A Family of Grace - Ruth 4

A message by Tyler Sanborn on Ruth 4.

South Valley Student Ministry is a ministry of Compass Bible Church South Valley located in Kuna, ID. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, please visit compassbiblesv.org.

Transcript

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What's in a name? I'd like to talk about family for a moment. I'd like to speak about your name. Your name. When you were born, your parents picked a name for you. Did you know that? Your parents said, I call you Bartholomew. That is your name. That's not your name. That's not your, but it could have been. If your parents thought it could have been your name. It could have been. My name. My name could have been Jason. My name could have been a whole bunch of things. It's not. Now, I have a question for you. Raise your hand if you would say, uh, I changed, I changed my name. Uh I changed my name. Maybe you don't like your name. Maybe, maybe if someone walked up to you and said, hey, I'll give you a hundred bucks if you change your name. You can't change it back. 100 bucks. Would you would you do that? Would you change your name? You change it. You change your name. What about what about some of you are like, nah, that's not enough. I like my name. I like my name. What if someone said a uh $200, $300, $400, and it keeps going, it keeps going. Right? What about what about a million dollars? Would you change your first and last name, take on someone else's name for a million dollars? Would you do that? Okay, it's it's there's there's some disagreement here. There's some disagreement. Some of you are like, nah nah nah never. And some of you are like, I I said yes at a hundred. Why would I why would I say no to a million? Why would I say no to a million? Now, when when you get married, I was just at a wedding on Friday. I was at a wedding. I'm gonna officiate a wedding in two weeks. Two weeks. I'm gonna officiate a wedding. I'm gonna lead, I'm gonna lead a wedding, I'm gonna take two people and I'm gonna I'm gonna conduct a ceremony in front of friends and family. I'm gonna partake in that process of unifying before people and before God two people into a marriage. Now, in our in our chapter today, we're gonna see exactly that. We're gonna see someone enter into someone else's family. Ruth is going to join into the family of Boaz, and she is going to get she's gonna get a new name, a new, a new identity associated with Boaz. Now, ladies, if you are gonna get married, it's traditional, I would encourage you to do this. Take on the name of your husband, the last name of your husband. You have a new identity. You're no longer associated with the family that you were born in. You're gonna take on, you're gonna leave your family and cleave and graft in, and you're gonna create a new family with your husband. Now, now, young men in the room. Young men in the room, when you're going to pursue someone for marriage, you're gonna go pursue a young lady in marriage. You are you are looking to add someone into your family. Add someone into your family. We're talking about family today. Front row, you're ready. You're in the splash zone. Get ready. Get ready. I need I need your focus. I need your focus. I might get excited. There might be some there might be some uh some microprojectiles stuck in stuck in my mustache that leave my mouth. No. I want us to focus on on the identity and the family name because in our text today, in our text today, we're gonna see the significance of a family name and specifically a family tree, a lineage. We're gonna see in our text how a Moabite woman loses her husband, is brought into the family of God, and through her union with an Israelite man, through their offspring is going to come some very significant people. Very, very significant people. I want us to see that. So I hope you're focused. I hope you're paying attention to the end of this chapter. We're gonna hop into Matthew chapter one as well and take a closer look as to how far this line goes. How far this line goes, okay? Chapter 4 of Ruth. Here we go. Are we ready? Let's dive in. Let's dive in. The last thing, the last thing we were talking about in chapter three, Boaz was on a mission. Boaz is like, there's only one guy ahead of me in line to redeem this woman. And if he if he's gonna go and redeem this woman, he's gonna marry this woman. So be it. Praise God. If not, it's me because I want to marry this woman. But I gotta go through the proper steps. I gotta pursue Ruth and honor God in a proper way. I can't, I can't cheat the system. I can't cut in line. I have to go and honor God in this. So he's gonna be faithful to do that. That's what we're taking a look at here in the text, chapter 4, verse 1. Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. The gate is where people did business. That's where leaders met. It's like it's like the office, the executive suite. This is where people went to go have important talks. So they're at the gate. And behold, the Redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So Boaz said, Turn aside, friend, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. He took ten men of the elders of the city, had some accountability, had some insights, had some men of good reputation, men of honor. Sit down here, guys, sit down. So they took a seat. Then he said to the Redeemer, We don't have a name here, but he's talking to this man. Naomi, you know, the one who was causing a stir in the community. You remember her? She came back with a stranger, this foreign woman, this Moabite woman. Remember her? Naomi. She's come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. Huh. He's doing exactly what he said he was going to do. He's going to go without without delay. He's going to make haste and go and get to the bottom of this. He needs to know is Ruth going to be my wife or not? I'm going to pursue her as if she is. So the can the conversation continues. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me that I may know. For there is no one besides you to redeem it. And I come after you. It's just us. It's either you or me, pal. What's it gonna be? You or me? And he said, I will redeem it. Boaz is probably like you feel the air just leave his lungs. You feel it. Because that last last week we're rooting, please let it be Boaz. Please let it be him. Let it be this honorable man. It's like when you have a best friend or someone that's close to you and you see a relationship starting, and you're like, Man, I hope they get married someday. I hope they get married. The adults in the room are like, yeah, I've seen that. And the students are like, What? What do you mean? I'm I'm 12. What do you mean? What do you mean, get married? What do you mean, Tyler? Anyways. So we're rooting, we're rooting, we're rooting for Boaz. He's our guy. He's our guy. He's our QB1. We want him in the game. We want him to take to take the hand of Ruth in marriage. We're rooting for them. And he said, this other redeemer says, Yep, I got it, no problem. I'll redeem it. Boaz says, but wait, there's more. The day you buy the fields from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. There's more than just buying this land because it belonged. You're not just going to redeem it. Because this land belonged to Naomi's husband, there's more details than just, yeah, I'll buy that land and add it to my portfolio, add it to my goods, to my bank account. No, there's more to it than that. The redeemer's thinking, wait, so now I have to buy the land, but also I I take on the responsibility of caring for this woman, Ruth, and her mother-in-law, Naomi. Okay. He's like too quick to say yes. He didn't get the whole story. He didn't get the whole thing. He's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want that. I want that. And then he hears more details. And he's like, oh, maybe not. Maybe not. Verse 5. Then Boaz said, The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth, the Moabi. You're saying yes to marrying Ruth. You're saying yes at the same time to buy this land, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead and his inheritance. Verse 6. Stay with me. Verse 6. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Lest I impair my own inheritance. When you take on the responsibility of caring for a woman, giving her an offspring so that the family name can continue, that's what's happening here. That's what's happening. This redeemer is saying yes to caring for this woman and yes, carrying on the family name of the fallen relative. That's what's happening here. And he's starting to do the math. He's like, if I marry Ruth, we have kids, I have kids, I'm responsible for all of them. The the the retirement, the uh and the inheritance, the the division of of what I leave my family when I when I go is gonna get too complicated. It's too messy, it's gonna make things difficult. I don't prefer that. He says, he says, I cannot. He says to Boaz, and this is this is the moment we've all been waiting for. Look at the second half of verse six Take my right of redemption yourself. Take the right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. Boaz has the words that he was waiting for. They've been spoken to him. Essentially, the other Redeemer is saying, I do not want to marry Ruth. I do not want to care for her, I do not want that responsibility. And Boaz is saying, I sure do. That's me. Sign me up. I want to marry Ruth. She is an honorable woman. She is a woman that is faithful, hardworking, humble, gracious, kind. She's well respected. She's caring for her mother-in-law. She's doing the work of a man to care for someone who's older in age. This is a responsible and a respectable woman. Boaz is chasing after. He's pursuing this woman, and it's a good thing. It's a good thing. I cannot redeem it. Whoo! Now, now all the gears are starting to spin as we think back to chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. There's a famine. The famine is is relieved. The family returns. The widows return to Bethlehem. They return to the land of Israel. No men in their life to care for them. No one to protect or provide for them. Naomi's down, down in the pit. She's miserable. She's saying, call me bitter. Call me. Don't call me Naomi anymore. That's not my name. I'm not pleasant. I am bitter inside. Chapter two. Go out. She comes back. She comes back. Plenty of food. Generous. Generous wages. Amazing treatment. Amazing treatment. Chapter three. Naomi goes, I got a plan. I got a plan. I think he's gonna say yes. I think God, I think God is gonna work something out here. Remember the threshing floor. Remember the feet? Remember to go and lay down, take take the feet, take the feet, expose them, take the blankets off the feet. He's gonna tell you what to do. Weird plan, but okay. Remember that chapter three? At the end of chapter three, Boaz is saying, Yeah, I want to marry you. I'm gonna do something about it. I'm gonna go. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm gonna go. This is Boaz taking action. Do you see, do you see the plan kind of unfolding from chapter one to chapter two to chapter three to chapter four? God is doing something amazing. He is in the process of redeeming two widows, giving them care, giving them protection, giving them peace, comfort, hope. He's restoring their lives right before our eyes. We need to witness this. We need to observe. We need to just say, like, yeah, not cool story, bro. We need to really see God in this. We need to see what God is doing through a Redeemer, through His plan, through His plan, through the law of Moses, He is making a way for a man like Boaz, who's either a widower or never been married, and He's giving him an opportunity to have a wife. And for Ruth, an opportunity to be cared for, to have a husband once again. This is amazing. Let's write this down for point number one. Witness God's plan with a capital O. Go, go and see it. I was speedrunning point number one. Witness God's plan of redemption. Do you see it? Do you see it in the text, in the chapters? Do you see the lives of Naomi and Ruth radically changing? God is providing for them in an enormous way. Enormous way. God is so kind. God is gracious. This is his plan. This isn't a coincidence. I hope you know that. I hope that you see that in this, God is at work. It's not just like, oh, there's this cool guy named Boa. I was just, oh, what a coincidence. Yeah, there's a couple words that I don't like to use. One of them is luck. I don't like the word luck. I don't think the word luck is in God's vocabulary. He's in control of all things. There's nothing that just happens by coincidence. I don't like that word either. Coincidence. No such thing as a coincidence. Not lucky. It's not lucky that Ruth gets into this position. It's not a coincidence that by a wild degree, wild, just so many different things that just had to go right. All of a sudden, Ruth is in this position to where now she is about to have a husband that is honorable, that is, that is loving, that is kind, that is strong, that is courageous, that is God fearing. This is not a coincidence. Do you see that? This is God's plan through and through. God's plan through and through. Let's continue on. It gets kind of weird here. There's another weird part in here. Has to do with sandals. I almost wore sandals, but you know, I the dogs, the dogs need to stay in the cage, if you know what I'm saying. The dogs need to just chill. Just chill. Are you with me? Verse 7. Verse 7. Verse 7. Alright, verse 7. Here we go. Stay with me. You're gonna see some interesting details here. Verse 7. Let's see the next the next step in the story, in this historical event here. Verse 7. Now, this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging. This is how people had an understanding, had an agreement on things. This is what's going on. To confirm a transaction, one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other. And this was the manner of attesting in Israel. This is the proof of the commitment. This is the handshake. This is the documentation. This is the PDF that you have that's like, look at my signatures, this is the contract. I have the dude's sandal. I have his chunk, I have his slide, I have his flippy, I have his flippy floppy. I got it. I got the proof. If he says otherwise, I got a sandal, what's he gonna say? I stole it. No, we shook hands, we swapped sandals. This is the deal. We made an agreement. We made an agreement, so you better watch your sandals at ignite, because if you make a deal, you might be down a sandal. All right. All right. I knew we'd go here, but it's okay. Stay with me. Verse 9. Verse 9. What verse? Verse 9. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people there, these are the people that are witnessing, that are there present at that moment. You all, you are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Naomi's husband, who died. And all that belonged to Killian and Malon, the sons of Elimelech. Remember? They were married to the two Moabite women. Also, verse 10, also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Malon, I have bought to be my wife. He is taking on the responsibility to care for her. There's a price to be paid to welcome them into his family. To perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance. That the name of the dead may not be cut off. Not be cut off. If I were not to have a son, my my youngest son, my only son, my youngest in my family, his name is Shepard. His name is Shep. If you see him around, he's kind of squawky. He sounds like a little pterodactyl without wings. This is Shep. Okay? In my family, I have I have two other I have two siblings. Neither of them had a boy until just this year. But my sister had the boy, not my brother. So the family name, it stops unless, unless we have a son. Let's say I have a son to carry on the family name. This is what's happening. The family name is being carried on by this marriage, by this agreement that Boaz is making, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gates of his native place. Boaz is saying, You are witnesses this day. Pay attention. Verse 11. Then all the people who were at the gate, and the elders said this we are witnesses. We see it. We attest to it. If people ask us, we're going to tell them the truth. We saw this happen. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephratha and be renowned in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman. The people of Israel had an origin. The people of Israel can trace their family lines all the way back. And both Rachel and Leah, their sons made up, combined the 12 tribes of Israel, the names of the houses of Israel. This is a big deal. Without these two women having children, having male sons, there would be no Israel. As we see it in the scriptures. And the people there are saying, may it go so well with you. I hope you have children and a lineage that is of great renown, great honor. I want you and your and your wife, Ruth Boaz, may you guys have offspring that glorify God. May God be pleased by your marriage. May there be great renown because of the things that you and your family will do. We want to see you guys do great things. Great things. May it go well with you. May you honor the Lord. May you follow him and may he bless you. That's what these people are wishing upon. That's their prayer for Boaz and for Ruth and for their offspring. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. Sometimes when I was younger, I'd be like, man, I wonder what it's wonder what it's like. I wonder what it's like to be related to someone really important, maybe someone famous. You ever think that way? Like, what if what if George Washington was my dad? He's kind of a big deal. You see his face everywhere. You know, like, what if I had someone in my family that was like really important? You ever think that way? Maybe, maybe someone in your house is really important. Really important. And maybe, maybe we need to change our minds on that. You should look at your parents and be like, I respect you. You're important to me. Stop thinking like, well, what if I had a better parent? What if I had what stop that? What if you looked at your parents and said, God gave me you as parents? I need to love and respect you. I need to obey you. I need to follow your lead and see what happens and see what God does through that. Through your faithful obedience to your parents, maybe it will even go well for you. Maybe you will be raised up in the fear and instruction of the Lord. Maybe you will learn to glean from the wisdom that is in the scriptures and from your parents as they have lived this life out.

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No.

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Next time you think, what if I was in someone else's family? No, no, no. Pause right there. Pause right there. But when we look to the scriptures here, when we look to we look to this wish, this blessing, may it go so well with you. May you be a people of great renown. May you be like the families that that come from Rachel and Leah. The twelve tribes of Israel. That's the charge. That's the well-wishes. That's the encouragement. Right before the wedding. That's what they're saying. That's what they're saying. May you and your family do great things. And uh spoiler alert, uh, they were spot on. They were 100% on target. 100%. Amazing. Let's continue. The wedding. So Boaz takes Ruth. Verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and he went into her. And the Lord gave her conception. They have a they have a son. And she bore a son. And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer. Your son-in-law, what a treasure he is. What an honor it is to be a part of this redemption process. May his name be renowned in Israel. He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. Boaz is going to go on to live a life that's honoring to the Lord, and he's going to take care of Naomi as she gets old, as she gets older. He's going to provide and take care of her. That's an honorable thing to do, to take care of your parents as they grow older in age. Continuing on in verse 15. This is Naomi hearing about Ruth. This is Naomi being like, yeah, you're telling me, who is more to you than seven sons has given birth to him. The character of Ruth here isn't expressed in a way that men are more valuable than women or women are more valuable than men. We're looking here at this verse and thinking to ourselves, the number of sons that you have is equivalent or equated to the spreading of your family name. The ability that your sons would have to work and to provide and to care for and extend your lineage. This is what is being said of Ruth. More than seven sons. She is a woman of great work ethic, great love, great care, great faith. This is the woman that said, Your God is going to be my God. This is a woman far off. She grew up in a place worshiping not Yahweh, worshiping foreign gods. She didn't know who Yahweh was, but when she met her husband, she met Naomi, Elimelech, after all, after all the hardship, she says, I'm going to go with you. I'm going to be faithful to you. I'm going to care for you, your people, my people. I'm going to be buried with you. I'm not going anywhere. This is the faithfulness of God expressed through Ruth's life. What a kindness and a grace that he has given Naomi through Ruth and through Boaz. Verse 17, continue on with me. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name. Huh. Interesting. The women of the neighborhood gave him a name. Saying, A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. Write this down for point number two. Praise God for his faithfulness. Praise God for his faithfulness.

