Compassion In Community: The Touch Of Jesus

Jesus was not content to limit his preaching to the synagogues of his day.

While on his way to meet with a man whose daughter had died, a woman in the crowd reached out to touch his garment, thinking that she would be healed of a 12-year disease. In this brief encounter in Mark chapter 5, we get a glimpse into the heart of Jesus. Today we'll see that his heart was indeed a heart of compassion. We'll learn about ways we too can help those around us who desperately need a touch from God. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. On this program, we wrap up a brief series on the compassion of Jesus. Later in our service, we'll learn about compassion in community, the touch of Jesus.

The Moody Choir comes now to open our service. Come, all Christians, be committed to the service of the Lord. Make your lives more given, more fitted to your hearts with one accord. Come into his trust with gladness, each his sacred vows renewed. Turn away from sin and sadness, be transformed with life anew.

Of your time and talents giving, they are gifts from God above. To be used by Christians, we need to proclaim his wondrous love. Come again to serve the Savior. Ties and coffees with you bring, in your word bring him my favor, and with joy his praises sing. Once a man to love each other is required of every man, showing mercy to a brother, hearers his redemptive plan. In compassion he has given of his hope and his decline, of the crossings were forgiven, joy and peace are fully done. With praise and adoration follow, Lord Christ we believe. Worship him with consecration, praise and love will you receive, for his praise give him the glory for the Spirit and the Word. And repeat the gospel story till all men his name have heard. Amen. How's the body of Jesus Christ at Moody Church doing today?

You well? Have you come to worship? Have you come to be transformed? You know the choir sang that number for a very specific reason, namely our emphasis today is on the compassion of Jesus. And we want Christians to be committed to come and to share the good news of the gospel and to do so compassionately.

And that's our emphasis. In a moment we're going to be singing together. We are God's people and reminding ourselves that we are together in the great work of the gospel. But we want to take out a moment to make our hearts quiet before the Lord.

Because we know that the concerns of the day, the concerns of tomorrow can oftentimes distract our worship. So would you bow with me for a moment of silence and then when we stand to sing, if you prefer to remain seated, you may do that. But we'll be standing to sing and to give God glory and to give God our hearts.

But first, the quietness. Let us pray. Father, open our hearts.

Amid the busyness of this past week and the busyness of the week to come, sanctify these moments, set them apart in our hearts, we pray. May all be drawn into our worship. May those who perhaps have come here today with heavy burdens find that the burden has been lifted. May those who come for wisdom receive what they need. For those who come for cleansing, may they leave cleansed. We come into your presence to bless your name and to give you glory, for we are your people and for that we are exceedingly grateful.

Thank you. I love the Lord, Lord of his spirit. I love the Lord, Lord of his spirit.

We are a song, a song that our hearts are born. Glory and glory, the love of God of God. Now let us learn how to reason the people of God's will. Oh, let us share each joy and fear and will with us in that reason's will. We are the burden of which the Lord is fair. Come to our faith, the wisdom of the dead. He gives us the opportunity ever since we were born. Oh, let us give our gifts to the weak, and so shall his word on earth be done. We are a temple, the Spirit's dwelling place.

Born with great grief, a lot to hold of praise. Now, for on its own, each member loses part, then, joining out, the papers are to hear the hand light and truth in style. I invite you to follow along with me in your bulletin as we read together from Matthew chapter 25.

Please read aloud with me on the bold print. This is God's holy word. Then the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him. Then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.

Then the king will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came. Then all the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you?

And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me. Let your heart be broken for a world in need. Feed the mouths that hunger, soothe the wounds that bleed.

Give the cup of water and the loaf of bread. Feed the hands of Jesus, serving in his stead. Here on earth, abiding principles of love, visible expression now still rules the world. Giving illustration of the living Word to the hands of all who've never seen and heard. Blessed be our blessing, riverless today, challenged by the people, merit and refrain. Hell and mine is marching, filled with vacant praise. Be the means through which love forfeits its praise.

Glad to your believing deeds that prove it true. Knowing Christ as Savior, making master too. Follow in his footsteps, for where he has come. In the world's great trouble, praise yourself for now. Let your heart be tender and your vision clear. Sleep and guide as God sees, serve him high and near. Let your heart be broken, while our brothers pray.

Share your rich resources, give them fear of pain. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him on returns here below. Praise him upon the heavenly road.

