Narration 1-5 [Patriot Day]
Props
stool, music stand if NARRATOR is reading
Production Notes
Notes are included for PPT slides if AV equipment is available.
Spot NARRATOR at the beginning of each segment and fade spot at the end.
Narration 1
NARRATOR
On September 11, 2001 America was changed forever.
American Airlines flight number 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46AM. Nearly twenty minutes later, United Airlines flight number 175 crashed into the South Tower. Minutes before American Airlines flight number 77 crashed into the Pentagon, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. Within a half hour, United Airlines flight number 93 crashed into a wooded area in Pennsylvania, and a side of the Pentagon collapsed. At 10:28AM, the North Tower collapsed, and with it came the end of one of the most cataclysmic terrorist attacks ever known to America on her own soil.
There is no doubt that every person in our country was moved in some way by the events of that day.
2,977 people lost their lives on 9/11. Every passenger aboard the planes, every person in the towers, every rescue worker that perished was a friend, a sibling, a spouse, a child . . . of someone. Maybe someone close to you.
Even if we didn’t know their names or faces as intimately as our own, they were Americans, and they stood just as defenseless in the wake of tragedy unimaginable, as we do. That sad commonality is what pervades our minds and stirs our hearts when we think about that day because it just as easily could have been me. Or you.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
Scripture shown via PPT to emphasize NARRATOR’S following comments.
NARRATOR
Our hope, our peace, our security, must be found in something else – beyond our military strength, or the hope of democracy, or the power of our Constitution – it must be found in Someone Else. God was not surprised by the events of 9/11. Even in the midst of the terror of that day, He stood as firm, as holy, and as sovereign as He ever has before. He was not moved, and for a moment, America remembered.
Today we remember. The testimonies you will hear are not based on real people, but hope to reflect the feelings and emotions of people that were affected and even changed by the events of 9/11. Today we celebrate the real-peace, real-hope, and real-security that has carried so many through the days since this national tragedy and stands to carry us through America’s tomorrow.
Narration 2
NARRATOR
Trusting in something requires us to believe with everything that we are, that the object of our trust is capable of withstanding more than we can. We believe that it won’t fail us physically, emotionally, financially, or even spiritually. We have confidence that the object of our trust can’t and won’t let us down.
But who can we trust? When we trust something, though we may hope it is secure, we become vulnerable to that “thing’s” weaknesses. Whatever it is that gives us our sense of security must be proven perfectly worthy of our trust.
Hebrews 13:5 “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Scripture shown via PPT to emphasize NARRATOR’S following comments.
NARRATOR
We’ve learned that no person on this earth, and no thing that humanity has created can be completely trusted. So again . . . who or what can we trust . . . save God alone?
Narration 3
John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Scripture shown via PPT to emphasize NARRATOR’S following comments.
NARRATOR
326 firefighters and 23 police died serving their city. Amidst the evil and terror of 9/11 rose a new heroism and patriotism not only in New York City, but across America. Rather than looking at a sports figure or entertainer, Americans recognized a new hero that sacrificed his or her life for the sake of sparing another.
Actually the concept is an old one. Two thousand years ago one Man chose to give His life in exchange for all the lives in the world. That man was Jesus Christ. Even though His sacrifice took place many hundreds of years before any of us were born, His sacrifice is still as powerful and as reaching today as it was captured on the pages of the New Testament.
Narration 4
NARRATOR
Paul, possibly the greatest of the early propagators of our faith, knew that Christ and only Christ was enough to make it through the troubles of life. Paul had his share of suffering in this world. The Bible says he was beaten, thrown into jail, and almost killed more times than he could count. He had problems with his friends and his enemies. He was at risk in every city, every country, every-place he set foot in. He knew sleepless nights, hunger, pain, and cold. He of all people in the Bible, knew that there were very few things worth putting his trust in, but through everything he faced in his life, he knew that he could safely put his trust in Christ.
Romans 8:35, 37-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Scripture shown via PPT to emphasize NARRATOR’S reading of the same passage.
NARRATOR
In Romans Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Narration 5
Slowly, with conviction.
NARRATOR
Savior. Deliverer. Redeemer. Emancipator. Liberator. Releaser. Preserver. Rescuer. One who is worth of trust. One who is worthy of praise, adoration, and devotion. The only one who is worthy.