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Write that down for point number two.

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Identify it. See it. Do you see it? Praise God. You don't see it, I'll help you later. Identify the faithfulness of God. Do you see it? Do you see that there's an offspring that will carry on the family name now? Do you see that Naomi and Ruth have a son-in-law and a husband that will take care of them? And do you see the connection here? Do you see the connection to David? Not just any family, not just any man. This is King David. This relationship, this marriage, this son Obed, is going to lead to King David. Now, if you look to anywhere, anyone in the Old Testament, you might be thinking, like, who are the big names? Who are the big names in the Old Testament? You're like, okay, like Moses, Abraham, maybe Noah, Adam. King David is towards the top. King David played a huge role in Israel's history. A huge role. His son Solomon, the wisdom that he had that God gifted to him. This is a big deal. This is a big deal. The family tree, the generations that connect King David to Boaz and Ruth. Such a strong connection. Three generations here. How many of you look to your great-grandparents, your grandparents, and be like, they did some pretty cool stuff? They ever tell you stories? They ever tell you stories of God's faithfulness? I want to challenge you. Next time you see your grandparents, ask them, like, hey, like what has God done in your life? Can you tell me some stories about God's faithfulness? How has he shown himself to be true and faithful? You say, I've been learning about this woman named Ruth and her husband Boaz and Naomi, and you see God's faithfulness there. Can you can you think of anything similar to that where God has has provided for you in unexpected ways? I want to challenge you to ask them next time you see them and just wait and see what God does in that. Hopefully you're encouraged. Hopefully they'll they'll speak about some hard times too. Hopefully it's it's not just amazing things that God did when times were great. I hope that they share some things with you like God, God was faithful. He walked with me through the most challenging times of my life. I hope that they share that. Because that's an encouragement to us. It's an encouragement to us who are surely, we're surely not immune to hard times. We're surely not immune to trials. We're all gonna go through some really hard things in this life. But with that truth, it comes another. God is faithful. He's not going to leave you. He is going to be by your side. That is amazing. He has not left you. Verse 14. Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer. What an amazing provision from God. A woman that was unsure, uncertain about the future, never been to Israel in her life. All she knows is this family. I'm going to follow you, Naomi. When you go back home, I'm you can't shake me. I'm going to be like Velcro. I'm going to be like Superglue. You cannot get rid of me. I'm going to be faithful to you. Let's continue on. Let's wrap up this chapter here in this book. Verse 18. Now these are the generations of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron. Hezron fathered Ram. Ram fathered Aminadab. Aminedab fathered Anashon. Nashon fathered Salmon. Salmon fathered Boaz. Boaz fathered Obed. Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. How far back do you have an understanding of your family tree? Can you trace it back? I I knew some friends in high school that are like, yeah, I'm related to Jefferson. I'm related to Abraham Lincoln. I'm like, are you sure? It was like, it's like cool flex, but weird flex, you know? It's like, I'm related to, I'm related to, you know, you might go and do like some like a swab and send in your like your your q-tip that you like rubbed in your nose or something, and you might be like, oh, like I'm I'm 25% Irish. I am, oh, this is where my heritage came from. No, we we have the lineage, guys. We have we have the family tree. We could trace it back. We could trace it back. I want you guys to join me. Turn to Matthew chapter 1. Go to Matthew chapter 1. First book in the New Testament.

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Chapter 1.

