[0:00] Growing up, we have heroes. I don't know about you, but I certainly did. And mine focused on physical abilities when I was younger. Athletes. I have my favorite heroes who all happened to be Oakland, California athletes.
[0:15] For some reason, that's where I was born. Perhaps you too, growing up, had heroes, whether they were athletes or musicians or artists, leaders, soldiers.
[0:30] We were awed by them because of their extraordinary ability, their courage, their faith, their determination. As I got older, my heroes tended to be people of faith.
[0:44] People like Luther, who, though far from perfect, fought for the gospel. People like Spurgeon, who fought through amazing physical disability and depression to continue to faithfully serve his Lord.
[1:03] People like David. Paul. Jeremiah. I read Lamentations 3 and I think, man, this guy.
[1:15] Wow. Or people like Ruth. We cannot help read this book and not be awed by her. Who's your hero?
[1:27] Every hero in the Bible? No? No heroes? I'm actually opening it up a little bit. Another hero in the Bible?
[1:39] People you see as heroic? Abraham. Daniel? Daniel? We could name a lot of them, actually.
[1:54] These are all good heroes. We can learn from their faith. We can learn from their courage. We understand they're not perfect by any means.
[2:04] They have heroic moments. Look at an Abraham who had great faith. Faith. And yet had lots of not faith at times.
[2:17] So, you know, we recognize that. But we see what the scriptures preserve is the whole story. And yet it does portray them as people who trusted God.
[2:28] The problem is we tend to read the Bible that way as if that's the end of the goal, to read and find the heroes and try to be like them.
[2:43] What was it about Ruth? How could we be like her? As if that's the point of the scriptures. See, if we read the Bible that way is to miss the true hero, to miss the true point of the story.
[2:59] See, if we simply end at how could I be like Ruth, then we get into moralism. We become no different than other religions.
[3:12] It's just trying to be better. Trying to be like that person that I admire. And it's not that we don't do that. We don't want to. It's not that we don't want to emulate qualities of Ruth.
[3:23] Pray that God would do that. But the real hero is not Ruth. It's Ruth who. It's God who used her. It's God who made her that way.
[3:35] It's God who enables. These people. Now the character of Ruth is without doubt extraordinary. She does not do what the average person does.
[3:49] She forsakes all her earthly securities and identities. In order to seek refuge under the wings of God. And to devote her life to Naomi.
[4:03] Naomi. A miserable, depressed, bitter person. Who does that? And we know that Boaz nailed it when he said, You're doing this, Ruth.
[4:16] We know you love your mother-in-law. But you're doing this really because you're seeking refuge under the wings of Yahweh. That's what you really do. And so she's truly remarkable.
[4:30] She's a humble, selfless, loving, loyal, brave, and godly woman. Clearly she's an example to the church of Christ-like character.
[4:42] Yet in the book that bears her name, she is not the hero or heroine. Nor is Boaz, who also is an amazing person.
[4:56] Especially in the time of the judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Here is a man that stood out with integrity, grace, humility, selflessness.
[5:07] Jesus? But as we read the scriptures, we must always remember that God himself is always the ultimate hero of the story.
[5:19] Even in a story like Ruth, where he's not proclaimed in a direct way as having moved this story.
[5:30] But we can see by the way the author has crafted the story, you know, Ruth just happened to come on the field. That just happened to belong to Boaz, who just happened to be this worthy man.
[5:46] Right? It's just, he's writing and we're getting it. As readers, we're getting it. It's like, no, I know what he's saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it wasn't just happening. Yeah. Yeah. Because as the story develops, we see that Naomi starts to recognize, oh, God's moving.
[6:05] This is Boaz, not just anybody. This is Boaz. And as the story concludes, we see that God is vindicated in a way that at the beginning of the story, he's vilified.
[6:22] Remember how the story began? With Naomi criticizing the Lord, complaining and accusing the Lord as being responsible for all of her misery and ruin.
[6:40] And she's not wrong. She's just not exactly praising God. She's a believer in Yahweh, and yet she's an angry and bitter believer.
