A Change in Name

Well, good evening everyone. It's good to be back with you.

Second week in succession. I usually go to most churches twice.

Once to apologise.

Really it's a privilege to be here with you.

Trying to jiggle all my bits of things on here.

Get this right.

And over 30 years ago, our family moved to Nigeria

to live among a community of people, some 60,000 strong,

known locally as the Jarawa.

They're particularly famous for their skills in dancing.

We lived in a village about 18 miles from the city of Joss,

in a mud-walled house without electricity and running water,

with our children who were then aged three and one.

Our purpose in living there was to write down the language

these people spoke.

It's a language called Izeri.

We were writing it down for the first time.

And that involves spending time with the speakers of the language,

transcribing the language,

and then launching a reading programme

in preparation for the translation of the New Testament

in this particular language.

When you learn a language like this

without any books or any grammars or anything like this,

you begin usually with important phrases.

So the most important phrase is,

how do you greet people?

And in this particular language,

if you greet someone,

it's a long, complicated process,

a bit like a table tennis match

when you go backwards and forwards.

You can't just say hello and nod your head.

You know, you...

So the first thing you say normally is,

Ikoza cháange?

Which means literally,

did you sleep cold?

Because that's a good thing,

sleeping cold in a hot clavet.

And the answer is,

ee chang, ee yokyo.

You then learn other things, useful things.

So here's one from the reading book.

Aniene means, who are you?

And this boy says,

na'ama.

I'm ama.

But often, as you begin to explore a new language,

you discover under the surface,

there are lots of much more complex things

going on below the surface.

And as you understand the culture,

some interesting things come out.

So we discovered after a time

that people,

if you ask them what your name is,

they would give you their name,

but they also had other names,

or I suppose we call them nicknames,

which were given to people

to describe their names and their character.

And after we'd been living there for some time,

we discovered that I had been given a name.

Now, sometimes this is not the kind of thing

you want to know,

because you ask in trepidation,

so what is the name that you've chosen for me?

And I discovered that the name

they'd chosen for me was Itzer.

And Itzer is the word for a flying termite.

Now, I was asking my wife,

why did they call me Itzer?

And she said, well, I think it's because

you're always buzzing around doing things manically

and activity-wise.

Maybe so.

Maybe, though, I fondly imagined

it was because it also reflected

my creative skills,

as flying termites are the ones

that build those incredible termite mounds

up to five meters high,

in which they live in a colony.

However, termites are also known

for something less appealing,

their ability to eat through

and destroy almost anything.

Here's a fine commentary

on Colossians and Philemon

by a well-known professor from of old,

H.C.G.

Mould.

David will tell you about it

if you want to know any more details.

There's a picture of it there.

And the termites just love this book.

So I thought you might like to see

what it looks like

when a termite's been through a book.

They devoured almost every word

of this learned and godly book.

So was I really happy with my new name?

It's Sam.

I kind of got mixed feelings about it,

to be honest.

You may wonder where this is going.

All right.

Today I want to focus on the person

in the Bible that we're going to be studying.

We began last week in the book of Ruth.

We're going to,

if you want to title for this a summary,

what the opening chapter of Ruth is about.

It's about a change of name.

And it's the story of Naomi

from the book of Ruth.

And so what we need to do first of all

is turn in the Bible to Ruth chapter 1.

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

We're going to read the opening chapter.

And then we're going to talk about

this great theme about name changing.

Okay.

Here we go.

We looked at the opening verses last week,

but I think for the context

it will help to read them again.

Okay.

If you have a Bible.

In the days when the judges ruled,

there was a famine in the land.

So a man from Bethlehem in Judah,

together with his wife and two sons,

went to live for a while in the country of Moab.

The man's name was Elimelech.

His wife's name was Naomi.

The name of his two sons were Marlon and Kilion.

They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem Judah.

And they went to Moab and lived there.

Now Elimelech,

Naomi's husband, died,

and she was left with her two sons.

They married Moabite women,

one named Orpah,

the other Ruth.

After they'd lived there about 10 years,

both Marlon and Kilion also died,

and Naomi was left without her two sons

and her husband.

