It Will Come Together

a mess and you know it too. How many of you think that you are the least spiritual person on your row? Raise your hand? How many of y'all think there's nobody in this room that read the Bible less than I do this week? Raise your head? All right? Oh man, such a weird icebreaker for me to say that, isn't it. I'm just excited to be here. I told the Lord after we weren't able to have public meetings that I wouldn't take it for granted when we could

get back together. So if you'll notice, maybe you don't like this, but I go longer now. I take my time, and there's multiple reasons for that. One thing. I think if you're going to spend three hundred and fifty dollars filling your tank with gas to drive to church. I ought to at least give you more than a little dabba, do you? And the other reason for that is that the Holy Spirit has really been doing a work in

my heart. And the natural overflow of that is I just find myself less and less thinking of preaching like a performance. And what I think now more is that the Lord would make me a vessel. Tell him you'll call him back that in about three hours when I finish with this message, tell him you'll call him back for me. Hey, won't take that long. But now I think about myself, Lord, make me a vessel for what you want to give your people. And I love that because it's not up to the box how good the

pizza tastes. So if I can just be a box to get you what God wants you to eat today, that'll be great. And yes, I just called the Bible pizza because Jesus said I am the Bread of life, and he didn't say what kind of bread. So anyway, y'all remember book It used to get the personal pan pizza for book It. It's gonna be a personal word for you today. All right, I'm in a good mood. That's bad news for the devil. I'm happy and ready to drink. Hey, real quick check if you would and

see if we're coming to a city near you. Elevation Nights dot com. It'll be cities such ass but not limited to, Indianapolis, Chicago, Boston, Newark, Columbus, Grand Rapids. Why did you say that so loud? Grand Rapids? You're from there, You're coming over in a couple of weeks. Good, you got your ticket. It's not free. You can't just show up. It's not like just regular church night because the arena's not free, so we got to pay for it. So but you'll be there all right. Great, and you're here

today from Michigan, God bless you Michigan. All right, that's gonna be that's going to be awesome. I loved it so much last year. I really needed it after ministering in an empty room for so long through COVID, to get out and see the way that people have been impacted by our church and see it firsthand. I needed it. I felt like it. I was like something just came alive inside of me, like it needed to be watered and after we came back, I was just fired up

and full of life. So that's why I'm going back selfishly just to do ministry because I get more out of it than I could ever give. And I wish you could all come, but anyway, you get to come every week. So what are you worried about? And I wish we could have this conversation just one on one from the Word of God today. That would be ideal because I could walk you through it a little different. But we'll have to do the best we can with

just all of us. And I want to take you to the Book of Ruth, chapter four, verse nine through seventeen. I want to say what's up to Taylor Shidel at Elevation Columbia. He texted me before I got up that he was praying for me while I was preaching, And that's why I'm shouting him out. I'm reciprocating. I appreciate your prayers too, as I preached today that I would be effective, that I would be effective for who God wants me to reach. Never preached a sermon from Ruth before.

Hollywalked by the other day and saw my Bible open to Ruth. She said Ooh, Ruth. And my reluctance to preach on Ruth isn't just because it's a book about a woman. I'm not a sexist. I think it's one of those stories that just to give you a sliver or one scene of the story, like it doesn't do justice to the beauty of the whole thing. But still God directed me here and just sucked me in. And so I'm going to do my best today just from not trying to be cute. But I just want to

show you one truth from the book of Ruth. I guess, but let's look at this together. Ruth Chapter four, verse nine. Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people today, you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Alimelech, Killion and Maylon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabi Meylon's widow as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his

family or from his hometown. Today, you are witnesses verse eleven. Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, we are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephratha and be famous in Bethlehem through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman. May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah. That's a blessing right there. That's a blessing

right here. Tell somebody next to you, I'm stepping into a blessing. I'm stepping into a blessing. I'm stepping in. Tell them give me some room because I'm stepping into a blessing. I need six feet because I'm stepping all right, all right, But that's not the word. That's not the word today, because we need to read the next verses. So Boas took Ruth, and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive,

and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel. He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter in law, who loves you, and who is better to you than seven sons has given him birth. Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, Naomi has a son. Naomi has a son.

