DIY Sunday Service Kit 25/09/22 - Esther: The Book for when it seems God isn't there

 

Hi guys

Some weeks are more challenging than others, aren't they?

It's certainly been a challenging one here!

But when it feels as if the Lord is very present with us, that can make all the difference when the going gets tough. 

The thing is ... it doesn't always feel as if He is there with us. What then? 

The Book of Esther has a fair bit to say to us on that, this book of the Bible where God isn't even mentioned.

And Esther is where we're going for the next few weeks.

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit where our sung worship today is led by City Alight

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

You need to persevere so that 

when you have done the will of God, 

you will receive what he has promised."

Hebrews 10:35-36

Here's the word for the Week video

Our Psalm today is Psalm 42 ...

We pray today for ...

Tom

... who is heading back to Australia in the second week of October to make a new home back there near his family.

Tom's health has been a matter of concern for a number of years. Let's pray that the Lord takes him safely back to Australia travelling with a very good long-standing friend Bill, who is coming over to take Tom back there with him. It's a long flight and Tom has a history of heart trouble so please let's pray for a safe trip and for a happy reunion with his family back there.

Let's pray Tom can settle rapidly into a good, warm, loving fellowship of believers where there is sound and soul-nourishing Bible teaching and where brothers and sisters in Christ will love, encourage and pray for him.

And let's give thanks for God's dealings with Tom, and through him amongst us, in the years he's been here with us. He's been a great strength and encouragement to many of us as we've grown in grace together.

The Harris family

We've had a lot to do with this hard-working farming family on the outskirts of Llandeilo for many years. There are six children from nearly thirty years old down to the mid-teens. 

Their house burned down a few years ago ... mercifully all of them got out.

Then the father was injured in an incident at Carmarthen mart when a large bullock turned back on him and beat him up badly.

Last Friday while getting cattle ready to read their TB test, this father (Maldwyn Harris) was attacked and killed by the bull.

And then they lost twenty cattle that tested positive in the delayed TB test.

The family is naturally quite traumatised: some of them asking deep spiritual questions, others just dazed, angry and hurt ... all very natural ... but we are trying to support them and they are talking with us so please let's pray for them today?

There is a Health and Safety Executive inquiry, a coroner's court and the TB test reactors to be sorted out on top of the family's natural grieving.

The Urdd Eisteddfod in Llandovery

The Welsh National Youth Eisteddfod is due to take place in Llandovery next year. The celebrations started on Saturday with a procession through the town and the opportunity for outreach we have there in partnership with Memorial Chapel will be supported by a bi-lingual team of young people from the Evangelical Movement of Wales.

The time to be praying about the preparations, permissions and planning is clearly NOW!

Let's make the a matter for regular prayer?

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Simon is due to be preaching morning and evening at two churches in Mostar on October 2nd., having flown out the day before.

There's a week of meeting missionaries seeking to encourage and help them, farmers out in the villages and people from government agriculture organisations lying ahead there ... and time with family where there's been a significant bereavement recently.

Please pray for safe and trouble free travels, usefulness to God's cause out there in some fairly needy places and for good time with Ben and Ena who we haven't seen since COVID. Also with the extended family there who are grieving.

(And possibly that any side effects of the COVID jab scheduled for Simon for Sunday will have worn off by the time he has to start travelling! This could be a big ask ...)

And please pray for Helen and Caleb who will be holding the fort at home and looking after the farm. They are both quite tired and could do with everything going very smoothly.

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayers, may they prevail in your presence by the blood of your holy Lamb, Jesus. So we pray in Jesus Name.

AMEN.

We're going to sing again with City Alight ...

Click on the preacher (below) for the sermon recording

Here's the sermon studiocam

Now let's respond to the message with singing ...

If you would like to continue worship with giving, please click on the Stewardship graphic below.
If there's anything you'd like prayer for, please email HoWChaplain@gmail.com or message Simon on 07749 644958 (this is linked to WhatsApp too).

Finally, let's pray the well-known words of Jude vv. 24-25 for one another:

"To him who is able to keep you from stumbling 

and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy

— to the only God our Savior 

be glory, majesty, power and authority, 

through Jesus Christ our Lord, 

before all ages, 

now and forevermore! 

Amen."

DIY Sunday Service Kit 18/09/22 - Ritual, Tradition and the death of the monarch - Hebrews 9:27-28

 

What are we all about today?

Click on this video link!

                        👇

So welcome to online worship with the DIY Sunday Service Kit at the end of a most unusual week, a week that looks likely to give way to another unusual week yet to come.

How are we to think of and how are we to respond to these things?

That's going to be the sort of question our Bible ministry relates to today, spreading hope into a world touched by personal and public grief. 

