Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / Is God Kind?
Transcript
- 0:10Amen. Thank you, John, Thank you,
- 0:13Praise team. Also want to say just a big
- 0:16thank you to Steve Hawkins and Danny Barker, who both stepped
- 0:20in for John and I last week. If you were here and while we
- 0:23were away and served the body so well, I'm so grateful for so
- 0:27many, so many faithful leaders in our church that that just
- 0:32allow a ministry to continue on. So without a pause and so
- 0:35grateful for y'all. If you have your copy of God's
- 0:39word, go and make your way to Ruth chapter 2.
- 0:41We resume our series through this Old Testament book that we
- 0:44titled When God writes your story.
- 0:46Ruth chapter 2. We left off, I think after verse
- 0:49seven couple weeks ago. We're going to pick up in verse
- 0:538 and following and finish Ruth chapter 2 This morning, though,
- 0:57I want to begin like this just about asking a couple questions
- 1:01to set the stage. I don't want you to answer out
- 1:03loud. Normally I'd love for you to
- 1:04answer out loud, but I want you to just answer these personally
- 1:08for yourself. The first question I want to ask
- 1:10you is, is God kind? I really want you to ask that
- 1:14and answer that yourself. Is God kind and haven't thought
- 1:18about that and answered that question.
- 1:20I'd I'd like to ask you a second question.
- 1:22Do you believe God wants to be kind to you?
- 1:31First, you believe God is kind and 2nd you believe God wants to
- 1:36be kind to you. Now, the first question may have
- 1:41been easy to answer because you might just have immediately kind
- 1:44of from your gut said yes. But if you're probably being
- 1:49honest, many in the room probably had a harder time,
- 1:52maybe couldn't say the same answer to the second question
- 1:55that they said to the first question.
- 1:57Because maybe there's some doubt, maybe there's some
- 1:59struggle, maybe there's some disbelief or really lack of
- 2:02belief that God wants to be kind to you personally.
- 2:08Let me just ask it through the lens of a couple different
- 2:11Christians to try to help you make a comparison.
- 2:15First Christian, I'll tell you about to see who you most
- 2:17identify with. Christian number one or
- 2:19Christian #2 really Christians, plural number 2 when we get to
- 2:23that one. But the first one is a man who
- 2:25is a well known Christian man that lived in the 20th century
- 2:28and later on in life, he was known for walking the beach on a
- 2:31pretty daily basis that was close to his home.
- 2:34Other people would walk the beach.
- 2:35They knew him, they were locals. And one man asked this Christian
- 2:38man one day, friend. And he said, he put it like,
- 2:40this is not the way we ask each other this, but it's the way
- 2:43they did it in this day, in this place.
- 2:44Friend, how are you keeping? That's like saying, how are you?
- 2:49How are you keeping? And the response of this
- 2:52Christian man back was, oh, friend, I'm not keeping.
- 2:55I'm being kept. Friend, I'm I'm not doing good.
- 3:02God is doing me good. Friend.
- 3:06I don't have any goodness in me, but God in his kindness is being
- 3:10good and kind to me. That's Christian number one.
- 3:16Number two, there was a pastor who invited and LED a number of
- 3:22the men in his church on a retreat, a man's retreat, and
- 3:26pretty soon into the retreat he felt led to ask the men, How
- 3:31many of you men feel like God just barely tolerate you?
- 3:40Half the men in the room stood up.
- 3:47I believe God may be kind. I just struggled to believe God
- 3:52really wants to be kind to me. This sermon is for those of you
- 4:01that struggle to believe God wants to be kind to you.
- 4:07And I hope from Ruth chapter 2 you're convinced.
- 4:11And not only is God kind, but he deep down with all of his heart
- 4:17wants to be kind to you. I want you to listen and follow
- 4:20along as we read beginning in verse 8 of chapter 2.
- 4:25The Bible says this. Then Boaz said to Ruth, Now
- 4:29listen my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave
- 4:33this one, but keep close to my young women.
- 4:36Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go
- 4:39after them. Have I not charged the young men
- 4:42not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to
- 4:45the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.
