Providence and Romance

I want you to turn to Ruth chapter three. We're gonna continue with our series on providence in the book of Ruth. We've already seen that providence are God's hidden hand in the normal events of life, working way before events actually happen.

That's providence. And we're seeing in this entire story of providence, or sorry, of the book of Ruth, of relationship, of friendships, of real events, how God's hand was at work in it, in minute detail, in insignificant things.

And yet the consequence, we're gonna be world-affecting. Do you know when you can't see God's hand in things, it's a terrible thing. And it's a remarkable thing that even in the bad things of life, or when crisis comes, and yet by faith, through your knowledge of the character of God, you can discern his hand and see his hand.

It's an amazing thing. I wouldn't swap all the riches of this world for my knowledge of God, and my knowledge of the character of God. I wanna assure you to know God, and to know his character, and to know his ways.

Do you not know that even most Christians don't know the ways of God? Remember what it says in our Bible that Moses, sorry, Israel knew the deeds of God. Moses knew the ways of God. That's very different.

And some Christians live, they just know if God does something for them, but they know very little of the character, the nature, the ways of God, or why God operates in a certain way. And they're two different things.

Some people, some Christians live on the basis, if God answers my prayer, I know he's real. I know he's alive. What if you go into a season where no prayers seem to be answered? Do you know enough of the character of God to carry you through, or does your life fall apart?

We're coming to Ruth chapter three and part six here tonight. Some of you's will go, oh no. Some of you's will go, praise the Lord. But here, part six, and I have to deal with this because it is in the text.

I don't want this to dominate and obscure the other truths, but it's so vital. Part six, providence and romance. Providence and romance. Reading from Ruth chapter three. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said unto her, my daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?

And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley tonight in the threshing floor. Wash out thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor.

But make not thyself known unto the man until he shall have done eating and drinking. And it shall be when he lieth down that thou mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shall go in and uncover his feet and lay thee down, and he will tell thee what thou shall do.

And she said unto her, all that thou sayest unto me, I will do. And she went down unto the floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law bade her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of corn.

And she came softly and uncovered his feet and laid down. And it came to pass at midnight that the man was afraid and turned himself, and behold, a woman lay at his feet. And he said, who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thy handmaid.

Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman. And he said, blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, for thou showed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning.

In so much as thou followest not young men, whether poor or rich, and now my daughter, fear not. I will do to thee as thou requirest, for all the city of my people does know that thou art a virtuous woman.

And now it is true that I am thy near kinsman, howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I. Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well, let him do the kinsman's part.

But if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth. Lie down until the morning. And she lay at his feet until the morning, and she rose up before one could know another, and he said, let it be known, not known that a woman came into the floor.

Also he said, bring the veil that thou hast upon thee and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her, and she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, who art thou, my daughter?

And she told her all that the man had done to her. And she said, these six measures of barley gave he me free, said to me, go not empty unto thy mother-in-law. Then she said, sit still, my daughter, until thou knowest the matter, how the matter will fall.

For the man will not be in rest until he has finished the thing this day. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank you for the guidance already, the encouragement, the clarity of this precious book. Father, showing that your hand is operating in things we can't even comprehend or imagine or perceive with the eye.

Now, Lord God, we do pray, oh God, what blessings are ahead when we look back and see your hand in things that we are ignorant of or blind of, or unbelieving, concerning, and yet we see that you're concerned with such people as us, that your eye is upon the sparrow.

Lord God, that you're involved in the most mundane of things. Lord God, to bring forth blessing and pleasure onto your saints, but also glory and praise and honor to your name and the furtherance of the gospel, the sinners, and Lord God, to all nations.

Father, we pray that even as we gather tonight, that there might be a divine purpose, a plan in our gathering together. Lord God, that you reveal your will, your divinity, your sovereignty, your majesty, your power.

Lord God, reveal it, oh God. Even in the casual acquaintances we have together or the simple conversations or the simple, Lord God, interaction with one another. Lord God, we pray great consequences will come out of this in Jesus' mighty name.

Christian Fellowship and the Word of God

Bless your word to our hearts in Jesus' name, amen. I was thinking early this morning, and just when it hits you, how much Candice loved the word of God. As I considered the previous five weeks, I thought, how much she would love this.

