Inspire

Guest (Female): Aloha and welcome to the Inspire Church podcast. Whether you're on a walk, driving to work, or just need to hear a fresh word, this is your spot to get inspired, challenged, and equipped to live a faith-filled life.

Each episode, you'll hear powerful sermons straight from our weekend services that speak into your life, your leadership, and your legacy. Before we dive in, do us a favor, hit that subscribe button, leave a review, and share this with someone who needs a word today.

If you want more resources, like Pastor Mike's newest book, *Blow Your Mind*, head over to MikeKai.tv. All right, let's lean in, open your hearts, and let God speak through this message.

Mike Kai: I want you to turn your Bibles to the book of Ruth today. We're going to do a great message from the book of Ruth. We started a relationship series called *Thrive*. It had been a little while since I've done a relationship series.

We were in 27 weeks of the most important stories you need to learn about your Bible so that you know your Bible. If you know your Bible, you'll be able to live your life the way God called you to live. 27 of the most important, although there are more than 27.

Then we felt like in the middle of it, we needed to take a break. There might be another break after we jump back into this series of the journey through the Bible. One of those breaks might be about the end times. We might do an end-time study for about four to five weeks and then jump back into the journey of the 27.

That'll take us all the way to December. But I want to talk to you about this story because it's very important. We've been talking about *Thrive*. Everybody say, "Thrive." We all want to be in relationships that thrive, not just survive.

Not every relationship will thrive, but we want to get to the place where we're thriving on all cylinders in every relationship we've got, whether it's the workplace, whether it's the kids, whether it's marriage, whether it's friendship, siblings. All that stuff is very important that we are firing and thriving on every single cylinder.

When we started this *Thrive* series, we talked about different things. We talked about raising kids in the house of God. We talked about how to raise a champion. It's important that we raise kids in the house of God because when we do, the Bible says when they are older, they will not depart from it.

We talked about the four poisons. There are more than that, but the four poisons that get into our relationships about death being in the pot. We talked about that. We talked about generational stuff and how to deal. Darian preached last weekend on how to deal with those generational strongholds that get passed on that we pick up from generation to generation that stop with us.

When we're born-again believers in Jesus Christ, a lot of things come to an end with us. We don't want to pass it on to our kids, to our grandkids, and so on and so forth. We are the line. Today I want to talk to you about what's appropriate, it being Mother's Day, about two incredible women in the Bible.

It's found in the book of Ruth. I don't know when's the last time you read the book of Ruth. Maybe your devotional, maybe it's coming up here right around June 12th. We should be in the book of Ruth if you're doing the great life plan with us.

When you look at the book of Ruth, Ruth is set in the setting of the book of Judges or the period of Judges. In the period of Judges, the Bible says this is the period, you had the Moses period where Moses led for 40 years in the desert.

After Moses, you got the Joshua period, and Joshua leads them into the Promised Land. After the Joshua period, you have the Judges period. That's when God appoints judges, not necessarily one person anymore. Then we go into the period from Judges to First Samuel, Second Samuel, and then we're going to get a king named David.

In between is a beautiful story that God felt that we needed four chapters to pause in the middle of the book of Judges called the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth is powerful because it's two women. It's actually three women, but it ends up being about two women and what God wants to do through their pain and through their misery, difficulty in their life.

The Bible tells us that it's important in Ecclesiastes. Let's remember this. It says that the ending of a matter is often better than the beginning. What do I mean by that? What I mean by that is sometimes we have such a short-term view of life.

Seven years seems like a long time for us, but it's really not. That's why when we go through a year that we're struggling in our marriage, a year that you're struggling in relationships, or maybe two years, you're going on your second year and you're having a hard time, and you give up too early.

You have a short-term view versus the long-term view. I've been married to Lisa for 32 years. 32 years, my beautiful wife, Lisa. If you're brand new, it has been the best 32 years of Lisa's life. The best. I've been such a blessing to her.

