DIY Sunday Service Kit - Preparing for Christmas & Measuring the narrow and few

 

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit for December 4th. 2022 and our new pre-Christmas mini-series, on the theme: 'Prepare'.

Let's wait on the Lord

This week's sermon was produced primarily in an out-and-about video format, but we've posted the sound track from that under the 'Sermon' button below, with the video recording below that. This development is all part of our transitioning to being primarily YouTube based, in response to developments on the rapidly shifting social media scene. 

As usual, the transcript (for those who like to use 'the words' alongside audio or video) is still available on the podcast website which you access through the 'Sermon' button.

But first, here's the Word for the Week:

Let's pray

Lord and loving Heavenly Father we thank you for the grace that you have shown us in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you have hold the situation we see in our world safely in your hand and under your control.

 Help us to fix our eyes on you and what you tell us about society and not on the things that social scientists tell us about faith. Focus our dependency on you and not on our own slender wits and over-stretched human wisdom, and enable us to walk the way of discipleship with perseverance and joy.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Let's pray

Moldova

Sandwiched between Ukraine and Romania, Moldova has long been the traditional passageway between Europe and Asia. The small nation has been conquered by the Romans, Greeks, Huns, Bulgars, Ottomans, Romanians, and Soviets, leading Moldova to be extremely diverse and its citizens able to speak several languages.

 

Moldova also boasts the world's richest and most fertile soil, which supports vast wheat fields, vineyards, and orchards. The irony is that even though Moldova has so many natural and human resources, it is the poorest nation in Europe; 72% of its people live below the poverty line, 60-80% of its adult population is unemployed, and thousands of people leave annually seeking work throughout Europe, leaving children to be raised in single family homes or with their elderly grandparents.

Though a mere 3% of the population are evangelical Christians, they are zealous, dynamic and eagerly sharing their faith. Bible colleges are training leaders, churches are instituting youth programs and church planters are resolute in their goal to establish healthy churches in the 800 villages that currently have no gospel witness.

A Moldovan believer leads us in prayer for his country in this three-minute video:

Wales

As we pray for the world and as we consider the theme 'Prepare' (with Christmas in mind) during the sermon today, we pray for the people of this land of Wales who also have preparation for Christmas on their minds.

We pray 

• for households that are struggling financially to 'have a good Christmas'
• for those struggling with how to meet the expectations that they feel are upon them
• for those who are in fractured families, for whom relational deprivation will be intensified at this time of year

We pray

• for those who will be working through this Christmas, especially those who feel underpaid and undervalued for their work
• for those who are facing a Christmas with even less more to go around this year because the circumstances they are not satisfied with are being worsened by the impact of their industry's strike action at this point in the
• for those in key worker jobs who are dependent on charitable help of one sorted another to feed the family and make ends meet over the holiday period
• and for all those who fear that their circumstances are worsened and not helped by the pressures of the Christmas period

For the Welsh Church

• And we pray for those whose are hearts are heavy, whose lives seem burdened and whose joy in the prospect of knowing the God of Christmas personally at this special time of year has completely departed.

• We are conscious Lord that it is more than a hundred years since you last moved powerfully through this land pouring out your Holy Spirit on us, its people, and we are very conscious indeed of our great need that you would do so again, addressing the circumstances that have come to blight the situations of so many of us.

• Would you Lord move again powerfully through this land of Wales.

• Would you satisfy us with your goodness and your love.

• Would you turn the hearts of many in this land, in our workforce, in our professions, in our government, to see and to follow in the ways of the Son of God Who came to this earth at Christmas, was crucified to pay the price of our sin, removing our alienation from the Father, and Who was raised to life again for our justification?

• Would you, Lord, at this time when we celebrate the Lord's birth, restore our fellowship with you, heal the hearts of our people and rule again in our land?

We ask for Jesus's sake and Glory.

AMEN.

Click here for the Bible passage for today ...

Let's sing again as we prepare to hear God's Word

Here's the sermon video out and about ...