- 4:48Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said
- 4:51to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should
- 4:55take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?
- 4:58But Boaz said to her, All that you have done for your
- 5:01mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told
- 5:05to me, and how you left your father and mother and your
- 5:08native land then came to a people that you did not know
- 5:10before the Lord. Don't miss this, The Lord repay
- 5:14you for what you have done, and a full reward be given to you by
- 5:19the Lord the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come
- 5:24to take refuge. And then she said, I have found
- 5:27favor in your eyes, my Lord, for you have comforted me and spoken
- 5:32kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.
- 5:36And at meal time Boaz said to her, Come here and eat some
- 5:39bread, and dip your morsel in the wine.
- 5:41So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted
- 5:44grain, and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some
- 5:47leftover. And when she rose to glean, Boaz
- 5:50instructed his young men, saying, Let her glean even among
- 5:53the sheaves, and do not reproach her.
- 5:55And also to pull out some from the bundles for her and leave it
- 6:00for her to glean. And do not rebuke her.
- 6:04If you've not been with us this first part of Ruth, it'd be
- 6:07helpful to get just a little bit of review if you remember that
- 6:11during the entrance to the promised Land, God led his
- 6:14people with the clarity of understanding.
- 6:17You obey me and follow me and I'm going to bless you, but if
- 6:20you turn your back on me, I'm going to do some things that are
- 6:22going to make life be hard to get your attention, to turn your
- 6:25heart back to me. And what's happened is the
- 6:27people were not faithful to God. God has done those hard things
- 6:30to get his people's attention to turn their eyes of their heart
- 6:33back to him. That one particular thing in
- 6:35this case was a famine. There's no food, everybody's
- 6:37hungry. What God didn't want him to do
- 6:40when they are these hard things came was leave and run off to
- 6:43some other land that was not promised to them.
- 6:45But one man by the name of Elimelech and his two boys and
- 6:48wife decide to leave. That was not a not a good
- 6:50decision. They go to the land called Moab.
- 6:53They worship false gods and Moabs gods, not promised to
- 6:56dwell with this people in Moab. But that's where they go.
- 6:59And 10 years later, after some bad decisions, you have both the
- 7:02husband and his two boys have both passed.
- 7:06The two boys had married Moabite women.
- 7:09That was not a decision that God had told his people to do, but
- 7:12they did while there. And one of those daughters in
- 7:14law now of Naomi decides to go back to her home, her family and
- 7:19worshipping her little G gods. But Ruth, on the other hand,
- 7:22that this book is named after a Moabite widow says no, I'm not
- 7:27going back to my people, to my family, to my home or my gods.
- 7:29I'm turning to the one true big G God.
- 7:33I'm giving him my whole heart life and not full surrender.
- 7:35She vows herself to him and seeks to live for his glory and
- 7:39for his name and to follow him the rest of her life here.
- 7:43And so here's what happening. When they move back, when Naomi
- 7:46and Ruth go back to the promised land, they're two destitute
- 7:51widows. Somebody's got to get up and go
- 7:55to the grocery store, which was in the field.
- 7:58Somebody's got to go reap the the poorest of the people in the
- 8:01land could reap the edges because the harvesters were
- 8:03supposed to leave enough behind. Ruth didn't know which field she
- 8:07would go to, but the Bible says she just so happened.
- 8:10We talked about that. Do you remember?
- 8:11But nothing just so happens, does it?
- 8:14She ends up in a field by the name owned by a man by the name
- 8:17of Boaz that we just read about. And if you remember a couple
- 8:22weeks ago, when Boaz shows up to survey the business and what's
- 8:26going on, the first question out of his mouth was not how's
- 8:28business house profits, How's the harvest?
- 8:30How much money we're going to make today?
- 8:31The first question out of his mouth was, whose young woman is
- 8:35this? There's somebody there he
- 8:38doesn't recognize. He knows his people.
- 8:41He doesn't know this person. He's never seen her before and
- 8:43he's caring about, wondering about, curious about the people
- 8:46around him. Whose young woman is this?
- 8:47I don't recognize her. Whose daughter is she?
- 8:49Whose wife is she? He's told she's the widow.
