From Could to Will: Moving Beyond Excuses to Embrace Your Purpose
This post is part of Blackbird Mission’s 2025 Summer of Sermons series, featuring Daron Earlewine’s most impactful church messages.
Bottom Line Up Front: You have one life. Stop living in the land of “I could” and start stepping into “I will.” God isn’t looking for perfect people—He’s looking for available people who are willing to move from excuses to action.
We’ve all been there. Standing at the crossroads of opportunity, knowing we could do something meaningful, but finding ourselves paralyzed by fear, selfishness, or the comfortable lie of “I can’t.” The truth is, most of the time when we say “I can’t,” what we really mean is “I won’t.”
The Massive Difference Between Could and Did
Think about the Wright Brothers. Countless people probably dreamed of flying, but Orville and Wilbur actually did it. Steve Jobs wasn’t the first person to imagine having all your music in one device—we all thought about it on those bumpy school bus rides with our CD players. But Jobs moved from “wouldn’t it be cool if” to “I’m going to make this happen.”
There’s a massive difference between could and did. And that difference determines whether your life will be consequential or forgettable.
You realize you get one of these, right? One life. And some of you are wasting it—chasing after cars that are ruining your marriage, seeking online popularity that’s destroying your character, living in fear instead of faith. The invitation is to join the Creator of the universe and be part of His mission to redeem the lives of those around you.
The Power of Family Legacy
From the book of Ruth, here’s what makes Boaz’s story even more incredible. His mother was Rahab—a prostitute who was redeemed by the Israelites when they conquered Jericho. Can you imagine how many times growing up, Rahab sat down with Boaz and said, “Son, we are a family of redemption. We wouldn’t be here if these Israelites hadn’t said ‘our lives for yours.’ This is what we’ll be about—whenever you get an opportunity to step into redemption, our family mantra is ‘our lives for theirs.'”
When Boaz had the chance to redeem Ruth and Naomi, I guarantee he heard his mother’s voice ringing in his ears: “Son, your life for theirs.”
What’s the mantra of your family? When you’re dead and gone someday, what will your children say your family was about? Will they remember you as someone who stepped into opportunities to serve others, or someone who always found excuses to protect your own comfort?.
Your Moment of Decision
Some of you are in a place right now where God is inviting you into something. He’s saying, “You could do this.” And you’ve been telling Him, “I can’t.” But today you need to make the decision to step up and say, “I get to. And God, I will.”
For others, you need to be redeemed first. You’re trying to live life on your own, thinking somehow God is out to get you. But listen—God is already your friend. He’s already forgiven you. He’s already redeemed you. He loves you. What He’s saying is simply, “Come home. Just receive it.”
You were created on purpose and for a purpose. Don’t spend your one life sitting on the sidelines, making excuses, protecting your own inheritance while missing the opportunity to be part of God’s incredible redemptive story.
The choice is yours: Will you be the nameless relative who could have but didn’t? Or will you be like Boaz, stepping into the opportunity to live with purpose, meaning, and eternal significance?
The default answer, when you know God is moving in your life, should always be yes.
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What is God inviting you into today? What have you been saying “I can’t” to that you know you actually could step into? I’d love to hear from you—email me at daron@daronearlewine.com and let me know what God is stirring in your heart.
Episode Summary:
Redemption is never convenient—but it’s always worth it. In this message, Daron contrasts two men: one who passed on responsibility and disappeared from history, and another who said “yes” and became part of the story of Jesus. When we step up in faith, even when it costs us, our lives can echo through eternity. You don’t have to—but you get to. That’s the invitation of the gospel: My life for theirs.
Key Takeaways:
⚡️ You get one life—don’t waste it
⚡️ “I can’t” is often just fear in disguise
⚡️ Saying yes to God creates a legacy of redemption
⚡️ “Have to” thinking leads to small living
⚡️ You were made to join God’s mission of love and reconciliation
Notable Quotes:
⚡️ “You don’t have to… but you get to.”
⚡️ “Half-to thinking leads to half-living.”
⚡️ “You get one life. Stop wasting it on stuff that doesn’t matter.”
⚡️ “Boaz didn’t have to—he chose to, because redemption ran in his bloodline.”
