God is about to turn the page in your story (Message Only)

o [Music] man we have had an incredible week at ovcn with uh Feed My Starving Children uh anybody uh happen to come by and work a session would you raise your hand man that's about all of you that's awesome somebody asked me uh Steve asked me right down front here ask me hey how do we do do we meet our goal of having 1,500,000 well sorry Steve no we didn't we did 1,632 [Applause] 1960 come on you knew we would right I here's what I know about people that go to ovcn you put a goal

in front of them they're going to do it they they got it I I just always know you guys are gonna you guys have our back on that well here's the number that I just think the next two numbers I think are are equally as important one is there were 6,900 volunteers that came and helped us you go well we don't have that many people that go to our church yeah but here's the thing it has become Feed My Starving Children has become something that ovcn puts on and we invite the community to come in

and help us and whenever during the year I say hey I have a shirt that says ovcn or they know I they always come up to him and say hey you know what we love that uh we've done Feed My Starving Children we don't go to your church but we go to another church and we love that ovcn does that and we come over and help out and I think that's an awesome thing but let me give you what I think is probably the most important number and that is that there were 4,474 kids that

are going to be fed for a year because of what we did this last week anybody say Amen to that now if you were here and you worked it you know if you were part of one of the sessions you know that there was this whole team of people okay so we have a team of people that are from Feed My Starving Children that come down there's only about 11 of them and then we have this whole this massive team of people that were here Monday early in the morning till late Monday night they did

that every day for six days early in the morning till late at night working the whole day doing all the shifts making sure everything worked good one of the things you know about ovcn is is if we do an activity it's going to be managed really well and Pastor David our missions pastor and his whole team deserve a lot of credit for making sure that how smooth it was can we give that team and yep thank you so much all right so I want to give you a reminder guys I'm talking to the men right

now whether you're married or single I want to tell you something Friday is Valentine's Day it's why I roar this tie it's Valentine's Day Friday some of you going oh yeah you got five days Friday February 14th for those of you that are committed followers of Jesus Christ and you're single I think it's really complicated to meet somebody to get to know them to date them to marry them in a way that honors God our culture it just make it's just complicated anybody say Amen to that so so how do you meet somebody if you're

a Christian how do you meet somebody and how do you how do you get to know how do you date them and so I thought you know what I'm going to talk to some I'm going to talk to single people pretty strong today and so I thought you know what I I thought I'd start off and I'm before I step on your toes I'm going to help you out so I'm going to talk to all the uh I want to I basically want to talk to the single guys because I think it's really hard for

guys uh to to to uh meet somebody and date start dating somebody so I want to just give you some Christian pickup lines guys that'll help you out if you're married just just smile don't first service they got all like oh you can't say that in church okay I'm trying to help the guys out here okay so single guys here's your first pickup line let's say get your Bible you're walking in and uh there's a young lady there that you go man she's beautiful or maybe you don't even have your Bible you have your phone

and you have the Bible up on it and then you walk over and you say to her uh you say is it hot in here or is that just the Holy Ghost burning inside of you come on that's really good or or you're you're worshiping in here and you look over come on this happens if you're a single guy I know I promise you this happens you're a single guy and you look over and you go oh my Lance and you notice that as she's as she's worshiping she has her hand up in the air

she doesn't have a ring on her finger and you're going oh so you go up to after the service here's what you say is your name your name must be Faith because you're the substance of all the things I've been hoping for now I I know I'm joking a little bit but I I got to tell you here's the here's the point that I want to make is that dating is complicated in our culture how do you meet somebody how do you date somebody how do you how do you marry someone in a complicated culture

like ours because if if you haven't noticed our culture's view on marriage has been changing right in front of us for a few years in fact for the first time the majority of adults are not even married I I'll give you some statistics three of them that I think are kind of revealing to where our culture is headed for the first one it's this in the last five decades marriage rates in the US have dropped by nearly in five decades 60% and and and that's sobering but how about this one 63% of men under the