What a thing to think about your wife, who's just gone into glory, that one of the marked things about her is how much she would have enjoyed the teaching of God's word, talking about it, pulling things out, getting feedback.

I got more feedback from her than all of you put together. Do you realize that? I got more encouragement, more questions, more correction, or pointing out maybe something I'd missed than from all of you and all of you online put together, literally.

And as I sat there, I went, this was a woman who loved the things of God, and we enjoyed God. It's not tradition, it's not ritual, it's not trying to make much of these things, it's not reading the Bible out of Judy, it's not coming to church because you ought to be there.

We literally, this was our life, and we enjoyed the things of God. We enjoyed God, but his truth was a means of us fellowshipping together. That's why all through Ruth, we've seen corn and barley and cleaning and bringing in the harvest, all these things dominate.

Because you know what, where you get a true Christian romance and a true Christian relationship, the word of God is gonna be fundamental, essential, and central in that in a most remarkable way. As we begin to look at Hebrews again tonight, one of the old Puritan preachers from many centuries ago, he said, providence is like the Hebrew alphabet.

You've got to read it backwards because the Hebrew language, you start at the opposite side of the page and read the opposite way than you and I do in the English language. And that's what providence, you don't read it forward, you don't look forward and go, aha, this, I see providence coming.

You can't do that. You've got to read it like the Hebrew alphabet and afterwards you look back and go, it's a beautiful mosaic and yet I didn't put it together. I couldn't see it. And so my message tonight, and this is a difficult chapter for many reasons, Ruth chapter three, it's not easy to deal with.

And yet I believe there's a fundamental issue here, providence and romance. I believe that God's hidden hand, sovereign, mighty, powerful, is actually involved with romance. Maybe you separate these two things and think romance is something different than spirituality.

I want to tell you, I've never believed that, I don't believe that and I will not believe that. I actually believe that spirituality is integral to true romance. In fact, let me say, I don't believe that you can experience true romance if you're not spiritual.

If you're carnal, I guarantee you blemish romance. You don't have romance, you don't understand romance because it takes a true spiritual person to understand romance. But let me say the other as well, don't think you can be so spiritual there's no room for romance because you know what?

A true spiritual person really understands romance. It works both ways in a very close-knit way. Now this word romance, in case I get criticized for it, where does the word romance come from? If you go back about 1500 years, you're gonna find that the word romance comes from the word Romans, that's where it originates and in the Latin language.

Going back to about the fifth century, the word romance actually was used in connection with the Roman tongue or the Latin tongue. And then a bit after that, over the next thousand years, it progressed.

And what ended up happening was if you wrote something in the Latin language, it was called romance, that was romance. Just writing in the Latin language was enough to call it romance. And then as the centuries passed by, stories began to be written in the Latin language and these stories predominated.

They were always about a great knight, a brave knight who actually done some great deed to win the hand of some beautiful maiden. And so this began to be called romance. There was no sexual immorality, there was no abuse, there was no bullying.

There was a beautiful story about heroism and bravery and chivalry and this marked romance. Do you know today what we have even in the secular world? At least in the past, the secular world understood something about romance and chivalry.

Let down your hair and all the other secular stories. There was something of a story in it, but not today. Do you know what you have on today's media in the 21st century? Abuse, cursing, immorality, no commitment, no loyalty, no bravery.

A man is no longer a man, a woman is no longer a woman. We've destroyed the whole thing. But I wanna tell you still in the church of Jesus Christ, there is romance, real romance. And beyond any physical relationship, there is the romance of the gospel.

One called the Lord Jesus Christ came, laid aside his divinity, didn't put it aside, he clothed it with his humanity. He was divine every step of the way. And you know what he'd done? He came and died for sinners on the cross.

That is true romance. And I believe those that are impacted by the gospel, born again by the gospel can understand romance because if you don't understand the gospel, your view of love is twisted. Your view of feelings or emotions or attraction, you're a product of the 21st century.

You are so messed up by the ideology of this world, you don't even have the ability to clearly think. But I wanna tell you, spirituality does go together with romance in the most marvelous way. And so we're coming here just to our message, providence and romance, which dominates Ruth chapter three.

It says in Ruth chapter two and verse 23, the very last verse of what we dealt with last week. So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and a wheat harvest and dwelt with her mother-in-law.