Here's a new song to finish but it's a great one for the pre-Christmas period

Now let's conclude in prayer

Lord enable us throughout the course of this week to ready our hearts for your coming.

Strengthen and empower us to turn afresh to you.

Engage us with your written Word, draw us again into your presence and keep us walking in the way that leads on to our Heavenly home.

Make us again people who live our lives conscious of your presence, making us people of your Way, your presence and your power.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Thanks for using the DIY Sunday Service Kit again this week.

As ever, if we can be of help please contact us using the email address HoWChaplain@Gmail.com or text, WhatsApp or call 07748 644958, and if you feel led to join us in worshipping through giving please click the graphic below to visit our online giving link.

God bless you ... have a great week!

DIY Sunday Service Kit 27/11/2022 - Navigating life's 'defining' moments

Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit for 27th. November 2022.

In our Bible passage today, life for Esther comes to a defining moment ... you might think it was a crisis moment ... but the momentous conclusion she came to at that point was crucial for the securing of both the Old Testament and the New Testament people of God.

It is an absolutely gripping piece of narrative, and one with very helpful things to take away from it.

But first, here's the Word for the Week video filmed on location in Llandovery's Wednesday livestock market ...

Lord please forgive us for the times this week when we have not adequately valued those things that have eternal value, and have set our choices and priorities for the day without valuing what lass for ever.

Teach us again we pray to value your presence and your counsel, and lead us to enjoy your presence, your wisdom and your felt presence with us 

- and please begin as we open this time of worship we are about to spend in your presence now.

AMEN.

The season of Advent - which many believers celebrate - is about to begin, but even yet this first song today seems more appropriate to our theme than the season that we're about to see play out.

But it seems nevertheless relevant, so let's sing anyway!

The band Celti Worship put a fresh spin on it for us ...

Let's pray

As we approach the start of the Christmas season and consider the opportunities it presents, we pray specifically today for the situation that currently exists in our own land of Wales.

Society

The Bevan Foundation regularly commissions the research organisation YouGov to produce assessments of the social situation in Wales, the latest covering summer 2022.

This latest reports highlights that:

• Families are struggling to make ends meet – More than one in eight Welsh households (13 per cent) either sometimes or often struggle to afford everyday items. In total 45 per cent of Welsh households never have enough money for anything other than the basics. 
• The majority of people are now cutting back on essential items – 57 per cent cut back on heating, electricity and/or water, 51 per cent cut back on clothing for adults, 45 per cent cut back on transport costs and 39 per cent cut back on food for adults between January and July.
• Children are going hungry – the number of people in households with one or two children who are having to cut back on food for children has nearly double since our last Snapshot report in November 2021, with one in ten families with one child and one in five families with two children cutting back on food for children.
• Household debt has remained static – the number of people that are reporting that they are in arrears on a bill or that they have borrowed money has not increased significantly since November 2021. In total 14 per cent of people have been in arrears on a bill for more than one month with 25 per cent borrowing money.
• A third of people have no savings – 22 per cent of people in Wales had no savings at the start of 2022, whilst 10 per cent spent all their savings on day-to-day items between January and July 2022. Only 31 per cent of people had savings in January 2022 and did not use them to cover day-to-day items.
• More people are worried about losing their home – 11 per cent of people are worried about the prospect of losing their home over the next three months. This rises to a quarter of private rental sector tenants and 17 per cent of social housing tenants.
• The cost-of-living crisis is affecting people’s health – 43 per cent of people in Wales have seen their mental health deteriorate as a result of their financial position whilst 30 per cent have seen a deterioration in their physical health.
• People are very pessimistic about their prospects over the next three months – nearly two thirds (63 per cent) of people expect to have cut back on at least one essential over the next three months, up more than 20 percentage points from the position in November 2021.

Church

The Church in Wales's bishops are all in favour of changing their church's position on marriage and human sexuality, and one of them (a woman) lives openly in a civil partnership with another woman ... and this is causing confusion amongst the general population.

