Fellowship In Sufferings

Grief is messy. It leads us through a painful journey. The way out of the darkness is often found through the faithful love of someone who walks with us towards the dawn. In the story of Ruth, that kind of love is called ghesid. It means loving selflessness, enduring faithfulness, and forbearing graciousness.

God provided pested love in the story, and he offers it to all of us too. From Chicago, welcome to The Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller. Stay with us for a time of worship and teaching as we continue a series on Mercies in the Shadows. From Ruth chapter 1, we'll learn all about Fellowship in Sufferings. Here now is Pastor Philip, along with worship leader Tim Stafford and assistant pastor Larry McCarthy.

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to The Moody Church. We're so glad you've joined us today. You know, we're not just a bunch of people gathered in a room or people listening online or by radio. We are the family of God, and we were made for relationships. And today we're going to see how important those relationships are.

Because we get to show each other the covenant love and faithfulness of God. We get to experience the love that God has for us as we extend it one to another. And that's why community is so important.

So, as we begin, would you pray with me? Let's pray together. Father, we thank you that you've made us for community. You said in the very beginning: it's not good for man to be alone. We need each other.

And so, Father, help us to learn how to show your loving kindness to one another so that we might learn to trust you more in our lives. We pray this for Jesus' sake. Amen. To you, Lord, I lift up my soul in you. I trust, oh my God.

Do not let me be mine to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. Show me your way. Teach me your path, guide me in truth, lead me on. For you're my God, you are my Savior. My hope is in you.

Each morning of the day. No one whose hope is in you. You'll never be put to shame. That's why my eyes are on you, oh Lord. Surround me, defend me, oh, how I need you to you.

I lift up my soul. To you, I lift up my soul. To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul in you I trust, oh my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. Show me your ways and teach me your paths, guide me in truth, lead me on.

For you're my God, you are my Savior. My hope is in you each moment of the day. No one whose warp is in you will ever be put to shape. That's why my eyes are on you. Oh, surround me, defend me, oh, how I need you.

To you, I lift up my soul. To you, I lift up my soul. Remember, Lord, your mercy, and love that ever flow from our boat. Remember, Lord, the sins of my youth. Oh, my rebellious way according to your love.

Remember me according to your love for you are good. No one whose love is in you never need put to sleep. That's why my eyes are on you. Oh Lord surround me, defend me. Oh, how I need you to you, I lift up my soul.

To you, I lift up my soul. No one whose love is in you. Look the same, that's why my eyes are on you. Surround me, keep energy, oh, how I need you to you. I lift up my soul, to you, I lift up my soul.

The grace of God has reached for me and pull me from the raging sea. And I am safe on this solid ground. The Lord is my salvation. I will not fear in darkness falls. His strength will help me scale his walls.

I'll see the dawn of the rising sun. The Lord is my salvation, strong to self. My brain is great and the very one. The Lord is my salvation. I hope it's living in the Lord.

He clouds his promise of his word in winter face when the spring will come. The Lord is my salvation in times of waiting, times of need when I'm the lost and I am weak. I know His grace will renew these days. The Lord is my salvation. My God, Lord Song to save holy love.

My brain is faith and the victory one. Lord is my salvation. And when I reach my final day, He will not leave me in the grave. I will rise, He will call me home. Lord is my salvation, He is my love, Lord your God.

My brain is there and the dead dream war. The glory is not so easy to shine. Glory be to God, the Father. Glory be to God, the Son of Son. Glory be to God, the Spirit, Glory.

Glory be to God, the Father, Glory be to God, the Son. He alone is sovereign. Over all the earth. Who else would we run to if we have trouble? Why would we fail to trust him?

the one of perfect wisdom. He's the one we're praying to today. The perfect wisdom of our God revealed in all the universe all things created by his hand and held together at his command he knows the mysteries of the seas the secrets of the stars are his he guides the planets on their way and turns the earth through another day the matchless wisdom Of his ways that mark the path of righteousness, his word a lamp unto I feed, his spirit teaching and guiding me, and all the mystery of the cross that God should suffer for the loss, so that the fool might shame the wise, and all the glory might go to thy soul. Oh, grant me wisdom. From above to pray for peace and cling to love and teach me humbly to receive the sun and rain of your sovereignty.