I come home, I'm a blessing. Change my name to "Blessing." No, just kidding. But I've been blessed to be married to Lisa for 32 years. Can I tell you the beginning years, the first five years, it was rough? It was blended family rough.

I don't know how we would make it. I don't know if we were going to make it. We made it. We hung in there. Praise the Lord that we did. But look at the 32. Look at what God has done in the 32 years out of the first struggled five years.

When you saw that picture of my wife and my three daughters, that's the legacy of hanging in there. When you see the grandkids, that's the legacy of hanging in there. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that the ending is often better than the beginning.

Some of you are at the beginning, some of you are in the middle, and you're not quite at the end yet. Hang in there because God's about to do something great in your marriage and in your life. Somebody say, "Amen."

When I look at this story in Ruth chapter one, I got a Bible in front of me. If you don't, we got you. It's up here on the screen. But Ruth chapter one, here we go. It says in the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon the land.

That's judgment. That's the judgment of the Lord. Why? Because they were disobedient to God during the period of the judges. God withholds the rain. If there ain't no rain, there are no crops. If there are no crops, nobody's eating bread.

There's a severe famine came upon the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were Mahlon and Chilion.

They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Just give us your address already, Social Security number. All right, that's where they're from. That's the Bible. The Bible is specific like that. Verse seven, Elimelech dies.

Naomi was left with her two sons. The two sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and the other a woman named Ruth. About 10 years later, both Mahlon and Chilion died. This left Naomi alone without her two sons or her husband.

You see the tragedy in this. They move from Bethlehem, which means house of bread. This is Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Bethlehem is critical to us in our Christianity and our Christian faith. They go from a place because there's a famine in the land, and they feel like they need to leave.

They leave out of Judah, which is Israel, and they go to the land of the Moabites. You know who the Moabites are? The Moabites are the descendants of Lot. Do you remember the story? Lot and Abraham separate. Lot takes his wife and two daughters to a land called a region called Sodom, the plains of Zoar.

The angels have to come and rescue them and tell them to get out and leave because God's about to destroy the city because the outcry was so great. They couldn't find even 10 righteous people. That's the reason why. Couldn't even find 10 righteous people in the city.

God says you got to go, you got to go. He's taking Lot. The angel takes his wife, takes the two daughters, and he tells them, "Don't look back." But the wife is hardheaded. She don't listen, and the wife looked back, and she turned into a pillar of salt.

This is where we get "salty wahine" syndrome. That girl is salty. Turned into the woman turned into a "wahine." Turned into a pillar of salt, "salty wahine." So now here they are, and the daughters come up with a crazy idea.

There are no men in this town. There are no boys in this town. We need offspring. Otherwise, our dad's line discontinues. What do they do? They get their dad drunk. I'm going to leave it right there. The oldest child out of the offspring of dad and the oldest daughter is a boy named Moab.

This is where you get the Moabites. They go to the land of Moab. He takes his family. He tragically dies. He got two sons. They marry Moabite girls, Ruth and Orpah. Now both boys die, Mahlon and Chilion. They both die.

Now Naomi has two daughters-in-law left with her, but no sons and no husband. Now we got a problem here. We got tragedy, we got sorrow upon sorrow. She didn't just lose her husband, but 10 years later lost both boys. Now she's carrying with this.

Now she's got to carry these girls, the tremendous weight that she's carrying. The Bible says in verse six then Naomi heard that in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah by giving them good crops again. Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland.

With her two daughters-in-law, she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took the road that would lead them back to Judah. Praise God when you know where to go back to. Praise God when you've strayed away, you've gone to a land that you don't belong in, and all of a sudden you realize that you are returning to where you need to be.

This is what happens. She's going back to the place that they should have never left in the first place. Here they are. God turns it around. That's what I love about the Lord. Verse eight, but on the way Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back to your mothers' homes. May the Lord reward you for your kindness to your husbands and to me. May the Lord bless you with security of another marriage."

