[0:00] Well, a very good evening to you all, and thank you for joining with us as we meet together at Stornway Free Church here, and I trust that we will all know God's blessing as we come under his word tonight.
[0:13] Now I want us to begin by reading from Psalm 102 in St. Psalms. Psalm 102, and we pick up a reading at verse 12.
[0:24] But you, this is in St. Psalms, but you, O Lord, are set forever on your throne, through each succeeding age endures your great renown. You will arise in mighty power, on Zion, Meshach, you will shower.
[0:39] The set time now has come to bless Jerusalem. Her stones your saints hold here, her dust is mourned by them. Nations will fear your name, O Lord.
[0:50] All kings on earth you praise record. For God will yet appear in glorious might to reign. The Lord in grace will build Jerusalem again.
[1:01] The prayers of the poor he'll heed. He will not spurn their cry of need. Let this be written down to teach a future race, so people yet unborn may magnify his grace, that from his holy place above the Lord look down in tender love.
[1:21] Let us now pray. O Lord, O God, as we gather before you this evening, we give thanks for your grace and for your goodness, for all that you do in us and for us.
[1:34] We give thanks, Lord, for the way you lead us through life, because we recognise that as we face all the difficulties and challenges, and all the things that maybe set us back, the things that disappoint us, the things that worry us, the things that we find not just perplexing, but we find so problematic, we do not know how to work our way through it or out of it.
[2:02] And yet we give thanks, Lord, that you know everything, and you know our situation, and you know what will work and what won't work, because you know the end from the beginning.
[2:13] But you are committed to your people. Your people are your portion in this world. And we can count on the fact that you are always there to guide us and to lead us and to help us.
[2:27] You are a shoulder to cry on. You are an arm to lean on. And you are the great God of heaven and earth. And we give thanks, Lord, for the intimacy of your working, that while the power of yours is so great, that by the word of your power, you brought everything into being.
[2:45] Yet you are able, by your grace, to sustain and support, even in the most difficult of times. We ask, O Lord, that you will help us as we come to your word, and that you will open it to us, that we will be conscious of your presence and your peace.
[3:01] We pray, Lord, that we might be challenged by your word, and that we might be rebuked by it, that we might be enlightened and encouraged by it, and that we might find that you are speaking to us directly through it.
[3:15] We pray for our young people and ask, Lord, that you would help them in a very difficult day, a day where there is many challenges facing them.
[3:26] We pray for them at home, going through homeschooling. Pray for parents who are having to adjust and all the difficulties and challenges they face.
[3:37] We pray for teachers who are working in new spheres and new challenges. And we, Lord, we give thanks for this way of learning, that at a time like this, where people cannot be meeting together freely, that you are still able, through the gifts that have been given, that people can learn at home.
[4:01] Give thanks, Lord, for this Sunday school and for the wonderful way that you have equipped your people to prepare the lessons, and that these lessons have been given to the children into their homes and again with their parents.
[4:15] And we pray that blessing will come from this, that even although it might be lockdown, that it might be open doors as far as the work of the kingdom is concerned, and that good seed is being sown every day and every week at this particular time, and that there will be a great harvest from the lockdown, even although we might feel frustrated and disappointed by it.
[4:40] Lord, you are the God of the harvest, and we pray that this will be a sowing time, and that there will come a reaping time. And we pray, Lord, that indeed, your name will be glorified through it all.
[4:54] We ask, Lord, to be with those who are ill, seriously ill. Lord, we're aware of some who are so ill, and there's great worry and anxiety with their families, and so we commit them to you.
[5:05] Lord, we give thanks for the great care that is given in our hospitals and in our homes, and in the hospice and all the different places that help those who are in need.
[5:17] Lord, we give thanks for our carers and for all our NHS staff and all who work so tirelessly for the good of others.
[5:27] Lord, we pray for those in the emergency services and those who put their own lives at risk, seeking to help and to aid others in their time of difficulty and distress.
[5:39] Lord, we give thanks for all these things, and we realise that often there is a toll taken on them as they deal with the suffering and the pain and the trauma in people's lives. And so we ask that you will be with them.
[5:51] Help us, Lord, to be focused upon yourself and not to be too caught up with ourselves, because there is an incredible self-centredness that is part of what we are as sinners.