[6:57] God has done it. God is ultimately responsible for all of this. Remember how she talked about that in chapter one. Remember the tragedy she experienced. There was a famine. Well, who controls famines?
[7:08] That caused them to move out of the country so that they could survive. So they moved to Moab. There's a move. And then after they move there, she loses her husband.
[7:19] Well, who's in control of life and death? After 10 years, her, well, her sons marry Moabite women. And for 10 years, they have the hope of children.
[7:33] And yet after 10 years, both of her sons die in a foreign land. And she's left without a husband and without sons and without children, without grandchildren.
[7:45] And on her return to Bethlehem, remember at the end of chapter one, how she said, she comes into Bethlehem and the women are, hey, it's Naomi, it's Naomi, which means the pleasant one.
[8:03] And Naomi says in verse 20, do not call me Naomi. Call me Marah. Call me bitter. Why? Because the almighty, the one who controls everything, the one who has all power, the sovereign one has dealt very bitterly with me.
[8:21] He's made my life bitter. And she goes on. She has four accusations, actually. He's made my life bitter. Verse 21. I went away full. And who? Yahweh brought me back empty.
[8:33] It's his fault. It's his responsibility. He's taken away my husband and my son. Why call me Naomi when who?
[8:44] Yahweh has testified against me. Clearly he's against me. And the almighty has brought calamity upon me.
[8:56] That's a nice translation of the Hebrew ra'ah, which means evil. He's brought evil on me. Badness.
[9:06] Badness. She's not accusing God of evil necessarily, but she's saying God's ultimately responsible for everything that happens. He is almighty.
[9:18] He is sovereign. He doesn't just allow things to happen. He determines what happens. So this is how the story begins with this complaint against God.
[9:34] This, this, wow. Is this the kind of God? We have. Is this true? I mean, it seems so.
[9:45] If I read my Bible, right? That is the kind of God he does. Determine and control and decide everything. It. He's not this wind up the clock and let it go.
[9:57] He's not this passive God that sits back and go, okay, I'll allow that to happen. No, Joseph said, no. Well, you guys, you brothers intended all the evil toward me.
[10:08] God also intended this. All the evil that happened to me, but for a good reason. Joseph couldn't see until chapter 50 of Genesis the good out of it.
[10:20] Then he saw, oh, God intended it. Oh, I see where I am. I see the path I can. Okay. And Romans 8 tells us that, you know, God intends all these things.
[10:33] Whatever happens to us, whether it's bad, whether it's harmful, whether it's hurt, whether it's painful, to be ultimately good for us.
[10:44] We just can't see it in the process. And so when we come to chapter four of Ruth, we get to see, oh, no, God's vindicated here. He has brought all this for good.
[10:56] Yeah, there's pain along the way. There's loss along the way. But that's always been the story in the Bible. Always. It's through pain, through suffering.
[11:09] Joseph reached the throne through suffering. David reached the throne through suffering. Jeremiah never reached a throne, but he suffered.
[11:23] And they're all precursors of Jesus who reaches his throne through suffering. And he leaves an example for us to follow in his steps to also suffer before the glory.
[11:44] But the story reminds us, no, God will be vindicated. And so we see, I just want to point out four ways that God is vindicated here just in the end of the book.
[11:59] He's vindicated by the things that he provides. He provides in verse 13 of chapter four, a child for Ruth and Boaz.
[12:11] Verse 14, he provides a redeemer for Naomi. Verse 17, he provides a king for Israel.
[12:23] And by implication through Ruth and that genealogy at the end of the book, he provides a savior for the world because it's through that genealogy.
[12:34] Family tree that Jesus comes. Jesus comes through Boaz and Ruth. He comes through David and she whose name will not be mentioned.
[12:48] As Matthew 1 puts it, the wife of Uriah. Jesus comes through that union. Through Solomon.
[13:02] So we see some amazing things here. Okay, so let's just look at these. Verse 13, he provides a miracle child for Boaz and Ruth. Why do I say miracle? Because it says God gave her conception.