Then she kissed them goodbye, and they all broke down and they wept. "No," they said, "we want to go with you to your people." But Naomi replied, "Why should you go on with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? No, my daughters, return to your parents' homes for I am too old to marry again. And even if it were possible and I were to get married tonight and bear sons, then what? Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? You'd be about 16 years older than them. You'd be cougars."

"But no, of course not, my daughters. No, things are far more bitter for me than for you because the Lord himself has raised his fist against me." Underline that in your Bible. Again, they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung tightly to Naomi.

Read this slow. Soak it in. There ain't no football games right now. Just listen to me. No notifications, no scores popping up. The NBA is boring right now. Give it two more weeks. Listen to me. This story is heavy.

It's not just 1200 BC, it's 2026. This still happens like this. Stuff like this still goes on. The heaviness and the weight of tragedy upon tragedy upon another one. When you finally think you can't take it anymore, you finally go back.

Now all of a sudden, she's trying to get her other daughter-in-law to leave her. The other daughter-in-law won't leave her. The other one, she left, but this one wants to stay with her. She said, "No, I don't want to go." Then it says in verse 14 and again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung tightly to Naomi.

"Look," verse 15, Naomi said to her, "your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same." But Ruth replied, "Don't ask me to leave you or turn back." Underline this, highlight this. "Don't ask me to leave you or turn back. Wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us."

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more. The first thing I want you to write down in your notes is number one. The most important thing about relationships, one of the most important things is number one is selfless generosity.

Selfless generosity. This is motherhood right here. Motherhood, selfless generosity. Moms, you eat last. When your kids are growing up, you're cooking the food, you make sure everybody's eating, and then you finally make your own plate and you finally sit down and eat.

You're the one that's staying up late changing the diapers. I know we're in a new generation. Dads jump in. Not back then, but now we do. We grew up in a generation you clean, you wash, you do the dishes. There's a lot of help.

But I'm telling you right now, still, moms, you got the toughest jobs. Dads, that doesn't mean that our job is easy. Our job is tough too. To be the man of the house, to be the leader of the house, to be able to cultivate the garden of life that we are creating.

To pull weeds, to make sure that no weeds, the enemy doesn't just come and plant weeds in your garden because you have to tend your garden, you have to protect it. Otherwise, you have snails, you got slugs, or you got geckos in your garden. In order to have a beautiful garden, garden of life, you've got to be able to be intentional with relationships.

Number one, selfless generosity. The second thing that we find is the selfless generosity that is happening with this beautiful mother named Naomi is because of her generosity and telling them to go. It's better for you not to live with me.

It's actually better for you. But what we find is this kind of undying loyalty. This loyalty, unwavering loyalty that comes from Ruth as a result of the generosity. Ruth stays in there. You got to remember now, Ruth is not God's people yet.

She's not God's people. She is a foreigner. She is not allowed. You know what I'm talking about? But Naomi still is because Naomi is Jewish. Here, you got to see the whole picture. The Bible tells us in Ruth chapter one, verse 16.

She says, "Do not ask me to leave you. Don't ask me. This is where covenant comes in." This is a covenant friendship, a covenant relationship. Not casual, not convenient, but covenant. Praise God when you find yourself some covenant relationships.

If you are a man and a woman, a husband and wife, you have a covenant relationship. If you have children or if you have parents, that's a covenant relationship. If you got brothers that would die for you, sisters would do anything for you, that's a covenant relationship.

Not casual, not convenient, not complicated. Important, unwavering loyalty. It's hard to find loyalty today in a free-agent society. What do I mean by free agent? In a transfer portal society. You know what I just found out? I knew this was coming.

It's harder for a high school graduate today to get a D-one or D-two scholarship. It's harder today because colleges, because of the transfer portal, are not going to go to high schools as much as they used to. Why wait four years to develop a player where you can get somebody who's in the portal and ready after one year or two years in the portal and ready to jump and get NIL money and join somebody else, get paid maybe a million dollars?

