Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Now the last time we were together gathered around the book of Ruth, amen, it's been a little bit, but we saw how Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, gave Ruth some of the greatest advice ever on how to prepare and come before the presence of Boaz. And of course you know, you know by now that Boaz is a beautiful type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course I say advice but Naomi what she's doing in her expertise and her wisdom she is instructing Ruth on what should be done before she simply walks into the presence of Boaz who is a near kinsman. And of course you and I live in the great unhinged unkept and uncovered and unprepared generations. So more often than not, I would say when we talk about what we did last Sunday, Sunday morning, which was preparation, often the preaching is not as well received per se. Why? Because if we're gonna be honest with ourself, we're not getting a lot better at the preparedness. I mean, if you believe that things around you are deteriorating, which I would agree as well, I think would at least have one thing we could agree on that things are kind of going south. Things aren't getting any better. I mean, the fact that you can't even go to Walmart 24 hours a day, that tells you something's wrong. Cause Walmart makes the money and you can't even 24 hours. I'm just saying when we preach about being prepared and that's what we did last week. A lot of times, if you're willing to look inwardly that preaching is not as easily received because why? Well, preacher, first of all, it's easier to go around and kick everybody else than it is to take a look at what I need to do before I go into his presence with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm saved. I was saved April 24th, 1983. And I know that the Bible says I can go boldly before the throne of grace and I should, but the fact of the matter is, is it's nice to get cleaned up before you go. It really is. And I'm talking about your personal fellowship, of course, with Jesus Christ. So when we roll that type of preaching out, a lot of times like, yeah, that's your opinion. You know what I mean? I mean, and you know, me and Jesus, we're really close. We really are. And you know, we're just, we kind of hang out in the deer blind together and we, me and him on the pontoon, throwing one out and all that. But we really need to stop and consider that we need to prepare. And that's what we preached about. Last week, you know some of the factors that lead up to why we're in the shape we're in as Christians. They often parallel what's going on in the world. Since when many of us have been raised, all of us have been raised in America, we think by pure definition alone, that since we're Americans, we really have a right to whatever we want. I don't know if you've considered where this country has brought you and your children and your grandchildren, but just the simplicity that it takes for you to get what you want these days. I mean, just back in the early 80s, there was a stupid catalog. You say, why was it stupid? Because it just made you covet is all it did. And every time we got the Fingerhut catalog, I wanted every ZEB Coefficient poll in there. And I should show my mother, I'm like, look, it's only $4 a month. She's like, cut it out. But now with the plethora of technology and where we've come, I mean, I can go order pizzas online from Sister Flo and she didn't even have to see me. I walk in, I punch a code, I got my pizza. You go on eBay, you go on, they've got one touch buy. You look at, if you think about it, it's showing up at your house. And by the way, the shipping's free. And by the way, it's 0% for 12 months if you make a minimum payment of 27 cents. I'm just showing you that that's attributed to the deterioration that we no longer prepare. Back in older days, if we could put it like this, you often had to think before you bought something. And now people don't want you to think. They're like, look, you can afford it. I mean, you're like, I can afford $2 a second. I can afford $99 down and $99 a month. I can afford that. But they forgot to tell you it's going for 12 years. And everyone gets a little bit of piece of your pie so we know along. I'm just saying we struggle as a generation. If we're honest, we struggle with preparation and that was where we were going from last week. But the preparation, can I tell you this this morning that it does really have a payoff. The preparation is not just so you can look good. And it's not just so you can appear good, appear good looking, or appear like you've got it together. As one preacher said, y'all dressed up on the outside and messed up on the inside. That's kind of where we're at, amen? But there's a real payoff for preparation. There's a preparation that pays off. And very little preparation, I think you would agree with me if you were to look inwardly and be honest, that very little preparation, that thing bleeds over into our Christian life. So while we take very little time to prepare, unless it's something that really means something to us, now in the Christian life, those same tactics follow us. So then therefore, we don't often think we need to prepare at all before we go before the Lord, like, he's my get out of jail free card. And you know, I know he's