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 It's no surprise that we have the reading from Genesis because as I think it was made

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 famous I think by Julie Andrews, let's start at the very beginning, it's a very good place

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 to start when we think about the names of God. But names are so important. Names are

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 so important and it's how we name things that we grow into relationship with them. And it's

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 like this one. I named my dog Five Miles so I can now tell people I walk five miles every day.

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 The next one. David Waterhouse. He just happens to be a boat owner. Next one here.

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 If you're going to marry somebody and double hyphenate your name, McDonald Burger is very

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 an interesting one. This next one. Hey, Christian Guy. What a great name. Who wants to live in a place

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 called Dull? Names are important. As we enter this new series, we'll explore what those names mean

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 as we move through our teaching each week. I'm never surprised when I plan for a funeral and the name of

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 the person who I've known for a long time bore no resemblance to their birth name whatsoever.

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 You have to ask. It's interesting how their first name, they were baptized. We too can have several

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 names that are attributed to us that have been shortened. Maybe people were known as Babs where

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 they were Barbara or maybe they were known as Tony for Anthony. And the generalization of names,

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 how we use generalized things like, all right, mate, when you can't remember somebody's name,

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 or if you're in Bristol, all right, my lover. That goes down very well.

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 Then there are names that aren't helpful. And we all know that sticks and stones will break my bones,

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 but names will never hurt me. What a lie that was. Because many of us will have grown up knowing

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 within that setting of names that have been quite cruel and hurtful. I recall I was at a kid with

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 school and sadly his ears were at right angles and his teeth protruded. And he was known as Plug

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 from the Beano. And from the day I started school to the end of secondary school, he was always known as

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 Plug. You know, and you think back and you think how cruel that is. Names have significance and importance.

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 Names stick. Names identify us. We might be named after a parent or a grandparent. Some of us may have

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 long names where they've tried to include every member of our family in the family tree, not to upset

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 anybody at our baptism. You know, maybe we're named after a famous person or a celebrity. You know,

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 I understand Kylie and Jason were very popular at one stage in a season. I haven't met many Draculas in

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 my life though. And then there are many people who are named after biblical figures. And it seemed at

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 one time that if you were born as a Peter, you were likely to become the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

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 I think it probably just saved them changing the name on the door, really. But names are important.

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 They're important to us. Perhaps you were in a generation at school where you were called by

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 your surname. You know, so many people, maybe at public school or wherever, you were known by your

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 surname. Or if you were in the armed forces, you were known or in the forces, you were known by your

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 number. You know, I still, when my force number comes up or I see it on a number plate, it still

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 resonates with me. Oh my goodness, that's my force number. And you, but never the same, it's never the

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 same as being called by your first name. There is something that is really important. So often Jesus

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 called people by name and they responded. They identify us. Names identify us. And especially when it

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 comes to God with his many names used by different cultures, it gives us windows into God's character,

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 the character of God. As we saw this morning in our reading, through whose names we learn as best we

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 can about who God is, what God has done for us, what God is doing for us, that God is the same today as he

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 always was. And what he is ready to do in our lives and coming to understand that in the name in which we

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 address him. Many of you may recall that there are cards that we produced some time ago here with the

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 names of Jesus. When we had the name of Jesus, what does that mean to you? And in that we saw the person

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 of Jesus. People wrote, you are the sovereign Lord. You are my shoulder to lean on. You are my bringer of

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 light. You are my creator. You are my father. You are the one who saves. You are the stiller of storms.

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 That thing of familiarity and relationship that we can build through knowing the names of God and how

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 we address him. Names and descriptions of affection, honour, truth, sovereignty, and friendship. In the Old

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 Testament, we explore over the coming weeks individually as a home group, as a church, we will see and

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 encounter more closely what these names of God meant to people at that time and what they mean to us as

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 well. Some people come to this area of study treating it like a historical event. Yet the God who revealed

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 himself here at the beginning of time to Moses all the way through is the same God that relates to us now.

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 Not an historical figure, not lost in the passage of time, but real and alive and passionate for us as

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 he ever was for his people when he looked at them and looked at the world and said, it is good.

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 And I think sometimes we need to remind ourselves of that when we address God, that in that loving

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 kindness of God, he looks at us and says, there is the potential. I have seen that because I have

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 placed that in you to be all that I wanted you to be. And as we pray and we thank God and we cry out to

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 him, what names do you use on those times when we cry out to God? You know, when we give him thanks and

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 praise, but often in the depths of how we cry out to him. You know, have you ever had one of those

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 calls from a call centre? And you're talking to somebody and the first thing they say is,

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 what would you like me to call you? Have you had that? I think it's really interesting, isn't it?

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 The person on the other end wants a relationship with you. They want to know. They don't want to

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 just treat you as another call. Okay, maybe there may be an agenda they want to sell you something,

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 but I think it's quite personal that they actually want to address you by name. And I find that really

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 helpful. And I don't know about you, I often go back and say, that's really helpful. Sorry,

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 what's your first name? I miss that. It sort of starts a conversation, doesn't it, really?

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 It was really great. I had a lady once, I phoned up for an insurance quote and she said,

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 oh, and she went through and she said, oh, this car insurance. She said, well, so what do you do,

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 my vicar? And I said, oh, I'm a vicar. And she said, really? She said, oh, I'm thinking about getting

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 married in six months' time. And we had about 20 minutes conversation about what she thought about

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 her ideas about doing a wedding and what she should do and how she should go about it. And at the end,

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 I said, about the quote. And she said, oh, that's great. She said, I can give you a discretionary 20%.

