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Spiritual Warfare, Part 2 - The Battle is the Lord's
Worship Service: Sermon only - October 14, 2012
Are you willing to fight? That was the question that we focused on last week in our series on spiritual warfare. (If you missed that sermon and would like to read it, you can find it on the homepage at www.newchurchwestville.co.za and if you would like to listen to it you can find it at www.newchurchwestville.co.za/sermons. ) If you're willing to fight, the next question is how do you fight? There's a lot that we could talk about but we're going to focus primarily on one crucial factor in fighting spiritual battles. If we don't do this one thing in our spiritual battles we will always ultimately lose. Can you guess what it is? If you know what it is, do you know how to do it effectively? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (36m 44s)
Spiritual Warfare 1 - Are You Willing to Fight
Worship Service: Sermon only - October 07, 2012
For the next two Sundays we're going to be exploring the topic of spiritual war. The Bible is full of stories about war and the New Church teaches that all of that imagery is symbolic of the spiritual war that is going on all the time. Here are a couple of questions to get you thinking about the topic. Have you ever experienced this spiritual war? Who is the war against? What are we fighting for? What is the value of thinking about our spiritual lives in warlike terms? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (39m 54s)
Forgiveness 2 - Shut the Door to be Forgiving
Worship Service: Sermon only - September 30, 2012
We can become trapped by own feelings of anger, frustration, and hurt. How do we become more forgiving when we still have so pain? The spiritual reality is that we have to shut one door before we can open another. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (24m 47s)
Forgiveness 1 - How Denial Shuts the Door on Being Forgiving
Worship Service: Sermon only - September 23, 2012
The stories we tell ourselves about who we are, who God is, how we relate to Him, all affect how we relate to others. Some of the stories we tell ourselves close the door on our ability to be a forgiving person. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (23m 38s)
Understanding Our God, Part 3 - The Holy Spirit
Worship Service: Sermon only - September 09, 2012
Is God doing things in your life? (Maybe you can figure out that the answer I'm looking for is yes. But I've got a harder question for you.) Which things that happen in your life are God's work and which things aren't? How do you tell the difference? This Sunday is the last one in the Understanding Our God series. We're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit, which, in the New Church, we understand to mean God's activity. And we're not going to be leaving things in the comfortable realm of God doing stuff generally for people; I want to really wrestle with how to see His presence in the details of each of our lives. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (31m 14s)
Understanding Our God, Part 2 - Father & Son
Worship Service: Sermon only - September 02, 2012
This Sunday is part 2 of a series on the Trinity. Last week we focused on the importance of believing that there is only one God. This week we're going to move on to the questions that inevitably come up. What about when Jesus prays to His Father? Why did Jesus talk about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit if there's only one God? The Trinity stuff can seem pretty confusing but when we understand it properly, a lot of other pieces also fit into place. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (10m 15s)
Understanding Our God, Part 1 - Jesus Christ is the One God
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 26, 2012
I'm going to be talking about the Trinity this Sunday. For a long time it felt to me like a confusing, abstract and mostly irrelevant topic. But understanding the Trinity is an important part of understanding who our God is. And, in any relationship, it makes a big difference to understand the other person better. And so my hope is that you'll end up feeling glad that you put the effort into understanding this challenging topic because you feel less confused and more connected to your God. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (22m 00s)
How the Lord Uses the Different States We Go Through
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 19, 2012
We go through different states all the time in our lives and these are illustrated by many stories in the Word in parables. We will be looking at three stories of different people to illustrate these states and how the Lord can use these to teach us how we can improve our spiritual state. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (20m 45s)
Leading is not Following
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 12, 2012
This Sunday we will talk about some of the ways that leaders have to serve other people by standing for things that are difficult and go against the grain of culture. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (19m 24s)
Why is it so hard to grow the church?
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 22, 2012
What lessons can we learn from the story of Noah and from the beginning of the Christian Church that will help us understand where we fit into the establishment of the Lord's Church on earth, and how can we be better servants in His kingdom? | By Rev. Lawson M. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (00m 00s)
Lies About Love, Part 2 - Unconditional and Conditional Love
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 15, 2012
Unconditional love is a beautiful ideal: who doesn't want to be loved, no matter what they do? But then there are questions that come up when we try to put it into practise. How do you love someone unconditionally? Are we meant to love all people unconditionally or just certain people? Are there ever times when we need to put conditions on our love? This Sunday we're continuing our series on Lies about Love and we'll be trying to sort out the important truths from the harmful lies that can all be part of our ideas around unconditional love. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (25m 41s)
Lies About Love, Part 1 - The Confusion about Love and Feelings
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 08, 2012
It's hard to think of anything more important than love. What we love affects everything about our lives. And yet, it's also really easy to get confused about love--what is it? What does it mean to love somebody? How do we show our love in this or that situation? Part of what makes it difficult is that there are a lot of misconceptions or lies about love out there. This Sunday we're going to start talking about some of the common wrong ideas about love and what the Lord teaches us instead. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (24m 54s)
Weeds Among the Wheat - Lay reader
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 01, 2012
We sometimes feel that our motives are not what they should be especially in our younger years. But they have a purpose. How can they help us with our spiritual life? What are "good" motives and what are"bad" ones? This Sunday we will be looking at the parable of the wheat and the tares and what it really means in our lives. | By Rev. Mark D. Pendleton | Westville, RSA
See Event (20m 23s)
Are You Good Enough to Get to Heaven?
