Let us hear God's word from Ruth 4 and verse 9. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Alimelech's and all that was Chileon's and Mahlon's from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day. And all the people who are at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. And may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of parrots whom Tamar bore to Judah because of the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Well, we have been making our way here then through chapter four, and basically the focus has been on legalities. And so the legalities regarding Naomi's land and Ruth's purchase for an heir for Limelech and Malone are now almost concluded, and we will do so tonight. Boaz found Mr. No-Name. and gathered 10 elders, and then offered the duty of Goel to this other man first. Initially, he said yes. It's the window back here, guys. Thank you. Initially, this man said yes, but when he learned that he must marry Ruth and provide an heir, he said no, telling Boaz that he can redeem them instead. This man was concerned about his inheritance, and so he selfishly said no, resulting in no name for him in Israel. Most likely, he was concerned that his sons would receive less if he agreed to buy the field and provide an heir for Elimelech. Now, no one can question Boaz, who was second in line. He didn't cut in front, as it were. Well tonight we come to the last part of these legalities and we see some of these prayers offered on their behalf. And so verse nine then first says, and Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Alimelech's and all that was Chileon's and Malon's from the hand of Naomi. All right, Boaz now here uses more of the legal language that was required for this. And he speaks here, notice, to two groups of people, to a crowd that must have gathered here during all of this, as well as to the 10 elders. And the 10 elders, of course, are the ones that Boaz had summoned. They were there to witness and really to ensure that the laws were upheld. This is not really elders ruling on anything, but if you will, overhearing the conversation and the official refusal by Mr. No Name. And so now Boaz is publicly announcing that he is buying Naomi's field. At least that's the part here in this verse. Now, You recall that we talked in verse 3 about the selling of the land, and there are some different viewpoints as to what happened there. And it's this verse why some people argue that Naomi had not yet sold the property, either in the last couple of weeks since she had come back from Moab, or before Naomi and Elimelech left in the first place. But she's selling it now. Note the language there at the end, from the hand of Naomi. Sounds like she's selling it at this moment, doesn't it? Furthermore, there is no mention of Boaz paying off the person who bought the land from Naomi. Remember the process here of redeeming the land. Somebody would sell their property because they were needing a loan, they were going to debt, you know, whatever it was, and then somebody would buy it, pay the money to that person so they could keep going or whatever, buy some more grain for the next harvest or whatever it was. But if they couldn't pay it back themselves, then the go-ale could come in and pay that person whatever is still owed on it and then give it back to the person who owned it in the first place. Since there's no mention of this guy here, And this language of from the hand of Naomi sounds like she's selling it at this moment. This is one of those cases where the Hebrew is very straightforward. From is the preposition. You can translate it differently, but this is what makes the most sense. All that said, though, it would be a bit odd for Boaz to pay Naomi for the field and then still care for her. It's possible that she'd kind of go off and do her own thing and then Ruth would come into his house and so on and so forth. But I think it's more likely, at least in my opinion, I lean to the fact that she has already sold this and probably sold it with her husband before they left. And so, as Mr. No Name was not named, maybe the author just doesn't name the person to whom Boaz paid the money that was still owed on it. But there is some debate here, and this is one of the reasons why some will say she was selling it at this moment. But if we assume that it already had been sold, let's use some of the figures that I've used just as examples. She sold the land for 50 grand, say it was 10 or 12 years earlier, and say, sorry, 60 grand, and now it's still owed 50 grand, and that was the number that Boaz paid to pay it off. Then the land would come back to Naomi. And the land would then stay in her family. What Elimelech and Malon and Chilion owned is now redeemed by Boaz and given to Naomi for her to use and to keep. Then, at some point, the heir that Boaz will provide will take it over and the land will belong then to him and pass it on to the subsequent generations. And, of course, we know then Jesse would take it over and have all of his sons and so forth on down the line. And so, again, there are some questions here, and I don't think we can say definitively, but what is clear is that Boaz is buying the land, and this is to benefit Naomi. So then, verse 10. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Malon, I have acquired as my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day." Now, as we know from what's been said here and of course in chapter three, Boaz is not finished. And so he also buys Ruth. Now this is stated very emphatically in the Hebrew and also Ruth begins the phrase here. And it's placed in this position, one, because that was the point in chapter three, wasn't it? And so Boaz is fulfilling his promise to Ruth. But also, it's likely because this was not a normal activity for the go-ale. Verse nine was. But to implement the Leveret Law from Deuteronomy 25 was not the original ideas in Leviticus 25 for the go-ale. And so for them to put these two things together certainly was acceptable, maybe expected to some degree, but still was something unusual. And so note the emphasis here, and also Ruth I have bought, he says. Now notice the legal language he uses here. He states her name, her heritage, and her marital status and background, and then he uses that specific terminology of buying her. The New King James softens it a bit saying, acquired her as his wife, but it's the same word by that we saw in verse nine and some of these earlier verses. That said, we don't want to think of slavery. We don't even want to think of the bride price here. And certainly this is not demeaning to women. And so in our culture today, we have to certainly emphasize this point. Simply Boaz is saying that he has not only redeemed the land, he is redeeming the heir, spending money to sire and raise an heir for Mahlon and Elimelech. And of course that is being done not through Naomi, but through Ruth. And so it's legal language. It's not saying anything about the value of women or of Ruth in particular. And so he's doing this to provide a son, as he says here, to carry on Elimelech's name through Malon. All right, now notice how this is working then. You have relatives. Again, we don't know Boaz's relationship here. Maybe he was a cousin or whatever it was. But now, this son that he will bear through Ruth will take on Elimelech and Malon's last name, we might say. And so Obed, son of Malon, you could say, son of Elimelech, not Obed son of Boaz. And so he is going to take that last name. And as it says here, he will then sit in the place that is reserved for the elders in the gate. And so the place for Lomelack, of course, is not there. The place for Malone is not there because they've died, but there's a hole, you might say, and Obed is going to fill that. And so that spot reserved for that family line is going to continue through Obed. Whenever he got married, possibly, whenever he turned 30, we don't know when that would be filled, but at some point it would. And so, again, this language used here is the language that we see in Deuteronomy 25, especially in verse 6. And so, as we've talked about now a few times with the Levirate Law, that's the language that he uses. All right, now, let me pause here a moment and have us reflect on this a little bit. Losing a name or losing an heir in that day was a major misfortune. We don't tend to think of it so much that way. Nalene's family, of course, they're three daughters. And so the name of Jim Carpenter is not going to continue. Now we might be saddened by that. There might be some disappointment and so forth, but it's not the same today as it used to be. For someone to lose their name like this by not having sons was considered a curse, something that was a great challenge and difficulty to accept and so on and so forth. Can we say in this case that this is worse than keeping the seventh commandment? If you understand what I'm saying there. As I've said before, the question here is, since we do not believe that polygamy is permitted even in the Old Testament, we have to still wrestle with the question here, was Boaz unmarried, or was he married? In other words, does the Leverett Law only apply when that brother dwelling with the one who died is unmarried? Or is there an exception to the seventh commandment and that he is providing an heir for his brother, only that one time and not any further than that? Well, because we don't think losing a name is as significant, we might just pass that off. But I'm not sure that we should that quickly, especially since the text doesn't make it clear really either way. And so again, as I mentioned last time, what are our assumptions in all of this? Well, as we try to enter into this situation, there are a few words in that way. Well, notice how the verse ends begins, or excuse me, the verse ends where verse nine begins. You are witnesses this day. Exact language there, same in both places. And so no one can say that the other Goel was unfairly treated. No one can say that Boaz did wrongly. No one can say that Naomi and Elimelech and Malon and even Ruth were mistreated in any way. Without witnesses, this whole thing would not be legal, but here it clearly is. And so Boaz has bought all of Naomi's property and possessions, probably paying somebody off, right, to make it right there. And Boaz is promising to care for her in life and death, that's the assumption, and then he clearly states that he's