Now this
Speaker 1: is the message. You want the whole message in a moment.
Speaker 1: This is a whole message. Is a whole message. This
Speaker 1: is why you came from Michigan so God could tell you,
Speaker 1: this is why you tuned in online. Just because it
Speaker 1: tastes bad in isolation doesn't mean it won't serve a
Speaker 1: purpose in the finished product. I'm not saying that the
Speaker 1: Bible said that after Naomi had gone so low that
Speaker 1: she said, this doesn't taste good. This doesn't taste good.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I figured out why people in church often
Speaker 1: look so sour when they're in church, because what you
Speaker 1: went through this week didn't taste good, and you are
Speaker 1: trying to praise God with a taste in your mouth
Speaker 1: of disappointment and fear? Am I preaching? Yet? I mean
Speaker 1: it's hard to say Hallelujah when your mouth taste like hurt.
Speaker 1: WHOA call me bitter? You might as well? You might
Speaker 1: as well. You might as well and taste good. And
Speaker 1: yet what a strange blessing that they gave. Let me
Speaker 1: give you a little bit more background so I can
Speaker 1: make sure I'm not confusing. Graham's Graham's my guy. You know.
Speaker 1: He told me the other day he was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: sometimes you got to slow down with these scriptures. You've
Speaker 1: been looking at them all week and we're just waking up.
Speaker 1: You got to slow down and break it down. So
Speaker 1: even though I can't do it justice, the Book of
Speaker 1: Ruth is beautiful and you could read it in the
Speaker 1: time that you could watch half an episode of Ozark.
Speaker 1: And when we moved through it, we see Naomi a
Speaker 1: Limelech Killion and Maelon Meylan's Ruth's husband orpa is married
Speaker 1: to Killion, And both of those baby names are available,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you want to have an original
Speaker 1: name for your kid. But when they went to Moab,
Speaker 1: they went to a place that they didn't This is
Speaker 1: important planned to go. This message is for somebody who
Speaker 1: is in a place you didn't plan to go. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take it further. Sometimes it's a place you
Speaker 1: hate being there because they're from Bethlehem and they're in Moab.
Speaker 1: Kind of like when they went to Egypt. I mentioned
Speaker 1: it earlier, when the Israelites went to Egypt. They didn't
Speaker 1: go to Egypt because it was their dream to go
Speaker 1: to Egypt. It wasn't on their bucket list to go
Speaker 1: to Egypt. They went to Egypt to survive. And we've
Speaker 1: talked about that a lot because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of the sin cycles we get sucked into in our
Speaker 1: life are out of survival mechanisms, and if we don't
Speaker 1: deal with it that way, we just put so much
Speaker 1: shame on it. We can't help anybody get healed because
Speaker 1: people won't come to Jesus because you don't understand the
Speaker 1: power of his covenant with you. You think Jesus is
Speaker 1: like other people and that there come a point where
Speaker 1: he'll be ashamed of you, and he'll go, oh, well,
Speaker 1: that's too far there. I was going to use you,
Speaker 1: But really you did that. You don't understand the power
Speaker 1: of a covenant. But Ruth did because when Naomi said,
Speaker 1: leave me, I've lost my husband's I've lost my boys.
Speaker 1: I've heard there's bred in Bethlehem. We've been here ten years.
Speaker 1: Naomi said, I'm not leaving. Make a covenant with you.
Speaker 1: Whither thou goest I go. Your God become my god,
Speaker 1: and your God will often become the same god as
Speaker 1: your friends. If you are around people who worship status
Speaker 1: and stuff, it won't be long till you'll shear shackle
Speaker 1: to the same things they are. But now to touch
Speaker 1: somebody next to you and say you ought to hang
Speaker 1: out with me a little while. You hang out with me,
Speaker 1: You're gonna have strong faith. You hang out with me.
Speaker 1: Come on, death leopard if you hang out with me.