When Naomi heard in Moab

that the Lord had come to the aid of his people

by providing food for them,

she and her daughters-in-law

prepared to return home from there.

With her two daughters-in-law,

she left the place where she'd been living

and set out on the road

that would take them back to the land of Judah.

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law,

Go back, each of you,

to your mother's house.

May the Lord show you kindness,

as you have shown kindness,

to your dead husbands and to me.

May the Lord grant,

each of you will find rest

in the home of another husband.

Then she kissed them goodbye,

and they wept aloud and said to her,

We'll go back with you to your people.

But Naomi said,

Return home, my daughters.

Why should you come with me?

Would you come with me?

Am I going to have more sons

who would become your husbands?

Return home, my daughters.

I'm too old to have another husband.

Even if I thought there was still hope for me,

even if I had a husband tonight

and then gave birth to sons,

would you wait until they grew up?

Would you remain unmarried for them?

No, my daughters.

It's more bitter for me than for you,

because the Lord's hand has turned against me.

At this they wept aloud again.

Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye,

but Ruth clung to her.

Look, said Naomi,

your sister-in-law is going back to her people

and her gods.

Go back with her.

But Ruth replied,

Don't urge me to leave you

or to turn back from you.

Where you go, I will go.

Where you stay, I will stay.

Your people will be my people.

Your God will be my God.

Where you die, I will die.

And there I will be buried.

May the Lord deal with me,

be it ever so severely,

if even death separates you and me.

When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined

to go with her,

she stopped urging her.

So the two women went on

until they came to Bethlehem.

When they arrived in Bethlehem,

the whole town was stirred because of them.

And the women exclaimed,

Can this be Naomi?

Don't call me Naomi, she told them.

Call me Mara,

because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.

I went away full,

but the Lord has brought me back empty.

Why call me Naomi?

The Lord has afflicted me.

The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.

So Naomi returned from Moab,

accompanied by Ruth the Moabite,

her daughter-in-law,

arriving in Bethlehem

as the barley harvest was beginning.

This is God's word.

As we saw last week,

there are some things in time and culture

that you need to understand.

The background bit,

this story can be echoed

in many other parts of the world today.

It's a story of economic migration.

It's a story of family tragedy,

as we saw last week.

3,000 years ago,

a bit of a review for those

who weren't here last week,

3,000 years ago,

the people of Israel

were living in hard times.

They were hard times politically.

The opening verse tells us

the story happened

when the judges ruled.

It's a time of political instability

with a succession of rulers,

of up and down cycles,

of straying from God,

crying out to God for help,

being oppressed by enemies.

God answers in,

and then the same thing happens

again and again.

And we saw last week

that the last book

of the preceding,

the book preceding Ruth,

the book of Judges in our Bibles,

ends with these words.

In those days,

Israel had no king.

Everyone did as he saw fit.

Literally, everyone did

what was right in his own eyes.

I think of somewhere like Libya

or Yemen today,

and you probably get

a pretty good idea

of the kind of things

that were going on.

Allied with this,

there were also hard times

economically.

There was a famine

in the land.

And so a man named Elimelech

from the little town

of Bethlehem

in southern Israel

took his wife Naomi

and their two sons,

Marlon and Kilion,

crossed the border

into the neighboring country

of Moab.

A man from Bethlehem

and Judah together

with his wife and two sons

went to live for a while

in the country of Moab.

We saw last week

it was intended

to be just for a while,

a period of sojourning,

until things got better

but they became settled there.

The little while

became a long while

and for three of the party

there was no return.

So Naomi discovered

these were hard times

not only politically,

economically,

these were hard times

personally.

Look what it says.

Now Elimelech,

Naomi's husband died

and she was left

with her two sons.

They married Moab women,

one named Oprah,

the other named Ruth.

After they'd lived there

about ten years,

both Marlon and Kilion died

also and Naomi was left

without her two sons

and her husband

along with her two

Moabite daughters-in-law

who had married her two sons

and were also now widowed.

And then news came

from over the border

that the famine was over,

food was now plentiful,

so Naomi sets off.

It's a beautiful picture,

is it not?