Praise God the Son and Holy Ghost of Heaven. When you read the New Testament, you discover that Jesus loved outcasts. He was always looking for the marginalized. He was looking for those who were poor, those who had no support system. Jesus Christ represents the compassion of God. This is the second in a two-part series on the compassion of Jesus. And I'm preaching it so that, first of all, we might go out looking for those who need compassion, hope, and help, and forgiveness, and restoration, and that we might be the first to do it. But I'm also preaching this for another reason, and that is that I hope that as a community of believers here at The Moody Church, we might understand that it's not enough simply to attend services, to sing the songs, to enjoy the worship, but to leave here with our lives representing Jesus Christ wherever he plants us.

Because the world is broken, all of the wells are dry, and people are looking for hope and help. And that's what we're called to do. As a matter of fact, in some sense, I hope that this continues to remind us of what the promised statement is at Moody Church. I don't mention it often enough, not nearly often enough.

It's 14 words. Moody Church is a trusted place where anyone can connect with God and others. May it ever be so that we can connect here together. The story that I'm going to draw to your attention today is found in the fifth chapter of the book of Mark. Turn to Mark chapter five. Book of Mark in chapter five, it's a beautiful story. Three miracles in the fifth chapter of the book of Mark. First of all, the demoniac, Jesus confronts the evil spirits. And you know that story all too well. Jesus Christ, total triumph over the kingdoms of darkness, and Jesus still has the very same authority today.

You can count on it. And then we have another story of a man by the name of Jairus. That's the way I pronounce his name. In verse 21, Mark chapter five, Jesus crossed again into the boat to the other side. And this man, a ruler of the synagogue, comes, falls at his feet and says, If the water is dying, please come immediately.

So Jesus is on his way to the house of Jairus. And it's on his way that he is interrupted by the story of this woman that we want to concentrate on today. It's really the story of two different people in need. On the one hand, what you have is a chronically ill woman, 12 years in her condition. She's set up against a child who is very ill as well and about to die. And of course, there are other contrasts. You know, the child was 12 years old.

This woman had the issue of blood, the discharge for 12 years. One was more prominent. After all, he was the ruler of the synagogue.

This was his daughter, whereas the other was an outcast, a woman marginalized by society. Jesus stops and accepts the interruption. I don't know about you, but I don't like interruptions too well. When I'm going to someplace, I like to just go. Rebecca knows that when it comes to going to an airport, for example, I obsess about being there on time. I guess it's just because I don't want to be known as the late Erwin Lutzer. At least as long as I live. Jesus accepts the interruption.

He isn't too busy for people. And that leads us to our story. I'm going to pick it up there in verse 25.

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for 12 years and who had suffered much under many physicians and had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. Let's just stop there for a moment and we'll pick it up at verse 27 in a moment. Let's look at this woman with three different descriptions, three different ways to describe her experience. First of all, she was a woman in great need, great need.

Think about it for a moment. Twelve years with this discharge of blood. Think of how anemic and weak she must have felt. And here she is, she's a woman who not only is weak, but she is poor because she spent all of her money on physicians. And it is very clear that they not only did not make her any better, but they actually made her worse. And she did not have an HMO or anything like that to appeal to, nor an attorney to try to set the record straight.

However right or wrong that would be in our society. But the point was here was a woman who is under duress in poverty. We can only imagine what these ancient physicians might have suggested or might have done. But the only thing is she grew worse, not better. So she was a woman who very clearly was in great need. She had continual bleeding, poverty, and then something else that you and I don't understand very well. She was ceremonially unclean. Now I'm going to read some verses from the 15th chapter of Leviticus. I know that all of us struggle with the book of Leviticus and we try to fit things in and somehow we can't relate.

But this is the environment in which she grew up. She very probably was unable to read, but the rabbis, they were able to read and they would instruct the people and they read the scripture so often that oftentimes many people who couldn't read even were able to recite them. But this is what it says in the 15th chapter. It says if a woman has a discharge of blood many days or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall continue in uncleanness. And then it goes on to say that every bed she sits on, every chair she sits on is rendered unclean. And then it goes on to talk specifically about the situation where the bleeding doesn't stop and it says that she continues in her uncleanness. This does not have anything to do with moral uncleanness because it's not a matter of morality, but it is a ceremonial uncleanness. It seems as if in the Old Testament all the discharges of the body are considered to be unclean because they are a way in which we give off our life.