gonna marry Ruth to bear children, the first son being the son of Elimelech, Amalon, and if there were any more, they would have belonged to Boaz. And so you could say that Elimelech is living on through Boaz. Now remember the basic definition of the Goel, that man is restoring blessing to the family and Boaz is clearly doing that here. All right, now these are the last words of Boaz in the book. We talked about the last words of Ruth and Naomi at the end of chapter three. These are the last words of Boaz and what fitting words to end with. All this emphasis on blessing for Naomi, Ruth, Elimelech, and Malon. Notice now how Ruth is legally an Israelite, not just Boaz's wife. Naomi, is full. Yeah, okay, the heir is not born yet, but that's, you might say, a done deal. She is full. And so the last words of Boaz are emphasizing these things. Boaz here, notice this point too, is accepting Ruth, this foreigner, which is pointing us to the fact that God blesses and he also blesses non-Israelites if that non-Israelite trusts in him. Something Jonah needed to learn a few years later. Something maybe we need to learn again. Notice how this is a foretaste of Gentile inclusion. Now there's certainly been other things before this that point to Gentile inclusion, but this is clearly one of those. And so it anticipates the New Testament here in this way. We see, of course, through these words and actions that Boaz is keeping his promise to Ruth that he made in chapter three, especially there in verse 11. And so Ruth and Naomi are full, The land is purchased, the air is coming any day as it were. And so as I mentioned last time, Boaz is using godly math. He added it all up, realized he was gonna lose money. Possibly a fair amount of money. And if he already had sons, they were losing money based on the inheritance they were not going to get. And yet he added it all up and said, caring for extended family is more important. Not that his own family is unimportant, but he is doing it in this way. And so he gave part of his inheritance to Elimelech. Not many people are willing to do that. Mr. No-Name wasn't. Not many people today are willing to do that. And so again, we ask ourselves, the question I mentioned briefly in verses one to four, emphasized more last time, let me ask again. Are we like Mr. No-Name? What's in it for me kind of people? Or are we like Boaz, the how can I help kind of person? And so here is, once again, as we've seen throughout the whole book, an example for us to follow to be virtuous like Boaz. Well, as always, we could continue. Let's look now at verses 11 and 12. Verse 11, and all the people who were at the gate and the elder said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel, and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. All right, so now everybody responds. The crowd that has gathered, the elders who were called, and they legally respond, and the Hebrew is just the one word, witnesses. So it must have been what they were expected to say. And New King James adds a couple words there, obviously, to smooth it out. But witnesses, yes, we accept this. We see what's happening. The sandal's been passed along. The words have been said, and so on and so forth. It is legal. But then they turn to prayer. There are four prayer blessings now in verses 11 and 12. Three of them here in verse 11, one in verse 12. One is toward Ruth, and that's the first one, and the other three are toward Boaz, praying for him. Now it is likely that the words uttered here are words that were commonly spoken at marriages. a kind of marriage blessing, you could say, given by the community here. However, because you're talking about a foreigner coming in, and in particular the Leverett Law here in providing an heir for the dead relative, it's, I think, at least safe to say, maybe even incumbent upon us to say, that they said more than they would have just to a normal wedding blessing. And so let's look at what they say. First of all, the New King James does not put the word may in front of the first one, but we should. May the Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. And so here's their first prayer blessing. May Yahweh give Ruth, like He did, Rachel and Leah, who bore the twelve sons. All this blessing of children and so forth is the idea. Notice how they are treating Ruth like a full Israelite in saying these words. And so you could say this is a rather large prayer, isn't it? May Ruth be a foundation mother, you could say. like Leah and Rachel. And this is maybe more than just a normal marriage blessing, but this is what they're praying. May you be like the foundation mothers of our nation. Now, as we know, this prayer is answered, isn't it? Ruth did become a foundation mother. She is a foundation mother for the kingly line with David. and ultimately, of course, the Messiah. Notice how Rachel is stated before Leah, which is a bit odd, because Leah gave birth to Judah, and they're in Judah. But Rachel's probably mentioned first because she was buried not too far away, and so she had that prominence because of where they were. And as we know, they had 12 sons, Leah had six, Rachel had two, and then each one had the concubine who had two each, so 12 all