- 8:52She's the she's the daughter-in-law of Naomi who's
- 8:54come back in return and notice what Boaz called her as soon as
- 8:59we read verse 8. Then Boaz said to Ruth, Now
- 9:01listen, my what? My daughter.
- 9:05That's not what you would expect Boaz to say upon meeting this
- 9:08stranger. By the way, he's already heard
- 9:10about her every the the whole town's talking about Naomi and
- 9:13Ruth and what God had done and how God's brought them back.
- 9:16But their situation and, and now here's Ruth and they've heard
- 9:19about her kindness to, to Naomi. And Boaz, of course, was not
- 9:23just any person, but part of the Limelux family.
- 9:26He would have been a relative of the Limelux.
- 9:28He's heard how Ruth, this Moabite daughter-in-law of the
- 9:31Limelux, has been so kind to a member of his family, a Limelux
- 9:35wife, Naomi, and he's now treating her immediately,
- 9:38immediately like what? A foreigner or like family.
- 9:43Immediately like family. All of a sudden, the kindness of
- 9:46Boaz is expressed as he's treating Ruth like family.
- 9:51Boaz's kindness continues when he invites Ruth to remain in his
- 9:56field. And so he's treating her like
- 9:58family. And now his kindness, he's
- 10:01promising her secondly, provision.
- 10:05And then his kindness picks up more speed when he informs Ruth
- 10:09he's instructed his men not to touch her.
- 10:11I think perhaps you could say Boaz was the first employer to
- 10:14implement a no harassment, anti harassment policy in his
- 10:18workplace. Say, why was that necessary?
- 10:21For the same reason it's necessary today, looking out for
- 10:27her, not just treating her as family, promising her provision,
- 10:30but also promising protection. Boaz isn't done yet.
- 10:33He then tells her to drink the water his young men have drawn.
- 10:37Now, if you don't live in the 1st century, you'd read right
- 10:40past that. Who was supposed to draw the
- 10:42water to drink, the men or the women?
- 10:45The women, He didn't say, hey, go draw the water for my men.
- 10:49He said drink the water my men are drawing.
- 10:53All of a sudden, he's treating her as an equal.
- 10:55He's elevating her status, if you will.
- 10:58He is recognizing her worth. He's treating her like family.
- 11:01He's promised her provision. He's promised her protection.
- 11:04Now he's using his power to prosper her.
- 11:07This becomes even more clear in verses 14 through 16.
- 11:10Now he invites Ruth to eat with him and his workers again.
- 11:13If he lived in the 1st century, but you wouldn't read right past
- 11:16that. For the Moabite widow to come
- 11:18and eat with the Israelites and be treated as an equal with them
- 11:21would have been culturally outside the norm.
- 11:24This is something that's breaking all the rules.
- 11:27And she eats not only till she's satisfied but has leftovers
- 11:30she's able to take back to Naomi.
- 11:34And then he provides her with a bonus and says to his workers,
- 11:37leave extra behind. Let her glean not just from the
- 11:40edges, but from the best parts of the field.
- 11:42The kindness of Boaz sounds a lot like the kindness of who.
- 11:49Let me ask you like this. Is Boaz being kind to Ruth or is
- 11:53God being kind to Ruth? Yes, both right and what he's
- 12:04doing. You see the kindness of God
- 12:06coming through the kindness of Boaz here.
- 12:09Yahweh does not God does not owe mercy to Ruth the Moabite us no
- 12:15Moabite in fact was to enter the assembly of Yahweh to the 10th
- 12:18generation. But if you're remembering if
- 12:20you've kept up from what we've covered so far, what did Naomi
- 12:23pray would be true for Ruth. It's in chapter 1 verse 8.
- 12:26You can look back at it if you want to look at listen to this
- 12:29prayer. May the Lord deal kindly with
- 12:32you as you you have dealt with the dead and with me.
- 12:37But Naomi prays for her daughter.
- 12:38May the Lord deal kindly with you.
- 12:40May God be kind to you as you've been kind to the dead and with
- 12:45me. How does Ruth respond to the
- 12:47kindness of God? Through Boaz verse 10, it says.