And of course the larger picture is this. God wants people to understand as you read the rest of the book of Leviticus that to come into his presence you have to come the right way. All of the priests had to be ceremonially cleansed before they could come into God's presence. And today we recognize that you always have to go to God in his way. And today of course, thankfully, and I said this to Dr. Michael Radelnik on the phone yesterday as I was discussing this passage, thank God, thank God we live in New Testament times and not Old Testament times. Are you happy about that?

I hope so. Now, the point is though, everything she touched became unclean. Strictly speaking, she should not have been in this crowd. Did the people of the town know about it? Of course they knew about it. You know, I once read in a little town, it says that there isn't much to see, but what you hear make up for it.

And I'm sure it does. And so everybody talked about this woman. She had mentioned it to her friends that she was a woman who was unclean and there she was in the crowd, a woman in great need.

There's a second description. She had a very humble faith. I'm going to pick it up now in verse 27 where I left off just a moment ago.

And notice what the text says. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, if I could only touch even his garments, I will be made well. And immediately the flow of blood dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

I'll take it just that far for a moment, but keep the text open. Notice this woman, first of all, anemic, incurable, destitute, untouchable, almost uncertainly unmarried because during that period of time, if a woman had a discharge like this, there was to be no intimate relationships with her husband. She probably lived alone.

She probably didn't have any children. And here she hears whispers of a man by the name of Jesus. And she hears that he's not your average rabbi. He's not going to say to her now, lady, don't you dare touch me because you're unclean and don't you recognize that I am clean.

I am cleansed. He was not that kind of a man she had heard. Furthermore, there were these rumors that were circulating that he was indeed a healer.

He could actually heal people. So let's just imagine for her moment for what her strategy was. She said to herself, I'm going to sneak up secretly. There are all of these throngs that are surrounding Jesus. I'm going to sneak up and I'm just going to touch him. And after I touch him, I'm going to disappear into the crowd and nobody will even know about it.

But if I so much as touch him, I will be made whole. Mark doesn't put it this way, but Luke does. Luke actually says that she said in her mind, if I could but touch the edge of his garment, the tassel of his garment, if I could touch as the oldest song goes, the hem of his garment, I will be made clean. Now, what happened was the rabbis, they would wear a certain garment with tassels and it represented their commitment to the law. It represented the fact that they need to be reminded of the fact that they were representing the law and were ceremonially clean and were keeping themselves from contaminated people and contaminated events that would render them impure.

So there she is. She is saying to herself, if I could touch one of those tassels of his garment, just the very edge, I will be made whole. So this woman does that and she touches the hem of his garment, a tassel, something like part of a prayer shawl, a woman of a great humble faith. But there's a third description now and that's life transforming in the presence of Jesus. Everybody Jesus was involved with, their lives were changed.

Let's read the rest of the story. And immediately the flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus perceiving himself that power had gone out from him immediately. Mark, by the way, loves that word immediately.

Everything for Mark is immediate. Immediately he turned about in the crowd and said, who touched my garments? His disciples said to him, would you see the crowd pressing around you and yet you say who touched me?

And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. He said to her daughter, your faith made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your disease. What an amazing story of the power of Christ and grace.

But let's break it down. First of all, you notice that she knew she was healed. There was something in that touch that made her realize that the flow of blood finally, after 12 long years, ended. She felt new vigor.

She knew that she was healed. Jesus turns around and says, who touched me? Who touched me?

And the disciples correctly say, master, you're being jostled by the crowd. You're being pushed. You're being shoved.

There are people around you. And you're saying, who touched me? You've been touched for the last 15 or 20 minutes trying to get through this crowd. And Jesus said, oh, no. He said, I know that somebody touched me. Some virtue, some power, the text says, has gone out of me.

Well, that causes us to pause for a moment. Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of all lords, a woman touches him and he loses power. I think that this is an indication of the cross. It's in anticipating the cross because there on the cross of Jesus Christ, he is going to become weak that you and I might be made strong. And here Jesus is letting this woman know in advance, I will take upon myself your weakness, but you receive my strength.

So Jesus said, some power has gone out. I know that somebody touched me in a very special way. And so he's looking for her and she is discovered. She's discovered. He looked around to see had done it, but the woman knowing what happened to her came in fear and trembling.