together. Ruth was a foundation mother by having one son for sure. Maybe she had others, we don't know. If Boaz was not married she probably had other children. If he was, and this is an exception that God makes here for this issue of the seventh commandment and so forth, then she only would have had one. But that one was enough to make her this foundation mother so to speak. Of course, Obed had Jesse, and he had all those sons, David especially, of course, being one of those. David had very many sons. Solomon had very, very, very many sons. But most importantly, you have, of course, the Messiah descending from them. And at that point, the line that they're talking about here came to an end. There were no children, of course, born. from Christ, not physically. All right, now, one last thing to say about this prayer blessing. Was Ruth barren up till now? Obviously, she didn't have any children with Malone. If she would have, obviously, those children would have come back. I think there would have been some mention of them somewhere here in the book. There's no mention, not even of daughters. And so I think that's the idea that they didn't have children. Did this mean that Ruth was barren? If so, she is no longer. And so she's like Rachel in that way, isn't she? Rachel was barren and then had two. Even Leah was barren for a period of time. Sarah, of course, was barren. Rebecca was barren, but in each of these situations, a child was born, and in some case, several children. And so here we have this connection here. And so at least she didn't have children, maybe she was barren, and all that is gonna change. And so God answers this prayer blessing very specifically. All right, well that one's focusing on Ruth. The rest focus on Boaz. So the next one we see in verse 11 says, and may you, right Boaz, prosper in Ephrathah. All right, now Ephrathah, remember, is a name connected with Bethlehem. Let me just read here for you a moment from 1 Chronicles 4, verse 4 says, these were the sons of her, the firstborn of Ephrathah, the father of Bethlehem. And so because of that, we know there was a man, Ephrathah, in this connection with Bethlehem. Now some people still argue that Ephrathah may have been a portion of Bethlehem, like a suburb, if you will, and maybe both are true. But whatever the case, they're saying, may you prosper like Ephrathah. And Ephrathah is really the same name as Ephraim. And both of them come from the Hebrew word peri, which means fruitfulness. And so may you prosper Right, like ephratha, in ephratha, like fruitfulness is the idea. Okay, and so this is their prayer. Now, it may mean simply just may you have lots of money, but I think it's probably broader than that. Yes, have lots of wealth, have even lots of children, right, being fruitful in that way and so forth. Remember, he did give up part of his inheritance to make all of this happen. And so we could say, in a certain sense here, that they're praying, God, recover for Boaz what he is giving up to do this. Again, if we use some of the numbers I've used before, if Boaz had, say, 100 grand for his inheritance, and he spends 50 grand to do this for Naomi, may God restore that 50 grand, so to speak. So you have 100 grand again, maybe even more. Hey, whatever the specific numbers are, this is the idea. Lord, please restore to Boaz what he is giving up in order to be the go-ale. Now what's interesting is that we don't know if this prayer was answered. The other three are clearly answered. And we've looked at the first one so far. So I think it's probably safe to say that this one was too. Certainly, God did not leave Boaz to flounder. As we know, God promises to take care of his people. It doesn't mean that he became a millionaire or something. Maybe he didn't even restore that 50,000, but God certainly was blessing him and probably did restore some of this wealth and so forth. So then, the third prayer blessing, now the end of verse 11. And just to insert the pronouns and such here again, and may you be famous in Bethlehem. All right, now Bethlehem, you recall, means house of bread. So we have Ephrathah, fruitfulness, now house of bread. And so may Ephrathah, Bethlehem here be for Boaz, all this blessing. Note the poetic nature of all this. Now, we could translate this word here, to be famous, as simply to be called a name, or more generally, to be given a name. Again, this takes us back to the beginning of the chapter, doesn't it? Mr. No-Name never became famous. He became infamous, you could say, but we don't know his name. Boaz, we know. 3,000 plus years later, we know Boaz. This prayer has clearly been answered. His name did become famous in Israel. You remember also that Boaz, his name means in him is strength, meaning in God, in Yahweh. Boaz did find his strength in Yahweh. We saw it in chapter two. We've seen it here now in chapters three and four. He found his strength in Yahweh and gave up part of his inheritance to help these two widows. As we saw in chapter two, verse one, Boaz was a virtuous man. The same word used there as used later for Ruth in chapter three, verse 11. And so God gave this virtuous man a virtuous wife and both have a name in Israel, a name that we know. Obviously his name