You're never gonna believe it. But she who was gone for over ten years because of the famine and came back bitter, is holding a son. And they named him Obed. And who's the father of Jesse see the father of David. And this is what the Lord told me to tell you today as our message, it will come together. Who felt that when I said it? It might be online? Put it in the chat, put it in the comments right now. Or tell your six foot three neighbor it

will come together. Tell your five foot four whoever's standing next to you. I'm trying to say, just make the declaration. It will come together. In Jesus' name. You may be seated. It will come together. Kind of one of those cliches that I don't like when people say stuff like that to me, it'll come together. I'll be stressed about a sermon and Hollio say it'll come together. I'll be like, yeah,

that sounds good. I mean, that's that's that's just a millimeter better than when life gives you lemons or lemon Yeah, how does it go? Make lemonade? Cliches? Cliches? And yet I don't mean it in that trite way because it could sound like that, I know you lost your job. It'll come together. Could you tell the power company that for me? Oh, I know you're single. Their friends are married. Don't worry. The Lord has a bow as for you. I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it.

I'm not gonna do I'm not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it. She wants me to do it, I'm not gonna do it. There's an old thing online that says, while you're waiting for your bow, ass, don't settle for brogue as poor as all that. I'm not gonna do it. Temptresses. It's the whole thing. It's a whole thing. In Christianity, the Book of Ruth is usually identified by chapter one, verse sixteen, and it's always into King James at a wedding. This is the famous verse

of Ruth. All right, you're gonna know it. When I say it, You're like, huh, what's it about? You'll know when you see it. Put it on screen. This the King James, where it says whither thou goest I will go? You got to get the wether in there for the marriage vows. Then that sounded like a wedding. Whither thou goest? You never said whither in your life. But now you're about to commit your whole self to somebody, and you breaking out words you never use, whether thou goest I

will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge? People shall be my people, By God, my God, I'm not making fun of that verse. That verse in itself is a sermon in itself. It is a sermon in itself. That one verse shows you that when you decide who, you decide where, when you decide, Now, this is not how we think we think I need to decide where I'm going to college. No, no, no, that's not as important as who you hang out with when you get

to college, wherever you go to college, right. I teach that all the time, that because who will ultimately identify not only where you end up physically, Like Holly wouldn't be in Charlotte if she had married me, because she wouldn't have been a pastor's wife, or if she had maybe the guy JJ she was talking to, he ends up somewhere else. And when when you say yes to someone, you say yes to something that you don't know about

at the time. I'm the same with God. When you say yes to God, He'll take you places that you never thought you would go when you say yes to Him. Who you say yes to who you say no to is very important, really important. Tell somebody it will come together. Now. I want you to get that in your mind so we can get it passed your mind into your spirit so that you hear it differently. When I finish in a few minutes, then you hear it right now. Because we are all standing in a space in our life

where we are needing clarity on some things. And maybe you're not in the same situation as Naomi and Ruth, both of them being widows, were completely dependent on the kindness of someone else. And maybe it's not that bad in your life. Ruth not only lost her husband when she lost her Maelon, but Naomi lost her son. Naomi had already lost her husband, a Limelech, and they were

already in a strange place. Now I want to talk to you about this, because when you read a Bible verse in isolation, it's almost impossible to really make sense out of it. And I want you to have that app on your phone where they give you the verse every day. But I don't want you to always read the scriptures in isolation, because if you just take it in isolation, sometimes we don't even read the whole verson we quote it, and then we think that it didn't work.

It's not that Romans eight twenty eight isn't true. All things work together for the good. You just stopped in the middle of the verse. Is said all things work together for the good of them that love God and are called according to His purpose. Means that God doesn't decide what is good in your life based on your preference, but his purpose. So then you go through something and this isn't good. This isn't good. How can this be good? God isn't God is good, and this isn't good. What's

going on? I thought it was all good? God didn't say that. In the Bible. God didn't say that. He said all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. So his purpose comes first, not my preference, go ready. His purpose comes first, not my plan. What happens to us is we get addicted to a plan, and if it doesn't fit the plan, we want to throw it back to God and say fix this. But God doesn't start with the picture called your plan when he is

building the pieces of your life. He's God. He's God. And the truth of the matter is, you can't really judge your life in isolation. You can't really know when you're going through something, whether it's good or not. Don't judge it just yet. One scripture says, judge nothing before the appointed time. Judge nothing before the appointed time, when God will reveal hidden things and bring them to life, and the secret things will be laid bare. Judge nothing,

no thing. All things work together for the good of them that love the Lord. Now, if you love something else more than you love the Lord Romans eight twenty eight, is going to be hard for you, because if you love popularity more than you love God, when people leave you, you will think that's not good. But if you love the Lord's purpose more than you love popularity, sometimes you will praise God not for who stays with you, but for who leaves you. Because you believe that the Lord

is leading my life. Wow, wow, Wow, it will come together. We make the mistake of thinking that everyone who starts with us will stay with us, and it doesn't happen

