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When I talk about the "Rest of Your Life," I am not speaking in terms of quantity. I am speaking in terms of quality. I am not talking about how many days are left in your life, but how the days are lived in your life. The "rest" that I speak of is a rest that God wants His people to experience and enjoy. We read in Hebrews 4:9, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." The writer of Hebrews tells us that one of the goals of life should be the experiencing and enjoyment of this rest: Hebrews 4:11, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." The word "rest" as found in Ruth 3:1, means "quiet" and speaks of someone that is settled. It was used to speak of someone who had a home and was settled in life. It describes a lack of anxiety, restlessness, and emptiness in a person's heart and life. We would describe this rest as a contentment of life, a deep satisfaction in life, peace of heart and soul. It was the desire of Naomi that Ruth find this rest. She said in 3:1, "Shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee." Naomi wanted Ruth to be happy and live the rest of her life enjoying the rest of life. She wanted Ruth to be settled in life and without certain fears and worries. Essayist Charles Lamb said, "I walk up and down thinking I am happy, and knowing I am not." To many, satisfaction is about as rare as the bald eagle. It is estimated that about every 30 minutes someone in the U.S. commits suicide. The New York Times estimated that about 5 million people living in America had tried to kill themselves. It would seem that for many Americans, life is without contentment and satisfaction. One of the great quests of life is peace, contentment and satisfaction. Dante, the Italian poet, when asked by some monks where he was going and what he was seeking, replied, "I am searching for that which every man seeks--peace and rest." Phillip Keller writes in his book "A Gardener Looks At The Fruits Of The Spirit:" "In the world around, amongst all men, Christian and non-Christian, peace is regarded as one of the supreme attainments. In the tumultuous history of the 20th century, perhaps no other single subject has occupied more prominence in the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of mankind. Peace is ever upon people's minds and lips. It is the profound longing of uncounted millions. Peace is the prize sought for in the depths of the human soul, yet the attribute so often absent." Thanks be to God there is a rest of life for the rest of our life. In fact, God wants each of us to experience and enjoy this rest of life. He does not want our life’s to be empty and void of peace and satisfaction. He wants us to be at rest. A little boy kept turning around in church and grinning at everybody. His mother kept telling him to stop. Finally she jerked the boy by the sleeve and said, "Stop that grinning. You're in church." Then she gave him a smack that made him cry. When he started crying she said, "That's better." Someone described "peace" as a grinning of the soul. God does not want your soul crying, but grinning. Let's notice where this rest is found by considering Naomi's words to Ruth. First, we see: 1. THE PLACE SHE FIRST ADVISED Notice Ruth 1:9, “The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.” We recall that at this stage in Naomi's life she was away from God. In her condition she was mistaken, misguiding, and misinforming in her advice. She was saying to her two daughter-in-laws "Go back to Moab and there find rest." Moab was a place cursed of God. It was a place without God. It was a place that rejected God. Yet this was the place Naomi first suggested that Ruth seek rest. It was advice that was distorted deceptive, and dismal. This world in which we live is not much better informed and advised on where to find rest than Ruth was at the first. Our society searches for peace but searches vainly for it looks for rest in all the wrong places. Naomi's advice reminds us that people often search for rest in: A. The Possessions Of This World This world thinks if one has a lot of money and possesses all the finer things of life, they will be happy. People often reason that if they were rich they would then be truly happy. The Chicago Tribune told the story of a Jeff Ferrera of Waukegan, Illinois. He was reconciling his checkbook and called First National Bank of Chicago to get his current balance. The electronic voice said, "Your primary checking account currently has a balance of $924,844,204.32." Ferrera was one of 826 customers who were almost billionaires for a day because of the biggest error in the history of U.S. banking. The goof amounted to almost $764 billion, more than six times the total assets of First Chicago National Bank. I can hear you say, "I wish my bank would make such a mistake on my behalf. I would be a happy fellow.” But the truth is, if you were the richest person in the world, you would not find peace and contentment in your riches. A magazine article on comedian Jackie Gleason carried this subtitle: "Tragic Facts, Never Before Told, of the Torment Behind the Comedy Genius Who Earned Three Million Dollars a Year. He is Lonely, Tormented, Fearful." Millionaire Jay Gould said when dying, "I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth." Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie remarked, "Millionaires seldom smile and never laugh." Those that do not have money think if they had money they would be happy. Yet those who have money tell us that money will not make anyone happy. Someone has written: “Money will buy a bed but not sleep, books but not brains, food but not appetite, finery but not beauty, a house but not a home, medicine but not health, luxuries but not culture, and amusement but not happiness.” Rest is not found in the possessions of this world. Naomi's advice also reminds us that people search for rest in: B. The Pleasures Of This World. There are those who think if they could really live it up then they would truly be happy. This is especially a misguided conception of young people. The reasoning is if I could do that and go there, live this way and that way, I would be happy. Lord Chesterton once said, "I have run the silly rounds of pleasure, and by no means desire to repeat the nauseous dose." Robert Burns wrote:
Pleasures are as poppies spread; You seize the flower, the bloom is shed.