You remember what was covered in chapter two one day. Chapter one is 10 years. Chapter two is dominated by a short hard working day. With just one day, everything gets changed in providence. But notice at the end of chapter two, after that unique day, where for the very first time Boaz eyes falls upon Ruth and he goes, wow.

And on that same day, where Ruth suddenly becomes aware of this man Boaz, caring for, loving for, providing for, protecting her. And you've got this meeting. Do you know what happens between that point and chapter three is a period of about several weeks at least, maybe two months or some other undefined period of time.

It's harvest time. It's the barley harvest. It is the wheat harvest. And during this unique short period of time of about several weeks or two months, it brings us right to chapter three. And it's very important to understand that.

What we saw in chapter two, this unique meeting, providential meeting of two people, of their hearts being slowly initially turned towards each other. You need to begin to realize that was only the beginning.

And every single day, they're in the same work environment. They see each other every single day. They're aware of each other. They may even talk together every single day for the next several weeks. And then we are brought to Ruth chapter three, verse one.

Naomi's Search for a Restful Home

I've got about six points here. Listen to the first point. The search for a restful home. The search for a restful home. Look at verse one with me. Then Naomi, her mother, Ruth's mother-in-law, said unto her, my daughter, what shall I not seek rest for thee?

That it may be well with thee. And then she begins talking about Boaz. This is my first point. The search for a restful home. It's been several weeks. Naomi, this mature lady is looking in on this young couple.

They're not dating. They're not going out for walks alone. They're not meeting up for meals. They're in a work environment. And here's this mother-in-law looking in on this situation. Remember several weeks before, she begins to put the pieces together.

Boaz is a kinsman redeemer. God has brought us back. Here is Ruth happening to find this field. All of this providential working is coming together. And she watches us every single day for at least several weeks.

Every day she's watching this situation. Ruth coming in from work. Ruth going out to work. Ruth coming in. Well, what did he say today? What we is doing today? And all of this chat comes out. Do you know what you have here?

This woman, Naomi, approaches and initiates something between these two people. You know what? She's been prayerful. She's wise. She's mature. And she begins to initiate a conversation with young Ruth.

Do you know what? She cares about her. Listen to what it says here. My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee? Notice here, she's not being a matchmaker. She's not being a busybody. She's not sticking her nose in where it's not wanted, not desired, and where scripture forbids her.

You know what she's doing? She is watching this providential situation, working in two lives, and she's convinced she can see providence at work at these two young lives. They've never been alone. They're not having dates.

They're not carrying on. None of that. But she actually believes providence is working at these two lives. Do you realize before romance, I mean, spiritual godly romance ever happens, that God's providence is actually working in those situations?

Naomi here takes the initiative. Several weeks and they haven't moved forward. Two months and nothing has come out of this. Here they are in the same environment. Both initially were utterly awestruck with each other, but nothing is happening.

And here's Naomi begins to take the initiative and to ask and have a conversation with Ruth, saying, shall I not seek rest for thee? Remember when this word rest was used before? In chapter two, Ruth speaking, sorry.

Sorry, that's right. In chapter two of Ruth, do you remember how speaking to the two ladies as she said, look, I can't look after you, go back. Listen to what she actually says there. Sorry, it's in chapter one, verse eight.

Let me say that again. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, go return each to her mother's house and the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant you, and notice what she's praying for these two girls.

Go back to Moab. You need to go find your own home, your own husband. And she says, go back and may the Lord bless you. So it was a real spiritual desire that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband.

So what is this rest? It's talking about a home, a husband, a dwelling place. So that was always her desire for these two girls is a actual resting place, a place of hope, a place that is secure. That's what a resting place is.

She's talking about a home, a marriage, a place where you're secure or you're looked after. And so here in Ruth chapter three and verse one, you have Naomi beginning to speak to Ruth and saying, do you want me to begin acting?

No, no, she's not manipulating. She's not intruding. She's not controlling. She's not playing silly games. You know what she's doing? She's actually asking with great respect. She says, look, do you want me to begin working on this for you?

This is a mature lady. And in those days, it was the mother took a prime position in caring, looking, searching, watching, and advising. Do you know what we've lost from the church of our generation is older women.

Isn't that right? You know, for years I preached on this and eventually I got one to stand by my side and grow up into this. I used to preach about the need of godly ladies, mature ladies, wise ladies who can actually speak to the younger ladies.

