By Odon Bulamba
It’s a joy for me to be here this
morning. We are going to share Word of
God from Ruth 3:1-5. The last song we
sang, “We fall down, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb”. What does that mean to you? Does it make sense for you? Have you thought about falling down and you
start to cry about it? Maybe you can
tell me the meaning of it to you next time we meet.
Naomi told Ruth, before you go somewhere,
you need to be prepared and ready. I am
sharing this to you because we will talk about Mathew 24:29 next time and we
need to be ready. That message was given
to us from Jesus to let us be prepared.
If the sun will change right now to be dark, what will you think? Some might scream from fear and others go
into panic mode. Some won’t believe it
and look for torches so they can see the light again.
Naomi told Ruth to prepare herself to meet
with Boaz. This step in the Bible is
very important to know what you are going to do next. You must first of all know what you need,
where to find it and the person you need and to get what you need from that
person.
Naomi was like the guider (HOLY SPIRIT) of Ruth. She told Ruth, “My daughter I know you need
food, you need someone who will be your provider, your redeemer, who will be
there for you to assist you. Naomi first
chose the person for Ruth. Do you know
the choice of Holy Spirit for you? Do
you know what God has chosen for you to become or the path God has chosen for
you? Our thoughts are very often not God’s
thoughts.
What we want to get is very often different
to God’s plan. We can only see what we
need for our body but God looks at what we need spiritually because life on
this earth is short and we are only here to prepare ourselves for
eternity. I’ll give you an example, one
time I was supposed to sit an exam but I didn’t study. Two days before the exam, I woke up and there
was 300 pages of notes to read and my first idea was to write something on a
piece of paper to cheat.
While we were walking into the exam room,
this man took the sheet of paper from my pocket. He took what I was supposed to use to
cheat. All my colleagues could finish
the exam in 20 minutes but the only thing I wrote was my name. Finally, the examiner told me time is
over. Instead of accepting my mistakes,
I judged the teacher who didn’t know how to teach and gave a tough exam while
the exam was easy for everyone else.
Salvation is the same, God has given us the
Bible, learn and meditate on the Word of God and follow the instructions. Follow it and you will please God but we
prefer to believe that when Jesus comes back, we will hold someone else so they
can take us with them. Jesus is clear
with us, we need to be prepared.
Naomi told Ruth, first of all, to wash
herself. Why do we wash ourselves? Why do you have your shower two times per
day? You think it’s normal so you don’t
smell. Your body will not only smell
because you did sport but because you didn’t shower. You can be young or old, your body will smell
so you need to wash it.
Many people wake up in the morning, they
wash their face and you can see the difference.
By looking at you, you look refreshed.
Once you wash your face and you walk into your office, people will see
life but if you don’t wash yourself, people will wonder what is wrong with
you.
Are you clean in front of God? Don’t you smell in front of the Word of God? You must wash yourself. Wherever you go, your testimony will say, yes
this person is refreshed, clean and the glory of God can be seen.
Yesterday I went to Pak n Save supermarket and
the carpark was full. I walked into the
supermarket and there were hundreds of people.
This is not normal. Then Sylvie
was on the phone to me and explained corona virus. What is the connection? Everybody is preparing themselves to have
enough food at home because the virus is in New Zealand now.
We can fear the virus and be prepared to
protect ourselves from it but we are not prepared to run away from sin or protect
ourselves from sin. We fear to die but
not eternal death. We fear corona virus
and don’t fear God. At the supermarkets,
the shelves were almost empty. The area
of toilet paper was zero, nothing there.
I asked a worker, “Can I get some?”
“Oh the stock will be there soon. Let me check”. Luckily I got two packets. Nadege went to buy hand sanitiser but there
is none left all over New Zealand to buy.
Toilet paper keeps us clean, we need
it. What do you need to keep yourself
clean? Many use water. In France where water is expensive, some will
only have shower once per week and there is a que for 1 shower for the whole
apartment block. You have only 1 minute
in the shower so the next person can have their turn. They use perfume instead to block the smell.
All of Paris smells like perfume to cover their
smell. Do you do that, instead of
repenting, do you prefer to cover the odour of your spirit and soul with
perfume? When you apply perfume to a
dirty body you smell worse. It’s better
to have your shower. The water we have
is the Word of God. How often do you
read Word of God? If you don’t read it,
now do it, at least once per day. Take a
few minutes to read one verse. Then you
need to repent to the person, say sorry and refresh your relationship.
Ruth was told by Naomi to apply perfume
after washing. Do you smell good at
work, to your friends, in your neighbourhood?
Here it is, the matter of your behaviour. How do you behave in front of God, and those
around you? Are you angry, do you
disturb the peace of others? Even if
someone pushes you to the limit, don’t become angry. You can control it and tell yourself, “No, I’m
not going to sin”.
Sometimes you feel something is in your
chest and you want to bring it out, you can say, “No because it will destroy
me, my soul, my God, and my testimony”. Self-control
is one of the ingredients in your perfume.