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 And I thought, well, that was a good 20 minutes spent, wasn't it?

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 I always struggle a bit at Tesco's as well, because often when you're shopping in Asden Tesco's,

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 you find a little voice, especially if you've been in school during the week, that shouts out,

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 hello, Reverend Jennings. You know, you think, oh my goodness, it's that as everybody turns around.

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 You know, you turn around to the parents, go, no, it's Clive. That's okay. Often we struggle

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 as to how to address God, because it has to be relational. You know, God the Father, Jesus the

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 Saviour, Spirit of Holiness, God Almighty, God of Glory. I just pray in this series as we

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 move through this, that we will find ways of deepening, deepening our relationship in intimacy

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 with God, in the way in which we address him and we relate with him and we grow deeper into that

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 relationship that God seeks for us and with each and every one of us.

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 So how do we relate that to people outside? Well, you know as well as I do, that in our encounters

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 with people who may say, well, I don't believe in God and I never will. You know, and the question

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 is, well, actually, you've used the word of God. So what do you actually mean by God? And in your

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 experience, if anything is like mine, you get this, I respond so, and I hope you respond by saying,

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 so why is that? Why is that? Or why does, you know, and then you get some of the glib stuff of,

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 you know, in your experience, if anything like mine, you know, people will give you a pretty

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 glib rebuff, well, you know, of all the suffering in the world, or why does God allow earthquakes?

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 But some will pause. Some people will pause and come back with a very reasoned thought,

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 thinking through. I don't know, because maybe I've never encountered anything of God.

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 Maybe I've never encountered that has convinced me that God is really there. God may exist,

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 I guess, but he doesn't seem to care about me or know me. I don't even know how to address him

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 or connect with him. What a gift that is for us to actually help people to engage with this name of

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 God. It's an interesting response, and one which we all have to ask ourselves as discipleships of Jesus.

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 In fact, let's do that now. Let's ask ourselves. I'll give you a minute or so,

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 maybe to talk amongst yourselves or just to reflect with somebody near you.

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 So, why do you believe God exists? Why do you personally believe that God exists in this

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 relationship that you have with him and by name? Just take a few moments, if you'd like to just

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 discuss that with somebody next to you. Why do you, you personally, why do you believe that God exists?

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 What has been your experience? I'll leave you to reflect or to just chat to somebody next to you.

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 Just take a moment, because it was a good question that I found this asking.

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 It's a really interesting question to ask, isn't it? It's fascinating. I'm not going to go around

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 the room because I'm sure that we'll all have our own stories, but it would be good to share that more

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 and more with each other as we go through this series. It's because, as you noticed this morning,

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 the writers of the Bible never set out to prove the existence of God, especially in our reading today.

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 There is no arm twisting. They just declare that he is, that God is. And as we've heard in our reading,

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 that he is impersonally involved with our world and its creation and us, the people that he created.

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 And in the first verse of the Bible, we come to this face-to-face with Elohim, the awesome God of

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 creation. We read about what he has done, the significance of the order of creation,

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 our place and significance in that order, and our responsibility too.

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 God as our one creator being, majestic, powerful creator. Everyone and everything else had a

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 beginning, but God has always existed. Before the world was, I am. There's another name to explore,

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 I am. And as we consider names, we take on then, if God looks at us and loves us and knows us and

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 made us, then we take on the family likeness. And being known as a child of God in that name is so

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 important. As we've often sung, maybe time and time and time again, I am a child of God. To take on that,

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 being known as a child of God, we are adopted, we are in relationship, deep relationship. In the best

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 scenario of parenthood, and I'm talking about the best scenario, we take on the positive and good

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 attributes of the personal persons who raise us. And we as children of God are created in God's image,

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 and therefore we should reflect a likeness. We can reflect that in us and through us by what we have

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 been named by him in our being, in our character to create a God. Therefore, to know him is to experience

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 him, to acknowledge him in every part of our lives, the majestic and majesty of God our Father. To know

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 someone by name is so important as we travel together through this series.

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 To know somebody by name is so important.

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 I hope in this series, and it's great to open a series like this, as we start to really go deeper

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 and explore and explore, is to the names and our relationship with God in the names that we use.

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 It is not an academic exercise. It is a relational exercise of which we're moving into.

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 And maybe you might find it helpful, as I have done, as I've been looking at this,

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 to actually take a psalm. I've taken Psalm 8 to read over these coming weeks,

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 as we grow deeper in relationship with him. And our response to him is the one to whom we adore,

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 the one whom we worship, the one whom we follow, the one we respond to, the one in which we are in love

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 with, the one in which we worship, the one in which we believe is so awesome in our lives.

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 Psalm 8, the awesomeness of God.

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 thee away.

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 Two jars and sails of God.

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 Shall they use the pad как și sus mad?

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 P lokale.

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 Pчесc.

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 God.

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 Woons.

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 bonds.

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 SANTHOR Bin.

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 où entr s auf da.

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 împarte dir que eris que Eva.

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 Petc.

00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:03.379
 Dave.

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 Da siri duffü at de thousandst envers.

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 дав uns.

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 Dat...

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 es de...

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 de villageämia...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 alt...

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 Duffa aus.

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 Paulo.

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 Te heores de Vor.