⚡️ “Jesus is the Redeemer who wanted to… and did.”
Episode Resources:
Connect with Daron on Social Media:
Links to the Daron Earlewine Podcast
YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Libsyn
TRANSCRIPT
Hey, welcome back to the Daron Earlewine Podcast. Daron Earlewine, your host. And hey, one thing I love to do in the summer is shake things up a little bit, right? You got four seasons and everyone’s a little different. And I like to change things up in the summer. And that’s what we’re going to do here on the Daron Earlewine Podcast. So here’s what we got for you. You know, we do a lot of purpose development stuff, whether it’s at schools, the purpose paradigm, with what we’re doing now and kind of communicating the future of Rogue Collective as we’re doing purpose and personal development in the marketplace. And one of other things that I’ve been doing, well, shoot, now for like, I don’t know, since I was 16, is going to churches or being a part of faith communities and sharing sermons out of the Bible. And so what we’ve done this summer is gotten maybe some of the greatest hits over the past year or so.
Of me speaking at local churches and we’re going to put them together. We’re going to share them with you here on the podcast. And here’s what I hope. I hope they inspire you. I hope they help you understand how much God loves you. Okay. I hope they help awaken within you the fact that God is near you, right? That God is for you. And as we say every week on the podcast, that God has created you on purpose and for purpose. Lots of different topics that will be coming this summer.
But hopefully just great content that’s going to inspire you. And we always love to hear from you. A very easy way for you to do that, just email me, Daron, D-A-R-O-N at DaronEarlewine.com. Love to hear what you’re learning, love to hear questions you have. Maybe there’s a topic you’d love to hear us jump into on the podcast. Please reach out, Daron at DaronEarlewine.com and enjoy the 2025 Summer of Sermons. Created on purpose and for purpose.
Mercy Road, Northeast, so great to be with you. My name’s Daron Earlewine. I get to be one of the teaching pastors here. And if you’re brand new to Mercy Road, Northeast, we’re honored that you would join us this morning. For us as a church, one of the things that we believe to our core is there’s no one too far from God to experience life change through Jesus. We don’t think there’s people that are just kind of cast aside or forgotten. We believe that God is actively seeking everyone.
And actually has the power through his love to actually redeem and change your life. And in that process, what we want to allow it to do is kind of shape our culture here. We’re a little bit more of a hospital for sinners, right? Than like a museum of like saints, right? Where people are just kind of waiting.
And like till they die, right? To try not to do too much bad stuff. Like we actually want it to be a place where it’s a little bit messy, where we’re all actually trying to figure out how do we really follow Jesus and allow him to change and redeem our life. And for most of us, that’s kind of a slow process, right? Where it’s like, you’re getting better and you’re growing, but there’s still some messy stuff in your life. And we want that to be a part of our culture, not that we’re like glorifying that we’re all kind of messed up a little bit, right? We’re not being like, I just liked it and I’m kind of jacked up. No, it’s like us understanding that we walk with the grace and the humility because we know that we’re in the process of being redeemed. So glad that you’re here. This is your first time, stop by the little first time area out there, I think they give you an awesome coffee mug, which who doesn’t need one of those?
So anyway, you guys ready for Thanksgiving? Everybody ready for Thanksgiving? Right? I’m a big Thanksgiving fan personally. You know, I think Halloween gets a little too much focus, right? And I think, and I love Christmas and we’re, we are off the deep end in the Earlewine house. Okay. By that, I mean we were putting up Christmas trees on Halloween. Okay. So, we have problems, okay? But I have fully bought into my wife’s philosophy is a couple years ago, like I used to be the strong, know, like we don’t turn on the Christmas lights until Thanksgiving night kind of guy. I don’t listen to Christmas music until Thanksgiving night kind of guy. And then a couple years ago, my wife was just like, doesn’t it make you as happy as it makes me? And I was like, yeah. So.
I haven’t listened to Christmas for like two weeks. I don’t even care. I love it. All right. I’m crazy. Anyway, I like Thanksgiving. I like to eat. I like to give thanks. And I do think there’s something so important about us allowing gratitude to really be a part of the essence of our lives. So I can’t wait. We’re going to get up early tomorrow, drive down to North Carolina where my wife’s from and spend the week in North Carolina. And I just can’t wait to have a break. And so I just want to give just blessing.