- 12:51Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to
- 12:55him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you, that you
- 12:58should take notice of me since I'm a foreigner, Why would you
- 13:02be kind to me? Boaz, who am I?
- 13:05I don't deserve this. I haven't done anything to to to
- 13:10to earn this. I don't understand why.
- 13:14Here's why. Verse 11 and 12 we'll read it
- 13:16again. But Boaz answered her.
- 13:18All that you've done for your mother-in-law since the death of
- 13:21your husband has been fully told to me how you left your father
- 13:24and mother and your native land and came to a people you did not
- 13:28know before the Lord. The Lord repay you for what
- 13:32you've done and a full reward be given to you by the Lord the God
- 13:35of Israel under and don't miss that phrase under his wings.
- 13:39You have come to take refuge. He says Ruth, you've been kind
- 13:44to your mother-in-law when you could have walked away from her.
- 13:48Ruth, you walked away from your family.
- 13:50You left your home. You left your land to come to
- 13:52the promised land. You left to commit yourself to
- 13:54God's people. Most of all, Ruth, you committed
- 13:56yourself to God. You gave yourself and said I'm
- 14:00going to look to him and him alone for my protection and
- 14:03provision and peace and prosperity.
- 14:06Ruth, how did you think God was going to respond to you?
- 14:10Now he doesn't say that literally, but that's what he's
- 14:14asking, right? Ruth, how did you think?
- 14:19Did you believe God was kind? Ruth, did you not believe God
- 14:24was going going to be and wanted to be kind to?
- 14:29How did you think God was going to respond, Ruth to you when you
- 14:32committed your life wholeheartedly to Him?
- 14:35Did you think God would hold out on you?
- 14:38Did you not think He would draw you close as His own and hold
- 14:42you as precious in His sight and provide for you as He's
- 14:46promised? Did you think God did not would
- 14:48not be kind? Ruth, do you believe God is
- 14:53kind? Do you believe God wants to be
- 14:56kind to you? Ruth, you trusted God to write
- 15:01your story. What did you think God was going
- 15:04to write? Just like a mother eagle, a
- 15:08mother bird holds and protects, refuges her young under her
- 15:15wings. Ruth, God does the same for
- 15:20those who seek refuge under His. The first thing I want you to
- 15:23write down is when God writes your story, He rewards those who
- 15:26take refuge under His wings. He rewards those who take refuge
- 15:33under his wings. Y'all, the reward of
- 15:37wholehearted commitment to God is God's wholehearted commitment
- 15:41and kindness to you. It's not because we deserve it.
- 15:45It's the result of simply entrusting ourselves to Him by
- 15:49faith. I love Psalm 91 one through 2.
- 15:51I think it's on the screen. Listen to what it says here.
- 15:53He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the
- 15:59shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my
- 16:03refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.
- 16:07Can I just ask you a few simple questions here?
- 16:10Where are you dwelling? Where are you seeking refuge?
- 16:18Whom are you trusting in? To whom have you entrusted
- 16:22yourself? I want to ask it like this.
- 16:27Remember Boaz's original question when he first saw Ruth,
- 16:30but he didn't know who she was? Remember what he asked?
- 16:35Whose young woman is this? That that, that question is
- 16:43really the question of the entire book.
- 16:47Whose young woman is Ruth? Can I?
- 16:53Can I ask it personally? Whose man or woman are you?
- 16:58Ruth was one who now belonged to Yahweh because she had entrusted
- 17:01himself and taken refuge under his wings.
- 17:04Is that who you are? The question of your life,
- 17:06bigger than the question of the book of Ruth, is, Whose man are
- 17:09you? Whose woman are you?
- 17:11To whom do you belong? Whom have you entrusted
- 17:13yourself? Where have you sought refuge?
- 17:16Where have you sought your identity?
- 17:17To whom have you committed yourself?
- 17:19And how do you believe? If you've committed yourself to
- 17:21Him, how do you believe He's going to respond to you?
- 17:25Whose are you? Are you his because you believed
- 17:30He's kind and He wants to be kind to you?
