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Face to Face with God
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 24, 2018
If we were to fully comprehend the love of God in a moment, it would be like standing in the sun itself. Its immensity and power would blow us away and consume us. Yet just as the light and warmth of the sun finds its way to our little earth and gives us life, the Lord finds a way to bring His immense love down into our lives. He did, and continues to do this, by showing us His humanity. When we look to God and think of Him as a person, we have an opportunity to connect with that endless, boundless love that is His heart. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (22m 38s)
Unveiling Our Hearts
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 17, 2018
When we are proud of ourselves there is nothing that we want more than for other people to know it. When we are ashamed we hide and hope no one notices. But when we hide our evils even from ourselves and the Lord there is no way to be healed of them. The Book of Revelation invites us to go through the painful process of exposing our own faults, so that with the Lord we can overcome them. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (19m 51s)
Where Did We Go Wrong?!
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 03, 2018
Have you ever found yourself in a bad place and wondered how on earth you got into this mess? Things were once so great! Life was sailing along smoothly and you were proud of how much growth you'd seen in yourself. Yet here you are, back to your crabby, unhappy, selfish self. What went wrong? This pattern is common not just in individuals but in communities and even across history. Luckily, it does not happen by chance. This Sunday we'll look what Revelation can tell us about this cycle and how we can avoid it. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (25m 03s)
A Friend in Need
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 27, 2018
How do you love someone who is committing evil? What about when that person is your best friend? Is it our place to correct him? Do we distance ourselves from him? Jesus, through His teaching and His example, calls us to remain close with those who do evil (which is frankly all of us), and also to have the courage to stand up for them by opposing what they are doing. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (17m 02s)
Finding Jesus in the Life of Joshua - Part 2 - The Turning Point
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 13, 2018
Joshua was the military commander of the people of Israel, who led them across the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, where he violently claimed the land in the name of Jehovah his God. Jesus was a spiritual leader, who came to the Jordan River to be baptised and begin His ministry of love and repentance. Yet these two stories, so different on the surface, are the same story. This Sunday we will explore what Joshua crossing the Jordan can tell us about Jesus and His ministry. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (23m 09s)
Freedom from Anxiety
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 22, 2018
Fear and anxiety are inevitable in life. Nor is that a bad thing. Fear of failure motivates us to succeed, anxiety brings our attention to problems that we need to overcome. But when we are crippled by these things, and our choices are limited by our fears, we cannot grow the way we would want. The Lord tells us what we can do then: seek first the kingdom of God. If we manage to get our priorities right, then our anxieties, although still present, will be longer control us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (25m 04s)
What Dreams May Come
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 15, 2018
Dreams play an important role in many stories of the Word. Joseph, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and others had dreams sent by the Lord that revealed His will to them. Today we rarely put much importance on dreams. And yet they remain a universal experience. Is there a way that dreams still connect us to the Lord and the spiritual world? This Sunday we will explore what dreams can mean for us today and how they can reflect a spiritual influence on our lives. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (23m 19s)
An End and a Beginning
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 01, 2018
Jesus mission in life was both incomprehensible massive and truly simple: to save all people, for all time, from the threat of hell. Throughout His life He accomplished this mission by fighting against and overcoming every last evil impulse that hell could throw at Him. By the end of His life, on the cross, He had so completely overcome hell that nothing of it remained in Him. On Easter Sunday we celebrate this victory because of what it means for us today: just as Jesus overcome hell in His own life, He can overcome every bit of hell that shows up in ours. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (20m 55s)
Practicing Forgiveness - Being Forgiven
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 11, 2018
We have all needed to be forgiven at one time or another. It's tempting at these times to think a simple "I'm sorry" will suffice. But when it comes to forgiveness "sorry" just doesn't cut it. Although when we say sorry it may be heartfelt it does nothing to change us or our situation. It is when we recognise our fault and make an effort to change that we can receive real forgiveness. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (23m 52s)
Putting Others First
Worship Service: Informal Family - February 18, 2018
The world tells us that to be great we must be better than others. We must be stronger, richer, more skilled and so on. If someone is ahead of us we are not, obviously, the best. The Lord redefines greatness. Greatness is not to excel others. Greatness is putting others first. Not only does putting others first make us great; it removes the competition. When we put others first we do not need to feel superior to anyone. We can be content that we have done our part to make the world a better place. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (11m 11s)
Your Life is Not Your Own
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 04, 2018
Who does your life belong to? We know that at least some of it belongs to the Lord so we make man effort to give Him His due share. But what if all of your life, every last bit of it, belongs to the Lord? At first this might seem like a constraining idea. But in fact it can be freeing. We do not have to balance out whit is mine and what is His; when we give it all to Him we free ourselves to live our best lives possible. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (24m 48s)
Rebuilding the House of the Lord - Part 3 - Taking it to Heart
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - January 28, 2018
When we have made the Lord a priority and started to work on living better we often expect things to change dramatically. Sadly, that is not the case. Changes in our external lives are an important beginning but we will not see real change until the change happens in our hearts. When the children of Israel built a house for the Lord not just as a place of worship but also as a state of mind, then the Lord could begin to bless them again. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (20m 52s)
Forgiveness as Opportunity
Worship Service: Informal Family - January 07, 2018
No matter what you have done or will do in your life, the Lord has already forgiven you. So what's the point of thinking about the Lord's forgiveness? He has already given it to us. That does not mean we have it yet though. The Lord's forgiveness comes in the form of never-ending opportunities to repent. It is up to us to take advantage of those opportunities and make changes. That is how we take in the Lord's forgiveness. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (17m 22s)