age of 30 are choosing to remain single so if you're a single lady and and you're looking for a man that's under 30 and you're going Craig I I don't know where they are well they're intentionally sitting on the bench that's a big issue right now how about this one 77% of young adults prefer to live with their partner before marriage see with that kind of mindset marriage is not something that we value marriage is not something that our culture values and so people are delaying marriage or they're just avoiding marriage altogether and yet almost

every one of us is craving somebody that we can do life with from this point on in our lives it's really special I think God put that in us and and and when they do get married tragically about half of those marriages end in divorce and I just got to tell you something right now I I I do a lot of weddings and it just kills me it it's heartbreaking to me when when people get divorced and I think okay if it's heartbreaking to me it's got to be heartbreaking to God so so here's my

point today and and and I I'm going somewhere with this I'm not just stepping on your toes we as a Church of God to do something new we can't just keep on doing the same old thing so at Oban a few years ago we made up this ministry and and and if somebody comes to one of our pastors and says Hey listen I'd like you to marry us I we'll always just sit down with him we'll get to know him a little bit then somewhere in the conversation we always bring this out all the pastors

at ovcn we all do this we talk to them about our marriage mentoring program where we match couples that want to get married with couples that are in our church that they've gone through they've gone through struggles in marriage it's not a perfect marriage it's not what we're looking for but people that are are mature enough in their in their marriage that they can mentor this couple that's that's getting marriage and that's getting married and we have this video curriculum there's this book that they go through and there's six sessions where they answer questions together

and then six times they sit down with this mentoring couple they meet with his mentoring couple and they help them through the the answers that they wrote down it's an incredible program now here's the stats on it if you if you uh uh if you agree to go through this mentoring program the stats drop from about 50% chance that you're going to get a divorce divorce rate to less than 10% see I happen to think that we ought to cheer a Ministry like this we ought to cheer a stat like that that talks about hey

there's a new way that we can do this where marriages are actually actually going to stay together anybody say Amen to that that's really important that's what we're going to talk about today in the Book of Ruth we're going to look at this different approach this new way to get to know someone and develop a a marriage that honors God let me pray and then we'll get right into it Heavenly Father we pray that your word the Bible would speak to us that the Bible would build our faith today and God we play we pray

for our single people that go to our church we pray that you would give us the tools to date to marry in a way that honors you we pray these things in Jesus name and everybody said amen come on if you have your Bibles I hope you brought them we're in Ruth chapter 2 I want to Dive Right In come on let's get after it we're going to do a little bit of review because the backstory is so important if you missed last week let me just catch you up just real quick this is a

story about an ordinary family they lived in Bethlehem I I it almost feels like it's a story of a family from Bethlehem and it just I thought I'd make up a song and it just didn't work quite right but anyways in the first two verses we find out this family there was famine in Bethlehem and so the dad moves the whole family uh mom and two kids two boys uh 50 miles away to Moab let me ask you just real quick how this is really important how far was it away 50 miles it's not that

far a couple days walk and this was a massive mistake because God had said hey don't marry people from Moab and and don't even go to Moab because they in Moab they worship this detestable false god called kemish a a and this story is just full of Heartache I you can't you can't read chapter one without getting really sad in your heart and seeing the pain that these these people are going through the dad dies the two sons both Di and they end up dying in Moab and chapter one is just full of heartbreak and

loss and here's what I know come on look up here it's not in your notes I know some of you are going through heartbreak and loss and pain in your life right now or maybe you know somebody maybe you're close to somebody that's going through heartache and pain and so Naomi the mom says hey I'm going to go back to Bethlehem looks at her two daughters-in-law and says I'm going there you guys stay here here and this is where the story starts to gain a little bit of energy because Ruth 1: 16 we haven't even

heard of her before but this daughter-in-law of Naomi says Ruth says and you know this is wedding cake verse right here where you go Naomi I'll go where you stay I'll stay your people will be my people and here's the line that we finished on last week that is so powerful because it talks about her faith in Jes in in God and it's your God now will become my God come on this is really important and Ruth turns away from her false god in Moab and she turns the one true God of Bethlehem and this

