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Be the Church 3 - Repenting of Evil and Serving Others
Worship Service: Sermon only - May 03, 2015
We’ve been talking for the past two weeks about different essential aspects of being part of a church. This Sunday we’re talking about how those different aspects all come together and what the ultimate factor is that determines whether you’re part of the spiritual community that’s following the Lord or not. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSABe the Church Part 1: "Worshipping the Lord & Caring in Community"
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 19, 2015
What is the purpose of church? What does it mean to be part of a church? Are churches still relevant in the 21st century? These are some of the questions that we're going to be digging into this Sunday and in the two weeks that follow. The church can be so much more than just a building you walk into; it can be something that changes your life. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAWhat Would Love Do Wk 7 – Love Rejoices
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 22, 2015
This Sunday we end our 7 week program with the same question that we asked at the beginning and throughout the program: what would love do? What is the loving thing to do for all the people we interact with in our lives with all their different needs and situations? And, as we try to push ourselves to become more loving, how do we not become worn out and jaded in the process? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAWhat Would Love do -Wk 5: Love Visits
Worship Service: Sermon only - March 08, 2015
Continuing our series on the different ways we are called to love and serve other people (What Would Love Do?), this week we're focusing on how to help the sick. Being sick is awful and it can be hard to be around people who are sick or know how to help them. What does the Lord teach us about how to serve this obvious but difficult need? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAWhat Would Love Do - Week 1 - Love Serves
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 08, 2015
This Sunday we begin the What Would Love Do? program by talking about the different ways that we are called upon by the Lord to love and serve other people. This week we will particularly focus on how to serve the hungry - the physically hungry and the emotionally and spiritually hungry. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAFullness of Joy
Worship Service: Informal Family - February 01, 2015
This Sunday we celebrate the founding of Kainon School. The theme for the service (which is based on the spiritual theme for the school year at Kainon) is “Fullness of Joy”. It sounds wonderful to be full of joy – we want that for ourselves and for those that we love – but is it possible to achieve in this world? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAUnderstanding John 3:16
Worship Service: Sermon only - December 14, 2014
John 3:16 is a key text for a lot of Christians in understanding why Jesus was born in the world. It says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” But how do we understand what is meant by this? Who is God? Who is His Only-begotten Son? What does it mean to believe in Him? Why will people who don’t believe in Him perish and not have eternal life? If we can find good answers to these questions we will have a much better understanding of the significance of Christmas. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSADo Not Resist Evil, Part 4 – Worthlessness and Shame
Worship Service: Sermon only - November 30, 2014
"You're absolutely worthless!" "I'm a useless piece of..." Do you ever hear these words--from other people or inside your own head? Are they true? Are you worthless? Or think about it the other way: if you are not worthless, why do you have worth? What makes you worthy? It's tricky to sort out. And dealing with feelings of worthlessness is even harder. But the Lord can help us to understand and deal with all of this, and differently from what we might expect. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSADo Not Resist Evil, Part 3: Understanding and Responding to Fear
Worship Service: Sermon only - November 23, 2014
What do you worry about? What are you scared of doing? How does fear or anxiety affect your behaviour and relationships? We all have to deal with fears of various kinds and, if we don’t deal with them appropriately, they can lead us to all sorts of unhealthy and dysfunctional behaviours. But, as we’ve already talked about with doubt and guilt, just pushing feelings of fear away doesn’t work. This Sunday we’ll talk about what the Lord teaches us about how to respond to fear. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSALiving Gratefully 2 - How to Practice Gratitude
Worship Service: Sermon only - November 02, 2014
Last Sunday we talked about the need for gratitude in our lives and the difference it can make. This week we're going to dig into how to practice gratitude. What habits and practices can we put into our lives so that we live every day gratefully? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSALiving Gratefully (excerpt)
On starting a gratitude journal. (To hear full recording, search by date: 11/02/2014) | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSALiving Gratefully 1: The Need for Gratitude
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 26, 2014
Do you feel like you’re on a treadmill that’s going too fast for you to keep up? It’s a busy and stressful time of year and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and like there’s just too much to deal with. How can the Lord help us cope with all of this? Gratitude—the Lord commands us to be grateful and when we understand why and start practising gratitude it can make a huge difference to our experience of even the most stressful situations | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAAmos - The Word of a Prophet Part 2: Is It Actually Hard To Understand
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 05, 2014