It's been lost from the church. And here's a older mature lady who begins caring about this younger one. And she's like, something isn't happening here. And she begins talking to her. You know, older ladies, you ought to talk to the younger ladies.

I'm not talking about intruding, or busybody, or planting thoughts. And older men, you ought to be talking to the younger guys. I'm not talking about intruding. I'm saying stay out of people's lives. But do you know what?

When you watch, when you're prayerful, when you're maturing, God, there comes a time, uniquely, you're not doing this often. In fact, very infrequently, where you approach and you say, have you considered?

Do you not see God's hand in this? What is God doing with your heart? Or what is going on here? Have you had any thoughts? Do you realize how important a question can be in providence, where someone asks you, not only for romance or relationships, but about ministry, or calling, or a job, or moving, or some aspect in your life, where someone older comes and just asks a question.

It's not out of the blue. You know what it is? It's providence. God uses mature people around you to begin working in your life. And so we see Naomi taking the initiative. She's not a busybody. She's not playing silly games of romance.

She is a godly lady who simply cares for her daughter-in-law. Do you know what? She's watched this for two months. She's watched these two people in the same environment, in and out, talking, hearing conversations, and she can discern the hand of providence.

Do you know, we've seen this at times. The first night Hannah Everett walked into this church, so thought, oh no, she's one of those charismatics that we've had to deal with so many times. Another one, and he's there trying to speak to her, when all around there's a consciousness not with everyone, but generally going, that's Sue's wife.

It took him just a little bit to catch on this. Nobody talked to him. Nobody said anything. People are just watching with an awareness and praying into this. God had brought someone at the right time, providentially, and it was so evidently the Lord.

No matchmaking, no interfering, no busybodying, but God had prepared two people. It's remarkable when you see this, that God's hand can be upon these things. And so, Naomi, she's asking permission. She's also very open and honest, and she's talking about this.

Some things need to be talked about in the body of Christ and the church by close friends or older believers or family members. And again, older parents, you may take your head in your hands if you approach your kids to talk about this.

So you better be very wise and led of the Spirit of God. You don't wanna do this unless you're led of the Spirit of God. But surely we should be raising children where we can talk about these things openly, honestly, clearly, caringly.

How can we raise up kids that we don't even talk about these things? We send them to school, and they'll be told about kissing another girl or kissing another boy or playing together. You know what I mean?

And how is it we don't even have the ability to talk to our children about the most important things in life? Do you know when I was 13 years old, I made the decisions of how I was gonna treat my wife when I finally met her.

13 years old, I knew what my marriage was gonna be like. I was very boyish, very immature, not much intelligence, but I had enough spirituality to say, I know what my marriage is gonna be. Here you have this older lady approaching with practical needs and situations.

Ruth, I see your situation. You're engrossed in work. You're working hard. You're serving hard. You're very discreet. You're not playing games. You're not flirting with the guys. None of this is there with Ruth.

No game plan, no dressing in a way to draw attention. She's a hard, diligent worker. And here is Naomi saying, I know what your needs are. You've had a rough journey. I see that. I saw you lose your husband, and you've made a long journey from Moab.

She could also judge character. She's looking at Boaz, and she's looking at Ruth. Here, Naomi can judge and discern character. I would not want it in my conscience, two people coming together who should not be together.

It scares the living daylights out of me. But do you know what? You had this mature woman watching this, saying these two people are matched. These two people are compatible. They're not arguing. They're not debating.

They're not tearing the throat out of each other. And you know what? You ought to seriously ask questions when that happens. But there was something common here, and she's looking in on this. Neither was there presumption or trying to make a move without the personal will, desire of that person.

Never infringe on someone's choice. Never do that. And so you have here, Naomi wasn't doing this every day. I hate it, and please do not do it in this church where someone walks in, or you see two people sit, and you begin to make comments.

I don't like that, okay? That's very dangerous, and you need to stay away from it. And believe me, it's rarely a man that does it. You need to be very, very careful because you could get yourself in hot water.

You need to be prayerful. If you're not praying into a thing, and usually if you make a comment like that, you are not praying at home. You are not praying for that couple. You might gossip. You might be nosy.

