Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, good morning, church. Before we dive into Ruth and setting the stage for what we're going to be learning these next few weeks together as a church family, I want to take a moment to speak into what this weekend, what it represents in our culture and space.
[00:00:18] This is not just a weekend that we get to dial it in and have one extra day off from our jobs. If you have tomorrow off. This is a day that we remember those men and women who laid down their lives for us so that we can even be here at all worshiping in freedom today. And it costs people their lives so we can be here. And God's gracious and sovereignly placing us here, but also providing men and women who lay down their lives so we can be here. So I just thought it fitting to start this service thanking God for his grace, but also through men and women who've laid down their lives so we can be here. So let's pray as a church family.
[00:00:57] God, I thank you that we can remember that you ultimately by your grace align and place us in a time and space where we can be here worshiping in freedom. That we can open your word and not have any worry about that. That even from first service have baptisms to publicly declare that you are good and you are God and you have saved God. We can do that in freedom because of your grace, but also for men and women who've gone before us to afford us the freedoms that we do and God. So I thank you for them. I thank you for their families that I know will have grieved their loss.
[00:01:35] But God, thank you that we can be here today worshiping through your word and as a people and the freedoms that we do have. God, we are grateful for who you are and what you have done for us ultimately on the cross of Jesus and God. We don't take any of this for granted and I pray we don't as a people.
[00:01:54] But thank you for the men and women who've laid down their lives so we can worship freely today. God, we love you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:02:03] I am excited for these next few weeks.
[00:02:06] We are going to be diving into this series in the Book of Ruth. And if you've gotten a chance to read through Ruth before and you understand the background of it, it is rich.
[00:02:19] It is a literary and theological treasure within our Bibles that I want to encourage you to read multiple times throughout this series together.
[00:02:28] And so context matters and I want to set it up for us today. You see this story and this book of Ruth is When we generally approach it, we think of it as a love story between Ruth and Boaz.
[00:02:42] We think that it's a story of, and it is a story of that and how human loyalty is on display, sacrifice, redemption, and ultimately marriage with Ruth and Boaz.
[00:02:54] But see, those are the foreground characters.
[00:02:58] And if all we see is that, we miss the beautiful background character of who the book is about, and it's ultimately God's love for his people.
[00:03:08] It's not mainly a story about Ruth and Boaz or Ruth's loyalty to Naomi.
[00:03:14] It's a love story about God and his people.
[00:03:17] A story about God's redeeming love and how he quietly pursues broken people in the middle of grief, confusion, and unanswered questions.
[00:03:28] And as we read it as a whole, it turns tragedy and death into ultimate life and new birth. And that's what makes this book so powerful.
[00:03:40] And so let me set the stage as it relates to where this book finds itself in the place of Scripture.
[00:03:46] You see, Ruth takes place in the backdrop of the times of the Judges.
[00:03:51] The backdrop is the Book of Judges. And what is the theme throughout Judges? It's a nation spiraling, doing what was right in their own eyes, spiritually, morally, nationally.
[00:04:05] Israel was unstable as God's people repeatedly and ongoing wandered away from him into sin, into rebellion, into their own brokenness.
[00:04:16] You see, Judges highlights humanity's unfaithfulness and the darkness that results when people reject God's rule and reign in their lives.
[00:04:26] But against that dark backdrop, Ruth is placed.
[00:04:30] You see, it shines a story of God's covenant faithfulness in the midst of uncertainty.
[00:04:37] A quote. Someone who wrote a book on Judges and Ruth states it this way. While Judges is about breaking covenant and leaving Torah, Ruth is about keeping covenant and living Torah.
[00:04:50] While Judges emphasizes Canaanization, this idea of becoming like the world in which they find themselves and curse. Ruth emphasizes sanctification and blessing.
[00:05:02] While Judges documents acts of self interest, Ruth documents acts of self sacrifice.
[00:05:10] You see, Ruth is a story with Israel's unfaithfulness as a backdrop that illuminates the faithfulness and love of God that never stops pursuing people, even in their hurt, even in their question, even in their doubt of him. And so we'll see his redeeming love on display throughout these weeks. But even in this opening account of Ruth1, and I want to read it in full this week. And so if you do have your Bibles and you turn there, great, we're going to read all of Ruth 1, and it's 22 verses. We will get through it. It'll be. It'll be great.