there. He'll never leave me nor forsake me. So I'm just, you know, occasionally I'm falling out of the sky at 30,000 feet. I'm freaking out and I'll just pull the ripcord. Jesus take the wheel and all the rest. I'm just saying that we often follow the same principles of the world and that we don't prepare. But in chapter three, Naomi gives Ruth tremendous advice. It really is tremendous. In verse three, we saw the need to wash up, amen. In verse three, we also saw the need to anoint thyself. Once you clean up, once you get rid of all the junk, well then go ahead and get smelling good. And of course, we're talking about a fresh supply of oil from the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 3 we're talking about once you're clean and smelling good, we're supposed to what? Change your garments. Amen? So you get rid of the garbage, you get rid of the junk, you get rid of the junk in the trunk or whatever you see, and many times when you get rid of the junk, you start smelling stuff later because you forgot there's still a little bit of junk in there. But you do the best that you know how to get rid of stuff in your life that would prevent fellowship, and then you anoint yourself, you ask the Lord, Lord, now I've emptied myself, all who I think I am, will you fill me with your Holy Spirit? And then you change your garments by putting on the new man, then you can really enjoy fellowship with Jesus Christ, who actually means something more to you. You can get something accomplished in the Christian life. instead of just stripping your gears all the time and burning out rubber and just crashing into the wall. Why? We prepared, we put some time into it. If you've ever had a job where you had promotions and so forth and so on, you had to take time and get ready for those things. I know a lot of people come in and they want the management position, that ain't all it's cracked up to be. But generally, if you do it the right way, you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Why? That's preparation. And matter of fact, the older that I get, it seems more pleasant now to be at the bottom. Why? They don't expect too much of you. Amen. And if you shine at the bottom, why do they want to promote you? Forget it, man. I'd rather be a dirt ball on the bottom and just have it made. But we're talking about we're preparing and there's a payoff. I want to remind you, Christian, in the Christian life, there's a real payoff for preparation. I want to preach about payoffs preparation today. There's a lot of preparation that goes on to your fellowship with Jesus Christ. And after the preparation that Ruth does to approach Boaz, as we merge into the rest of our chapter here, beginning in chapter three, verses five through 18, the first thing we see in verse five, we see Ruth's commitment. Amen? But you know what I know? If you've ever been an employer or a manager, people commit all day long. I will be there. And guess what? They're not there. It's not enough just to commit. You see, the next verse, I believe it is verse 6, After Ruth's commitment, we see in verse six, we see Ruth's obedience. That's where it's at. In the Christian life, if you're gonna get something done for Jesus Christ, it will hinge upon your obedience. Can I just take you back a second, not trying to straighten pictures, your success, if I could call it that way, not in a financial way, but a spiritual way, does not depend on whether or not you do what I tell you. Why? Because if I got any sense about me whatsoever, I'm gonna point you to the word of God, and I'm gonna point you to his grace, and I keep you looking toward the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So your success or your fellowship or your relationship with the Lord is not hinging on whether or not you do what I think you should do. Well, I think everybody should cut wood, but guess what? I don't think Sister Jenny's gonna go in the woods and cut wood. You see what I'm saying? It's not dependent upon what I think. It's what God wants you to do. And the preparation has a payoff, you see her commitment, you see her obedience. And Ruth prepares, and in verse 19-18 I see another great picture of fellowship with Jesus Christ. In verse 9 is the great question. The great question. Boaz asks Ruth, who art thou? That's a good question. You say, yeah, so what preacher? Alright, notice what Ruth says in verse 9. She says, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. You know, if you take out that word Ruth, you just have a three-word phrase, I am thine. I see with Ruth when she approaches Boaz, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first thing she does is she tells her Lord who she really is. She says this, I am thine. I belong to you. I don't know if you can see, it is a beautiful picture, it really is. Ruth says, I am Ruth, thine handmaid. She's letting him know that I belong to you. You say, what is it? Oh, that's simply an audit of your identity. Have you ever stopped and consider who you are lately? You say, well, my last name is Smith, or my last name is Jones, or my last name is Evans. God help you on that one, amen? But who are you? What is your identity? You talk about identity theft. Well, ain't no one stealing mine. Why ain't nothing in the account? Amen? I'm just kidding. I'm just having fun this morning. But you know