Finding Rest

As we look at Ruth 3, I want you to take these notes down, there are five things that we're going to discover we need to do if we are going to find rest in Jesus. Now, what I mean by that is even as a believer, you can begin to drift away from the Lord and to begin to walk in the energy of your own strength and your own power. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, "Without Me, you can do..." What? That's not easy to accept, right? Come on, Lord, give me a break.

There's got to be something I can do. I'm not worthless. "Without Me, you can do nothing." That's in the spiritual realm of anything valuable or of any worth, we have really nothing to contribute. God doesn't want to improve our flesh. He wants to crucify our flesh. And so, we need to live by faith. We need to live by dependence upon God. Now, in chapter one of Ruth, Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, and her two sons had gone down to the land of Moab to journey because of the famine.

Their two boys had gotten married. They married Ruth and Orpah. And then they had died. So, actually, Elimelech died, and Chilion, Mahlon died, and there were three widows, and we saw the sorrow. And then we saw that they came back to the land of promise but only Ruth came with Naomi, and she was the only one that had the faith to venture back to the land of Bethlehem.

And then we see her go out into the fields of Bethlehem, and it just so happened that she landed on the field of the man by the name of Boaz. Now, Boaz becomes a picture of Jesus Christ. It doesn't mean that Boaz wasn't a real person. This isn't a true story, but there's spiritual application that can be made from the story of Ruth.

Now, the main theme of this Book of Ruth is redemption, but it also traces for us the providential care of God, how he orchestrates the affairs of our life. And it's a beautiful love story, but it also typifies or pictures the love relationship that a believer, seen in Ruth, would have with Boaz, who pictures our Lord Jesus Christ, our Goel or our kinsman redeemer. Now, notice in verse one that Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, that is Ruth.

She said, "My daughter, I not seek rest for thee that it may be well with thee." So, Naomi, her mother-in-law, wanted Ruth to find a husband. Ruth was young, Naomi was old, and she felt like at her old age, "It's silliness for me to think about remarrying." But actually, when they left Moab to come back to the land of Israel, remember Naomi had actually told them, Orpah and Ruth, "Stay here in the land of your family, find a husband, find rest, prosper. You don't need to go with me."

But Ruth had said to her mother-in-law, "Where you go, I'm going to go. And where you live, I'm going to live. And your god's going to be my God. And where you're buried, I will be buried." And it's interesting that she wouldn't listen to her mother-in-law. She goes to Bethlehem. And so, instead of staying in Moab and finding a husband, God does a marvelous thing, a wonderful thing for her. He finds her a husband in the land of Israel through which the Messiah would ultimately come.

So, her faith, her obedience, her commitment led to amazing and tremendous blessings. So, I believe that as believers that we need to step out in faith, we need to seek the Lord, we need to pursue Him, and that we, too, can find rest. Now, here's the first step, I want to point, out to finding rest for your soul, to finding blessings from God, to grow closer to the Lord.

We're going to see the relationship between Ruth and Boaz grow closer and the love relationship and the marriage proposal all comes together. After Christmas, we're going to get into chapter four and we'll get into great detail about the kinsman redeemer aspect. But tonight, it's about this love relationship. And we, too, as believers need to draw closer to Jesus Christ in our love and relationship to Him. So, here's step number one. We need to seek Him.

Even as a Christian, I should be seeking the Lord. And how often should I seek the Lord? Daily. Amen. Every day, I should seek Him, I should pursue Him. And this is what I've called, verses 1-5, seeking our Lord. Notice that Naomi said, "I want to find rest for you." So, it's a phrase meaning, "I want to find you a husband." This is Naomi's matchmaking service. "You don't have to go online and try to find a match. I'll find him for you."

Then verse two, it says, "Now, is not Boaz our kindred and whose maidens thou wast? Behold, the winnowing barley is nigh unto the threshing floor." In other words, Boaz is going to be the man of focus. He's the one that is near of kin, which is necessary for him to redeem and marry the wife, being Ruth, and the land. So, that's going to be our focus. So, here, she gives him this instruction, "Wash yourself."

Now, it's a good idea, ladies. If you want to get a husband, take a bath. In that time and in that culture, water wasn't very plenteous. It's even more important, guys. There's a lot of guys, "I want a wife." Well, you start by taking a bath, dude. But in that time, it was very hot, very dusty, very dirty. Water was scarce, and they wouldn't bathe that often. That's why they would anoint themselves with oils to perfume their bodies to smell good.

So, here's step number one, and we'll come back to this and make application to our relationship with Christ, wash thyself, therefore. Number two, anoint thyself. And number three, put on raiment. In other words, put on your best clothes and get thee down to the floor, but make not thyself known unto the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. Now, the reference to the floor is what's called the winnowing floor or the threshing floor.

And what they would do is they would have an area where all the farmers, when they reaped their fields, they would come to a central spot, probably like a hill or a mound, and on top of the hill, where they would create a threshing floor, usually out of wood, a wooden area. And they would bring the wheat and they would lay it on the threshing floor. And then an ox would walk around the perimeter, dragging a heavy piece of wood or a log, and it would thresh it.

By that, it would separate the husk from the wheat. And then when the wheat and the husk were separated, then they would take a winnowing fork and they would throw it all into the air. That's why it was on top of a hill, so it could catch a breeze. And the husk, which is the little skin, would blow off to the side, and then the... or the chaff, excuse me, would blow off to the side. And the husk of the wheat, or the kernel, would drop down.

And then they would gather that. They would burn the chaff. In the Bible, this picture is we don't really understand it or relate to it because we don't really farm that much and we're industrialized and we're in the big city, we don't understand this winnowing concept. But in the Bible, all the way through the Bible, it's used for the separation on judgment day of the righteous and the unrighteous.

The Bible says that the wicked are like chaff, which the wind drives away. Read Psalm 1. And that they gather the chaff and they burn it. It's like a picture of the judgment of the ungodly. On judgment day, there'll be a winnowing. There'll be a separation of the righteous from the unrighteous. So, it was drawing from this picture. So, when Naomi tells Ruth to go down to the floor, you'll see that repeated several times here, she's talking about going up to the area where they winnow out the grains.

And then different farmers would all use the same winnowing floor. They would take turns and they would do it in shifts. And she was going to arrange this so that Ruth went up during the time when Boaz was winnowing out his grain. So, she says, "It shall be that when he lieth down-" verse four, "... that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet." So, they would sleep with their grain overnight to protect it from thieves.

"So, lay thee down..." verse four, "... and he will tell thee..." excuse me, "... what thou shall do." And she said unto her, "All that thou says unto me, I will do." Now, taking this first little section here, how do we seek the Lord? Well, verse three, she was told to wash herself. And as I said, washing in those days was scarce and rare to take a bath. You didn't have showers. You didn't have bathtubs. It was a challenge to bathe in those days.

But in the Bible, if we're going to seek the Lord and we, as believers, are going to find rest, we need a spiritual bath. We need to be washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. We need the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which is what it means to be born again. And then even as believers, 1 John 1:9 says if we will confess our sin, He is faithful and just to do what? Forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us.

The picture is there of a washing or a cleansing of all unrighteousness. So, if we're going to have fellowship with Him and we're going to find rest for our souls and we're going to seek the Lord and we're going to draw near to Him, we have to have the Lord wash us. Now, we can be washed in the water of His word. And as we read the word, the word washes us and cleanses us and sanctifies us. We can be washed and renewed by confessing our sins.

Remember when Peter told Jesus, in John 13, "You're not going to wash my feet." And Jesus said, "If I don't wash your feet, you have no participation with Me, you have no part with Me, you have no communion with Me." Peter had a bath regeneration, but he needed his feet washed because your feet get dirty. You come to church on Wednesday night and many times in the middle of the week, you need to be rededicating your life, renewing your life, recommitting your life, confessing sins.

That's why it's great to daily spend time in His word. To daily spend time, "Lord, forgive me for my sin." And the cleansing. And then you can walk close to the Lord and in fellowship of the Lord. If there's some sin in your life and you don't confess it to God, then you are not experiencing the fellowship with God that you should and you're not finding rest for your soul. Sin separates us from God. It doesn't mean that you're no longer a Christian.