Blessings upon you and your families this week as you spend time with those you love and those that you tolerate and gather with family. It’s interesting because there are probably going to be moments this week where you have the opportunity where you could do something loving, forgiving, patient, like you could.
And you’re going to have to ask yourself like, do I have to? Right? Like, do I have to again? And this process of like, could, should, have to, it’s dicey. You know, we’re going to walk through it as we end the story of chapter four of the book of Ruth. But like the opportunity of things you could do it’s.
It’s shocking. Like, here’s a question, right? Do you guys remember the first person who thought of an airplane? The first person thought of creating an airplane? Anyone know?
The Wright Brothers, well, they’re the first ones to create an airplane and fly it. But who thought of it first? No, don’t have any idea. Somebody last ever said Da Vinci, could have been him, he talked about it, but we don’t actually know who thought of it first. Like, I wonder if we could fly. We just know the person who actually did it, okay? What about like an iPod? Who was the first person to think of an iPod?
Last service numbers like Steve Jobs.
Well, once again, Steve Jobs created the iPod and has changed all of human history with all of these devices, but we have no idea who had the idea first, who first thought, you know what we could do? Put all these MP3s on this thing and have all this music. Cause you remember, we all actually thought about it. How many of you went to high school in the nineties? Praise God, All right. How many of you remember going on the bus somewhere and you had your CD player and all of your freaking CDs and this big thing?
And then when it came out with the CD player that didn’t skip as much remember that and you’d be right with your CD player like don’t skip You know the bus would hit and then you’d be like We all at some point on the bus were like do what if all my songs could just be in this thing, right? Steve Jobs went from I’m on the back of the school bus mad that my CDs are broken to like I you know what I could actually create this thing
And his name will be remembered for a long, long, long time. There’s a massive difference between could and did. And as we look at this story,
It’s really intriguing. So let me catch you up, because if you’re brand new today, you didn’t come for the past couple of weeks. This story comes from the book of Ruth. It’s a book in the Old Testament, which is like the first half of the Bible. And it’s only four chapters. And it basically takes us through the journey of this woman named Naomi. She’s kind of the first main character. And what happens is, Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, they leave Bethlehem and they go to Moab and as they go there, they settle because God’s blessing is on that area and for a decade they’re there and things are going smashingly. It’s great. Then all of a sudden the limelight dies. And then shortly after he dies, both her sons die.
I looked at this in three weeks ago in the story, chapter one. So here’s this woman who is a follower of Yahweh, of God, right? And then all of a sudden she now feels like God has turned against her because in a matter of just a short period, her husband and both her sons are dead. She is a widow. She is bitter. She feels like God has rejected her.
And what happens in chapter two then, she has two daughter-in-laws. And one of them is like, peace, I’m going back to my people. And she’s like, yeah, you probably should, no big deal. But then the other one named Ruth, she comes up to Naomi and she says, listen.
I will never leave you or forsake you. Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God. Right. And she shows this immense loyalty to Naomi. And so then they go back to the town of Bethlehem and say, get there. Ruth goes and begins to work in the fields of this guy named Boaz. Now what they don’t realize at this point is that Boaz is actually family and he’s connected to Elimelech who died. And so as they work there, he begins to show grace upon them and allows Ruth to actually collect more
Of the scraps of grain so that her and Naomi don’t starve to death and she begins to take a little interest. And then what happened last week is Ken brought us up to basically as this continues, Naomi’s like, listen, I got an idea. Here’s the deal. Boaz is what’s called our kinsman redeemer, meaning that he is related to our family. And if he were to make the decision to redeem us, right, by buying our property and by marrying Ruth, he could actually redeem
Redeem our legacy. He could keep our family moving and being blessed by God. Because this is a tough place for these women to be in because in that time without a husband, without a redeemer in that way, they were going to be very difficult to protect and to provide for themselves. So last week we left the story by Boaz saying, hey, here’s the deal. I’m not first in line.
There is actually another guy who is first in line, more closely related, and he has the opportunity to redeem you first. Then we pick up the story. And the first guy we’re gonna meet here is the Redeemer who could have, but didn’t. The Redeemer that could have, but didn’t. Check out the story, okay? Here we go.