Opinion in non-Conformist denominations on this issue is not so much in the public arena, and their official stance is not easy to determine ... which can only lead to further confusion.

Chapels that have released their grip on Scripture struggled during COVID times and anecdotally quite a few are now failing to meet regularly in their buildings.

In recent months, I have heard that in response to the energy price show, chapels are now beginning to close due to unaffordable heating costs. 

Apart from a few very notable pin-pricks of light where Evangelicals have continue to faithfully engage with Scripture and with people outside their congregations, it appears that the last few years have seen serious reversals for the visible church in Wales.

And Evangelical churches - even the larger city churches - commonly report significantly decreased congregations in attendance post-COVID.

The churches often seem characterised by reversals and confusion.

The spiritual condition of the land

Unsurprisingly then, there is significant confusion in Wales about what the Gospel is, about what God wants from us, about the root cause of our human problems as we live in this world ... even about Who Jesus is, what He did and does, and what He is like.

• Let's pray as we approach the annual festival of Christ's birth for the Lord to raise up a clear testimony to His truth right across Wale that dispels the widespread current spiritual confusion.

• Let's pray that as He does so there would be a genuine outpouring of the Holy Spirit, bringing new spiritual birth and establishing a widespread fellowship across the land of people living in genuine spiritual fellowship with Him.

• And let's pray that He empowers and supplies the needs of those people in addressing the social, economic and spiritual needs of this land, reaching out with His compassion and in the strength His Spirit goes to the people of this land of Wales.

As we approach the time of year Lord when we celebrate the Light coming to shine in the darkness, please ordain that the darkness shall not overcome the light.

Please flood our lives with your light and life and truth so that we might reflect your light - each in our own way, as you lead us one by one - so that people of all the nations of our land might come to the brightness of Christ's rising.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Click on the pic below to read God's Word together

The studio camera recorded this while the sermon podcast sound-track was being made ... 👇

Let's sing

Thank you for being with us in this DIY service today.

If you would like to support our work financially please click the graphic below to go to our online giving link.

If we can be of help to you please contact us through Simon's email HoWChaplain@gmail.com, or on WhatsApp, by text or when time is pressing by phoning 07748 644958

Let's commit ourselves for the coming week into the Lord's hands as we pray for one another in the words of the apostle Jude ...

Let's pray

"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and 

    to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 

to the only God, our Saviour, 

    through Jesus Christ our Lord, 

    be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, 

        before all time 

        and now 

        and forever. 

Amen."

When the powerful plot to blot you out (Esther 3:5-15) DIY Sunday Service Kit 20/11/2022

 

Welcome back to the DIY Sunday Service Kit ... this edition goes out on November 20th., 2022.

We've been having quite a time in the book of Esther but Christmas is coming and things are bound to get seasonal shortly ... then we'll pick up on the great deliverances God brought about in Esther to lift our spirits into the New Year.

But first, here's the Word for the Week, filmed on a day when I got rather breathless, but God was definitely doing art spectacularly in our Welsh hills ...

So Lord, we come to seek you.
Grant us true and persevering hearts that wholeheartedly seek after the Living God.
Help us to press on to find your presence in our hearts and in our lives in this act of worship online, in the coming week and every day of our lives until we meet in person in your presence.
Deal with our hearts we pray. Inspire our love of our presence by the presence of your Holy Spirit in our hearts, and make us both whole people and wholehearted people.
We ask for Jesus sake.
AMEN.

We pray today

For the people of Ukraine facing the onset of winter with power cuts, energy issues and continuing bombardment in residential areas.

For the people of God seeking to serve you in this complex situation.

For those believers organising aid deliveries of food and necessities to the most damaged and dangerous areas of the land.

For the radio stations and their workers who broadcast the Gospel of hope and minister to and pray with people enduring desperately tragic and difficult personal circumstances on the radio stations' telephone helplines.

For soldiers at the front, for their medics and paramedics, and the nurses and doctors who take great risks every day to tend to the sick and wounded.