that way. This is not a sermon about abandonment or divorce, but I do want to talk about those issues because well, in the Book of Ruth, you have this woman named Naomi who goes to a place called Moab where there is something to eat for her family, and through no fault of her own, she watches her husband and her sons ten years later die in front of her eyes. Her two daughters in law are committed to stay with her, Ruth and Orpah. And there's a reason that this is

not called the Book of Orpa because she left. There is a reason that I said turn in your bible to the Book of Ruth, because Ruth stay. Put this in your heart. Whoever left you in your life, whoever walked away from you in your life, was not part of God's purpose for your current season. It doesn't mean they're bad, it doesn't mean they're evil. It doesn't mean you need to make a voodoo dollins stick a pin in they're left ear trying to get them to have

an earache. It doesn't mean anything. I don't mean you need to talk crap about them. It doesn't mean that you have to want them to fail. It doesn't mean you have to go out and buy new car to show him you made it and drive by their house and they're not even home. It doesn't mean any of that. It just means, can I preach. God doesn't build my life on people who left. So one thing I'm learning to appreciate at the stage of my life is the

providence of God. The providence of God. The providence of God. The plans of man and the providence of God are two totally different things. The man directs his steps in his mind, God orders his steps in real life. And so maybe I'm preaching to somebody today who is like Naomi. You know, when we walked into Ruth chapter four, it looked like everything was going good, and on the surface, it sounds like this is a moment to be happy, and it is. It is if you look at it

in isolation. But understanding what led up to this moment, I think gives me a greater appreciation for who God is and what he is able to do. Let's look at it a little deeper, because even the Book of Ruth is an interesting book. You have Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and then Ruth first Samuel, second Samuel, first King's second Kings. What's Ruth doing between all those big books? Why is there a book in the Bible about one woman from Moab?

Moab is not Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, not Moab. Moab was not even seen. I could do this real quick. Moab was like you went to school in Chapel Hill and you are cheering in four coach. K You see what I've said, That level of hatred right there. You felt it coming through the room. And this is a local illustration. Okay, I could use another one somewhere else. What is a woman from Moab doing between the five covenants in the Bible? Write down the word covenant in

your notes, please. Covenant is a concept we would do well to understand in our current contemporary society. We don't understand it at all. We don't understand commitment at all. We just understand convenience. Even when we say marriage vows, we don't really mean half of what we're saying. We're saying, as long as you make me happy, I'll be with you, And we don't really mean what we're saying. And I'm

not saying that to shame anybody. I'm just saying sometimes we would do well to understand these verses in their context. Because God made a covenant with Noah. He said, I never fled the earth again. That's the first covenant. There are five covenants. The Bible is structured around five covenants. Covenant, I will never flood the earth again. It means there's going to be a limit on human evil. The Abrahamic Covenant, which God said, I'm gonna make a nation out of you.

Count the stars if you can, count the sand if you can, and Abraham goes one, two, three, four, five to seven, eight nine. This is going to take a long time, God, And God said, exactly, it's going to take a long time for me to show you what I'm going to do through you, and your descendants will be as numerous as the sand on the sea shore, if you can believe it and receive it, even though you are past child bearing years. I am gonna bring

forth a life out of your wife's dead wound. That will bless the whole world, and I will bless you and you will be a blessing. That's the Abrahamic Covenant. Then you've got the Davidic Covenant, which God made with David, the second King israel head. You remember Saul, the one that the people wanted, and then David, and he's like, this is my guy right here, He's after my heart and he said, I'm going to establish a throne from you.

Now you forgot about the Mosaic Covenant where God had to bring his people out of Egypt, and then the New Covenant. How many thank God for the blood of Jesus that lets me know that I can't keep the law, and what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by my flesh. God did by sending his son Jesus, the son of David, to be a sin offering in my place, and upon Jesus was placed

all of my transgression and all of my shame. So whatever shame I carried into church today as a child of the New Covenant, I carried it illegally because Jesus took it. And whatever he took he intends to keep and deal with. So I've got to give it back to him over and over and over. Because God has already made up his mind about me. He already made up his mind about me. He's not looking to see if I get it right or if I get it wrong. He made a purpose for my life, and it will

come together. Say it, it will come together. I feel like preaching this like this cod Orange revival. But you won't help me touch three people. Tell them it will come together. It will, it will. I know it's taken a while. I know it's been on layaway and delay, and there's a shipping thing, and I know they can't get it to you like they were supposed to. And I know your three years past the due date of