Naomi sets off on the road

going back across the border

back to Bethlehem

with her two daughters,

one called Orpah,

the other one called Ruth.

The name Orpah

has not really been a popular name.

Other than the case,

you may know this,

just a piece of trite information,

other than a teenage mother

in America

who decided to call her daughter Orpah

and everyone mispronounced it

as Oprah

and that is the origin of that name.

I don't know if you knew that,

but it doesn't help you in any way,

but it's just interesting.

The other name, of course,

is much better known,

the name of Ruth

who insisted on staying

with her mother-in-law

and returning back to Judah

and to Bethlehem.

And so, ten years later,

Naomi returns to Bethlehem,

a very different person

to the one who had left

with her husband and sons.

So much so,

the whole town asks,

can this be Naomi?

So, notice Naomi's answer

and the change of name,

our theme.

Naomi answered,

trying to read the thing here,

I should go in a little bit,

sorry.

Naomi answered,

don't call me Naomi,

she told them,

call me Mara

because the Almighty

has made my life very bitter.

I went away full,

but the Lord has brought me back empty.

Why call me Naomi?

The Lord has afflicted me,

the Almighty has brought

misfortune upon me.

So, notice here

the change of name.

From Naomi,

a word which means

in Hebrew pleasant,

something like that,

to Mara,

a word which means bitter.

She now asks

that people call her

not Naomi,

but Mara.

Like my book,

her life,

it's a good illustration really,

like my book,

her life has been consumed

by bitterness.

Eaten away with bitterness

at what has happened to me.

So much so,

that even the cover,

her face,

and her appearance

is affected as well.

She's almost unrecognizable.

The people in the town,

probably not a big town,

well-known family maybe,

everyone is asking,

have you seen her?

Can this really be Naomi?

Naomi?

So, let's look first of all then

at this change of name

from Naomi to Mara.

What I want to do this evening

is to focus on two things.

First of all,

on the root of bitterness

as we look at Naomi's story.

Because it is a story

that is sadly mirrored

in the experience of many people

and maybe even the experience

of some of us here

this evening.

Let me try and give a definition

of what bitterness is.

Bitterness is a negative

emotional response

to unpleasant circumstances

expressed in feelings

such as resentment,

disappointment,

anger,

and even envy.

No wonder Naomi's bitter,

you may say.

No wonder she says,

call me Mara.

She's lost everything.

She held dear.

She's lost her husband.

She's lost her two sins.

She says,

I went away full.

I've come back empty.

Now,

let's move forward

3,000 years

and think about ourselves.

All of us,

if you've lived

any length of time,

experience unpleasant

circumstances

in our lives.

Some of us have lost children.

Others have lost a spouse.

Not only through death,

but even worse,

through desertion.

Some of us have lost

our health,

our homes,

our jobs,

our happiness,

or a whole host

of adverse circumstances

which affect us deeply.

And not surprisingly,

many people

in these circumstances

become embittered

by what they've experienced.

bitterness is a problem

for many people.

But I want to say this evening

that bitterness

is or can be

a particular problem

for many believers.

You see,

faced with adversity

or difficulty

or tragedy,

the unbeliever

can only blame

bad luck

or fate.

Though,

is it not surprising

how many

self-proclaimed

atheists

blame the God

they don't believe in

when things go wrong?

But for the believer,

for the person

who believes in God,

such things create

a theological difficulty

as we see

in the story of Naomi.

Naomi's

bitterness

is caused

by unpleasant

circumstances

which she acknowledges

are brought about

by the Lord.

In theological terms,

Naomi acknowledges

that in the circumstance

of her life

that God is sovereign.

God is in control.

Notice her words

to her daughters-in-law

showing that she recognises

not only the Lord

can bring blessing,

can bring prosperity.

She says to him,

go back each of you

to your mother's home,

maybe a little change.

No, she didn't say that

if you look at the text.

May the Lord

show you kindness

as you've shown kindness

to your dead husbands

and to me.

May the Lord

grant that each of you

will find rest

in the home

of another husband.

She also acknowledges

in her contrasting circumstances

that the Lord

is sovereign

than adversity.