continues because his ancestor was King David and eventually Jesus himself. Clearly this prayer blessing is answered very, very much. All right, well let's look then at the fourth one and that's now verse 12. May your house be like the house of parrots whom Tamar bore to Judah because the offspring which the Lord will give you from this young woman. All right, so this time, again, praying for Boaz, they are praying that Boaz would have a house, a line, a lineage, a heritage that would be like the line of Peretz. Now remember, the Judah had five sons. Two of them died, Er and Onan, and so he's left with three sons. He has Shelah from Shua's daughter, and then through Tamar, he had Peretz and Zerah. Now, let me pause here just a moment and kind of foreshadow, you might say, verses 17 to 22. This whole section here at the end seems to be a clue as to when the author may have written the book. Now, let's again try to enter into where they are in redemptive history. We read this and we're like, oh yeah, the connections to Judah, the connections to Peretz, the connections to Christ, yeah, isn't it plain? Well, they probably didn't know that the Messiah would be a descendant of Judah and even a descendant of Peretz until 2 Samuel 7. We know, looking back, that there were some clues to that end. Genesis 49, among other places, obviously the book of Joshua and Judges highlights Judah, but it's probably not until 2 Samuel 7, verses 12 to 16, where God promised a house for David, that they then understood that the Messiah would be born in the line of Judah, in the line of Peretz, in the line of Boaz, and Obed and Jesse, and so on and so forth. And so it suggests to us that the book of Ruth was written after that. I don't think it demands it, but it certainly suggests it for us. And so here you have these people who must have been descendants of Paris for them to say what they're saying here in this verse. They were not descendants of Zerah or Asalah. And I think we have to say they were speaking unknowingly about how all this was gonna fit together. And yet, it's gonna fit together, isn't it? God answered this prayer in a way they probably never imagined. And as I've said, this is one of the first, can you say clearer clues, that the line of promise from which the Messiah would come would come through this family specifically. And so may Boaz's house be like the house of parrots. Well, God answers that prayer. And so whether or not Boaz had other sons, whether or not Boaz and Ruth had other sons, through this son, this prayer is answered. So let's now take a moment and turn back to Genesis chapter 38. Of course we looked at this briefly last time and so let me call our attention here a little bit to this tonight. Let me summarize the chapter here in verses one to 11. Of course we see that Judah married a Canaanite woman, Shua's daughter. It seems to say that he has no interest in the things of Yahweh at this point, right? He had three sons, Er and Onan, but they were wicked, as it says. Shelah, though, was too young to say for sure. As I mentioned last time, this is the only other place in the scriptures where the Leveret Law is clearly mentioned. and so Genesis 38 and here in Ruth. So, Judah found Tamar, a non-Israelite, and gave her to Er, his firstborn. He dies because of his wickedness, and then Onan is to perform this action of the Levirate Law, but he refuses to do so, so God kills him. Judah then sent Tamar home to her parents, because he didn't want his third son to die, probably thinking she's bad luck or something to that effect. Then you have verses 12 to 26. Notice verse 12 makes it plain. This was after Judah's wife died. And so notice how Tamar waits until he was, can you say, available? Now, she still doesn't do it in the right way, but at least she did that right. Didn't do it while he was still married. But she acts like a prostitute so that Judah would provide an heir for Eir. Tamar waited till it was clear that Judah not only was a widower, but that he would not give Eir an heir via Shelah. She does not take Judah's sandal and spit in his face. But she does take items belonging to Judah, proving that he sired the twins. Judah finds out and is ready to kill her and so forth, and then he is found out and is rebuked. And notice how this ends, verse 26. He did not know her again. Is this a clue as to how the Levirate Law was implemented? Maybe, maybe. Now let me read verses 27 to 30. Now it came to pass at the time for giving birth that, behold, twins were in her womb. And so it was, when she was giving birth, that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on his hand, saying, this one came out first. Then it happened, as he drew back his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly, and she said, how did you break through? This breach be upon you. Therefore, his name was called Breach, or Breakout, right? Parrots. Afterward, his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was Zerah. And so Tamar has these twins through Judah, and it is Peretz here, who then had Hetzeron, and then later, of course, we see that Rahab, interestingly, another scarlet thread, marries Salmon, and then we have Boaz, and so forth. Here we have now in