It doesn't mean that you're no longer saved. You're still a son, but you don't have fellowship. So, we need to confess our sin, we need to be washed in the word, and we need to, spiritually speaking, take a bath, the washing of the word of God, and then anoint thyself, anoint thee. They would pour oil on themselves and perfumes on themselves. And in the Bible, many times, the oil and the anointing is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

So, in the Christian life, we need to be daily washed in the water of the word. Some of us tonight maybe need a bath, spiritually, and some of us need to be filled again with the Holy Spirit. Anoint thyself. The Bible, in Ephesians 5:18, commands Christians to be filled with the spirit. That is an imperative or a command. That is in the plural so it's all-inclusive. All Christians. And it's in the present voice.

That means everybody, all Christians, all the time, need to constantly be filled. And by the way, I know I've taught on this before, but that command in Ephesians 5:18 is in what's called a passive voice. That means let the spirit fill you. You can't fill yourself. So, it comes by surrender. So, you say, "Lord, wash me in Your word. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit. I want to seek You."

And you realize that you can't live the Christian life apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. And when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're controlled by the Holy Spirit. And then notice thirdly that she is to put her raiment off and put on a new piece of clothing or new garment. "Put thy raiment upon thee." It's a biblical way of saying, "Put on your nicest clothes."

Now, in those days, again, clothes were limited. You just think about it today. You can go to the mall. You can go to the discount outlet. You can get online all the... You can get clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes, clothes. Craziness. I would think that most of us do have clothes that we could get rid of. You got stuff you haven't worn in 20 years. Think about how many pieces of garment we have, clothes that we have. So, put on your nice dress.

In the Bible, the scriptures talk about us being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And in Colossians and Romans, there's some clear analogies there of the believing life that when you put off sins of the flesh, the Greek words that are used for that literally mean as you would take off a piece of soiled clothing. If you go to work and your clothes get soiled and dirty, you take them off. You throw them in the clothes hamper.

My wife's always getting on me because I don't throw stuff in the hamper. See that little basket? That's called a clothes hamper. When you get dirty clothes, you throw them on... I thought you're just supposed to pile them on top of the closet. And that kind of a thing. Somebody here looking at me like, "You're a sad man." You're going to pray for my wife, right? So, you take off soiled clothes, and then what do you do? You put on clean clothes. That's the Christian life.

We take off the old life, the garments of the flesh, the way we used to live, the way we used to think, the pursuits we used to have, and you put on new grace garments. We take off the grave clothes of the flesh and we put on the grace clothes of the new life. Remember when Lazarus was raised from the dead? That's a picture of regeneration. But when he came out of the tomb, he was still bound with what? Grave cloths.

There are a lot of Christians walking around in grave cloths. They're alive. They've come out of the grave, but they're still walking in the sins of their old life. So, we need to put off the old and put on the new, amen, and be created in the image of Jesus Christ. So, if we're going to seek the Lord, as Ruth was going to seek Boaz, we need a bath, we need an anointing, and we need a change of clothes.

And then, I like it, she's to go and lay down at his feet and he will tell thee what thou shall do. And then verse five, "She said unto her-" that is Ruth said unto Naomi, "... 'All that thou says unto me, I will do.'" And here's my third point. If you're going to seek the Lord, you need to obey the Lord. Not being just hearers of the word only, you need to be a doer of the word. And you'll be blessed in all of your ways.

So, it's great to come to Bible study Wednesday night. It's great to read your Bible during the week. But if you only hear the word and you don't do the word, it will profit you nothing. It's like looking at yourself in the mirror and you see that you need to give a little attention to your appearance, but you just turn and walk away and you forget what matter of person you are.

But when you read the word and you obey the word, it's like staying in front of the mirror and God transformed you into the image of Jesus Christ. So, here it is. Wash, anoint, change, and obey if we're going to seek the Lord and find rest. Here's the second thing we need to do. We need to submit to Him. Verses 6-9. We need to submit to Him.

Follow with me, verse six. And so, she went down into the floor, that threshing floor that I described, and she did according to all that her mother-in-law had bidden her. And when Boaz had eaten and drank and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn. So, I said they would spend the night there sleeping on their corn lest thieves come and steal it. And so, she came softly and she uncovered his feet and she laid her down.