Good for them. Who can turn away generational wealth like that? But that's the system that we have today. There is no loyalty. But loyalty gets rewarded. When I look at this, the unwavering loyalty of Naomi and Ruth and Ruth to Naomi.

Sometimes people encounter God because they first encountered faithfulness in us. I look at this story and I think about this. Can you imagine these two women? Now they're making their way back to Bethlehem. Two poor women on the dusty roads from Moab to go all the way back to Bethlehem on the road.

Stopping on the side for a drink of water, trying to find a place where people will offer them hospitality. There's no Howard Johnson, there's no Hojo Motel 6. There's no resort down by Kapolei for them to rent and stay at. Now they're making their way back to the place where God's about to do a miracle.

Remember now, I told you the end of a matter is often better than the beginning of a matter. Here's what happens. They get back to Bethlehem. In chapter one, verse 18, so the two of them continued on their journey. When they came to Bethlehem, the entire town was excited by their arrival.

"Is it really Naomi?" one of the women asked. "Is it Naomi?" She said, "Don't call me Naomi. Don't call me Naomi." She responded, "Instead call me Mara." Why? Because Mara means bitterness. Naomi means pleasant. I was once pleasant, but now I'm bitter.

"For the Almighty has made my life very bitter for me." She's blaming God again. She's putting this on God. Okay, I get it, but can I be honest? They didn't need to move. They moved out of the blessing and the favor of where God was working even though he was disciplining the nation.

They left based on economics, not based upon a move of God. It's so tempting to go move to get your three acres, your 10 acres in Montana or Idaho, which is great. I'd love more land, more space. I don't want my neighbors hearing me.

I don't want my neighbors pouring me a cup of coffee when I stick my arm out the window. Of course, I want more space, but I cannot be led by economics. I have to be led by God. Can I get an "Amen"? Yes, economics is a factor. Yes, housing is a factor, but it has to be God. Am I hearing from you? If I just helped anybody out right now, just make sure you seek the Lord, okay?

Keep on going. Look at what she says, "The Almighty had made life bitter for me. I went away full," verse 21, "but the Lord has brought me home empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has caused me to suffer and the Almighty has sent such tragedy upon me?"

So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by her daughter-in-law, Ruth, the young Moabite woman. They arrived in Bethlehem in late spring at the beginning of the barley harvest. Perfect timing. The beginning of the barley harvest. Verse two, now there was a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz.

Everybody say, "Boaz." Who was a relative of Naomi's husband, Elimelech. This is really good. He's wealthy, he's single, he's available and he's ready to mingle. Come on, somebody. He's got a field. This guy's a farmer.

Back then, the farmers had the wealth back then. So one day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, her mother-in-law, "Let me go out into the harvest fields to pick up the stalks of grain left behind by anyone who is kind enough to let me do it."

Because that's what they did back then. Back then, there was no system to take care of people who don't have enough. Here's the system. The system is we're going to leave barley on the edges, we're going to leave wheat on the edges so that there are people who come behind us because we're leaving it for them because they don't have enough.

This is what the Lord prescribes in the book of Leviticus, that we take care of the orphan, the widow, the alien, the foreigner. Make sure that they got enough. So that's what Ruth is doing. Ruth has positioned herself behind the harvesters to get just a little bit of grain and barley in order for her and her mother-in-law to eat.

Then it goes on to say that one day Ruth the Moabite said, "Let's go behind to pick up the stalks." Naomi replied, "All right, my daughter, go ahead." Verse three, so Ruth went out to gather grain behind the harvesters. As it happened, she found herself working in a field that belonged to Boaz, and then the relative of her father-in-law Elimelech.

Can I just tell you something? What seems like coincidence is not coincidence. She didn't know that that was Boaz's field. She has no idea who Boaz is other than it's a guy, he's the boss man, he's the jefe, and he got a field.