is her moment of Salvation and everything in her life changes all of a sudden the whole book changes because of her one decision that she makes in going to Bethlehem one decision and now Naomi the mother-in-law and Ruth the new believer together they go to Bethlehem but you got to know it's they're still pain because they're homeless they're hopeless and they're hurting some of you hurting today come on some of you are in a very painful place in your life some of you come on chapter one of Ruth you read that and you hear about

the Heartbreak and you go Craig that's me I got great news for you today we're turning the page we're going to chapter two we're starting chapter two today anybody say Amen to that today chapter one comes to an end now chapter two because in chapter two come on there's hope in chapter two chapter one The Pain the Heartbreak that's behind us chapter two is where we're going and I I don't know who this is for but metaphorically speaking I just got to tell somebody today I believe God is going to turn the page in your

story today you've been stuck in chapter one I don't know why Craig I don't know why I'm stuck but I'm stuck in chapter one I have this pain and this heartbreak right now in God's word God is going to do something that you didn't even see coming you came here today it's Super Bowl Sunday and you thought man it's a good day to worship I'm telling you God brought you here today because he wants to turn the page in your life started out when you came here you're in chapter one today we start chapter two

amen come on you're going to discover some good news whenever you leave Moab there's God's blessing that comes in Bethlehem come on obn today we're going to chapter two and if you're ready to go to chapter two would you just say out loud with a boldness come on we're ready for chapter two come onter here we go if you're watching online I just you write in the comment section just type in there I want a bunch of people there are hundreds of you that are watching I want you all to type we're ready for chapter

two just overwhelmed them they're not going to know what to do here we go verse one I just find that to be so funny anybody else they're just like oh how do how do I respond to 300 of these people saying that verse one here we go let's get into this verse one now Naomi mother-in-law had a relative on her husband's side a man and I want you to see this a man of standing one version says he was a strong man rest of verse one I'll come back to that from the clan of ALC

licc LIC anybody with me on this last week you know that's a really good ver oh man I love that name it just kind of tickles your tongue when you say it his this guy's name chapter 2 verse one this guy this new guy that we're reading about his name is Boaz and when it says that Boaz was a strong man literally translation it's it's an an internal strength it's its character is talking about his his Integrity or or you could say he had a lot of property Single Ladies you need to be paying attention

to somebody like Boaz here we go verse two Ruth the moabit said to Naomi her mother-in-law let me go out on the field and let me pick up the leftover grain that uh that they're leaving behind mind and maybe I'll find favor in their eyes and Naomi said go ahead verse three and so Ruth went out and entered a field and began to glean what the Harvesters had left now to glean is something that you can read about in Leviticus chapter 19 when God commanded the Israelites to let the poor follow behind them and if

you're harvesting something and you drop a little bit you have a basket of all this grain and it kind of overflows we talked about this first of the year if it overflows you let that grain just stay there on the ground and uh and and and and that don't don't pick that up because the widows and the poor people will come in behind you and they'll pick it up but there's a way that God could provide for those people and verse three so Ruth went out to gather grain behind the Harvesters and I love this

next phrase it just so happened would everybody just say right out loud it just so happened and it just so happened she found herself working in a field that belonged to Bo as and when it says it just so happened I can see I imagine as it's being written I can see God winking at us going you know what I'm talking about you know we're saying oh it just so you know I it just so happened and God's going I planned this it didn't just so happen when you look at the Book of Ruth you're

going to notice there's there's no Supernatural miracles in the Book of Ruth come on there's no Bush there's no parting of the Red Sea there's no voice from heaven but even though you don't see Supernatural miracles in the Book of Ruth come on you know what you do see you see the Providence of God it's the providential power of God that you see over and over and you see that all the way through the book some of you going well Craig I I don't even know what you mean when you say the providential power of

