Love at Work – Love Redeems

And it's good to be together today, isn't it?

And we have the opportunity to worship together.

And there's no better place we could be today than right here.

So thanks for being here. If you're watching online.

Thanks for joining us in worship.

And it's Valentine's Day weekend.

You guys had a good weekend, everybody.

Maybe not every. OK, Well, some clapping, some

real good weekends. Hey, today we're going to

continue our story of the story of Ruth, and we're going to

celebrate love done right. And so before we do that, I want

to celebrate something like that in our congregation.

So Ed and Kathy Weaver, this weekend you're celebrating 50

years of marriage, correct? Congratulations.

Can you congratulate them? God bless you guys.

And don't be mad at me for saying it up here.

Well, hey, it's Valentine's Day weekend.

If you're wondering why I look so terrible and why I kind of

sound terrible, it's because it's been kind of a long

weekend. Friday night, we've had sickness

in our house all week. Couple of my kids were sick and

Friday at 11:30. Now I, this will sound weird to

you, but Friday night I thought I'm going to go to bed early.

And so at 11:30 I was like, I'm getting in bed.

Now for some of you that sounds late.

For me, that's early. And I was thinking, I'm going to

do the responsible thing and I'm going to go to bed early.

And then at 11:45 my phone rang and it was Pastor Grace, she's

our teens are at Winner Retreat and she said hey, Eli is here

and he looks like death. He's he's in bad shape.

And so I said well I've got 3 basketball games to coach

tomorrow. My assistant coach is out sick

and so I got three games tomorrow.

I don't have the time tomorrow to drive in between and so it's

either tonight or late tomorrow night.

And so I got on the phone with Eli and he said please come get

me. And so at midnight, I left and I

drove 2 1/2 hours to Southern Indiana and picked up Eli and

drove back and got back at 5:00 and then had a game at 9.

Three games. Yesterday was a great day.

Hey, it really was great. But I'm kind of forgive me for

looking the way I look. OK, it's Valentine's Day weekend

here. Here's here's what I got.

But today we're going to be in Ruth Chapter 3, the the story of

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

Ruth is an incredible story of love, of God's love and God's

redemption. And today we're in Ruth chapter

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

3, Ruth chapter one, we saw the beginning of the story.

We met this family and, and, and Ruth is the daughter-in-law of

Naomi, Naomi and her two daughters and her husband.

I mean, her two sons and her husband moved away from the the

promised land, moved to to Moab, the place of Moab because there

was a drought. They tried to settle things

their own way. They went.

Tragedy struck. Naomi's husband passed away.

Ruth and Orpa, the daughter in And so we saw in Chapter 1 this

moment where Naomi, back to your people, you'll be better off if

you just go home, be with your people.

But Ruth, we have this perfect moment where she says, no, where

you go, I go. Where you stay, I'll stay.

Your people are my people and your God is my God.

And she makes this, this statement.

I'm going to choose love and faithfulness.

So that's Ruth chapter 1 and Ruth chapter 2.

Ruth 1 · chapter mention Ruth 2 · chapter mention

They head back to the promised land, back to Bethlehem, and we

see that Ruth goes out into the fields and she's going out to

glean, which was a Old Testament practice.

It was that that God said, hey, when when you, when you harvest

your fields, leave the edges for those that are less fortunate to

come and gather. And so God had put this thing in

place that that people could come and be taken care of.

And so Ruth went out to glean and she just so happened to

glean in the field of Boaz. Boaz was a member of the family.

He's what would be considered a kinsman Redeemer.

Now in those days, if a husband passed away, then a relative,

one of his relatives could come in and redeem the wife by

marrying her, providing and then taking care of them and

continuing on the family. And so she just so happened to

be in the field of Boaz. This is, I said it last week and

the week before. This is Hallmark.

This is beautiful, perfect thing.

Well, route 3 is where it all comes together and it there is

this beautiful moment. I want to start by saying this.

When we love with faithfulness and obedience to God, it's God's

greatest blessings. I said Hallmark in Netflix.

Listen, I, I know some of you are into those movies, pretty

much any movie you watch, there's very few things that are

put out there these days that really honor and glorify God and

do things the way that he says we should do them.

This is a beautiful story of not just love, but of faithfulness

and obedience. It's good stuff.

And Megan said yesterday, she said, do you have a backup plan

for who can, who's going to be there if you're not there?

And I said I'm going to be here, I'm not missing this one, this

is too good. So staying with me Ruth, Chapter

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

3, I'm going to read the whole chapter.

It's long, just bear with me. One day Ruth's mother-in-law,

Naomi said to her, My daughter, I must find a home for you where

you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you

have worked as a relative of ours.

Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.

Wash, put on perfume, get dressed in your best clothes,

then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know

you're there until he has finished eating and drinking.

When he lies down, note the place where he is lying.

Then go uncover his feet and lie down.

He will tell you what to do. I will do whatever you say, Ruth

answered. So she went down to the

threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law

told her to do. When Boaz had finished eating

and drinking was in good spirits, he went over to lie

down at the far end of the grain pile.

Ruth approached quietly. She uncovered his feet and lay

down. In the middle of the night

something startled the man. He turned and there was a woman

lying at his feet. Who are you?

He asked. I am Ruth.

I'm your servant, Ruth, she said.

Now spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a

guardian, Redeemer of our family.

The Lord bless you, my daughter, he replied.

This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier.

You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or

poor. And now, my daughter, don't be

afraid, I will do for you all you ask.

All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble,

noble character. And although it is true that I'm

a guardian Redeemer of our family, there is another who is

more closely related than I. Stay here for the night.

In the morning, if he wants to do his duty as a your guardian

Redeemer, than good, let him redeem you.

But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives, I will

do it. Lie here until morning.

So she lay at his feet until morning but got up before anyone

could be recognized and he said no one must know that a woman

came to the threshing floor. He also said bring me the shawl

you are wearing and hold it out. When she did so he poured into

it 6 measures of barley and placed the bundle on her.

Then he went back to town. When Ruth came to her

mother-in-law, Naomi asked how did it go my daughter?

Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and she

added, he gave me these six measures of barley saying don't

go back to your mother-in-law empty handed.

Then Naomi said, wait my daughter until you find out what

happens for the man will not rest until the matter is settled

today. Praise the Lord, you can have a

seat. All right, here's what we're

going to do. We're going to walk through this

story and then I've got 3 big points at the end that I want to

get to, but we're going to walk through this story, guys.

This story it, like most of scripture, is just filled with

goodness. Little things that if you catch

them and you got to study to catch them, filled with

goodness. So when we left Chapter 2, Boaz

has given Ruth the invitation to continue gleaning in the field.

She went into his fields. She was working.

He noticed her. And he said, you know what,

Please stay here under the protection and provision that I

can offer and continue to gather, continue to glean until

the end of the harvest. And so that's where Chapter 2

ends. Chapter 3 picks up toward the

end of that season, and all of a sudden we see that Naomi has a

plan. In chapter 1, Ruth says, Naomi,

I'm going to stick with you. She chooses to be faithful and

loving, and she says, I'm choosing to be with you.

Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay.

Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God.

Now Naomi in chapter 3 says, it's time for me to worry about

your future. See, they've been provided for.

They have food, but there's still the problem that Ruth, her

future is uncertain. She's unmarried, she's living in

a foreign land. And so Naomi comes up with this

plan and and what we see is so good.

This moment that we see that we're going to look at is so

beautiful. And guys, I mentioned Netflix

and ROM coms and and all of that stuff, Hallmark Channel movies

that they're fun. Sure, whatever.

This is really, really good stuff.

So here's the plan number one, get dressed up, get yourself

smelling good, get yourself looking good.

You like like this plan so far, pretty good plan.

I mean, this is a big thing you're going to do, so go ahead

and get yourself smelling good, get your best clothes on, and

then you're going to go meet Boaz.

Now, there's a couple things and I'm going to give you a lot of

stuff here and, and this will just be stuff that'll help you

understand the story a little bit better.

There's a couple ways we can see this.

Number one, it was customary when someone had lost a husband

and they were grieving that when they were ready to move on, they

would clean themselves up. They would get themselves

dressed up. And it was a sign that, hey, I'm

ready for what's next. So maybe that's in play here.

The other thing is she's going to.

This plan is to bring Boaz and Ruth together.

And you don't want to go smelly and ugly, right?

I mean, that's not Hallmark. That's not Netflix.

That doesn't work. And so she says, get yourself

dressed up, make yourself attractive.

And then she says, go to the threshing floor.

They're finishing up. They've been working all night.

Go to the threshing floor, she says, but wait, don't do

anything until he's done eating and drinking.

Wait. And so she goes and she waits.

Now, there's a couple reasons for this.

Maybe #1 this wasn't to be a public event, this was something

between Boaz and Ruth #2 he's probably just going to be in a

better mood if you wait. And this moment is a big moment.

I mean, she's putting herself out there.

And so it would be wise to not interrupt him and his eating and

drinking, but wait until he's done.

Then she says wait till he goes and lies down.

This is maybe my favorite part, Says watch where he lays down.

All right, let me translate that for you.

Don't get the wrong guy. Don't mess this up.

Make sure you know exactly where Boaz is, because if you get the

wrong guy, this all gets ruined. Watch.

Take note where he lays down. Then there's this weird thing

when he lays down and falls asleep.

Uncover his feet. OK, there, there's a lot there,

but what's going to happen if she uncovers his feet?

Anyone Oh, he's going to wake up.

He's going to wake up. This is all part of the plan.

Now there is some significance to the corner of his garment and

we'll see that in a minute. But but she says when he falls

asleep, go ahead and uncover his feet.

And then it it sets the stage for what's going to happen.

You see, you guys thought that when someone steals your covers

that that's disrespect. It's really just this beautiful.

It's this respect. It's this, hey, I want to be

closer to you, right? No kidding.

I, I, I mean, our room is the Arctic.

And some of you men love that. Not me.

And, and I had these, I had these two blankets that I was

using, one from Guatemala. Guatemalan blankets are not

heavy. And so I had a Guatemalan

blanket and then another one over it.

And some of you guys are looking at me and judging me and saying

you're a Sissy. But I had these two blankets.

And a couple weeks ago, Megan decided she was going to steal

the better of the two blankets and put it on her side.

And I'm telling you, for a week, I wasn't sleeping well, it's

freezing. Finally got my blanket back, my

blankie. I'm such a grown up.

Don't judge me. So she uncovers his feet, just

the corner of his garment, uncovers his feet and, and, and

of course, he wakes up. Now, I, I want to talk about

something really quick. I don't want to spend too much

time here, but this plan, it's a plan.

Naomi and Ruth put this plan into motion.

I'll be honest, I've studied a lot of different places and

people. I have done a lot of research on

this. I'm not sure if this was a pure

plan or this was a manipulative plan.

Naomi certainly had tried to take matters into her own hands

before. This certainly doesn't seem like

a real good situation to put yourself in.

To go to the threshing floor, to wait till he's asleep and

everyone's asleep and then to sneak in and to uncover this

seems not parent approved right? Doesn't seem like the best plan

now. Maybe the intentions are pure.

Maybe. Maybe like I said, people are

divided. Here's what I do know.

The outcome is completely pure. Verse 7, When Boaz had finished

eating and drinking and he was in good spirits, he went over to

lie down at the far end of the grain pile.

Ruth approached quietly, and she uncovered his feet and lay down.

Also a really good part. In the middle of the night,

something startled the man. He turned and there was a woman

lying at his feet. Who are you?

He asked. You ever been startled and not

knowing who was around you? This happens to me sometimes.

I wake up, I'm in a panic, and Megan's there and I'm like, not

because she's anything's wrong with her, but just because

there's something wrong with me. Who are you, you ask?

I'm your servant, Ruth, she said.

Now spread the corner of your garment over me.

Since you are a guardian, Redeemer of our family.

We, we see the situation and, and listen, if you watch movies,

if you watch Hallmark, Netflix, any of it, you're seeing plenty

of situations similar to this. And 99.9% of the time they are

not God honoring pleasing situations and and the

circumstances are here for things to happen that don't

honor God. But what we see is that there's

purity. This is not a situation I would

want my kids in. It's not a situation my parents

wanted me to be in. I'll never forget my senior year

high school, a big group of us church kids, by the way, not all

from our church, but different churches.

We decide we're going to go to prom together.

And so everyone decided that we were all going to spend the

night at the same house after prom.

All the guys, all the girls, a group of like 8 of us.

My parents decided everybody but me was going to spend the night

at that house, and I was a little upset about it.

Everybody else is hanging out there.

Why can't I go hang out with them?

And here's what I want to say. Thank you, mom and dad.

Thank you for not putting me in that position where I could have

messed up. Thank you mom and dad.

This certainly seems like a position and and listen, whether

the intentions were pure or not, here's the deal.

Ruth and Boaz found themselves in a position.

He's eaten, he's drank, they're laying on the floor.

He find they find themselves in a position where there could be

problems, but it doesn't happen. Instead, Ruth goes off script.

Instead, she says, cover me with the corner of your garment, for

you are a kinsman Redeemer. Now.

This is beautiful, guys. There's nothing sexual.

There's nothing immoral. There's nothing dirty about

this. This is basically a marriage

proposal, Ruth says. Take your garment that was

pulled back and spread it over me.

Now. Now the the language here is

actually the same language we see in Ruth chapter 2 when Boaz

Ruth 2 · chapter mention

says, Hey, May God bless you, May he richly reward you under

whose refuge you've you've take under whose wings you've taken

refuge. Boaz said that to Ruth in

chapter 2. He says, May God bless you

because you've taken refuge under his wings.

That's the same language that's used here.

Spread your, your, the edge of your garment over me.

I want to take refuge under you. For you are a kinsman Redeemer.

This is a marriage proposal, which was perfectly OK because

she had the right as a, as a woman whose husband had passed,

she had the right to ask the kinsman Redeemer to redeem her.

And So what we see what happens next in this moment that 99.9%

of the time our world shows us something different.

What we see is something beautiful, real love, real

faithfulness, real obedience. Verse 12 Boaz says, although

it's true that I'm a guardian Redeemer of our family, there's

actually another who's more closely related than I Stay here

for the night in the morning. If he wants to do his duty as

your guardian Redeemer, good. Let him redeem you.

But if he's not willing as surely as the Lord lives, I will

do it. Lie here until morning.

Now this is important guys. We we need to see this So she

lay at his feet until morning, but got up and anyone before

anyone could be recognized and he said no one must know that a

woman came to the threshing floor.

There's nothing dirty about this.

They didn't do anything wrong. They were in that tough

situation, but they chose faithfulness and obedience to

God. Now you're you might be

wondering, why would he say don't tell anyone?

That seems shady, but the truth is, this is about protection.

See, if he says, all right, get out of here and I'll come get

you tomorrow, that puts her at risk.

But he says, no, just stay there.

Nothing bad is going to happen. And then we've got to make sure

nobody knows. Now, why would he say that?

That once again seems shady, But.

But here's the deal. If he's going to go to the other

guardian Redeemer, the other kinsman Redeemer, and then if

word gets out that she spent the night with Boaz on the threshing

floor, we've got all sorts of problems.

Instead, they live in obedience and in the morning.

She heads home. We've seen Boaz is a man of

integrity. We've seen Ruth is a woman of

virtue. And they're both walking in

complete obedience to God. So much so that Boaz doesn't

say, I've got you. He says, no, hold on.

There's another person in front of me, another person that

actually has the right to do this before me.

And I want to, and I'm all in, but I'm not going to be

disobedient. I've got to go take care of that

first. So this is not your typical

Netflix story. It's not your typical worldly

story. This is a story of beautiful

obedience and faithfulness. All right, three things.

And I want to start by saying this, guys.

And I'm not just talking about romantic love here.

I'm talking about the love that God gives us, maybe in romantic

relationships, maybe in friendships, maybe in in your

relationships with family members.

Love is a gift from God and it is worth doing right.

Just to start three things we're going to look at, but let me

start here. Love is a gift from God.

And if we do it right, there's great blessing.

It's worth doing right. All right.

So the first thing we see is that there is personal blessing

and obedience and love and being faithful to God.

See, Ruth in chapter 1 chooses to be faithful to Naomi.

She says, I will stick with you. Your people are my people.

Your God is my God. Wherever you go, I'm going.

And so she chooses faithfulness. Now, 2 chapters later, maybe a

few months later, we see that Ruth is going to be redeemed

through this whole thing. Her choice to be obedient and

faithful, her choice to do things the right way.

Now she ends up in a better position than she was before.

She has a guardian Redeemer. Boaz is going to redeem her.

And not only that, Boaz is a great guy.

She's taken care of. But I want you to see verse 10

because I think Boaz response is significant here.

When she says I want you to cover me with your garment when

she proposes his response is this.

The Lord bless you my daughter, he replied.

This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier.

You've not run after younger men, whether rich or poor.

Now my daughter, don't be afraid.

I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know

that you're a woman of noble character.

All right, here's what I want you to understand today.

It wasn't just a blessing for Ruth, it was a blessing for

Boaz. She says, will you redeem me?

Will you take care of me? Can I take refuge under you?

And he says thank you, because not only is it a blessing for

her, but it's a blessing for him.

See, she's a woman of noble character and he, it ends up

with a wonderful woman in this, he says you could have run after

other people. You could have run after money.

Instead, you choose me. Thank you.

Because she's such an honorable woman.

Boaz is thrilled. Now the question that I have in

here and it doesn't get answered is was she really good looking?

It doesn't say. I'm going to guess yes, but I

don't know. Probably.

I mean, it kind of matters, but but, but here's the deal.

It doesn't tell us if she's beautiful physically or not.

But what it does tell us is that she's such a beautiful person

and faithful person that Boaz knows, knows that he has a

blessing here, He's blessed. And then they come to this

moment, this moment that our world gets wrong 99.9% of the

time. And what do they do?

They stay obedient and faithful to God and they walk away from

this night with no shame. That's important, guys.

No shame with no guilt. They walk away from this night

completely pure and clean, guys. That that is love is a gift from

God and it's worth doing the right way.

We probably all have some regrets.

Raise your hand if you have some regrets in life, all right?

Raise your hand if you're not honest and the half of you that

are either asleep or not being honest.

We all have regrets, right? We all have things that we

probably would have done different.

I can promise you that you will never be sorry for living

faithfully and obediently to God.

Love is a gift and there is so much blessing and doing it the

right way. There's personal blessing in it

#2 their obedience not only gives them blessing and not only

provides for them, but also Naomi and others benefit from

it. When we love well, when we are

obedient, when we are faithful, it actually spills out to

others. You guys know that other

people's actions and choices have an effect on you, right?

Maybe some of you have been radically affected by the

choices of people around you, whether they loved the wrong

way, loved the right way. I, I know that this is true for

all of us. They have an effect, and the

same is true here. This is so, this is so awesome.

I want you to see this verse 16 when Ruth came home to her

mother-in-law, Naomi, Naomi asked how did it go my daughter

And then she told her everything Boaz had done for her.

And then she added, he gave me these six measures of barley

saying don't go back to your mother-in-law empty handed.

Now that might not mean anything to you, but man, if you think

back to chapter 1, Naomi went to Mohab.

She came back lost her husband, lost her two sons.

She comes back to Bethlehem and they say, hey, it's Naomi, There

she is. And Naomi says, no, no, no, no,

don't call me Naomi, call me Mara because I'm bitter.

And then what does she say next? She says I went away full, but

God has brought me back empty. Here we are two chapters later

and God is still providing. And I don't think this is a

small thing. Boaz says.

Yeah, I'll redeem you as long as it works out.

I'm going to do it the right way.

But don't go back to your mother-in-law empty handed.

Take this with you. I think God is just showing over

and over again that He provides for his people.

She thought that God had taken everything.

Meanwhile, God was working through the story of Ruth and

Boaz to continue to provide for Naomi.

Our obedience can be redeeming and restoring for other people.

Guys, I grew up in a house with two.

I grew up in a house with two wonderful parents who loved

well, who were faithful and obedient to God.

And I saw over and over again that when you do things the

right way, there's so much blessing.

And I personally have benefited and been blessed so much by

their choices and their obedience and their

faithfulness. Guys, your choices don't just

affect you, they affect the people around you.

When you're faithful to love and care for others, number one,

you'll never come away empty. But #2 neither will the people

around you. All right, the third thing, I'm

already crying a bunch. This is maybe my favorite part.

Their obedience redeemed the story of a girl who was born

into brokenness, generational brokenness and sin.

There's this really cool parallel we're going to see

here. Ruth's story was a story of

brokenness and pain. She comes from a people I talked

about this last week, the Moabites, who had a really bad

past. They were thought of poorly.

They were made fun of. They were enemies of God.