[6:04] Help us, Lord, to have a greater focus upon you and a greater focus upon one another, and that we might be sensitive to other people's needs as well as our own. Help us, Lord, to have a caring and a compassionate heart.
[6:17] Lord, deliver us, Lord, from being judgmental. And we live in a day where there is a growing sense of intolerance right throughout society.
[6:27] Lord, deliver us from this, and that there might be a greater appreciation of one another, and that we be allowed this freedom to express our own opinions, because there is this growing sense of intolerance that with some people that they will not accept or allow for anybody else to hold other views.
[6:49] And, Lord, we realize that that is wrong, even although we may disagree totally and altogether with some of the views. We realize that in the freedoms that the gospel brings and in the democracy that gospel brings, that freedom of expression is one of the great, great privileges that we have.
[7:10] And so, Lord, we ask for your protection, and we pray in particular in light of the gospel that we will always have the freedom to proclaim your truth unhindered, that we will be able to deliver the full counsel of God, that we will not have to hold back, that the state will not interfere with the proclamation of your truth.
[7:31] And we pray that your truth will filter more and more into society, although there are many who are seeking to remove your word and the influence of your word from society.
[7:42] We pray that it will be the very opposite, but that your word will grow more powerfully in society and that it will influence people in all walks and particularly in places of influence, in every area of society, in politics and in commerce, in all the whole financial world, in all the places of counsel and in the arts and leisure and sport, in all the different areas, in technology and in medicine and in education, and that people who will love you will be in places of influence and prominence.
[8:17] We pray for our advisors, our advisors to our politicians, and pray, Lord, that we will find your people amongst them, that they'll be able to influence for good, because righteousness exhorts a nation.
[8:30] And forgive us, Lord, for our national drifting away from you and for, as it was saying in Jeremiah, that we've hewn out for ourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water.
[8:41] Oh, Lord, help us to look to you as to be the only way of salvation and the only way of deliverance. We pray, Lord, for us in the face of this pandemic, and we ask, Lord, that the vaccines will be rolled out in a way that will become effective, and that in not too distant future, we're beginning to see a great reduction in both in cases, positive cases, and with those who are getting so ill from COVID.
[9:13] We give thanks, Lord, for people who are recovering from, although it can have a lingering and lasting impact. We pray for those who are seriously ill from it, and we ask, Lord, that your healing may be upon them.
[9:27] Lord, bless every family that is devastated by death, and we know that that is that which changes a life, changes a family's life forever. And we ask, Lord, that you will bind up the brokenhearted and grant them your grace and peace.
[9:43] Be with our leaders, we pray, in Edinburgh and in London and here locally in the council. Lord, grant them your wisdom and direction and grace. And we pray that you will have mercy upon us and that you will cleanse us from our every sin, asking all in the name of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[10:03] Amen. Amen. All right. Just a wee word to any of the young folk who are listening in tonight. Two or three weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, Mr. McKeever, as he's preaching through the book of Ecclesiastes, was preaching from chapter 12.
[10:22] From the beginning of that chapter, that great verse, remember your creator in the days of your youth. And he preached a tremendous sermon. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I listened to it again.
[10:35] And it's probably one of the most important verses for any young person to learn. Because the Bible is talking about the importance of getting right with God when you're young.
[10:52] That you will ask Jesus into your heart when you're young. Because there's going to come a time very often in life when the things of God and the things of Jesus will become less and less and less.
[11:06] And that often happens when people get older and older. If they've forgotten about God when they're younger, very, very often you will find that they have really no thought about God when they've got older.
[11:19] Thankfully, sometimes old people do come to turn to the Lord. But very often, if they've forgotten about God when they're young and middle-aged and as time goes on they forget more and more about God.
[11:33] So that's why it's so important when you have your energy, when you're young, when you have good thoughts, when you're under the Gospel, when you're under the Word, and you have your Sunday school teachers and you have your parents at home and they're teaching you in the right way.
[11:49] It's important that this is when you will remember your Creator and turn to Him. Because the Bible shows us, this chapter shows us, the incredible change that takes place in the human body.
[12:03] As we get older, we change. Everything about us changes all the time. And my mum, who stays with us, she's 103, which is very, very, very old indeed.
[12:19] And one of, part of that, Ecclesiastes chapter 12, it says, as it goes through all the different things that happen to people when they get old, one of the things it says is they are afraid also of what is high.
