Well, welcome to central. So glad you're with us in the room, online. All of our campuses. I hope you are well, I'm excited to be here. My name is Tyler and, uh, we're in week five of our summer series travels with and. It's all about traveling with Bible characters, checking out their journeys, their adventure with God, all the things that they learn and then how we can apply that to our lives. So I'm excited about what's to come and we're actually gonna be in the book of Ruth today. It's found in the old Testament, Ruth, and sometimes this book gets overlooked. Okay. Because it's so small, it's literally like three page. And, uh, for, uh, you know, depending on what Bible you have, but, uh, it's a short story, but it's very profound and we don't wanna get lost in the minutia of the story. We wanna look at the overarching themes and, um, what God's doing in the midst of good things and bad things happening in our lives. It's a really great. A great story. So make sure to go to Ruth and that's where we will begin. I gotta set us, set us up though. I gotta give us some context before I just jump right into the book of Ruth. What we have to understand is the traveling here actually starts with Naomi, not Ruth. Now Naomi is the future mother-in-law of Ruth and she's living. Bethlehem, she's living in Bethlehem with her husband and her two sons. Okay. So they're in Bethlehem. Everything's going great until it doesn't because then there's a famine. So there's no food in Bethlehem. They then have to travel to Moab. Now the city of Moab is not where you would want to go, but it's where they had to go because Moab was an ancient enemy of the people of Israel. So going from Beth lamb to, there was not a good idea, but they had to. So they went to Moab and her two sons actually got married, which was awesome. And then tragedy strikes yet again, and everyone dies. Her husband dies and her two sons die. So everyone's passed away. She is now just left as a widow within her two daughters. In-law so dis distraught, she decides to then go back to Bethlehem from Moab. There's nothing. For her in Moab. So they go back to Bethlehem, but then she realizes on the journey. She's like, what, what am I doing? Why am I dragging my, my daughters-in-law with me? They have family back in Moab. They, they, they, they gotta go back to that city. They're Moabites, they're gonna be foreigners in Bethlehem. This is not gonna be good for them. And so she tells them, please go back. You have mothers there. You guys need to go back there. Everything's fine. Just let me go back to Beth. And so she says this and they're, they're sad about it, but we find ourselves in Ruth one starting on.

verse 14. And again, they wept together an Ora kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung, tightly to Naomi look, Naomi said to her, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. You should do the same, but Ruth replied don't ask me to leave and turn back wherever you go, I will go wherever you live, I will live. Your people will become my people and your God will be my God, wherever you die, I will die. And 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. Jesus. Speak to us today through your word. It's living. It's active. It's alive. It can change us from the inside outs. Let us lean in to hear from you open up us up so we can receive from you. It's not an accident that anyone is here today. You have something specific and intentional for each and every one of us, we love you, God. And everyone said in Jesus name, amen. Have you ever found yourself doing the right thing regardless of the outcome? Have you found yourself doing the right thing regardless of the.

it can be a tricky question because I think of a lot of us say absolutely. Yes, I do that all the time. Um, ever been in a job interview. Okay. Ever. Yeah. Uhhuh a lot of us. So when you're in a job interview, I, I don't know if you're necessarily doing the right thing. You're just doing the thing to get you the job, no matter what. You are so focused on the result of what takes place. I mean, you never look like how you regularly do at an interview. You look awesome. You are all polished up. You're like ready to go. Okay. You don't talk like how you talk in, in a job interview like you do normally. Okay. So you are just like, this is me. I, yes, I will always work late. I will come in early. That's who I am. It's my middle name. Like, that's not you, but you're saying. To get a job. Okay. A lot of us, we do this. We're also afraid to say anything that might make it to where we don't get the job where they say, oh, that's not gonna, that's gonna work. You're not gonna be a good fit with us here at this role. I mean, that's not gonna work, right. I, I mean, , if they're like, Hey, what are your weakness? And you're like P weaknesses, zero weaknesses. My weakness is that I'm too awesome. And it's, I'm a lot, I'm sorry about that. Like, but if we really, truly actually were to say our weaknesses. Tell the truth and not lie. The outcome might be something that we don't want. It's hard to do the right thing, regardless of the.