And for the future deliverance of your people and of the people of Ukraine from the oppression, the discomforts and the dangers that they are enduring today.

For the people of Qatar hosting the football World Cup, and with it a large number of people from countries where life is very different from their own.

Prayer News Desk: Qatar

Almost every Qatari follows Islam, whether they are from Arab, Persian, or Bantu (former slave) backgrounds. Pray that Qataris at home and abroad would hear about Jesus, and for the birth of a Qatari Church. Expatriate workers come from many nations. 

Let's pray for Christians to take employment opportunities (from manual labour to executive positions) to increase the presence of God’s Kingdom in Qatar.

Let's pray for the encounter with other cultures to arouse interest in the possibilities offered by other systems of faith and belief to the ones they have seen before.

Following the lead given by the Prayer App for Qatar this World Cup week:

Lord, we ask that Muslim men and women in Qatar will recognize Jesus as the “Pearl of Great Price" (Mt. 13:46)

Lord, would You please bless Qatar’s leaders with wisdom and compassion.

Lord, we ask that those who work in Qatar will receive justice, mercy, and care. 

Lord, we ask that Christ-followers in Qatar will share God’s truth, love, and grace in boldness and power. 

Lord, would You establish Your Church among every people in Qatar and the Arabian Peninsula.

Let's pray that God would build His Church in this very different, distant land, and that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.

For the people of Wales and of the United Kingdom we pray, as we enter what is predicted to be the most trying time economically that we have faced for some long time.

We pray for wisdom and compassion to characterise the churches and the people of God at this time.

We pray for just and compassionate government, for restraint in politics and in the media ... particularly in the popular press ... so that times of hardship and deprivation might be both minimised and cut short.

We pray that we might see you open doors for us to serve you usefully and faithfully in the livestock markets at Carmarthen, Llandovery and Llandeilo in these challenging times.

We pray for the establishment of a presence for y GRWP again in Llandovery in premises that will be of service and assistance to people undergoing these pressures in our rural communities.

And we pray for the material security that has built complacency into a God-resistant force in the land to be overwhelmed by a turning to and trusting again in the one true Living God ... Who controls our personal welfare and destiny with His compassionate hand.

Lord hear our prayers. Meet our needs whatever they might truly be and equip us with the means and the motivation to be of service to you as we serve the people who surround us and have contact with our lives as they are lived out in your presence.

We ask for Jesus' sake and glory.

AMEN.

It's Bible time ... click the pic 👇

The sermon Studiocam is here:

Even in the Old Testament book of Esther, a book where God is not visibly at the centre of things but is powerfully active behind the scenes, so the Almighty is still to this day powerfully at work to redeem His people from the twists and turns of their lives and to reverse the malice of the forces of darkness ranged against their souls.

And that same God is OUR God, as we turn and trust in Him.

And so we prayerfully rejoice in this sure and certain Saviour:

The Apostle Paul writes (Galatians 2:19-21)

"For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 

I have been crucified with Christ 

and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, 

who loved me and gave himself for me."

Guard us Lord against setting aside this amazing grace of our God.

Protect us from ever imagining that righteousness may be gained from observing the requirements even of your Law.

And may we never live in such a way that anyone should conclude from seeing us that Christ has died for nothing.

Turn back the darkness in our hearts and souls and empower us to live in your light.

We ask for Jesus sake.

AMEN.

Finally, here's something from the Getty clan to consider as we leave today ... the giving link lies below it, if you are able to join us in supporting the work of yGRWP today.

Thanks for being with us. God bless your week!

Giving link (click the pic)

When God's people get passed over (and others get all the credit) - Esther 2:19-3:6

 Welcome to the DIY Sunday Service Kit for November 13th. 2022 ... Remembrance Sunday.

We no doubt all have a fairly established view about Remembrance Sunday, what to remember, how to mark the day ... even who we want to share it with.

And it is surely only right that we should spend time being thankful for those who have sacrificed to secure our freedoms.