Speaker 1: So they go back together, and Naomi, in this this
Speaker 1: honest moment, she says, call me bitter. I still got
Speaker 1: the taste in my mouth. I'm going back to Bethlehem,
Speaker 1: which means house of bread, which makes it that much
Speaker 1: more depressing when there's a famine in Bethlehem, when there's
Speaker 1: a famine in the place that is named after bread,
Speaker 1: when the joy of the Lord is supposed to be
Speaker 1: your strength, and you are a Christian and you're depressed,
Speaker 1: and you are a Christian and you can't sleep, and
Speaker 1: you are a Christian and you have addictions, and you
Speaker 1: are a I am a C I am ah, I
Speaker 1: am a c h R I S T I aad.
Speaker 1: But I got a A D D A d hd
Speaker 1: hey d D I C t I. Oh, I'm in
Speaker 1: the house of bread, but a hawk grief. Call me Mara,
Speaker 1: she said, real said, I was with you when I
Speaker 1: wanted your son. Now you don't have a son to
Speaker 1: give me, but I'm still with you. I wonder who
Speaker 1: the Lord is saying that to you. I'm still with you.
Speaker 1: I don't sell low and by high. God is not
Speaker 1: Warren Buffett. God doesn't trade like that. God said, I'm
Speaker 1: still with you because I made a covenant with you.
Speaker 1: It's not the kind of covenant I made with Noah
Speaker 1: that was limited. It's not the kind of covenant I
Speaker 1: made with Abraham that was limited. It's not the covenant
Speaker 1: I made with Moses that was limited. It's not the
Speaker 1: covenant I made with David that was limited. This is
Speaker 1: the covenant of my blood, made with the life of
Speaker 1: my son. And I am worth you in your bitterness,
Speaker 1: in your brokenness. God said, I'm with you, but I'm bitter.
Speaker 1: But I'm with you, and I love the Lord because
Speaker 1: he wrote the Bible, and he knew that the woman
Speaker 1: who said I'm bitter and it's over in chapter one
Speaker 1: would be holding a baby in chapter four. So he
Speaker 1: gave her someone named Ruth the Moabide. He gave her
Speaker 1: a Moabike, not somebody from Bethlehem, somebody from a place
Speaker 1: that she never wanted to be. Remember, it's God's kitchen.
Speaker 1: So if you walk around God's kitchen tasting stuff, I
Speaker 1: don't like that. I don't like that you know how
Speaker 1: you are some of y'all our faith footies you walk around. Hmmm, No,
Speaker 1: I don't like that. See now, listen, you get to
Speaker 1: tell God certain things that you want him to do. God,
Speaker 1: I want you to grow me, mature me, bless me.
Speaker 1: You can say all that to God is good. You
Speaker 1: don't get to tell him how to do it. I'll
Speaker 1: go step further. You get to tell God what you want.
Speaker 1: You know. That's the first thing Jesus asked in the
Speaker 1: New Testament. He turned around and people followed me. He said,
Speaker 1: what do you want? Let's just get right to it,
Speaker 1: cut to the chase, cut through all the niceties. I
Speaker 1: don't need us a little equick. What do you want?
Speaker 1: And so we want to see where you're staying. See,
Speaker 1: you got to follow me to know me. And that
Speaker 1: means that if you judge stuff while it's happening, you'll
Speaker 1: call yourself by what you've been through. Are you with me?
Speaker 1: I was in the kitchen the other day and Holly
Speaker 1: was making breakfast, and I was trying to be helpful,
Speaker 1: but I can't cook, but I wanted to help out
Speaker 1: and she had just finished the sausage. So I was
Speaker 1: taking the pan to pour out the grease from the sausage.
Speaker 1: And I can tell who cooks in the room by
Speaker 1: your reaction, because she said two things to me that
Speaker 1: I'm going to preach to you. She said, leave the grease.
Speaker 1: I'm about to use it. That's the first thing she said.