So far the public sphere has been pretty sombre. Where will we take it from there?

Firstly, we need to attend to our own walk with God.

With that in mind, here's this week's four minute 'Word for the Week' video (not to be confused with the sermon which has much more to do with current events and lies below!)

(Is there someone you might be able to share the Word for the Week with this week? Please feel free!)

The Coronation ceremony of a new monarch traditionally makes a clear statement of the fact that the monarch's authority is not theirs per se but is a duty and responsibility delegated to them by God. 

So let's first of all make a start on our major theme today at that point ... it is ultimately the Lamb Who is to be found on THE throne.

As we turn to prayer, Scripture teaches us:

"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—  

for kings and all those in authority, 

that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 

This is good, and pleases God our Savior,  

who wants all people to be saved 

and to come to a knowledge of the truth."

1 Timothy 2:1-3

So at this challenging time for our nation, let's pray ...

In keeping with this passage in God's Word ...

• We pray first today for Kings

Lord and loving Heavenly Father we give thanks today for the blessings we have known during the reign of the late Queen. 

We thank you for the encouragement it has been to hear her increasingly presenting truth from your Word during her Christmas broadcasts, and we thank you for the measure of freedom that we have enjoyed during her reign forms to speak freely of your love and to convey your Gospel to our nation ... a nation that still seems increasingly hostile to you and which is increasingly turning from you and your ways.

We pray for the new King Charles III, for His Queen Consort Camilla and all the royal family. 

We ask the they might be comforted in their current personal grief, rightly guided into wise counsels and truly born again into new life by the Holy Spirit of our God.

We pray as we are instructed in your Word that they might do everything in their power as they exercise their office so that "we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

And we pray that your truth and justice might prevail throughout King Charles's reign.

• We pray secondly today for all those in authority

Conscious of pressures and divisions in society, we pray Lord today for our new Prime Minister Liz Truss who faces many difficult challenges, not least the re-uniting of the nation to meet those challenges.

Only recently elected, during a time of numerous national crises, after a leadership contest riven with acrimony and elected by 57% of her party's total membership of 172,000 ... a party that has not had a majority in Wales since 1859  ... Ms. Truss faces many challenges in governing Wales.

So in the light of our current internal and external challenges we pray that our land will be unified under her administration. We pray that Liz Truss and her ministers will be given advisers that are able to advise them well on how to unite our land under their leadership, that they will understand the needs of Wales and then act to meet these needs. 

And we pray that we might be led from Westminster and also from Cardiff Bay in such a way that we are enabled to live peaceful, productive and quiet lives, provide for our daily necessities, have sufficient to help those in a worse condition than we are in ourselves and be able to live at peace whilst pursuing godliness and holiness.

The challenges that lie immediately ahead of those you have appointed to lead us seem daunting Lord, and we ask that they will seek the solutions to our nation's difficulties in the light of your Word and at the foot of your throne.

• We pray thirdly today for those who lead the visible church at this time

We pray particularly today for Archbishop Justin Welby, leader of the international Anglican Communion.

We pray that the heavy weight of his responsibilities to the King of England at this time will not overwhelm his allegiance to the King of Kings.

We pray that he will be given great spiritual inspiration and empowerment to faithfully represent truth both to power and to people at this crucial point in our nation's history.

We pray for his sermon preparation ahead of the late Queen's state funeral on Monday. 

We acknowledge that it is not for us to like or dislike his sermon but for you, the God Who speaks in your Word, to approve or disapprove of his message. 

So we pray that you will give Justin Welby your words to speak. 

We ask that you, our loving God, would then open the King of England's ears and his heart to your message and we pray that this opportunity to bring the Gospel to our nation and to the world will not be lost.

Unite our land and unite our disunited, divided people beneath your headship Lord, we pray. And turn us again to the One Who alone can save us freely, completely and lastingly.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Here's the sermon Studiocam

Let's sing 'Good and gracious King'

Let's pray:

When David took up his reign after the death of King Saul we read:

"All Israel came together to David at Hebron and said, “We are your own flesh and blood. 

In the past, even while Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel on their military campaigns. 

And the Lord your God said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’”

When all the elders of Israel had come to King David at Hebron, he made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel, as the Lord had promised through Samuel."

1 Chronicles 11:1-3

So we pray Lord that you will anoint the ministry of our new King Charles III so that He might serve you and your purposes for your people. We pray that he might do so faithfully and truly and in the reverent fear of the Lord.

We ask that he and we might be faithful to the covenant that governs our mutual relationship.

And we ask that we might be well-shepherded by those given the rule over us.