And it came to past at midnight. So, it was the darkness of night that the man was afraid, and he turned himself. Behold, a woman lie at his feet. And he said unto her, "Who art thou?" He couldn't see who it was. And she answered, "I am Ruth thine handmaid." Interesting, she drops the mole by this title. "I'm just Ruth now thine handmaid, for thou art near..." Oh, excuse me. "Spread thy skirt therefore over thine handmade for thou art near of kinsman."

So, Ruth goes down to the threshing floor. Boaz is partying with the boys. And harvest time was a time of joy. And they would bring in the grain. It was celebration. It was a fun time. And then after the party's over, he lays down, he goes to sleep. And as her mother-in-law had instructed her, she comes and she lays at his feet. I don't, in any way, think or see that there's anything inappropriate about what Ruth is doing.

In the time and the custom, what she was doing was perfectly appropriate. And it's interesting in that time, parents made arrangements for their children to get married. Marriage was by parental arrangement. All the parents say amen. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could do that? "Okay, that's the one there. Get that one over there. Go get that one over there. Done deal."

Instead, your daughter keep bringing a guy who... "Where'd you find that dude?" "I just beat in the bushes, I found..." "He looks like he's been beat out of a bush." I got three married daughters. I know what it's like to fight the guys off and answer the door with a shotgun and all that kind of stuff. So, Naomi's making the arrangement. She's orchestrating this thing.

And it's interesting because in a way, and it was part of their culture, that you could do this with the Goel, the kinsman redeemer, Ruth is actually asking Boaz to marry her and to redeem her. And it's a beautiful picture of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. The word feet, by the way, is mentioned about four times in this text. It's mentioned in verse four. It's mentioned in verse seven. It's mentioned in verse eight. The word feet is mentioned in verse 14.

So, here, we have the submission. We see Ruth at his feet. She's submitted to Boaz. And so, we need to seek the Lord. And secondly, we need to submit to the Lord. There's nothing more important for you as a Christian if you're going to find rest in Jesus Christ than to actually submit yourself to Him to say, "Lord, I submit to You. I'll go where You want me to go. I'll do what You want me to do. I'll be what You want me to be. I submit to You."

And submit to His authority over your life. So, she asked him to, "Spread your skirt over your handmaid." That's an expression meaning, "Marry me. Redeem the property of my husband and take me to be your wife." So, this took faith and courage on Ruth's part, but she was submitted and committed to the Lord. So, are you seeking Him? Number two, are you submitted to Him?

Ask yourself tonight, be honest with your own heart and say, "Am I completely submitted to God's will for my life? Am I completely submitted to what God's will is for my life?" The third thing we need to do is listen to Him. Verse 10-14. Listen to Him. It says that she said... or he said, excuse me. Now, in this section, verse 10-14, Boaz talks to Ruth.

And it's interesting that as he talks to her, they're on the threshing floor, it's midnight, pitch black, and they can't see each other. Oh, and it's like he wakes up, "Oh, who's there?" "Oh, it's Ruth, your handmaid. Spread your skirt over me." "Oh, you scared me." It's interesting that he woke up and found her there wanting to get married. I think of Adam who took a nap and found out he was married when he woke up. Interesting. And so, now, he speaks to her.

We need to seek Him, submit to Him, and listen to Him. Notice in the darkness of night, Boaz begins to speak. And he said, "Blessed be thou of the Lord, Blessed be thou of Jehovah, my daughter-" He calls her this endearing term, "My daughter." Scripture indicates, we're going to see this, that Boaz was an older man and that Ruth was quite younger than he. "... for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not the young men, whether poor or rich."

Now Boaz is a bachelor, but he is an older bachelor and he's really blessed that this young Ruth would take notice of him. And he's like, "Bless you, my dear. You could have gone off with any of the young guys in their Ferraris or Porsches. You could have taken any of these young guys, and that you've taken note of me." "And now my daughter-" verse 11, "... don't be afraid. I will do thee all that thou requires for all the city of my people know that you are a virtuous woman."

She was a Proverbs 31 woman. "And now it is true that I am near of kinsman." Verse 12. "However, there is a kinsman or a relative that is nearer than I." So, he speaks truth to her. He doesn't want her to get too excited. "There is someone that's nearer of kin than I who has the first right of redemption."