Speaker 1: I'm out of the book of Ruth. I'm in. Second, Holly,
Speaker 1: she said, leave the grease. She said, because I'm about
Speaker 1: to make your eggs. And when I make your eggs,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take these eggs and I'm gonna all
Speaker 1: things work together. Now, the grease on its own is
Speaker 1: not something that you want to eat. But if you'll
Speaker 1: let me leave the right amount of grease for this recipe,
Speaker 1: that I know, see, because if I make your eggs
Speaker 1: without grease. She looked at me and said. The second thing,
Speaker 1: she said, you need to get out of my kitchen.
Speaker 1: And I hear God saying to somebody who's been telling
Speaker 1: him what he can't do, what he shouldn't do. I
Speaker 1: heard the voice of the Lord. I was praying about it,
Speaker 1: and God said, hit your neighbors, say get out of
Speaker 1: God's kitchen. Get out of God's kitchen. Get out of
Speaker 1: God's kitchen. Stop asking God to bring people back who
Speaker 1: were supposed to go. Get out the kitchen, stop at
Speaker 1: to God to take thorns away that he left. So
Speaker 1: you've been knowing, get out of the kitchen, Get out
Speaker 1: of my kitchen. Let me mix this, because when I
Speaker 1: get done mixing these eggs with this grease, when I
Speaker 1: get finished mixing your pain with my charge, when I
Speaker 1: get finished mixing your kit with your offer, get out
Speaker 1: of my kitchen. What in my weakness? He is strong.
Speaker 1: That's grease. That's grease. That weakness is grease. Stop trying
Speaker 1: to get rid of it and let God mix it.
Speaker 1: So I put something in a song two years ago.
Speaker 1: It's gonna come out in the radio a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and you might hear, well, not some of y'all, because
Speaker 1: y'll want to listen to the Christian station. But it's
Speaker 1: the rest of the song and it says, if it's
Speaker 1: not good, then he's not done. Let me break it
Speaker 1: all the way down. He hasn't mixed it yet. And
Speaker 1: you keep walking over to the grease, going, mmm, God
Speaker 1: can't cook judge no thing before the appointed time? Why
Speaker 1: because all things work together? Did he say everything was good?
Speaker 1: Or did he say that when Ruth meets Boass. When
Speaker 1: the thing, because this is what had to happen for Ruth,
Speaker 1: she goes back to Bethlehem. She's gleaning in a field.
Speaker 1: A man sees her named Boass. This is not a
Speaker 1: singles conference. Do not get a are you my bow
Speaker 1: Ass t shirt made after this message. That's honestly quite
Speaker 1: off putting, it really is. It attracts the crazy guys.
Speaker 1: All right, don't wear that shirt be my bow ass.
Speaker 1: Don't do it. I'm telling you, don't do it. It's
Speaker 1: a bad idea. But he sees her while she's gleaning. Now,
Speaker 1: you had to leave a certain portion of your feel
Speaker 1: by biblical law for the foreigners and for the orphans,
Speaker 1: of which Ruth was both. And because she made a
Speaker 1: commitment to Naomi, she met a man named bos It's
Speaker 1: called a kinsman redeemer, a kinsman redeemer, which ultimately, of
Speaker 1: course points to Jesus. But in this situation it is
Speaker 1: a real legal obligation because he is a relative of Naomi,
Speaker 1: which makes him here's a word we don't hear much
Speaker 1: today in today's society, responsible responsible to redeem this widow
Speaker 1: named Naomi, who is this relative and along with her
Speaker 1: comes Ruth and that is what helped me to understand
Speaker 1: why they said, may the Lord make her like Rachel
Speaker 1: and Leah, because that goes all the way back to Jacob.
Speaker 1: Remember the covenant God made with Abraham, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David.