Simeon
Worship Service: Informal Family - December 31, 2017
When Jesus was only a few weeks old His parents brought Him to the temple, as was the custom. There they were met a man, Simeon, who held Jesus in his arms, blessed Him, and gave thanks. The image of the old man Simeon holding the new-born Jesus is a useful one to start the year off with. On the one hand we have someone reaching the end of his life. On the other a life just beginning. When we reach these important transitions it is important that we, like Simeon, can recognise the hope for the future and trust the Lord is creating something good even if we will not live to see it. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (11m 10s)
Witness to the Light
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - December 10, 2017
Before Jesus could begin His ministry He needed John to prepare the way first. The world at the time was in such a bad state that people could not have taken in Jesus teachings if John had not first prepared them and filled them with hope for Jesus' coming. John did this by bearing witness to Jesus' Light, so that when that light did come people could recognise it and embrace it. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (24m 17s)
To God be the Glory
Worship Service: Informal Family - December 03, 2017
Singing is one of the most powerful ways to express joy, and this is no more true than at Christmas. The teachings of the New Church tell us that going back thousands of years, the people in ancient times delighted in singing songs about the Lord's future coming and the salvation He would bring. Today we do the same as we not only look back to the Lord's birth but also forward to His birth into our own lives. After a short talk on the joy of singing to the Lord we will join together to celebrate the joy of the Lord's Coming and the Christmas season in general. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (09m 56s)
How Wealthy is Too Wealthy
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 26, 2017
As Christians is it our duty to shun wealth? Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. So should the wealthy among us be ashamed of their wealth? Should the poorer of us take pride in their poorness? Not exactly. The problem with money is the use to which we apply it. Money is heavenly when we see it as an opportunity to serve others and hellish when we see it as a way to love ourselves. All of us, rich and poor, need to take stock of the gifts we have been given in abundance and ask how we can use that abundance to make the world a better place. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (22m 17s)
Facing Floods, Part 3 - Ride it Out
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 12, 2017
Two weeks ago we talked about seeing the floods, or challenges, coming and understanding that there is a better life on the other side. Last week we talked about preparing for the floods, or challenges, by making sure hat we are walking hand in hand with God and following Him wherever He leads us. This week we are going to talk about being in the middle of the flood itself, coping with the challenges as we experience them. In the midst of struggle we suffer from doubt but the Lord's promise is that He has prepared you and that He will bring you through alive, to find a new beginning. There is no challenge that you cannot overcome. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (26m 12s)
Facing Floods, Part 1 - See it Coming
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 29, 2017
Spiritual growth is a destructive process. Without the destruction of old habits, old ways of thinking, old wants and desires, there would be no room for the Lord to build us up as angels. Over the next four Sundays we will be exploring this topic of spiritual destruction and reconstruction using the story of Noah's Flood. This story offers powerful insight into how we deal with the spiritual floods that come our way. In the course of this story we'll talk about seeing the flood coming, how to get ready for it, riding it out, and then the beautiful things the Lord creates when we get to the other side. For this Sunday our focus will be on the first part: seeing the flood coming. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (28m 03s)
Get More Out of Reading the Bible: Part 2: Prophets and Psalms
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 15, 2017
Some of the most difficult parts of the Bible can be found in the Prophets. It can be hard to get much out of these sections. The teachings for the New Church say that this is because in the prophets the real spiritual meaning is often hidden under layers of symbolic language. So what do we do with this? Do we have to decode the prophets? Can we avoid them altogether? This Sunday we will explore how we can get more meaning out of reading the prophetical books of the Word. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (28m 11s)
Healing Spiritual Leprosy
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 01, 2017
This Sunday we are going to talk about the disease of leprosy in the Bible. Having this disease would result in becoming an outcast, cut off from the community and from God. Yet the Lord reached out to a leper, even physically touching him, to bring him back into the community and into a relationship with God. When we have made choices that cut us off from the Lord and from others, this is the miracle that He can perform: to reach out to us in our shame and draw us back into His loving embrace. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (29m 51s)
God's Healing Forgiveness
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 10, 2017
We all have times when we become paralyzed by evil and falsity. We want desperately to be good but for some reason we cannot seem to let go of harmful thoughts and feelings. The Lord's forgiveness offers us a way out of this spiritual paralysis: when we raise our thoughts to Him. He heals us through His forgiveness, and in that healing we find freedom for our minds. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (24m 06s)
Helping Each Other: Part 2 - Getting Spiritual Support
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 27, 2017
We know that the Lord has created us to love others; but what about ourselves? Can that love also be from the Lord? All of us have needs that must be met but it can be hard to ask for help. We worry about putting a burden on others or opening ourselves up to criticism. Yet the Lord is clear that we are to love ourselves. If we cannot love ourselves enough to get the help that we need, we lose the ability to help others. When we ask for help we are not being selfish, but rather are taking the first steps towards helping others. Download the workbook and other resources for doing this program at http://newchurchwestville.co.za/helping/ | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (28m 59s)
Heavenly Union - Part 2 - Marriage on Earth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 06, 2017
Last week we looked at the marriage that exists between love and wisdom. This marriage is not static but exists in a continuous cycle: love motivates us to seek wisdom, wisdom teaches us to express love, and that love in turn motivates us to seek even more wisdom. This week we will explore this cycle and how it expresses itself in the marriages that we see around us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (35m 25s)
Heavenly Union - Part 1 - Spiritual Balance
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 30, 2017
Everything in the universe reflects the Divine marriage between Love and Wisdom. Without these two qualities everything would fall apart. Over the next two weeks we will be exploring this union. This week, we will focus on our need to marry love with wisdom if we want to be truly useful. Either one on its own is weak, but together they can do amazing things. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn | Westville, RSA
See Event (31m 13s)