The Moody Church Sunday Morning Podcast

What does it mean to be the church in the midst of a pandemic? How do we be the church when there’s not a church we can be? In our minds, particularly in the west, we often confuse people and place, or “ecclesia” (Greek) and “kirche” (German), when it comes to thinking about church. As designed by Jesus in scripture, the church is a people, not a place. The people of God have two important missions: The Great Commission, to go and make disciples of all nations; and The Great Commandment, to love God and to love people. So, Jesus’ design for His church is to make disciples who love God and love others. When we look throughout scripture, there is a pattern of both gathering and scattering. We gather to imbibe God’s word together, and we scatter for impact through our outreach. These aren't competing elements; God uses both of these to build His church. And who knows? Maybe this current scattering is the beginning of an explosion of gospel progress and this is God’s way of pushing us out of the nest. Acts 2:42–47 To listen to the Q&A from this service, click here.

If you read the Bible, you will find numerous stories where in God’s goodness despair is turned to deliverance, misery is turned to majesty, brokenness is turned to beauty, and grief is turned to glory. These stories are not here to stoke our wishful thinking. These stories show us, in compressed form, the redemption God is weaving into our stories as well. The same God who was working all along to bring redemption into Ruth and Naomi’s stories, is the same God who is right now working redemption in your story and mine. The problem is, we’re often too close to the action and so we usually don’t see it. God is weaving an intricate tapestry of redemption. Boaz and Ruth had no idea what their stories would one day mean, how redemption would turn out to be the story of the universe in Jesus. Naomi had no idea her loss and grief and bitterness could be turned to such joy, not only for her, but for the world.  And yet, without their knowing, or their permission, God’s mercies were operating in the shadows. God is doing the same for our stories today. Ruth 4:13-22 To watch the Q&A from this sermon, click here.

The Bible is a masterpiece with a central message, from beginning to end, about Jesus and the redemption that He brings to humanity. And this is true of the Old Testament story of Ruth, as well, as it foreshadows the redeeming love of Jesus. As the story unfold, we see five aspects of Boaz’s redemption of Ruth that foreshadow Jesus. We learn that Boaz's redemption is a voluntary redemption (John 10:18), a covenantal redemption (Matthew 26:27–29), a substitutionary redemption (2 Corinthians 5:21), a sacrificial redemption (Mark 10:45), and a transformative redemption (1 Corinthians 15:21–22). All of these acts point our hearts to the redemption that’s ultimately found in Jesus. Ruth 4:1-12 To watch the Q&A from this sermon, click here.

Sometimes doing the right thing is the last thing we want to do. Anyone can do the right thing when there’s no pressure. But doing the right thing when the pressure’s on, that takes character. In this passage, we find four bold moves of obedience that change the trajectory of potentially tragic circumstances for Boaz, Ruth, and Naomis towards goodness. We see these characters do the right thing even when it's tough.Ruth does the right thing in asking Boaz for marriage, even when it raised the stakes of being rejected.

Boaz does the right thing in honoring Ruth as a daughter, even when temptation was so readily available.

They both do the right thing in honoring this next-of-kin, even when it threatened their hope and happiness.

All three do the right thing in waiting on God, even when being still and surrendered is hard. Ruth 3:8-18 To watch the Q&A from this sermon, click here.

Hope is a beautiful thing. It gives us a reason to get up in the morning, to press through all the anguish and the sorrow of this life to something beyond, something bright, fresh, redeeming. Hope carries us through the darkness to the dawn. Our story continues with Naomi having a sightline to redemptive hope from God. But she becomes frustrated in waiting for it all to play out and tries move along God's plan. What do we do when we have a line of sight to the redemption of God, and yet God has us waiting? It's so easy in this moment to take matters into our own hands to to forgo God's perfect timing. In this sermon, we find three warnings against manipulating the timeline of God's grace:1) We can pursue the right thing at the wrong time. Takeaway: Wait upon God’s perfect timing.2) We can pursue the right thing in the wrong way. Takeaway: Submit to God’s perfect will.3) We can pursue the right thing with the wrong heart. Takeaway: Rest in God’s perfect sufficiency. Ruth 3:1–8 To watch the Q&A with Pastor Philip about this sermon, click here.

Grief is the price of love. To love deeply is to grieve deeply when love is bereft. And if you’ve ever grieved deeply, you know how hard it is to avoid becoming bitter. Where does our hope come from, and will there be mercies along our journey? That’s where our story about Naomi and Ruth picks up. In this sermon, we find four wonders—glimmers of hope—about how God leads us in mercies through the darkness.  We learn that grief is only a chapter, mercies are everywhere, God is right here with us, and God’s kindness has just begun. Ruth 2:17–23

In this sermon, Rev. Stephen Farish shares with us the qualities of a faith at which Jesus marvels.

Every Christian experiences fear during our lifetime. If we are to overcome our fears, we need courage. How can we have biblical courage to face our fears? In this message, Pastor Bill shares three points about the necessity of courage in the life of the Christian. Courage is acting out of confidence in God, not out of fear of your circumstances. In our walk with the Lord, we learn that obedience to God requires courage. Numbers 13-14, Deuteronomy 1, Joshua 14

One of the things that makes grief and loss so difficult is the sense of helplessness. We often feel so powerless, and nothing we can say or do that will make any difference. It's easy to fall into a victim mentality, to feel helpless, disempowered, angry, and bitter. The story of Ruth grapples with all of these emotions. In this passage, Pastor Philip shows three powerful realities that Ruth experienced that helped her move forward even as she was grieving:1) The Power of Agency: In grief, we can’t wait until inspiration strikes, and we can’t wait until everything’s in order. All we can do is the next right thing, and move forward one step at a time.2) The Power of Providence: We live in the care of our Father, not the chaos of chance. We need to learn to trust the unseen hand of God.3) The Power of Justice: We are conduits of mercy, not merely consumers. Our best course of action is to let mercies flow freely. Takeaway: Through the events of our lives, we'll find that God is shepherding us into a life of proactive dependence. Ruth 2:1-17

Grief is messy and leads us through a painful journey. The way out of the darkness is often found through the faithful love of someone in our lives who walks with us towards the dawn. In Ruth’s story, that kind of love is called "Hesed". It means loving selflessness, enduring faithfulness, and forbearing graciousness. God provides hesed love for Ruth in the story, and He offers it to all of us too. But here's where it gets real: Hesed is not just the kind of love God extends to us, it is also the kind of love God calls us to extend to one another. We incarnate hesed for one another, because Jesus incarnated hesed for us. Ruth 1:6-22