when you expected God to do it. But if Naomi encourages me about one thing, it's that after she lost everything she held, dear God still had something for I'm glad about it. I love that verse that they said in the blessing. They said in verse eleven, Ruth four eleven, this is the one that got me. We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel, that sounds so nice. Rachel and Leah,

who together teamwork makes the dream work. They together built up the House of Israel. And I remember they're saying this hundreds of years after it happened. They're saying this after they have the benefit of seeing the blessing fully matured. They are saying this like a parent who is ninety's one years old and all their kids have kids now, and they have lived long enough to know, don't stress about that. It's all right. Please, please don't worry yourself

that much about that. It's all right. See, we don't get to live through that lens. We don't get to live through the lens of knowing that Rachel and Leah built up the House of Israel together. We don't get to live through the lens of Naomi knowing I'm gonna hold a baby named Obed in my arms, even though I'm gonna cry for years about my husband, only to lose my sons. Because see, we don't taste life as a meal. We experience the ingredients in isolation. In God's mind,

your life is a meal. In God's life, your God's mind, your life is Thanksgiving Day. What the y'all el on Thanksgiving. I might come over put it in the chat. What y'all got at Thanksgiving? Is? What do you like at Thanksgiving? What do you have at Thanksgiving? Mac and cheese? I might come? Can somebody do better than that? Mac and cheese and sweet potatoes? Now? Like sweet potatoes or a

sweet potato thing with marshmallows in it? Yeah? Because I really just had the sweet potatoes are the middleman for me. I just want the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes, honestly. So yeah, that's good. That's good. I might come. What else? What do y'all have at Thanksgiving? See? I don't know. I'm making everybody hungry. I'm losing my audience. This is really bad public speaking. What am I doing? You? You gotta understand the moment that Naomi is in her life

right now is a blessing. But it's a mixed blessing. It's a mixed blessing. I noticed the room got happy when I said you're stepping into a blessing. It's like, yes, I forgot to tell you it's a mixed blessing. I forgot to tell you it is a mixed blessing. So that means you need to prepare for the blessing as it is actually going to be, or you might miss the blessing because it's going to be mixed when you

get it. In fact, Naomi was in so much pain there in Moab where she went to escape from Bethlehem, where there was a famine. It seems like she did all right when she lost her husband, but when she lost her sons two, she said, don't call me Naomi anymore. Call me Mara. Because Naomi has the connotation of pleasant, Mara means bitter. And after what she's been through, can you blame her? When somebody has been through something like this,

you don't tell them it'll come together. What will come together? How can you replace those boys? Even if God gave me twenty more, it wouldn't replace them. That's how it is sometimes in your life. Don't try to tell me it's gonna get better. Call me bitter. When that kind of bitterness hits your heart, you don't even want to hear about better from anybody, not from preachers, not from teachers,

not from pinterest. Don't tell me all things work together for the good of those that love God, because when you taste the ingredient in isolation. It would be lying to say that's delicious. It would be lying. I was talking to a god in I think I think he was in London. Yeah, he was in London. He said he had to lay off forty of his two hundred employees. He said, but you know what, it's a good thing. I said, I understand what you're saying. But for them,

I hope you didn't tell them that. He said, no, I'm not telling them that. I'm just telling you that. I said, well, make sure you don't tell them you feel that way, because they probably don't see it like that right now from your perspective. He said, you got a good point. You got a good point, and it is a good point when you are tasting it. Have you ever walked in the kitchen and just use an example, I'm not a cook. Take a scoop of baking powder and just down it. Did you ever do it? So?

Baking powder is bad? Anybody want a big heep in pile a baking powder for lunch today? Raise your hand? Why are you messing up my illustration? Bro? Now this is the message. You want the whole message in a moment. This is a whole message. Is a whole message. This is why you came from Michigan so God could tell you, this is why you tuned in online. Just because it tastes bad in isolation doesn't mean it won't serve a

purpose in the finished product. I'm not saying that the Bible said that after Naomi had gone so low that she said, this doesn't taste good. This doesn't taste good. And honestly, I figured out why people in church often look so sour when they're in church, because what you went through this week didn't taste good, and you are trying to praise God with a taste in your mouth of disappointment and fear? Am I preaching? Yet? I mean it's hard to say Hallelujah when your mouth taste like hurt.

WHOA call me bitter? You might as well? You might as well. You might as well and taste good. And yet what a strange blessing that they gave. Let me give you a little bit more background so I can make sure I'm not confusing. Graham's Graham's my guy. You know. He told me the other day he was like, Dad, sometimes you got to slow down with these scriptures. You've been looking at them all week and we're just waking up.