Each strength of sorrow has a place within this tapestry of race.

So, through the trials, I choose to say your perfect will in your perfect way. Each strength of sorrow has a place within this tapestry of race.

So, through the trials, I choose to say your perfect will in your perfect way. Lord, help us as we pray this morning that whether it's rain or sunshine. We trust your sovereign plan for us. Help us to pray to you, come to you with that in mind. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Father, we come into your presence, and we've been singing this morning about hope. And you are a living hope, and for those who know you, That's so much more than a wish. Our hope is the confident expectation. That you will keep your word, the confident expectation that you will keep your promises.

And our hope is anchored. On your faithfulness. As we come into your presence, Father, we're aware of the fact that you've kept every promise you've ever made, and you've never made a promise you couldn't keep. You've been faithful from age to age, and so we come into your presence acknowledging that our hope is in you. You promised us you'd never leave us or forsake us, and we thank you, Father.

You promised us. that you'd provide grace sufficient for us to bear. And we thank you, Father. Feed us this morning. Meet our needs as only you can and find us ever quick.

to give you the honor. to give you the praise, to give you the credit, to give you the glory.

Now we pray. In the matchless name of Yeshua, Jesus. our Saviour and our King. And amen. Just stand, let's cling to Christ today.

Not all these other Things that are passing away. My worth is not in what I own, not in the strength of flesh and bone, but in the costly wounds of love at the cross. My worth is not in still origin in win or lose in pride or shame, but in the blood of Christ the Lord at the cross I rejoice. In my redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him, no other, my soul is satisfied.

Two wonders here that I confess: My worth and my unworthiness, my value feast, my ransom pay at the cross. To one mercy that I confess my life and my unworthiness, my value fixed, my resume at the door. I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul. I will trust in Him no other, my soul is satisfied alone. I rejoice in my Redeemer, greatest treasure, wellspring of my soul.

I will trust in Him no other, my soul is satisfied. Set your heart today to thank the Lord. Amen. Well, good morning, Moody Church. It's great to see all of you.

We are jumping back into our series today, Mercies in the Shadows, as we look at the book of Ruth, this 3,000-year-old story found in the Old Testament. It's a story that is dominated by tragic loss and sorrow and grief. Last week, if you will remember, if you were with us, we saw Naomi's life completely unravel. She lost her husband, her two adult sons, and that not only meant that she had to stand by three different gravesides and mourn their loss, it also meant in her ancient Near Eastern patriarchal world that she lost a lot of things. She lost her income.

There was no one to work the fields. She lost her legal representation in society. She lost her ability to inherit property, which was only passed down through the male line. And so Naomi's life has been dominated now with no hope, no future, and she has nowhere to turn. This is grief upon grief upon grief.

And if you know anything about grief, many of us do, you'll know that grief is a very painful journey, isn't it? In 1969, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, in her definitive book on death and dying, introduced us to what has now been popularly known as the five stages of grief. The grief is, it's not a linear process, it is a patched-up mess of emotions, but it has five discrete elements. There's denial, this can't be happening, there's anger, I don't like this, who do I blame? There's bargaining, manipulating, trying to regain control, there's depression, I'm just too sad to do anything.

And then finally, eventually, after a long last, there's acceptance and peaceful resignation to the new reality and embracing that and going forward.

Now in the book of Ruth here, we're going to watch Naomi in particular as she moves through these stages of grief. And we're going to see her throughout this book crying and then at other times angry and bitter and lashing out and depressed and eventually coming to see hope in the midst of her circumstances. But grief is a messy thing, isn't it? We're all over the place. And one of the things we most need in the midst of our grief is someone to love us through it.

Who won't quit on us, no matter how messy or hard it gets, especially when it's messy or hard.

Someone who loves us enough to go the distance, to see us through all of the drama of what we will go through, to stay close to us and love us through to the other side, to see us at our absolute worst. and love us still the same. There's a special Hebrew word for this kind of love, and it is chesed. Kessed. Would you just say that with me?