She bows before him and she tells him the whole truth. By the way, why do you think we know that she had this discharge for 12 years? And why do you think that we know that she spent all of her money on doctors? It's because the Bible says there, she told him the whole truth. The disciples were listening to her story and that's why they wrote about it in the New Testament and told us exactly the kind of experience she had had during the past 12 years.

She tells him everything. Luke makes it very clear that she told everybody around why she touched him and what her problem was. Why did Jesus call her out?

Why didn't he just let her go back into the crowd as she intended so that she could leave with anonymity and nobody would know what happened? Does Jesus call her out to shame her? Does he call her out to embarrass her? Does he call her out because after all she violated some protocol?

She should never come to a man without a husband on her side. And furthermore, for her as an unclean woman to touch the hem of a garment of a clean man, is that what he does? Jesus never does it that way. What Jesus was trying to say in this context is this, the opposite. I want to exalt you.

I want to validate you. Look at the beauty of the words. First of all, daughter. She'd not been called that before. And by the way, in no other story does Jesus ever call somebody daughter in this way. Now, later on, he'll talk about daughter arise, but he's speaking about it as a daughter in relationship to her parents.

But here, daughter. What that means is not only was she healed, as Jesus indicated, which was beautiful enough, but something else happened. Namely, her sins were forgiven. She was now a daughter of the Most High God. And Jesus was saying, now you can be integrated into society. You don't have to be embarrassed anymore.

Your uncleanness has been made clean. Go in peace as a daughter of God. It's just like Jesus to take the outcasts, to encourage them, to give them encouragement, and to give them hope and status. And the woman leaves changed forever. And then Jesus goes on and he heals the child. Remember, Jairus comes to him now and is upset with Jesus, taking out all that time with that woman. He says, you know, he sends a delegation saying the child died.

And we don't have time to go into that story. But it's interesting that some of the translations say Jesus disregarded what they said and went in and then raised her from the dead. Do you ever have to disregard what other people say and just go ahead and do God's will anyway? That's what Jesus did. But why should this story that I've told you about today transform us? What are the implications for us as believers, the implications for The Moody Church?

Let me give you three transforming lessons. First of all, we are called to continue the work of Jesus. We're called to continue the work of Jesus. You say, oh, where is that in the text? Whenever I preach, you should always ask that question. Where is that in the text?

It's not here exactly. But you remember how the Book of Acts begins? The former treatise of Aenate, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began, both to do and to teach. Jesus began the work, and the whole Book of Acts is the continuation of his work on earth, and you and I are a continuation of that work. Now it's true, I can't speak the word and heal someone.

I can't go into a room where there is a dead daughter and raise her from the dead, and I don't think you can either, and I don't think those kinds of miracles are happening today because, as I explained last time, when Jesus was offering the kingdom to the nation, there were all of these miracles that accompanied them, and furthermore, Jesus healed these people, but there are many other people that were left apparently unhealed as they surrounded around him. But there is something that we can do that is not quite as spectacular, but just as important, dare I say, more important than the physical healing, and that is to be able to represent a compassionate Jesus to a world that has lost hope and to let them know that Jesus received sinners and Jesus Christ's grace is poured out upon his people, and now we represent him wherever we go, not just in church, but in every single environment. We are dispensers of grace. I want to say that I'm so greatly encouraged by the women here at The Moody Church.

Many of you know that they have a great burden regarding sex trafficking, human trafficking, and they've already begun plans, and they are working towards certain programs, and we're going to see how that is all going to turn out because this is a long process. But we have women here at The Moody Church who actually go to the streets of Chicago and speak to prostitutes and pray with them and encourage them and let them know that there's a God in heaven who cares about them and a God in heaven who's willing to forgive and to restore. In a world that has lost its way, we need to distribute to as many people as we meet the compassion of Jesus who cares about the outcast, the marginalized, the poor, and the rejected.

Let that ever be true of us. There's a second lesson, and that is that we must always exalt Jesus as the healer who touches the world and himself remains uncontaminated. You know, I think the big thing about this story is that when that woman touched the tassels of Jesus, when she did that, he did not become unclean. Other rabbis might have, and Jesus, of course, wasn't a rabbi in the classical sense. Others might have, but not Jesus. You see, Jesus cleansed people with his touch, but he himself was not contaminated with that touch.