Speaker 1: You you're in good company and you got a better
Speaker 1: covenant because all theirs had conditions to it. All you
Speaker 1: got to do is believe and receive and then obey
Speaker 1: to be blessed. But you don't have to obey to
Speaker 1: be his child. Amazing. I mean, you think Boaz is
Speaker 1: something you have any idea what kind of acceptance and
Speaker 1: resource you have in Christ? It is a picture right
Speaker 1: why they said they give a blessing and this is
Speaker 1: obviously something that they've said in this situation before. As
Speaker 1: Boaz goes to redeem, take Ruthus his wife, take Naomi
Speaker 1: in to purchase Alimelex's land, to care for the family
Speaker 1: so that his name will not be blotted out. All
Speaker 1: the stuff that I really don't have time to break
Speaker 1: down for you, but maybe it'll wet your appetite to
Speaker 1: read it this week, and that'd be awesome. All that
Speaker 1: stuff leads up to this moment where they say, may
Speaker 1: the Lord make this woman like Leah and Rachel. Now,
Speaker 1: Leah and Rachel are not not exactly teammates, even though
Speaker 1: they're sisters, because right here it makes it sound like
Speaker 1: they just they just agree. Put the verse back up,
Speaker 1: because this was really the verse that drew me to
Speaker 1: the message. Can I go a little bit longer today?
Speaker 1: I really want to, But I promise you I can
Speaker 1: dismiss you right now. And we already heard a word
Speaker 1: from God, but I would like to give you this
Speaker 1: before we leave. Okay, all right, all right, May the
Speaker 1: Lord make you like Rachel and Leah Ruth. Now the
Speaker 1: reason that was strange to me was one when Jacob
Speaker 1: was running talk about mixed blessings. He tricked his father
Speaker 1: into blessing him, but then he had to run from
Speaker 1: his brother. Is it really a blessing if you have
Speaker 1: to run from it? Talk about mixed blessings. God called
Speaker 1: him Israel, which means prince are prevalent with God, but
Speaker 1: his name was Jacob, which meant deceiver. Don't we all
Speaker 1: know what that feels like to wrestle with both sides
Speaker 1: of ourselves? And he came out of the woomb wrestling.
Speaker 1: Then when he gets to his uncle Laban's house. He
Speaker 1: wants to marry this daughter named Rachel, and Rachel this
Speaker 1: is not in the Hebrew. But she's hot, and then
Speaker 1: her sister Leah is not hot. And the Bible says
Speaker 1: that Laban tricked Jacob because it all catches up with
Speaker 1: you eventually. The way you get blessed is the way
Speaker 1: you have to stay blessed. So if you get stuff
Speaker 1: by manipulating, don't be surprised when you're stressed out about
Speaker 1: keeping it. But if you get it from God, it'll
Speaker 1: be a whole different thing. Yet, yet these are the
Speaker 1: two names that were mentioned in the blessing. So what's
Speaker 1: what Laban did? He said, Okay, work for me seven years,
Speaker 1: I'll give you Rachel. Jacob worked seven years on his
Speaker 1: wedding night. He wakes up the next morning, and the
Speaker 1: Bible says, something so crazy, there was Leah. Oh Lord,
Speaker 1: just for a side Bible study, did you ever think
Speaker 1: it was Rachel? But it turned out Leah. I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about women, I'm talking about opportunities. Did you ever
Speaker 1: wake up next to Leah went to bed with Rachel?
Speaker 1: You thought that was such a good idea, such a
Speaker 1: good investment. We've all had those moments. We have all
Speaker 1: had those moments. Anyway, Laban said, oh no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no. The way it works here in our custom,
Speaker 1: if you want Rachel, you've got to first marry her
Speaker 1: older sister Leah. So if you give me seven more years,
Speaker 1: you can have Rachel, but you still got to keep Leah.
Speaker 1: And Jacob is like, oh God, And that's how I
Speaker 1: know that Rachel was indeed attractive, because he did another
Speaker 1: seven years for him. So she is not average by
Speaker 1: my reason deductions or whatever like that. But she was beautiful.
Speaker 1: But watch this. She was barren. She couldn't have kids.
Speaker 1: Leah on the other hand, Leah the one that the
Speaker 1: Bible said had weak eyes. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: that means, y'all, but that doesn't sound good. The picture
Speaker 1: that comes in my mind is not attractive. And but
Speaker 1: she she wasn't attractive. Watch this, but she was productive.