Guard us and go with us into the coming week, and into the coming years of the monarchy, preserving us in freedom and in peace, so that we are liberated from all hindrances to your service.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Thank you for worshipping with us online at this momentous point in our national history.

Please pray for us, as we are speaking in Newport on Wednesday about the work of y GRWP then preaching away and sharing the vision for our work again further afield next Sunday.

If you would like to support this ministry by giving then please click the Stewardship graphic to be taken to our giving link.

God bless you.

May He give you a great week full of joy in His service!

DIY Sunday Service Kit 04/09/22 - The Company Christians Keep

 

Hello and welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit September 4th 2022.

Somehow it seems to have a bit of a 'back to school' feel about it!

As we worship the Lord here today, let's remember the young people going bak to school today, recall how we felt about the challenges of the ourselves and pray thoughtfully for the young people in that position this week.

Let's pray

As we come to you today Lord to worship you and learn your ways and your wisdom through your Spirit from your Word, we ask the you would teach us plainly and clearly so that we might understand, inspire our hearts to want to walk with you in the light of your Word and shape us into the people you want us to be.

And at this time we remember before you those young people also setting out on a path of learning in the fresh academic year who will no doubt be exposed to many good things in school but also to many things that their youthful critical awareness will not entirely equip them to evaluate.

Please protect our children from the word excesses of our age, from ideologies that it will not help them in life to embrace and may the next generation of our people be led into the ways of righteousness and truth.

In Jesus' Name.

AMEN.

Today we pray for our prized and valued national institutions

For our schools, colleges and universities

Father we give thanks today for the free, universal system of education that we have in our land and pray for the prospects of our people as we look towards the equipping and the well-being of our future generations.

Please protect the academic and intellectual integrity of our education system from top to bottom.

May every decision made about its work, its subject matter and its delivery of content match your desires ad aspirations for our land.

Particularly we pray for school leaders, teachers and pupils who will be tackling the challenges of moving our secondary schools onto a new and very different curriculum this autumn, which is unique amongst the countries of the UK. We ask especially that next steps from secondary to tertiary education for pupils heading into this new educational programme will be smooth and that their education will deliver what they need for their next steps in life.

For our National Health Service and Social Care System

For our NHS, currently stretched by the ongoing impact of the COVID epidemic and struggling to find essential staff to continue to maintain the service, we also pray.

For junior doctors who are now leaving the NHS in significant numbers because of changes in their terms and conditions of service and low pay ... many of them having trained here therefore moving overseas rather than remaining inside our own health service. 

For demoralised ambulance staff waiting in long queues outside hospital A&E departments while calls go unanswered for their help elsewhere.

For the new incoming Health Secretary in Westminster due to be appointed in the coming week and for the method and means to be found to ensure that all who need health and social care in our land to be afforded it according to their need not their income.

For our Emergency Services and Security Services

For our Fire, Police, Ambulance and Air Ambulance leaders and staff we pray the tools and the wherewithal to get satisfaction from being able to do a good job.

For our specialist coastguard, search and rescue, mountain rescue and nuclear police organisations ... we pray safety in their service and satisfaction in their work.

For a sense amongst them that they are appreciated and valued, and for wisdom in the sometimes rushed but responsible decisions they have to make.

For justice and for security tone e the characteristics of our nation because of the service they offer.

For our armed Forces and Civil Service

For those who make up our full time airforce, navy and army, and for the naval, Air Force and Army Reservists who train to fight alongside the full-time service personnel when the situation requires it.

May they be well led.

May they be well equipped.

May they be cared for not only in their service but also after it, particularly when their service has left them wounded in mind or in body.

Enable our armed and security services, our civil service and all with whom they work to be cared for and equipped for all they do to keep us safe.

In a time of national insecurity and challenge we pray for those who serve our state and its institutions, asking that righteousness might characterise the work they do and that this righteousness will exalt ournation, according to the promise of your Word.

We ask all this for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Click on this little guy for the sermon

The video cam from the sermon recording is here:

Let's pray

Dear Lord and Father we thank and praise you for the way the you apply your Word to our hearts by your Holy Spirit and speak to us clearly to reveal your heart and your inspiring passions to us.

May your passion for lost people fill us this week.

May your deep desire to see 'black sheep' brought into your sheep fold by repentance and faith drive us this week from our comfort zone and into the experience of your preserving and empowering grace while you bring us into times of far greater spirit fruitfulness.

And may your gracious ways be more widely known as your voice is heard ... your saving grace to all peoples and nations.

We ask for Jesus sake.

AMEN.

As usual we're posting a link for those who wish to join us in worshipping by giving. Please click the graphic below to go to our giving page. Thanks.

There is no DIY SSK next week, but we look forward to joining with you again in a fortnight.

Pob bendith!