He is, after all, the Son of God, the King of Kings, the Holy One of Israel. You know, you read the New Testament and you discover that the woman, of course, broke with protocol. She should never have touched Jesus. It wasn't a sin to do it, but it was contrary to protocol because technically Jesus would have had to go through rites of purification. So she broke with protocol, but so does Jesus break with protocol.

He really does. Here in this very chapter, you see Jesus touching someone who is dead. You weren't supposed to touch a dead body. After all, that meant uncleanness. But for Jesus to be able to touch a dead body did not make him unclean.

But in turn, he made that body alive. You find, for example, in Mark 1, you can read it there for yourself, the Bible talks about a leper coming to Jesus. And this leper comes to Jesus, and he's crying and he's saying, you know, if you can make me clean. The Bible says Jesus stretched forth his hands and said, be thou clean. And Jesus touched him. You weren't supposed to touch lepers. It was very clear in the Old Testament they were to be outside the gate.

There was a certain distance that they should stay away. And yet Jesus here is willing to touch people. He breaks with protocol in order that he might be able to get the gospel and the good news to those who desperately need it. And as I was meditating on this, it dawned on me that this, in a sense, is what happened at the cross, isn't it? You see, when Jesus died on the cross, all of our sin was laid on him. Our sin was laid on him.

He became legally guilty of all the sins you committed this past week and the ones that you're going to commit in the future. Jesus gathered all those sins together. And even though the sin was on him, there was no sin in him because he was absolutely perfect. And in his person, he was not contaminated by our sin so that he could touch the world and remain absolutely pure and absolutely righteous and compromise his holiness and at the same time redeem sinners who desperately need salvation. That's our Jesus, for which and for whom we are deeply grateful.

Let me say this to you. There is no sin that you can bring to Jesus that will overwhelm him. There is no sin that you will ever bring to Jesus that is too great for his grace to forgive and to restore.

There is no sin that will ever contaminate him, but he is able to reach forth his hand. I'm speaking figuratively now and say, be whole. You say today, but Pastor Lutzer, I am a great sinner. I say to you today, I recommend to you an even greater Savior who is able to save you from your sin. You come to him.

And when you come to Jesus Christ, you can come as you are, but he loves you too much to leave you the way in which you came. He brings about healing. He brings about help and restoration.

He really does have that power. And to those who believe, he will do just that. That's the Savior this world needs. We know that rules in the Christian life are important. It's very critical that we live according to certain standards, but rules and human willpower can never do what the gospel of Jesus Christ can do because it goes right to the level of the human heart and it cleanses us from all sin. That is a miracle, and only Jesus can do that miracle.

There's a final lesson, and that is simply this. There's a difference between a casual contact with Jesus. There's a difference between casual contact with Jesus and the touch of faith, the touch of faith.

Isn't it interesting? We look at the text and Jesus is walking along thronged by people, jostling him, and yet he says, who touched me? And as I mentioned, if we were the disciples of Jesus, we'd say the very same thing. Of course, Lord, who touched you?

You're being pushed, shoved. But he said, oh, no, who touched me? The crowds, the crowds were out there, but only one person really connected with Jesus that day on the way to the home of Jairus. It's interesting that when you read the book of Mark, you discover that Mark never paints, he never paints crowds in good light. He always talks about, you know, the crowd that they follow Jesus. They followed him because they wanted to see a miracle.

They followed him because they thought that he would be able to help them and they needed bread, et cetera, et cetera. And they were always missing the real point of the coming of Jesus. The crowds never were really favorable to Jesus in an ultimate sense.

It was always individuals that came to Christ. This message is being listened to right now as I speak to several thousands of people and will eventually be heard by even more. But the fact is this, that for many, it will not be a transforming message. Even for those of you who do not know Jesus Christ as your savior, it may simply be another message that you have listened to that may be interesting because Jesus is interesting, but it will not transform you. But there are some of you who are saying today, I believe in Jesus. I want to receive him by faith. We used to always sing that song, you know, as you are going, do not pass me by if the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to you today.