You got to slow down and break it down. So even though I can't do it justice, the Book of Ruth is beautiful and you could read it in the time that you could watch half an episode of Ozark. And when we moved through it, we see Naomi a Limelech Killion and Maelon Meylan's Ruth's husband orpa is married to Killion, And both of those baby names are available, by the way, if you want to have an original name for your kid. But when they went to Moab, they went to a place that they didn't This is

important planned to go. This message is for somebody who is in a place you didn't plan to go. And I'm gonna take it further. Sometimes it's a place you hate being there because they're from Bethlehem and they're in Moab. Kind of like when they went to Egypt. I mentioned it earlier, when the Israelites went to Egypt. They didn't go to Egypt because it was their dream to go to Egypt. It wasn't on their bucket list to go

to Egypt. They went to Egypt to survive. And we've talked about that a lot because I think a lot of the sin cycles we get sucked into in our life are out of survival mechanisms, and if we don't deal with it that way, we just put so much shame on it. We can't help anybody get healed because people won't come to Jesus because you don't understand the

power of his covenant with you. You think Jesus is like other people and that there come a point where he'll be ashamed of you, and he'll go, oh, well, that's too far there. I was going to use you, But really you did that. You don't understand the power of a covenant. But Ruth did because when Naomi said, leave me, I've lost my husband's I've lost my boys. I've heard there's bred in Bethlehem. We've been here ten years. Naomi said, I'm not leaving. Make a covenant with you.

Whither thou goest I go. Your God become my god, and your God will often become the same god as your friends. If you are around people who worship status and stuff, it won't be long till you'll shear shackle to the same things they are. But now to touch somebody next to you and say you ought to hang out with me a little while. You hang out with me, You're gonna have strong faith. You hang out with me. Come on, death leopard if you hang out with me.

So they go back together, and Naomi, in this this honest moment, she says, call me bitter. I still got

the taste in my mouth. I'm going back to Bethlehem, which means house of bread, which makes it that much more depressing when there's a famine in Bethlehem, when there's a famine in the place that is named after bread, when the joy of the Lord is supposed to be your strength, and you are a Christian and you're depressed, and you are a Christian and you can't sleep, and you are a Christian and you have addictions, and you are a I am a C I am ah, I am a c h R I S T I aad.

But I got a A D D A d hd hey d D I C t I. Oh, I'm in the house of bread, but a hawk grief. Call me Mara, she said, real said, I was with you when I wanted your son. Now you don't have a son to give me, but I'm still with you. I wonder who the Lord is saying that to you. I'm still with you. I don't sell low and by high. God is not Warren Buffett. God doesn't trade like that. God said, I'm still with you because I made a covenant with you. It's not the kind of covenant I made with Noah

that was limited. It's not the kind of covenant I made with Abraham that was limited. It's not the covenant I made with Moses that was limited. It's not the covenant I made with David that was limited. This is the covenant of my blood, made with the life of my son. And I am worth you in your bitterness, in your brokenness. God said, I'm with you, but I'm bitter.

But I'm with you, and I love the Lord because he wrote the Bible, and he knew that the woman who said I'm bitter and it's over in chapter one would be holding a baby in chapter four. So he gave her someone named Ruth the Moabide. He gave her a Moabike, not somebody from Bethlehem, somebody from a place that she never wanted to be. Remember, it's God's kitchen. So if you walk around God's kitchen tasting stuff, I don't like that. I don't like that you know how

you are some of y'all our faith footies you walk around. Hmmm, No, I don't like that. See now, listen, you get to tell God certain things that you want him to do. God, I want you to grow me, mature me, bless me. You can say all that to God is good. You don't get to tell him how to do it. I'll go step further. You get to tell God what you want. You know. That's the first thing Jesus asked in the New Testament. He turned around and people followed me. He said,

what do you want? Let's just get right to it, cut to the chase, cut through all the niceties. I don't need us a little equick. What do you want? And so we want to see where you're staying. See, you got to follow me to know me. And that means that if you judge stuff while it's happening, you'll call yourself by what you've been through. Are you with me? I was in the kitchen the other day and Holly was making breakfast, and I was trying to be helpful, but I can't cook, but I wanted to help out

and she had just finished the sausage. So I was taking the pan to pour out the grease from the sausage. And I can tell who cooks in the room by your reaction, because she said two things to me that I'm going to preach to you. She said, leave the grease. I'm about to use it. That's the first thing she said. I'm out of the book of Ruth. I'm in. Second, Holly, she said, leave the grease. She said, because I'm about