I mean, think about standing in line at Starbucks and you're like, you know what, today I'm gonna be someone's hero. I I'm gonna bless someone behind me. I'm gonna pay for their drink. Oh, they're gonna love me. It's gonna be amazing. The clouds are gonna park. The shining light will come down. It's gonna be awesome. And so, and so you like, Hey, sh I got something to tell you. I have some secret generosity I want to do, and it's never really secret. You wanna know, but anyways, you're like, Hey, um, hook them up. I got it. It's on. Here's my card. It's a gold card. Anyways, you give 'em a card and then you slide over and you're now listening for your drink, but you're also kind of listening to see how they react. And what if you knew in advance, they were just gonna say, Hey, someone bought your drink and just move on. Really? Like, not even a thank you, not even a wave, nothing, nothing. It'd be very difficult for us to do the right thing. If we realized that was gonna be the.

what, what about just driving? Let's be honest. What about just driving? Okay. And it's hots and it's traffic and you're just like, oh my goodness. And, and, and there's one car that's really been needing to get in and no one's been letting them get in and you're like, I'm gonna let them merge in. I'm gonna put on my brakes and I'm gonna let them just slide on in. Oh, I'm gonna make their day. It's gonna be so good. And then that happens and the car gets. And they don't even make eye contact with you through the rear view mirror, no courtesy wave, nothing that really grinds my gear. So I tell you what I mean, would you actually wanna let them merge in if they didn't even acknowledge you or thank you at all? Not even wave, not even like a, not even a nod, nothing. See, it's so hard for us to do the right thing regardless of the outcome, because our motivation typically is based in the results. And that's why we do the good. Thing the story of Ruth really has three themes throughout the book. What I need you to understand if you're taking notes, it's character, identity, redemption, character, identity redemption. What we see first here is that Ruth has incredible charact. Now in the time of Ruth, it was actually in the time of judges when the book of judges was written and what you have to understand. It's right before Ruth and the very last part of judges says this in judges 21, 25. In those days, Israel had no king and all the people did, whatever seemed right in their own eyes, translation. A lot of people did some shady stuff, some sketchy things. Whatever they thought was right in their own eyes. That's what they decided to do. They had no king, they had no leader, they had no guidance. So they just say, Hey, we're just gonna do whatever we want to do. But yet, a foreigner, a Moabite, someone from the city of Moab, Ruth decides to do the right thing. I mean, you have to understand she's lost her husband. She's a widow she's mourning. She could go back. She could stay in Mo.

but it's shit. She travels with her. Mother-in-law like, I don't know how your relationship is with her mother-in-law but that's amazing. Okay. Like the, like the husband's not even around and you're still hanging out with the mother-in-law. This is incredible. Talk about character, but it's true. It's beautiful. It's pure her character, her, her dedication, her devotion, her integrity to then in the midst of this moment of tragedy for her, she leaves her comfort of Moab to go to Bethlehem, to comfort. Her mother-in-law cause her mother-in-law lost her sons and her husband. So she goes with her to be with her knowing it's not gonna be good. She's a foreigner women in this day and age, they were not treated well, but she was gonna be treated even worse because what you have to understand about Moab, it's an ancient enemy of the people of Israel, this city. And so her coming into Bethlehem, she's gonna get a lot of dirty looks. A lot of people get turn away from her. It's gonna be difficult. It's gonna be really, really tough, but she says, I'll still do this regardless of the outcome. The next thing we see the theme of identity takes place in both Naomi and Ruth. Naomi is dealing with an identity crisis right here. Right now. She is absolutely distraught. And when they finally make their way to Bethlehem, when they arrive scripture tells the whole town is excited. They're excited to see Naomi, they're excited to welcome her in, and this is what she says in Ruth. One verse 20 don't call me Naomi. She responded instead. Call me Mara for the almighty has made life very bitter for me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me. Empty. Why call me Naomi. When the Lord has caused me to suffer and the almighty has sent such tragedy upon me, the name Naomi in Hebrew means pleasant, pleasant. The name Mara means bitter. She literally changes her name from pleasant to bitter. God never gave her that name bitter, but she is giving herself that name. She's looking at her circumstance. She's looking at her surroundings and that situation for her. She says, it's bitter. That's who I am. Don't call me pleasant. Call me bitter. Her identity is in question right now, but don't we do this. . I mean, if we're gonna be real don't we do this, do God has called us one thing, but we look in the mirror and call ourselves something else. Things don't go good for us. We say, you're, you're worthless. You're not valuable. You're nothing you can't do that. You'll never measure up. And we rename ourselves. We have this identity crisis. Going on when God has never called us those things, but yet we call ourselves those things. And then Ruth identity is an issue here for her. She's wrestling with it because what you have to understand is when they get there, firstly, they're hungry, they're hungry. They, they need something to eat. They have next to nothing. This is what happens. I found in Ruth two verse two, one day, Ruth, the Moabite said to Naomi, let me go into the harvest fields to pick up the stalk of grain left behind anyone who is kind enough to let me do it. Naomi replied. All right, my daughter, go ahead. So Ruth went out to together, grain behind the harvesters and as it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz. The relative of her. Father-in-law let me.