Ruth people praying that this non-Israelite woman, Ruth, would provide a son like Peretz as Tamar did, a Canaanite Tamar. And God answered this prayer. Obed here continues the line of Peretz and the promised line. Let me read here a moment from Dr. Duguid and his paragraph here on these two women. He says, Perhaps the most striking aspect of the blessing on Boaz and Ruth is the analogy that is drawn between Ruth and Tamar. These two women are both like and unlike one another. Tamar's story is recorded in Genesis 38, like Ruth, she too was an outsider to God's covenant people who married into the family under doubtful circumstances. She too lost her husband and had no child. Both Ruth and Tamar dressed themselves up in pursuit of a child and a future. Here, though, the similarities end. Ruth revealed her identity to Boaz and received a child legitimately through marriage, whereas Tamar concealed her identity and deceived Judah in order to receive a child outside of marriage. The end result of both unions, both legitimate and illegitimate, was children. when the providence of God had an important part to play in God's plan. And we'll say more about that in the next set of verses here and to the end of the book. All right, well, let's Think here then about some of these broader principles from these verses. I've already addressed some of that, right? Are we like Mr. No Name or Boaz? But now let's think of prayer here for a moment in this way. Clearly these two verses are telling us that God answers prayer. And we know that because we're 3,000 years later and we can see how that's worked out. Notice though how God's prayers can be answered immediately but also over the course of many, many years and even centuries. These prayer blessings affected people who were not yet born. Now think about that for a moment. What's it going to be like 100 years from now, 500 years from now? Hopefully Christ has returned by then but if not what's it going to be like? Is there going to be space travel with flying cars? Is the earth going to be destroyed and run by machines and computers, a la the Terminator and the Matrix? Are we all going to be more slaves than we already are to the tyrants in D.C.? Maybe the ocean levels will cover New York City and half of Florida. We don't know. What's it going to be like? What is clear is that God knows. And he answers our very egocentric prayers in a way that not only bless us today in our families and our needs and so forth, but he answers them according to his larger plan for his people. And his plan is much bigger than anything we ever think of. Our imagination typically revolves around me. Maybe my family, maybe our church here and some other people we care about. But for the most part, we're very self-focused. God is not. He answers our prayers according to my need right now. It might take a few years or several years to answer that prayer, but he's also answering it in a way that is going to affect people we will never meet. And doesn't that give us confidence? Doesn't that give us encouragement? that our God is like that. And so let me end then with these words from Dr. Hubbard. He says this, in summary, the crowd wished Boaz and Ruth a destiny of prosperity and prominence akin to those of the famous ancestors Jacob, Rachel, Leah, and Peretz. The author prepares cleverly for the startling revelation in verse 17. With these elaborate blessings, Boaz exits the story until his genealogical curtain call. The worthy destiny wished him resembles a chorus of praise for his loyalty to family. It befits someone who has rendered a great public service at great personal cost. as Ruth's extraordinary devotion overshadowed Orpah's so that a Boaz stood in stark contrast to the other kinsmen. As the public anthem faded and the crowd dispersed, two questions remain unanswered. First, would Naomi finally have an heir? And second, would Boaz and Ruth in fact found some great dynasty? So those two questions will be answered in verses 13 to 22. Let's pray together. Our Father and our God, we again thank you for your word. And we thank you that you have given us this very personal and, if you will, real story for us to learn of you and learn of your ways and learn of godliness. Lord, again, we pray that you would help us to be like Boaz, that we would be virtuous, that we would be godly, that we would be willing to lose in order to bless those around us. But we also pray and thank you, Lord, that we can do all of that, knowing that you are far bigger than what we can imagine. And we know that you will bless your people, not just now, not just in a few years, but even generations from now, and that you answer the prayers of your people for the good of this greater purpose that you are working out for your church. Lord, we pray that you would do so even now, that you would answer these prayers, and that you would work out blessings for us, for our families, for this church, and for people that we have never met. We pray, Lord, that your blessings will flow out from us and our families in this place, and that you would bring about your purposes for your church and your people in the generations to come. And so we pray all these things then in Jesus' name, amen.