But as we give thanks for the Kingdom we live in, the Christian's loyalties can quite often feel divided ...

Let's start this week with the Word for the Week video on this theme, to enhance this day as fully as we can.

Let's sing

Let's pray

Today we give thanks for those who serve us in our Armed forces and pray for their security, wherever duty takes them around the world.

We give thanks too for the security that our country currently knows. 

We pray for those service personnel who are currently away from home, with all the pressures that puts on friendships and family life.

We pray for those of our special forces who go into isolated and dangerous situations, for those in logistics and communications who are often put in the position of being 'soft targets' in asymmetric warfare situations overseas, and for those who serve by land, air and sea in mainline service roles.

We pray also for those who work for our intelligence agencies, those who serve at specialist installations and in the field, risking their lives and bearing the responsibility for protecting our state, our institutions and our interests at home and abroad.

And we pray in particular today for those for whom the remembrances of times and experiences brought to the surface today are particularly traumatic and painful. We pray for those who carry the scars of mental and physical injury. We pray for those who, across time, have fought to rehabilitate themselves to ordinary and useful life, and to involvement once more in society.

We pray for those who have been bereaved, for parents, for wives and girlfriends and for children. 

And as we do so we remember also those who have valiantly and faithfully put their lives on the line for the Kingdom of God, whether their names are known or unknown to us, at home and overseas, laying down their lives in the service of the King of Kings.

Lord inspire in us a proper sense of allegiance and of duty towards all to whom we owe it, and fix our eyes on the goal of our lives and the One Who leads us and calls us on towards it.

We ask for Jesus' sake, and for His Glory.

AMEN.

Let's prepare our hearts to read Scripture

Our Bible ministry today is based in the passage we're about to read ...

Where are we going with that passage?

Here's a quick 45-second soundbite 'taster' to see you interested!

Our Psalm today is led for us by Sovereign Grace Music

The sermon studiocam is here:

This seems like an appropriate hymn to follow up with ...

Let's pray

Sovereign Lord we commit ourselves for another week into your hand and ask you to lead us forward, setting us apart in your service.

Make us useful as soldiers of Christ and ambassadors for the Kingdom of God.

Help us to protect and to herald to our people the truth and authenticity of your Word, and its message of salvation by grace.

And help us to warm hearts and to encourage many this week towards the joy of the salvation we share.

We ask for Jesus' sake.

AMEN.

Thank you for being with us here this Remembrance Sunday.

"May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance"!

If you feel ready to join us in worshipping the Lord by giving to support His work through y GRWP, please click on the Stewardship giving link below 👇

Have a great week!

DIY Sunday Service Kit 06/11/2022 - God and Moral Injury - Esther 2 vv. 1-18

 

Hello and welcome to this DIY Sunday Service Kit for November 6th. 2022.

You know those times when life isn't really 'text-book' and you've got to deal with some situation or other but none of the choices you can make look totally right ones? Whether you've heard of 'Moral Injury' or not (all will be revealed later anyway) you may well have experienced a lack of choices at a time when it really mattered and THAT's what we're learning about to day from Esther 2:1-18.

Here's a quick soundbite 'taster' of what's coming

But first, let's have Chris Tomlin lead us in worshipping our great and awesome God ...

Let's pray this week again for the situation in Ukraine

We tend to get news from the free areas of Ukraine, and pray accordingly for them, but this week we have news of what is happening to churches inside parts of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops.

Release International reports this week that occupying forces have closed down the three largest evangelical Protestant churches in Melitopol and shut down churches in Mariupol. In another raid, pro-Russian soldiers reportedly claimed that only one faith would be tolerated – Russian Orthodox.

• Russian troops raided Grace Baptist Church in Melitopol while a worship service was underway, shut it down and ordered the pastor to leave the city.

Grace Baptist Church worship service was being broadcast live when the troops moved in. Viewers watched online as soldiers halted the service. That video has since been removed from the Internet.