to make your eggs. And when I make your eggs, I'm going to take these eggs and I'm gonna all things work together. Now, the grease on its own is not something that you want to eat. But if you'll let me leave the right amount of grease for this recipe, that I know, see, because if I make your eggs without grease. She looked at me and said. The second thing, she said, you need to get out of my kitchen. And I hear God saying to somebody who's been telling

him what he can't do, what he shouldn't do. I heard the voice of the Lord. I was praying about it, and God said, hit your neighbors, say get out of God's kitchen. Get out of God's kitchen. Get out of God's kitchen. Stop asking God to bring people back who were supposed to go. Get out the kitchen, stop at to God to take thorns away that he left. So you've been knowing, get out of the kitchen, Get out

of my kitchen. Let me mix this, because when I get done mixing these eggs with this grease, when I get finished mixing your pain with my charge, when I get finished mixing your kit with your offer, get out of my kitchen. What in my weakness? He is strong. That's grease. That's grease. That weakness is grease. Stop trying to get rid of it and let God mix it. So I put something in a song two years ago.

It's gonna come out in the radio a couple of weeks, and you might hear, well, not some of y'all, because y'll want to listen to the Christian station. But it's the rest of the song and it says, if it's not good, then he's not done. Let me break it all the way down. He hasn't mixed it yet. And you keep walking over to the grease, going, mmm, God can't cook judge no thing before the appointed time? Why because all things work together? Did he say everything was good?

Or did he say that when Ruth meets Boass. When the thing, because this is what had to happen for Ruth, she goes back to Bethlehem. She's gleaning in a field. A man sees her named Boass. This is not a singles conference. Do not get a are you my bow Ass t shirt made after this message. That's honestly quite off putting, it really is. It attracts the crazy guys. All right, don't wear that shirt be my bow ass. Don't do it. I'm telling you, don't do it. It's

a bad idea. But he sees her while she's gleaning. Now, you had to leave a certain portion of your feel by biblical law for the foreigners and for the orphans, of which Ruth was both. And because she made a commitment to Naomi, she met a man named bos It's called a kinsman redeemer, a kinsman redeemer, which ultimately, of

course points to Jesus. But in this situation it is a real legal obligation because he is a relative of Naomi, which makes him here's a word we don't hear much today in today's society, responsible responsible to redeem this widow named Naomi, who is this relative and along with her comes Ruth and that is what helped me to understand why they said, may the Lord make her like Rachel and Leah, because that goes all the way back to Jacob.

Remember the covenant God made with Abraham, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. You you're in good company and you got a better covenant because all theirs had conditions to it. All you got to do is believe and receive and then obey to be blessed. But you don't have to obey to be his child. Amazing. I mean, you think Boaz is something you have any idea what kind of acceptance and resource you have in Christ? It is a picture right why they said they give a blessing and this is

obviously something that they've said in this situation before. As Boaz goes to redeem, take Ruthus his wife, take Naomi in to purchase Alimelex's land, to care for the family so that his name will not be blotted out. All the stuff that I really don't have time to break down for you, but maybe it'll wet your appetite to read it this week, and that'd be awesome. All that stuff leads up to this moment where they say, may

the Lord make this woman like Leah and Rachel. Now, Leah and Rachel are not not exactly teammates, even though they're sisters, because right here it makes it sound like they just they just agree. Put the verse back up, because this was really the verse that drew me to the message. Can I go a little bit longer today? I really want to, But I promise you I can dismiss you right now. And we already heard a word from God, but I would like to give you this

before we leave. Okay, all right, all right, May the Lord make you like Rachel and Leah Ruth. Now the reason that was strange to me was one when Jacob was running talk about mixed blessings. He tricked his father into blessing him, but then he had to run from his brother. Is it really a blessing if you have to run from it? Talk about mixed blessings. God called him Israel, which means prince are prevalent with God, but

his name was Jacob, which meant deceiver. Don't we all know what that feels like to wrestle with both sides of ourselves? And he came out of the woomb wrestling. Then when he gets to his uncle Laban's house. He wants to marry this daughter named Rachel, and Rachel this is not in the Hebrew. But she's hot, and then her sister Leah is not hot. And the Bible says that Laban tricked Jacob because it all catches up with you eventually. The way you get blessed is the way

you have to stay blessed. So if you get stuff by manipulating, don't be surprised when you're stressed out about keeping it. But if you get it from God, it'll be a whole different thing. Yet, yet these are the two names that were mentioned in the blessing. So what's what Laban did? He said, Okay, work for me seven years, I'll give you Rachel. Jacob worked seven years on his wedding night. He wakes up the next morning, and the