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Chapter 1. Matthew 1. Now, some of you might be in your Bible reading and you're like, oh, cool, genealogies, like just name after name after name after name after name. I want you to see how cool, how amazing, how God, with great detail, in his sovereignty and his complete control over creation and history has created a plan to redeem through Ruth and Boaz. I want you to see this. Chapter 1 of Matthew, read along with me. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, Abraham, the father of Isaac, and Isaac, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Judah, and his brothers, and Judah, the father of Perez, and Zerah by Tamar, and Peraz, the father of Hezron, and Hezron, the father of Ram. Starting to sound familiar, right? We just read this. And Ram, the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab, the father of Nashon, and Nashon, the father of Salmon, and Salmon, the father of Boaz, by Rahab, and Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed, the father of Jesse, and Jesse, the father of King David. Do you see that? We look at the first verse. The genealogy of who? Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Saver of Souls. This son that Boaz and Ruth has, after they have a son. They have a son. You see the lineage. Son, son, son, son. You trace the family tree all the way. You can see the connection from Boaz to David to Jesus. Do you see that? If you trace back all the way, who are you going to find? Who are you going to find in your family tree? You might be like, well, Noah. Like, yeah, you're right. Noah would connect all of us, right? No, we we see there's a direct connection between what God is doing in the life of Ruth and the one who would ultimately redeem sinners like you and me. God spread out his wings and welcomed in Ruth. He provided her protection as she entered the people of God. They became her family, her people. My question for you is: do you have a redeemer? Do you have a redeemer today? Can you trace back your spiritual lineage to Jesus Christ? Can you trace that back? Who is your Redeemer? Write this down for point number three. Trace the family tree of the Redeemer. Trace it. We just read it in Matthew chapter 1. We saw a shorter version of that at the end of Ruth chapter 4. Students, we all need a redeemer. We all need someone to rescue us, to save us from our spiritual position. The Redeemer, the one who will buy back sinners, who will pay the debt that is owed. Boaz paid the debt to redeem Ruth, to redeem Naomi, to buy back the land from Elimelech. Do you know what the cost was for Jesus to buy a people for himself? It's his blood, it's his life. He died. That was the cost. That was the cost of redemption. If you have faith in Christ, the cost that was paid to purchase you, to bring you from death, and to bring you into life is the perfect blood of Jesus Christ. Do you have a Redeemer? Do you know him by name? Do you see your need for a redeemer? I hope you do. I hope you see that you need someone to rescue you out of your current spiritual position. If anyone would be able to stand before God and say, I'm good to go. I've done enough. I've said the right things. I've obeyed my parents enough. I have done enough good things. They outweighed the bad things. That's a bunch of garbage, guys. That's nonsense. That's foolishness. If you're thinking that you can stand before a perfect God and say, like, I'm good enough to get to the next level. I'm good enough to enter your family, to enter into heaven. No, you're mistaken. You're mistaken. One poor decision, one sin, one fracture of the law, one broken rule disqualifies all of us. Disqualifies all of us to stand before God. We have guilt that needs to be taken care of. A just judge cannot let a murderer go free, a liar go free, a thief go free. We all need forgiveness. We all need the blood of Christ to wash us clean so that way we can stand before God and hear, forgiven. Forgiven. Are you forgiven by the blood of Christ? Are you redeemed by his blood? That's my question for you tonight. Think about that. Do you have a redeemer? Ruth's redeemer, Naomi's redeemer, was Boaz. But Boaz cannot redeem us. He was a sinner like you and me. We can't look to Boaz and be like, that's our guy. Hercules, Hercules. Like, we're not gonna go, we're not gonna go to him and be like, he's our guy, he's strong enough, he's our champion. No, he's flawed just like you and me. We need someone that is perfect, flawless, guiltless, perfectly obedient. His name is Jesus Christ. Have you? Have you asked for forgiveness? Have you told him that you are in need of a redeemer? I hope you do. I hope that you consider that. I hope that you see your need for a redeemer. Please pray with me. God, we are in desperate need of a new name. We're in desperate need of redemption. Our name is associated with sin. Our name is associated with guilty, dirty, filthy. God, we need you to change our spiritual position. You need to redeem us. We need you, God, to act. Like Boaz took action to redeem Naomi, to be his wife, to and to take on this role and responsibility. God, we look to you. We look to Jesus who paid the price for our redemption. The price was perfection. The price was blood, sacrifice, suffering. God, you are alive and you have paid the price in full. If anyone here has faith that you are able to forgive, God, you you forgive freely, generously. I pray that you would be working in the hearts of these students tonight. And as we look forward to the fun camp and the activities and the different games that we'll play next week and the sermons that will be shared, I pray that you will do a powerful work and that you will save God for your glory and for your kingdom. God, we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.