So now the Bible says that while she was there, verse four, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters. "The Lord be with you," he said. "The Lord bless you," the harvesters replied. Then Boaz asked his foreman, "Who's that young woman over there? Who does she belong to?"

The foreman replied, "She's the young woman from Moab who came back with Naomi. She asked me this morning if she could gather grain behind the harvesters. She has been at work ever since except for a few minutes to rest in the shelter."

Boaz went over and said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter, stay right here with us when you gather grain. Don't go to any other fields. Stay right behind the young women working in my field. See which part of the field they are harvesting and then follow them. I have warned the young men not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the water that they draw from the well."

Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. "What have I done to deserve such kindness?" she asked. "I am only a foreigner." "Yes, I know," Boaz replied, "but I also know everything that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband. I've heard how you left your father and mother in your own land to live here among complete strangers. May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done."

"I hope I can continue to please you, sir," she replied. "You have comforted me by speaking so kindly to me even though I am not one of your workers." And at mealtime, Boaz called her. Said, "Hey, come over here and help yourself with some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine."

So she sat with the harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all that she wanted and still had some leftover. When Ruth went back to work, Boaz ordered his young men, "Let her gather grain from right among the sheaves without stopping her. Pull out some of the heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for her. Let her pick them up and don't give her a hard time, okay?"

So Ruth gathered barley there all day. When she beat out the grain that evening, it filled an entire basket. She carried it back into town, and she showed it to her mother-in-law. Ruth also gave her the roasted grain that was leftover from her meal.

"Where did you gather all this grain today?" Naomi asked. "Where did you work? May the Lord bless the one who helped you." So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. She said, "The man I worked with today, his name is Boaz."

"May the Lord bless him," Naomi told her daughter-in-law. "He is showing kindness to you as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers." You know what a kinsman redeemer is?

A family redeemer or a kinsman redeemer is the person with the final or the last rights of refusal in order to purchase property or a person who is in debt and now therefore in slavery. The kinsman redeemer can accept the responsibility and pay for it out of his own pocket, but he has to make sure he's the only one that has those rights.

He's got to meet that person at the city gate. They got to take off one of their slippers. They got to make a deal with one another. They got to hand the slipper to the other person to say, "I got your slipper, bro, I got your slipper."

That's the deal that we made. You pay the price. Boaz is so interested in Ruth because of the hard work that she's putting in and the favor of God that is on her life. What does he do? He decides that he is going to pay the guy who's closest relative to her and pay him so that he can have the rights to marry Ruth.

Naomi devises a plan. Naomi says, "Quick, quick. He's harvesting grain. Go there tonight. Put on your nicest dress, take a shower." Because back then they didn't have showers every day. Even women had BO back then. Anyway, just got to put it out there.

Wash yourself, clean yourself, go there. When he's lying down, I want you to go lie down at his feet. Only at his feet because you're new to this. You don't know how this works. Lie down at his feet and ask him to cover him with the rest of his blanket to cover you. It is a symbol that he will be covering you and he will become your protector and your kinsman redeemer.

The Bible says that they end up getting married. It's an incredible story. I have to finish. You got to read chapter four yourself. Can you read chapter four yourself? Because out of this story is incredible because from the story of Ruth marrying Boaz, they have a son.

Now Naomi's going to be filled with joy because she's going to be a grandmother. I know it's not biological, it doesn't matter. It's spiritual. She's going to have a grandson, and they're going to name him Obed. Obed is going to grow up to be a young man.

He's going to have a family of his own, and he's going to have a son, and his son's name will be Jesse. Jesse will grow up, and he will have eight sons. The youngest son's name is going to be David. David is the king, the future king of Israel.

From the line of Judah and how God uses a girl like Ruth, who is not part of the lineage of Judaism and grafts her into the family. From her womb will come the great-grandmother of David and will become the ancestor of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, from that line.