what I'm saying? It's an audit of your identity. Before you come before the Lord, notice the first thing that the Lord is going to ask you is, who are you? That's an interesting question when you consider the Lord wrestling with Jacob. And he says, what's your name? Why? Because so many years back, 20 years back, Jacob was the trickster, the cheater, the supplanter, the swindling salesman. And he says, I am Esau. So now the Lord pins him down and says, what's your name, boy? He's auditing your identity this morning when you go into fellowship with him. I believe when you step into the throne room with Jesus Christ, the first thing he wants to know is, hey, who are you? Are you still who you think you are? Or do you belong to me? I might be looking at that thing all kind of cock-eyed, but I just see an audit of one's identity there. Who are you? And Ruth basically, she says, Lord, I belong to you. She says, I am thine. Man, what a start to the meeting. What a start to the meeting. She shows up, she's like, I am thine. You can't argue with that. I think about that song, Now I belong to Jesus, Jesus belongs to me. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. How about the other great hymn of the faith? I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice. Right? Are you His this morning? I'm saying the moment you step into fellowship with Jesus Christ, after you have prepared, after you've done all that you know how to do to come before Him, in a way that pleases Him, I believe He'll audit your identity. He wants to know who you are. There's an audit of your identity. And of course, how can Boaz reject or cast away such a noble gesture? I mean, how can you even say anything against what she has just told him? Well, of course he can and he won't. Doesn't John say over in John 6, 37, he that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out? You realize when you come before the throne and fellowship with him, he's not going to cast you out. A lot of Christians have this misconception that, well, if I'm not prepared, I might as well just not go. Okay, well, if you can't prepare the way you should, please still go and fellowship with him. Right? I mean, he told the disciples, I believe it's Matthew chapter 4 verse 9, he said, follow me and I will make thee fishers of men. So we preached a message, I don't know, a year or so back, we said, follow first, fish later. And the modern-day Baptists, they got the whole thing cockeyed. Well, come be a fisherman, come cut the grass, come clean the church, come do the bus route, come knock the doors, come do this, and then maybe you'll follow Jesus Christ somewhere along the line. You'll catch the vision, the 2020. I'm just saying, follow Him first and fish later. If you can't prepare the way you should, at least come. But when you come, I'm going to tell you this, He's going to, number one, audit your identity. The next thing I see, what happens when I spend time with the Lord, you know what happens? Well, the first thing that happens, or the second thing that happens is he alleviates her fears. Look at verse 11, Ruth chapter 3, verse 11. And is an O such a time as this? How apropos is it now? More than ever before in verse 11, you see that phrase in there? She comes before him, he audits her identity. Who are you? Hey woman, who are you? He says, I am thine. And then the first thing he said is, fear not. What a blessing. You know what I can be confident of when I come before the Lord in fellowship today? That the moment I step into the throne room after he asks me, hey, by the way, who are you? I'm nine, Lord. Immediately what he tells to me is not a kick in the shorts. It's not a punch in the wrist or a punch in the shoulder. It's fear not. Can I just encourage you this morning, Christian, that no matter how screwy it is out there, and that's probably the right word, it's screwy, it's goofy, it's weird, But the moment you step into the throne room of Jesus Christ, the first thing I believe He'll tell you is, fear not. He alleviates fears. The stress reduces. The tensions lessen. Isn't that a blessing? He said, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will add more to it. And He says, I'll give you rest. You ever stop and wonder where we get our idea about who God is? You ever stop and consider that the moment you consider fellowshipping with Jesus Christ that the devil is right there to add doubt to your already distant relationship? And you many times you'll think this, I can't spend time with the Lord because I'm too busy. I can't spend time with the Lord because of what I've done in the past. He says, come unto me all you that labor heavy laden, I will give you rest. So the moment that Ruth steps into fellowship with Boaz, a picture of Lord Jesus Christ, after we get the identity thing out of the way, he says, fear not. I'm telling you what, Christian, when you go into fellowship with Jesus Christ, the first thing that goes out the window, I don't know if you've ever really took time to realize it, but your fears go. That's the first thing to go. Why? Because a sheep, guess what? Sheep will not eat if they're afraid. You say, are you an expert on sheepology? No, I'm just saying any animal that's afraid won't eat. I mean, if you try to corner a big 30 point buck, and then you give him a nice brand new deer lick in a