[00:05:40] If you don't have your Bibles, it'll be on the screen for you. So let's read through it together.
[00:05:49] In the days when the Judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.
[00:05:53] And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
[00:06:00] The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi.
[00:06:05] And the names of his two sons were Mahalan and Chilion.
[00:06:09] They were Ephrathites. From Bethlehem in Judah.
[00:06:13] They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
[00:06:16] But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
[00:06:22] These took Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth.
[00:06:28] They lived there about 10 years, and both Mahalan and Chilean died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
[00:06:37] Then she rose with her daughters in law to return from the country of Moab.
[00:06:42] For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
[00:06:49] So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters in law.
[00:06:53] And they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
[00:06:57] But Naomi said to her two daughters in law, go return each of you to your to her mother's house.
[00:07:04] May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
[00:07:10] The Lord grant that you may find rest each one of you in the house of her husband.
[00:07:15] Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
[00:07:20] And they said to her, no, we will return with you to your people.
[00:07:25] But Naomi said, turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me?
[00:07:30] Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?
[00:07:36] Turn back, my daughters. Go your way. For I am too old to have a husband.
[00:07:41] If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown?
[00:07:49] Would you therefore refrain from marrying?
[00:07:52] No, my daughters. For it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.
[00:08:00] Then they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother in law. But Ruth clung to her, and she said, see, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods return after your sister in law. But Ruth said, do not urge me to leave you, or to return from following you.
[00:08:20] For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
[00:08:30] Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.
[00:08:34] May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.
[00:08:40] And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said, no more.
[00:08:46] So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them.
[00:08:53] And the women said, is this Naomi?
[00:08:56] She said to them, do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
[00:09:05] I went away full, the Lord has brought me back empty.
[00:09:09] Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?
[00:09:16] So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter in law, with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
[00:09:28] That's a pretty weighty text to begin.
[00:09:33] But there is beauty within the text that God wants us to uncover today. And one of the big ideas I want to start with today for us is this.
[00:09:45] Sometimes God's people question God's love.
[00:09:50] Sometimes God's people question God's love.
[00:09:55] Because that's what we see from the account of Naomi here in the opening five verses. What do we see on display through Naomi's life?
[00:10:06] There was a famine in the land, right?
[00:10:08] They were experiencing famine in the land. We don't understand this idea of famine in our time and space, because we can go to Walmart and see this endless supply of food always there for us.
[00:10:19] But there was a famine happening in the land of Judah at the time that made them, caused them to look towards other lands and desire a better story. So Naomi and her husband and kids, they left. They left their homeland because there was famine in the land beyond famine. What does it say? Naomi with her husband Elimelech, which is fascinating if you want to do a name study in the Book of Ruth.
[00:10:46] It's a fascinating. In the backdrop of Judges, Elimelech means my God is almighty, whereas what were they saying during the. During time of Judges, I am my own God.
[00:10:57] But Naomi, with her husband Elimelech, went to seek food in a foreign country. So they left their home, desiring a better story, right? So there's famine, they leave their land. What happens in the new land?
[00:11:08] Elimelech dies.
[00:11:12] Elimelech dies, the patriarch passes away. And now you have a single woman with two sons in a foreign land, vulnerable.
[00:11:25] What Happens from there. Her two sons marry, but they don't have any children.
[00:11:32] And then what happens to her two sons? They die.
[00:11:36] So now she's husbandless, she doesn't have kids anymore.
[00:11:42] And now she's in a foreign land, no family heritage to pass on, because that was passed on through the males in the family, all within 10 years. Husband gone, sons gone, future seemingly lost.
[00:12:00] I don't know about you, but that is a hard hand.
[00:12:06] That is a hard, tragic, dark hand to have in 10 years.
[00:12:13] Like death, disappointment. I can imagine all even just putting myself in that situation. Naomi crying, asking, hey, God, why?