We jump into the story. Boaz went straight to the public square and took his place there. Before long, the close relative, the one mentioned by Boaz, strolled by. Check it out. This guy doesn’t even get his name in the Bible. The close relative, right? Like what?
He had a name, he had a beard, he was a man, right? He was like, he was in the midst, but in the story, the writer was like, this guy is such an inconsequential part of this because he stayed at a place where he could have been the main character, but chose not to. And so for all of humanity,
He is nameless and faceless.
What about you?
You know what I wish? I wish every decision I made, I wish God could pop up a little video screen and show me the results of this decision. Wouldn’t that be awesome? Right? You’re getting ready to do something. All of a it’s like, blululup, bup bup. Oh, no thank you. I don’t think I want to do that. Or it pops up, oh wow. I don’t, I can’t believe it. If I actually go to this dinner party and meet this person, we’re going to get married. I have six kids.
Right? You don’t know. You just have a bunch of stuff you could do. And I just wonder for us as we go through the story, if if our job is followers of Jesus, if you are one here today, if the main part of our job is, I need to hear
What God is saying to me today, what is God saying to me? And then I need to answer the question then, what am I gonna do about it? And what I’ve tried to do in my life is as much as I can understand that God is actually inviting me or speaking or guiding me to something, here’s what I’ve just decided. The default answer is always yes. When I know it’s God moving in my life, it’s not, oh, I could.
It goes immediately to should, to must, I will. Because I don’t want to get to the end of my life and be the close relative.
Like think about it, you die, you do make it into heaven, but you’re sitting in your little kind of garbage piece of land in heaven and next to you is your brother, sister, cousin, the other relative who actually said yes to every opportunity God gave them. And you’re sitting with you and your wife and your dog because they all go to heaven, right? And there’s no one else there.
And next to you is a mansion with tens of thousands of people coming to your close relative, thanking them for being a part of their story of redemption. And you have to sit there for eternity and go, I guess I could have.
You realize you get one of these, right? One. You get one life. And some of you are wasting it, wasting it, chasing after everything the world tells you you need. You’re wasting your life trying to get a better car. And guess what? It’s ruining your marriage.
And you’re parenting because you have to have a boat. You’re doing stuff that is absolutely dangerous and moronic online because you want to be popular. You’re wasting your life.
And the invitation is to join the creator of the universe and be a part of his mission to redeem the lives of those around you. Do you realize how much potential purpose and meaning and value your life is supposed to have?
But you have to move from I could to I will.
Step aside, old friend, said Boaz. Take a seat, the man sat down. Boaz then gathered 10 of the town’s elders together and said, sit down here with us. We’ve got some business to take care of, and they sat down. Boaz then said to his relative, once again, no name.
The piece of property that belonged to our relative, Limelech, is being sold by his widow, Naomi, who has just returned from the country of Moab. I thought you ought to know about it. Buy it back if you want it. You can make it official in the presence of those sitting here before the town elders. You have first redeemer rights. If you don’t want to, if you don’t want it, tell me so I’ll know where you stand.
You’re first in line to do this. I’m next up after you. He said, I’ll buy it right off the bat. He’s like, I’m in. I will buy it. Wonderful. Why? Because it was good for him.
So what you’re not saying, if I do this, it’s a guaranteed good for me. I get more power, yes. I get more property, yes. I get more wealth, yes. I get more respect, so yes, this is good for me, because all I’m thinking about is me, so I’m in. I’m in. Because I am focused on me.
Boaz his own hands. You realize, don’t you, that when you buy the field from Naomi, bonus, you also get Ruth the Moabite and the widow of our dead relative, along with the redeeming responsibility to have children with her, to carry on the family inheritance, then the relative, once again, who has no name.
Oh, I can’t do that. Whoa, I would jeopardize my own family’s inheritance. You go ahead and buy it. You can have my rights. I can’t do it.
Yes. You. Could.
You just won’t. I can’t, can’t do it. Yes, you can’t use no one to. No, no, I can’t. Physically impossible. No, it’s not. You just said you were going to, and then now you’re wimping out because there’s too much responsibility and risk, but you live with fear and selfishness. So just say, I’m afraid and selfish. Don’t say I can’t.