It's a crazy word. It's in the back of the throat. Kessed. Kessed, yes. Kessed is, there's no English equivalent for this word, but it is the combination of two concepts: love.

and loyalty, love and loyalty together. It is often translated loving kindness or covenant faithfulness. It is the love not just of the emotions, but of the will, a choosing, devoted, committed love, a commitment to the well-being of the object of our affections. This is the kind of love that God has for his people. It is a chesed love.

Exodus 34, verse 6 famously says, God is speaking, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That's our word, chesid and faithfulness. This concept of chesid is paraphrased by Sally Lloyd-Jones in her Jesus Storybook Bible, which is one of my favorite books in the whole world. My kids love it, and I think every adult should read it. But she paraphrases this kind of love this way: it is the never-stopping, never-giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love of God.

Kesed is not just the kind of love that God extends to us, it is also the kind of love that God calls us to extend to each other. And in the passage that we're going to look at today, we're going to see this kind of chesid love in action. And it will help us learn what chesed is, and it will help us learn how to become people of chesed for one another.

So, if you have your Bibles with you, would you open them up this morning to Ruth chapter 1? We're going to be looking at verses 6 to 22. Ruth chapter 1, verses 6 to 22. Let me pray for us as we turn now to God's Word. Heavenly Father, we pray now that you would be our teacher.

that you would guide us into life. Teach us to love as you have loved us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thanks be to the Lord for the reading of His Word now as we turn to it.

This is Ruth chapter 1, verse 6. Then she arose, this is Naomi, then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.

So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

Now what we're going to do this morning, just pause there for a second. I want to kind of show you three glimpses of Chesed this morning. First, through Naomi, then through Ruth, and then through the Lord God Himself.

Okay, so this is Naomi's Chesed here in these first verses. As we saw last week, this is the first glimmer of hope in the story. Naomi, she hears this rumor that the Lord God has been faithful to his covenant, that he had visited his people, and the famine is over, the rains have come, the crops have been raised, there's food once again in her homeland. And Naomi returns home. Nothing had gone right in Moab, and hopefully it'll be better back in her homeland.

And as we saw last week, this is not just an immigration plan, this is a journey of faith. She is returning to her homeland, to the land of promise. She is coming back into the covenant land of God. She's throwing herself in hope upon who God is for her. She's coming back under the shelter of his wings.

This is not just geographic relocation. This is spiritual relocation as well.

Now she sets out with her two daughters-in-law, Orpa and Ruth. And according to ancient Near Eastern customs, these two ladies are now functionally Naomi's servants. As the matriarch of the family unit, they were at her disposal. But somewhere along the line, she has second thoughts. And so here in verse 8, the text continues, But Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, Go return each of you to her mother's house.

May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that ye may find rest, each of you, in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

Now, I don't know if you you see it, but do you realize what Naomi is doing here? She's setting her daughters-in-law free. She's relinquishing them of any obligation to serve her or continue to live with her and help out around the house. She's sending them back to their homes in order that they might remarry and rebuild their lives. She doesn't have to do this.

According to the ancient Near Eastern customs, she could have made them come along, made them help set up a new home, help with all the chores, help with whatever tasks and provision were required for their family unit. This was her prerogative. But instead, this is amazing to me, instead of allowing her grief to turn her inward. and orient herself toward A selfish sort of posture here. Naomi puts their interests ahead of her own.

and and lays down all her rights and privileges here. She sets them free. She sacrifices herself and she resigns herself to a life of isolation and loneliness in order to love Orpa. And Ruth. She says, may the Lord deal kindly with you.

That's our word, chesent right here. May the Lord have chesed towards you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me, as you have shown me chesid and my family chesid by your choosing to become a part of our family and love us. May now God in turn show you such love and loyalty chessed as you go on into your lives. May the Lord bless you and extend his loving kindness to you so that you may find rest. Peace, security, and a new home with a new husband and a new life.

She's releasing them, sacrificing her own needs to give them a chance at life. And as she prays that the Lord would show them chesed, she herself shows them chesid as well. And so here's the first thing we realize about chesid. Chesid is loving selflessness. Cussed is loving selflessness.