- 17:35God is not only kind, He is supremely kind.
- 17:37And when God writes your story, He rewards those who take refuge
- 17:41under His wings. Listen to verses 17 through the
- 17:44end of the chapter. So she gleaned in the field
- 17:48until evening, and then she beat out what she had gleaned.
- 17:52And it was about an IFA of barley.
- 17:54And she took it up and went into the city.
- 17:56And her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.
- 17:58And she also brought out and gave her what food she had
- 18:01leftover when she had eaten with Boaz and his reapers, and after
- 18:06being satisfied and brought it to her mother-in-law.
- 18:07And said, and her mother-in-law said to her, where did you glean
- 18:11today and where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took
- 18:15notice of you. And she told her mother-in-law
- 18:19with whom she had worked, and said the man's name with whom I
- 18:21work today is Boaz. And Naomi said to her
- 18:24daughter-in-law, may he now she's praying a blessing, asking
- 18:27a blessing upon him, may he be blessed by the Lord, whose
- 18:30kindness there's that word again, has not forsaken the
- 18:33living or the dead. Naomi also said to her, the man
- 18:36is a close relative of ours, one of our Redeemers.
- 18:39And Ruth the Moabite said, besides, he said to me, you
- 18:42shall keep close by my young men until they finished all my
- 18:45harvest. And Naomi said to Ruth, her
- 18:47daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with
- 18:49his young women, lest in another field you'd be assaulted.
- 18:53She kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning into the
- 18:56end of the barley and wheat harvest, and she lived with her
- 19:00mother-in-law. Ruth worked all day long.
- 19:03By the time she was done, she'd worked so hard and been so
- 19:06productive. Basically it says she had the
- 19:08equivalent of what is almost 6 gallons of barley, which is not
- 19:13just like the, the, the, the, the stalk and the chaff and all
- 19:16that. No, that's after reaping it and
- 19:19gleaning it, and then after separating the stalk and the
- 19:23chaff from the grain. She'd have had about 30 to 50
- 19:27lbs of barley to carry home. That's a day's work right there,
- 19:32and quite a productive one at that.
- 19:35She not only carries the barley back, but she also carries the
- 19:38leftover roasted grain she had from Boaz the night before the
- 19:41day or earlier that day. And remember what Naomi had said
- 19:46back at end of Chapter 1. Listen again to it.
- 19:49Ruth, 120 through 21, says do not call me.
- 19:52When she showed up in Bethlehem and saw all her friends, and her
- 19:55friends saw her, and they called her Naomi.
- 19:58That's her name. And it means pleasantness or
- 20:00sweetness. But what did she say?
- 20:01Don't call me pleasantness or sweetness, call me Mara.
- 20:05That means bitter, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly
- 20:08with me. I went away full.
- 20:09Here's the phrase, don't miss it.
- 20:11I went away full, but God brought me back.
- 20:13The Lord brought me back. Whose fault is it?
- 20:15God's brought me back. Empty and yet now here Naomi is
- 20:23seeing 6 gallons of barley. Day one I didn't know where
- 20:27Ruth, her daughter-in-law, would show up to reap.
- 20:30And now leftover roasted grain ready to eat that she can eat
- 20:33now. No longer empty, being full.
- 20:35Naomi asked where did you glean? Where have you worked?
- 20:38And blessed be the man who took notice of you.
- 20:41His name was Boaz, Ruth says, and Naomi asked that he be
- 20:45blessed by God. She had prayed earlier and asked
- 20:49for Ruth to be blessed with kindness and rest.
- 20:52Is God answering that prayer? Yes.
- 20:55Now she's praying for Boaz to be blessed with God.
- 20:57Will God answer that prayer? Yes.
- 21:02Then did you see what Naomi said about God?
- 21:04Notice this statement here. His kindness has not forsaken
- 21:09the living or the dead. You know that biblical word for
- 21:14God's kindness? It is a word that is hard to put
- 21:17into human language all that it means, but it is in essence
- 21:23God's promised desire and plan to give you all of His goodness,
- 21:31all of His loyalty, all of His faithfulness, all of His love,
- 21:37all of His care, no matter what it cost him to provide it to
- 21:42you. I'm not talking about when he
- 21:45feels like it. I'm not talking about when you
- 21:48feel like you've earned it or been good enough.