She says,

it is more bitter

for me than for you.

Why?

Because

my luck has turned.

Things are really bad.

No, she says,

it is more bitter

for me than for you.

Because the Lord's hand

has turned against me.

And notice carefully

when the people in Bethlehem

ask what's happened,

she doesn't say,

well,

just things

just turned out badly.

No, she says,

not what she says.

Call me Mara.

Notice the words highlighted.

Because the Almighty

has made my life

very bitter.

I went away full,

but the Lord

has brought me back empty.

Why call me near me?

The Lord has afflicted me.

The Almighty

has brought misfortune

upon me.

She doesn't blame

bad luck,

blind fate.

No,

she has issues,

issues addressed to God.

She says,

why is the Almighty,

the word there

is El Shaddai.

It's a word that first,

I think,

occurs in Genesis 17

when God appears to Abraham

who's childless

and says,

I am the Lord,

El Shaddai.

It probably means

the God of all power.

Why is the God of all power,

the Lord,

who has entered

into a special relationship

with his covenant people Israel,

of which Ruth,

Naomi is a part,

why has he brought

such terrible circumstances

into the lives

of one of his people,

one of his children?

You see,

it's a problem

which is the problem

of suffering,

but I simply want to say

the problem of suffering

is a far more acute problem

for the believer

than for the unbeliever.

It's a particular dilemma.

If you know the Bible,

the Psalms are full

of the question,

why?

And the book of Job,

a long book

with lots of chapters,

is full of questions.

It's an extended treatise

on the subject of suffering.

As a man called Job,

who is described,

notice,

as blameless,

upright,

who fears God

and shuns evil,

wrestles with terrible adversity

and the platitudes

of his so-called comforters,

three times in Job 7,

11,

10,

1,

27,

2,

we are told

that he cries out to God

in bitterness

of soul.

So bitterness

can be a problem

for the believer

and for any Christian.

Now you might say,

oh, you don't know

Brentsville Evangelical Church,

we're all Christians here.

But bitterness

is a problem

for Christians.

Why else would the Apostle Paul

write as he does

to the Christians in Ephesus

and say,

get rid of all bitterness,

rage and anger,

brawling and slander

along with every form of malice

if it were not possible

for such things

to be part of a church?

Why does the writer

of the letter

to the Hebrews

warn Christians,

see to it,

he says,

that no one falls short

of the grace of God

and that no bitter root

grows up

to cause trouble

and to defile many?

You see,

the bitter person,

and I speak from experience,

of many years

of pastoral experience,

the bitter person

is a problem

in any church.

For bitterness

is infectious.

The word defile there

is a word use

of coloured dye,

which if you touch it,

it stains.

And you will find

that a bitter person

infects other people

with their bitterness.

So my experiences,

and maybe here,

within God's family

and our churches

are Christians

who wrestle with

unresolved bitterness.

Now,

it may be hidden

behind a smile

or even a song,

but open the cover

and you will discover

a bitter person.

And eventually,

it even begins to show

on the colour

on the cover

and the outward appearance

of the bitter person.

You discover a person

consumed

by bitterness.

It's a strange experience,

isn't it?

And sometimes,

it just erupts.

You talk to someone

and suddenly,

something bursts out

and you think,

so Naomi,

Mrs. Pleasant,

has become

Mara,

Mrs. Bitter.

That is her change

of name.

And the root

of her bitterness,

the root of bitterness

lies in her relationship

with the Lord.

And I simply want

to say to you,

and stay with me

because we don't end here,

thankfully,

I simply want to stay

with you

that if you are

a bitter person,

if you have resentment

within your heart

about things

that have happened

in the past year,

your problem

is with the Lord.

For thankfully,

chapter 1 is not

the final chapter

of the book of Ruth.

Now,

I'm not going to do

too many spoilers

for those who are

following me

and doing the rest

of the series,

but I do need

to say something

following on from this.

As we read on

in the story of Ruth,

and I'm just going

to touch on it

in outline

and the basic principles,

we discover,

as the story unfolds,

there is a change

of name from Mara,

Bitter,

back to Naomi.