It is a willingness to lay down our own interests in the service of others. Remember that great theologian, Olaf the Snowman from Frozen? Remember how he defined love? He said, love is putting someone else's needs before yours. That's pretty biblical, isn't it?

In other words, chesid is a costly love. It is a sacrificial love, it is a committed love. There's a price to be paid. Classed promises I will give myself for you. I will give myself for you.

You know, everyone enjoys love when it's reciprocal, don't we? You know, I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine. And honestly, that's how a lot of our relationships are. I'll love you as long as you love me back. There's reciprocity.

But don't you see, chesid love does not demand reciprocity. It is a loving, sacrificial, self-giving love without expecting anything in return. It is a self-giving love, a dying to self-love. It is chesid. Love.

So that's Naomi's chethan.

Now Ruth's. Hassan. Naomi is trying to set them free, and in verse 10, they won't have anything to do with it. Look at verse 10. And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your people.

But Naomi said, Go, turn back, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters. Go your way, for I'm too old to have a husband.

If I should say, I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and bear sons, would you therefore wait around till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake, that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. Then they lifted up their voices and wept again.

So, Naomi here is making the case for why they should go home, find new husbands, and move on with their lives. She says, look, I'm not having any more sons here. It's not happening. And even if I were to miraculously remarry and miraculously conceive, and they miraculously were twins, and they both miraculously were sons, you're not going to wait around 20 years to marry them. She's referring to this whole idea of leveret marriage: that if a son died and left his bride without a child, that a brother, an unmarried brother, was required by law to marry the widow so as to provide an heir.

It was a weird sort of social security safety net in those days. Um That's not happening. That's Naomi's point. She's playing out this absurd scenario to point out the helplessness of the life that they would be committing themselves to. To come with Naomi is to embrace a life without hope in a future.

Only destitution and death await. Naomi says, No, you're better off on your own. Don't bind yourself to my fate. God is against me. We've all suffered enough.

Go home. Be done with this. Verse 14. And Orpa kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. And she said, See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods.

Return and go after your sister-in-law.

So Orpa heads out. We can't blame her. uh for this, but Ruth here won't let go. And so Naomi renews her appeal with peer pressure this time and says, Look, Orpa's made the reasonable choice here. She's seen the bitterness of my life.

She's going back to her people, to her land, to her family, to all that she knows. She's going back to her gods. And I don't blame her, Naomi would say, after what God has done to me. Ruth, you really should do the same thing. It's the only rational thing to do.

But verse 16. Ruth said, Do not urge me to leave you or return from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people.

And you're God. My God. Where you die, I will die. and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more if anything but death parts me from you.

And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, She said, no more. This is such a power. Powerful, gripping, beautiful scene, isn't it? Do you realize what Ruth is doing? She's burning her passport.

She's saying, I'm never going to go back. She's giving up her homeland, her people, her security, her freedom, her hope of remarriage, her hope of children and family. She's choosing to be an exile, a foreigner. She's binding herself to Naomi's fate, to destitution and hopelessness. She's giving up all of her dreams.

To lovingly care for her mother-in-law for the rest of her life. And it's amazing here. She even goes beyond our marriage vows. We don't promise what Ruth promises here. When we get married, we say, till death do us part.

Ruth says, I'm not even going to part to you after death. I will be buried next to you. This is loyalty long after Naomi dies. My loyal love will remain. And Ruth is also not only loving Naomi here, she's declaring faith and trust in the Lord God of Israel, isn't she?

She is throwing herself on his mercies. She's taking shelter under his wings. Instead of running back to her Moabite gods, she is turning to the chesed love of the Lord God, the covenant-keeping one. And she's extending chesid to Naomi, don't you see that? And the chesid we see here is enduring faithfulness.

It's another angle on Chesed, enduring faithfulness. Ruth says, I'm with you now and forever. I am binding myself to you. I'm all in for all time. May the Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you, she says, it's an oath, it's a promise, it's a covenant commitment she's making here.

And what I think is so beautiful is that In grief we often try to isolate, don't we? We push people away and we just try to get alone. And God won't let that happen here, and neither will Ruth. They're running to Naomi in in her grief here. Because Chesed promises, I will be there with you.