now what you have to notice here and understand here is she is a foreigner. She has to go into the fields and pick up the scraps. She has to stay way behind the harvesters. And she even said, if they're kind enough to even let me do it in this day and age, a lot of these people trying to pick up the scraps would get harassed, get kicked off the. And weren't even allowed to get a few sources of substance for them selves. So her poor identity is in question who really am I what's going on? Did I make the right decision? Should I sh should I have stayed in Moab? I'm in Bethlehem, begging for scraps behind the harvesters. Completely an outsider. Have you ever felt like an outsider? I mean, has that ever happened to you or even if you find yourself feeling like an insider, have you treated an outsider? Anything other than equal? I think this happens to us often. It reminds me of a time. I was speaking at this youth conference about 10 years ago. And after the main session, after I was done teaching, I found myself kind of over to the front of the stage. I was talking with some students and. , you know, we were talking about this and that, and, you know, kind of just facing this way. And I, and I feel this tug in the back of my shirt and I say, what is going on here? I turn around and I see nothing. I look down, I see something, it's this little gal. Her, her name was Susan she's about 12, 13 years old. And she was just, she was little she's just little. And I was looking at her and she said, you call me Susie, I'm gonna call you Susie. In my mind. You're like Lil Susie. Okay. But I'm not gonna call you Lil Susie. And so Susie, she, she was very serious. She looked at me and she goes, I have a question for you. And I said, okay. All right. Okay. Okay. She goes, we come here, come here. I gotta ask you something very important. It's very serious. So she's doing this and I'm like, okay. I'm okay. Like literally she's okay. And, and I had to say bye to everyone else that I was talking to. She was like, not interested in what I was doing over there. And she's like, okay. And she was, she was dead serious. She looked me in eye. She goes, I have a question for you. It's super important. And I'm thinking, what could this be? I'm like, what kind of theology question is gonna happen here? Like I have no, I just finished preachy. What's gonna go. What's gonna go on. She goes, how do I become cool. That was her question. She was dead serious. How do I become cool? I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, okay, what beg your part? She goes, how do I become cool? You know, can you explain that to me? She goes, well at school, I'm not cool because all the cool kids hang out with themselves and, and they're all in a group. And whenever I go over to the group, they turn their back on me. They, they, they disregard me. They don't let me in. They say mean things about me. They act like I don't even exist.

so I wanna be a part of the cool kids. I, I wanna be with them. I wanna be included in that. So teach me how to be cool. What can I do to be I don't why she's acting me to be cool, but she's asking. And so she's like, how do I, how do I get cool? Cause I don't wanna be shoved aside anymore cuz I apparently, and obviously I'm uncool. So I think for a minute it, and then I realized, okay, I gotta look her eye to eye. So I literally do one of these and I say, Susie, let me ask you a question.

do you think Jesus is cool? And she's like, yes, absolutely. 100% like, look, look, all these notes I took during your message. She showed me. So look at my Bible. Like it's super highlighted. I love Jesus. I, she, she said Jesus is the coolest and I go, okay. Okay. Okay, cool. Okay. So, so if Jesus is the coolest, I have to explain something to you. Those kids at school, they're not cool. And she said, oh, She said, what do you mean? They're not cool. I'm blowing her mind right now. I'm literally telling her that we live on Mars in this moment. Okay. And, and, and, and I go, well, if you think Jesus is the coolest, you have to understand this, those kids. Aren't cool because they're excluding you. Jesus is the most inclusive person to ever walk the face of the earth. When he says anyone and everyone, he means it.