[00:12:24] Being vulnerable in this foreign land.
[00:12:27] You see, that's the painful reality that Naomi is walking in.
[00:12:32] But it's often a picture of what we walk in in this broken as well. Death, disappointment, being vulnerable, afraid.
[00:12:42] And what does Naomi do next? After these first five verses, she turns back her thoughts towards going home.
[00:12:48] And this was God beginning to work, whether she saw it right in that moment or not. It says there was bread in the land.
[00:12:55] Like this is God's mercy on the spray. There's bread in Bethlehem. And that whole play on words. And what Bethlehem means is there's bread in the bread, which is it's God's mercy on display. But she doesn't see it in the midst of what she's walking through. Holy. Yet it says then she arose with her daughters in law to return from the country of Moab.
[00:13:15] For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
[00:13:19] It's the beginning of God's love being shown to her.
[00:13:23] He's beginning to show his love in restoring his people, Naomi included. Here it's God showing he's ready to care for Naomi by returning them. But she doesn't see it in that moment. How many of us, when we're walking through seasons of death, disappointment, illness, brokenness, pain, do we often see God working all the time? We don't. Why? Because the brokenness is staring us in the face.
[00:13:49] So we oftentimes miss God's hand in the midst of what we're walking with.
[00:13:54] She tells her daughter in laws to go back to their mother's house to find new husbands. And she questions and accuses God's love for her in this discourse. Several times in verse 13, she makes the statement, no, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone against me.
[00:14:15] How many of us have had moments in our lives where we question God's love? For us question God's love for us in the midst of heartache, pain, illness, loss or hurt.
[00:14:29] How many of us have asked the question of how could a good God allow this to happen if he has the power to stop it?
[00:14:38] How many of us have questioned the love of God based on circumstances in our lives that play out that there is no way this could be good or ultimately redeemed?
[00:14:47] I'm sure many of us in this room have walked in moments like that and they're hard, they're dark, and they have the appearance of God abandoning us.
[00:15:00] You see, in our story a few years ago, we've had.
[00:15:05] We were in the same exact position questioning this same exact thing that Naomi's questioning. You see, in moving here three years ago.
[00:15:14] I'm from upstate New York. We came down here and just walking in faith and we had five years of infertility in coming to Texas and walking through our story, my wife and I have. And then we landed here in Texas. The day we landed in Texas, we found out my wife was pregnant for the first time in five years.
[00:15:32] Something in the water, right? You know what I mean? Like, you arrive here, stepped out in faith, you know, you're walking in the story and we're like, we're stepping into a new season, right? It's all beautiful and good and fast forward to that was July of 2023. Fast forward to the end of August. We found out little one doesn't have a heartbeat.
[00:15:53] Miscarriage. Week and a half later, beginning of September 2023, friend of mine from back in New York dies of stage four cancer.
[00:16:04] Okay, these two things are heavy in that moment. At the end of September 2023, my stepbrother, who was 36 at the time, died in his sleep in Vail, Colorado, November 2023. We were walking through a three year process of adoption, international adoption, but just were grieving where we were in life and all of the heaviness of what we were walking through and we just had to lay down the hand because we didn't. We just weren't in a place to walk in. What we were going to. About to walk in, we just weren't there.
[00:16:36] And so I was in a place. We were in this place, the family of just questioning, hey, God, what, what's going on? We stepped out in faith. We walked into this and this utterly broken and not understanding why. Why would you allow this? Are you good?
[00:16:53] How many of us have had similar stories or seasons of just that?
[00:17:01] Some of you are in the midst of it right now.
[00:17:04] Maybe Illness in your body or someone that you care about, another loss, another negative test, a marriage that is rough and if you aren't there now, you may have been in a similar situation before or you may. I don't want to speak this over you. We will inevitably come in this broken world against situations like this where we will question God's love or his goodness and if he has abandoned us and let me be very simple and clear, God is okay with your questioning, but he's working even there.
[00:17:41] God is okay with your questioning. God was okay with Naomi's questioning, but his love didn't stop at her question, at her circumstances. He was working even there.
[00:17:56] Naomi experienced real hurt pain and had a hard hand.