I will be there with you. This is remarkable love. courageous, love loyal. Love, I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you. I will be with you always.

Now, let's look at God's chesen in this story. Let's look at verse 19 here.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, Is this Naomi? Can't you see them just muttering to one another? Is this Naomi?

Could it be her? I mean, it looks like her. That seems like it's her, but her face, it's so lined, and she looks like she's aged 30 years. She's only been gone a decade. Life must have been hard on her.

And where's Elimelech? And where's those two little boys? Naomi, is that you? Verse 20, she said to them, Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara.

for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full. And the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? Can't you feel her anguish here?

Her bitter tears, the pain in her broken heart. She's back among lifelong friends, and she's been strong for so long, but in the moment when she sees people from her former life, she can't keep it in any longer. And out of the overflow of her heart, the mouth speaks here. She says, Don't call me Naomi. Don't you dare call me Naomi.

Call me Mara, which means bitter. For the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I was full and now I've come back empty. This is kind of a hurtful statement. I mean, Ruth is standing right there, she's not empty.

But she doesn't even count Ruth. These are stinging and hurtful comments. But, friends, that's what happens. In grief, we say things we'll regret later, don't we? She says, why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me?

I showed up in court, and God was on the opposition. He was the attorney that sent me down. He brought calamity on my life. He sentenced me to bitterness and this death. It's all God's fault.

Don't you dare call me Naomi Call me Mara, bitterness. It's all that's left here. Friends. Naomi is lashing out against God, isn't she? That the agony in her soul finally just bursts here.

The dam breaks, the boil is lanced, and what pours out is raw and ugly and bitter. These are harsh words that she has for God. She rails against him with bitterness, and disbelief, and blame. And yet. She's coming home.

She's coming home. Underneath the bitterness, there's still a little bit of faith down there. A tiny bit of trust, a fool's hope, a mustard seed of faith, but as it turns out, it will be enough. It will be enough. Verse 22, so Naomi returned.

and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter in law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And I came to Bethlehem. At the beginning. of barley harvest. I love that this last line just hangs there.

It was the beginning of barley harvest. They came at the beginning when the crops came in, at the turning of the tide, at the dawn of a new era, when mercies were on their way. It is a poetic, artistic way of reminding us that God's kindness, His covenant, faithfulness, His loyal love, His chesid is on the move. The harvest means God is faithful. He is keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations, and this story isn't over.

And so we see, friends, that chesed is forbearing graciousness. Glessed is forbearing graciousness. I'm amazed here. That God allows Naomi to vent at him like this, aren't you? And not only does God put up with this, He is going to in response move toward her in grace and kindness and love.

She throws up this wall of bitterness and grief and blame at God. And he is so patient and so kind and so gracious and so forbearing. And so gentle, and so understanding of her suffering, and so compassionate toward her pain. And Chesid promises, friends, I will extend kindness. to you.

I will extend kindness. to you. And not only is God going to move toward Naomi in Chesid loving kindness, He uses Ruth here. To show Naomi the very kind of love that he has for her. Do you realize in this moment, Ruth is incarnating, taking and showing, modeling in flesh the chesid love of God that he has for Naomi?

Naomi has almost given up. Hope in the chesed love of her God. She doesn't really believe it's a thing. But God says, okay. then let me soften your heart by showing you my love through Ruth.

so that you begin to trust me again. How tender is this? And here's where it gets really real for us, friends. Chesed is not just the love that God extends to us. It's the love he calls us to extend to one another.

So here's the takeaway. We incarnate chesed for one another. because Jesus incarnated Chesed For us. We incarnate chesid for one another because Jesus incarnated chesid for. Us.

Now, how are we ever to become people of chesid love like this?

Now, let me tell you how it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen by trying really, really, really hard. It's not going to happen by looking at Ruth or Jesus and saying, I will do my best to copy their example. That's just going to demoralize us at the end of the day. 1 John 4, verse 19 says this: We love because He first loved us.

We love because he first loved us. Us.