If you want to smell good, have self-control. If not, you may become crazy and you will
hurt others, yourself, God and you will judge others. Whoever will see you must see God through
you. If someone looks at you, will that
person see God through you? We can see
the sun outside. All benefit from the
sun, evil, good, short, tall. Does every
person in your presence, enjoy your presence?
Once you understand your behaviour, repair your behaviour.
Then Ruth was told to choose your best clothes. Do you have the right clothes when you go to church? Do you remember that you are meeting with God
or do you think what you wear is fine?
Recently I was in Dubai and I went to the beach in jeans and t-shirt
while others were wearing togs. I looked
strange to the point that I started to laugh because everyone was staring and
talking. What I was wearing was not the
right clothes at the right place. What
you wear, does it reflect God’s presence in your life?
In the Bible it says how men must wear in
front of God and what women can and cannot wear. You may think this is fashion e.g. pants with
holes, this is cool. It is cool to you
but not to God. Are you here to please God
or others? Because I have my choice, I must
choose the best of what I wear, I have to consider what I will wear will make
me respected or disrespected. By your
appearance people will accept you or not.
One time in a church the pastor wore shorts
and singlet. The expressions on the church
face was, “Is our pastor mad?” I stood
up and they didn’t know me, “Pastor, can I have word?”. I took the microphone and I told the church
today we must learn what we have to wear.
Our pastor, he is our leader in this church with jandles, short and t-shirt. The place where you are going to meet your God. He was ashamed but tried to justify
himself. The wife said, “I told him”. She advised the husband but he didn’t want to
listen.
Sometimes we think of God as our
grandfather and we want him to fit in our lifestyle while it should be the
opposite. We must look at our
clothes. The first clothes was the skin
of an animal. You must cover your
nakedness in front of God. When you sin,
you look naked to God and so you have to repent. Your appearance at church is important. I will never go to the supermarket without remembering
that people may judge me by what I wear.
Make sure your actions and appearance are a testimony to others.
Ruth was told to go quietly to Boaz and lie
next to him. It wasn’t a matter of showing off because now I am clean, I have
perfume and nice clothes I have to show off.
Although you know the Bible, you are blessed by God and you have gifts,
continue to be humble. Be quiet most of
the time. Don’t make everybody to notice
you.
In my country they say, if you want to be
tall you must accept to sit on the floor.
Bring yourself down a little bit and let God raise you up. I have seen people going through Bible discussions
with each of them wanting to prove what they know. We can fight instead of coming together and
learning from each other in the right way.
By going next to Boaz, Ruth didn’t look at
his face or judge him first but by faith and obedience she followed the instructions
that Naomi gave to her. Do you obey the instructions
of the Holy Spirit? Do you walk by those
steps? Or not? Most of the time we know the steps but we
don’t follow them. We sometimes find the
Bible and the church activities are boring and we think it is a waste of our
time. I wish we could cancel this
meeting. Sometimes people even lie so
they don’t have to come and just stay home to watch tv.
Imagine someone like David who had
everything would say, “Better to be in the house of the Lord than 1000 years
somewhere else”. But for us, today, we
prefer to be somewhere else for 1000 years than to be with God for just one
day. I prefer to go to rugby game,
gossiping with friends, night club, instead of being one day next to the Lord.
If you tell your bones, “I don’t need you”,
what could happen?. Imagine if you had
no bones, you will look a mess. Your
bones give you a shape and removing them is a disaster. Your beautiful face will be gone. That is exactly like someone who doesn’t want
to be with God.
You want to give God a
holiday, “God rest, I have to do my own things here”. Parents sometimes tell their kids to go and
play so they can have spare time and they are happy but they always come back, “Daddy
I need water”. How often do you come
back to your Lord?
In the middle of the night Boaz discovered
someone was next to him. How often when God
moves around your house, He feels your presence? We want to feel God’s presence in us but He
also needs to feel our presence.
After obeying you must live next to God. As the song said, we fall down and leave our
crowns at the feet of Jesus. You can’t
lay your crown down next to Him if you are far away from Him. Come near to Him and He will also come near
to you.
The prodigal son, after being blessed with
his father and getting all the money, he decided to go away. Luke 15, the father didn’t say don’t go after
him, he just watched him leave and he stayed there until the son decided to
come back. The son found his father
waiting for him. When you sin, Jesus
doesn’t run after you, He waits for you to come back.
Many Christians lie to themselves hoping Jesus
will come to find me. If you don’t want
to come back and turn to Him, God doesn’t come looking for you, He doesn’t work
like that. In the Bible you see examples
such as Saul, God talked to him but he didn’t run after him. How often you act worse than Saul and God is
saying, “You are persecuting me”? Saul
became blind, darkness as in Mathew 24:29, the sun was dark.
When your conscience speaks to you, treat
it with respect. Very often we tell our conscience
to be quiet but this was the time for Saul to lie down (he fell from the
donkey) and to lay down his crown at the feet of God. Work on your salvation. If you have salvation, walk on it like
carpet. Don’t step on mud but follow
your salvation like a carpet.
Ruth is a good example of the church but we
need to be prepared because Jesus is coming back soon. You may die before then. I don’t have to say, I have time. Get ready, wash yourself, put on nice clothes,
perfume and prepare yourself.