If you know the Bible,

you may recall

that there is a story

in the Bible

about when the people

of Israel are passing,

leaving Egypt,

across the Red Sea,

three days later,

they're desperately thirsty

and they come

to a place

where they find

some water,

but when they taste

the water,

it is bitter.

Some people think

it's part of the

bitter lakes

in that region.

The water tastes bitter

and they're desperately

disappointed.

They cry out

to the Lord

and Moses,

the man of God,

the leader,

throws some wood

into the water

and the water

turns sweet

and they're able

to drink it.

So,

is there a balm

for bitterness?

Can a bitter believer

be made sweet again?

Thankfully,

yes.

Just as the root

of bitterness

lies in our relationship

with the Lord,

so does the remedy

for bitterness.

So,

let me suggest

from the story,

chapter one

and then a little bit

further on,

but in broad principle,

let me suggest

what the remedy

for bitterness is.

Let me mention

three things.

Three important steps

we need to take

from the example

and story of Nemi.

Okay,

here's the first one.

You need to return

to the right place.

You need to return

to the right place.

Now,

we talked last week,

the writer of Ruth

passes no judgment

on the decision

of Elimelech

to take his family

to Moab

and I suggested

that it wasn't

a very good move,

really.

Moab had a pretty

dubious reputation

not a good place

for anyone

to take his family

and whether

Nemi was complicit

in the decision

to go to Moab

we don't know.

Suggested that

in a patriarchal society

the husband

probably took the lead

and the wife

had to go along

with it

as happens

even today

in many situations.

But what Nemi

did decide

was to return home.

When she heard

in Moab

that the Lord

had come to the aid

of his people

by providing food

for them

Naomi and her

daughters-in-law

prepared to return

home from there.

Here's the first step

to return home.

See,

the road home

is the road of repentance

and he's turning

right about

and heading home.

We looked at

the lovely story

last week

of the prodigal son

and think about

the prodigal son

in the parable.

Probably in rags.

Been living in a pigsty,

probably didn't smell great

and he's stumbling

along the road home

but he determines

that he will return home.

He reasons within himself

how many of my father's men

have hired hands,

have bread enough to eat.

Here I am starving.

I'd be better off there

even if I go back

as a servant,

as a slave.

And so he sets out

on that road.

He doesn't just sit there

commiserating

about

his bad circumstances.

And whatever circumstance

you're in,

the first thing

you need to do

is to return home

to the road home.

You need to set up home

because only there

will you be

in the right place

to receive

the bread of life.

Maybe, I don't know,

a few of you here,

maybe God has brought you here

even this evening

that you might

return in this place

to God.

You don't literally

need to walk in

through the door

of the church

but you need spiritually

to turn,

to repent,

to turn back

and to return.

So,

Naomi returns

and notice the words,

it's a lovely story

or beautifully told.

So Naomi returned

from Moab

accompanied by Ruth

the Moabite,

her daughter-in-law,

arriving in Bethlehem

as the barley harvest

was beginning.

She returns home

to Bethlehem,

the house of bread

and the barley harvest

was beginning.

That's the first thing.

Here's the second thing

return to the right place.

Secondly,

talk to the right person.

You see,

bitterness bottled up

will often explode

and erupt

in an unprovoked way

so that the injured victim,

as I said before,

wonders,

where did that come from?

And it may be helpful

to talk to someone

about your bitterness

and experience,

pastor,

a wise counselor.

But there is one

wonderful counselor

to whom you can express

your deepest feelings

and pain.

You see,

the worst thing

you can do

in your bitterness

is to decide,

I remember someone

trying to help someone

in a situation like this

as a pastor,

and the person said,

I'm not talking to God

at the moment.

And I understood why,

but I tried to say

gently and kindly,

that's the worst thing

you can do.

You need to speak

to the right person.

There is a wonderful counselor

to whom you can express

your deepest feelings

and pain.

I don't think

Nehemiah's given up on God.

She recognizes

we saw his sovereignty

and so must we.

And as Job did,

you need to pour out

your bitterness to him.

And more than

Job or Nehemi,

you can come to him

through his son Jesus.