Doesn’t it feel good to say I can’t though? Because then you can just be powerless and a victim. Oh, we love that.
You could buddy, you could absolutely. But all you’re thinking about is how you don’t know how this is gonna work and how you don’t want it to be uncomfortable and how you don’t wanna live by faith. So here’s what you’re doing. You’re afraid that you’re going to compromise and jeopardize your family’s inheritance. Let me tell you what you’re getting ready to do. You’re about to completely jeopardize your whole family’s legacy.
You’re at this moment where you could step into this and we would be talking about this guy right now, 2000 years later, more than 2000 years later, because the end of the story is we talked about at the first week and I’ll bring it back around. This decision is going to line up for whoever makes this decision that their lineage will be connected all the way to Jesus.
I’m not sure I can afford it. I’ve got to protect my own legacy and my own inheritance. No, bro, you just were actually given the opportunity to be a part of a redemption story and you’re gonna miss it and no one is ever going to think about your life again because if you live for your self when it’s all over, all you may have is yourself.
And that’s not how you were created to live, because you were created for and by love.
And greater love has no one than this, then we lay down our life for our friends.
The Redeemer who didn’t have to, but did. Let’s meet the next character. The Redeemer who didn’t have to, but he did. His name is Boaz. We got no name. He could have, he didn’t. Boaz didn’t have to and did. This idea didn’t have to. You know what I think is interesting? And I have these conversations often and I have them with the past, you know, a couple of decades of doing Jesus stuff is,
Oftentimes when we start following Jesus, we immediately start asking questions like this. What do I have to do?
There’s some of you that are here today and you’re here because God’s been drawing you to himself. He wants to redeem your life. He loves you. He died for you. And he wants to give you the life that you were created to live. But here’s where you’re at. When you think about following Jesus, here’s where you’re stuck at. What do I have to do? Meaning, do I have to stop drinking? Be honest. Do I gotta stop? Now,
What about smoking? Do I have to stop smoking? I apologize. What about vaping? Vaping is better, right? Right? It tastes like, smells like cotton candy, right? I look like a diesel, you know what mean? Just coming out the road. I smell like a cotton candy diesel. Anyway, do I have to stop doing that? I really want to be a diesel engine that smells like cotton candy. Well, what about cussing? Do I have to stop cussing? Do I have to if I apologize? have to.
What about like, it just, I just use like singular curse words, not like compounded, the compound cuss words. Like, not two at a time, but is Jesus cool with you? What about gossiping? Do I have to stop gossiping? Because man, do I love to gossip. Maybe put a little slander in there too. Feels good on my lips.
Do I have to stop with the gospel? Do I have to give money? Like, do I have to tie? Be honest. I looked at a whole new testament, didn’t even see it in New Testament saying to tie, keep all the money for my, do have to? Do I have to start one of those outposts you guys always talk about where like we go and like help change the world? Like, do I have to?
Now.
No, I don’t think you do. Here’s what I do though, is that half to thinking leads to half of living.
You see, when you live your life by asking, I have to, you will begin to see yourself as a victim of the circumstances of your life, rather than someone who is in control of creating the future through your life that God has created you for. Because you step up and you say, I am making a decision. I get to do this today. I…
Get to join with what God is doing in this moment Boaz says awesome. I Get to be a part of the redemption of this family. I don’t have to I get to
So we don’t ever think this way. Like how many guys played high school sports? competed in high school sports? Yeah, a lot of us, right? How about any collegiate athletes? were in collegiate, okay? How many of you, when you came to tryouts, this is what your first conversation with the coach sounded like? Yeah, coach, Been thinking. And I know there’s like an MVP, Most Valuable Player award that they hand out at the end of the season.
Before I really lock in for tryouts here, I was wondering, do you give out like an MVP, but it’s more like most viable product? It’s more of a minimalist idea. Where I could get an award for doing the least possible to still be on the team. I don’t really want to play coach. I’m not looking to play. could play, my position could be like left out. But if I could get the uniform and be
The team picture, get the yearbook, that would be cool. Do you have a spot for someone who just wants to barely make it?
None of us have that conversation with a coach during tryouts. And if you’re a coach and that conversation happens, what do you tell the kid? You know, let me save you the next three days. Just stay home.