Bible says, something so crazy, there was Leah. Oh Lord, just for a side Bible study, did you ever think it was Rachel? But it turned out Leah. I'm not talking about women, I'm talking about opportunities. Did you ever wake up next to Leah went to bed with Rachel? You thought that was such a good idea, such a good investment. We've all had those moments. We have all

had those moments. Anyway, Laban said, oh no, no, no, no, no, no no. The way it works here in our custom, if you want Rachel, you've got to first marry her older sister Leah. So if you give me seven more years, you can have Rachel, but you still got to keep Leah. And Jacob is like, oh God, And that's how I know that Rachel was indeed attractive, because he did another seven years for him. So she is not average by my reason deductions or whatever like that. But she was beautiful.

But watch this. She was barren. She couldn't have kids. Leah on the other hand, Leah the one that the Bible said had weak eyes. I don't even know what that means, y'all, but that doesn't sound good. The picture that comes in my mind is not attractive. And but she she wasn't attractive. Watch this, but she was productive. She started having babies so quick. Boom Reuben boom, Simeon boom, Levi boom. Judah is four to nothing. Rachel is not even on the board. And Rachel's like, I gotta do

something about this. I heard what my grandma did Jacob, you need to sleep with my maid servant, bill Ha. So she gives bill Haw to Jacob to seem jacob'slake. Okay, and so they got two more babies by the servant. Now Leah, all of a sudden hits a period she can't produce. Here's her servant, Zilpah. Now we're up to eight kids. Here comes a daughter, here comes it's a car, baby after baby after baby. And finally Rachel has Joseph.

And while she's dying, she has Benjamin. Why Stephen Ferdick, did you slow down to tell us all of that? Because it helped me to understand that number one, Every Rachel comes with a Leah. Take it out of the realm of people for a moment. Rachel was what Jacob loved and what he wanted. What do you want? What do you love? Everything you love is going to come with something that you don't let that sink in You got it everything you love? God? I want success cool.

It comes with stress, sleeplessness, and sacrifice. And just the other day my family rekindled the campaign for a dog. I thought we were through it. I thought I stood my ground. Y'all think I'm lying The pressure they're putting on me about this dog. It's been years. How many of y'all have been in elevation long enough you've watched this whole thing go down. Graham made the song about Look, I brought something on my garage on my way out of the garage. I don't even know why I left

this up. Graham made this sign years ago. So every time I leave my garage, I gotta look at this sign that says I want I've been looking at that on my door for years now and standing strong too. I't even remember this. At the same time, Abby made one too. You can't really see it. That didn't even spelled ride in his heartbreaking I wish you could see it. Can y'all make it where you see it? No? Huh? It says I w a g O D d og, she wants God, she wants a dog, she wants everything.

And what happened? What happened? I watched this. I promise you. I've got a point to this because they caught me the other night. Elijah was out and I was all alone, and it was three on one, and they took the opportunity. Graham said, I'm a good kid, I'm a good kid. I've never wanted anything but a dog to get here. And if I died, If I died, you would spend the rest of your life thinking why did not get the boy a doll? I said, I know you want

to talk. You don't want what comes with it. Abby said, but Dad, but Dad, but Dad, and you love us, You love us. I know you give it to us because you love us. You give us everything that we want. I looked at Holly. I looked at Holly. I look gave her a look too, I'll give didn't I? I gave her a look. She said, what is that look? I said, this is the look of me imagining the reality because they don't. Graham said, it's different. I said, you can't even clean your room, Graham, he said, he said,

that's different. My socks are not living things, which if you check them fu fungal composition on those socks, you might be wrong about that. But he said, he said that the dog is a living thing, and there's no way I would let a living thing suffer. You know, I'll take care of a living thing. Dad. I'm a good kid. And I said, but what about what comes out of the living thing? But this is the point, do you want what comes with it? Yeah? No, what comes with it? And this is a good question to ask.

If you knew Leah came with it, would you still want Rachel? If you knew that the bitterness came with Naomi? Would you still want to be a part of a Limelex family? Would you still want it if you knew what came with it? So guess what. Nobody knows this, But I'm getting your dog. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I know you're suspicious. Hey, hey, hey, hey, this is not a trick. This is not a game.

Because they've been here many times before. I say I'm gonna get your dog, and they'll say really, and I'll say, yeah, you're a mustard relish. Catch up. I got jokes. I'm gonna get the dog because of something that he said that changed how I felt. He said, all right, I'm willing to say it'll be my job. So now you get a dog. You get a dog, and you get a dog, but it's not my dog, and it's not your dog. It's their dogs. Their stuff is your everybody.