"So, he tells her-" verse 13, "... 'Stay the night, tarry the night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he, that is nearer of kin, will perform unto thee the part of the kinsman, then okay, or well, let him do the kinsman's part. But if he will not do the part of the kinsman to thee, then I will do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth. Lie down until the morning.' And she lied at his feet until the morning and she arose before they could know one another. And he said, 'Let it be not known that a woman has come into the floor.'"

Now, as I said, it's the darkness of night and Boaz wakes up in a startle. There's Ruth at his feet. And he finds out that it's Ruth and she asked him to cover her. So, she's asking him to redeem her husband's land and to marry her. Now, as I said, I'm saving the real main lesson of the Book of Ruth until chapter four. But let me just touch on this again so you're not lost.

A near kinsman could redeem a relative's property that had been lost or forfeited because of poverty. It would be like today, if you had a brother who had a house and couldn't pay their mortgage and it was foreclosed on, you could go in and take over their mortgage. You could buy their property and then it would be kept in the family so that the family wouldn't lose their property.

And every seven years, if you lost land or a farm because you were poor and you had to sell it to take care of yourself, every seventh year, the nearest closest relative could buy it back. It could be redeemed. This is where the idea of redeemer and then the dual concept of kinsman redeemer. Now, as we get into it next study in chapter four, Jesus Christ is in His redemptive work of saving the world. He is a Goel, a kinsman redeemer. How's that?

Adam and Eve, created by God to have dominion over the earth, forfeited that in sin. And the earth was turned over to Satan. Jesus came to buy back not only us but the earth to redeem you. Do you know that the idea that Jesus came to save the world literally means He came to save the actual literal world? Everybody's talking about global warming and all this stuff and we need to save the only planet we have.

Ain't going to happen until Jesus comes back. And He's going to come and restore the earth to its rightful place. Now, before He takes the earth though, He'll take His bride. In the Old Testament, the Goel, the kinsman redeemer, if you bought your brother's property or your relative's property, if he had a wife and you died and they had to forfeit their property, guess what you had to do as well? You had to marry his wife and you had to have children with his wife so that your brother's seed could continue.

Now, we don't have that law anymore, and I'm glad that we don't do it that way because you'd be praying, "Dude, marry a nice looking girl because if you kick the bucket, I got to marry her." Forgive me. I've always thought about that. I thought, man, you pray your brother or your relatives all had good taste because you're stuck marrying her. You're going to see in a minute the one that was nearer of kin does when he goes, "I'm married, man. I can't marry her. You can do it."

And Boaz is like, "Fine, I'll be glad to do that." And Boaz wasn't really so interested in the land. He was interested in the bride. But when Jesus came to redeem the earth, guess what He got out of the deal? He got a bride. Guess who the bride is. You and I. It's the church. You are His bride. And He gave His life, He died on the cross so that He could redeem us and take out of the earth His Ruth, His bride, the church which is the bride of Christ.

But I want to make some points here about how God speaks to us in sometimes even the dark of night. So, just as Boaz began to speak to Ruth, God speaks to us primarily how? Through His word. God speaks through what He's spoken. The Bible is the word of God. It is alive and powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. And God speaks through His word. When you read your Bible, you're hearing God speak, and we need to listen to the voice of God.

And when God speaks to us through His word, it many times parallels what's happening here with Boaz's speech to Ruth. Number one, he accepts her. He accepts her. He says, "Blessed are thou, my daughter, thou shewed me more kindness-" verse 10, "... than in the latter end at the beginning, inasmuch as you didn't follow the young men, whether rich or poor."

So, when we read the Bible, we find out we're accepted by God in the beloved Christ, that our acceptance before God is in Jesus Christ, and He speaks to our own hearts that we belong to Him and we're accepted in Him. And then secondly when he spoke to her, he assures her, verse 11-13. He first says, "Don't be afraid." Don't you love that when you read the Bible and God speaks to your heart?

And he says, "Don't be afraid. Fear not-" all through the scriptures, "... I will do thee all that thou requires for all the city knows, my people know that thou are a virtuous woman. And it is true, I am thine near kinsman. However, there is a kinsman that is nearer than I. Tarry this night until the morning, and if he will perform it to thee the part of the kinsman, well, and if not, I will perform it." So, he speaks assurance and he speaks acceptance, "I will do my part."