But I have been like that with Jesus so many times. I mean, seriously, but no, Jesus, what do I have to do just to get into heaven? Let me just get in. I mean, even if I smell like smoke, right? Something’s on fire, but I just, I ran through the pearly gates. I’m looking for not an MVP. I’m not looking for most valuable person in the kingdom of God. I’m just, can I just make it by? Like, what is it that I have?
To do, Jesus.
Well, actually not much because it says basically believe in your heart, confess with your mouth. God’s done the hard work. It’s what Jesus has already done to redeem us. I guess the question is…
Why would you choose to live an inconsequential, forgettable?
Half effort life when the opportunity is to join the King and Redeemer of the universe to join his mission to transform the lives of people around you. To wake up every day and know my life has purpose and meaning.
Get to thinking leads us to life and life to the full. So Boaz, in the olden times in Israel, this is how they handled official business regarding matters of property and inheritance. A man would take off his shoe, all right, and he would give it to the other person, right? Okay, hey, listen, I’m in, here’s my shoe. I’m not sure why shoe. I didn’t do enough research this week to figure out why the shoe, but it’s the shoe, okay? So.
This was the same as the official seal of a personal signature in Israel. So when Boaz, so when Boaz’s redeemer or relative said go ahead and buy it, he signed the deal by pulling off his shoe.
But wasn’t addressed the elders and the people in the town square that day said you are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and Killian and Maulan and including the responsibility for Ruth the foreigner, the widow of Maulan. I’ll take her as my wife and keep the name of the deceased alive along with his inheritance. The memory and reputation of the deceased is not going to disappear out of this family or from his hometown to all this. are witnesses to this very day. All the
People in the town square that day, backed up by the elders said, we are witnesses. May God make this woman who is coming into your household like Rachel and Leah, the two women who built the family of Israel. May God make you a pillar in Ephathra and famous in Bethlehem with the children God gives you from this young woman. May your family rival the family of Perez, the son of Tamar, born to Judah. Boaz married Ruth. She became his wife. Boaz slept with her by God’s gracious gift. She conceived
And had a son. The town women said to Naomi, remember who was bitter, who was forgotten by God. Now they say to Naomi, bless be God. He didn’t leave you without family to carry on your life. May this baby grow up to be famous in Israel. He’ll make you young again. He’ll take care of you on old age. And this daughter-in-law who has brought him too into the world and loves you so much why she’s worth more to you than seven sons.
Naomi took the baby and held her in her arms, cuddling him, cooing over him, waiting on him hand and foot in the neighborhood. Women started calling him Naomi’s baby boy, but his real name was Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, Jesse, the father of David, as in King David, as in David and Goliath David.
As in God’s after, man after God’s own heart, David. This is the lineage through this.
Moment where Boaz steps up and says, I don’t have to, but I get to, and I’m stepping into redemption. I don’t exactly know what’s on the other side of it. Well, here’s what’s on the other side of it, Boaz, okay? You’re going to step into this and the lineage of this is going to go all the way through King David, all the way to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Your name will never be forgotten. Your legacy will be one of redemption because you moved into what you could do and what you got to do as you are partnered with God.
The God of redemption. Why would Boaz have done that? Oh, I’m glad you asked.
Ken was doing some research. He said, Daron, you’ve got to check this out. This is for your week. And I was like, thank you, Ken, for doing more research than I did.
Why would Boaz do this? Well, if you get together with family, start reading the Christmas story, maybe you read in Matthew the genealogy of Jesus. And if you did, you probably went right past it. You didn’t think much about it because things are hard to pronounce and you’re like, not sure what this has with us. Reading this quickly, grandma, so I can get to my presence. Well, as you read it, you would have gone through this in chapter one of Matthew, verse five, you’d have gone through this. You would have said, oh, okay, Solomon, the father of Boaz,
Okay whose mother was Rahab what
Boaz is, I never heard of his dad, Solomon, really, but I remember a story about, about rehab, but is this like the rehab, the rehab? Boaz’s mom was rehab? He said, I don’t know the story. Okay, I’ll tell you.
You see, when the Israelites were about to go into the promised land that God had given them, they sent spies into the city of Jericho.