[00:18:01] She questioned God, carried it for a while even when she came back to Judah, she wanted to be called Marah, meaning bitter.
[00:18:09] And God is not saying, well you're bitter, therefore I'm not gonna work. No, God is okay with her questioning because his love runs far deeper than her question, than her circumstances.
[00:18:21] God was working, setting up ultimate redemption through Naomi's question and her bitterness.
[00:18:29] For us in this room, maybe what's keeping you from knowing and believing the gospel is some real pain that you've walked through in this life.
[00:18:38] Others of you may be at a place of also questioning, but could it be that the very place where God's love feels most absent, he's actually already working redemption that you simply cannot see yet?
[00:18:54] Could it be that in the place where you find yourself, where you feel that his love is most absent, how can you be good here?
[00:19:01] Could it be that he is actually already working things out that you simply cannot see yet because he did that in Naomi's story, He does that in the lives of his believers. He's ultimately working all things out for the good of those who love him. We just can't simply see it yet.
[00:19:23] But here's the second big truth from the story. Many of truths are in here, but this is what I love, that God's love is based on his kindness, not our questions or circumstances.
[00:19:36] God's love is based on his kindness, not our questions and circumstances. And I'm so grateful for it.
[00:19:47] Here's a picture of someone you may have heard of, some of you may have not. This is a picture of Horatio Spafford. I just feel like people in the 1800s just looked cooler, you know.
[00:19:58] Horatio Spafford was a wealthy lawyer and had a wealthy real estate portfolio.
[00:20:06] He was someone who lived in the 1800s. He was married to his wife Anna and they had five kids. One son and four daughters.
[00:20:15] And in 1871, their son Horatio Jr. Tragically died.
[00:20:22] Later that same year, in 1871, there was the great Chicago fires that destroyed all of Horatio's real estate holdings and wiped out almost all of his finances. As a family, that's a heavy thing, grieving. That year the family decided, hey, we just need a break from life. And so in 1873, they decided to take a family vacation over to Europe.
[00:20:52] And so the family got ready to go, Horatio and his four daughters and his wife. But there was something business wise that came up for Horatio that had that he sent his wife and his daughters ahead of them on an ocean liner across the Atlantic Ocean.
[00:21:09] And so he had to stay back to address that. And he was going to follow shortly thereafter.
[00:21:14] And so Anna and the four daughters get on the ocean liner and partway over the Atlantic Ocean.
[00:21:21] Excuse me, if I could talk. Atlantic Ocean, a British vessel hits the ocean liner and sinks.
[00:21:30] Sinks the Ocean liner. In 12 minutes, Anna, the wife, is found on a piece of wreckage.
[00:21:40] But the four daughters were not found.
[00:21:44] Anna gets over overseas and she sent a telegram that says, saved alone. What shall I do?
[00:21:53] Horatio Spafford, in questioning God's love for what was going on with what happened with their son, what happened with the real estate side of things. Now losing his four daughters, books a trip across the seas, across the Atlantic Ocean.
[00:22:10] And as he goes, the captain of the ship over the place that the vessel had sunk brings Horatio out to look at the place where his daughters were lost.
[00:22:25] You know, I'd be questioning in that moment, God's goodness there.
[00:22:29] I'd be questioning God's faithfulness there.
[00:22:34] But in looking over that space, remembering God's love and inexplicable peace came over them. And from that experience, he penned these lyrics that many of us know that says, when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
[00:23:01] Though Satan should buff it, Though trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul.
[00:23:12] It is well, it is well with my soul.
[00:23:19] You see, here's what Horatio Spafford realized.
[00:23:24] He realized even there in looking over that piece of ocean where his four daughters were lost, through the tragedy of losing his son, through his fortune, his daughters, and looking over that space in the wrecks, he realized that God did not abandon him.
[00:23:42] Though the circumstances were dire, God loved him. And his love is based on his kindness ultimately displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ, not His circumstances or his questions.
[00:24:00] But how did God show His never ending love to Naomi amidst her questioning? He showed his love by refusing to abandon her even when she believed he had abandoned her.