[13:15] Boaz took Ruth. She became his wife and he went into her and the Lord gave her conception. She bore a son. First of all, notice that Boaz provides. He takes Ruth in as a wife.
[13:27] Takes her into his home. Gives her the security, the refuge, the provision. We remember the tender scene in chapter three where she follows Naomi's advice.
[13:38] She goes and puts herself at his feet at night, right? Kind of a risky situation, but it's kind of they're grasping here. They're desperate here.
[13:50] And they know Boaz, the kind of man he is. And they know Boaz has the ability to give them the security that two desperate widows need. Boaz is that man.
[14:04] He's not offended. He protects her integrity by getting her off the floor before people wake up.
[14:14] So that less it even look wrong. And we know it wasn't. It was totally in honesty, humility. But here's this guy.
[14:26] And he is. She's asking him to marry her, to provide security for her and to provide security for Naomi. Though it won't benefit him.
[14:38] Because the child that they will have won't be his child. It'll be her husband who died. Child. The land that he redeems for Naomi earlier in chapter four is not going to be his land.
[14:55] It's going to be the son's land. So he doesn't profit by it in a physical sense. Now it's interesting. It's interesting that in this chapter, Obed is actually listed as Boaz's son.
[15:10] But by Israelite code, he would be Malan's son. But Malan's not listed.
[15:22] Boaz is. Because the first part of the chapter makes all this whole thing about, you know, that's why the other redeemer didn't want to do it. Because no, no, I can't.
[15:33] That puts me in jeopardy. That's a sacrifice I'm not willing to make. Boaz is. He gives Ruth new status. Remember chapter one, she's merely the Moabite, the outsider.
[15:46] The one with the scandalous background where her Moab, the original Moab, was from father. He was born of an incestuous relationship with Lot.
[16:01] So she's kind of, you know, got that, comes from that background. Second chapter, remember, she presents herself to Boaz as less than a maid. I'm a nobody.
[16:13] And she's absolutely astounded that he responds so graciously to her. Why would you speak to me who I'm a nobody? How do you notice a nobody?
[16:25] Well, Boaz is that kind of guy. And then in chapter three, as she proposes, she still calls herself your servant. And then in chapter four, she's made his wife.
[16:39] She goes from lowly status to full family privilege and inclusion. No longer Moabite. You're with us.
[16:55] So Boaz provides. But more importantly, it's Yahweh who's providing. We see middle through the, in the middle of the verse, verse 13. It's Yahweh, the Lord, gave her conception.
[17:10] And she bore a son. Gave her conception. That's a familiar Bible theme. Go back to Genesis. That seemed to be happening all the time. Most of the women there were barren.
[17:22] And the important women, Sarah. And then Isaac's wife, Rebecca. And then Jacob's beloved, Rachel.
[17:43] And we could go on and on. We think of Elizabeth in the New Testament. God does this. It seems like God is doing this. This is a miracle.
[17:54] This is not supposed to happen. These are people who are barren. Well, God gives conception. And it reminds us in this time, too, that children are a gift from God.
[18:07] Every child is a gift from God. Every life is from the giver of life. Every life is precious.
[18:18] And then we remember that, that's right. Ruth had married Naomi's son.
[18:29] And they had lived 10 years and had no children. It implies, perhaps, she was barren. Until God said, now.
[18:41] Now comes the gift. Because here's my real intent. Here's where the child needs to come through. Boaz, not Mahal. Because Boaz, his daddy was Solomon.
[18:58] And his mama was, who was his mom? Or probably grandma. Anybody remember? Rahab.
[19:09] Who was Rahab? Here's the prostitute of Jericho. No wonder Boaz is a little bit more compassionate toward an outsider.
[19:22] That's in his own family tree. Just an aside. But now God provides a baby. Secondly, we see in verse 14.
[19:33] Now the women tell us that God is providing not just a baby for Boaz, not just for Ruth, but she's also providing for Naomi. He provides a gracious redeemer for Naomi.