Speaker 1: She started having babies so quick. Boom Reuben boom, Simeon boom,
Speaker 1: Levi boom. Judah is four to nothing. Rachel is not
Speaker 1: even on the board. And Rachel's like, I gotta do
Speaker 1: something about this. I heard what my grandma did Jacob,
Speaker 1: you need to sleep with my maid servant, bill Ha.
Speaker 1: So she gives bill Haw to Jacob to seem jacob'slake. Okay,
Speaker 1: and so they got two more babies by the servant.
Speaker 1: Now Leah, all of a sudden hits a period she
Speaker 1: can't produce. Here's her servant, Zilpah. Now we're up to
Speaker 1: eight kids. Here comes a daughter, here comes it's a car,
Speaker 1: baby after baby after baby. And finally Rachel has Joseph.
Speaker 1: And while she's dying, she has Benjamin. Why Stephen Ferdick,
Speaker 1: did you slow down to tell us all of that?
Speaker 1: Because it helped me to understand that number one, Every
Speaker 1: Rachel comes with a Leah. Take it out of the
Speaker 1: realm of people for a moment. Rachel was what Jacob
Speaker 1: loved and what he wanted. What do you want? What
Speaker 1: do you love? Everything you love is going to come
Speaker 1: with something that you don't let that sink in You
Speaker 1: got it everything you love? God? I want success cool.
Speaker 1: It comes with stress, sleeplessness, and sacrifice. And just the
Speaker 1: other day my family rekindled the campaign for a dog.
Speaker 1: I thought we were through it. I thought I stood
Speaker 1: my ground. Y'all think I'm lying The pressure they're putting
Speaker 1: on me about this dog. It's been years. How many
Speaker 1: of y'all have been in elevation long enough you've watched
Speaker 1: this whole thing go down. Graham made the song about Look,
Speaker 1: I brought something on my garage on my way out
Speaker 1: of the garage. I don't even know why I left
Speaker 1: this up. Graham made this sign years ago. So every
Speaker 1: time I leave my garage, I gotta look at this
Speaker 1: sign that says I want I've been looking at that
Speaker 1: on my door for years now and standing strong too.
Speaker 1: I't even remember this. At the same time, Abby made
Speaker 1: one too. You can't really see it. That didn't even
Speaker 1: spelled ride in his heartbreaking I wish you could see it.
Speaker 1: Can y'all make it where you see it? No? Huh?
Speaker 1: It says I w a g O D d og,
Speaker 1: she wants God, she wants a dog, she wants everything.
Speaker 1: And what happened? What happened? I watched this. I promise you.
Speaker 1: I've got a point to this because they caught me
Speaker 1: the other night. Elijah was out and I was all alone,
Speaker 1: and it was three on one, and they took the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Graham said, I'm a good kid, I'm a good kid.
Speaker 1: I've never wanted anything but a dog to get here.
Speaker 1: And if I died, If I died, you would spend
Speaker 1: the rest of your life thinking why did not get
Speaker 1: the boy a doll? I said, I know you want
Speaker 1: to talk. You don't want what comes with it. Abby said,
Speaker 1: but Dad, but Dad, but Dad, and you love us,
Speaker 1: You love us. I know you give it to us
Speaker 1: because you love us. You give us everything that we want.
Speaker 1: I looked at Holly. I looked at Holly. I look
Speaker 1: gave her a look too, I'll give didn't I? I
Speaker 1: gave her a look. She said, what is that look?
Speaker 1: I said, this is the look of me imagining the
Speaker 1: reality because they don't. Graham said, it's different. I said,
Speaker 1: you can't even clean your room, Graham, he said, he said,
Speaker 1: that's different. My socks are not living things, which if
Speaker 1: you check them fu fungal composition on those socks, you
Speaker 1: might be wrong about that. But he said, he said
Speaker 1: that the dog is a living thing, and there's no
Speaker 1: way I would let a living thing suffer. You know,
Speaker 1: I'll take care of a living thing. Dad. I'm a
Speaker 1: good kid. And I said, but what about what comes
Speaker 1: out of the living thing? But this is the point,
Speaker 1: do you want what comes with it? Yeah? No, what
Speaker 1: comes with it? And this is a good question to ask.