I think of the woman at the well in John chapter four. She had had affairs with 5 men, and was living with a man that was not her husband. You can fill in the blanks to the kind of life she had lived. But did it make her happy? When she met Jesus was still seeking the source of genuine joy. The philosophy of this world; "Eat, drink, and be merry," only leads to a dead-end street of frustration, boredom, emptiness and burned out lives. As well, we are reminded that people often search for rest in: C. The Popularity Of This World. If I could only be popular or famous, then I would really be happy, is the ideal of some. The ideal of being popular, well-known, and famous with their names in bright lights to many is the key to being happy. In 1978, Chris Evert, two-time Wimbledon women's tennis champion and winner of over a million dollars the previous year, took four months off from professional tennis because, according to the Associated Press, "She realized she was not happy." Most of us are familiar with the name of Judy Garland, the child star who became a superstar at the age of 17 in the "Wizard of Oz." By 1948, she was the leading movie musical actress. But even with her success, life appeared to be missing something. At the age of 18, she was seeing a psychiatrist. At the age of 28, she attempted suicide. She had four failed marriages. She was addicted to uppers to perform and downers to sleep. She was found locked in her bathroom by her fifth husband, sitting with her head slumped over in her lap. Doctors said she died of an in-cautious self overdose of sleeping pills. Her daughter, Liza Minnelli, said in a statement shortly after her mother's death, "It wasn't suicide, it wasn't sleeping pills, it wasn't cirrhosis. I think she was just tired." (1) Real joy, happiness, peace is not found in possessions, pleasure, or popularity. King Solomon declared that he had tried might, money, music, mirth, and mistresses to find joy. He stated in Ecclesiastes 2:10, “And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.” His final analysis of it all was summed up in Ecclesiastes 2:11, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” Naomi said, "The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband." She first advised Moab as the place to find rest. Yet we are reminded that Moab is not the place to find rest. Naomi would learn this as well. Secondly, we see: 2. THE PERSON SHE FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGED Notice our text, Ruth 3:1-2, “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?” Naomi now acknowledges that rest is not found in a place but in a person. Rest was not in Moab but in the Master. It was not in a land but in a Lord. First, we see that real rest is a: A. Resource In Christ Naomi was acknowledging that the one who had the resources to fully satisfy and bring rest to Ruth was Boaz. He was the one who had the ability to meet her every need. High atop a mountain between Argentina and Chile stands a massive statue entitled, "Christ of the Andes." The statue commemorates the signing of a peace treaty in 1903 that ended a long-smoldering border dispute between the two nations. The Argentine cannons which had terrorized the Chileans were melted down and reshaped into the statue. Engraved in Spanish at the base of the towering monument are these words: "Sooner shall these mountains crumble into dust than Argentines and Chileans break the peace sworn at the foot of Christ the Redeemer." Real peace can only be found at the feet of Christ the Redeemer. Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Augustine, one of the great names of early church history, said after trying to find peace in every sensual indulgence known to man, "Our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Jesus is where real peace and rest comes from. He is the single source of real rest. We also see that real rest is a: B. Relationship with Christ Notice that she referred to Boaz as "our kindred" (Vs.2). She was referring to him as a "kinsman redeemer" of which we will learn more later. The fact is, she was speaking of a close and intimate relationship between Boaz and Ruth. Jesus is the resource for real rest. Yet, many who know Christ as Saviour do not experience this rest. Many that are saved, going to heaven when they die, if honest, would admit that they are not really happy. Why? Real rest comes from Jesus, but is experienced in a close relationship with Him. Before Jesus spoke of His peace that He would and could give. He said in John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." First, there was a relationship and then there was a resource. The happiest people on the face of the earth are those who have a close relationship to Christ. Following the Lord is the finding of life. Where are you trying to find rest? In a place or in a person?
1) They Went That Away" Malcom Forbes |