Cows of Bashan, sacrifices, worms devouring olive trees, death, opulence, corruption, rivers, exile, oppression, darkness—this is the content of the text that we’re going to be digging into this Sunday. We’re continuing our series on the book of Amos and continuing to grapple with the question of how we can hear the Lord speaking to us today through the ancient, sometimes obscure prophecies recorded in the Bible. This week we’re going to be particularly looking for how we can find a relevant message for our lives in these challenging texts. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSARelationship Dynamics 3 – Changing the Dynamic
Worship Service: Children & Adult - September 14, 2014
For the past two weeks we’ve been looking at different dynamics in relationships. What do you do if there’s a dynamic in one of your relationships that you don’t like? You’re stuck in a rut or a pattern of interaction that is unhealthy, harmful, or just frustrating for both of you; what can you do? This Sunday we’re going to look at what it takes to change the dynamic in a relationship. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSARelationship Dynamics 1 - Fighting
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 31, 2014
Who are you fighting with at the moment? How does that fight affect the rest of your life? This Sunday we're starting a 3 week series on dynamics in relationships and we're beginning the series by talking about fighting. Being in conflict can cause us a lot of stress and pain and so we often do everything we can to avoid it. When we understand why we're fighting and what we're fighting for it can help us to fight the good fight when necessary. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAMalcolm Cockerell Memorial Service
Memorial Service - August 19, 2014
| By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSARepentance 4 - Beginning a New Life With the Lord
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 17, 2014
For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at the steps of repentance, the spiritual process the Lord calls us to go through to reject what is evil and harmful in our lives and begin a new life. This week we come to the final step: actually beginning a new life. Scared? Does it even seem possible to make a real and lasting change in your life? Join us this Sunday to take an honest look at the challenges of beginning a new life and to learn how the Lord makes it possible for us to do this. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAThe Blessings That Come From Blessing the Lord
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 20, 2014
Are you blessed? Do you feel blessed? This week we are going to look at one of the Psalms and reflect on what being blessed by the Lord means. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAIdolatory 4: Other People's Idolatory
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - June 08, 2014
For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at idolatry in ourselves—how we can be tempted to worship idols of various kinds instead of Jesus Christ. This Sunday we’re going to dig into the difficult question of how to respond to other people’s idolatry. How should we treat people who worship other gods than us? And the even more challenging question, how should we treat people in our own church or family or community that have different beliefs and priorities than we do? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAGod with Us as Lord and God
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 20, 2014
The disciple Thomas only acknowledged Jesus to be his Lord and God when he could see and touch the Lord's body for himself. We will never have that opportunity so is it possible for us to still believe that Jesus really was here and really did rise from the dead and really is God? On Sunday we will explore how faith develops and how we can come to believe that Jesus is our God even though we've never seen Him physically. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAGod with Us - How?
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 13, 2014
As we've led up to Easter we've been exploring the concept of God being with Us - God with us as a King, God with us as an Example. This week we'll listen to the Lord talking to His disciples right before He was about to leave them, explaining to them how He could still be with them once He was gone physically. This will give us the chance to learn how God can be with us too, even though He's never been with us physically. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSAGod with Us as Jesus and the Christ
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 30, 2014
This Sunday we're beginning a sermon series that will take us through Easter called "God with Us." We'll be digging into the Easter story as it's told in the Gospel of John. For this week we'll be focusing on how we react to the idea of the Lord's kingdom coming. We might think we want that to happen but when it starts to affect how we're living our lives it suddenly becomes not such an appealing idea. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA7 Practices of Peace: Navigating
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 02, 2014
After cultivating new habits, a new stage comes when we start to experience the benefits of living a better way. We become lit up about the new way of living, and our love leads us forward. When we have faith in its positive effects, navigating our way through life becomes easier, more peaceful and more joyful. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA7 Practices of Peace - Cultivating
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 23, 2014
Once we've acknowledged God's presence in our lives, and begun to see that there is a higher way, we are ready to take action (cultivating). These practices lead us toward creating a life that continues to be a blessing to others. The small seeds within these actions will go on to bear more fruit, more seeds, positively affecting people we may never meet. Gen 1:9-13, AC 9, TCR 529, TCR 528, AC 29 | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA