Ruth: It's More about the Journey than you Think

I am excited to be continuing on in the Heroes series.

You know, if you were here at the beginning, then you'll know this, but I'm going to recap if you haven't been here in the last few weeks.

But Pastor David Smith started out talking about John the Baptist.

And then Pastor Preston talked about Noah.

Last week, Pastor Tom talked about Nehemiah.

And so this week I'm going to put a little different spin on it.

And I'll tell you about that in just a second.

But how it kind of came to be is when I went home and told Belinda that I'd been asked to preach in the series, and heroes was the thing.

She kind of goes, you know, you men are probably going to all pick men heroes.

And, you know, there are women heroes in the Bible, you know.

And yeah.

Yeah, so I got real sort of contemplative and very spiritual.

And uh I thought, you know, am I willing to give up my man card to preach a hero series on a woman?

No offense, ladies, no offense.

Okay.

But but then a real peace did fall over me, and I thought, you know, my man card at home is all that really matters.

All right.

I got an amen from the front row.

So, get ready, people.

Today we are going to talk about a heroine.

Alright?

Right.

Half of you are really excited.

And I just heard from half of you.

And by the way, as I look around, I see some of you are confused.

By the way, this is the word with an E.

It says the E.

No, we're we're not talking about the other one.

Some of you newly redeemed, look, you have past.

Okay?

Some of you were like, no, don't start talking about that.

Okay.

This is a heroine, all right?

A female hero.

So we're gonna talk about that.

So let me first talk about uh the definition that we've used in the last couple weeks of a hero.

It's an ordinary person who does extraordinary things.

All right, so I'm gonna put a little different spin on the definition.

It's another definition for heroes, and it kind of goes more with what I wanted to talk about, alright?

And here's the definition I want to use today.

A hero is a man or a woman admired for his or her achievements and qualities.

All right?

Admired for his or her achievements and qualities.

Uh and I think it's kind of interesting because today I think people are looking for real life heroes.

Uh, you know, look at superhero movies and they're all kind of being redone to really even more emphasize the fact that our hero is actually a real person dealing with real life stuff.

But I think if I were to go and ask you today who your hero is, I think you would tell me probably someone personal to you.

You might you might say my dad or my mom or uh my seventh grade teacher uh or a coach.

It's gonna be someone that hasn't had an impact in your life uh because of their achievements or their qualities.

And so I've worked hard to find us a heroine who is a very normal person, uh, but she has done extraordinary things in her achievements and her qualities.

And we did a little teaser kind of thing on on Twitter and Facebook about who this might be.

A lot of people guessed, um, and only a few got it right.

And here's who we we are going to talk about today.

We're gonna talk about Ruth.

I'm gonna talk about Ruth.

Why don't you say it with me?

Say Ruth.

NRH, Frisco, let's say it together again.

Ruth.

All right, I mean, I think those one-syllable names, they've they've got a lot of power.

It's like Todd.

Ruth.

One-syllable power names.

Okay, so I want you to turn to the book of Ruth.

Chapter four is where we're going to start.

Chapter four of Ruth.

Now, uh, I don't know if you remember a time whenever really you got captured by something.

Uh for me, I got captured with the Old Testament in college.

I was taking an Old Testament class, and uh, it just kind of came alive to me.

I don't know why something clicked, and and I just became fascinated with the Old Testament.

And I really became fascinated with sort of a central character uh in the Old Testament.

That's David.

David, pretty important guy.

Jesus was called the son of David, uh, a very important person.

And it was actually my interest in David that led me and motivated me towards Ruth.

So you might be saying, Well, so what's this connection with Ruth and David?

Why are you making that connection?

Well, I want to tell you an achievement that Ruth has that really, as far as achievements go, we talked about her definition of a hero, has achievements and qualities.

There's an achievement that she has that really no one else can relate to.

And that is that she was the great grandmother of David.

Great grandmother of David.

And if you look in Matthew chapter 1, there's actually more that it tells you about the lineage.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Before I get there, I want to say, I'm gonna give you kind of the end of the story first.

Alright, I'm sorry, because really the point is gonna be about the journey, not necessarily the end, but her achievement really is in the end.

So if you're in the book of Ruth, chapter 4, verse 17, very quickly.

Ruth 4:17

Basically, Ruth has married a man named Boaz.

All right, and they have a child.

Verse 17 says, and they named him Obed, and he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Very simple verse, but significant.

Alright, so she's the great grandmother of David, and according to Matthew chapter 1, we're one of the lineages of Jesus'.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

That makes her the great to the 29th power grandmother of Jesus.

Alright, I think that's a pretty significant family tree.

So I think that makes her quite an amazing woman.

In fact, if you look in Matthew chapter 1, and all those all those people listed in the lineage to Jesus, there's 41 men listed in that lineage.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

There's only five women that are given, are noted in there, and one of those was Ruth.

So she's pretty significant.

But uh, I recognize that you and I cannot seek to achieve the lineage, the genealogy like Ruth has, and to have Christ in our lineage.

So we're not gonna really do, there's nothing we can emulate about that.

But there are qualities, or qualities about Ruth that made her heroic, and that's what we're gonna talk about today.

Every hero usually has some kind of villain.

Usually in the movies, that villain is like another person or some kind of character, and but the reality is for most of us, there's not another person that's our villain, and that's the case for Ruth.

She's like us, she didn't have another person that was her villain, but maybe her circumstances, something that she was fighting in her life, the reality of her situation.

And that's what we're gonna talk about today.

So, have I gotten you interested enough in Ruth?

Are you ready to go?

Yeah, can I hear from you?

Yeah?

Okay, all right, good.

All right, so here's the title.

Ruth, it's more about the journey than you think.

It's more about the journey than you think.

So her journey led her to a destiny.

We talked about that destiny, but we're gonna focus on the journey now.

So why don't you get your uh your Bible?

You've already turned to chapter four, but let's go back, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Ruth chapter one.

Uh, a few sound of music.

Fans, no, you didn't follow me?

Okay, all right, very good.

All right, so look to Ruth chapter one.

Uh it's uh just after Joshua judges, before 1 Samuel, Ruth chapter 1, here we go.

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land.

All right, so there's a famine in the promised land.

In Israel, there's a famine there, and uh a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons.

The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the name of his two sons were Malon and Killian, Ephraithes of Bethlehem of Judah.

And they went to the country of Moab and remained there.

Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left and her two sons.

Now they took wives of the women of Moab.

By the way, that really wasn't a good thing.

Moab was not a favorable place among the Israelite people, so it wasn't really a proper destination for them to go, but that's where they had gone.

Alright, so uh she was left and her two sons, and now they took wives of the women of Moab.

The name of the one was Orpah.

By the way, don't transpose the letters there, or you get Oprah, and it's a totally different story.

Alright, so we're not gonna- So the name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth.

And they dwelt there about ten years.

Then both Melon and Killian also died, so the woman survived her two sons and her husband.

That's a pretty significant backstory.

The first five verses of a four-chapter book, you basically have a family who's left the Promised Land.

They've gone to a country that really wasn't a favorable place to go.

And while there, the husband and the two sons died.

So the wife, here's a widow.

She's in a foreign land of a people group who aren't really favored among the Israelite people.

She's got daughters-in-law again of that same people group.

Now, what does she do?

I think if you and I look, we can see that there's really a miracle waiting for Naomi in this story.

And right now, you might already be able to relate to that.

There's an opportunity here for her to say, God, let me see you do a miracle in my life.

And maybe today for you, you're at that same place.

Right now, you can go, yeah, I'm at a place I need a miracle in my life today.

Right now.

Maybe you're in a place like Moab.

Maybe you ran to a place that really wasn't the right kind of destination.

Well, I want to encourage you with the story of Ruth and her journey.

Don't let your situation blind you to God's sovereign work in your life.

Don't get discouraged right now.

If you have gone off path, you can get back on course.

You can adjust your path to get back on the path that God has for you.

I want to encourage you with Proverbs 3, verse 5.

Proverbs 3:5

It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.

If you need your path made straight, then run to the Lord.

He's the one who can do it.

He can make your path straight and get you back on track.

Okay, so we read the first five verses.

Naomi's now got just basically her daughters-in-law.

But suddenly she hears that the famine in the promised land has lifted.

God has come to the aid of the Israelite people.

And she decides that she's going to head back.

So she tells her daughters-in-law, look, you guys, you're from Moab, you stay here.

What can you need to come with me, you just stay here.

And she pleads with them twice to do this.