Speaker 1: If you knew Leah came with it, would you still
Speaker 1: want Rachel? If you knew that the bitterness came with Naomi?
Speaker 1: Would you still want to be a part of a
Speaker 1: Limelex family? Would you still want it if you knew
Speaker 1: what came with it? So guess what. Nobody knows this,
Speaker 1: But I'm getting your dog. I'm gonna do it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. I know you're suspicious. Hey, hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: this is not a trick. This is not a game.
Speaker 1: Because they've been here many times before. I say I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get your dog, and they'll say really, and I'll say, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're a mustard relish. Catch up. I got jokes. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get the dog because of something that he said
Speaker 1: that changed how I felt. He said, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: willing to say it'll be my job. So now you
Speaker 1: get a dog. You get a dog, and you get
Speaker 1: a dog, but it's not my dog, and it's not
Speaker 1: your dog. It's their dogs. Their stuff is your everybody.
Speaker 1: Stretch your hand towards my family and say it's y'all's
Speaker 1: dog toward these three right here, shad wrack me shaq,
Speaker 1: I bet a go. It's yall's dog. Sit out. But
Speaker 1: now we're gonna find out, Saints of God, do they
Speaker 1: want what comes with it? Because I will give it
Speaker 1: away a week from when we get it. If they doll,
Speaker 1: I'm not cleaning up nothing, because we are about to
Speaker 1: find out. Remember, Boas redeemed this family after another close
Speaker 1: relative had the opportunity to but the other relative didn't
Speaker 1: want it because it came with a mob bite. Boas said,
Speaker 1: not only do I want the land, I'll take what
Speaker 1: comes with it. And I got to show you this.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful that while Leah and Rachel were having all
Speaker 1: those babies really to compete with each other, really to
Speaker 1: compete with each other. From their perspective, they were trying
Speaker 1: to get Jacob to love them. But from God's perspective,
Speaker 1: it was all coming together to make a nation. So
Speaker 1: I need you to know, the dog comes with walking,
Speaker 1: the patience comes with pain. It will come together. It'll
Speaker 1: be a mixed blessing. It'll be Leah and Rachel, it
Speaker 1: will be Naomi and Boas, it will be both. Because
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this in case you are holding a
Speaker 1: blessing but you don't recognize it. That baby's name was Obed.
Speaker 1: His son's name was Jesse. His son's name was David.
Speaker 1: David was the king through which came forth to somebody
Speaker 1: that we're awfully fond of, name Jesus. But if you
Speaker 1: go all the way back, it came from ten generations,
Speaker 1: after ten years in Moab, from a man named Perez,
Speaker 1: who came from a man named Judah, and who was
Speaker 1: the mom of Judah. Leah, Leah, the one Jacob didn't
Speaker 1: even what. You have no idea what you're holding. And
Speaker 1: if you taste it in isolation, it might just be pain.
Speaker 1: If you taste it in isolation, it might just be failure.
Speaker 1: But let God mix it. Let God mix it. You
Speaker 1: don't know who you're gonna meet next year. You don't
Speaker 1: know what you're gonna learn. You don't know what God
Speaker 1: might be protecting you from by getting you out of there.
Speaker 1: Get out of the kitchen. You're a terrible cook. Get
Speaker 1: out of the kitchen. That grease is there for a reason.
Speaker 1: Get out of the kitchen. Leah is the one who
Speaker 1: gave Jacob the baby that produced the king, that produced
Speaker 1: your savior. So I want you to say this in
Speaker 1: your heart. God. I mean I meant, I meant say
Speaker 1: it out loud. I said it the opposite way. Say
Speaker 1: this out loud. God. I want your will and I
Speaker 1: want what comes with it, Because I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: what comes with it. If you go through a trial,
Speaker 1: you'll get grace with it. God will give you the
Speaker 1: grace to stand up under. How many of you went
Speaker 1: through something so dark you couldn't even explain how you
Speaker 1: got through. But there was a grace. There was a grace,
Speaker 1: wasn't there? And somebody would have told you could live
Speaker 1: through that. You said, call me bitter, I can't make it.
Speaker 1: It's over. You would have said that, But watch this.
Speaker 1: When she was holding the baby, it wasn't Marra holding
Speaker 1: the baby. That's the name she gave her, It said Naomi.
Speaker 1: God still knew her, Nay. As we close today, I
Speaker 1: want you to stand on every auditorium and in every
Speaker 1: living room, if you're in a hospital room with somebody,
Speaker 1: and you're standing next to somebody whose life has become
Speaker 1: very bitter, if you're standing in need right now of
Speaker 1: something that only God can give, or you're in a
Speaker 1: desperate place called Moab, where you never thought that you
Speaker 1: would be. This prayer is for you to just lift
Speaker 1: your hands like this to God. Just like this to God.
Speaker 1: Just like this to God, Just like this to God.
Speaker 1: Naomi said, I went out full and I went down
Speaker 1: the Moab and I went because I had to go,
Speaker 1: and I lost when I can't replace. So I went
Speaker 1: out full and I came back empty. And that would
Speaker 1: be a summary of how some of us feel today. God,
Speaker 1: But we want to see that reversed in our life,
Speaker 1: that we would say I came in empty, but I'm
Speaker 1: going out full believing that while Rachel and Leah were
Speaker 1: fighting themselves, disliking themselves and proving things to one another,
Speaker 1: that you were building a nation. Now, if that was
Speaker 1: true for their blessing, if that was true for Ruth
Speaker 1: and Naomi, maybe it's true for me too. For every
Speaker 1: blessing there's a burden. It'll come together, but our focus
Speaker 1: has chosen. So right now, Jesus in your name, I'm
Speaker 1: asking you that you would put a baby in Naomi's
Speaker 1: arms today, take the bitterness or the pain away, but
Speaker 1: it'll give us something to look forward to. I'm sorry, y'all,
Speaker 1: but I gotta obey the Lord. He said, you're holding
Speaker 1: O bed O bed never would have been here without Moab.
Speaker 1: Thank you what you're holding, what you're walking in, It
Speaker 1: will come saying together, it will come together, Say that
Speaker 1: it will come together. You gotta trust God in this part.
Speaker 1: You gotta trust God in this moment, knowing it will
Speaker 1: come together. Almighty God, Jehovah, Shah Loong, Prince of Peace,
Speaker 1: Jehovah Rathha, our healer, Jehovah. And see our banner and victory,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, change
Speaker 1: our name today. We came in holding bitterness, but we
Speaker 1: believe that the baby held in Naomi's arms is representative
Speaker 1: of the purpose that we are holding. And God, if
Speaker 1: I preached it for one person today, then that's cool
Speaker 1: with me, because if they get this, great things are
Speaker 1: coming forth from their life that eyes have not seen
Speaker 1: and ears have not heard, and it hasn't even entered
Speaker 1: into their heart. But you know it and you spoke it,
Speaker 1: and you can do it. It'll come together. If you
Speaker 1: don't give up, it'll come together. If you don't mess
Speaker 1: it up and manipulate it, it it will come together. I
Speaker 1: speak the blessing of the Almighty over you today. May
Speaker 1: the Lord make you like Rachel and Leah who together
Speaker 1: built the house. All things work together. How many of
Speaker 1: you love the Lord? How many of you are called
Speaker 1: according to His purpose? Just if that's you, I'm called
Speaker 1: according I'm not called according to my experience. I'm called
Speaker 1: according to his purpose. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of things I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast.
Speaker 1: You can also help us reach others by investing today
Speaker 1: at Elevation Church dot org, slash give and thanks again
Speaker 1: for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.