That's really the ultimate message of Moody Church. In all of our outreach ministries, and there are so many of them, we will not name them, at the end of the day, the real important thing is the message of Christ because you and I need a miracle. We don't simply need good teaching, though that prepares us for the miracle. Think for a moment of the miracle that took place on the cross. Jesus is there hanging on the cross, and there are two men, one is crucified on one side, the other on the other. These guys, they had breakfast together that day, quite possibly, before they were both crucified on the opposite side of Jesus, and they were thieves, the Bible says, bad to the bone. The one thief looks at Jesus and said, if you're the Son of God, come down from the cross. Now, if Jesus had done that, you and I would never have been redeemed, nor would the other thief have ever been redeemed if Jesus had followed that advice. Aren't you glad that Jesus doesn't follow people's advice?

He has to disregard what they say. He says, if you're the Son of God, do something, deliver us. The other man, where did he get this faith? Well, maybe he was able to turn his neck and notice that Pilate had written above Jesus, the King of the Jews, doing that in ridicule. And then as he noticed people walking along, they would ridicule him and say, if you're a king, come down from the cross. And this man began to think, you know, if this man is a king, that means he has a kingdom. And so this writing above the cross, though done for very wrong reasons, became like a gospel tract to him. And he said, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

He never had the nerve to say, accept me, whatever. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus, still king, still ruling from the cross, says to him, today, you'll be with me in paradise. It's Jesus reaching out to individuals. It's this woman who reaches out to him as an individual woman, and she touches him with faith. Nobody else touched him with faith.

And he says, I know that there's somebody who touched me in this special way. And so the thief on the cross dies. That evening, Jesus also dies. In fact, Jesus, I think, dies just a few hours later. And the thief actually is there with Jesus in paradise. Breakfast with his friend here on earth, supping with Christ in the kingdom at the end of the day. Today, you're going to be with me in paradise. You see, Jesus is looking for individuals. Yes, it's wonderful to have a crowd. But at the end of the day, it's you that Jesus Christ is looking for.

It is you that respond to him. And it is this message of hope and forgiveness that we can spread around today. And that's what Moody Church is all about. And that's why we have communities. And that's why we have compassion ministries.

It's because we are representing Christ to the world, a Christ who actually does save. When Rebecca and I were in England a number of years ago, I wanted to go to the grave of Charles Haddon Spurgeon because he was one of England's greatest preachers. And what a remarkable man he was. And he died rather young.

I forget exactly the age, but I think by the time he was my age, he was already in heaven for a couple of years. That's kind of scary, but I'm just throwing that out there. But his favorite song was, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Now, I know that that's an old song.

But we're actually going to sing it today because I requested it. But there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. It's speaking, of course, figuratively. But it says, sinners plunge beneath that flood and they lose all their guilty stains. And then on Spurgeon's tomb there are the words of the song. When this poor, lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter song I'll sing thy power to save. And then I love this other stanza.

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Jesus said to the woman, oh, daughter, daughter, you've been healed physically, but you've been healed spiritually. Your sins are forgiven. Thank God for a Savior who actually saves and who enables us to represent him in this community. Now, what about you?

Part of the crowd? Yeah, we were in touch with Jesus. We were at Moody Church. And we sang songs and heard a message. Is God calling you today?

Let's pray. Our Father, I want to thank you so much that you have the ability not only to heal people, but actually to redeem them. And we ask today, Lord, that we might be a redeeming community here at Moody Church, a trusted place where anyone can connect with God and others.

May we attend communities that are set up for the specific reason of connecting with others and developing our relationship with you and our relationship with other people. Help us as a church to represent you on the streets of Chicago in banks and hospitals and wherever you put us. But at this moment, Lord, there are some people listening who have to believe on you right now. We ask that even as we sing this song, they may reach out and touch you and say, today, Jesus, I receive you as my Savior.

Thank you for dying in my stead. Do that, oh God, we pray, and that we might be able to hear of many people who believe on you today because of the gospel. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

There is a fountain filled with love, love from the emerald trees. And sinners once believed have come, whose love their guilty strains, whose love their guilty strains, whose love their guilty strains, and sinners once believed. In today's Moody Church Hour, Erwin Lutzer spoke about compassion in community, the touch of Jesus, concluding a brief series on the compassion of Jesus.

Given the condition of our culture, it's no surprise that we all need help in knowing how to live. Pastor Lutzer has written, Holy Living in an Unholy World, to show us the need for discipline as temptations abound. This book is our gift to you as a way of saying thanks for your gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Just call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry. The number again is 1-800-215-5001, or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online, go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next week at this same time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.