Ruth could not see his face, but she could hear his voice. And many times, we are in the darkness and we can't see His face. I talk to Christians all the time. They go, "I don't feel God. I don't hear God. I don't sense God. God's not speaking to me." And I'm thinking, "Are you not reading your Bible?" I read a quote years ago, I've never forgotten. It's by a man by the name of V. Raymond Edman. And he says, "Never doubt in the dark what God has spoken in the life."

So, when you can't see His face and you're living in darkness, open your Bible, let God speak, and don't doubt what God is saying in His word. He assures you, "Your mine." He assures you, "I will be with you. Don't be afraid." I never doubt in the dark what God has spoken in the light. When you can't see Him, you can still hear Him as He speaks to you. And He says to you, verse 11, "Don't be afraid."

And then he makes her a promise, verse 13, "I will do my part of the kinsman, as the Lord liveth. Lie down until morning." He makes us a promise. What does God do to us through His work? He promises us. The Bible is full of promises. They're called exceeding great and precious promises. And by these, we become partakers of the divine nature. So, you believe and stand on His promise.

And then, I love it, verse 14, "She laid down at his feet until the morning." She found rest. So, she was seeking him, she was submitted to him, and she was listening to him. We need to do the same in our relationship to Jesus Christ and we need to rest in Him. And then we see in verse 15 to verse 17, fourthly, that she received from him. He gave her a gift. Notice verse 15, "He said unto her, 'Bring the vail that thou hast upon thee, and hold it out.' And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley and he laid it on her, and she went into the city."

And it came to pass. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, "Who art thou?" That is Naomi speaking to Ruth. "Who are you, my daughter?" And she told her all that the man had done unto her. And she said, "These six measures of barley gave he me, for he said to me, 'Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law.'"

Now, before she leaves the threshing floor early in the morning, and she gets up before light and she starts to make her way, and Boaz says, "Ruth, wait just a moment. Hold out your robe." And she holds out her robe and he lays it on her. At my King James Bible actually says, "He lays it on her." I love that. He was so excited he couldn't contain himself so he gave her this gift.

And it's interesting that when he gave her the first gift back in chapter 2:17, that he gave her... Look at it, chapter 2:17, that he measured out to her what was an ephah of barley, or it would be about a bushel or some say a half a bushel of barley, which would last for about a week for the two women. This time, it says that he measured out six measures of barley. So, he more than doubles it. He's like, "Man, I'm so excited." And he laid it on her and he gave her this gift.

And she goes home, and Naomi says, and it puzzles people, the translation in the King James Bible, "Who art thou?" Why would Naomi say to Ruth, "Who are you?" It's a problem of rendering the Hebrew phrase into the English. And some translations actually have, "How did it go?" Or, "Are you his wife?" And it's not that it's a bad translation in the King James Bible, "Who are you?" She's actually saying by saying, "Who are you?"

She's saying, "Who are you? Are you his wife? Are you engaged? Are you going to get married? Are you Boaz the Moabitess... I mean, are you Ruth the Moabitess? Are you Boaz's wife? Who are you?" And she had a big smile on her face. She comes home from her date that Naomi had orchestrated. They got a blind date. They met in the middle of the night and they couldn't even see each other. The first thing her mother-in-law asked when she go, "Who are you?"

In other words, she's saying, "How did it go, sister?" They were all excited, wanted to tell her. And she goes, "Well, you want to know how it goes? Check out what he gave me. Gave me all this grain." And when Naomi saw that, her heart was no more filled with any bitterness. She was a woman that was full. She was no more empty as she had been. But now, she's a woman that's blessed and a woman that is now full.

Now, the point I want to make is that when we seek Him, when we submit to Him, when we listen to Him, and when we receive Him, our lives overflow with His grace gifts, His grace endowments, that is our lives can just overflow with the blessings of God. It happened to me this morning. I took a moment to go outside and enjoy the warm sun. I like this time of the year because you can stare at the sun and it just feels so good in warm sunshine.

So, I've been sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and I was outside praying and quiet time with the Lord, and I just began to be overwhelmed with the goodness of God to me. I just began to be overwhelmed with how good God has been to me. And I think that if we seek the Lord and we submit to the Lord and we obey the Lord, God will give us His grace.