[12:36] Now, I was looking at my mum after listening to this sermon and reading that verse I gave and I was looking at my mum and I was thinking, this is so true.
[12:46] Everything about it is so true. And when it says there that they are afraid of what is high and I thought, well, that's so true with mum.
[12:57] What do I mean? Well, when my mum was young, she was somebody who loved hill walking and she used to, she went in quite a lot of the hills in Scotland.
[13:08] She loved just to, to, to rumble, to, to, to walk. It's one of the things she loved to do. And when she was young, she used to run and jump and climb and all these things.
[13:20] Today, she is afraid of her own height. What do I mean? What do I mean is this? When Dolly and I or the carers try and get lift my mum, she's sitting in the chair and when we try to get her up to move and we get her to stand her full height, she begins to get afraid.
[13:45] And before she can take a step, as soon, she's alright at this position, but as soon as she stands her own height and looks down, it's like, oh, and she starts going, oh, she gets all shaky.
[13:58] And you have to help her to, to take a step. And here's somebody used to run and jump and climb and all these things. And now, you're reaching a stage where you're almost afraid of your own height.
[14:13] And so, it's an amazing thing and one of the things you begin to discover is that the really old people, they begin, as they go, they're going back, little babies and toddlers, they're growing and developing.
[14:32] Older people, they're, as it were, going back, they're getting less and less and less able to do things. For instance, my mum now, we have to nearly, we have to really mash her food.
[14:44] She loves potatoes and gravy and veg and all that kind of stuff. But even, if you're having lasagna, you have to cut it up into little bits and then give her a spoon with it and she feeds herself like that but everything is done so slowly.
[14:58] Which is quite funny. One time, I remember, Joshua was, he loves being in with my mother and, that's my grandson and he, I was in the kitchen and he was playing away in the room and then I heard him saying, clever nana and I thought, what's that?
[15:19] And then I heard again, clever nana. So I went through and my mother was having her food and she was taking a spoon and taking it up to her mouth and he was standing in front of her and when she would take off the spoon he would go, clever nana.
[15:35] And you see, we used to do that with Joshua when he would, when we're trying to feed him something that he didn't particularly like and eventually he would take it and we'd say, clever Joshua. And I was thinking, here it's gone full circle because here's a two year old encouraging a 103 year old.
[15:54] But that's life. That's what happens. It's this, everything is beginning to shut down and everything to slow down. And my mum can't really do anything now apart from really sit in the chair.
[16:08] She does a wee bit of reading and listen and a wee bit of talking. But I'll tell you this, she is really happy and content. And it says in that chapter about these days when everything in the body is sort of failing and fading, it says, I have no pleasure in them in these days.
[16:34] But I look at my mum and she's really happy and content. Why? Because when she was young, she did exactly what this verse says. So remember your creator when you're young, in the days when you're young.
[16:49] And she gave her life to Jesus when she was young. And she's followed Jesus all her life. And so you can see within her there's a peace and a happiness and a contentment.
[17:01] And I guarantee that my mum is happier and more content than many of the millionaires and billionaires in this world. She can't really do anything apart from sit there and listen a wee bit of talking a wee bit of reading and that's it.
[17:19] But she's happy. And I sometimes think she's sitting there and she's just waiting for Jesus to take her home. And that's the beauty of it. That is why we should while we're young and we have the energy and we should say Jesus come into my life.
[17:38] Because let me tell you the older you get the harder it'll be to find Jesus. So when you're young you ask Jesus you ask him now to come into your life into your heart so that you will have him for life and for death and for eternity.
[17:58] Nothing greater than this whole world. Let us say the Lord's Prayer. Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[18:10] Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
[18:20] Thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever. Amen. Let's read God's word now from the book of Ruth. The book of Ruth and we're going to read chapter 1.
[18:33] Book of Ruth chapter 1. In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land and a man of Bethlehem and Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab he and his wife and his two sons.
[18:48] The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi and the names of his two sons were Malan and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem and Judah.
[19:00] They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth.
[19:19] They lived there about ten years and both Malan and Chilion died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. 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.
[19:42] 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. But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law Go, return each of you to your mother's house.
[19:57] May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband.
[20:12] Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept and they said to her No, we will return with you to your people. But Naomi said Turn back my daughter Why will you go with me?
[20:26] Have I yet sons in my womb? that they may become your husbands. Turn back my daughters Go your way for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons would you therefore wait till they were grown?