Friends, the way we become people of love is when we receive and allow the love of God to change us out from the inside. When we realize that Jesus came for us, that He pledged His life to us, that He laid down His life for us. That in loving sacrifice, he laid down himself. He said, I will give myself for you. That in enduring faithfulness, he bound himself to us and said, I will be there with you.

When we realize that in forbearing graciousness, he looks upon us, sinners, and says, I will extend kindness to you. When we realize that Jesus incarnated Chesid for us to redeem us and rescue us and cleanse us and forgive us, when that sinks in and it melts us out from the inside, do you realize we get to the point where we say, How can we not love others as we have first been loved by God Himself? When we drink deeply of God's chesid love for us, friends, it changes us and it makes us into people who extend chesid to others. I heard a story a few years ago. of a husband and wife who had been married for like 20 years and The husband was in an accident and broke his neck, and he became paralytic from the neck down, quadriplegic.

And as he was in recovery, they had their 20th wedding anniversary. And he said to his wife, I sure wish we could go out on a date. And so she decided that was a good idea. And so she came over and she shaved his face. She gave him a little sponge bath.

She brushed his teeth and combed his hair. Uh she got them all dressed up. Which wasn't easy, quite a project. And then she went and got herself ready. And they had a little board that they used to slide him out of the bed into his wheelchair.

And so she got the board and slid him over. And then she pushed him to the car and she backed the car out of the garage and took the board and slid him from his chair into the passenger seat and folded up the chair and put it in the trunk and put the plank in there and went around and drove him to the restaurant. When they got to the restaurant, she got the chair and the plank out and slid him back out and into the chair and wheeled him into the restaurant. Um up to the table where they sat she spoon fed him and fork fed him every bite of his meal, helped him drink out of a straw when he needed to drink, and they talked and they had their meal. When the check came, she paid the bill.

And then she went and pulled the car around and wheeled him out and took the plank and slid him into the chair and folded everything up and put it in the trunk and drove home and got to the house and got the plank and slid him back out into his chair and wheeled the chair into the bedroom and put the plank down and slid him back into the bed. She parked the car in the garage. She came and helped him get ready for bed, brushed his teeth, got him all tucked in. She went back and finished and got herself ready for bed and turned out the lights and climbed into bed next to him. And sad.

Thanks for taking me out on a date. Friends, that's chesid love. It is patient and kind. It does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant or rude.

It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoings, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things. believes all things.

Hopes all things, endures all things. Hesid never fails. That, my friends, is the kind of love that we need, isn't it? And it's the kind of love God uses us to show to others. It's the kind of love that fetches us out of the despair.

and the darkness of our souls and gives us hope. And his love that is real. It's grounded in the triune love of God. for his people. Aren't you so glad?

For the Ches love. of our God. Let's pray. Oh, Father.

Sometimes we're Overwhelmed by your love. That she would move toward us with such grace and compassion. kindness and faithfulness. Father, we're so fickle. I'm so doubting.

So prone to wander We trust our own instincts. We wander away. But your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. and kindness to your people.

not just for us, but to a thousand generations. O Father, may we rest in, drink deeply from, and extend through our lives this chesid love. Teach us, change us, wash over, melt us, we pray. in the beautiful. Name of Jesus our chesid.

Faithful God. Amen. Amen. On today's Moody Church hour, we heard Pastor Philip Miller teaching on Fellowship in Sufferings, Sermon number two in a series on Mercies in the Shadows. In her story, Ruth experienced some powerful realities.

One of them was the power of justice, wherein we become conduits of mercy.

Next time, join us for Merciful Justice, something Ruth experienced that helped her move forward even as she was grieving. Two contemporaries, two gospels, two tombstones, one choice. Karl Marx and D. L. Modi, the contrast between these men could not be greater.

Marx and Moody is a book co-authored by Erwin Lutzer and Greg Quiggle, a book drawing a sharp distinction between two opposing worldviews. This book will be sent as our thank you for your gift of any amount to support The Moody Church Hour. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. That's 1-800-215-5001. Online, go to MoodyChurchHour.com.

That's moodychurchhour.com. or write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Ask about Marks and Moody when you write or call. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Philip Miller and the congregation of historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.