A Modest Plan at the Threshing Floor

It might be many things, but you need to get on your knees and pray because the consequence of a wrong marriage is disaster, and the consequence of a real marriage is wonderful blessing. My second point, a modest plan by a mature woman.

See, she's already said in verse one, don't you want me to help you find rest that all may be well with you? Have you not noticed Boaz? There's nothing sinful in saying that, but look at verse two. Behold, he winnoweth powerfully tonight in the threshing floor.

Here is a mature, godly, spiritual woman who knows the character of God, and notice, this is a woman. She's never getting married again. She has no other children. She's not gonna have any other children.

Just two months ago, her heart is broken. She comes back to Bethlehem. She is utterly discouraged. She is afflicted by the hand of God. She's lost her two sons, her husband, and she comes back empty. Her dreams have been shattered.

Her nice lifestyle has been destroyed by death, and here she is. She comes back, and she says, I am bitter. Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara. I am utterly, utterly bitter in life. I'll never be happy again.

Here she is several weeks later from that first day in chapter two, and she begins to think of providence, and she's prayerful, and she's watching this. Do you realize watching providence at work in two lives begins to change her whole view of life?

She begins to think of the God of providence and how God could be working in this, and yes, her son died widowing Ruth, but now she begins to see something happening. She is discerning the God of providence.

What a remarkable thing this lady has gone through, and so in verse two, she says to Ruth, behold, he winnoweth barley tonight in the threshing floor. Why is tonight such an important time? Why tonight?

Why not yesterday or the week before? Why is it tonight? She is putting a plan into action, making a suggestion. Why tonight? Do you know why? Because it's the end of harvest. This is the end of harvest tonight.

Do you know that Ruth won't be going out into the harvest fields tomorrow? She won't be doing that, or next week. The harvest has already come in. The task is over. A change of season is coming. What's been happening for months now is gonna end tonight, and you know what?

Naomi is sharp. She says, something has to happen at this point, and once you say, Boaz, I know where he is tonight. I know what's gonna happen because it happens every single year. This godly man is gonna be at the threshing floor, and you know, Ruth, I'm thinking about you.

Why don't you go down to the threshing floor? Now, notice this. The threshing floor is very symbolic, and it is very, very important. The threshing floor was a place of separation. This is where you brought the barley in.

This is where you brought the wheat, and you're gonna start a process of separation. Seeing this, when you've got two people with romantic feelings, and providence is bringing them together, do you realize God will bring you to the threshing floor?

That's a very safe place to come in God's dealings. Do you know what the threshing floor was? It was a high place, a large open area where they brought the harvest in, and it had to be high up where the wind could blow upon this harvest, and they began to work on this harvest, and that's what Boaz and his men were gonna do.

The threshing floor was used to separate grain from the chaff at harvest time, and what you began to do, what the barley had was a hard shell around it. To get inside that, you had to do something with the entire harvest to separate the barley from this hard chaff or shell around it, and there had to be a separation here.

I believe this is so, so important, and what they'd done the threshing floor, they either battered it or had an animal with a wooden tray to batter and smash the harvest and to begin to separate this.

After it was crushed and separated, what they began to do was winnow it, and they had throw it up. The light chaff would blow away, and those, they'd done it in the evening. Do you know why they winnowed in the evening?

Because with the heat of the sun, there was no breeze during the day, but as soon as you got to the end of sunlight, a breeze began to blow in, and so here in the threshing floor, you've got Boaz winnowing the wheat.

He would throw it up. The wind would blow. The chaff is gone. What are you left with? You're left with that coarse seed. You can now make bread, and this man of God, he is winnowing out the wheat. It's the end of harvest time.

There is coming a separation between what is not good, what is not profitable, what is not useful to eat, and that which is absolutely vital to the making of bread. This is all that's going on, and you know what?

This is gonna be the vital place where this couple are gonna begin to come together in the providence of God, but it took a modest woman to set about a plan, and to begin to make suggestions. These were not man-made rules that she was taught about.

This is a woman that's saturated with Scripture. Her heart is filled with the Word of God. She knows the culture. She knows the types, the shadows, the commands. All of this is motivating this woman of God, and you know what?

This plan that Naomi begins to hatch, it's not interference. It's not game playing. It's not dangerous. It's modest. It's moral. It's biblical, and it's also symbolic, and Christ is revealed in all of this.