wh when he says that anyone that believes in me shall not perish, but will have everlasting life. He's talking about you. He includes you. He would never turn his back on you. He would never exclude you. He never talk bad about you. He would embrace you and bring you in that's who Jesus. And if he's cool, guess what? Those kids can't be cool. She said, oh, my word, she was losing her mind what I go. Yeah, it's the truth. It's the truth. I, she goes, are you serious? I go, I'm I'm dead. So don't worry about them. Jesus loves you. And guess what? You can love other people like Jesus loves you. She goes, all right. And I kid you not, she skipped up outta there. Bye. She skipped. She was so pumped. She was so happy. She skipped away. I go, I guess she has everything she needs. I got in touch with her student pastor later on and actually found out she went to Bible college. She's becoming like a pastor doing all these incredible things. Like let's go Susie. She just gets. She understood in that moment, I don't exclude people and God doesn't exclude people. He, he looks at them and invites them in. He loves them. I'm like, yeah, absolutely. We should never feel like we're on the outside from the, what the world is saying. We are in speaking these lives over our lives. Lastly, we see redemption redemption. This is the good stuff. So we've been introduced to Boaz and Boaz is a wealthy, influential man in Bethlehem and all these farmers, they work for him and this is his land and this is the land that she's trying to gather scraps at. And he's actually doing that to do his due diligence. He's being a good Jewish man. He's following the rules because in the Torah, in the old Sesame, you have to understand in Deuteronomy, it actually said, this is what you were supposed to do. Deuteronomy 24 19 says this when you are harvesting your crops and forget to bring in a bundle of grain from your field, don't go back and get it. Leave it for the foreigners, orphans, and widow. And then the Lord, your God will bless you in all you do. So Boaz is going by the book, literally he's following the rules and he's letting her be at the field and pick up some scraps, cuz that's what you do to care for the orphans, the widows. And this is where things get interesting. They start to take a turn because Boez starts to go above and beyond what the law even requires found in Ruth. Two starting verse 14 at mealtime Boaz called to her, come and help yourself to some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine. So she sat with his harvesters and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all that she wanted and still had some left over. When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, let her gather grain right among yourselves without stopping her and pull out some of the heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her. Let her pick them up and don't give her a hard time. This would never be done. This would never happen. You would never say stay here. We'll take care of you. Sit by us, eat with us. You're one of us. She's a woman, she's a foreigner, a foreigner from a bad place. And, and literally says, be with us, eat with us. You're here with us. And, and guess what, we're gonna drop this and we're gonna do it on purpose and no one will bother you. And so I love that this redemption process is already starting unbeknowns even to Boaz. Boaz just decides to treat her this way. He's heard the stories. What she did for Naomi and he is, he, he recognizes her character. He's starting to take care of her. So

Ruth comes. And when Ruth comes home, Naomi's there obviously waiting for her. And I think of any parent and any, you know, parent of a child in school and they come home from school. And I don't know about you, but it's like the dreaded question you say, how's your day. How was your day? And you just know what you're gonna get, whether they wanna medal at school or they like tripped and like ripped to their pants. Fine. That was fine. That was fine. They walk on. Okay, cool. Yeah. Great. Um, yeah, I birthed you. No big deal. I mean, just like really? How was your day? How was day? It was fine. It was fine. It was fine. Um, today was a day where she was gonna get a lot more than it was fine. Cause when Naomi says to Ruth, Hey, how was your day? She goes, it was awesome. It was awesome. They tell you about it. I mean, I was, I was working on this farm and at first they were just letting me get the scraps, but then they actually gave me a lot more and I, I was able to eat with them and hang out with them and be there. And they accepted me and they brought me in. It was incredible. And it was so great. Look at all this food I have left over and, and, and the, the, the, the guy, the guy, his name was boas. And at this point in time, you have to understand what scripture says. Naomi loses it. She's like boas. She's so happy. Boas, are you kidding me? Boas? She goes, oh, thank the Lord. It's boas. Boas is actually our family Redeemer. He is a relative. And you have to understand this on your father-in-law's side. And he is actually known in this day, in this age, this culture, they had a tradition where if everything was lost and her sons are gone and she's a widow, and if everything is lost and all of the land, someone can actually be the family Redeemer. And by. Back the land actually marry the daughter and start to create this lineage again and create this name to last and go on and on. And this wealth will continue to accumulate because there's a family Redeemer available and she says, Boaz, you gotta be kidding me. She knows boas she's from Bethle Hammond. So she says, you Ruth, you gotta tell him you gotta go to boas and let him know and see if he'll be our family Redeemer, what a task that was. But Ruth being Ruth goes back and says, Hey, boas. So. Um, word on the street is, um, you like can be our family Redeemer. So how bounces it, you know, like what do you, what do you think? What are your thoughts? He says absolutely. Absolutely. I, I, I will redeem your family, but then, but believe it or not, he actually finds out that there's a closer relative who actually is the next in line to take over the land. So he does the right thing. Boaz goes over to him and says, Hey, here's the deal. Here's all this land that you can buy back. Um, and, and the, and the guy says, abso yes. Oh, 100% goes, you gotta also marry Ruth. And he goes, Nope. Ah, not, not at all. He was only interested in the financial, but not the relational.