[00:24:10] Because when Naomi can only see graves, God was already planting redemption all around her. And here's ways that God showed His love to Naomi through the story.
[00:24:21] First, he showed his love by bringing bread back to Bethlehem.
[00:24:24] While Naomi believed her story was over. God had already visited his people with provision and mercy and he was bringing her home.
[00:24:33] God showed his love to Naomi through Ruth's loyalty.
[00:24:37] Ruth's words of where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay were not just Ruth's love toward Naomi. They were God's love toward Naomi through Ruth.
[00:24:48] See, Naomi felt alone, but God had already placed covenant love beside her on the journey home.
[00:24:55] How else God showed His love by bringing Naomi back at the beginning of the barley harvest. Like that's a detail at the closing words of Ruth. 1.
[00:25:04] That detail at the end of the chapter is not random.
[00:25:08] You see, Naomi arrives empty, bitter and questioning, while God quietly brings her back at exactly the right moment for provision, restoration and redemption to begin to unfold.
[00:25:19] God showed his love by already preparing Boaz before Naomi even remembered Him. Before Ruth ever stepped into a field, before Naomi could imagine redemption again, God had already gone ahead of them, preparing this story.
[00:25:34] And ultimately God showed His love by weaving Naomi's broken story into something far bigger than she could see in the moment.
[00:25:43] The grieving widow who thought God was against her would eventually hold in her line the baby that would ultimately lead to David and ultimately lead to Jesus Christ himself.
[00:25:57] That is the beauty of Ruth1, Naomi interpreted her suffering as proof that God had abandoned her. While all along God was surrounding her with evidence of his kindness and his presence.
[00:26:08] You see all of this in Ruth. One is a setup really in how Ruth ends is a setup in the ultimate setup of God's love for being based on his kindness most displayed in the life and walk of Jesus Christ to the cross.
[00:26:24] God has not abandoned us where we find ourselves. And we most, we most see that in the cross.
[00:26:30] And I love this, this point about Jesus because we have a. We have a savior that even questioned God but continued on for us, like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. What did he do?
[00:26:44] He questioned God and said, if this cup could pass from me, please, Lord.
[00:26:49] But he knew the Father's plan of redemption for the brokenness of humanity. So he continued ahead despite even his question and circumstance.
[00:26:58] When he was scourged, mocked and broken, he didn't utter a word of rebuttal.
[00:27:04] But he continued on towards the cross. For that was the plan of the Father to crush his own son to show that he will not abandon his people.
[00:27:14] Even in Mark, when he. When Jesus cries out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
[00:27:22] When all of the sins weight, past, present and future weight was placed on him and he questioned his father, he continued on for his great love for us.
[00:27:34] Tim Keller, in talking about Jesus Christ in the garden, said this.
[00:27:39] When Jesus Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane and the ultimate darkness was coming down on him and he knew it was coming, he did not abandon you. He died for you.
[00:27:51] If Jesus Christ didn't abandon you in his darkness, the ultimate darkness, why would he abandon you now in yours?
[00:28:03] See, moments of my questioning in the season I was in or other seasons, the only thing I can cling to is the kindness of God displayed in the cross of Jesus Christ.
[00:28:16] It's the only thing that stands in a world of changing circumstances, in the broken world in which we live in. God's love is based on Jesus being sent dying in our place, dying a death that we deserved because of my sin, because of my brokenness.
[00:28:34] And the fact that Jesus continued on through that for me was the only firm foundation that holds in this world that he was there and he did not abandon me during my season.
[00:28:51] See, for many of us in this room, the invitation of Ruth 1 is deeply personal.
[00:28:59] I know some of your stories, and some of you are walking and carrying grief that nobody else fully sees.
[00:29:08] Some of you are exhausted from praying the same prayer over and over and over again and saying, God, where are you?
[00:29:17] How are you? Good. Here some of you are questioning why God allowed the diagnosis, the loss, the betrayal, the anxiety, the loneliness, the miscarriage, the broken relationship, or the disappointment you never imagined your story would include.
[00:29:36] And maybe, like Naomi, all you can presently see are the graves and empty spaces in your life.