That is incredible how God does. I told you the ending is better than the beginning. I want to speak to all the single people here in the house. All the single people, raise your hand if you're single. I don't care what your status, single.

If you single, raise your hand if you single. Don't be shy. Good, I was once single. Can I encourage you to wait for your Boaz? Can I encourage you men that there is a female Boaz? I don't know what you call her, but there is a Boaz for the ladies and a Ruth for the men.

I want to tell you don't lower your standard. Don't lower your standard. Can I tell you how many Saturday nights I was at home when everybody else is at the club? Can I tell you how many Friday nights I didn't go nowhere?

Can I tell you that I was waiting for my Ruth? Lisa was waiting for her Boaz. 32 years later, here I am. I'm still a blessing ever since. I'm going to tell you Boaz, Bo first name, Az last name. Make sure you don't get duped and start dating his cousin, Cheapaz.

Watch out for the other cousin, Lameaz. I'm going to leave it right here with don't make sure you don't go see—never mind, I'm going to leave it right there. My wife said, "Don't do any more than two, Michael." I'm going to honor her. I'm going to honor her and stop right there.

Remember now Boaz got cousins. Boaz got a few cousins. You might be sitting next to your Boaz. You might be sitting next to your Ruth. You might be waiting for your Boaz, you might be waiting for your Ruth, but I want to tell you the end of a matter is often better than the beginning of a matter.

I'm so glad that I waited. I can tell you that it was worth the wait. It was worth the wait to wait for a woman like Lisa Lum. It's been a blessing. I want to tell you this, moms, I want every mom to stand up. We want to pray for all the moms, all the moms. Would you just stand right here?

If you've got a woman standing in front of you, to the side of you, or to the right of you, to the left of you, I want you to just put your arm on her shoulder, please. Would you mind on the shoulder? Or if you know her personally, touch her hand. If you don't know her, shoulder.

We're going to pray. Father, we thank you for every mother in this room here today. God, we thank you. Father, we thank you that they gave birth to us. Father, we thank you for even the stepmothers, the surrogate mothers, the spiritual mothers that labored in a different way.

But Father, we thank you, Lord, for each and every one of them. Father, we thank you and we ask your blessing would be upon them all the days of their life. Favor would be upon them. Father, I thank you, Lord, for each and every one of them, all that you're doing in them and through them.

Father, we thank you that we've been blessed because of them. Father, I pray like in Proverbs 31 it says your children will rise up and call you blessed. Children will rise up and call you blessed. It may not be happening yet, but it will happen in the name of Jesus.

If it is happening, I pray it continues to happen. I pray that the Bible says that beauty is charming and it's fleeting, but a woman who loves the Lord is to be praised. I thank you, Lord, for the beauty of these women, for the grace and the wisdom.

Father, we thank you for the love that exudes from them. God, we give you the glory. God, we give you the honor. God, we give you all the praise for all that you're doing in the mighty name of Jesus. We thank you for these ladies. We thank you for these women, these mothers. In Jesus' name.

And everybody said, "Amen." Come on, can we thank the Lord everybody? Hallelujah. You may be seated. I'm not done. I'm not finished yet. I'm almost done, but not quite. So thank you. I know sometimes when I pray people say, "Oh, that's the signal, let's leave now." No, not yet, please. Just in an orderly fashion.

Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to do one more prayer, then Randy's going to give you some closing announcements, and then I'm going to pray you out. So we're going to do this. I ended on purpose earlier than normal, just a couple minutes earlier than normal, because I wanted to make sure that you had time to take pictures outside in the lobby and you had a chance to grab an empanada for the women. Whatever. Anyway, getting off, getting off. I like one too. Go ahead, go ahead, bro, get an empanada.

You know, we were all born once. Everybody say, "Born once." You know you got to be born twice? Did you know that? When your mother gave birth to you, after nine months of carrying you, and then you came into the world, it's because of your mother and your father that you are in the room today.