You may say,

what does Jesus know

of my grief and suffering?

And I say,

he's a man of sorrows

and acquainted with grief.

You may say,

I didn't deserve this

to happen to me.

And I say,

he was pierced

for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities.

The punishment

that brought us peace

was upon him

and by his wounds

we are healed.

You may have

unanswered questions,

but here is a question

which puts all of them

and all our suffering

into perspective.

My God, my God,

why have you forsaken me?

As the old spiritual puts it,

nobody knows the trouble

I see.

Nobody knows

but Jesus.

And that same Jesus

who died

and rose again

is now ascended.

The Bible says

he ever lives

to make intercession

for us.

We can come to him.

We can approach

God's throne,

the throne of grace,

not merit,

not what we deserve.

So here's these wonderful words

from the book of Hebrews.

Therefore,

since we have

a great high priest

who has ascended

into heaven,

Jesus,

the Son of God,

let us hold firmly

to the faith we profess.

For we do not have

a high priest

who is unable

to feel sympathy

for our weaknesses,

but we have one

who has been tempted

in every way

just as we are,

yet he did not sin.

Let us then approach

God's throne of grace

with confidence

so that we may

receive mercy

and find grace

to help us

in our time of need.

If you have a need,

return to the right place.

Talk to the right person.

And finally,

just in that line,

you need to,

thirdly,

wait for the right time.

Wait for the right time.

You see,

Nemi comes home

to the right place

and she begins

to prove God's provision

as her daughter-in-law,

Ruth,

gleans in the fields

of a man named Boaz.

The tradition was

that the law of the Lord

said you weren't to go,

when you gleaned your crops,

you weren't supposed

to go back for a second time

and pick up the leftovers,

you were to leave them

for the poor

and the widowed

and people like Nemi and Ruth.

And so,

she just happens

to choose this field

of a man named Boaz

who is a close relative.

What some would see

as a coincidence,

I read a lovely definition

of coincidence.

Coincidence is

God acting anonymously.

Well,

think about that.

She recognizes

God's providence

and slowly,

Nemi,

her spiritual senses

begin to awaken

and she discerns

that the Lord

is at work

in all this

as it unfolds

in ways

that she,

Nemi,

or Ruth

would never

have dreamt.

We're not going

to read it all

because you're going

to be hearing

on it the next few weeks

but maybe you're not

going to be here then

so let me give you

a spoiler

and tell you

at the end of it.

The end of it

is that Mrs. Bitter

becomes Mrs. Pleasant again.

It's chapter 4.

So Boaz took Ruth

and she became his wife.

When he went to her

the Lord enabled her

to conceive

and she gave birth

to a son.

The women said to Nemi,

Praise be to the Lord

who this day

has not left you

without a kinsman

redeemer.

May you become famous

throughout Israel.

He will renew

your life

and sustain you

in your old age

for your daughter-in-law

who loves you

and who is better to you

than seven sons

has given him birth.

And they all lived

happily ever after.

So the question

is this.

Is this what

we are all promised

in our adverse circumstances?

Are we promised

a happy ending?

Well,

for the answer

you need to read on a bit

first in the book of Ruth

and then further on

in the Bible

to get the whole story.

Notice the continuation

of the story.

Then Nemi took the child

in her arms

and cared for him.

The women living there

said Nemi has a son

and they named him Obed.

He was the father of Jesse,

the father of David,

Israel's greatest king.

Then we need to read on

beyond the book of Ruth,

beyond the Old Testament,

the old covenant

that God made

with his people Israel,

to a better covenant,

the New Testament,

which begins

a thousand years later.

Here are the opening words

of the New Testament,

which introduced

the culmination

of the story.

This is the genealogy

of Jesus the Messiah,

the son of David,

the son of Abraham.

And as you read down

this list of names,

suddenly as you get down,

it's a bit like

a television program,

who do you think you are?

You suddenly get

some unexpected people there.

And there you find,

of all things,

a Moabite woman.

Boaz, the father of Obed,

whose mother was Ruth.

Said last week,

the people of Moab

were banned

from worship of the Lord

to the tenth generation.