You know where Christ gets his church? At the threshing floor. Do you know what? Right across our world now, God is bringing his bride, his church, to the threshing floor, and you know what the threshing floor is?

It is the beating out of the barley and the wheat between what is real and what is true, what is false, what is of man and what is of God, and see the preaching of this Aaron generation. I believe the wind is beginning to blow, and that Christ himself is bringing the bride to the threshing floor, and that's gonna be the place where you discover the real bride of Christ.

It's gonna be in the threshing floor of the division of everything. You know, we've got so many churches. They are a corruption. The real is preached, and the false is preached. Compromise is preached, and strong meat is preached.

You get it all there, but there's gotta be a place of separation. It's a process of beating, crushing, revealing, cleansing, and purging, and that's where Boaz is. You know, girls, if you're ever looking for a guy, make sure you find him on the threshing floor, beating out the word of God, finding the truth of God, looking for sound doctrine.

You know what? If I was a girl, I'd be saying, show me a man standing on the threshing floor that's looking for truth and reality and purity and holiness, and the truth of God's word. That is a good mark to look for.

This was a biblical teaching that she was starting to put into place of God's provision, a kinsman redeemer. You see, Boaz is a kinsman redeemer, and Ruth is saying, biblically, this is a biblical teaching.

Boaz lines up with scripture as the right person for Ruth, and it's going to affect our entire family, even those who have died, and she begins to put this plan into operation. What else does she say?

Look at verse three. She was saying, don't just turn up like you have done every single day for weeks. Do you know, biblically, there's nothing wrong with a lady looking nice, dressing proper, and presenting herself.

If you dress like a flirt, there's a problem. If you dress tightly, there is a problem. If you dress like a harlot, do you know who dresses like a harlot? A harlot dresses like a harlot. And we live in a generation where all morals have been lost.

No mystery is found amongst the women of our generation. There's nothing special, nothing secret, nothing awe-inspiring. Do you know a woman who is of a different kind, an immoral woman? If you think you can trust her, you're a very foolish person.

You can tell someone by their dress. You see, I believe if your heart is right, you would be convicted over the way you dress. Dress reveals a lot about your attitude, everything. If you're a guy walking about with no T-shirt on down Limerick High Street, it reveals everything about you.

It's embarrassing. I get embarrassed. The person doesn't get embarrassed. Do you know when a little girl wears tight clothes? It's embarrassing. A guy who's right looks the opposite way. It's a bit hard not to notice, but you go, man, you need to be taught how to dress properly.

Your parents didn't care about you. They really didn't, because they know what that'll do, and yet they don't care. And so you have Naomi's center, wash thyself therefore. I'm telling you, this is an important night on the threshing floor of what God is gonna do.

And so bath yourself, wash yourself. Oh, that the church again bathed itself and washed itself correctly. You know why? You're getting ready for your buahs, for the Lord Jesus Christ. You're gonna meet him on the threshing floor.

You need to wash yourself with the water of the word of God. I believe this girl, Ruth, was very aware. You're presenting yourself. You're getting yourself ready. You're gonna bath yourself. When you're working in the harvest field, you're gonna smell, you're gonna sweat.

Your clothes are gonna be degenerate. And here's Naomi saying, bath yourself. Second of all, anoint yourself. You know what this oil was? It was like perfume as well. They used oils and those oils had fragrance, medicinal uses for the hot sun.

They're also refreshing. You need to freshen yourself up. Ladies, can I say something? With this whole realm, there's nothing wrong with looking nice, smelling nice, presenting yourselves right. That isn't unspiritual.

To try and make yourself not look beautiful is strange. Okay, that isn't normal. Isn't there something innately in a lady that wants to look right and dress right and present herself right? Do you realize that's not unbiblical?

You find it throughout scripture that it actually is a very correct thing, a very normal thing. Notice here, Ruth isn't gonna dress the way she went to work in the barley fields cleaning. She puts on a different raiment, a different garment.

The church of our generation does need to prepare itself. Some years ago, a lady walked into our church, a visitor from another nation, a godly girl, a spiritual girl, a girl who loved Jesus and loved the word of God.

Suddenly, one of the young guys in the midst, we were meeting in the house at the time, this young guy, he never once wore a shirt ever and he didn't afterwards. On that Sunday, I walked in and I thought it was just me noticing, kind of said there, did you see how he was dressing?