[20:45] 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.
[20:58] Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah 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 to her gods.
[21:11] Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go where you lodge I will lodge your people shall be my people and your God my God.
[21:26] Where you die I will die and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.
[21:38] And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her she said No more. 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.
[21:51] And the women said Is this Naomi? She said to them Do not call me Naomi call me Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away fully and the Lord has brought me back empty.
[22:06] Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? So Naomi returned and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her who returned from the country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
[22:27] Amen and may God bless to us this reading of his own holy word. I want us tonight to particularly consider just at the beginning of the very first part of this chapter but to home in on verse 6 then she arose that is Naomi arose with her daughter-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.
[22:57] this book the book of Ruth although it's only four chapters a short book only four chapters in it is a book that is full of love it's a story that's actually in some ways a very very sad story there's a lot of pain a lot of sorrow a lot of heartache in it but there's also an amazing amount of love in it as well it really is a love story and the original home obviously was a happy home but great sorrow and pain was to come into it and yet as we follow through the story here we see the great love that Ruth has for her mother-in-law Naomi and Naomi for Ruth and the love of Boaz for Ruth but above it all and through it all we find God's unchanging love for his people and although part of it is dark and sore and sad yet it's also a story that at the end is uplifting and that is so often the way that
[24:05] God works with his people because although weeping may for a night endure at morn doth joy arise and very often the darkness that God's people go through and it's real darkness and it's real pain and it's real sorrow can give way to joy and we find that in the story of Ruth now the book of Ruth comes at quite a dark time it's during the time of the judges the judges followed on from Joshua now the time of Joshua and the Israelites that came into the promised land they were very committed to the Lord they were people of faith but as time went on and Joshua died and that generation died and then there was the next generation it's amazing how quickly the powerful influence of the godly fear that was in that generation began to fade and as time went on and one generation gave way to the next we find that the influence of God became less and less and less and it's actually quite frightening at how quickly things can change you would never have believed that it could have moved so quickly in fact there's a version the book of judges that says it sums up that whole period everybody did that which was right in their own eyes if it felt right you do it it's very light it's almost an anthem for today see there's nothing new under the sun when you go back to the Bible you'll always find that it's exactly up to date people did what was right in their own eyes there was that fluidity about life there were no absolutes and you just if this is good for me it might not be good for you but you do what's good for you
[25:58] I'll do I'll be who I want to be you be who you want to be it's that kind of life that's how it was in the book of judges it's kind of how it is today as well so it's amazing how quickly the influence of good can depart and that's how it is in our own land the decline the gospel influence in our own land the decline of it is quite frightening in such a short period of time and every year it seems to be accelerating more and more now the problem that began to develop in Israel and there was a pattern developing is that as they abandoned God and turned away from God that God gave them up gave them up to themselves and you know that actually is about the worst judgment that could ever happen and I pray that that will never happen to us here in this land because that's what a lot of people want they want they want they don't want God anywhere around they don't want God interfering they don't want even the notion of God well I cannot think of anything that would be worse than living in a land where God was not tolerated or allowed not of course that that changes who God is he that in heaven sits shall laugh and that God will hold them in derision people don't realise what God is actually doing he's sitting he's taking note and a day is coming and he's patient he's long suffering but it's a fearful thing to try and live without God and we pray that God will never hand us over to ourselves nationally be an awful thing well that was what was happening to Israel and yet God was still watching them and what would happen is that he would allow invading nations maybe like the Philistines or the Midianites to come in and invade the land there were famines and there were all pestilences there were all kind of things happening at first they wouldn't cry to God they would try and struggle their way through the difficulties and the droughts and the famines and the oppression and all these things until it became so extreme that there was nowhere left to turn but to God last resort and then they would cry to God and God would hear them and he would send a deliverer and so he had deliverers like Gideon and Samson and these men became judges in Israel for quite a time so that was the kind of pattern and so that's a background to this chapter in Ruth or this little book in Ruth and so we meet this family in Bethlehem they lived in Bethlehem we have