- 21:50God's kindness to us in the covenant we have through his
- 21:53Son, and even in kindness in the old covenant, looking forward to
- 21:56Jesus now in the new covenant, looking back to when Jesus came
- 21:58in forward to when he came. God's kindness He's promised us
- 22:01is His wholehearted, all of God commitment to be God for us no
- 22:06matter what it cost him kind of kindness.
- 22:10May God's kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.
- 22:13Who's still living? That's Naomi and Ruth.
- 22:16God's kindness has not forsaken them.
- 22:17Who's dead? That's Elimelech, Maelon and
- 22:20Killian, his sons, even though they've paid a high price for
- 22:24their consequences of their sins.
- 22:26So it seems by their choices, at least from the outside looking
- 22:29in, God's kindness has even not forsaken them.
- 22:33How so? Because God's kindness is
- 22:35preparing A Redeemer to continue their name and their family line
- 22:39and inheritance. And despite the consequences of
- 22:41their sin, God and His kindness is still not cutting them off.
- 22:44He's aligning a future for their family.
- 22:48We see that verse 20, Naomi says this man is a close relative of
- 22:52ours, one of our redeemers. Now again, you got to be
- 22:55thinking, what does that mean to be a Redeemer?
- 22:57There's 22 ancient practices overlapping here to understand.
- 23:02One is Leverett marriage, right? When a woman would lose her
- 23:04husband, they had the the closest male relative would have
- 23:08the right responsibility to marry that widow to raise up
- 23:11descendants and carry on the inheritance and the family name.
- 23:14All right, that's a little weird sound of the day, but it worked
- 23:17real well back then. All right, so that's Leverett
- 23:19marriage and then this idea of a Redeemer, someone when there was
- 23:22great loss or tragedy in the family, one again, a close male
- 23:26relative that had the right and responsibility and the means of
- 23:29doing it could step in and buy back, purchase back what would
- 23:33have been lost for the family if they did not redeem or provide
- 23:38for or take care of themselves. Naomi's saying Boaz is one of
- 23:43our close kinsmen. This is why he's got a kinsman
- 23:45Redeemer. He's one who can be a son-in-law
- 23:48to me, Ruth. He could be a husband to you,
- 23:50Ruth, redeeming you, redeeming me again.
- 23:53Who is Boaz sounding a lot like again?
- 23:56As a Redeemer? Sounding a lot like God, right?
- 24:03You see, number 2, when God writes your story, he doesn't
- 24:05just I want you to listen closely to this.
- 24:08When God writes your story, He doesn't.
- 24:10He doesn't rewrite our past, but He does redeem it.
- 24:16When God writes your story, he does not rewrite your past, but
- 24:21he does redeem it. What do we mean by that?
- 24:26You know, this reality of God is one of the most amazing things
- 24:30about the power, goodness, and greatness of God.
- 24:33God does not rewind the past and let us relive it.
- 24:39God does not remove all the consequences of our past sin.
- 24:44God does not rewrite our past, but in his power and in his
- 24:48crazy and in his goodness, he redeems it.
- 24:50And the truth is, God can redeem anyone from anything.
- 24:55Anyone from anything. In fact I read a story this week
- 24:57I want to tell you about that just again blew me away about
- 25:01the power and goodness of God to redeem.
- 25:04When you go to the beach, I recommend you take a good book.
- 25:06I took one with me given by one of our church members.
- 25:08If y'all have other good ones you want to share with me, just
- 25:10let me know. I'll give it back to you.
- 25:11So this one is titled Defying Jihad.
- 25:15It's the story of Esther Ahmad. Esther Ahmad was born in
- 25:21Pakistan to a Muslim family. She was the 3rd in the line of
- 25:25three daughters. All those daughters were
- 25:27unwanted by their father who only wanted sons.