bag of feed, he's still gonna try to kill you. He ain't gonna eat, he's scared to death. When sheep are afraid, they don't eat. You ever stop and think that maybe that's why we don't read our Bible the way we should, because really we've got a lot of fear tucked inside of our heart. And the Bible says in 1 Timothy 6, that God hath not given us the what? You ever wonder where that spirit comes from? If God has not given us the spirit of fear, is it okay then to assume, dangerous word I understand, that maybe it's another spirit that's somehow getting entrance into our life? Well, greater is he that is in you than he. That's great, but there's windows all over the place where we let these spirits in and they scare the fire out of us. You listen to the next press conference or the State of the Union or whatever it is from your governor there and you'll get fearful. But God has not given us the spirit of fear. Christian, you have no business, can I say it like that, walking around afraid. You say, well, we'll fix that fellowship with Jesus Christ. You say, that's corny. I know, that's because you ain't doing it. Amen. The first thing that goes, the second thing that goes I see here is He alleviates her fears. You know, many times it's in our mind when we come before the Lord, fear, worry, anxiety, pain, trouble, heartache. But how wonderful it is how He relieves the tension. He dissolves the doubts. He reduces the stress. Many of us right now, no doubt, we're suffering from fearfulness of sickness. That's a present reality we live in. Now, we take a common sense approach to it. If you're concerned about it, take precautionary measures. We don't tell you how to think. We don't tell you how to fix it. We don't tell you what to do. We just say, if you're concerned about it, then I believe you should have the right amount of common sense to do what is right for you and your family. Amen? If it's being here, praise Lord. If not, we still love you. There's nothing against you. But the moment we step into the presence of God, immediately He alleviates our fears. The Bible says in Psalm 56, verse 4, In God I will praise His word, in God I put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. It's fear that binds us, it's fear that causes us to act out of character. Have you ever stopped and really considered some of the crazy things you've done in your Christian life? Usually if you run those things back, you are afraid of something. And when you're afraid of something, you will begin to act out of character. And you'll do things that you don't normally do. Why? Pressure, tension, stress. You're afraid, you're worried. You know what alleviates, what dissolves all those doubts and fears? Being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. See now the reason why we should do it the more often. The more we're in fellowship with Jesus Christ, the less the fear has a chance to get a hold of us. So Ruth enters into the presence of Boaz. He auditors her identity. She says, I am thine. And then we see Boaz alleviate her fears. You know what the next thing I see right in verse 11? He answers her request. Look at it with me, verse 11, Bible says, Ruth chapter 3 verse 11, now my daughter, fear not, I will do to thee all that thou requires. Now, what he's referring to is the part of performing the duty of the kinsman redeemer, that means simply buying the entire household of Elimelech. That's specifically in the context, but in a larger thing, I see him answering her prayers. You know, the moment you come into His presence, not only does the Lord alleviate my fears, but He answers my prayers. I want to ask you this no-nonsense question this morning. When was the last time you personally got a prayer answered? I don't say that to shame you. I don't say that to make you feel bad. I say that kind of an internal thought process. When was the last time you can put your finger on a prayer request that you prayed for that you wanted the Lord to answer and you got a request answered? I say many times, the reason we stop going before the Lord, the reason we stop fellowshipping with the Lord, communing with the Lord, praying, is because we don't see the answers that we think we need. And so we say this, well, He ain't listening anyways. Lord isn't listening to me, I ain't got time to talk to Him. But I'm telling you, the more time you spend with Him, He answers your requests. He answers your requests. Look, Christian, He never quit hearing us. You know what happens? We quit talking to Him. He never quit hearing us. A day will go by, and then another, and then a week, and the child of God in His weakness and disgust once again. What happens at that point? When we're weakened, we begin to focus on ourself again. And when we begin to focus on ourself, that's when we don't see the requests answered. Why? Because the Lord wants to answer requests that will please Him. And if we're always focusing on us inwardly, how can He answer all those requests? You say, what are you saying? I'm just saying, when you finally choose to get back to that secret place, that special place where you lay down at His feet, the fears begin to alleviate and the prayers start to get turned around once again. Let's move on. I want to show you a few more here this morning. the payoff of preparation. Well, he alleviates her fears, he answers