[19:45] And not just any redeemer. Because as we see at the beginning of chapter 4, there is another redeemer who has first rights. And of course, as the story's been crafted, we're wanting, we're rooting for Boaz because we've seen the kind of guy he is.
[20:01] We want this guy. He's gracious. He's selfless. We want that guy. Who's this other guy? I don't want him. Get this other guy out of there. And Boaz, we can tell, wants to do this because he phrases everything in a way that, Oh, I want the land.
[20:18] Oh, no, I don't want to mow by it. So, not just any redeemer, but it's Boaz. Notice the blessing that the women state in verse 14.
[20:30] They're interpreting the events. They remember when Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem earlier in chapter 1. They heard her say, don't call me Naomi.
[20:42] Call me Marah. God has done this. God is against me. They've heard that. Now, they're reminding her. Verse 14. The women said to Naomi, Blessed be Yahweh.
[20:54] Who? Yahweh who has not left you this day without a redeemer. I think they remember her words from earlier.
[21:07] He's left me. He's abandoned me. He brought me back empty. He's against me. And they're saying, Naomi.
[21:21] Yahweh, that same Yahweh. He's not left you alone. He's not abandoned you. He's not forsaken you. You're not empty. He's not against you.
[21:32] He's not forgotten you. He remembers you. Look at the baby in your lap. He's your refuge. He's your helper.
[21:43] He's your redeemer. He's brought you security in your old age. He's brought you family in your old age. He's brought you hope in your old age. You lost a baby.
[21:54] He's given you an update. That doesn't remove all the loss. Understand, she went through pain. But he's restoring.
[22:06] He's restoring. the women offer a prayer in verse 15 may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age through this child given by god may naomi be restored to life literally they said may you return may your soul return may there be a return of your soul it's not just a restore of life but a restore of the soul remember the soul is where we feel the deep deep stuff it's where our passion is or our lack of passion it's where david talks about i thirst for god in my soul i pant for god with my soul i also can be downcast in my soul right it's my soul that needs reviving that's what they're saying that's what they're praying may your soul return may you have renewal and revival we can totally totally sympathize with what naomi's gone through she has lost incredible loss we're reminded of that this week with the ball family and the jones family our heart goes out to to ann and so we think okay naomi's not just some bible character she was a real woman who had a real husband and she had real dreams and she had real hopes and they're the dreams are shattered and life looks hopeless and she just wants to go home and die she doesn't even want her daughters-in-law to come with her remember chapter one don't no no no don't come with me god's against me don't come with me and now we see how the story is vindicated and god is here's a new here's another baby and if you hold the baby you held the baby recently shannon let me hold uh little harry uh a couple weeks ago i haven't held the baby for a long time and it was it's like it's a remarkable feeling i forgot you know slow this little guy and he was real gentle and he's just kind of looking around i don't think charlotte would be that you know um but what had to be an amazing feeling for grandma huh yeah babies can lift you back there's no doubt and of course his name meant servant obed they called him servant he's going to serve naomi but he's going to go on to by his just by his presence and his life he's going to be a servant to israel too because he's going to bring about a family tree that's pretty significant so they pray also that that he will sustain her in her old age literally sustain her gray hair keep her hair gray i guess instead of turning white i don't know what that means um and why would this child do this interesting look at the middle of verse 15 how they say this may be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age why for your daughter-in-law your daughter-in-law who loves you who's more to you than seven sons you lost two sons you got a daughter-in-law who's of more value than seven sons has given birth to him why could this child possibly be a restorer of life and a nourisher of all of her old age because of who her who his mother is his mother's ruth and you know how ruth's gonna we know what ruth is like what kind of son is she gonna raise
[26:14] yeah okay ruth she he's gonna get it he's gonna get it so he'll be that kind of a child and then finally we see the impact of this in verse 17 here's the restoration she got the child on her lap verse 16 verse 17 then the women say let's give him a name which is weird because usually the parents name the child and here are the women of the neighborhoods the name of the child these women have a lot of influence these jewish women have a lot of influence especially bethlehem jewish women i don't know um they begin the story they end the story i you know this is yeah right mark these are jewish women they turn the head all right um so they give a name and am i reading this right a son has been born to naomi i thought the son was born to ruth from these with these gals perspective no it's this is naomi's kid yeah ruth's involved but this is for na this is about naomi yeah it's about ruth we recognize we've already said she's a worthy worthy woman but we reckon enough you know what this is personal this is this is god saying no naomi i'm putting a baby back in your lap this is a child for naomi not just ruth she's lost babies now she's got a restored baby and god's been providing all along naomi didn't see it at first he provided food so they could come back to bethlehem in chapter one he provided ruth even though ruth is there with her as she comes to to to bethlehem and she says i have nothing and here's ruth standing right next to her so yeah she's she doesn't reckon in her in her bitterness and in her depression you know she's just sunk down she can't see any good we've been there many of us have been there you can't you can't see any good when you're hurting and yet god's still doing some good and and through ruth naomi begins to see oh you just happened to go to the field of boaz as soon as she hears the name boaz naomi springs back to life oh we know boaz i never would have dreamed he's a good man and you know he's one of our redeemers so she sees that this chance meeting really isn't a chance meeting it's it's god's hand providing and then by chapter three she's got a plan right mother-in-law i'm gonna take care of you ruth now she's not just thinking about herself now she's come back to life now she sees god working now she can say no now i care about you ruth you've been caring about me now i need to take care of you i need to get you a husband i need to get you some security and boaz just happens to be here so here's the plan she's like is this a biblical way of going on you know this is a little bit kind of daring but as we read it through so no there's all integrity there go propose go do this really weird thing where you uncover his feet so that he wakes up in the middle of the night shivering which is exactly what he does he wakes up shivering notices you at her feet at his feet and and naomi says uh he'll know what to do at that point ruth's just you know i don't know ruth kind of takes over even though boaz is supposed to she's just like you're on my you're my redeemer you're my redeemer
[30:18] he calms her down don't be afraid because she's clearly don't know what's going to happen here blurting out you're my redeemer put your you know cover me and his response of course is so gracious it's like wow what you did for your mother your your mother-in-law that's extraordinary what you're doing now for me that's even better i never dreamed i could get a woman like this and then of course the rest of the story of course he gets rid of the other guy well not gets rid of the other guy works around the other guy so he can have this wonderful woman god's providing that's god working all the way through there's little complications and obstacles all through and yet they seem to be smoothed out as it goes along that's the lord providing a redeemer for naomi and we see one more provision in verse 17 the last word is this man david and with the mention of david the story just got larger it just moves out of a realm of a little family in bethlehem and their uh ruin and recovery to david that's a pretty big name now at the time of ruth and boaz didn't know david they had no idea they had no idea that their lives would have that kind of impact on their nation and ultimately on the world you know that i read that in one of the commentaries i'm like yeah i mean at their time they're just being who they are boaz is just being this man of integrity he's just being you know he doesn't know what god's plans are he's just doing the right thing ruth is just doing what she does she's just who she is she's just humbled and she's just and yet the writer who obviously is writing by the time of david tells us well here's the outcome what this little story ultimately leads to is not just this little family god is working in but he had a bigger thing in mind david he provides through ruth he provides an unlikely king for israel i say unlikely we see the name david and we know the rest of the story so we know that david turns out to be this guy who's he's got a heart for god he's he's a good guy he's a really good guy he trusts god he's he's faithful he's brave he turns out to be the greatest king he turns out to be the standard for all kings that follow him every other king is related to him he's either he was like david or no he wasn't like david at all but then as we also know yeah he was the greatest king he was also the one who committed a notorious sin not just one sin but several adultery stealing murder lying so do you remember the beginning of david's story i mean god is choosing unlikely he's choosing ruth she's an unlikely nobody just like he chose isaac instead of ishmael he chose jacob instead of esau i would have chosen esau he's the man's man he's the he's obviously the good guy he's he's he's the one who's not cheating god chooses the cheater the liar he chooses judah of the 12 sons he chooses judah i would have picked joseph don't you think joseph's the good guy he doesn't choose the first or the second or the third born
[34:19] he chooses the fourth born judah who wasn't really a good guy look at the people he's choosing jacob not a good guy judah not a good guy now at the end of genesis he turns out to be a good guy he offers his life as a substitute for benjamin oh that sounds like somebody that comes later but overall not a good guy i mean by good standards and then there's david remember how david began was he the first born he was the son of jesse he was the eighth son of jesse and when prophet samuel came to jesse's house to be to anoint the next king of israel because he said it's going to be one of jesse's sons he comes in he goes through number one lord says no two no three all the way down to seven no jesse you got any more sons because god said none of these well yeah there's uh there's there's davy he's out with the sheep i didn't even think to bring him i mean he's kind of irrelevant i've just dismissed david just like his brothers later dismissed david when he came to i'll fight goliath oh david you're just here to you know kind of reminds me of how joseph's brothers taught treated him that's david he's the irrelevant one he's the one that doesn't look like a king he's very unlikely to be the next king of israel he's a shepherd and yet the way god uses him i mean he takes down goliath not by brute strength get bigger than i gotta just go do the delta force thing on this guy no well slink well placed nugget remember goliath said no that's never entered my mind before i'm sorry i don't know it's like whenever i say sad you see i gotta do that one too right um so here's the implications too god not only provides an unlikely king from an unlikely source just like he's now choosing an unlikely person like ruth an outsider one of scandalous background i want you to recognize the implications of this family tree because we have the family tree listed here in in ruth four talks about perez and hezron and ram minadab and nashon and psalmist as we see not from here but in the new testament when matthew lists the same genealogy matthew adds some names he could have hidden the names and most of us especially gentiles wouldn't know any different but matthew intentionally included four women's names which is never done in the old testament matthew the jew did this right so we see the genealogy of jesus christ in matthew 1 son of david son of abraham abraham father of isaac yeah got that isaac father of jacob yeah jacob father of judah and his brothers judah father of perez and zerah by tamar who played the prostitute and perez the father of hezron hezron the father of ram ram the father of aminadab aminadab the father of nashon remember recognize these names from ruth there we get the same name aminadab yeah that sounds familiar that's one on the tip of my tongue all the time nashon nashon
[38:19] the father of solomon solomon the father of boaz by rahab there it is rahab the harlot who obviously came to faith who is even mentioned in hebrews 11 because it's not about her past it's about her faith and then boaz father of obed by ruth obed the father of jesse jester father of david the king and david was the father of solomon by who she who will not be named we know her name was basheba by this adulterous relationship comes solomon who is in the line of the messiah and what i want you to to recognize is that a messiah who has sinners blood his blood is mixed with the blood of sinners in his blood is the blood of a prostitute a liar if we're kind to jacob incest adultery add on to that david's murder lying in the savior's blood is the mixture of scandalous sinners blood okay that struck me i don't know if that struck you what does that mean what does that mean because here matthew wants us to see that the bible's not trying to hide that in fact matthew wants to proclaim it he's highlighting it he didn't have to why does he include these names because he wants you to know there's something about this messiah we don't want to cover up the you know hide those secrets in the closet no i want you to know that because he came for sinners that's why this is the very kind of people he came for it means that messiah truly is representative of all when he dies he dies for their his blood is get it the blood he shed is blood that's mixed with sinners blood doesn't make jesus sinner we understand that when he was born he was born of the holy spirit the holy spirit right but the physical blood biology it's there what a picture he represents all he represents the scandalous the rebel the defiant the selfish he represents the outsiders the castoffs all who are adopted and included like ruth who are far off and now have been brought near and they've not just been brought near like okay you can come to this wall but you can't come any closer no in christ now they get to come all the way here all the way as paul says you were far off now you've been brought near how by the blood of christ so he's provided a miracle child he's provided redemption for naomi provided an unlikely king through israel and and finally through ruth he provides a merciful savior for the world without ruth see there would be no obed and without obed there would be no jesse and
