Love, Loyalty And Labor Series

Sermon for 5/12/2002- Mother’s Day

Ruth 3:16

Introduction:

A. Read Ruth 3:16-18

B. Attractive = Pleasing to the eye or mind.

C. Beauty = A pleasing quality associated with harmony of form or color, excellence of craftsmanship, truthfulness, originality, or another, often undefined property.

D. To be attractive, pleasing to look at involves aesthetically pleasing measurements, the right color, the right texture, and the right this and that. If we don’t have it we are sorry, out of luck. This world can be cruel.

E. There are qualities that transcend the outward appearance. They can make us attractive, one that people are drawn to or they can make unattractive, one that people are repelled by.

F. How do we become attractive to those around us? How do we become someone with whom people want to be around? How do we become attractive to our co-workers? How do we become attractive to our family? Most importantly, how do we become attractive to the one who matters most, and that is God?

G. Women go and put on lots of makeup, get a fancy haircut, get a tan, get a face lift, get a tummy tuck, get their nails done, go out and run 10 miles a day, use Oil of Olay, use the right perfume, all to look attractive to others.

H. Men go out and lift weights, make sure their hair is done in the coolest style, get a toupee, know the correct etiquette and chivalry, they must be tough yet sensitive, and they must have the coolest car in town, all to make themselves attractive to others.

I. WE must look good in a swimming suit!

J. Joe McKeever- As a cartoonist and sketch artist, I love to draw people. So I notice people who have that something extra, that inner glow that makes the difference between "Nice-looking" and "wow." It’s like someone has turned on a light inside them causing a radiance to seep out the pores of their skin. It surely must be what Peter intended when he said true beauty is "the hidden person of the heart." Inner beauty. Estee Lauder and Mary Kay will never figure out how to bottle it. It is a spiritual quality.

K. I have noticed that when people lose their inner beauty (due to sin and only due to sin), or when they’ve never had it, they often fake it with an over-emphasis on makeup, hair and nail treatments, clothing, and jewelry. The effect is like trying to reproduce the Mona Lisa with crayons. It never works. You take two young people, one with an ugly attitude but beautiful outwardly, and the other who has a lovely spirit but is plain outwardly, and in time, the situations will reverse. The lovely spirit will transform the person into a true beauty, and the bad attitude will rob the other of his or her youthful beauty. The inner quality- whatever it is, good or not good- will eventually come out and will rule.

L. A beautiful heart more than offsets the handicap of a homely face!

M. Last week we talked about what to put on, what to wear.

N. Isaac Asimov- She (Ruth) has remained ever since, to all men, one of the most attractive women in the Bible.

WBTU:

A. Why? Why did this man say that Ruth is one of the most attractive women in the Bible?

B. Esther, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Philistine women, these women are all mentioned as very attractive.

C. So why is Ruth an attractive woman? She is never mentioned as being attractive in the Bible. No mention of physical beauty.

D. We do not have a picture of Ruth but assuming the reaction of Boaz, she probably was very attractive. Maybe physically but an inner radiance that shone through. Boaz noticed it and was attracted to it.

E. Attraction does not always depend on looks- we have known beautiful women or men who have terrible attitudes. Not so attractive even though they may be physically beautiful. An average woman or man of modest physical beauty who have a great outlook and attitude.

Thesis: Let’s look at some of the attributes and characteristics of Ruth that made her so attractive.

For instances:

I. Ruth was a great lover.

A. Ruth was a great lover. Not talking about a Don Won or a Cleopatra or some kind of seductress, but a great lover of people and a great lover of God.

B. The story of Naomi.

C. Mahlon married Ruth.

D. The famine is over.

E. Naomi released them from any responsibility to her. Go back to your families and homes and find other husbands. In these days it was the custom that when a son was married that the new daughter in law cut off ties with her family and her new family was her husband’s.