- 25:31By the time the 3rd girl came along, he would not even look at
- 25:35his newborn daughter. He wouldn't even recognize that
- 25:39she belong to him. In fact, it was so tragic that
- 25:43she became known as the daughter that would not be looked upon by
- 25:47her father. You can imagine the hole in the
- 25:49heart of this girl as she grew up despised and unwanted and
- 25:53loved by her father. They were a Muslim family.
- 25:56The mother was devout, the father was not so much devout
- 25:59until a very militant radical group moved in and began to
- 26:03influence their neighborhood. And under that influence, her
- 26:06father became more and more radicalized and militant.
- 26:11And it infected not only the father but the whole family.
- 26:14And it affected Esther Ahmad, whose name wasn't Esther at the
- 26:16time, as an 18 year old girl. She was so affected that at the
- 26:22age of 18 she volunteered herself for jihad.
- 26:27She figured it. She found out that in the
- 26:29teachings of this militant group that according to their teaching
- 26:34that if she would wage war in jihad, taking out as many
- 26:37infidels as possible with her life, she would secure heaven
- 26:41for her family and for herself. And finally, she thought, find a
- 26:44way into her father's love and into Allah's approval.
- 26:49So she volunteered herself. She would do it as an 18 year
- 26:52old girl. Two days before she was to leave
- 26:57to be trained in jihad, she had a dream.
- 27:02I want to ask you again, is God kind?
- 27:05Does God want to be kind to you? Does God want to be kind to an
- 27:1118 year old girl? Two days before shipping off to
- 27:13Train for Jihad, she had a dream about Jesus.
- 27:22In the days that followed the dream, she was able to tell the
- 27:26people that were supposed to come pick her up.
- 27:27She needed more time to process because all the sudden her eyes
- 27:31and her heart were being opened to something she'd never never
- 27:34considered. She started reading the Quran
- 27:37like she had never read and begin picking it apart and
- 27:39seeing holes in the arguments and in the the logic.
- 27:42And then she had a mother who had a heart condition and at the
- 27:45hospital in the lab there was a man she met by the name of John
- 27:48and she found out this man's was a Christian.
- 27:50It was the first Christian she'd ever met.
- 27:52And John had a Bible. He wouldn't let her have the
- 27:54Bible, but he'd let her come to the lab and act like she was
- 27:57waiting on a patient so she could read the Bible.
- 27:59Long story short, Esther Ahmad becomes a Christian, marries
- 28:02that Christian named John has to flee for her life from her
- 28:09family. Her father put a price on her
- 28:10head. After many years from 1 country
- 28:14to the next, she finally made it to America and God did not
- 28:17change her past. She signed up for jihad, but God
- 28:23redeemed it and this is the story of that redemption.
- 28:28Is God kind? Does God want to be kind to you?
- 28:33Does God want to be kind to an 18 year old who's going to take
- 28:35out as many people she thought were infidels as possible?
- 28:40Friends, God is not only kind, he is supremely kind.
- 28:45I want to, I want to finish like this.
- 28:46How could it be? This is where sometimes we lack
- 28:49some clarity and we just can't understand.
- 28:52But this is this is this is, this is the beauty of the power
- 28:56of God. How can it be?
- 28:58Back to Ruth, how could it be that it was a mistake to move to
- 29:03mow out that we're pretty clear on that for Elimelech and his
- 29:07family. How could it be that that was a
- 29:08mistake? And how could it be a mistake
- 29:10for the boys to marry outside the revealed will of God?
- 29:14And at the same time God take all those mistakes and the
- 29:18people involved in them and by the power of heaven work
- 29:22redemption. How is it?
- 29:25And how is it to the degree that God redeems?
- 29:27He doesn't just he doesn't just do it to some degree, but the
- 29:31very woman God said was forbidden to marry, He takes and
- 29:34redeems to such a degree. Y'all you turn to your New
- 29:36Testament and her name is in the line of the ultimate Redeemer,
- 29:40the King of kings and Lord of Lords, the Son of God, King
- 29:42Jesus. God didn't change your past, but
- 29:48He did redeem it. Do you believe God is kind and
- 29:52He wants to be kind to you? God's not going to rewrite your
- 29:55past. He's not going to write.