God that that's just a fancy way of saying that whenever God uses uh sometimes he uses just a natural circumstance to bring about his Supernatural plans anybody say Amen to that come on just natural things that he puts together not not this big you know parting of the Red Sea nothing like that just God moves things plans things and and you look back on it you go well that that was God it's when you're just you're going one place you're going to meet somebody over here but as you meet that person all of a sudden

there's this person over here that that you need to talk to or maybe God you is going to use you to minister to and you look back on it later and you go only God that's God's providential hand it happened to me Friday I did a funeral here and at the church and and I had a couple meetings after that and after that in the afternoon I went to uh the emergency room Northwest hospital and I walk in I go and I pray with this uh this couple and uh and I walk out of the

emergency area and uh I'm in the waiting room area and and there's somebody as I'm walking through there said hey Pastor Craig and I turned around and I stopped there was a young adult lady from our church from obn and uh I sat down and as soon as I sat down I said how are you doing and and and usually you know if you're in the emergency room that's not a great question to ask she starts to get emotional and she shares this story of a while back she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and

and she's going through these tests and and how hard it was and and and I said oh can I can I pray with you and I got to pray with her hold her hand and pray with her right there in the emergency room and and then I looked at her and I said looked at her in the eyes and I said Hey listen I just want you to know that your ovcn family is here for you if you need anything you let us know and we're going to help you we're your family and we're going

to be there for you and we are amen and I walked out and I go to my car and I get in my car and I had this thought I thought you know what that was one of those it just so happened moments no no come on God planned that whole thing he orchestrated it was the providential power of God to put all those things together to get me there she was there and all of a sudden I was able to pray with her and God was able to minister to her need amen come on

this is you say well Craig do you have a verse for that well how about Romans chapter 8 ver 28 we know this that God works all things in everything the good things and the bad things I want you to hear me today God is working in your life it may be in the Heartbreak chapter one God's working it may be in the in in the hope of chapter two God works in all things to bring about his good will he works in all things to bring about good to those that love him and are

called according to his purpose anybody say Amen to that Ruth back to our story it just so happens to be working in a field and there's this guy his name is Boaz and this is where Ruth is at her very lowest she's gleaning she's so poor she has no food they're homeless and she's picking up the leftover grain in the fields and now enters this this handsome hero we don't know if he's handsome or not it's just I made that part up it makes the story a lot better doesn't it you know he comes riding

in on a horse I don't know I'm not sure how he came in but he comes in and you know it kind of takes me back to when I was dating Ro we were just starting to date and uh I remember saying setting up a date with Rob and I was going to go pick her up at her house it wasn't far from the college and I I I go over I've been I've been I've been seeing I I got to be careful how I say say this I I I my eyes had been attracted

her for for many months anybody know what I'm talking about I feel like I'm digging myself in a hole here I I I'd been seeing her walk across campus I went oh man she's beautiful so I go I set up this date and it's it's not the first dat but it's pretty close to the first dat and I knock on the door and when I knock on the door she opens up the door and I look at her and there is this I I I just got to tell you there's this Angelic glow about her

and it took my breath away she goes yeah and I just I couldn't talk it was just like it was it was so good I just thought this that nothing's going to get better than this moment right here and Ruth just so happens she comes across this guy named Boaz why do you think she just so happened to come across a guy named Bo as well let me give you a clue if you go back to chapter one Naomi the Mother-in-law actually prayed for do you know what she prayed for she prayed may the Lord

show you kindness and may the Lord bring you a husband really and when she prayed God listened I just want to remind you today that every time you pray God is listening to that prayer God cares about what you care about and when when you cry out to God God just so happens he's going to show up in your life that's why praying for your future spouse if you're single that's a really wise thing to do if you're a parent of a single young adult you ought to pray I think it's wise to pray for

your son or your daughter for their spouse you ought to pray for that I think that's a really wise thing to do as a parent and so Ruth is working out on Fields just she just being responsible getting food Gathering food up Gathering grain for them verse four while she's there Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and he greeted the Harvesters well what does he say this is really important last part of verse four he says the Lord be with you and the Lord bless you you know what what do we see in this guy we see