her requests. Look at verse 13. This is an interesting one to me this morning. In verse 13, I'll tell you this, he appeals to her to stay. Look at verse 13 with me. You know what Boaz asked Ruth to do? Stay longer. I got looking at the thing, I said, really, Lord? He's like, yeah, that's what you need to do with me, Morav. You need to stay longer. Look at verse 13 with me. Bible says in verse 13, Terry this night. You see that phrase right there? Look at verse 14. And she lay at his feet until the morning, and she rose up before one could know another. Boy, that's an interesting picture. Can I tell you this? I'm not sure how long Ruth intended to be there in the presence of her Lord, but if she's anything like me, it wasn't very long. I'm just being honest with you this morning. I don't know about how you spend your time with the Lord. It's really none of my business. It's personal, it's private and all that stuff. But the first thing I see is when she gets there in fellowship with her Lord, He asks her to stay. Could it be that when we spend time in fellowship with Jesus Christ, one of the things that we often overlook is that He just wants us to stay a little bit longer? You see, the fears are already alleviated. He's already audited our identity. He's now answering my request. We're getting somewhere with the Lord, and he's just like, Terry, this night. Oh, I ain't spending all night. Okay, well, don't spend all night, but could you stay a little bit longer? I mean, in your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, do you see where I'm coming from on this verse? He just says, stay a little bit longer. Can you just spend a little bit more time with me? Having grown up in a split home where the parents were divorced, although my stepmother loved me very much, can I tell you I only got certain visitation privileges with my real dad or biological dad, real dad. No, the only one was fake. But my biological dad and my whatever mom. That was really difficult for me. I never did understand it. I was always emotional. I know you can hardly believe that I'd be emotional. But you know what? I had restricted visitation. I believe many times the Lord feels that way about us. And a lot of times the Lord, can I just say this as pointed as I can as your pastor, He's just really tired of weekend visitation with us. He's tired of once a week between 11 to 12.30, and you know, and then on top of that, it's not only a restricted visitation, but everyone else is with us. I love being with the body of Christ, don't get me wrong. I'd spend all week with you if you'd had me. Some of you would, and then after a while, you'd be like, no, preach, you gotta go home. I'm tired of you. But I'm just trying to relate that the Lord, I think, is tired many times of our visitation restrictions. You see in the passage it was a lengthy stay. He said, Terry this night. Not only that, but if you look at verse 14, not only becomes a lengthy stay, but now that stay is very private. Because in that passage in verse 14, she left before one could know another. You see, the Lord wants privacy with you. This is a wonderful thing that we're gathered in the house of God, amen? It don't get no better, but you know what's better? Can I be honest with you? Just you and Him. I mean, that's where the skinny's at. That is when it is really good. That's when he can not only alleviate your fears, he audits your identity, he answers your requests, but now it's just you and him. You know, Mary knew a little bit about that. You know, Mary and Martha? Or would that be Luke chapter 10? And of course, Martha's in the kitchen, she's a great cook, and she's whining and hollering about what Mary ain't a-doing, and the Lord said that Mary had chosen the good part because she sat at his feet and heard his word. You see that thing? She wasn't worried about what everybody else was thinking. She just took the time and spent it with him. And I'm just saying, he's wanting us to stay just a little bit longer. Now before you go out of here and say, I'm going to be a Martin Lutheran spending four hours in prayer, we'll start with four minutes first. But can I just encourage you, as your pastor, when you go into fellowship with Jesus Christ, there's a payoff. And part of that payoff is listening to Him while you're in there. And if you listen closely, He's saying, will you stay just a little bit longer? See, we all have schedules, don't we? I mean, we're all scheduled to the max. And you know what the Lord wants? He wants that much more of your schedule. Why? He's the one that gave you the ability to schedule in the first place. I want you to think with me just for a moment this morning. He wants you to stay. a little bit longer. He's asking you to. Ruth pictures the child of God at the feet of the Lord Boaz. And more than ever, I believe the Lord is appealing for you and I to stay a while. You know what, 10 years ago, we didn't have Corona. Like, well, duh, preacher. All right, 10 years ago, you may not have had to be as in fellowship with Jesus Christ as you did now. But now everything hinges upon a certain set of restrictions. Now everything hinges upon a certain set of priorities and prerequisites and all the rest. Can I tell you now, you need to stay a little bit longer with him. Well, make me a better Christian. I don't know about that, but you'll be in fellowship with Him and your fears will be alleviated. That's worth it right there to me. I mean, I know, I'm sorry. I worry about y'all. I don't want none of y'all sick. You say, what do you got to do? That's my fears. I got to go spend more time with Him so He'll alleviate them. Well, now more than ever, the Lord is appealing for you and I to stay a while. Is this making sense this morning? Trying to help you through this passage, trying to make this passage come alive. You know, often our peevishness, that's just our childishness, and our impatience drives us away from His presence. I don't know if you ever thought about that. Just about the time you go to spend some time with the Lord, you'll forget to silence your phone, won't you? It happens all the time. Or you'll forget to say, look, I need some quiet time or something, that and the other. And as soon as you kneel down, or as soon as you sit down and bow your head, and you're going to have yourself some sweet one-on-one time with the Lord. Ring, ring, ring. And what do you do? You look at it. You never said, hey, I'm talking to the Lord. Will you call me back? Why, that's corny. But when we come to stay at His feet, I see a pressing question, which is to stay a little longer. Brother Joe sang a song, was it last week, this last Tuesday, he says, In me you will find. You see that? He wants you to stay just a little bit longer. That's it, Christian. I'm not trying to saddle you with convictions and preference and prejudice. I'm just saying the Lord wants just a little bit more of your time this morning. That's it. In verse 14, I want you to see Ruth chapter 3. It says, She laid his feet till morning. She rose up before one could know another. Notice the privacy. Notice the privacy. Many of us, I believe, are trying to fit God in. Would that be an appropriate way to say it? Many of us are trying to fit the Lord into our schedule, but He's the one that gave us the schedule. I believe the focus should be centrally located upon Him with cares, necessities, and requirements of the world, learning to take their place. Where, preacher? After Him. After Him. Well, when Ruth comes into his presence, he audits her identity, he alleviates her fears, he answers her requests, he appeals her to stay. Can I show you something really special? I'm not just saying that because I'm all that and a bag of chips or whatever you think I think about myself, but I see something really special. Here, I want you to see that when Ruth comes before Boaz, he anoints her with blessing. You got to pick this up today. This thing is bigger than I could even articulate this morning. He anoints her, look at verse 10, verse 10. And he said, blessed be thou of the Lord. She comes in. You know what that is? That's a blessing going in. You see that? The moment she walks into his presence, there's a blessing going in. Now look at 15, and here she's going out. And he said, bring the veil that thou hast upon thee, and when she held it, he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. He laid it on her, that's a blessing going out. There's a blessing going in, and there's a blessing going out. Look at 17, it gets better. And she said, These six measures of barley gave he me, for he said to me, Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law. You said, I thought this was gonna get better, and now you're talking about my mother-in-law. No, there's a blessing going into his presence, there's a blessing going out of his presence, and can I remind you that he blessed her so much that that blessing was for somebody else as well. I don't know if you see it the way I see it, but man, that's a threefold blessing. You get immediately blessed when you walk in the fellowship with him, and when you leave there's a blessing, and then he blesses you so much that some of you gotta have a leak on you, and you gotta spring it on somebody else. He says, go not away empty. You see that? You know the last thing the Lord wants you to do when you're in fellowship with him? Walk away from him empty. You'll never walk away empty from the Lord when you're in fellowship with him. You'll always carry away much more than what you came in with. You see, when you come into his presence, you empty yourself of all who you are. Lord, here I am. You know my frame, it's dust. And Lord, I try to get rid of all, get rid of the crud and forgive me for this and forgive me for that. Here I am. He's like, blessed be the holy Lord, man. It's a blessing just to be able to talk to you. And then when you leave, he's blessing you, he's laying it on you. He's laying it on you. And you're blessed so much that you're now, I want you to see this thing, now you are able, since you've been in his presence, you're now able to be a blessing to somebody else. How many times have I wanted to bless somebody else and I was empty? I sure would like to help somebody else, Lord. He's like, yeah, you need a little bit of help yourself, buddy. I'm like, oh, you're right. I want to be a blessing, but I'm empty and I can't. You say, is it because you're wicked? No. Is it because you're an idiot? No. I'm just empty. Can I just reiterate the whole thing about this thing about fellowship is if you don't do it, it's not because you're so wicked. It's not because you're so ungodly. It's not because we don't like you