[00:29:45] But Ruth, one reminds us that God's love for you is not measured by your present circumstances, but by his unchanging kindness and faithfulness toward you. Most seen cross of Jesus you see, even when you cannot see him clearly.
[00:30:03] He is still providing, he is still pursuing.
[00:30:08] He is still present. He is still working redemption in ways you may not get to understand.
[00:30:17] You know, for me, I never thought we'd have the opportunity to have another one. But I'm grateful That I look back on that season when I'm holding my son in my story now, and I look back and see God. You were working things in me in the story far before I ever could see them. And in hindsight, I realized this.
[00:30:39] But he's allowed me to see what walking through those seasons is and how that produced a deeper dependence on me even when I was questioning Him. And I just got to understand his love and deeper into in truer ways.
[00:30:53] And the greatest proof of God's love is not found in whether life feels easy at the moment or we get the outcome we hope for.
[00:31:00] But the greatest proof of God's love is in Jesus Christ willingly walking to the cross for you and me, because we deserve death and separation. But he, God, in His love, sent Jesus to walk perfectly, like we were supposed to die, sacrificially on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins and overcome the grave triumphantly. So we can walk in freedom, we can walk in life. We can walk in newness of life. Although life may be hard, which it is, it will be done in freedom because the Spirit is now working through us to hold us until he comes again.
[00:31:37] And he is okay with your question, but he wants you to know that his love and his kindness is most seen in his one and only Son being sent on your behalf.
[00:31:47] He has not abandoned you. If anything, he's running towards you.
[00:31:51] If Jesus was not abandoned in vain, then neither are you.
[00:31:56] God will not and has not stopped loving you in the middle of your questions. So as I close and the team comes out, let me ask you this.
[00:32:07] Will you allow your present pain to define God's love for you?
[00:32:12] Or will you trust that even now he may be quietly working redemption you cannot yet see?
[00:32:19] Will you allow your present pain to define God's love for you? Or will you trust that even now he may be quietly working behind the scenes in ways you cannot yet fully see, that you might treasure him more deeply even with where you find yourself?
[00:32:34] You see, Naomi was in a real hand. That was really, really hard.
[00:32:38] That I can't even imagine. The crying that went on, the pleading with God about why is this happening. But God was still beginning to work in deeper and truer ways. And as she looked back, he was working a plan of redemption through her life.
[00:32:53] And will we see his love most displayed in Jesus or in our circumstances today?
[00:32:58] Church, let's pray.
[00:33:02] God, I thank you.
[00:33:05] I thank you that your love is not based on my performance, not based on what I do or what I experience in this life. Or what I walk through in this life. And I thank you that you even allow our question.
[00:33:21] But God, your love for us is based on you sending your one and only son to die in our place to pay for our sin.
[00:33:32] And that's your kindness on display in the moments that we walk in this world that are hard and tough.
[00:33:39] God, I pray that we just cling to the cross of Jesus knowing that if we don't see that you're working in the moment, God, we can know that you are working all things out for the good of those who love you. And we can go and run back to the cross and be reminded that it's not based on us.
[00:33:57] It's not based on how good or bad we are. It's based on Jesus life laid down. And as we surrender ourselves to that, in the midst of the pain, in the midst of the illness that wasn't intended to be, you are there holding us because your son suffered the death that we ultimately deserved.
[00:34:16] And we can be back in relationship with you as originally designed.
[00:34:21] God, thank you for paying the price that we ultimately were meant to pay.
[00:34:27] And all that sin's weight was placed on you. Thank you, Jesus, for reminding us that you are all we need in this life. And if there's any apart from you that are walking in pain that has kept them separated from you, let them know right where they are that you love them.
[00:34:41] That wasn't the intent that this stuff were to happen, but sin and brokenness did that. So they repent and turn to you today, God.
[00:34:48] Or if there are people walking through moments that are heavy, I pray that your peace meets them there, knowing that your cross, the cross of Jesus is the greatest representation of your love and your kindness for them. God, we need you. And apart from you we can do nothing. Let us be reminded of that today. In Jesus name, amen.