[28:54] Naomi with her husband Elimelech and the two sons Melon and Julian or Kilian and what we find is that there was a famine in the land at the time this was one of the times under God's judgement and what we've got to remember is that when God's providence is working against us now not always but often when God's providence is against us God is speaking to us through that and the worst thing that we can do really is to fight it or to go against it or to try and run away from it we ought to submit under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time we need to be saying Lord what are you saying to me what are you saying to us what is what have I to learn from this so we don't try and run away however difficult the providence is we have to submit under it and learn what God is doing in it and through it for us and for our nation but Naomi and Ruth
[30:02] Naomi and the Limelech and the boys they made a wrong decision they made a decision based on economics very simple decision and they said well this is how it is over there in Moab there's plenty of food here there's none let's go to Moab and you'd say to your shirt any parent any family that's the kind of decision that they would make but it was a wrong decision wrong decision because they weren't submitting under God or obviously maybe they hadn't cried to the Lord or maybe they were crying to the Lord but the decision to go to Moab was not according to the revealed will of God even although God overruled everything it wasn't according to the revealed will of God because God had very clearly said to Israel that there were two nations that they were not to seek the peace and prosperity of one was the Ammonites and the other was the Moabites these two nations you have nothing to do with them but that's what they did they went to the very place where they shouldn't have gone and so they go to Moab and initially it would seem that everything went well and then tragedy strikes because Naomi's husband
[31:19] El-Amelich dies and so poor Naomi here she is in a strange land and now the devastation of entering into widowhood and her life is torn apart but the two boys take girls from Moab as wives Ruth and Orpah and it is very evident that they were nice girls they were lovely girls and proved to be without a shadow of a doubt wonderful wives because they also proved to be wonderful daughters in law as well but then double tragedy strikes because both male and killian die so here's poor Naomi Ruth and Orpah and Naomi has lost her husband and her two sons and you know the grief that some people are called upon to go through in this world is overwhelming I sometimes look at people that I know who have had not just one tragedy but sometimes multiple tragedies multiple sorrows in their lives and I sometimes wonder how on earth do they cope and it can only be through the grace and the strength of God and here is
[32:35] Naomi and she felt alone and abandoned by God she feels as she's no longer Naomi there's nothing blessed about her she feels she's bitter she's bitter about her situation she's bitter against God Mara don't call me Naomi call me Mara and yet Naomi would later discover that God hadn't abandoned her that God still had plans for her and that God was going to bless her and that God was going to provide wonderfully for her and you know today you might be like Naomi is you might be today heartbroken your world has caved in you've lost what was precious to you you've lost that which was at the very centre of your life your life has been torn it's broken you're in pain you go to bed with that pain you're waking with that pain there's a pain always in your heart and sometimes you say you look to God and you say
[33:35] God this is part of the beauty of the Psalms they're so relevant God have you forgotten to be gracious the Psalmist cried have you forgotten all about me there's a brutal honesty in the Psalms and that's no doubt how Naomi was and it might be how you are today well let me say this he hasn't forgotten about you and God has a purpose and a plan for you the thing is you may never understand in this world exactly what it is he has done but he's not asleep and he's not unaware of your pain and he's not finished with you yet he brought a blessing back into Naomi's life he brought a blessing into Jacob's life despite the fact that Jacob is saying all these things are against me Job seemed to have lost everything and yet God restored the fortunes of Job he blessed his latter end
[34:39] God is in the business of restoring and he's in the business of reaching out and he's in the business of blessing and God can give you joy in your pain today you might think that's impossible but you know there's a lot of the Lord's people and they have to confess that before the end of the day that the Lord the joy of the Lord has become their strength and so that's where Naomi is but in verse 6 we find Naomi making a decision to return home to Bethlehem because she heard this is what she heard the Lord has visited his people and given them food and Naomi makes up her mind I've got to go home and I don't believe that it's for the food because there's plenty food in Moab she has heard that the Lord has visited and there is this longing in her heart she needs to get back home with the