And through her obedience, there's redemption, not just

redemption for her and Boaz, not just provision for Naomi, but

generational change. And we're really going to look

at this next week. But I want you to see this real

quick. Ruth is a Moabite.

Told you the Moabites have a pretty bad past.

Genesis 19 shows us this past. And there's a really close

parallel here that I, I, I would hate it if we missed it.

See, in Genesis 19, Lot is with his two daughters.

So once again, we have two women and the daughters, we don't know

what the future holds. And so they decide that they are

going to take matters into their own hands.

And so here is the story of how the Moabites became.

And I got to warn you guys, this is this is ugly.

It's dark law. And his two daughters left Zohar

settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zohar.

He and his two daughters lived in a cave.

One day the older daughter said to the younger daughter, Our

father is old and there is no man around here to give us

children. As is the custom all over the

earth. Let's get our father to drink

wine, then let's sleep with him and preserve our family line

through our daughter or our father.

That night they got their father to drink wine and the older

daughter went in and slept with him.

He was not aware of it when she lay down and when she got up the

next day, the older daughter said to the younger, Last night

I slept with my father, let's get him to drink wine again

tonight and then you go in and sleep with him so that we can

preserve our family line through our father.

So they got their father to drink wine that night also and

the younger daughter went in and slept with him again.

He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.

So both of Lot's daughters became pregnant by their father.

The older daughter had a son and she named him Moab, the father

of the Moabites. Today, two women a plan.

How are we going to take care of our future and nights a night

time plan. And what we see in Genesis 19 is

that Lot's daughters chose disobedience and unfaithfulness.

And the result of that was a whole family of people, the

whole Moabite clan, became enemies with the creator God.

Not only that, they were ridiculed.

They were looked down at. Everybody knew they were

incestuous people. I mean, they became outcast

because of their choices. Oh, don't lose this, guys.

Don't let this be lost on you, that Ruth, a Moabite who comes

from a generation of brokenness, incestuous disobedience, she

finds herself in this situation in Ruth chapter 3, and all of

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

the ingredients are there for more darkness and more ugliness.

But instead she chooses faithfulness and obedience.

And in that, God redeems and restores a broken past.

Here's the beautiful thing. Today, God's blessings and God's

redemption are for any that will choose to be obedient and follow

him. Any Moabites, People who have

broken past, people who have messed up, people who have

sinned, people who have done the wrong thing.

For anyone willing to choose to follow Jesus, there's

redemption. There's hope and there's a

future. Next week we're really going to

0 in on what that looks like. Worship team, come on up.

But today I just want to end us there.

Ruth Chapter 3, a moment we see if you watch TV, if you watch

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

movies, you see this moment played out over and over again

and our world shows us the wrong picture.

We see in Ruth chapter 3 a beautiful moment of obedience

Ruth 3 · chapter mention

and faithfulness. In that we see personal

blessing, in that we see that God blesses others through it.

And in that we see that God changes generations of hurt and

pain and brings hope. Staying with me, it's

Valentine's weekend, a weekend that typically the world is

focused on love, romantic love. But listen, I want to talk to

you just about love. Maybe some of you come from a

really broken past. Maybe some of you have broken

your past. Maybe some of you have messed up

and messed up, or maybe you've been really strongly affected by

the decisions of others. And maybe you find yourself

Today I got good news. God's blessings are here for

you. His love, His protection, His

provision, His salvation, His hope is here for you today.

All it takes is choosing Him. I don't care where you've been,

what you've done. I don't care if you're a

Moabite. God's here.

He loves you and he's calling you to him.

We're going to respond. We're going to sing a song.

God, a revival. I just want to invite you today

if you want to commit yourself to Him, maybe you don't even

have that broken of a past, but today you just want to say, God,

once again, I commit myself to you.

I want to invite you. You can come to an altar.

You can pray at an altar. You can kneel at your seat,

whatever it is. I want to invite you to respond

this word. And today I want you to choose

love, faithfulness, obedience. And I don't want anyone walking

out of here without the blessing of Godfather.

Speak to us, lead us, guide us, help us to respond to you.

We want revival, we want it personally, we want it to spill

out to the people around us. We want it for generations to

come. Redeem and restore what's broken

now. Help us to choose you today.

We give you everything. We surrender to you now.

We respond in Jesus name, Amen.