he's clearly a leader he's clearly he's kind to the people that work for him and we see the very first thing that he talks about is his Lord now I might make you mad right now but I've come to the place in my Ministry where if I make you mad you know what I know you love me and I know we're going to get through this anybody just say Amen to that some of you go no we're not I think we'll be all right but I might step on your toes if you're a serious follower

of Jesus Christ and you're single and you want to marry somebody you're looking for someone who is a serious follower of Jesus Christ and you meet someone and you don't hear them talk about Jesus you don't hear them talk about their Church you don't hear them talk about their faith somewhere early in the conversation then chances are they are not serious about their faith in Jesus Christ amen Craig great preaching listen people tend to talk first about what they value the most and Boaz says the Lord bless you the Lord keep you and what I

love about Boaz notice he's not a priest he's not a prophet he's not a pastor and yet he has a ministry right he has he has this he's he's working the his mission field and that's that's a reminder to every one of us you don't have to be a full-time Minister watch this come on listen you don't have to be a full-time minister to be a full-time Minister sir come on this is really important one of my one of my good friends he works for uh Louis Pala Ministries and his name is Jesse Northway and

first time I ever met with Jesse a few years ago he came to me and he made this statement he said Craig you've got to own your own mission field and I said Jesse just stop right there grabbed my calendar wrote it down so I could always have that you have to own your mission field which means wherever God has placed you that is your mission field amen meaning you don't have to you don't have to have some kind of title to be a missionary at your school you don't have to have some type type

of title to be a minister at your workplace you don't have to have some title to be a minister in your neighborhood come on Boaz is just an ordinary business owner and and yet he's letting the light of Jesus Christ shine in his life and while he's serving God he just so happens to notice Ruth and what did he notice well she's a moabit and and meaning she was from the wrong people group she worshiped the wrong God and she was homeless and she had a grumpy mother-in-law you can say that well I just did

how many of you would agree with me that Ruth had a complicated past you're I got one person raised in their hand everybody else is it's a trick question for sure but come on she did Ruth not let her past Define who she was and I'm telling you right now don't let your past talk you out of God's plan for your life don't let don't let that happen some of you right now well I could never do what God's calling you to do whatever that is I could never do that because I have in my

past I've done this no no no hold on one second don't let your past take you out of the plan that God has for you in your present and your future so let's look at what happened as Ruth and Bo begin to meet verse five Boaz asked his Foreman hey uh who's that young woman over there this is so good uh who does she belonged to verse six the foreman said well she's a young woman from Moab and and she came back with Naomi verse S she asked me this morning if she gather grain behind

the Harvesters and this woman she's been working hard ever since and all of a sudden Boaz sees four things in Ruth four things about Ruth that Boaz sees and I put these in your notes I want you to have them she's faithful to God she's she's loyal to her family she's a hard worker and finally she honors God morally verse eight Boaz went over and said to Ruth listen my daughter stay right here with us when you're Gathering your grain don't go to the other fields verse n I've warn the young men not to treat

you roughly in other words Boaz says to Ruth I'm going to protect you verse n second part and when you're thirsty help yourself to the water that we've drawn from the well so now you see that Boaz is not only protecting her but he is caring for her needs and then the next thing he does is he stops and he prays for her verse 12 here's the prayer may the Lord repay you for what you've done may you be richly rewarded by the Lord the god of Israel under whose wings you have come to take

refuge and all of a sudden there's four qualities that stand out about Boaz watch this he he honors Ruth he protects her he provides for her and he prays for her let me talk about that real quick number one he honors her Ladies Single Ladies listen to me sounds oldfashioned and I I admit it is but you want to be looking for somebody that opens the door for you married men you ought to open the door for your wives man did it get quiet in here I think there were there were more ladies saying amen

at that point than men come on Single Ladies when you when you're looking for somebody you want to find somebody who lets you go first married men you know what to do single ladies you you want to be looking for someone who takes you to a restaurant where that guy's got a tip does that help you three people got that think about the kind of restaurants where you got a tip it's not McDonald's does that help you and he's gonna pay for the meal that's right he does come on I saw the smile on your