I tell people all the time, "You want to have a blessed life? You want to have a wonderful life? Seek the Lord. Let Him wash you in the water of His word. Spend time listening to Him. Surrender to Him. Lay down at His feet. Let God work in your heart. God has good gifts He wants to give you." So, he showers her with his grace. And last but not least, fifthly, she waited on him. She waited on him. Verse 18, "Then said she, 'Sit still, my daughter.'"

So, Naomi speaks to Ruth, "Sit still," which is really hard to do. "Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter shall fall." There was still that issue of someone nearer of kin could do the redemption and marry Ruth. It wasn't a done deal. They had to take care of it that day. "Sit still until you'll know, for the man will not rest until he has finished-" Notice that, verse 18, "... the thing this day." He's going to get this figured out today.

And as you go into chapter four, and you guys are probably going to go home and want to read chapter four tonight, it's like, "Oh, I can't wait. I can't wait." Because you're going to have to wait a couple of weeks. He goes right down to the gate, right down to find the nearer kin, "Hey dude, come over here. We need to talk." And he wants to find out, "If you want to redeem this land and marry Ruth..."

And I'll stop right there. I won't spoil the story for you. This is the cliffhanger. But I do find it interesting that the last verse, she's to sit still. The Bible has a lot to say about waiting on the Lord. Now, waiting on the Lord doesn't mean we don't do anything. We don't just like, "Oh, I'm just waiting on the Lord. I'm just waiting on the Lord."

As you're waiting on the Lord, you're still seeking Him, you still submit to Him, you still listen to Him, you still receive from Him, you're obeying Him, you're pursuing Him. But there is something to be said about waiting on the Lord as opposed to what? Taking matters into your own hands and rushing ahead of the Lord. One of the most important things and one of the hardest things that we can learn as a Christian is to wait on the Lord.

"Yeah, but I've been waiting too long." Take getting married as an example. You're waiting. "Well, I'm waiting on the Lord too long, I'm just going to grab the first one I find." Not a good idea. "I've been waiting on the Lord, I'm just going to go here and do the..." And you need to seek the Lord and you need to submit to the Lord, but you need to wait on the... and I believe waiting on the Lord involves trust. It involves faith.

It involves the idea that, "I believe God is going to lead me. I believe God is going to guide me. I believe God is going to take care of me." Ruth could have really been sweating it, "Oh, man, I hope that other guy doesn't want the land. Oh, I hope the other guy doesn't intercede. I stepped in. Oh, I hope it's Boaz. Oh, I hope it's Boaz." She could have been freaking out. Instead, she just rested.

I love that, Psalm 46:10, it actually says, "Be still and know that I am..." Who? Who that could? "Be still and know that I am God." It means to put it in His hands. It literally means in the Hebrew that be still literally means take your hands off. It's like the Lord's slapping your hands. "Take your hands off." "Yeah, but Lord, you're not doing anything. Yeah, but Lord, you're not working fast enough." And Lord just says, "Take your hands off. I'm in control."

You know what it takes to do that? Faith. We don't like faith. We live in the age of quick. If our computers aren't quick enough, we smash them. We go to a restaurant. If we're getting seated not fast enough, we freak out. I don't know why they call the waiters the waiters. You're the one that's waiting. You wait to get in, you wait to be seated, you wait to order, you wait for your food, you wait for the bill, and they call him the waiter. I don't understand that.

But as a Christian, it's so important that you learn to wait on God. Where do I go? What do I do? What's my ministry? Who does He want me to marry? What does He want me to do? What is He going to do on the... Wait on the Lord. It means that you trust Him. It means that you look to Him. It means that you put your faith in Him.

Remember when Moses was leading the people of Israel out of the Egypt, out of the Exodus, and they came to the Red Sea, and there was water there, and they were hemmed in, and the Egyptian army was pursuing them. What did God tell Moses to do? He told him to stand still. He didn't say, "Freak out." He didn't say, "Figure it out." He said, "Stand still."

And that took faith. It takes faith for you and I tonight to stand still and wait on God and trust in God and put our faith in God. Amen. I do believe that God will shower us with His grace and with His gifts if we seek Him, if we submit to Him, if we listen to Him, if we receive His grace, and we wait on Him. Let's pray.