But there's a better room. There's a better place that God has for you. It has many mansions, streets paved with gold. One of the most beautiful places we will ever go to. The most beautiful place we'll ever go to. But in order to get into that place, you have to be born twice.

You were born once, you will die once, and you can be born twice. But if you are born once and not born twice, you will die twice. You know what I'm saying? Christ Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. He's the one who has bought us back.

As a result of that, if we are born twice, not just once, we can enter into heaven. Jesus said in John chapter three, verse three, to the most religious man with the most degrees in Jerusalem, he told him, "You must be born again."

It doesn't matter about your education. It doesn't matter how much you know. It doesn't matter if you've got this religion thing down because his name was Nicodemus and he did. But he says if you have no relationship, you're not born again, you will never see the kingdom of heaven.

So I want to give this opportunity for you. Praise God for our moms, born once from our mothers. Praise God for the Spirit of God, born twice from God. If that's you today, I want to lead you in that prayer. I'm going to go one, two, three. When I clap at the count of three, if you are in overflow, you are online, or in this room, if you're on this corner or you're on that corner, if you're at the top corners or anybody in the middle.

I'm going to go one, two, three. When I clap on the count of three, I want you to raise your hand, and he's going to come into your life. He's going to change you from the inside out. Your life will never be the same. He's going to forgive you of all of your sins by the blood of Jesus that washes my sins and yours as white as snow.

There is no other name under heaven and earth by which a person can be saved. There is no other name. Not even Mary can get you saved, not Saint Christopher, not Joseph Smith. There is no other name under heaven and earth by which a person can get saved.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." There are not—there's no backdoor to get to heaven. There's only one way. It is through the front door and it is through Jesus. With every eye closed, with every head bowed in this place, I want to lead you in that prayer.

It's a prayer that will change your eternity, not just your tomorrow or your today. So get ready. Here we go. One. He will never let you down. Two. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Here we go. One, two. One, two, three. Put your hand up if that's you. Put your hand up all over the room. I want to count your hand right now. Got one, two, three, four, five. God bless you. And six right there, God bless you. Seven, eight. Yeah, got it. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. Keep them up, keep them up. We still got time. 17, 18. Yes, I saw that. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. God bless you. 24 right here, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. God bless you. 32, 33, 34. Yes. 35 right there, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42.

At least 42 in the room here today. Can we thank the Lord everybody before we pray? You know what I saw when I walked into the room? I saw happy wives, happy mothers, and happy grandmothers. That's what I saw. Because some of you came to church to honor them today, and they are so happy that you're here.

We pray you come back next week. We have four more people in overflow. That's 46 people ready to change their lives with this prayer. Are you ready to pray with me everybody, including the 46 people? With the 46 people, I want everybody to repeat after me to reaffirm your faith.

Everybody say, "Jesus today I surrender. Give you my life. Thank you for dying on the cross, shedding your blood that washes my sins as white as snow. I also thank you that when my time comes, I'll be in your presence for all eternity. While I'm here, be my strength for today and my hope for tomorrow. Give me wisdom to live the life that you've given me. Help me in all of my relationships, and when I read the Bible, may it come alive. May I grow my roots deep in the word of God. May when I pray, may I feel your presence. Help me to stand firm right here in this crazy world to trust you more than ever before with the life you've blessed me with. In Jesus' name I pray." And everybody said, "Amen." Come on, thank the Lord everybody.

Guest (Male): What a powerful word. Come on, somebody. If that stirred something in you, don't keep it to yourself. Share it, rate it, and let us know how God is speaking to you through these messages. We believe your best days are ahead and we're honored to be part of the journey.

For sermon notes, leadership tools, coaching resources, and more, visit MikeKai.tv. Stay inspired, stay planted, and stay ready because God's not done with you yet. Until next time, God bless you and aloha.