And in chapter 1, verse 14, it says, And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye.

She said, Okay, great, thanks.

But Ruth clung tightly to her.

Cling tightly.

And that word for cling to is the same word that's used in Genesis 2.24 to talk about how the husband and wife come together and unite in marriage.

It's a strong term of devotion, of determination, of passion, a very emotional kind of response.

She is going to cling to her.

And Naomi pleads with Ruth one more time.

Please stay here.

And then at that point, Ruth gives probably the most famous verse on loyalty in all the scripture.

In verse 16, it says, But Ruth replied, Don't ask me to leave you and turn back.

Wherever you go, I will go.

Wherever you live, I will live.

Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.

May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us.

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

So this is the first quality I want us to look at and admire about Ruth, and that is she had an attitude of determination.

An attitude of determination.

It took only two requests for Orpah to go, okay, good, thanks, thanks.

I think I'm going to stay.

But by the third request to Ruth, it so motivated her to say, No, you need to understand, let me make it clear to you.

I am so devoted to go with you.

I will follow you.

Look, Chris Tomlin is going to write songs about this someday.

Okay?

This is how determined I am to follow you.

It had to be an attitude of determination.

She was leaving her homeland.

She was leaving the place of her family, her roots, her gods.

The Moabite people had numerous gods.

She was leaving all of that behind.

I believe it's because she had a revelation of who the true God was.

And so she wanted to go.

She was going to follow Naomi and follow God to the place of her destiny.

And if you read through the story, the four chapters, it's a pretty easy read.

And in fact, it's quite a sweet story, actually.

But I think there's a little hidden thing in there, and that is Ruth.

I think she was pretty bullheaded.

I mean, you don't have that kind of determination unless you're kind of a bullheaded person.

And I maybe some of you can relate to this.

How many of you have kids and you say, you know, I can understand that bull-headed determination?

I understand.

Come on, let me hear amen if you got kids like that.

Yeah.

How many of you have a spouse?

Like, no, don't say amen.

Don't say amen.

Yeah, that'd be problems.

But every superhero knows that you want to use your powers for good and not for evil.

So she had bull-headed determination that I believe we can learn from, but how do we learn from that in the good, positive sort of way?

And I think for us to reach his destiny, we need to be determined to follow three things his word, his will, and fight his war.

All right?

Three things, and we're going to unpack that very quickly here.

Is his word at the forefront of our decision-making process?

His word.

1 Corinthians 2.2, Paul says, For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Jesus said in Matthew 6, 33, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

David said in Psalm 119, 105, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

I believe by seeking the Word of God, by seeking his kingdom, we prioritize Him as the true source of our peace and our provision.

If you're needing peace today, if you're needing provision, and that could be financial, that might even be a decision-making provision.

You're needing God to provide the answer for you today.

You can find it in his word.

That's where his word will come alive, and he will speak to you at that time as you seek him in that way.

Second thing is how do we, how determined are we to sacrifice all of our desires for his will.

For his will.

Romans 12, 2 says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

And I think today in our world today, it's hard not to be conformed to this world.

We're bombarded with media images all the time, things, we're just in it, and you go to work and you're bombarded with things of the world.

So what do you need to do?

This tells us you need to renew your mind.

That goes back to the word.

You renew it through the word of God.

And the only way that you're going to be able to withstand the things that come at us in this world is by having a renewed mind.

So we are not conformed to the things of this world.

And in doing that, as we renew our mind through God's word, we'll find his good and acceptable will for our lives.

I think the trick of it is if our minds are consumed by the things of this world, then we're likely to be consumed by the world.

So you have to get your mind out of the world so you don't get consumed by it.

Because if you feel today like you're being surrounded, things are crashing in on you, then I want to encourage you, renew your mind.

Go to God's Word, and in that you'll find His acceptable will for your life.

And the third thing is, how determined are we to fight His war?

His war.

What do I mean by that?

Ephesians 6, 12 through 13 says, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness and heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

To stand, to stand in the day of trial, of tribulation, maybe even temptation for you, you have to be fighting his kind of war.

It's not a natural one.

So if the answers to you for your situation are natural, carnal thoughts, maybe it's a relational thing you're dealing with, and so you're thinking retaliation, revenge, these are carnal thoughts.

Those are not the way that this war is fought.

It's not natural ones, it's spiritual ones.

Therefore, our weapons need to be spiritual weapons.

That verse goes on and it talks about things of the Spirit like truth and righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation, God's word, prayer.

I think many times in a moment of excitement or emotional high, we'll we'll say something to the Lord, we'll say, God, I will follow you.

I will go wherever you want me to go.

Just don't send me to Africa.

Please, not Africa, not Alaska, not Arizona.

No, I'm kidding.

Preston, Arizona is good.

Scott's still, we're good with Arizona.

Or we may say something like, God, I'll give up anything for you.

Just not my Saturday golf game, please.

That's where my buddies are, and I can't I can't give that up, please.

No.

Or your kids get older and you're really trying to release them.

God, I give you my kids.

I release them to you.

Just please don't move them away.

Don't move them away.

These are challenges we're fighting we deal with as we're trying to see how determined we are for God's perfect will for our life.

For me, I I uh encountered this at a young age.

I'll say as as parents, as mature adults, we have the responsibility to forge an attitude of determination in our own lives.

That's our responsibility as mature people.

But as a as a child, parents, you need to forge that for them.

We have to do that for them.

They might not be disciplined enough to forge an attitude of determination.

That happened for me.

When I was 14, my parents, they felt like God's will for my life.

I needed it over a summer.

Uh I went to Ireland.

God heard my prayer about Africa, so he sent me to suffer for them in Ireland.

Um, so I go to Ireland, but it was two months.

We're two months overseas living in tents, and uh, you know, this is before cell phones, and we couldn't communicate.

They didn't allow you to call anything else.

So I think over the course of a summer I wrote two seven letters over two months.

So a real sort of disconnect, but my God laid it on my parents' heart to go and do this.

And so I did.

And when I got back, uh I don't know what my parents expected, but you know, I was still a normal teenager, you know, doing normal, dumb teenage stuff, you know.

And so there was the question, I'm sure, in their mind, well, what was the purpose of that trip?

Well, I found out ten years later when I was in a corporate job at the age of 24 and had an opportunity, the company wanted to move me to New Zealand.

Blenn and I were newly married, and uh, you know, I don't think at all, had I not had my eyes open to the world, to what, to things outside of my comfort zone at 14, that birthed something in my heart.

I would have never gone there.

Would have never.

But we chose to move there.

We moved two years we were there, and it was God's plan for my life.

A heart for ministry was born in my heart while we were there in New Zealand.

Our oldest daughter was born, literally born there in New Zealand.

It was a place of natural and spiritual birth for us, a significant thing in my journey, and it never would have happened, I don't believe, if I wouldn't have gone when I was 14.

So it took 10 years for that to develop.

Parents, I want to encourage you, there is something today that you are probably trying to forge for your child.

Be determined for them.

If you hear from the Lord, then don't grow weary.

Be confident in pursuing that because you don't know.

Don't get discouraged if you don't see the answer right away.

It may be something that you see coming down maybe 10 years later.

So, Ruth's attitude of determination convinces Naomi that she's gonna go back with her.

So they're heading back.

Ruth and Naomi, they're going back.

And they get back to Bethlehem, the famine's lifted, it's barley harvest time, and they get back and they find themselves in need of sustenance.

They need provision.

And this is where we get the second quality that's heroic in Ruth.

She had a heart of devotion.

A heart of devotion.

Ruth 2, 2 says, And Ruth the Moabitus said to Naomi, Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.

Now I want to use a definition for devotion that is earnest attachment to a person or a cause.

In this case, the person was Naomi, and the cause was serving.

Ruth had an earnest attachment to Naomi and to serve her.

She recognized the need and she steps in.

And that act of serving led her to the field of Boaz.

We know the end of the story, we know who Boaz is.

Obviously, at this point, she didn't.

In fact, her comment to Naomi was, I'm gonna go in the field of anyone in whom I find favor.

Anyone, that's just a random act.

But that random act on her part was actually a Holy Spirit-led encounter.

Leads her to Boaz.

By the way, Boaz, the term in Hebrew law was kinsman-redeemer, is what he ended up being.

That means basically the Hebrew law was if a man died, really his family name was to continue on.

And so the next of kin was to redeem the widow and the property that made him the kinsman-redeemer.

And that's the role that Boaz played.

Do you think that was coincidence?

Do you think it was maybe confirmation as she turned up in the field of what happened to be her kinsman redeemer?

I think if you listen to Preston two weeks ago, coincidence and confirmation are two totally different things.

I think this was a confirmation.

I think in the act of pursuing God's will wholeheartedly, with faith-filled determination, you'll see moments of God's confirmation.

Look for those signs that God is confirming for you that you're on the right path in your journey.

But still, having been led there by the Holy Spirit, she was in an unfamiliar country, right?

Ruth was a Moabite, and she's now back in Israel, or not back.

She's in Israel, so she's a foreigner.

It's an unfamiliar country.

She's in an unfamiliar field, and she's working for an unfamiliar person.

The reality of it is she was going to do that simply to provide.

Their family, she and Naomi needed provision.

She could have done the work that provided every single day.

In fact, the reality of what she was doing, she was actually going in the field behind the workers.

She was basically taking the scraps, the leftovers.

But what it says, in one day, she was so diligent in her serving that she gathered enough that was actually two weeks' worth of wages.

She worked hard.

She was diligent.

She was faithful.

She served.

She served Naomi, she served Boaz.

Because of that, people took notice, especially Boaz, in that one day.

And he told his workers, watch out for her, protect her, have favor on her.

This led Ruth to say in verse 10 of chapter 2, What have I done to deserve such kindness?

She asked.

Yes, I know, Boaz replied, but I also know about everything you have done for your mother in law since the death of your husband.

I've heard how you left your father and your mother and your own land to live here among complete strangers.

May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.

Ruth's devotion to Naomi caused the people of the town, Boaz, to pay attention.

I think being a servant in the kingdom is critical.

It's at the tops.

David called himself a servant over fifty times.

Daniel found favor in the eyes of the king because he was a servant.

Jesus said, I didn't come to be served, but to serve.

And Ruth found favor in the eyes of Boaz because she was a servant.

And that's kind of a paradox of the kingdom of God.

We think of serving as a sort of weak and powerless.

But the reality of it is Jesus said in Matthew 23, but he who is the greatest among you shall be your servant, and whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Romans 14 says, Therefore, do not be, do not let your good be spoken of as evil, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.

I think that last part is very interesting.

Approved by men.

So how we serve, the way we serve, men will judge us.

They'll judge our Christianity by how we serve Christ and how we serve others.

I think people are drawn to servant-hearted people.

I think that's a natural response.

You see a servant, you're drawn to that kind of heart.

But you might be saying today, look, I'm serving, I'm not feeling the favor.

I serve with a faithful heart, and I'm not seeing what you're talking about.

I want to encourage you with Colossians 3.23, where it says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.

As working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you'll receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

My dad is really my hero.

He shaped my life in many ways that I know and in countless ways that I don't even know to make me who I am today.

But one of the things he said as I was a child, and I'd be working on, I'd be on a basketball team and have a coach who I'd I didn't like it, so my attitude was poor, and he'd say, You are not working for that coach.

You work hard because you're working for Jesus.

You work hard as if Jesus is watching and you work hard for him.

And then I got into an as an as an adult, went to work for an employer, didn't really like my boss, and I'd be talking to my dad about it, and he'd say, You're not working for that boss.

You're working for Jesus, so you work hard.

Work hard where you are, be diligent in how you serve, because you're working for Jesus.

He's the one who promotes.

I want to say to you, baby, you feel that same kind of thing.

Let me just say this: who knows the reward that God has for your life?

Whatever you're doing right now, serve.

Serve as unto the Lord.

Who knows?

You know, since you don't really know what God is doing, maybe you today, right now, are gleaning in the field of your Boaz.

The reality of it is, had Ruth not had the mindset of serving, she would have never been noticed by Boaz.

Her destiny would not have been reached had she not been serving.

Maybe both God and people are looking to see if you'll serve in the field where you are now before you're moved on to the next thing.

Serve faithfully where you are.

Right now, God may be trying to equip you, and you're resisting him because you want to be in a different field.

And God's waiting to see if he can equip you in the field where you are now.

Don't let your limited understanding of what an unlimited God can do limit his potential to equip you in the season you're in now.

Let me just say that again.

Don't let your limited understanding of what an unlimited God can do.

He can do it.

You might be in a field you're going, there's no way he can do it.

You have limited understanding of what an unlimited God can do.