so he left and then Boaz said, I'm doing this. Here we go. And so he presents himself to the entire town. This is what you did in that day and age. And he literally declares, I am the family Redeemer. I am buying back this land. I am taking Ruth into my home and Naomi will be cared for, and this will be an incredible thing. It's so beautiful. And everyone is there. This redemption process is taking place. And then we see here in Ruth four. This is so great. Four 11 says this, the elders and all the people standing at the gate replied, we are all witnesses. May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah from whom the nation of Israel descended white. This is crazy. This is a Moabite, a foreigner who now they're saying, make her like Rachel and Leah, the descendant of all the holy people from Israel, all the people that have descended make her like them. This is redemption. It gets even better. This is kind of the full depiction of what it all looks. Says this in Ruth four 13. So Boaz took Ruth into his home and she became his wife. When he slept with her, the Lord enabled her to become pregnant and she gave birth to a son. Then the women of the town said a name. We praise the Lord who has now provided a Redeemer for your family, made this child be famous in Israel. May he restore your youth?

and care for you in your old age for he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you and has been better to you than seven sons. Naomi took the baby and cuddled her clothes cuddle called cuddle him close. She cared for him as if he was her own. The neighbor women said, now it last, Naomi has someone again, and they named him OED and he became the father of Jesse. Watch this and the grandfather of David. King David it's serious. And if you didn't know, you're about to know, David is obviously in the line of Jesus. The genealogy Ruth is in the genealogy. When the book of Matthew starts in the new Testament goes over. The genealogy. Ruth is there by a decision she made to stay with us. Her mother-in-law. This is beautiful. This is redemption. Boaz's decision is incredible.

to redeem this family with Boaz is just a foreshadow of what was to come of. Jesus. Do you know, redemption means bought back. That's what it actually means. Bought back Naomi and Ruth's story is our story. They were lost. Displaced, distraught foreigners. And we all are dead in our sin. God saw that and he said, I'm sending a Redeemer. I'm sending my son to buy back everyone, to buy us all back, pay the highest price, give his very life so we can be rescued so we can be restored so we can be redeemed folks. That's the gospel. That's the good news. That's who Jesus is. That's what he does for you. That's what he does for me. He bought us all back. Praise God, this is the greatest news ever. And you know, who always does the right thing regardless of the outcome. Who's the greatest example. Jesus.

see. Can you imagine Jesus on the cross take taking all the weight of our sin, our pain. Our shame, our guilt, everything we've ever done wrong past president, future sin, hanging there on the cross, taking upon himself, the wrath of God, doing all of that for us still knowing some of them might not choose me, but I'm gonna do this anyways. I'm gonna provide an opportunity and access for ReSTOR. I'm gonna buy them back. I'm gonna give them the greatest gift of all time. All we have to do is receive it. He did the right thing, no matter the outcome, regardless. And what I love about this story, and you saw on the themes with the character and then identity, and then redemption

that redemption is happening so much here. And you gotta understand the redemption happened for Ruth and for Naomi and I, I gotta give you some context to the book of Ruth. That's gonna be a little profound for us to understand. Do you know who wrote Ruth Samuel? Now? Obviously the Bible is inspired by God, but people actually had to write things down and, and Samuel was the author of Ruth. Samuel was not alive. When the story of Ruth took place, he heard about this. Story passed down year after year, he lived in the day and age of Jesse and David Samuel was the prophet sent by God to anoint and appoint the next king of Israel.