- 29:56He's not going to remove all the past mistakes.
- 29:58But if you trust Him and believe He's kind and wants to be kind
- 30:01to you and take refuge under His wings, He can redeem anything,
- 30:05anyone from anywhere, and write the story for His glory and your
- 30:10good. Do you believe that?
- 30:15Why should you trust God to write your story?
- 30:18Why should you? Because God wants to be kind to
- 30:22you. That's why you should trust Him.
- 30:26Because he wants to be kind to you.
- 30:28Can I ask you this question? Who's man?
- 30:31Who's woman are you? Where have you taken refuge?
- 30:38Listen to this. Like Ruth.
- 30:41Like Ruth, we were outcast, despised and children of
- 30:45disobedience in our sin. Like Ruth, we've been left poor,
- 30:50defiled by our sin, disgraced and spiritually starving.
- 30:55Just like Elimelech's family, we've left God's will.
- 30:57We've all disobeyed and moved to the land of Moab at some point
- 31:00in some way in our own lives. And yet, just like Elimelech,
- 31:03we've all died in our sins. And yet, like Ruth, God did not
- 31:08leave us without a Redeemer. Not one named Boaz, but a much
- 31:13better one by the name of Jesus. And by taking on human flesh,
- 31:19living among us, Jesus gained the right to redeem us.
- 31:22And Jesus didn't just leave us a little extra barley.
- 31:29You know what Jesus did? He took on human flesh so he
- 31:33could be for us the bread of life.
- 31:39The bread of life. Have you trusted Jesus to be the
- 31:44bread of life for you? Have you given yourself to God
- 31:47and taken refuge under His wings, knowing He's kind and
- 31:50wants to be kind to you? Do you need to ask God not to
- 31:55rewrite something? Because He's not going to
- 31:57rewrite it. He'll do something better if He
- 32:00lets you rewrite it. You'd get the glory.
- 32:04But if He redeems it, who gets the glory?
- 32:08He'll do something better than rewrite.
- 32:09He'll redeem if you only come and trust Him.
- 32:13John and praised Him are going to come out.
- 32:16I want to ask you right before we stand and sing, do you need
- 32:19to trust the Redeemer to redeem you, to save you, to commit
- 32:23yourself wholeheartedly, to come and take refuge under his wings
- 32:26through Jesus Christ? If you'd never made that
- 32:28decision, you may not have had a dream like Esther Ahmad had.
- 32:31You don't have to have a dream. The Word of God tells you
- 32:34plainly and clearly. For God so loved the world that
- 32:37he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever would believe in
- 32:39him should not perish but have everlasting life.
- 32:41Do you just need to come and say, Kyle, I believe, I believe.
- 32:45Do you want to come and just get on your knees or stand here at
- 32:47the altar and say God, I got a part of my past I've been
- 32:50ashamed of and I dare would not put it in the book, but maybe I
- 32:56haven't believed you're willing to redeem it.
- 32:57I just want to ask you to redeem it today.
- 33:02Maybe you just want to come ask God to help you believe that he
- 33:05wants to be kind to you, to say Lord I, I believe, but help my
- 33:12unbelief, help me trust you. Heavenly Father, I want to pray
- 33:16that as we respond to your kindness today, that you would
- 33:19show it to us, that you would help us full wholeheartedly to
- 33:23believe it, To put our self in it.
- 33:27Father, not to run from our past, but to run to you.
- 33:30Not to run from our mistakes, but to hand them to you, not to
- 33:33be ashamed of them, but to be unashamed of You and your power
- 33:37to redeem even that which we could never change.
- 33:40You can use even our mistakes, not that it makes them right,
- 33:44but you can make right out of them.
- 33:46Father, it's an amazing thing. And we prayed that we would do
- 33:49just that and be ambassadors of that truth to those who need to
- 33:52hear it. I pray in Jesus name, Amen.
- 33:54Church, would you stand with me? We're going to sing together.
- 33:56We're going to respond. Encouragers will be close to the
- 33:59front. Some are in yellow shirts.
- 34:01Here you come. We'll pray and talk with you.
- 34:02You come.