Sermon Tone Analysis

Remembrance Sunday at Mount Calvary, Swansea

Welcome today to our Remembrance Sunday Service.

If you could take your seats as the service is now beginning.

We are starting a little earlier so that we can join the 2 minute silence at 11.

Remember Ypres, Gallipoli, the Somme, Mons and Verdun.

Remember the Western Desert, El Alamein, the Normandy beaches.

Remember Coventry, Dresden, Hiroshima and the Burma Road.

Remember Korea, the Falkland Islands, Northern Ireland, the Balkans, East Timor, Afghanistan and the Gulf.

Remember the courage, the comradeship, the ingenuity, the spirit of working together for a common cause, the planning together for a better world that would come with peace.

Remember the call to arms, the patriotic songs, the partings which were such sweet sorrow.

The sound of the drum, the skirl of the pipe, the prayer that God would be on our side.

Remember the carnage; the colossal horror of war.

Remember the widows of sixty years and more, the old men and women who never knew their fathers.

Remember the love that was lost, the wisdom wasted, the minds that are still pained by memories.

Remember the families bereft by recent wars and conflict.

Remember this day the children who will die while nation fights nation.

Remember the One who asked us to remember them.Father, remember us; and forgive us our sins against you and our fellow man.

Let us remember before God those who have died for their country in war; those whom we knew, and whose memory we treasure; and all who have lived and died in the service of one another.

Let those who are able, please stand.

[SLIDE]They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning.

We will remember them.

Two-Minute Silence

Almighty and eternal God, from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted, either by death or life: hear our prayers and thanksgivings for all whom we remember this day.

Fulfil in us, as in them, the purpose of your love; and bring us all to your eternal joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Lord God of the nations, whose sovereign rule brings justice and peace, have mercy on our broken and divided world.

Pour out your peace into the hearts of all, that all races and peoples may learn to live as members of one family in obedience to your law, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let us sing:

HYMN: O God, our help in ages past

KIDS'S TALK

Who here has been to another Country?

(Map) Where did you go?

What was different differences between here and there?

I lived in Macedonia for a couple of years and they have their own language, Macedonian, they have their own food which mainly consists of peppers and they eat a lot of pasta too.

They have their own folk music and pop songs, they do a lot of walking and going up the mountain that surrounds the Capital City of Skopje.

Macedonians are definitely different to us and we are different to them.

The Bible says that as Christians we are different:

1 Peter 2:9, 11

for you are a chosen people.

You are royal priests,* a holy nation, God’s very own possession.

As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:11 (NCV) — 11 Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world.

If you have said yes to Jesus and asked Him into your life then you are special in God’s sight, because you are chosen, because you are royal, princes and princesses, because you belong to God you are automatically different to everyone else – you are like a foreigner to them and they are like foreigners to you.

You are a foreigner and a stranger the Bible says – because your home is in Heaven.

As foreigners you are not supposed to be the same as others.

As foreigners you have our own language, as foreigners you have our own culture, as foreigners you behave different.

This means that at school or at home or out with friends you are not the same as those who are not Christians.

And you shouldn’t be.

Sometimes this means that you feel alone.

This is why it is important to come here Sundays and Mondays and meet with others who are Christians.

Don't be ashamed to be different because God has made you different.

Together, though, we are stronger.

And Jesus Himself says He will never leave you alone.

Isn't that great news?

NOTICES/OFFERING INC HYMN2

OFFERTORY PRAYER

HYMN3

READING

How to...Avoid going it alone

PRAYER/LORD'S PRAYER

HYMN4

MESSAGE

Really, you are not alone!

[SLIDE]You cannot do it by yourself!

And God planned it like that.

I know plenty of people who try to carry the burdens of other people, especially the disadvantaged but, frankly, we are not called to do this...on our own.

Moses found it all too tough that he cried out to God: I CANNOT DO IT, please don't make me, it is too much!

I'd rather die than do this alone!

And God's answer was for him to find 70 who could carry the burden with him and in so doing take of the spirit that is on him and place the spirit upon them too.

It is crazy to think that we can do anything on our own.

If our burden is too heavy, it necessitates team-building.

To do anything on our own is simply pride.

The results are clear to see: it is to be burnt-out, to have emotional, nervous and mental breakdowns.

Then who are we good for?

Paul Harvey, an American Christian broadcaster says, “We revere the airplane pilot who did it alone and the country doctor who never left the bedside.

That spirit of independence served us well and caused us to grow tall.

But we’d never have made it to the moon with that spirit; we’d never have eradicated typhoid, small pox, or polio without a cooperative effort.

No person alone could fetch oil from beneath the ocean, or keep the city lights burning all night—that takes inter-dependence.

We are all becoming increasingly inter-dependent!

We need each other.

Moses learned the hard way that doing it by himself was impossible.

After the advice of his Father-in-law, which was counted as the voice of God in Numbers 11, he gained 70 helpers.

Together we can achieve so much more.

We are only limited by what God can do through us.

And that is true of every area of our lives.

We are not called to 'go-it-alone'.

Indeed, we could never have defeated Hitler or other despots by going alone.

To fight battles you need armies both for offence and defence.

This is surely true of the Christian's life, too.

No Christian is able, on their own, to fight the good fight.

Central to a Church's theology should be:

All these together help us in the spiritual battle that we are all in.

We need each other's fellowship.

Many Christians think that they can make it without the Church but actually the opposite is true.

This reminds me of the story told about a famous pastor and evangelist:

D. L. Moody was visiting a prominent Chicago citizen.

It was a chilly evening.

The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire.