1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,400 Good morning. Merry Christmas. 2 00:00:05,160 --> 00:00:07,640 Welcome to Resurrection Church. My name is Daniel. 3 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:10,080 I'm the lead pastor here. Hey, so because it's the holiday 4 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:12,440 seasons, I don't know if you know this, but Hallmark has been 5 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:18,040 cranking out the movies, man. You know the one, because they 6 00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,080 all go about the same way. There's the big city lady who 7 00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:24,560 somehow gets trapped in a small town over the holidays and then 8 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:28,720 accidentally, coincidentally bumps into that very roguish, 9 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:32,040 very handsome man, always wearing flannel. 10 00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,240 And he sweeps them off their feet and reintroduces them to 11 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:42,320 love in some cheesy, predictable way that we can't seem to stop 12 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:47,400 watching because every single plot is the same with just 13 00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:52,120 different character names. Well, last week in the Book of 14 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:56,280 Ruth, we kind of interrupted our love story at the end of Chapter 15 00:00:56,280 --> 00:00:57,360 3. It was right. 16 00:00:57,360 --> 00:00:59,800 It was like kind of building up into that tension. 17 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:01,920 And then it was like commercial break. 18 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:06,520 Oh, sorry for you younger people, a commercial break. 19 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:14,840 You'll figure it out. So quick recap if you, if you've 20 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:16,680 missed any of the last three weeks, we've been, we've been 21 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:18,720 reading through this love story in the book of Ruth, which is 22 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:21,200 also kind of a Christmas story, which we've been explaining 23 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,240 along the way, even though it took place 1100 years before 24 00:01:25,240 --> 00:01:28,440 Christmas. And so there is a Moabite woman, 25 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:32,920 her name is Ruth, and she and her Jewish mother-in-law, they 26 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:36,720 had come back from the land of Moab and they're widowed. 27 00:01:37,120 --> 00:01:41,120 And so as they come back and Moab is the is Israel's enemy. 28 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,320 As they come back to the town of Bethlehem in Israel, a God 29 00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:50,080 provides for them substantially. During the barley harvest, they 30 00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:52,880 end up with food to eat, even though they were destitute and 31 00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:55,600 starving. And in this last chapter that we 32 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,600 covered last week, there's this man named Boaz. 33 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,200 He's the landowner in which they've gotten food. 34 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:03,680 He has shown Ruth kindness along the way. 35 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,280 And Ruth makes a very bold move. She goes to him and asks him to 36 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:12,360 be something called a Redeemer. And that word means, in their 37 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:16,240 culture, to marry her to, to take her in and protect her, to 38 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,240 provide for her. And he agrees and he says at the 39 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:23,720 very end of last week, I will deal with this today. 40 00:02:23,720 --> 00:02:27,320 And chapter 4 is today. So welcome to what we hope to be 41 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:31,000 the the kind of culmination of this love story slash Christmas 42 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:32,120 story. Here's the big idea. 43 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,520 So if you if you've come today and you get nothing else out of 44 00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:38,000 today, you have to, you have to leave with just one thought. 45 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,800 It's this love fixes what the law fails. 46 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,680 Love fixes what the law fails. And we'll explain that. 47 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:50,120 Join me in reading God's word, Ruth chapter 4, starting with 48 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,520 verse one. Give you a minute to get there. 49 00:02:56,160 --> 00:03:00,280 Now Boaz, this is the landowner. Now Boaz who made this promise 50 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,360 had gone up to the gate and sat down there and behold, the 51 00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:08,440 Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. 52 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:13,120 So Boaz said, turn aside, friend, sit down here. 53 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,880 Now in in ancient cities, the gate was where they did all of 54 00:03:16,880 --> 00:03:19,640 the business transactions. The gate, because that's where 55 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:23,440 everyone would enter or or leave the city from was the was the 56 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:26,040 place they would do they would do business deals, they would do 57 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:28,040 court proceedings. Everything happened at the gate 58 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,480 of the city. And so Boaz in the last chapter 59 00:03:30,480 --> 00:03:33,000 said, Hey, there's a, a Redeemer closer than I. 60 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:38,160 And what he meant was there's a relative to Naomi and Ruth that 61 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,080 is the closest relative. And in that ancient community 62 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:43,720 man family had certain obligations. 63 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:46,520 And so there's a a man that is closest in relation. 64 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:50,040 He needs to go talk to that man. And he says, hey, come over 65 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:52,560 here, let's sit down, let's have a conversation. 66 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:54,880 So he finds him at the gate. This is the by the way, this is 67 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,760 the day after harvest. So they've just been grueling 68 00:03:57,760 --> 00:03:59,840 work for months. This is the next day. 69 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,200 It's like the first day off. And Can you imagine this guy? 70 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:04,480 He has no idea what's going on. He's just walking like finally 71 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,320 this thing's over. He's just like on his way to 72 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:08,120 work like us. He's going to go to Dutch Bros 73 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:11,080 and get a coffee. And all of a sudden it's like, 74 00:04:11,080 --> 00:04:14,680 hey, Fran, come over here. What is this? 75 00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:17,680 Sit down. Now. 76 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:21,120 I, I want you to catch something that I think is, is it's so 77 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:22,360 important. It's so easy to miss. 78 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:25,560 He says, hey, friend, come over here. 79 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:27,480 Now here's the here's the way that that's easy to miss. 80 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,360 In the Hebrew that this was written in, the word he uses 81 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,240 does not mean friend. It actually is really a vague 82 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:38,200 word. It means so and so, so and so. 83 00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:40,760 Someone of no consequence, like so and so. 84 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:42,240 He goes, hey, so and so come over here. 85 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:46,800 That's a weird thing. That's a really weird thing to 86 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,040 say, actually. And, and I've been saying for a 87 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,000 few weeks now that the author of this story, this is a masterful 88 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:54,960 storyteller who's very detailed at certain things and very vague 89 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:58,960 about other things on purpose so that you will see and understand 90 00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:03,600 and even feel this story. So this storyteller absolutely 91 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,360 knows the name of this man. This is the closest relation to 92 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:07,840 the protagonist in the entire story. 93 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:10,160 They know exactly who this is. In fact, in a few verses, you're 94 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:13,560 going to get a genealogy of 12 generations of people. 95 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:17,760 This is intentionally vague. This is purposefully vague. 96 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:21,280 This is the closest relative to the hero of the story or the to 97 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:23,480 the protagonist of the story. And yet you're not going to hear 98 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:26,520 their name mentioned at all. And so they're going to be named 99 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,920 in the story. So and so if the title of the 100 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:31,720 credits rolled at the end of the Netflix film, it would be like 101 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:37,600 so and so played by. So for our purposes, we're going 102 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:42,720 to call this person Joe Blow. So and so we got to pick a name. 103 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:45,960 They didn't give us one. So he says, hey, so so sit down 104 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:49,400 here and he turned aside and he sat down and Boaz took ten men 105 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:51,880 of the elders of the city and said, sit down here. 106 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:56,760 So they sat down. He's just put a a jury, a whole 107 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,600 series of witnesses. So this is about to get serious. 108 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:03,000 You can say this is getting serious like it's it's going to 109 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:04,560 be a legal procedure. It's going to it's going to have 110 00:06:04,560 --> 00:06:05,760 witnesses. They're they're about to do a 111 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:08,200 transaction. Verse 3. 112 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:12,560 Then he said to the Redeemer, Joe Blow, so and so Naomi, who 113 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:16,520 has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel 114 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:20,640 of land that belonged to our relative, her husband Elimelech. 115 00:06:21,280 --> 00:06:24,960 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the 116 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,120 presence of those sitting here. That's the way the witnesses are 117 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:29,480 there. And in the presence of the 118 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,600 elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem 119 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,400 it. But if you will not tell me that 120 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:41,040 I may know for there's no one beside you to redeem it and I 121 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:43,800 come after you and he said I will redeem it. 122 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,360 But you see how quick that that reaction was and I'll explain 123 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:49,760 why. OK, so this is a little weird 124 00:06:49,840 --> 00:06:52,320 because we don't do any of this stuff anymore like this. 125 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,120 And, and even historians and, and, and commentators on this 126 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:59,120 section of Ruth are very split on exactly what's happening here 127 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,360 because it sounds like a legal proceeding and it kind of is. 128 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:04,920 The problem is it doesn't exactly match the laws that we 129 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:07,360 knew about for that time. So we're all a little bit 130 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,640 confused. There were some laws established 131 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:16,120 in, in, in the Judaic law in ancient times back in Leviticus 132 00:07:16,120 --> 00:07:20,120 25. And according to that law, you 133 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:26,360 could never sell land forever. You couldn't sell land forever 134 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:28,240 because even if you thought it was yours, it wasn't really 135 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:29,120 yours. It was God's. 136 00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:33,080 So the only thing you could sell is you could sell the right to 137 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:35,640 use it for a little while, but they would go back to whomever 138 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:37,280 God had granted it to originally. 139 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:38,680 It was called redeeming the land. 140 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,640 And so he's saying, look, this land when the limit like bailed 141 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:47,520 on Israel and ran off the Moab, like you shouldn't have. 142 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:50,080 He sold this land during a famine, but now it needs to be 143 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:52,920 redeemed. So buy it back because you're 144 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:55,120 the closest relative. So the losses, you have to buy 145 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:59,040 it back. Now, here's the interesting 146 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:00,080 thing. When it got sold, it was a 147 00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:01,280 famine. It wasn't worth anything. 148 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,000 But now there are bumper crops. The land is producing 149 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,680 plentifully. There's food everywhere, so this 150 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:14,000 land now is worth a lot and he gets to buy it for pennies on 151 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:16,640 the dollar. Pretty good deal. 152 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:19,680 Sounds pretty good. In fact, sounds so good. 153 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,840 See how quick he agrees. Hey, if you want to buy it, I'll 154 00:08:22,840 --> 00:08:26,520 buy it. Yep, got that dollar signs. 155 00:08:27,120 --> 00:08:28,600 You ever seen a good deal? You're like, it's too good to 156 00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:30,960 pass up. I know that there's a lot of 157 00:08:30,960 --> 00:08:33,159 good deals because there's a lot of Amazon boxes on my front 158 00:08:33,159 --> 00:08:40,080 porch. He's like, yeah, I'll do that. 159 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,120 I don't know if you've ever watched any of those courtroom 160 00:08:42,120 --> 00:08:46,560 dramas on TV where one lawyer is trying to trick another lawyer 161 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:49,280 into admitting a piece of evidence because if he does, the 162 00:08:49,280 --> 00:08:50,920 whole case breaks open. You ever seen one of those 163 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:52,760 things? You know what I'm talking about. 164 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:55,440 My daughter's in mock trial right now in high school. 165 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:59,040 And they actually go to the Superior Court and they have an 166 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:01,920 actual Kern County Superior Court judge in the room as they 167 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:06,400 they argue a made-up trial in front of a real judge, which is 168 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:09,640 both cute and comical at the same time, if you can believe 169 00:09:09,640 --> 00:09:12,200 it, because they are on each other like, like you're like, 170 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:13,960 oh, these dudes are serious. They're like freshman in high 171 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,480 school and they're just doodles. They were like arguing up the 172 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:19,400 admissibility of a laptop and a thing. 173 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:20,640 I'm just listening and we're going. 174 00:09:20,800 --> 00:09:23,640 But The thing is that they get points if they can catch the 175 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:25,360 other person, if they can impeach the witness or if they 176 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:27,120 can catch him. So they're always trying to like 177 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,400 jump on them. And sometimes they do it too 178 00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:31,120 early. They're like, aha, objection. 179 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:33,360 And the judge is trying not to laugh because he, like, you got 180 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,040 that a little early there. But that's actually what's 181 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:39,840 happening in our story. You see, Boaz just set this guy 182 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:44,560 up to admit something that will then come with a secondary 183 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:46,960 obligation he's not ready for. And you're going to see that 184 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:49,400 unfold right now. And it's it's brilliant. 185 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:52,040 It's actually pretty cool. It's like you're watching suits 186 00:09:52,040 --> 00:09:55,400 on USATV. What did he just do? 187 00:09:56,680 --> 00:10:01,120 Watch what he does, Verse 5. Then Boaz says. 188 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:03,880 He's like, yeah, I'll buy it, I'll buy it. 189 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:10,400 I'll buy it, Boaz says. Well, the day you buy the field 190 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:16,640 from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the 191 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:20,440 widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead 192 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:23,960 in his inheritance. Oops. 193 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:32,960 Then the Redeemer said I cannot redeem it for myself lest I 194 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,680 impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption 195 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:37,680 yourself, for I cannot redeem it. 196 00:10:37,680 --> 00:10:41,520 Well, that's a, that's a 180. That's a pretty fast reversal. 197 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:44,640 He got out of that pretty quick. What just happened? 198 00:10:47,680 --> 00:10:50,240 You see, Boaz hooked that guy with greed. 199 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:55,280 Hey, there's this land, really good land, producing a lot, and 200 00:10:55,280 --> 00:10:58,240 you're the first relative to redeem it, and you're going to 201 00:10:58,240 --> 00:10:59,640 be able to get it for almost nothing. 202 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:00,760 What do you think? I'm on it. 203 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:03,480 Oh, but by the way, if you're really the closest relative, 204 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:06,320 then there's an obligation to care for these people. 205 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:08,680 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 206 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:13,560 That doesn't sound so good. So one law says in the Bible 207 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:16,840 says, you know, there's this right to buy back a family land. 208 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:22,440 But there's another law that says if your brother dies and is 209 00:11:22,440 --> 00:11:24,840 married, it's your responsibility to marry their 210 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:29,040 widow. And so Joe Blow so and so is 211 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:30,760 fine with the one that makes him a lot of money. 212 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:33,800 He's not so fine with the law that's going to cost him 213 00:11:33,800 --> 00:11:37,840 something. And So what Boaz has done is 214 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:39,400 he's tied these two laws together. 215 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:42,320 You want eliminates land. You're also on the hook for his 216 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:44,800 daughter-in-law. And that's really smart. 217 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:48,320 That's really smart because he does it in front of 10 218 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,000 witnesses. So there's no getting back out 219 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:52,120 of it. And I and I like I want to tell 220 00:11:52,120 --> 00:12:00,680 you how how. How strategic Boaz is in the 221 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:02,560 moment. If you've been with us and 222 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:04,840 you've been listening to, you know, chapters one and two and 223 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:09,760 three and four, for two chapters, Boaz has been 224 00:12:09,960 --> 00:12:13,320 overflowing with praise about the character of Ruth. 225 00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:16,040 Yes. I mean, he's been like, man, 226 00:12:16,040 --> 00:12:19,560 everyone in town knows that you are a woman of good character. 227 00:12:19,680 --> 00:12:22,440 I mean, just compliment after compliment about the renowned by 228 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:26,000 which people see her, her loyalty, her integrity, all of 229 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:27,760 these things. He doesn't say a word of that 230 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:29,800 here. What does he say? 231 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,760 The Moabite? Ruth, where are all the 232 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:36,400 compliments? Where'd they all go? 233 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:40,480 The woman of good character? The whole town knows I'm saying 234 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:42,840 none of that. What does he say? 235 00:12:44,840 --> 00:12:50,560 The Moabite? You got to marry the outsider. 236 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,560 You know what that is? Strategory. 237 00:12:56,560 --> 00:13:04,400 Pretty sure that's the word. And immediately Joe blows. 238 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:08,520 Oh, and so goes no, I can't, can't do that, lest I inher and 239 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:11,800 impair my own inheritance. Now, what in the world does that 240 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:13,760 mean? Why does he stop, reverse 241 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:15,200 course, and head out the other way? 242 00:13:16,840 --> 00:13:21,440 Well, marrying and producing a child with Ruth, because Ruth is 243 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:23,480 a Moabite. Remember, a Moabite was an enemy 244 00:13:23,480 --> 00:13:26,840 of God. He thinks it'll ruin his 245 00:13:26,840 --> 00:13:30,760 inheritance. And that text is a little bit 246 00:13:30,760 --> 00:13:33,240 vague because we, again, historians don't even agree 247 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:35,440 about it specifically. But let me tell you what I think 248 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:37,360 happened in that moment. I think what he's saying is 249 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:41,880 either I'm already married or a plan to be and I'm going to 250 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:44,400 produce an heir. And that that heir that I 251 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:47,240 produce with my wife, who's not named Ruth is going to be 252 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,720 considered, at least for me, pure Israelite. 253 00:13:52,120 --> 00:13:54,120 And if I marry Ruth and produce an heir, now I have two 254 00:13:54,120 --> 00:13:56,040 different heirs. And not only is there a, is 255 00:13:56,040 --> 00:13:59,040 there a complexity to having two different heirs, but one of them 256 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:02,680 is going to be pure and one of them is going to be maybe not so 257 00:14:02,680 --> 00:14:10,560 pure because now I've made an air with a Moabite woman, my air 258 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:14,800 will be mixed, not completely of the people of God. 259 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:17,560 And in his mind and in a lot of Jewish minds, there would have 260 00:14:17,560 --> 00:14:19,520 been two categories. There would have been a category 261 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:24,040 of an in crowd and a category of a kind of the out crowd. 262 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:30,240 See, we Israelites, we're God's people and everyone else is not 263 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:32,240 God's people. Therefore there's in and there's 264 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:37,200 out and Ruth is out. And so in essence, I believe 265 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:41,640 what he's saying is, listen, yeah, I know God can redeem some 266 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:44,760 people. I mean, he can redeem 267 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:53,520 Israelites, but I don't know about a foreigner in in this in 268 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,400 this moment of the story. I think what the author wants 269 00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:01,560 you to see is this is so contrary to the gospel of Jesus 270 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:06,840 Christ, because you and I often times do this. 271 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:11,240 We'll look at a world and we'll say, listen, there's a good 272 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,960 crowd and there's a bad crowd. There are moral people and there 273 00:15:14,960 --> 00:15:18,080 are immoral people. And in that we will judge the 274 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:21,360 world not on whether or not they know Christ, but rather we'll 275 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:23,920 judge them on their morals or judge them on their political 276 00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:26,800 party, or we'll judge them on their political leaning, or how 277 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:29,040 they live or the way they dress or lots of things. 278 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:34,280 And we'll create in our minds an in crowd and an out crowd, a 279 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:39,760 pure crowd and an impure crowd. You know, there's kind of the 280 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:43,560 people I want to deal with and there's the people that maybe I 281 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:48,640 don't really want to deal with. The wonderful reason to come to 282 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:52,360 church in person and not just online is you have to deal with 283 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:55,920 both. You're welcome. 284 00:15:57,440 --> 00:16:00,680 It's easy to avoid on your couch, not so easy on the Pew. 285 00:16:04,920 --> 00:16:09,280 You see, to understand life and the world the way this job blow 286 00:16:09,280 --> 00:16:12,640 so and so is looking at it is is to not understand Christmas. 287 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:15,680 It's to not understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. 288 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,000 It's to misunderstand Jesus himself. 289 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,200 Because there there is no in crowd apart from Christ. 290 00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,960 There is no good and bad. We are all bad. 291 00:16:29,280 --> 00:16:32,000 There is no moral and immoral. We're all immoral. 292 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:33,920 Jesus would say the same thing in Scripture. 293 00:16:33,920 --> 00:16:35,280 Someone would come and go, good teacher. 294 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:36,720 He'd go whoa, whoa, whoa, why do you call me good? 295 00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:42,160 There's no one good but God. At the root of our sinfulness is 296 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,200 a hypocrisy in which we justify ourselves and we think that 297 00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:49,480 everyone else is immoral. Everybody else is the insider or 298 00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:51,920 the outsider. But that's not the case at all. 299 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,160 The gospel of Christ says that everyone's bad. 300 00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,360 Everyone was born into sin. Everyone was an enemy of God. 301 00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:02,600 That's what the gospel says. You and I, every single one of 302 00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:05,720 us, have rebelled against God. We, we chose our own way over 303 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:07,880 his. We've hurt people. 304 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:11,400 We've been selfish. We've lied to us ourselves about 305 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:16,079 who we really are. And left to ourselves, we are 306 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:22,000 spiritually dead, separated from the God who made us, with no way 307 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:26,319 to fix that on our own. So whether it's the religious 308 00:17:26,319 --> 00:17:30,600 person who who looks down on others spiritually dead, or the 309 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:33,880 moral person who trusts in their own morality spiritually dead, 310 00:17:34,080 --> 00:17:37,360 or the immoral person who knows they're spiritually dead. 311 00:17:38,360 --> 00:17:40,800 And every single one of us needs a Redeemer. 312 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:47,680 And all of us start as a Moabite, an outsider. 313 00:17:51,040 --> 00:17:59,520 That's the story of the Bible. But God being rich in mercy 314 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:05,960 because of the great kindness with which He shows up, steps 315 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,720 into the moment and begins to raise people from spiritual 316 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:13,440 death to spiritual life, from enemy of God to child of God, 317 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:17,560 from foreigner to a son or a daughter of the king. 318 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:21,480 Therefore there is no Greek or Jew, barbarian or Scythian, male 319 00:18:21,480 --> 00:18:25,160 or female, slave or owner, Democrat or republican, moral or 320 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:27,400 immoral. There is either saved by the 321 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:31,120 blood of Jesus Christ and identify through the 322 00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:34,120 righteousness of his robes, or there is lost. 323 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:49,600 And to understand the world and the gospel that way will mean 324 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:56,080 that no longer Christian do I get to shake my fist and all 325 00:18:56,080 --> 00:19:02,480 those immoral people because they are you and I am them, but 326 00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:07,000 for the grace of God. So instead of shaking our our 327 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:10,160 fists at those people that infuriate us, we open our hands 328 00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:13,960 offering to serve them in hopes that we could call them to see 329 00:19:13,960 --> 00:19:17,200 Christ and that they might enter into life from death. 330 00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:23,040 That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. 331 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:28,960 That's why Christmas matters so much that every one of us, 332 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:33,920 foreigner, Moabite, destitute, starving widows, separated from 333 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:38,600 God, might be saved by God. And to know Christ changes 334 00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,440 everything. So no, we're not in the in 335 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,240 crowd. We're not the Israelites who 336 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,200 don't want to sully our inheritance. 337 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:50,120 We're not the moral. We're the beggars who have found 338 00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:53,680 the Savior who came from Bethlehem, the House of bread, 339 00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:55,320 which is what Bethlehem actually means. 340 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:57,240 We're beggars who have found bread. 341 00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:02,680 And our job is to find other beggars and tell them, hey, we 342 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:04,000 don't tell them, hey, I figured it out. 343 00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,040 We tell them, hey, I know where you can find bread. 344 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:14,240 Let me show you. This is why Ruth, the Book of 345 00:20:14,240 --> 00:20:21,440 Ruth is a love story. And a Christmas story, you think 346 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:25,920 about this, there has been these laws that he's, he's basically 347 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,640 rolling out today and talking about in our story, these laws 348 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:32,120 have been in place already. And yet for over 2 months wrote 349 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:36,640 Ruth and Naomi have been in town And conveniently Joe Blow so and 350 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:41,520 so has not seen fit to have any sort of obligation between for 351 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,520 these widows who have been hurting and alone and in need. 352 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:52,920 And you know, Joe, Joe probably has enough enough Gray area in 353 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:55,560 the law that he could argue that's not really my obligation. 354 00:20:55,560 --> 00:21:02,560 You know, like there's some great, but the law that was 355 00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:04,560 there to help them has not helped them at all. 356 00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:10,280 So it's not the law that steps in and saves the day for Ruth 357 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,360 and Naomi. It's actually the sacrificial 358 00:21:13,360 --> 00:21:17,920 love of Boaz stepping in to fix a hopeless situation with 359 00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:23,320 hopeless people. And Boaz steps into Ruth's life 360 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,160 not because there's any legal obligation to do so. 361 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:32,520 He chooses to love her. He chooses to serve her. 362 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:36,120 He chooses to redeem her. He's not compelled to. 363 00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:42,720 Love fixes what the law fails. This story, this concept is 364 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,440 actually a microcosm of the entire story of Scripture. 365 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:51,040 If you've read the Bible at all, especially the Old Testament, 366 00:21:51,840 --> 00:21:56,520 there's plenty of law about what we should do right and wrong. 367 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:59,000 And and all of the stories of the Old Testament are about 368 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:00,400 people reading and going, yeah, sounds good. 369 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:07,040 I'm not going to do that. See, the problem in the Bible is 370 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:08,520 not that people don't know what to do. 371 00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:10,120 It's that frankly, we just don't want to do it. 372 00:22:16,650 --> 00:22:22,490 You know, the problem in my life, possibly the problem in 373 00:22:22,490 --> 00:22:24,290 your life is not that you don't know what to do. 374 00:22:26,530 --> 00:22:30,490 So we don't want to do it, and sometimes we want to do it. 375 00:22:30,490 --> 00:22:32,490 We don't find ourselves compelled to actually get it 376 00:22:32,490 --> 00:22:39,170 done consistently, which is the well, it's the same problem that 377 00:22:39,730 --> 00:22:42,170 poor old Joe Blow so and so illustrates. 378 00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:52,200 Just like Boaz is redeeming an enemy, Ruth is a Moabite and 379 00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:55,320 making her his family. He's going to make her his wife. 380 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:03,960 Well, that that's my story too. I grew up a Christian. 381 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:06,640 I grew up in a wonderful home. I grew up with godly parents. 382 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:09,000 I knew what was right. I chose wrong. 383 00:23:11,560 --> 00:23:13,720 It wasn't that I needed to know what right and wrong was. 384 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:15,440 I already knew. I chose to run from God. 385 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:19,320 I was an enemy of God and no amount of knowing the law, no 386 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,520 amount of knowing more moral things was going to fix my 387 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:25,400 problem. It wasn't a knowledge problem, 388 00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:31,000 it was a heart problem. I knew what was right and didn't 389 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:35,960 want any part of it. I needed someone to lovingly 390 00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,400 step into my life and fix the problem. 391 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:42,200 Not because they were legally obligated to do so, but because 392 00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:48,360 they chose to. And that's the beauty of 393 00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:53,760 Christmas. The one and only gift that can 394 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:58,120 save us would not be more laws. It would not be more social 395 00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:00,640 programs. It would be an act of love so 396 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:04,520 radical and scandalous that we are still talking about it today 397 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,560 because it changed all of human history. 398 00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:17,320 God's Son wrapped in flesh, willingly steps into our 399 00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:22,520 hopeless predicament to redeem us, to make us His own, to 400 00:24:22,520 --> 00:24:25,440 choose, to love us. That's the Christmas story. 401 00:24:25,520 --> 00:24:29,720 It's no coincidence this this story is taking place 1100 years 402 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:32,480 before Christmas. And they're standing at a gate. 403 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:35,640 And if you actually look at where Jesus was born, it's a 404 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:44,280 couple 100 meters away, just a few 100 meters away from where 405 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:46,680 this redemption is taking place. There's going to be another 406 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:54,720 Redeemer who comes, and just like Boaz is an example of a 407 00:24:54,720 --> 00:25:00,240 Redeemer, he's there to foreshadow the ultimate Redeemer 408 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:08,920 who will come for you and I. If you know Jesus Christ as your 409 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,520 king, that means that this season for us, this idea of 410 00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:18,160 Christmas, we celebrate that we didn't deserve a single bit of 411 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:20,960 the grace and mercy that was extended toward us. 412 00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:29,600 What do you, what do you do with that, with that truth? 413 00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:35,920 I would submit to you that we, we, we should use it to remind 414 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:40,320 us that the only thing that makes U.S. special, the only 415 00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:43,200 thing that makes us any morally different than a lost in a 416 00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:47,120 broken world is that Jesus stepped into our situation. 417 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:53,520 And therefore we can use that truth to shape us and to 418 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:59,200 motivate us, to shape us and to motivate it, motivate us when it 419 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:02,160 comes to living this out in this world, shape us. 420 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:06,360 Here's what I mean by that we we should adopt A posture of 421 00:26:06,360 --> 00:26:12,400 grateful, foreign, hopeless, orphan, adopted and saved by God 422 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:16,480 and motivate. We should wake up every day 423 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:21,960 excited to tell people where the bread of life is and what he did 424 00:26:21,960 --> 00:26:24,280 for us and what he can do for them. 425 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,920 Shape means that this week when I'm tempted to to look down on 426 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,580 someone that that homeless guy outside Trader Joe's, the Co 427 00:26:33,580 --> 00:26:37,200 worker with different politics, the member, the family member 428 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:38,920 you're going to, you're going to be meeting with over the 429 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,840 holidays that has very different choices than you would agree 430 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,040 with. We get to remember that without 431 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:47,320 Jesus, I am no better. I'm just saved. 432 00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,000 And it should motivate us. Motivate, meaning sometime this 433 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,480 week or over the next few weeks as you as you press into people, 434 00:26:57,480 --> 00:27:00,000 your family, your, your, your people in your carpools, your 435 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,200 cubicle, your cul-de-sac, who you're looking for, who's 436 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:07,160 hurting and who's searching. And instead of judging them or 437 00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,640 trying to fix them, we simply ask, can I tell you about 438 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:16,640 someone that changed my life? That's Christmas and that's the 439 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:18,920 gospel. And maybe you've been a 440 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:22,520 Christian for years, decades, 30-40 years, and you've read 441 00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:25,160 Ruth a dozen times. And my question for you is, have 442 00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:30,120 you become a Joe Blow? So and so have you gotten so 443 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:32,440 comfortable in your inheritance that you've forgotten you were 444 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:37,880 once Ruth, an outsider, A foreigner with nothing to offer. 445 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:44,640 I told you earlier that the author intentionally left out 446 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:49,720 the name of this character and called them so and so, and there 447 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:51,760 was a reason. Here's the reason, I think 448 00:27:53,560 --> 00:27:56,000 because legalism and self protection, right? 449 00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:02,520 You out of God's story he chose security over sacrifice and 450 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:06,760 history forgot him. There's a movie I think it's 451 00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:07,960 Troy. There's a movie where someone 452 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,040 they they go to the main character and they're like I 453 00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:11,600 can't believe you're going to you're going to fight him and he 454 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:13,800 looks at me and goes and that's why no one will remember your 455 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:22,480 name when you choose your own preference and your own security 456 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:24,920 and your own comfort over obedience to Christ. 457 00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,640 I don't what are we even doing this for. 458 00:28:29,120 --> 00:28:33,200 Meanwhile, Ruth, Ruth the Moabite, Ruth the enemy of God, 459 00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:37,080 Ruth the foreigner, Ruth the destitute widow with nothing to 460 00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:40,960 author offer. That's Jesus, great, great, 461 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:49,800 great grandmama. I want you to consider that God 462 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,200 who ordained everything, who chose when Christ would come 463 00:28:53,200 --> 00:29:00,760 before the foundations of the earth intentionally chose that 464 00:29:00,760 --> 00:29:03,560 the grandmother, great great grandmother of Jesus would be an 465 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,320 enemy of God. Would be a foreigner, would be a 466 00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:09,400 Moabite, would be destitute, would be a widow, would be 467 00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:11,400 someone that everyone wanted to exclude. 468 00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,880 So that you and I would look at this and have a realization that 469 00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:21,240 this is what God does. He redeems the lost and he uses 470 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:27,280 them for his glory. Hey, God's not looking for 471 00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,720 religious insiders who protect their inheritance. 472 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,240 He's looking for the desperate who will risk everything to 473 00:29:33,240 --> 00:29:37,160 follow him. I had someone come in my office 474 00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:39,880 for counsel this week and, and they were telling me about an 475 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,280 opportunity that they see where they believe God is leading 476 00:29:42,280 --> 00:29:44,120 them. And it's radical. 477 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:46,680 It means quitting their job means taking financial risks. 478 00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:48,600 It means all of this stuff, walking away from the 479 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,840 comfortable and the safe. And, and, and so they finish 480 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:53,160 telling me all this and they look at me with tears in their 481 00:29:53,160 --> 00:30:02,560 eyes, and they say I'm ready. And I started to, I started to 482 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,880 cry, I'm listening to this and I'm like, because I don't even 483 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:10,080 know exactly how God is going to use that person. 484 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,800 But here's what I do know. I know that when your posture 485 00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:15,480 looks like that toward God, he does great things. 486 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:25,440 He does great things, He moves. So I want to encourage you push 487 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,880 into that Christian as God begins to lead you into those 488 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:30,560 moments. I call them high dive moments. 489 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,440 You ever stood on one of the big high dives at the end and put 490 00:30:34,440 --> 00:30:36,840 your toes over and went, I may have made it, made a bad 491 00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,280 decision and you're, you're genuinely thinking like, is it 492 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:42,600 going to be worse to jump or or have the crawl of shame back 493 00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:48,200 down the ladder? And I just want to encourage 494 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:52,800 you, when the Lord is leading you to something radical, jump 495 00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:53,800 in. The water's fine. 496 00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:59,480 You're going to love it. Why would you want to live this 497 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,760 life any other way than radically going hard after 498 00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:09,520 Christ? What does that leap look like 499 00:31:09,760 --> 00:31:12,960 for you, Christian? What does that leap of faith 500 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,240 look like in your life right now? 501 00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:17,360 Is it forgiving someone who you haven't forgiven? 502 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,960 Is it addressing an addiction or, or an ongoing sin that 503 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:23,640 you've just been tolerating and hiding? 504 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,040 Is it some radical act of, of generosity or obedience that God 505 00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:36,400 is calling you into? Perhaps, perhaps today your leap 506 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:39,560 of faith is a little different. Perhaps today you're you're here 507 00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,080 joining us for this Christmas service or you're watching 508 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:46,320 online and you don't yet know Jesus Christ as your king. 509 00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:49,680 Maybe you've heard about him, but you don't know Him. 510 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:53,520 And so as we wrap this service up for just just a moment, give 511 00:31:53,520 --> 00:31:56,880 me your attention. Maybe you came here today or 512 00:31:56,880 --> 00:32:03,200 you're watching online and you don't know Jesus as the Savior 513 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:05,440 of your life. And I want to tell you, He came 514 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:14,400 to offer you a new life, a new land, a new family to redeem 515 00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:17,640 you. You don't need more advice, you 516 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:22,440 need a Redeemer and love fixes where the law fails. 517 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:24,800 No amount of morality is going to fix the problem. 518 00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:31,040 If you look around our world and and the life that we live, all 519 00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:35,200 of human history points to the story of of evil and chaos and 520 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,440 suffering and points to the need for someone to supernaturally 521 00:32:38,440 --> 00:32:41,600 step into this moment and intervene. 522 00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:47,520 It points to the need for a Redeemer because the world is 523 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,560 broken. You and I were born broken into 524 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:55,880 a fallen world, into sin, and at the first chance we had, we 525 00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,440 rebelled against God, choosing our own will over His. 526 00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:05,600 But God, being rich in kindness, has planned since before the 527 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:07,480 creation of the world, to fix this problem. 528 00:33:07,480 --> 00:33:15,400 He sent his one and only Son in Jesus, born in flesh to live a 529 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:17,600 perfect life. We couldn't live to die a brutal 530 00:33:17,600 --> 00:33:22,080 death on a cross that we should have died and to rise again 531 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,760 three days later, conquering death, making a way for you and 532 00:33:25,760 --> 00:33:30,000 I to be saved and for our relationship with God to be 533 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:35,760 restored. And so if you would like to 534 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:41,280 accept the work of Christ on the cross, Romans 10 says this is 535 00:33:41,280 --> 00:33:43,800 what it looks like, that if you will confess with your mouth 536 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,720 that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised 537 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:49,840 him from the dead, you will be saved. 538 00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,200 For with the heart 1 believes and is justified, and with the 539 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:55,800 mouth 1 confesses and is saved. And so if you'd like to 540 00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:58,400 surrender your life to God today, I want to give you that 541 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:00,640 chance here at Christmas. Will you all please bow your 542 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,800 heads and close your eyes and we'll wrap this service up. 543 00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,440 But I just want you to to focus on this for just a moment. 544 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,280 If you're willing to ask a God for forgiveness and salvation 545 00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:13,199 with every eye closed and every head bowed, I just want you to 546 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:18,600 to quietly or silently say this prayer with me. 547 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:26,280 Jesus, I know I'm lost and I need to be saved. 548 00:34:27,440 --> 00:34:31,800 I want you to redeem me. I surrender everything to you 549 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:36,760 and I receive your promise of redemption. 550 00:34:38,159 --> 00:34:43,480 Be my Lord. Please, Jesus, if you said that 551 00:34:43,480 --> 00:34:48,120 prayer for the very first time right now, would you be brave 552 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,000 and raise your hand for me to see? 553 00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:58,040 Thank you, thank you. Put your hands down, Thank you 554 00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:06,920 in Jesus name, Amen. All right, real quick, Jesus 555 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:12,680 loves you more than you actually can imagine or comprehend. 556 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,920 And if you gave your life to Christ moments ago or recently, 557 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:29,720 welcome to the family. In just a moment, we're going to 558 00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:31,560 sing some songs and we're going to respond to this sermon. 559 00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:33,760 And as we do, you have an opportunity. 560 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:36,600 If you've given your life to Christ recently and not told 561 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,160 anyone about it, we want you to go to the back where it says I 562 00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:42,960 raised my hand on either side. We would love to celebrate with 563 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:44,080 you. We have a gift for you. 564 00:35:44,720 --> 00:35:47,040 We'd love to talk about what it looks like to follow Jesus. 565 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:54,920 Will you stand? Our prayer team is going to come 566 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:55,920 up. We're going to be on the sides 567 00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:57,280 today because we got a full band. 568 00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,000 So just look left or right. You'll find prayer members 569 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,400 everywhere. We love praying with you and for 570 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:12,730 you for any reason I want, I want to remind you that God 571 00:36:12,730 --> 00:36:17,250 loves you tremendously. And whatever it is that you're 572 00:36:17,250 --> 00:36:19,850 going through in this moment, you are not doing it alone. 573 00:36:21,570 --> 00:36:24,610 And so as we sing, you move as the Lord leads you. 574 00:36:24,610 --> 00:36:26,170 We would love to pray with you and for you. 575 00:36:26,490 --> 00:36:27,890 We love you church. Merry Christmas.