To see what kind of land this was. Was it a land flowing with milk and honey? this what God had given us? So these spies go into Jericho. And as they get to the outer wall of Jericho, there is, and this I guess was common, is a lot of times on the outer wall, there would be a home where a lot of travelers would gather. It’d be a great place for a spy to come and get information. It was also usually a prostitute’s house. Rahab was a prostitute.
We’re not sure what caused her to have to live the life she lived. She could have had, it could have been a very difficult thing, but she was trying to find a way to exist in life. And so these spies go into Rahab’s home and…
As they’re there, the king of Jericho sends soldiers to come kill the spies. And Rahab says in this moment, she says, I believe that your God is the true God and I believe he has given you this land. So here’s the deal. I will lie for you and I will hide you on my roof. But here’s what I need you to promise me. When you come and when God gives you this land, will you spare? Will you redeem the lives?
Of my mother and father and sisters and brothers. And this Israelite spies say, listen, here’s the deal. Would you take a scarlet rope and hanging out the window. And as we come in and God gives us the promised land, anyone inside your room with the scarlet rope, we will redeem. And they say this to her, our lives for yours. They take the land.
They take Jericho, they redeem Rahab, the prostitute and her whole family. She eventually has a son. The son’s name is Boaz. And you tell me how many times in Boaz’s life growing up, his mom didn’t sit down with him and say, son, we are a family of redemption. We would not have been here, son, if these Israelites did not redeem us.
They stood and they said, our lives for yours. And now we are blessed. And now we are part of what God is doing. And this is what we’ll be about, son. For our whole life, son, whenever you get an opportunity to step into redemption, here is our family mantra, our lives for theirs.
So why would Boaz redeem him?
Because as his could-do nameless relative stepped out of the way, he stepped up, he took his shoe off, and I guarantee you he heard the voice of his mother ringing in his ear, son, your life for theirs.
What’s the mantra of your family?
When you’re dead and gone someday, what will your children say? This is what our family was about.
May it be.
Something that looks a lot like the Redeemer who promised to end it. His name is Jesus.
Jesus promised to and he did. Ephesians 1, 4 through 5, long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us. He decided then to make us holy in his eyes without a single fault. We who stand before him covered
With his love, his unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. And he did this because he wanted to. Jesus is the Redeemer who wanted to and did. He has purchased us back.
From death and hell in the grave. His blood paid the price for our sins and he has invited us to receive that redemption and then join him that the trajectory of our life would be my life for theirs. So when I’m around people and it’s annoying and I go, do I have to forgive them again? No, you don’t, but you could my life for this. Do I have to be patient and walk with this person again through what they’re going to do? I have to invite these kids into my life that are
Messy and cause problems. Do I have to get involved in coaching? Do I have to do these things? Do I have to step into what God is asking me to do to be a part of redemption? No, you don’t. But when you do, you show up like Jesus.
My life for theirs.
That’s what Jesus has commanded us to do. Says it like this in 2 Corinthians, verse five, chapter five. If it seems we’re crazy, it’s to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit.
Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life, listen, listen, will no longer live for themselves.
It said, no, I can’t because I’m worried about my own money, my own inheritance. No, no, I don’t live for myself anymore. Now it is my life for theirs. Instead, they will live for Christ who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time, we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view, how differently we know him now. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone. The new life has begun.
And all this is a gift from God who brought us back to himself through Christ. He redeemed us. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.
He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead come back to God. For God made Christ who never sinned be the offering for our sins so that we could be made right with God through Christ. What a gift.
We’re gonna sing this song of worship, but I’m gonna come back and give you an opportunity to respond. And in this, here’s what I want you to think about is that some of you are a place right now where God is inviting you something into something right now. He’s saying, you could do this. And you’ve been telling him, I can’t. And today you need to make the decision of stepping up and saying, I get to. And God, I will.
For some of you out of place right now, for you, it’s you need to be redeemed. You’re trying to live your life on your own and you think somehow God is out to get you. What we just read there is that, listen, God is already your friend. God has already forgiven you. He has already redeemed you. He loves you. What he’s saying is just come home. Just receive it.
Let him be the Redeemer. He already is. And he gets to love you and forgive you.