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 24, 2012
The New Church offers a promise of new teachings and new understanding that makes a difference for your life. These teachings should help make things easier to get to heaven, but we can often feel like we are falling short. This Sunday we will talk about being good and getting to heaven. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (21m 01s)
End Times - Is the World Getting Better or Worse
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 10, 2012
The last 2 weeks we have talked about the Last Judgement. The New Church teaches that the End Times predicted in the Bible have already taken place and we are living in a new era of human history. If that is true, what is the potential of humanity? And what is happening now? Are things a mess? Or are we making progress? | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (21m 20s)
End Times - It's Not the End of the World
Worship Service: Sermon only - May 27, 2012
You may have heard that the end of the world is here or that it is coming. Many Christians are in fact hoping that the world comes to a violent end very soon. There are even some who predict the end of the world this year on 21 December 2012. The New Church has a different perspective about what the Bible is talking about when it describes the end of the world. This sermon addresses this issue. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (27m 59s)
"As We Forgive Our Debtors"
Worship Service: Sermon only - May 20, 2012
Have you ever done something nice for someone else and not got the response that you expected or wanted? They're not grateful; they're not impressed; they don't even notice. What do you do with the feelings that come up inside you? What does the Lord say that we should do with those feelings? We say it every time we say the Lord's Prayer. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (30m 24s)
Happiness part 4 - Happiness and Relationships
Worship Service: Sermon only - May 13, 2012
In terms of happiness, our relationships will either be one of our greatest sources of happiness or one of our greatest sources of misery. This sermon is about a few of the issues that affect our happiness within our relationships. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (22m 28s)
Happiness part 3 - Attitudes that Improve Our Happiness
Worship Service: Sermon only - May 06, 2012
This Sunday we will discuss attitudes and perspectives that if we choose to integrate into our outlook on life will increase our sense of happiness. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (20m 16s)
Happiness part 2 -Three Ways We Undermine Happiness
Worship Service: Sermon only - April 29, 2012
We all value our own happiness, but we also have habits that undermine it. This Sunday we will talk about three common attitudes and practices that will undermine our ability to be happy. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (25m 10s)
Happiness part 1 - Happiness is a Choice
Worship Service: Sermon only - April 22, 2012
What are we all looking for out of life? I think you could say we are all looking for happiness. This Sunday we will start a conversation that will take place over the next few weeks about what makes for lasting happiness and the things we do that undermines our happiness. | By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (22m 30s)
Reading the Word under the Supervision of Jesus Christ
Worship Service: Sermon only - April 15, 2012
The story for this Sunday is about two disciples (on the road to Emmaus) who got to walk along with the Lord and have Him explain the Bible to them. What an amazing experience! How can we have that same experience? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (20m 40s)
Seeking the Living
Worship Service: Sermon only - April 08, 2012
| By Rev. Derrick Lumsden | Westville, RSA
See Event (13m 44s)
Weeping in Jerusalem
Worship Service: Sermon only - April 01, 2012
When we think of Palm Sunday we think of the big celebration of the Lord coming into Jerusalem as a King but it also was a very poignant moment because, when the Lord came to the city, He wept over it. Understanding why the Lord wept can give us insight into what He was experiencing as He rode into Jerusalem that day. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
See Event (14m 00s)
Benjamin
Worship Service: Sermon only - March 25, 2012
In the formative years of our lives we love to learn many external truths which are mostly natural truths relative to this world. We also learn, perhaps with a little less enthusiasm, about spiritual truths and the knowledge of the natural and spiritual truths together gives us some understanding of how we should conduct our lives. But simply conforming to the norms of society doesn't bring the happiness we're seeking and it's not until the truths we know are given within us that this happiness will come and this comes about with the birth of Joseph and Benjamin. | By Rev. Gerald G. Waters | Westville, RSA
See Event (25m 27s)