But here's God's grace

intervening,

setting aside the principle.

Boaz, the father of Obed,

whose mother was Ruth.

Obed, the father of Jesse.

Jesse, the father of King David.

And the genealogy

goes on and on.

And finally,

and Jacob,

the father of Joseph,

the husband of Mary.

And Mary was the mother

of Jesus,

who is called the Messiah.

Isn't it a wonderful thing

how God unfolds

the storyline

to bring to fulfillment

his amazing plan

through an embittered woman

who proves God's grace?

and the Moabite daughter-in-law.

And Jesus,

the promised Messiah,

our Redeemer,

who lived the perfect life,

who died for our sins,

was raised to give us life,

who finally ascended

into heaven,

and those who saw him leave

were promised.

Here is the conclusion

of the story.

This same Jesus,

said the two men,

the angels,

this same Jesus

who has been taken

from you into heaven

will come back

in the same way

you've seen him

go into heaven.

Now, friends,

this is the happy ending.

And here is the final timetable.

For the Lord himself

will come down from heaven

with a loud command,

with the voice of the archangel,

with the trumpet call of God,

the dead in Christ

will rise first.

After that,

we who are still alive

and are left

will be caught up together

with them in the clouds

to meet the Lord in the air,

and so we will be

with the Lord forever.

Therefore,

comfort one another

with these words.

To the gravesite

in Edinburgh

two or three weeks ago.

One of my eldest wives,

a godly lady.

And we read these verses

as we committed

our body to the ground,

in sure and certain hope

of the resurrection

to eternal life.

So let me ask you,

are you looking forward

to that?

Is that your story?

Are you part of this story?

If someone was to do

your genealogy,

would it reflect

that you're part

of the family of God?

Wonderful thing

is you can be included

in the genealogy of Jesus,

a member of God's family

as you receive him

as your Lord and Savior.

So maybe if you're not

a Christian here this evening,

maybe things have happened

in your life,

maybe you're bitter,

maybe you've got

unanswered questions.

Here's what the Gospel

of John says.

Yet to all who did receive him,

to those who believed

in his name,

he gave the right

to become children of God,

children born not

of natural descent

nor of human decision

or a husband's will,

but born of God.

Nemi's story ended happily

in this life.

Now, we are not all promised

that in a fallen world.

But I'm almost finished.

Let me say this

as strongly as I can.

Though we may have to live

with our circumstances,

we do not have to live

with our bitterness.

Though we may have to live

with our circumstances,

we do not have to live

with our bitterness.

See, I began with my

termite-eaten book.

You see,

that termite-eaten book

can actually be replaced

with a perfect copy.

We discovered one of the

same editions

with the same cover

that the termites

hadn't got to.

I wonder,

if we were to open

the cover

of your life

and open the book,

what kind of person

would we find in

what your name is?

God,

help you help us.

Let's just pray.

And in the quietness,

let's just take a few moments

to reflect on what God

has said to us.

Maybe you have unresolved

hurts in your life.

maybe even bitterness

about things

that have happened.

Here in this place,

speak to the one

who alone can help you

and pour

the balm of his grace

into your bitterness.

His transforming grace.

Maybe you're not a Christian

and you don't have that hope.

Again, speak to him

and admit your need.

Turn from going

your own way

and put your trust

in the one who can save.

Our Father in heaven,

thank you for your Son,

our Saviour,

Jesus Christ,

who entered into our world

with all its pain

and anguish,

a fallen,

desperate world,

to reach us people

who were living

without hope

and without God

in the world.

For those of us

who know that,

help us again

to appreciate it

and that this life

is not the end

of the story

that we're looking

forward,

the best is yet to be.

We're looking forward

to that day

when Christ

shall return.

And so with your people

down the generations,

we cry,

Maranatha,

even so.

Come quickly,

Lord Jesus.

May we be found

longing for his appearing,

waiting for him,

because you're the one

who's able to keep us

from falling

and to present us

before your glorious presence

without fault

and with great joy.

So to you,

the only wise God,

be glory

and honour.

ko joining

where he and

from the

father

words