To limit his potential to equip you in the season where you are now.

So Ruth had an attitude of determination.

She had a heart of devotion, and the third thing is she had a desire for redemption.

A desire for redemption.

Look, the reality is Ruth's destiny would have never been realized had she not been redeemed by Boaz.

The act of redemption actually requires two things.

It requires a willing redeemer and a faithful servant.

So in chapter 3, Naomi gives Ruth advice to go and let Boaz know that he's the kinsman redeemer.

Ruth had to step out.

She had to take an act of faith.

She had to go and show Boaz in the way that was common in the culture to let him know she was willing for him to be the redeemer.

Took faith.

She had to step out and do it.

At the same time, Boaz had to be willing.

The reality of it was we find in the scripture there was actually a redeemer who was closer in kin.

There was one person closer.

So Boaz goes to that man to let him know, hey, you're the redeemer.

You can redeem if you want.

And he was not willing.

He said, No, I don't want to.

So that gave Boaz the right.

He was willing.

He pursued.

I think you can see the parallel right there.

Jesus is our redeemer, and he chose to pursue each one of us.

He has pursued you.

He's willing to redeem you.

He's also willing to redeem areas in our life that need to be changed for the better.

That's the definition of redeem that I also want to apply here.

To redeem, it means to change for the better.

Galatians 3.13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

The promise of the Holy Spirit who can help make things better in our life, to be redeemed or to be changed for the better.

And I don't know if you, the idea of redemption, I'll just give you this picture, okay?

If you're a parent, you have likely been to this place.

Chuck E.

Cheese.

I know you've been there.

I can see it on your face already.

You can relate.

All right, you go to Chuck E.

Cheese, you pay a lot of money for some pizza, and you get some tokens, and you go and you put those tokens in a game, and the game kicks out some tickets, and those tickets you take and you redeem a very high-valued prize at the end of the day.

And actually, it reminds me of my brother-in-law who's got five kids, he spent uh countless money and hours at Chuck E.

Cheese.

His final conclusion of it was look, if you receive Jesus in your heart, uh, then you go to heaven.

If you don't, you spend eternity at Chuck E.

Cheese.

Look, the reality of it is, Jesus was willing and he is willing to redeem you.

He wants you.

He paid severely to redeem you.

Are you willing to be redeemed?

What do you desire to be redeemed in your life?

What needs to be changed for the better?

1 Corinthians 6.19 says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God?

You are not your own.

You were bought at a price, therefore, honor God with your body.

Jesus paid dearly for you and for me.

He gave his life so that we could be with him in eternity.

But also he gave us the Holy Spirit so that our earthly living might be redeemed for him.

I believe you and I can step into our moment of destiny.

Ruth's was to be the great grandmother of David and in the lineage of Jesus.

But I believe we can step into our moment of destiny, walking in God's will for our life, because we have the confidence of knowing that we were redeemed by the great King of the world.

I want to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes.

I want to ask you what is the Holy Spirit saying to you today?

Maybe you're feeling a tug on your heart to recommit your attitude of determination.

Maybe you need to really change your focus on following his word and his will for your life and in fighting his war.

Maybe you need to change your perception on how this battle is fought that's going on in your life, and you need to change to fight his way.

Maybe you need to recommit to serve in a newfound passion.

Maybe to serve your employer.

Maybe this idea of serving man is a new idea for you.

Maybe you need to serve your spouse in a new way.

Maybe for you, today is a day of redemption.

Maybe you've been hearing about Jesus and you need to know He wants to redeem you.

He paid the ultimate price so that you could be with Him for eternity.

Maybe there's also things in your life that you want to be changed for the better.

I want to invite you, whatever it is, any of those things, in just a moment, I'm going to pray.

I'm going to invite us to stand up and our altar team will come down.

And there's going to be people at every campus, at every campus, there'll be people at the front ready to pray, ready to minister.

If you have any prayer need at all, I want to invite you to come.

And really just ask yourself, God, what are you saying to me today?

What is relevant for this message for me today?

God, I thank you for what you have done, Lord, the word that you've spoken.

And I pray for every person here today, at every campus, and those watching on the web, God, that you would speak to us, Lord, what you are saying to us in this message today.

And God, I pray for everyone who needs prayer.

I pray you draw them to the altar right now in Jesus' name.

Amen.