[35:42] Lord and I think that there's something at this moment of Naomi that's a reflection of the prodigal remember the prodigal son remember that son he was one of these impatient young fellows and he came to his father and he basically was saying dad I can't wait till you die in order for me to receive my share of my inheritance I want it now it's kind of like in the age that we're living in the now age I want it now so the father gave him the share that would eventually come to him when he died now he went into a far country and boy did he have a whale of a time he blew it he had loads of friends but eventually of course what happened the money ran out and the friends ran away that always happens you know if you've got plenty dosh you'll have plenty friends not true friends true friends stick with you through thick and thin but these superficial friends were only there to share in your good times and of course he was left there all on his own and then a famine came and he ended up he needed to get to work in some shape or form and he was in a pig farm and he was so hungry that he would have eaten the slops that the pigs were eating and when he was there looking at the pigs and in the down in his mind and everything he began to think of home and all of a sudden in his mind home was not so bad as he had once thought he had once thought it was stuffy and I needed to get out and expand my horizons and get away from this restriction
[37:22] I need to live life to the full and away he goes but now he says I have to arise I need to get back I shall arise and I will go to my father and I think there's something of this in Naomi at this moment as well for she says I have to get home and so we find that her daughters in law are there and although she has the love of the daughters in law who really care for her and there's obviously the people of Moab although God's favour was not on them they seemed from what we see of Ruth and Orpah they seemed to be very nice people but they were heathens and it was obvious that Naomi had become tired of the heathen ways and heathen practices the heathen worship she needed to get home she needed to get where God was maybe there's somebody listening tonight and this is speaking to you because you might have tuned in tonight and you saying to you know this
[38:26] I remember when I was young and I was fed up of all this I was brought up under the gospel I was brought up going to church I was brought up in a good home a Christian home and I kind of rebelled against it because I found it restrictive and I wanted to live life and I wanted to be my own to be master of my own destiny in charge of my own destiny but you know what life hasn't turned out the world promised you it's promised you so much but you know what it's not delivering on these promises and there might be somebody listening tonight to saying you know it's time that I arose and went back it's time to come home and you know it's the most important lesson that we can learn if you've strayed if you've gone away if you're in a far country it's time to come back home time to come back to the Lord and the Lord is there remember how when the prodigal came the father the father ran to meet him outstretched arms when the outstretched arms of
[39:31] Jesus are inviting you tonight so please time to come home but you'll notice that it tells us here that the Lord had visited and given them food but very interestingly in the AV translation it says the word food is translated as bread which again was probably the staple diet so really what we have regarding Naomi is remember they had moved from Bethlehem to Moab home is Bethlehem so really it is saying the Lord has visited his people in Bethlehem to give them bread and you can never think of that without thinking of how the Lord visited Bethlehem many many years later and where the true bread of life came to Bethlehem and of course that is the Lord Jesus Christ because he said I am the bread of life a bread that is free a bread that is full of nourishment a bread that will satisfy you forever and ever it is the true bread of life so if any of you are away tonight away from the Lord whether you were once following the
[40:55] Lord and have drifted or whether you once were brought up in a Christian home but turned your back upon it but tonight you have tuned in you are listening in I hope your conscience is stirred up I hope and pray that the Lord is speaking to you because it is time to come home because you know life life is full of disappointments and the older you get the more you discover that life no matter what you've achieved or what you've done that it never really ultimately satisfies there is only one that can truly satisfy and that is the Lord Jesus Christ it's time to come home let's pray Lord we pray that you will enable us to look to you to believe in you and to trust in you we give thanks for gospel favors and gospel blessings we pray that we may look to you and to follow you help us
[42:03] Lord not to turn our back upon you so that our following will be true and committed and if anybody has wandered away Lord help them to come back if there are those who grew up under the gospel and yet have turned their back upon it we pray that even tonight they will turn round turn them round Lord so that they will again look to you and come to discover you as the true Lord and Saviour forgive us our sin we pray in Jesus name we ask God Amen we're going to conclude singing from Psalm number 80 in the Scottish Psalter the 80th Psalm we're going to sing the last three verses of the Psalm from verse 17 O let thy hand be still upon the man of thy right hand the son of man whom for thyself thou made strong to stand so henceforth we will not go back nor turn from thee at all O do thou quicken us and we upon thy name will call
[43:05] Psalm 80 verses 17 to the end O let thy hand be still upon O let thy hand be still upon the man of thy right hand the son of man who for thyself thy madeút how Janeiro all tom won and shall Turn from thee at all.
[43:56] O do thou wicked us and we upon thy name will come.
[44:11] Turn us again, O God of hosts. And upon us our stay.
[44:27] To make thy countenance to shine. And so we shall be saved.
[44:43] Now may the grace and mercy and peace of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen. Thank you very much for listening in tonight and we pray that the Lord will bless each and every one of you and bless you in your homes and families and all whom you love.
[45:07] Amen. Amen.
[45:18] Thank you.