Sam you'll know so much about not judging a book by its cover. Oh, this is crazy because you gotta understand, you gotta understand this. So you had Boaz who we read about Boaz. Awesome. Mary's Ruth and they have, they have a child and that's OED and then OED, um, has, has a child. And that son is Jesse. And then Jesse has David. Okay. A lot of sons. And then David, he he's the he's the youngest. Okay. So this whole thing and Samuel actually enters into the story right there. With Jesse and with David and he goes to Jesse's house, cuz God told him too. He goes, Hey, the next king of Israel is there. He goes there and Jesse says, Hey, check it out. He, he shows all of his sons and they're all tall and they're all good looking and they're all awesome. And God says, Nope. Ah, none of those, none of those. No, absolutely not. So he goes. So Sammy goes, do you got anyone else? Jesse? You got anyone? He goes, I, I kind of, I got this son he's scrawny. He's stinky. He's smelly. He's in the, he's in, he's a shepherd. He's watching the sheep out in the fields. He wasn't even worthy enough to come in the house. So Samuel goes out there and he goes, oh yeah, that's the one

God does a look on the outside. Like us. He looks on the inside. And so Samuel knows this and understands this because when Samuel saw David, he did not see a shepherd boy. He saw the next king of Israel. Anointed appoints him to be the next king of Israel. He understands and gets this so well understands this idea of identity so much so that when he wrote the book of Ruth and remember Naomi changed her name.

remember she changed it tomorrow. He never once mentions her as Mara. Every time she's referenced in Ruth, he still calls her Naomi.

he says, oh, that that's, that's cute. Naomi, you gotta try to call yourself Mara, but you're pleasant in the midst of everything going on. You're still pleasant. It's who God made you to be. It's who God called you to be. You can call yourself whatever you want, but it's not who God called you. It's not who you are.

this redemption process happens for her the whole time. And it's understood throughout. Character identity redemption because we, on the other side of the cross, it doesn't go in that order for us. See back at the old Testa man, it's like, Hey, they're a pretty good person. No, maybe they'll figure out who they are and have some identity. And, and hopefully there could be some sort of redemption that can happen in their life. That's what we see take place in Ruth, which is beautiful, but we're on the other side of the cross. So our story is backwards. We start at redemption. We've been bought at the greatest, highest price. We then have identity in who we are in Jesus Christ. And then we have this character that make people say, what is up with them? What has happened to them? How are they loving these people? How are they, how, why are they doing these things? Cause I was bought at a high price and because I was bought a high price, I now have identity. And then therefore, now I. Character that I do the right thing regardless of the outcome, because God did the right thing, regardless of the outcome, knowing if I chose him, it would only be because he chose me first and he bought me first and I am now a son and a daughter of the king. This is this beautiful, incredible story. And we get to now have this character where people say what's up with them and we get to tell a story. That's not just us. It's when our story in God's story comes together and we say, Hey, no matter what, man, I was on the outside, I was an outcast. I was, I was not on the inside, but guess what? God chose me, brought me in. And just as he brought me in, I can bring you and we should be people that help others understand what redemption is. All.

this story, this road to redemption story. Ruth's decision. I mean, literally her name is made famous because her decision to do the right thing, regardless of the outcome, that's what we're called to do and whatever that is for you when you're thinking through, oh, what's the right thing. What's the right thing. What's the right thing. It's usually selfless. I'm sorry, but it's true. It usually doesn't have a benefit to you.

I would love to say it did. Oh, the I did the right thing and I just won a million dollars. This is great. I would love to say the kingdom works that way, but more often than not the right thing is the sacrificial thing. And I will tell you incredible things can take place after that, but doing the right thing, no matter the outcome that takes trust, that takes faith. That takes us understanding, knowing God's gonna show.

that's right. He's gonna do what he does. Let us be a people. Let us be a church that does that because I, I, if, if we understand this, we'll be good because when people look at us, this is what they should see. When people see you, they can see Jesus by the way we love. When people see you, they can see Jesus by the way. We love God. You're good. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your love. Thank you for this redemption. That we did not deserve that, that we don't earn, but you give it to us freely. Thank you for buying us back so we can be restored and reunited with you. Help us to love people. As you have loved us. We give you all the glory. All the honor goes to you and everyone said in Jesus name. Amen. Love. Y'all.