• The previous month occupation forces shut down Melitopol’s largest Protestant church. Melitopol Christian Church is described as charismatic and known for its 1,000-seat auditorium, substantial campus, palm trees and fountain.

• In the nearby village of Chkalovo, Russian Federation soldiers entered a church, broke up the evening service and shut the church down.

According to reports, they told the congregation: ‘Your feet will not be here after the referendum. We have only one faith: Orthodoxy.’ The church in Chkalovo has held worship services in the village every day since the war began. It was shut down on September 21.

• At Kurchatov Church in Mariupol, armed soldiers with their faces hidden by masks detained Baptist Pastor Leonid Ponomaryov and his wife Tatyana. They raided their home on the evening of September 21.

Neighbours reported hearing groans and cries as the pastor and his wife were taken away. No word was given to the family and church members of why or where they were being held.

• In the Luhansk region, Russian troops and separatists captured the city of Lysychansk in July. Local residents told them where the Christians were living, and leaders of the six Protestant churches were forced to flee. Remaining congregation members were driven underground.

Russian forces seized the Lysychansk Christian Centre and gutted the entire church library, tossing all the bibles and children’s books into a pile in the neighbouring yard.

At risk to themselves, Christian women who remained in the city have recovered the books and taken them to a place of safety, in the hope that they can be restored to the church in the future.

Release International associate Hyun Sook Foley says: ‘To gradually remove books day after day from the yard involved the risk of being identified as a Christian by occupation authorities who have been detaining and questioning Christians.’

This sort of thing has been going on in annexed Crimea since 2014, and has now begun the the more recently occupied areas.

Let's give thanks this week with Wycliffe Bible Translators for encouraging progress in Bible translation

The number of language programmes that Bible translation teams are working on has seen its biggest leap on record, with new programmes starting at a rate of one per day.

Also, Bibles and New Testaments have been launched at a rate of almost one per week. 

• This year there has been the largest increase on record in one year of 367 languages where work has begun. That’s a massive 13% increase in one year – representing a new programme being started every day!

• There has also been the biggest increase on record of 52 languages with portions of Scripture available for the first time.

• A newly translated Bible or New Testament has been launched for almost every week of the year.

• Add portions of Scripture to this, and Scripture has been published in a new language at a rate of almost two per week. 

• The number of languages with a complete Bible has risen by 7 to 724(from 717 last year).

• The number of languages with a complete New Testament has risen by 35 to 1,617 (from 1,582 last year).

• A further 1,248 languages have portions of the Bible translated (up 52 from 1,196 last year).

As we give thanks let's also pray because the fact remains that 1 in 5 people world-wide still do not have access to the Bible in their own language. 

That’s around 1.5 billion people.

Finally let's pray for Wales

• For plans for outreach at the Urdd Eisteddfod in Llandovery next Spring

• For a place for us to meet in Llandovery to be finalised SOON

• For the development of imaginative forms of outreach in the marts ... particularly in the Carmarthen Chaplaincy Centre ... and for New Testaments and Scripture reading notes to bear fruit in people being saved.

Lord in your mercy please 

hear our prayers, 

lead and protect your people and their testimony to your unfailing grace 

and lead us as we seek to live following you into the life that lasts forever.

We ask for Jesus sake.

AMEN.

The Studiocam of today's sermon is here (click the graphic)

If this Scripture has meant something to you ... maybe touched a nerve ... don't skip this next little treasure of a song from City Alight. It's glorious.

Let's pray

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

(Roman 15:5-6 & 13)

AMEN!

Thanks for being with us online again today.

If we can pray for anything with you, or of we can help in some way, please contact us by texting or using WhatsApp on Simon's mobile number: 07748 644958. You can also phone that number with urgent needs but please bear in mind that we operate across areas with poor mobile phone signal!

You can also email: HoWChaplain@gmail.com

And if you would like to join us in supporting the work y GRWP does in reaching out to rural Wales, please feel free to click the Stewardship Giving graphic below