and don't want. It's just because you're missing a blessing. If you don't want to fellowship with Jesus Christ, look at what you're missing. Man! It's not a single blessing, it's not a double blessing, it's a three-fold blessing. A blessing when you go into His presence, a blessing when you leave, and now, and now you have the ability to bless somebody else wherever you go. You ever stop and think about Christians you know? It's not a blessing to be around. You say, is it because they're evil and wicked? No, they just ain't been spending time with their Lord. That's it. Man, you're missing a blessing if you don't spend time with Jesus Christ. Well, we're almost done here this morning. He alleviates her fears. He answers her requests. He appeals to her to stay. He anoints her with blessing. I want you to see the final one this morning. Being in the presence of the Lord, it allows you to sit still. Look at verse 18. In verse 18 we see Naomi Here I believe she is a type and picture of the Holy Spirit momentarily saying to Ruth, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. Notice, there's no anxiety. I mean, you got two gals here with no husband. I'm just saying, you got the mother-in-law and the daughter, and there's no anxiety, there's no drama. And you're like, and she's telling the other one to sit still. I don't know if you see what I see, but when you are in fellowship with the Lord and you've done everything that you know how, then He enables you to have that rest and sit still and now you get to see the Lord work. Look at that verse again, verse number 18. Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. I believe many times in our Christian life, if I could say it like this, our restlessness, our inability to chill out, Our inability to chillax, or however you want to say the thing, it comes from a conscience that has been telling us, yeah, what preacher, what's it been telling us? To get alone with the Lord. That's all it's telling us. Our irritability, our restlessness, here, there. You know, we've always got to be doing something, always got to be doing, always got to be engaged. We just can't sit still as a Christian. Why? Our conscience is bearing witness to the Holy Spirit saying, get alone with Him, get alone with Him, get alone with Him. Come talk to me, come work it out. I'll alleviate your fears. I'll answer your requests. But here, since she's done, I'm showing you the preparational payoff of being in fellowship with Jesus Christ. Naomi says to her daughter, now sit still and watch the Lord work. You know what I want to do in August of 2020? I want to be able to sit still and watch what the Lord does. Why? Because He's the one that's going to get it done, not me. I know He'll use me to work, but I want to be able to sit still and see. I don't want to miss it because I was so busy doing this, or so busy doing that, or so busy wrapped up in this thing and thinking that what I was doing was more important than the Holy Spirit Himself. I see the ability to sit still, and a lot of Christians, they're antsy, antsy. Always gotta be here. Always gotta be busy. You know, well today is when I shower my dog. Well, shower your dog later. He's a dog. Dogs stink. Amen? The girls, they got this little, they say it's a dog. It looks like a black rat. Like, oh, he stinks. I'm like, that's a dog. Dogs, aren't they supposed to stink? What? Sit still, Christian. Let me admonish you this morning to sit still and let the Lord work. But that's the payoff. for being prepared and in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. As my wife comes to the organ this morning, maybe you just need to take some time with the Lord this morning. That's the payoff for preparation. That's the benefit and blessing of fellowship. As she's going to begin to play, I'd like to open up your altar to you again this morning. It's my hope and prayer that you can grab a hold of the blessing of fellowship with Jesus Christ. It really is a blessing. I've done the best that I know how to convey that to you. It's not a chore. Fellowship is not a chore. It's a blessing. It's a blessing coming in and it's a blessing going out. That's the benefit and blessing of fellowship. Can I say this, not to add guilt to anybody, but the future of Bible, believers, Baptist church is going to depend on what kind of importance you place on fellowship. on fellowship. Would you consider the benefits and the payoff and the preparation this morning? I don't know, maybe you're fearful today. Maybe you just need some prayers answered. Wouldn't you long for some more time with your children if you could only spend time with them on Sunday mornings between 11 a.m. and 12.30? That longing, that aching in your heart, I believe, is the Holy Spirit of God saying, draw closer to me. Draw closer to me. I don't know, maybe you've been running on empty for a while. You long for the blessing of God, and man, it's been so long since you've been able to have the blessing and be a blessing to anybody else. It's all found in fellowship. Maybe you're just tired of running, period. You see, you don't get the rest you need, the allowance to sit still, and you don't get to watch God work. Why? Because you're too busy. Now Christian, it's that simple. If the Lord spoke to you, why don't you just come speak to Him this morning. Organ will play.