Stretch your hand towards my family and say it's y'all's dog toward these three right here, shad wrack me shaq, I bet a go. It's yall's dog. Sit out. But now we're gonna find out, Saints of God, do they want what comes with it? Because I will give it away a week from when we get it. If they doll, I'm not cleaning up nothing, because we are about to find out. Remember, Boas redeemed this family after another close relative had the opportunity to but the other relative didn't

want it because it came with a mob bite. Boas said, not only do I want the land, I'll take what comes with it. And I got to show you this. It's beautiful that while Leah and Rachel were having all those babies really to compete with each other, really to compete with each other. From their perspective, they were trying to get Jacob to love them. But from God's perspective, it was all coming together to make a nation. So I need you to know, the dog comes with walking,

the patience comes with pain. It will come together. It'll be a mixed blessing. It'll be Leah and Rachel, it will be Naomi and Boas, it will be both. Because I'm telling you this in case you are holding a blessing but you don't recognize it. That baby's name was Obed. His son's name was Jesse. His son's name was David. David was the king through which came forth to somebody

that we're awfully fond of, name Jesus. But if you go all the way back, it came from ten generations, after ten years in Moab, from a man named Perez, who came from a man named Judah, and who was the mom of Judah. Leah, Leah, the one Jacob didn't even what. You have no idea what you're holding. And if you taste it in isolation, it might just be pain. If you taste it in isolation, it might just be failure. But let God mix it. Let God mix it. You

don't know who you're gonna meet next year. You don't know what you're gonna learn. You don't know what God might be protecting you from by getting you out of there. Get out of the kitchen. You're a terrible cook. Get out of the kitchen. That grease is there for a reason. Get out of the kitchen. Leah is the one who gave Jacob the baby that produced the king, that produced your savior. So I want you to say this in your heart. God. I mean I meant, I meant say

it out loud. I said it the opposite way. Say this out loud. God. I want your will and I want what comes with it, Because I'm gonna tell you what comes with it. If you go through a trial, you'll get grace with it. God will give you the grace to stand up under. How many of you went through something so dark you couldn't even explain how you got through. But there was a grace. There was a grace, wasn't there? And somebody would have told you could live

through that. You said, call me bitter, I can't make it. It's over. You would have said that, But watch this. When she was holding the baby, it wasn't Marra holding the baby. That's the name she gave her, It said Naomi.

God still knew her, Nay. As we close today, I want you to stand on every auditorium and in every living room, if you're in a hospital room with somebody, and you're standing next to somebody whose life has become very bitter, if you're standing in need right now of something that only God can give, or you're in a desperate place called Moab, where you never thought that you would be. This prayer is for you to just lift your hands like this to God. Just like this to God.

Just like this to God, Just like this to God. Naomi said, I went out full and I went down the Moab and I went because I had to go, and I lost when I can't replace. So I went out full and I came back empty. And that would be a summary of how some of us feel today. God, But we want to see that reversed in our life, that we would say I came in empty, but I'm going out full believing that while Rachel and Leah were fighting themselves, disliking themselves and proving things to one another,

that you were building a nation. Now, if that was true for their blessing, if that was true for Ruth and Naomi, maybe it's true for me too. For every blessing there's a burden. It'll come together, but our focus has chosen. So right now, Jesus in your name, I'm asking you that you would put a baby in Naomi's arms today, take the bitterness or the pain away, but it'll give us something to look forward to. I'm sorry, y'all,

but I gotta obey the Lord. He said, you're holding O bed O bed never would have been here without Moab. Thank you what you're holding, what you're walking in, It will come saying together, it will come together, Say that it will come together. You gotta trust God in this part. You gotta trust God in this moment, knowing it will come together. Almighty God, Jehovah, Shah Loong, Prince of Peace,

Jehovah Rathha, our healer, Jehovah. And see our banner and victory, Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, change our name today. We came in holding bitterness, but we believe that the baby held in Naomi's arms is representative of the purpose that we are holding. And God, if I preached it for one person today, then that's cool with me, because if they get this, great things are coming forth from their life that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, and it hasn't even entered

into their heart. But you know it and you spoke it, and you can do it. It'll come together. If you don't give up, it'll come together. If you don't mess it up and manipulate it, it it will come together. I speak the blessing of the Almighty over you today. May the Lord make you like Rachel and Leah who together built the house. All things work together. How many of you love the Lord? How many of you are called according to His purpose? Just if that's you, I'm called

according I'm not called according to my experience. I'm called according to his purpose. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.