faces okay so number one he honors her number two he protects her Boaz is not just protecting her from other men right the ladies you want to find somebody who's going to protect you not just from from men but that that that young man man is going to protect your heart and he's going to protect your Purity that's really important and then three he provides for her and four Boaz praise for ladies that is what you're looking for in a young man men that's what you want to develop in your heart you want to be

somebody that honors women that protects them and then blesses them and Watch What Happens Next last verse that we're going to look at and we're done verse 14 at at Meal Time Boaz said come over here have some bread dip it in this wine vinegar and when she sat down with the Harvesters he offered her some roasted grain and she ate watch this I love this next part she ate all she wanted and she had left over she ate all she wanted and she had leftover do you know why I want to point that out

because we serve a God who does exceedingly abundantly more than all you could ask think or even imagine that he is at work for his people all the time we what you want is you want a heavenly father that loves you so much he doesn't just meet the needs that you have but our God exceeds our expectations come on somebody say Amen to that come on his grace covers our sin how amazing is that his power gives us a chance to be new his peace goes beyond human understanding that's what the Bible says that no

matter no matter what your past is like you can become new through the power of God in your life if you're stuck in chapter one then I'm telling you today it's time to have have a change in your life if you're hurting if you're stuck maybe today God's going to be like turning the page if you're caught in an addiction if you will cry out to God today God can help you turn the page in that Addiction in that in your life amen and for those of you who are losing hope maybe God's looking at

you today saying Hey listen it's time to stop whining it's time to get up and it's time to get after it come on it's time for a new page new chapter because whatever you're going through God hears the cries of your heart heart he hears the prayers of your heart and when you pray God shows up through his providential power he takes natural circumstances and he uses them for your good in order to bring about his Divine Purpose in your life that's how good your heavenly father is to you today chapter one is closing because

today chapter two is opening up there's this new hope God is here God is with you and God is for you anybody happen to say Amen to that come on let's pray Heavenly Father God we know you're working in our lives right now come on heads bowed and eyes closed please no one looking around we're going to do something that we don't usually do and I can't have anybody looking around right now but we're going to close in a little bit different way come on between you and God I want you to I want you

to use this time as a testimony before God I just wonder how many people are stuck somewhere in chapter one right now but you're ready for chapter two and with heads bowed eyes closed nobody looking around just before you and God that you would just raise your hand up high and keep it up high I'm going to pray for you in a moment but you would lift your hand up high and say Yes Craig I'm ready for God to do something new in my life today I need a new touch from God and today you

would raise your hand up high and say Craig you're speaking to me today come on if that's you nobody looking around just you raise your hand up to God I'm going to pray for you in a second God I I need you to do a new thing new work in my life today we turn the chapter we turn the page today is something new you're stuck you're in pain but the Holy Spirit wants to do this new work in your lives would you pray with me Heavenly Father keep your hands up Heavenly Father we pray

today for those people that have their hands up and they feel like they're in chapter one The Heartbreak and the pain and we pray today Lord that your Holy Spirit would do a great work in our lives that you would turn the page in our life that this today would be a new day a new chapter and starting today you would do this new work dear heavenly father we claim that your grace covers our sins washes them away that your power that resurrection power we believe in it and we believe it's going to make us

new on the inside and we believe today and we claim that your peace goes beyond our human understanding so that no matter what our past is like God we believe you're making us new today you can put your hands down thank you so much heavenly father would you give us the wisdom to know what to do with these verses that we've read I pray your Holy Spirit would speak to us speak wisdom into our life and Heavenly Father we pray that you'll give us the courage when you speak to us that we would follow your

will we would follow your way if you've never SE said yes to Jesus come on today the day Jesus I want you to come into my life forgive me of my sins today Jesus I open up my heart I want a new life with you Jesus and you would say yes to him today just in your heart say yes Jesus come in to my heart make me new we pray all these things in Jesus Holy Name and All God's people said amen would you stand with me and let's sing a testimony of God's grace in

our lives