[42:19] without jesse there would be no david and without david there would be no jesus so without ruth there would be no jesus you could also say that without a tamar without a bash god has been planned all along this has been plan a he didn't change it up when israel couldn't figure it out this is plan all along we're going way back to genesis with this inclusion of this line and as i said before ruth and boaz had no idea that their blessing in their little lives would impact a blessing upon their nation through david and upon the world through jesus it just reminds us we don't know is god working in my little life i'm insignificant what you know is god working we don't know what kind of impact that's going to have later who's the sunny school teacher that saved billy grant not saved him but let him cry anybody know his name we all know billy's name about that faithful teacher right we don't know what kind of impact god's going to do in us even in times like this you know times like this well everybody's you know being selfish everybody's being you know crabby everybody's well is that do we need to do what's right in our own eyes too or by our trusting in christ can we rise above that be not natural this little story becomes our story because here the redeemer for for
[44:28] Naomi and Ruth becomes through their tree becomes our redeemer and our security Paul said it this way in Titus 3 we ourselves were once foolish disobedient led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures passing our days in malice and envy hated by others and hating one another by the way that's Paul you know Paul's confessing to that I thought he was blameless according to the law well this is all internal stuff we were foolish disobedient led straight slaves to various passions hating one another that's who we were but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the holy spirit whom he poured out on us richly through
[45:29] Jesus Christ our savior so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs we don't just get saved we become children we become heirs family members according to the hope of eternal life let's just notice how Paul highlights how we're saved on what basis are we saved because we're good people because we do enough good you know compared to others we're better you know we're not as bad as so and so is that how we get in well who were we well Paul said we're foolish disobedient we're slaves to various passions and pleasures we're involved in malice and envy hated by others and hating one another that describes our times that stuff's eking out under the pressure of the times we're seeing more ugliness by people so how how does he save us well look at the words when his love appears because of his mercy because of the work of the Holy
[46:38] Spirit washing and cleansing us it's a gift that's undeserved and I don't know you know preparing for Randy's service and one of the things Ann wanted us to communicate is Randy has a lot of friends from his past and most of them think they're not good enough to be saved they're too bad they're not saying no we're not saying no they're saying we're just yeah a passage like this strikes me it's like no we're talking about people who are slaves to their passions people who are hateful and malice and Paul himself called himself the worst of sinners why because because in him was this this hatred and this aggressive he's dragging people by their hair right before he was converted he loved violence he was a violent dude and afterwards he's just like he's so ashamed of that he felt so unworthy so here are these words see our selves in those words if you think you're too far no he chooses a Jacob is there a more selfish guy you can think of than Jacob he's out for himself out for himself all the way cheating not for
[48:08] God he was out for himself and when he got to go to the foreign land it's like okay God if you show yourself faithful then I'll follow you what a great guy what a nice sinner prayer right these are the kind of people God chooses not that just a little bad and just need a little help no the full out rebellious and scandalous and people like me so who is your hero do you have a hero does your hero provide for you or does he just awe you does your hero rescue you does your hero accept you does your hero just give you inspiration or does your hero actually give you life
[49:12] Jesus wants the most unlikely those who are failures those who are rebels those who are sinners in the true sense of the word not just mistakers it does not matter what your past is he wants sinners he said I did not come for the good people I did not come for the righteous people I got no good news for good people I only have good news for bad people and so he calls us to himself so if you haven't will you ask him to take you to take you into his family adopt you change your heart give you a new heart that's between you and him
[50:19] I hope you will if you have or if it's been a while and you've been on cruise mode through this time hey time to come back time to get in relationship again let's pray father we thank you for your word we thank you that you are a God who even when things look like they're bad and and we can't see you and it actually seems like with Naomi that you're against us that things are just piling up and you're taking things away from us you've taken our good brothers you've taken our security you've given us a time where it's uncertain well we thank you father for the scriptures that remind us that yes we go through times like that but even in times like that you're still our hope and stay when my soul gives way you are still my hope and stay so speak to each one of us today father we're appropriate where we need it pierce our soul revive our heart renew our mind we pray in christ's name amen